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Essentials of Elite Performance

Essentials of Elite Performance

This past weekend we attended the Z Health Essentials of Elite Performance for the third time since 2010. This time we were joined by five people from our gym so it was interesting to get their feedback about the course.

The Essentials of Elite Performance is a three day sampler of the Z health approach to brain-based training. While other courses dive into these subjects in depth, the EEP dedicates one day each to movement re-education, sensory integration, and fundamental sports skills.

What makes this course, and Z Health in general, different is that everything is assessed before and after so you learn exactly what your body needs by understanding the response from your nervous system. For our clients, they understand this is fundamental to everything we do at Taiso.

It was interesting to see how our clients enjoyed the EEP and what they each learned. While they have heard the concepts from us many times, sometimes it just takes another person explaining something for it to become clear. This is what happened with one member who really came away with a good understanding of how and why precision matters. Another member had a huge breakthrough in both mobility and vision. Another had a great improvement with neck mobility.

But the best thing for us, is seeing how the attendees have taken the knowledge they gained from the EEP and incorporated it into their workouts. Usually we are the ones pushing for change and experimentation, but this week it has very rewarding to see them problem solving and integrating new skills into their routines.

While two of the people are trainers who plan to continue through the Z Health training program, three were end users who were […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00March 12th, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on Essentials of Elite Performance
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The Polar Bear Effect When Dieting

The Polar Bear Effect When Dieting

Precontemplation is the phase in which we wonder if there is even any hope. Is it even possible to make a change? When it comes to weight loss most of us that are in precontemplation are here because we have tried a calorie restrictive diet in the past and ended up gaining weight.

At this point it may be helpful to look at restrictive dieting as the problem, and our weight is just a symptom. In fact, this is the case for almost everyone who comes to us for weight loss.

Probably the most important, yet seldom mentioned, study of weight loss took place in 1944. It was called the Minnesota Starvation Experiment. The United States government anticipated that at the conclusion of World War II, there would be thousands of people in Europe and Asia that were suffering from famine as a result of the war.

In order to determine how best to rehabilitate them they commissioned a study using conscientious objectors. From a group of 400 volunteers, they selected 36 healthy men of similar characteristics and cut their daily calorie intake from 3200 to 1800 calories for 24 weeks to induce a famine-like state, while maintaining a 3000 calorie a day workload.

Before going further, I just want to point out that many calorie restrictive diet programs today call for even less calories than the starvation experiment did, while also asking participants to workout in excess of their daily calorie intake.

Once the experiment achieved the target famine conditions, it was then focused on the requirements to successfully rehabilitate the participants.

The study concluded that restrictive dieting significantly increases severe emotional distress and depression. Restrictive dieting causes a pre-occupation with food during both the […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00March 2nd, 2015|Uncategorized|Comments Off on The Polar Bear Effect When Dieting
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Thinking About Thinking About It

Martha Beck recounts an interesting story about her daughter choosing a college*. When they first spoke about the matter the daughter dismissed the discussion saying the only thing she wanted from a college was a location without bugs.

Martha recognized that her daughter was still in precontemplation on the subject. Precontemplation is the first stage of change when we are asking ourselves if the change is even possible.

In fact we may have even given up on achieving a certain goal because of the risk of failure. When people have abandoned hope they they say things like, “I’ve tried everything, and nothing works.”

A few months later when Martha breached the subject of college again, her daughter had still not given it any thought. Rather then pushing her daughter on the issue, she said “well, you don’t have to make any decisions today.” To which her daughter said “she would think about thinking about it.”

And this was key, because now the daughter is at least considering the change.

During precontemplation we are guarded. Had Martha strong-armed her daughter that day, the pressure would have pushed her daughter away from even considering change.

The increase in stress would have caused her to go into fight or flight, and the emotional portion of the brain would have taken charge to defend her from the stress.

When we are stuck in pre-contemplation we become defensive about the problem. We are not willing to discuss the problem. Instead of seeing the actions of others as concern or caring, we see it as them trying to control us.

When we are stuck in precontemplation we avoid learning about our problems. We may change the channel on TV, or change the subject in conversation. We are unwilling to […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00February 25th, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on Thinking About Thinking About It
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Grass Stains Before ‘The Big Game’

Grass Stains before the big game! Our homage to the Seattle Seahawks this 2015 football season. At Taiso we believe movement yields play, fun and exploration. Although most of our classes are more focused on movement re-education, and movement quality. Our main goal of the Taiso Fitness program is helping people tap into their bodies capacity to improve, change, and become more resilient.

“Perfectionism is a twenty ton shield we carry around”, that’s what Brené Brown calls it. We believe it inhibits us to take chances, and shrinks our growth exponentially. We believe there is great power and great potential when one comes humbly to the acknowledgement of being imperfect.Not just “yeah, yeah, I’m no good” instead we cultivate the potential for “I want to do better” “I believe I can improve” this change in thought gives the person the challenge to reach their potential and the spirit of what we build our program on.

In our growth of the past few years we also recognize that change is not easy. Unless something dramatic changes our lives we tend to stick to what’s so far kept us going. The demands of our clients continues us down a path of what initiates change and how do people change successfully? Probably one of the most overlooked yet important factor in seeing big changes in your body is seeing bigger changes in your habits.

Flexibility, strength and power are not just physical characteristics they overflow into how we deal with situations emotionally, intellectually and spiritually. Focusing on a strong motivator is ultimately the best way to create resiliency, your reason why. Why is change important? How can it be worth your time and how hard will you fight for the change?This […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00February 1st, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on Grass Stains Before ‘The Big Game’
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Three Best Butt Exercises

Have a Functional and Great Looking Butt

With so many good butt exercises, it was hard to pick just three. But here in this short video this week we wanted to present some exercises that are not just great for the booty, but get you out of the same old plane of motion.

I know, I know most people are looking for butt exercises cause it’s the first of the year and you want to look great in your jeans come spring. But, there’s no reason to ignore function just for ascetics when you can have both.

This really is one time when you can have your cake and eat it too.

Lets get started with indicators that your booty might not be pulling its own weight. We highlight some of the common issues we see when the gluten are not firing properly.

Indicators of bad form are:

  • too much knee movement, and not enough hip which causes bone rhythm to be off
  • arch collapse or knee tracking to the inside of the toe line
  • too much arch placing stress on the low back
  • too much hip and not enough knee, also causing bone rhythm to be off
  • raising up on the toes showing weight is too far back

Indicators of good form are:

  • knees tracking over the big toe
  • knee and hip moving in unison and creating good bone rhythm

Lateral Squat

  • keep feet parallel
  • push off the trail leg
  • keep a good long spine

45° Lunge

  • long spine
  • step diagonally
  • moving the knees and hips in unison

One Leg Hip Hinge

  • long spine
  • base leg slightly bent
  • hinge at the hips and squeeze the base leg on the way up

Taiso Fitness and Nutrition

If you are looking for a unique gym experience try Taiso Fitness and Nutrition. We are Tacoma’s fitness and nutrition gym for people who want to […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00January 25th, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on Three Best Butt Exercises
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How Dieting Effects Hormones

Eating Like A Mouse Got You Feeling Run Down?

Hey, I’m burning fat so why do I feel so tired and sluggish? Well, the short answer is that your body does not want to starve. As fat cells are depleted they release leptin which slows down your metabolism until the fat is restored.

But to understand the total impact on your body lets start with a little bit of history. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment of 1944. This study was conducted for the US military to aid with rehabilitation of famine victims in Europe and Asia following World War II. Healthy, normal weight men underwent a 24 week 1800 calorie a day diet in order to measure the effects of calorie restriction.

Let’s just pause more a moment. They used 1800 calories a day to induce famine. Considering how many diets I have seen recommending less than that, I was a bit surprised with this number.

The study concluded that restrictive dieting significantly increases severe emotional distress and depression. Dieting causes a pre-occupation with food during the diet and the recovery phase, a significant decrease in metabolism, and may cause edema in the extremities.

Many of the study participants who were previously healthy developed eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. A key finding of the study was that dieters need both physical nourishment and psychological training in order to recover from the dieting process.

Let’s look at how this applies today. The autonomic nervous system regulates the body’s unconscious actions. It’s comprised of two subsystems; the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system’s primary process is to initiate the flight or flight response in the body. While the parasympathetic nervous system’s primary process is maintenance of […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00January 12th, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on How Dieting Effects Hormones
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Three Steps to Creating Successful Habits

Three Steps to Creating Successful Habits

Often when we decide to make a change such as a New Years resolution, we decide to make several changes at once. Something like, “this year I’m gonna diet and exercise.”

When we try to implement one change at a time we have an 80% chance of success. But if we try to change two habits at once our chance to succeed goes down to 35%, and at three or more we have less than a 5% chance to succeed.

STEP ONE – Decide on a single habit to change.

In the case of changing our diet and exercise, we will be more successful if we start one habit first, take the time to get that habit established, and then start the second habit later.

When we make changes in our habits and routine we create stress for the brain. If we create too much stress we default to the emotional portion.

So we need to lower the overall stress on the nervous system in order to put the problem-solving and inhibition portion of the brain back in charge.

One of the ways we can do this is to create safety by making habits easy enough for us to be successful, and use that success to ease our way into bigger changes.

STEP TWO – The habit must be controllable, and measurable with a yes or no answer.

Now, we have to be able to actually control the habit, and it has to be stated in a yes or no format.

For example, my habit cannot be to “lose weight today.” This is because I cannot actually control “losing weight”, and I cannot answer that phrase with a “yes or no” answer.

Instead I have to pick a habit that […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00January 2nd, 2015|Blog|Comments Off on Three Steps to Creating Successful Habits
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Shared Personal Training and Action Hero Programs

Shared Personal Training and Action Hero Programs

Over the last five years the main program at Taiso Fitness and Nutrition has been small group classes. We wanted to bridge the gap between bootcamp classes with minimal instruction and coaching and good personal training which is more expensive.

Over the last year we have continually improved our training and format to be more personalized. Now our primary service is shared personal training. So, how does shared personal training work? Just like with the small group classes you sign up online for the hour you want to start your session to keep the groups small enough for direct personal coaching. However you are no longer tied to class times that start at the top of the hour.

You have a 16 week training program that is specifically tailored to your goals and needs. You have a coach to helping you and the other seven or less participates through each session and you retest every two weeks.

So what is it you are retesting? That depends on what movement compensation you have and may include movement, balance, vision or breathing.

We recently developed major goals into several programs based on Action Heroes that personify those goals such as Tomb Raiders of the Lost Ark. This program is an endurance program that is modeled on Indiana Jones and Lara Croft.

Don’t be surprised if you see some special events created around the program characters and themes.

All our classes and programs are presented with four or more levels of difficulty based on your current needs and goals. At the base we have an alignment level appropriate to anyone who has a major compensation with that body part or has had a past trauma. This is a […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00December 22nd, 2014|Uncategorized|Comments Off on Shared Personal Training and Action Hero Programs
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The Power of Morning Routine

The Power of A Morning Routine

I just listened to an interview with Hal Elrod, author of the Miracle Morning. He has an incredible story of surviving a head on car crash from a drunk driver, having a miraculus recovery, and going on to be a very succesful writer and speaker.

One of the keys to success that he talked about was his morning routine, how it developed over time and it’s effects on his daily success. Heading into a new year, is a good time for me to get back on track on my own morning routine.

All month I have been hyper-focused on getting the RESOLUTE program ready for February. This is the replacement for our Jeans Challenge, which we wanted to make available to a broader audience and allow the participants more time to build habits then are possible in the eight week program we have done up until now.

But, in an effort to meet self-imposed deadlines I let my morning routine slide and to be perfectly honest my creativity and productivety slid as well.

Here is the acronym Hal Elrod uses to describe his morning routine which he calls his Life SAVERS.

S is for silence, meditation, or prayer.

A is for affirmation.

V is for visualization which he uses to specifically get past fear, insecurity, and self-doubt.

E is for exercise.

R is for reading.

S is for scribing or journalling.

My most productive morning routine incorporates all these elements in one way or another, but here is how I do it.

An early morning dogwalk. During the walk I spend time in silence and meditation. I also visualize the end state of whatever major project I will be working on that day. […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:26-08:00December 19th, 2014|Blog|Comments Off on The Power of Morning Routine
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Pink Gloves Boxing

Pink Gloves Boxing

What is Pink Gloves Boxing? “Pink Gloves Boxing is a fitness program that delivers an amazing workout and an emotionally rewarding experience to small communities of powerful women. The fitness world is overflowing with great programs, but PGB is in a class of its own. Pink Gloves is the only program that puts a great deal of focus on social and emotional growth in addition to the amazing workout. Using the core movements of competitive boxing, PGB is a non- contact program for women who want to live a healthy lifestyle. Join us in changing the way we look at the world of fitness. Pink Gloves Boxing™ (PGB) truly is a movement towards a healthier lifestyle!”

Pink Gloves Boxing is a fun full body workout. The program starts with a warm up then has instruction on technique then moves into a circuit program that includes body weight exercise, agility training, jump rope, shadow boxing, hitting the focus pads, and hitting the heavy bag.

Because of the technical instruction involved, this program is offered in 16 week memberships. This allows the instructor the opportunity to bring the entire class up to speed initially then focus on form and intensity throughout the remaining weeks without having to re-teach the basics to a new person every class.

At the end of each 16 week session the participants have a chance to test out on their current tier and progress to a more challenging version of the program.

This is a great way to develop some skills, get in a unique workout and NOT have to get hit :).  Check our schedule to see when classes are available. If you don’t see a class time that works for you ask anyway. […]

By |2024-11-22T15:48:37-08:00December 9th, 2014|Blog|Comments Off on Pink Gloves Boxing
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DISCLAIMER: Results may vary. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.
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