Studio Cleanliness and Precautions

We are taking extra steps to maintain a clean training environment during the current flu, and virus season.

Taiso Fitness is now 10 years old. In a business where the average trainer has 18 months of experience and most small independent fitness studios fail in under three years, we have been serving Tacoma for more than 10 years now.

From the very beginning there have been a few things that set us apart. 1) Bringing a level of training not normally available to the average person. 2) Having really small groups or one-on-one interaction so you don’t get lost in the crowd. 3) And from the very beginning, maintaining a strict standard of cleanliness.

People often remark about the cleanliness of our facility, and how it does NOT smell like a gym.

We would like to thank our members for continuing to contribute to this Culture of Cleanliness by not coming in when sick and sanitizing their hands at the front door.

But with current concerns about the coronavirus (covid 19), we are taking extra steps to ensure the cleanest training environment we are able to.

In addition to our normal cleaning standards which include the use of steam or antibacterial cleaning products, this past weekend every single bar, band, handle, block, mat, etc…. was sanitized.

We will actively encourage people to sanitize their hands when they coming in and to stage all equipment they used on the floor in front of the appropriate rack. All equipment used will be clean before going back on the rack and used by the next class.

For more information on normal class hours or personal training, check here.

For more information on Coronavirus (COVID 19) or related health concerns for Washington State, check here.

Thanks […]

By |2020-03-09T08:53:09-07:00March 9th, 2020|Blog|Comments Off on Studio Cleanliness and Precautions
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So, What Exactly is Z Health | Tacoma Group Fitness & Personal Training

Did you know that no system in the body works in isolation? When you get injured all sorts of things happen in order for you to compensate for that injury. If left un-remediated, those compensations can lead to long-term physical changes and possibly chronic pain.

Taiso Fitness' Jennifer Nerio practicing Z Health

Understanding Z Health

Since 2010, Taiso Fitness has implemented a training protocol called Z Health. Z Health views the body through a neurological lens. Z Health puts you and your nervous system at the center of the training.

Just to simply walk across the room, this requires your eyes, balance, and movement systems all working together to provide information to the brain. As a result, the brain then processes all that information about your body, the environment, and even things like your past experiences and decides what to do next. So you could say, “our brains all work the same … but different.”

Sometimes those past experiences, such as an injury, might lead to changes in the way we move the rest of our lives. Z Health looks for sub-optimal performance and ways to correct it by asking how it relates to the nervous system and how can we improve that.

“Wait, does that mean if I injure body part A, it can effect body part B, and I feel pain in body part C?”

Yep. That is why coaches trained in Z Health pay attention to the whole body, rather than one part at a time.  Z Health has proven to produce staggering advances in performance, and […]

By |2017-11-07T14:09:22-08:00November 7th, 2017|Blog, News|Comments Off on So, What Exactly is Z Health | Tacoma Group Fitness & Personal Training
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Associate Induction Hypothesis

The Associate Induction Hypothesis offers a different way to understand cell structure, energetics, and health.

Over the last few years I have realized TWO things about nutrition and cellular biology. First, I don’t know as much as I thought I did. And second, neither does anyone else.

I say this because the generally accepted “theory” of cellular energetics is just that – “theory.” Well, if it is just a theory I wanted to know what some of the other theories might be.

More importantly if our understanding of the most basic human function, the creation of energy at the cell, is incomplete or inaccurate then how does this effect our overall understanding of health, and metabolism.

I wanted to comment on this interview because it lays the foundation for several ideas you will hear in later interviews. Many of the later interviews offer an approach and explanation to many health and metabolism issues I have seen or experienced.

Based on those explanations and the results I have seen, I am willing to consider the further implications of this approach.

In this interview, Danny and Phil discuss the Associate Induction Hypothesis.

Here are some of the main points I got out of the interview.

5:20 Phil describes the dominate view of the Membrane Pump and idea of cell receptors  that only interact with certain chemicals.  This is the mainstream model of the cell based on a phospholipid bi-layer around the cells and the use of mechanical pumps.

It can be a little difficult to follow without some visuals. Here is a series of videos to help from the Kahn Academy. At 11:20 in this video they present the mechanical pump theory.

10:15 Phil introduces the Living Protoplasm perspective. The idea that the cell is […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:21-07:00January 26th, 2016|Blog, Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on Associate Induction Hypothesis
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Big Changes for the New Year

We have moved to Proctor for the New Year.  

We are starting our New Year  at a new address We are now at 3819 North 27th Street, Tacoma Washington 98407, between Foxfire and the Post Office. A temporary banner sign is up now, until the permanent signs are installed.

In the new space we were able to add 140 square foot of additional green tatami style flooring, but the shape of the space makes it seem even bigger.

Parking for the new space are the spaces 3-10 marked “RESERVED” right in front of our door. Our entrance is at the bottom of the ramp.

Personal Programs AND Group Classes.

In addition to the Defying Gravity Classes on Monday and Wednesday nights at 6:30, keep an eye on the schedule for the traditional Taiso Group Classes to return.

There will be one class on the schedule each night. During that time you will be able to register for either the group class, or your Individual Program.

Weight Loss and Goal Setting.

The old Jeans Challenge weight-loss program and the RESOLUTE Online program have been combined. Now Monday nights at 7pm we will have a “Mind Gym” to help you focus on goals, habits, change and weight loss.

New Years Resolution Support!

To help you get started with your New Years fitness goals we want to help you reinforce the habit of working out. To do this we are offering a 60 day unlimited attendance upgrade to the basic membership. For $60 you get to come in six days a week. Its a great way to combine your personal program and the new group classes!

Eight Week Trial Membership.

If you are new to Taiso we want to give you time to get to know us and figure out if […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:24-07:00January 3rd, 2016|Blog|Comments Off on Big Changes for the New Year
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Beginning Crow

Ready to begin crow? At Taiso Fitness we integrate many forms of training from yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts to TRX, kettlebell, and barbell. The Defying Gravity program is a dynamic body weight based fitness program that progresses like a martial art. As you gain mastery over various yoga, gymnastics, and martial arts inspired movement you earn colored wrist bands similar to martial arts belts. Each band level unlocks a new series of skills.

Crow is a great introduction to hand-balancing. It is a great low-threat way to develop not just the balance for more difficult movements, but also the core strength, shoulder stabilization, and wrist flexibility.

One of the many core strengthening exercises appropriate for this is the TRX tuck. This version has been slightly modified to bring the knees near the elbows to more closely mimic the requirements of crow.

Using down dog and variations including the down dog pushup are good ways to improve shoulder strength and stabilization. In this version we are using the the down dog push up with the feet on a box. This is normally the third variation introduced and may not be appropriate if you are just getting started.

Finally, here is a simple, low-impact wrist flexibility drill. In the video I am working on flexing the wrist. But I am also pressing into the wall to create active resistance which is more beneficial than only doing passive flexibility training.

Taiso Fitness and Nutrition

If you are looking for a shared personal training experience try Taiso Fitness and Nutrition. We are Tacoma’s fitness and nutrition gym for people who want to get out of pain or improve performance, who need immediate, measurable results, and want to make educated decisions to take control of their […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:25-07:00December 7th, 2015|Blog, Defying Gravity|Comments Off on Beginning Crow
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Homo Urbanus Out of Breath

Breath for Fitness in the City

Throughout our blog we already have several resources for the importance of better breathing, as well as ways to achieve it.

So, here I will organize some of that material so you can go more in depth if you have not already read those articles.

To perform a good self-analysis for your breathing start with this article, Respiration Weight Loss and Metabolism. It is an excerpt from our RESOLUTE Weight Loss and Metabolism course. In it we touch on what is proper breathing, common issues we see daily, and how to resolve those issues.

Earlier this year we did a 30 Day Breathing Challenge. The challenge was composed of four videos with three exercises each. The purpose of the exercises was to improve posture, diaphragm control, and to help reduce the number of breaths we take each minute.

One of the ways we measured progress was with the length of our controlled pause. This was how long we could go between needing to take a breath.

Here are the links to the series:

30 Day Breathing Challenge Week One

30 Day Breathing Challenge Week Two

30 Day Breathing Challenge Week Three

30 Day Breathing Challenge Week Four

In our studio we ran the challenge for thirty days and it was so successful that we continued to indefinitely as part of our warmups before our workouts. Many participants saw at least a 50 to 100 percent increase in their controlled pause. This reflected their increased respiratory efficiency.

If you are just getting started with the Homo Urbanus article series we encourage you to start from the beginning and keep you eye out for the rest of the series.

Homo Urbanus is on the Hunt

Homo Urbanus Just […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:27-07:00October 5th, 2015|Blog, breathing, homo urbanus|Comments Off on Homo Urbanus Out of Breath
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“Not” Thinking About Weight Loss and Metabolism

“Not” Thinking About Weight Loss and Metabolism

As already discussed, 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.

Minnesota Starvation Experiment

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 […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:36-07:00September 11th, 2015|Blog, Weight Loss & Metabolism|Comments Off on “Not” Thinking About Weight Loss and Metabolism
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Homo Urbanus Just Hang’in Around

The urban jungle contains many forms of furniture for relaxation and comfortable means of transportation. But life in the urban jungle can be largely sedentary and has few opportunities to hang.

Hanging is foundational to grip and pulling strength. But climbing, hanging, and vertical pulling are seldom a part of modern life. At best we may do a few sets of pull ups at the gym.

As a result of our sitting, driving, and countless hours in front of a desk we see reshaping of the coraco-acromial-ligament and the acromion. In other words, our lifestyles are creating a deformity in our shoulders.

Dr. John Kirsch, founder of the Kirsch Institute for Shoulder Research is an orthopedic surgeon with more than 25 years of experience with frozen shoulders, torn rotator cuffs and impingement syndrome. So whats his cure for relieving pain from the most common shoulder problems?  Hanging from an overhead support.

Five to seven minutes a day of hanging is our goal for healthy shoulders. It may be active hanging like pull ups or swinging, or passive such a basic pronated or neutral grip hang. It does not need to be done all at once.

If you have shoulder pain or a past injury you may need some remedial work before hanging is appropriate.

Taiso Fitness and Nutrition

If you are looking for a shared personal training experience try Taiso Fitness and Nutrition. We are Tacoma’s fitness and nutrition gym for people who want to get out of pain or improve performance, who need immediate, measurable results, and want to make educated decisions to take control of their health.

Shared personal training provides the coaching of a personal trainer with the social support of a bootcamp style class.

Set up a complimentary consultation, or start […]

By |2017-09-06T15:55:39-07:00August 27th, 2015|Blog, homo urbanus|Comments Off on Homo Urbanus Just Hang’in Around
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Homo Urbanus is on the Hunt!

The urban jungle is rich with opportunities to hunt and gather. The local tribes call these areas grocery stores.

But the convenience can be dangerous for Homo Urbanus because the grocery stores contain both and bait.

As we enter the hunting ground we find a variety of food along the periphery. But if we venture into the aisled interior there are many pitfalls to avoid.

High Fructose Corn Syrup. This bait is dangerous to Homo Urbanus and according to Princeton University, studies show there is significantly more weight gain than other sweeteners even when the caloric intake is the same. One of the reasons HFCS is so bad is that it has to be processed by the liver the same as alcohol. Duke University has shown it to be a significant contributor to Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.

Grains. The second bait we want to avoid is over-consumption of grains. Grains in general were key to the evolution of of Homo Sapiens to Homo Urbanus by supplying easy stores of energy to survive winter months and allow occupational specialization. Currently American grains have very few strains and the effects of genetic modification are only now being explored.

However, many people notice that when traveling to Europe they can eat grains without ill effect. So, here is a link to the only source I have found for flour that is both grown and processed in Europe and available in the united States.

L’Epicerie

Taiso Fitness and Nutrition

If you are looking for a shared personal training experience try Taiso Fitness and Nutrition. We are Tacoma’s fitness and nutrition gym for people who want to get out of pain or improve performance, who need immediate, measurable results, and want to make educated decisions to […]

By |2017-10-16T12:17:57-07:00August 20th, 2015|Blog, homo urbanus|Comments Off on Homo Urbanus is on the Hunt!
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DISCLAIMER: Results may vary. Consult your physician before beginning any exercise program.
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