Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Welcome to Fit to be Tied with Sheena and Whitney. You are joining us on this lovely Sunday afternoon. And actually it's just me today, which I know sometimes when you'll have to listen to me talk, you're like, oh, my goodness, let me change the radio. But you don't have to do that today because I do have a special guest. I'm going to go ahead and bring him on so that I'm not just talking by myself for five minutes. But Charles Burrows, welcome back to the show.
[00:00:35] Speaker A: Hey, thanks for having me.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Thanks for being here. And it's kind of one of those weird things. Sheena had texted me and was like, hey, one of my kids is sick. And I was like, oh, no. She was like, do you feel comfortable doing the show by yourself? And I was like, I mean, I guess so. I guess I don't really have a choice. But then I realized that you were on the show with us today as our guest. And so then I was like, well, Charles has been on plenty of times and you were a co host with me, I guess, last year for part of the time.
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Yes, During. During our. Guess. Our dark times of COVID Our dark times of.
[00:01:03] Speaker B: How's it been going on your side of the world?
[00:01:05] Speaker A: It's been good. You know, I feel like things have returned mostly to normal over at the rec.
Personal training is booming these days. We are very busy. So, yeah, we're in a good spot, I'd say.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Yeah. What about you? Have you been keeping up with any of your workouts, your personal goals or anything like that? Because I know, like, last time I think we talked a little bit about self care and what that looks like and you talked about, like, you're a painter and you're a drawer and you like to do artwork. Have you kept that up?
[00:01:34] Speaker A: I have, yes. I've been doing all that. I've also been baking some bread here lately.
[00:01:37] Speaker B: That's right, because you actually gave me some bread. It was really, really good.
[00:01:41] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I kind of tend to dive headfirst into things, whether it's fitness or painting or baking, whatever it is. Yeah. And that's what I've been doing lately. I've been baking bread in addition to all the other stuff. So just, you know, a long laundry list of things that I do.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: I'm kind of curious because I feel like anytime I go into the kitchen because I like to cook, I wouldn't sound like a really good cook, but I think I make good enough things, like I'm not gonna be on Master Chef or anything, and I found that that's something I really enjoy is working with.
So when you're making bread, there's a process because you're making sourdough bread.
[00:02:12] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:02:12] Speaker B: So, like, walk us through what that process looked like, because it's not even like a one day thing, it's like a multiple day thing.
[00:02:17] Speaker A: It's a lot. So depending on where you're started, first you have to have your starter, which that can sometimes take a couple days to make and get going.
And then once you're ready to cook. So like, let's say I want bread as soon as possible. So first I gotta feed the starter. So the starter rises, it grows, and then that usually takes 12 to 24 hours. Then I take the starter and I make the dough with the flour and the water and salt and all that. And then I've got to stretch and fold that. That usually takes anywhere from 12 to 24 hours.
And then once the dough's finally ready, then I cook it. So it's usually like a two to three day process. If I want bread and do it
[00:02:55] Speaker B: right, it's kind of crazy. Cause you, I mean, when you make things from scratch like that, you really don't realize, like, how much time and energy and work and prep go into it. And I mean, it's kind of crazy. I mean, it was great. I loved it. It was really good. I mean, we killed it. We ate the whole thing. Yeah.
[00:03:11] Speaker A: You know, it's funny, I feel like in a lot of ways I appreciate making bread because of fitness, because it's this idea of like investing something in now and you've got to wait a little while before you see the results of it.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:03:23] Speaker A: And I honestly don't think if I had gotten into fitness years ago, that I would be interested in making bread because it is a long process and it's hard to necessarily see the results when you start making it.
[00:03:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And I feel like that's a great comparison because, you know, so oftentimes we talk to our clients, we talk to patrons, and it's like people want a quick fix in the fitness world and it's just not always that way. And it's kind of a neat little analogy of, you know, bread making is very similar to your fitness journey. So I kind of like that. It's pretty cool.
[00:03:54] Speaker A: Just a little thought there.
[00:03:55] Speaker B: Just a little thought there. Well, we have a great show today. We're going to talk a lot about fitness today. Just you got your two fitness PEOPLE on so we are going to take a quick break.
As Sheena would say, go to the restroom, get something to drink, maybe grab a little snack of bread. And you are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Whitney on 90.7, the capstone.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:04:25] Speaker B: Welcome back. You're listening to Fit to be Tied with Sheena and Whitney. And actually it's Whitney and Charles today because we don't have Sheena with us. She has a sick baby at home and we miss her. But we need the baby to get well so she can be back with us. But anyway, we were talking about bread and that has nothing to do with fitness. But Charles, being the smart guy that he is, related it to a fitness journey and how it takes time to make sourdough bread. And that is kind of how your fitness journey is. But I do want to take a second. For those of you just now tuning in to Fit to Be Tied, I want to let you know what our show is about. We have been doing this for, I guess, six, seven years. We have had different people in the past on the show and this is our time to check in with you guys of your wellness journey.
Fitness, nutrition, all those good things. And we are talking about fitness today. And before we jump into our topic, Charles, tell us a little bit about yourself. I mean, I know if people have been listening, they know who you are. But, you know, what do you do? What's your background? Why are you here?
[00:05:19] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. So I am the fitness services coordinator for University recreation.
So I oversee personal training programs that we have here at the student rec center as well as at the Robert E. Witt center. Occasionally. I also do presentations for faculty and staff in different classes and then also oversee some of the small group fitness programs that we have for kind of like small group training type things that we do for a limited time. So sometimes in the summer, spring, fall, they're usually like short term programs.
[00:05:50] Speaker B: Yeah, we've got one this summer that will be coming up for summer heat. We won't be on the radio during the summer, but just kind of throw it out there. If you're a faculty staff and you're sticking around, it's a great program. It's not outside, it's inside in the air conditioning.
And Charles, y' all had a great group last year that wanted to basically keep going.
[00:06:08] Speaker A: We did. Yeah. We had great retention, great attendance. It's a great program because it kind of teaches you the ropes in terms of learning different exercises, how to proper form It's a very good introductory program. And I say introductory, but a lot of times we have a lot of the same people come back even when they've already done it once or twice. So, I mean, it's just a great program, and it's really great for summertime, especially to keep you going.
[00:06:33] Speaker B: Yeah. And I mean, like you said, we have people that have been doing. Have been exercising for a long time, and they need something to kind of change up their routine. You have people that have never been a part of this type of program. So it's really good. So, okay, shifting gears a little bit. We're going to talk fitness, and we've got a couple of different things we're going to talk about throughout our time on the show today. But, you know, the first topic I want to just kind of introduce and put out there is this idea of specificity training. And try to say that three times fast. Because I think when we were talking about what to talk about, it was like, specificities. But, you know, it's like. How do you say that? But you know, Charles, in your line of work, being a personal trainer and working with clients, when somebody comes to you and they bring up these buzzwords, I feel like that's kind of a buzzword right now. You know, what is specificity Training.
[00:07:20] Speaker A: Yeah. So specificity. And I love specificity. It's my favorite thing I learned about even back during my undergrad when my professor in this class called Principles of Trainings first started talking about it. I think it's so interesting because what specificity basically says is that if whatever we do to our body, when any kind of exercise, any kind of modality training, any specific thing we do to our body produces a very specific outcome. So if I run for distance, I'm going to teach my body to get better at running for distance.
[00:07:53] Speaker B: Right.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: I think that's really important because a lot of times in fitness, we sort of group these different categories all together. We put all of cardio is the same, whether it's running or biking or swimming or rowing. And then we do the same with weights. We say, well, all weights are the same. It is to get big and grow muscles and get strong. And I think a lot of times we miss out on one of the important nuances that come with fitness, because we just put it all together, we forget about specificity.
[00:08:19] Speaker B: Right. I feel like we might be confusing our listeners a little bit because, you know, when you start thinking about fitness and working out, there's a really. There's a lot to it I mean, it can be very simple and it can be follow the guidelines that ACSM has given us, the cdc, of how to be healthy and well and decrease the risk of chronic diseases.
But then you start to get a little bit more tailored. And to me, this is a little bit more when somebody has a specific thing they're training for or maybe they are rehabbing an injury.
So who's specificity training for? Because I can tell, like our listeners are probably like, oh, that's something new I haven't heard. Let me, you know, Google this and figure out this is something I should be doing in my workout routine. It's different in my opinion than just health, being healthy and exercising holistically. So, like, who would benefit from specificity training?
[00:09:16] Speaker A: Interestingly, I would say everyone. I would say on one hand, it's definitely for the athlete who wants to achieve something specific.
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: You know, if you're, like I said, a distance runner, then you need to understand that distance running is an important part of your program. But I also think anyone needs to understand this topic or this concept because if you're wanting to be well rounded, you need to avoid being too specific in what you do. It's almost like, you know, if you want to both be strong, but you also want to have great cardio. If you want to, you want to be well rounded, avoid doing just one thing because that one thing is going to give you very specific results.
[00:09:54] Speaker B: Well, and it kind of goes into the concept of burnout. I feel like where, you know, I can get really comfortable going to the same group exercise classes or I can get really comfortable with my trainer and my trainer can get really comfortable with me and then kind of like what you're saying, you're being almost too specific, I guess. I guess it can kind of flip on you a little bit. But like, I mean, what do you recommend for somebody? Like, you know, I mean, we can specifically train the body for different activities. So is it more or less we're cross training in different ways and changing it up?
[00:10:28] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. It's looking for different opportunities, different modalities. You know, if they're talking about group fitness.
[00:10:35] Speaker B: Right.
[00:10:35] Speaker A: We're not just going to that TBD class or just going to yoga, but trying to include as many different aspects of fitness as we can. I think that's one of the biggest takeaways here is to avoid pigeon pulling yourself to just one single thing.
You know, great example of this. I know everyone's been watching Masters lately thinking about golf, but one of Tiger Wood's Biggest issues that he experienced early in his career was overuse injuries from doing the same thing over and over and over.
And while it's obviously a little different for us, that principle still applies. If we're continually doing one thing over and over again, we can not only have an issue of getting very specific results, but we can also develop some serious weaknesses because we're not addressing those other things.
[00:11:20] Speaker B: And that's something we're going to talk about later in the show. We kind of have some, like, concepts for, like, posture and awareness. But I was just thinking, like, selfishly about myself, you know, and I teach Pilates and I teach yoga, and I do this same type of movement. It's very hard to, like, get out of that repetition. And I started suffering from kind of overuse of my hip flexors. And so for those of you that maybe aren't aware of where your hip flexors are, these are the muscles that, like, cross over the hip and they hinge you forward. They bend the knee up to the chest. Like, if you think about a hip hinge position. And in Pilates, we do a lot of hinging at the hips and a lot of holding there. And I started to develop. I diagnosed myself, and I'm pretty sure it's like tendonitis. I started to develop pain in my right hip because of overuse. And it was almost like I kept doing those movements and I thought, okay, I have to change this pattern, otherwise this is only going to get worse. So while exercise is super beneficial and helpful and it does all these great things for us, it does have some negative side effects if you aren't aware of your body and you keep pushing yourself in these types of positions and poses and all that kind of stuff.
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Yeah, we see this a lot with really a lot with people who are physically active but only do one thing. Runners experience a lot of issues in their hips and knees if they're not doing anything else. We see this a lot in weightlifters who are refuse to do any kind of flexibility or any kind of cardio training. It happens a lot for people who are physically active but only want to do one thing. And while it is great to have your special favorite thing, it's also important to try to cross train and do other things.
[00:12:58] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think we're going to come up on a break here shortly. But I think when you think about cross training, it doesn't always have to be maybe a different format. It can be a different way of thinking. I know it's hard for people that aren't maybe in fitness, but I know for myself if I'm teaching a specific type of class and I know I'm doing a lot of forward movements, I try to actively think about how can I engage the backside of my body, how can I engage the sides of my body and twisting. And in fitness and wellness, we look through the three planes of motion so that we can, you know, balance out the body. But anyway, we're going to come on and go ahead and take a break and give you guys a check into a second to listen to some tunes on the radio. But you're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. And we'll catch you on the other side.
[00:13:49] Speaker A: Wvuafm tuscaloosa.
[00:13:56] Speaker B: Welcome back to Fit to Be tie with Sheena and Whitney. And today we have Charles on the show. And Sheena is out. But selfishly, it kind of gives us a chance just to talk about straight fitness and movement, which Charles, I know me and you with our offices next door, we geek out about stuff like this. And it's last week or two weeks ago, I guess, since it's Sunday. But we had to do a presentation for the division and we're talking about movement, intentional movement. And like, literally the presentation took us like an hour. Ish to do. But I feel like we could have gone 30 more minutes and still would have covered what we wanted to cover. But I mean, it's just kind of interesting when you're in this world because, you know, the body is so intricate with the bones and then the tendons, the ligaments, the muscles, the fascia. And Charles, we were trying to figure out your back the other day. You have this reoccurring, I guess, injury in your back. And we were like trying to look up the muscle groups. And just for our listeners. Charles, you want to kind of just talk about what was going on?
[00:14:56] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, there's like this weird discomfort in my upper middle back. I swear this is relevant.
[00:15:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:15:01] Speaker A: And it just kept bothering me. It was really weird. I felt it a lot at night when I wake up. It wasn't anything that was so bad that it just ruined my day, but it was there and it just kept persisting.
And I think one of the things we recognize or realize is that I was repeatedly sitting in a chair that was off. It was sort of leaning to the side and had some issues.
And so going back to specificity, I was continually putting my body through that same discomfort, that same issue over and over again. And so my body reacted specifically by causing this kind of pain and discomfort and trying to adapt to that very specific thing I was doing to myself.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Isn't it crazy? Because, I mean, when we were talking about it, it's like you literally have to go to the drawing board. And this is.
I think orthopedics do.
Physical therapists do. We do. Where it's like, if you're having a weakness in an area or tightness is. Something is overcompensating. I was watching this really cool video.
It's this chiropractor on YouTube. And I really like her because she's got a really good. She's got a really good sense of knowledge of the body. And this girl came to see her that had scoliosis. And it was interesting, especially with scoliosis, because that creates these lateral curves in your spine that, like, really throws your body off. And her rib cage was pushed forward and her hips to the side. The moment the chiropractor worked on her and massaged things out, it was like it went back to. It was supposed to. That's more manual work. And we don't typically do that. We focus more on bouncing out the muscles. But I mean, the one change, like if you were to sit in a normal chair, maybe uncrossing the legs, which is my problem, I always cross my legs, is.
I mean, it could change it. So I'm kind of curious, you know, when we start looking at our clients and they have these aches and pains and all these things, what type of impact imbalances have you seen traditionally in your clients?
[00:16:52] Speaker A: Well, so I feel like there's three big ones, but one of the first ones that I see over and over and over again. And I swear, whenever I walk into the gym, I probably see a quarter of people have this. It's upper cross syndrome, which is really just hunched forward. Shoulders is the easiest way to identify it. Where your shoulders are kind of rounded forward, your head is slightly tilted. And it's very common because it happens so much from sitting down, from looking at our phones.
Working at computers is very, very common.
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's kind of interesting because I think I never knew what that term was. In the Pilates world, we don't really have a term for it. We just look at, I guess, the bone structure in the spine. But I think it was nasm that maybe. Did they coin that or is that just a general fitness?
[00:17:38] Speaker A: I'm not sure. Yeah, it may have been NASA. It could have been them. Because I know some people also call it kyphosis. Kyphosis so there's a few different running terms for upper cross. I like the name uppercross cross because it gives you a little bit of an indicator of where the muscles are that are tight, loose. That's for a whole nother discussion, I guess. Yeah, but, yeah, there's a lot of different terms for it, but you can definitely spot it once you've noticed it a few times.
[00:18:03] Speaker B: It's.
[00:18:04] Speaker A: It plagues you because you see it so much.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Yeah, you do. And it's just. It's very common. I mean, we're even in fitness. And I find I'm very cathartic sometimes because I'm sitting at my desk, which just means upper cross. So hunched over, you know, and the cell phones don't really help either because is the neck is out of alignment. And in the Pilates world, we always look at hips first because if we can adjust somebody's hips into a neutral position, then it kind of works its way up. I think as long as you're looking at it from a point, whether you're going from hips up or neck down or whatever. But if you're training somebody that you see really has a kyphotic kind of hunched upper back, the neck is out of alignment. The upper cross, like, how would you start to correct that?
[00:18:48] Speaker A: So go through a few different things, but one of the things is we need to specifically address the upper back and also in the shoulder chest area.
So usually if you're rounded forward, that means your chest and shoulders and neck are really tight. So we're going to spend a lot of time trying to stretch that and loosen it up, trying to undo all that time spent in that hunch position.
Because a lot of times this is from hours a day being hunched forward. So what we need to do is we need to try to reverse that by loosening up those tight muscles in front and trying to strengthen and sort of learn to engage those muscles that are on the backside of the upper back, especially because a lot of times it means they're not getting used enough.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And thinking about movement, something here like already going down a rabbit hole in my head about, like, shoulder movement. And, you know, it's interesting when I'm working with clients because shoulder movement is very involved. And I don't think people realize that you have your shoulder joint and then you have your shoulder girdle. And a lot of times this movement isn't being facilitated from the right place. So just like a quick little anatomy lesson for our listeners, you got your shoulder blades, and I always call them scaps because it's easier for me to be like, yeah, move your scaps. But a lot of times they're stuck and you've got the muscles kind of like what you're talking about, Charles, where between your shoulder blades, they're super stretched out or you just don't even know how to fire them. Have you ever had a client try to do sternum drops or like the shoulder push ups where you're not doing like an elbow bend and it's like they don't know how to do it?
[00:20:18] Speaker A: Yeah, they can't engage that area.
[00:20:21] Speaker B: And it's almost like no offense to them at all, but it's like as a fitness professional, we have to try to. That's one area that if we can get them to move better, they have less tension in their shoulders and their chest.
And then it just kind of all around the harmony within the muscles and the joints, it just works out better.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I feel like that's where, like, specificity really comes into play as a trainer is thinking, like, we need a very specific outcome here, which is to try to correct that kyphotic curve. And that comes through some very specific pointed exercises.
We can't just throw a bunch of random upper body exercises and hope that fixes it.
[00:20:57] Speaker B: Yeah. And kind of thinking about, you know, people I see in the weight room, because I get on Jason about this all the time. So it's like you have to pull your shoulders back because a lot of times when people are doing back exercises, which is what we would recommend, because we need to strengthen those muscles to stretch out the chest to bring strength to the upper back. You've got to get the shoulder blades moving as well. And there's a lot of times I see people just bending at the elbow and I'm like, okay, yeah, you're getting some movement there, but we need to be engaging the back. Have you seen that a lot?
[00:21:27] Speaker A: So much.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: I'm telling you, people, like, literally when you start seeing these things, you'll start to notice so many changes that you could make in your own body.
And just some examples, just to get the upper back moving. Charles, you want to throw some out there. Some exercises they could do just to get that chest open and the elbow or the upper back engaged.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. So one exercise absolutely loves called a face pull.
You probably just type it in Google honestly and find it. It's an amazing exercise that's going to help target your upper traps. It's going to work on some of those rotator cuff muscles and Your shoulder. It's going to do a lot of good things for your posture and for cross syndrome. So, Facebook, if I had to pick one single exercise that can do just wonders for someone with that, it'd be the facebowl exercise. Yeah, it's amazing.
[00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree 100%.
All right, guys, we're getting ready to come up on a break, and then we're going to talk about the lower body, because we've got this upper cross stuff happening in the upper body, but there's some stuff going on in the lower body. It's just never a good balance. So stick with us. Take a quick break if you need it. You're listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7, the capstone.
[00:22:37] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:22:43] Speaker B: Welcome back, friends. You're listening to Fit to be Tied, and we're just trying to get your posture fixed, your upper back engaged.
I mean, we sit a lot, Charles, like driving. If you're in the car listening to the radio. I have terrible posture in the car.
It's bad. And it doesn't ever feel feel good to sit the way I'm supposed to. But I feel like if I can bring awareness to it, which we'll talk about shortly, maybe I can fix it.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: I don't know about you even sitting here right now. I recognize, like, oh, I gotta set my posture, sit up straight.
[00:23:14] Speaker B: We should start standing to record these shows.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: That's actually great.
[00:23:18] Speaker B: Wouldn't be a bad idea. Although I'm a little too tired to stand up today. But too much hard work. That's right.
Okay, so we talked about the upper body, the upper cross syndrome. I will throw this out there in my world, working with people on the mat and on the reformer. I have a lot of clients that are super, super tight in their chest, just like we all are. But one thing I found is breathing into the chest is super helpful. So if you've ever tried foam rolling and taking the foam roller horizontally on the back, rather than you can do vertically as well, but horizontally. Just kind of rolling back and forth. Thoracic spine. That helps to get it more open, the chest more open. But spend a little time holding and breath.
Actually avoid. With a lot of my clients with super tight chest muscles, I actually avoid doing anything forward with them because they're doing that enough, and I just do back stuff with them. Have you ever found that you need to, like, do less forward with people?
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah, absolutely. And weirdly enough, I've actually had quite a few people I know who were upper Cross and they would do like these push up challenges where every day they would do pushups. And their goal was to get like 100 a day. And almost every single one of them ended up having shoulder injuries. And a big reason why is because they were upper cross.
And then the only exercise they're doing was hitting their chest and shoulders, which is making it more tight. It was emphasizing muscles already used too much.
So, yeah, I see that a lot. Where it's like you're doing the opposite of what you need to do. Really what we need to focus on is the back and to actually let the chest just kind of relax a little bit.
[00:24:50] Speaker B: I would almost, I'm just going to go out there and say this. I would almost for a rule of thumb for everybody out there.
I mean, take it or leave or take it for what it's worth. If you sit a lot during the day or if, you know, like if, unless you're like a swimmer where you're probably getting more pulling movements, but if, you know you're very weak in your back, decrease some of your front body work, like decrease your push up. Planks are great too, but like maybe back off a little bit of it because you're strong there and just flip your mindset, you know, be more specific in that area.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: Yeah. What I typically do with the client in that situation is if we are doing any kind of push work, going to do just as much time stretching those muscles. So it's like, yeah, we might work them some, but if we are, we're going to spend more time stretching and making sure they're not tight. More than likely they're tight.
[00:25:38] Speaker B: Isn't it crazy? I mean, it's just how our, how our bodies adapt so quickly to our surroundings.
It's, it's, you know, we used to not have to worry about this concept when we did more work with our hands and standing and moving. It's just, it's interesting that now we have to make it such like an intentional mindset on how to balance the body. But let's go ahead and talk about, we talked about upper Cross syndrome. There's the other side of things, which is the lower body and it's Lower Cross syndrome. So Charles, you wanna talk a little bit about that?
[00:26:07] Speaker A: Yeah. So there, and there are kind of, I guess two different things that can happen in the lower body. There's lower crossed or it's an anterior pelvic tilt, which all that means is your pelvis is rotated forward as if you're dumping a bucket of water. Forward and then there's the posterior, which is the opposite. So it's where your rear end's tucked.
And that also can cause a host of different issues in the back.
[00:26:31] Speaker B: Yeah. It's funny because again, we nerd out about this kind of stuff. And traditionally, I would say that most females are more anterior, and I think it's more of the anatomy of the body because of having childbirth and those kinds of things. And then I would say more males are more posterior. And, Charles, we talk about this all the time. When I've had you do reformer before, there's this movement in Pilates that is called the arch and curl that we do on the reformer.
Yeah. And it's like you're rolling and you're tucking your tail. So roll downs are great for you, because if it's a posterior tuck, meaning that basically you're flattening out, like you're tucking your tailbone, but then the anterior side, where you're having to rock your pelvis the other way and find more of an opening is super challenging for you.
[00:27:13] Speaker A: It's very hard. Yeah. And it's. Yeah. Because of that posterior tilt that's just so common in guys, specifically. You know, it's interesting, though. It's like, also notice with athletes, they tend to be more likely to be anterior tilted. And people who are very, very sedentary also be more posterior tilting, especially if you're a guy.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:32] Speaker A: And I think it has to do a lot with how you're working your body.
[00:27:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:27:38] Speaker A: Like, if you're spending a lot of time running and sprinting, maybe you're using your glutes and your posterior chain a little more. I don't know. It's really interesting.
[00:27:46] Speaker B: Yeah. I wonder if when you're an athlete, like, I'm just thinking about an athlete typically running that kind of stuff. Your glutes are more defined. They're more. Because your glutes are basically your turbo boost, your powerhouse. Like, if you do stair steps. Yeah. Your hamstrings are getting you in that bent knee position. But then the moment you have to bend a little bit deeper, the glute kicks on, even in your hip extension, which is just the straightening of the hip joint. But, yeah, it's interesting because a lot of athletes, I guess, depending on the type of sport, so your football players, I don't really see as much in basketball, but football players and gymnasts are using a lot of power with the legs, tend to have more of an anterior tilt. Their glutes are a little bit more defined, kind of Interesting to think about.
I'm curious too, you know, thinking about the muscles of the legs and thinking about, like, you know, we have an instructor that came to you recently that very knowledgeable with the body, but needed another set of eyes to help, you know, figure out, like, where an imbalance was. And y' all had a great moment of just like, finding exercises to strengthen. Was it inner thigh, y', all we're trying to work on?
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yes, it was like her hip flexors.
Hip flexors and her inner thighs. It was, you know, once it going back to the idea of specificity.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: Right.
[00:29:04] Speaker A: She recognized, she realized that she has been spending so much time doing very specific types of exercises that, you know, a lot of people, their issue is their back is weak. Hers is. The issue was her back and glutes. Her backside of her body was really
[00:29:17] Speaker B: strong because she stands a lot.
[00:29:19] Speaker A: Stands a lot and does a lot of exercise for that. And then totally, it's just not doing anything for the front side of her body. So we realized, you know, her lower abdominals are really weak, her hip flexors were weak, her inner thighs were weak.
So it was a very interesting situation where she needed more well rounded exercise to address those issues. And she'd just been doing something specific for so long.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so interesting. And especially she's been teaching for so long, like, a long time. Because you don't tend to notice these things about yourself when you're younger. I would say I'm 37 now. I would say within the last couple years of my life, I can definitely tell them. The movements and the exercises that I've done have really challenged some of that alignment and the specificity that we're talking about where I have overdeveloped, underdeveloped. And I think we just notice that as we get older.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:30:09] Speaker B: Okay, so just kind of closing out this conversation, we got a little bit of time. I mean, if somebody starts to notice these things about their body, and it's usually going to come in the form of pain. I mean, pain is your body's way of saying you're doing something. You don't need to be doing this anymore. We need to balance it out. I mean, what would you recommend? Because a lot of people aren't in tune with their bodies.
[00:30:30] Speaker A: That's a tough one.
[00:30:31] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:30:31] Speaker A: Um, that's really tough. I would actually recommend finding someone who knows what they're doing.
You know, we could try to go into really specifics. You know, for example, with upper cross, a lot of times people experience discomfort in Their neck, their shoulders and their chest, usually those areas that are really tight. If you're tight in any specific area, that's a sign that something's off 100%. But honestly, I would say that to find a professional, to find a personal trainer or just someone who can see what you're doing and try to assess what's going on, because it's really hard to do on your own.
[00:31:07] Speaker B: I think too, we kind of have this jotted down in our notes to talk about, but like intentional movement,
[00:31:15] Speaker A: what
[00:31:16] Speaker B: does that mean in your world? Because I know Pilates, what it means to me. And in yoga with the mindfulness aspect, is it the same in yours?
[00:31:23] Speaker A: I would say so. It's thinking about what you're doing with your body. You know, for most people, they might have this in some of these imbalances, but only very slightly.
[00:31:32] Speaker B: Right.
[00:31:33] Speaker A: And so for them, being intentional about the movement is enough to try to offset some of those issues. So when you're doing a push up, being conscious of what your shoulders are doing and what those, your shoulder blades are doing and thinking about that posture a lot of times is enough to offset it.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:50] Speaker A: So a lot of it just comes down to thinking through the movement carefully and maybe just being aware of what you tend to do. If you notice you round your shoulders a lot, if you don't have great posture, then going into that movement, movement, thinking really hard about what your body's doing, sometimes that's enough.
[00:32:07] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think there's different modes. Like, I think, you know, when I think about, like if I'm in a group exercise studio or somewhere where there's a mirror, you can visually see it. You can like consciously be like, okay, I need to check myself. But one thing I'll mention before our break is we always tend to be heavy, heavier on one side. So like, if you're right handed, typically it's going to be the right side taking note when you're doing an exercise like squats, when your feet are bilaterally on the ground.
If you're doing a lunge and you have your feet split, where are you shifting your weight in your foot? Because I know for me, I always shift my weight into my right hip all the time and I have made this conscious effort. So I'm like, that could be another reason why my hips hurting, to make a conscious effort to shift over to the left. So I think finding those imbalances and, you know, being aware of what they are and just being okay, that like, not everybody's perfect, you know, you have to grow a little bit in that.
[00:33:01] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Not pushing your body into a movement that's uncomfortable.
[00:33:04] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:33:05] Speaker A: You know, we try to, you know, if you're doing like a workout video and you're watching a video, you're trying to replicate it, you might not be able to do that movement perfectly, and that's okay. The worst thing you can do is try to force yourself into a movement that your body is not capable of doing.
[00:33:18] Speaker B: Yeah. And you might get into it eventually. I mean, I've seen plenty of people do yoga and Pilates, and where they started is not where they are now. And they have gained more range, more strength. So I think it's pretty cool. But we're going to take a break and then we'll come back for a few minutes. You are listening to Fit to Be Tied with Sheena and Whitney on 9.7 the Capstone.
[00:33:40] Speaker A: Wvuafm Tuscaloosa.
[00:33:46] Speaker B: Welcome back to Fit to Be Tied. We got a great, great show today. Unfortunately, Sheena's been out, but Charles has stepped up and we have been talking about fitness specificity, training, intentional movement, and yeah, hopefully you guys are really, you know, kind of taking it all in. The time has flown by. I mean, I feel like it always does when we talk about stuff like this, but I mean, just to change gears a little bit. Charles, I know the last time you were on the show not too long ago, maybe about a month ago, a little bit longer.
We asked you what you do for self care and is it still pretty much the same? The activities, the painting and bread making? Have you had any other things that have kind of made its way into your self care recently?
[00:34:24] Speaker A: That's probably been it, I'd say. You know, I've been trying to do more walks here lately. Especially the weather here lately has been great.
We get a horrible storm, tornadoes, and then the next couple days it feels really nice.
So there's definitely, I guess, a positive.
[00:34:37] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:39] Speaker A: But yeah, spending time outside, that's been great.
But I mean, that's been pretty much it. You know, I got married this past January.
[00:34:45] Speaker B: You did? Congratulations.
[00:34:47] Speaker A: Thank you. And then since then, you know, I've been trying to change up my fitness a little bit. Doing little bit more weights again, just mixing it up, you know, just trying to do something different.
[00:34:57] Speaker B: Well, let me ask you this. Summer's around the corner. Just. I'm just curious, what do you like to do during summer? I mean, do you have. I mean, does anything change for you personally? What does summer look like for you?
[00:35:09] Speaker A: I think there's actually more time outside at the pool, less walks, unfortunately, once it gets really hot.
So it's either I'm going to be inside exercising or if I'm outside, I'm probably not doing a lot of this collectivity. I'm probably getting some sun, swimming a little bit. Yeah, something like that. Yeah.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And are you.
Because we've been talking about this, but don't you have a conference you're going to?
[00:35:31] Speaker A: I am, yes. Yes. Next month actually. Yes. I'm gonna be going down to sunny Orlando. So I'm very excited about that.
[00:35:38] Speaker B: Now, will you get to go to any parks or anything?
[00:35:41] Speaker A: No. I don't know. Actually. That's a great point. I haven't really thought much outside of the conference, but there will be some.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: I will say this. I'm a huge Disney fan. Everybody knows this, but Disney's so ridiculous with their prices that Universal, I would pick Universal right now. And I was an adventure to go to because it's cheaper prices and it's not as crowded. So, like, if you decide, I mean, you should. I mean, stay next your day, go to CityWalk. It's pretty fun stuff, but. Yeah, that'll be great. Yeah, I totally forgot I knew you were going out of town soon. That'll feel really good.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: I am looking forward to that.
[00:36:13] Speaker B: All right, guys, well, we are going to go ahead and close out this show. We've got one more for the rest of the semester and then we will take a break during the summer and hopefully Sheena will be back. You have been listening to Fit to be tied on 90.7 the capstone. And we will catch you next week.
[00:36:52] Speaker A: Wvuafm, tuscaloosa.
