Motivation is purely psychological. If you feel like you need to motivate yourself, then you are not living in congruence with life. A tree does not need motivation to grow to its fullest potential. The only things that will stop it from growing are lack of nutrients and the wrong environmental conditions. If motivation is ever an issue for you, it's a dead giveaway that you either lack nutrition or the right conditions to live and thrive.

Hypertrophy is dependent on many variables so I could not give a blanket answer as to the effect of handstand walks on you without knowing anything about you, your skill level, your strength level, etc. Handstand walking is a skill just like learning how to walk as an infant is a skill. Any movement skill will develop the muscles in order to support the performance of the skill — it will not always result in growth of the size of the muscle. In general, if your goal is hypertrophy (bigger muscles) then there are much easier and more efficient ways to do that than walking on your hands.

Consider that hypertrophy is a natural consequence of many variables, but when you place hypertrophy as a goal it’s like putting the cart before the horse and it will more often than not lead to problems. Take this simplified analogy: a certain type of vehicle may need bigger tires to support the performance capability of the vehicle, conditions of the road, etc. But if you simply go and put monster truck tires on a bicycle you’ll end up with a bicycle that doesn’t work very well, and eventually will break down, due inefficient/poor engineering.

From the perspective of engineering an athletic body, hypertrophy is not a consideration or goal. It’s just a natural consequence and it happens just as it needs to happen. A cheetah isn’t doing sprints to increase leg muscles.

Psychology for sure plays an important role in performance and driving your intent in situations.

But even if your mind and intent are in the right place, the outcome is still limited by your physical capability.

The more you increase your actual capability to respond, naturally your confidence to respond increases. Actually, it's not confidence if you know you have the capability - it's clarity, or certainty.

If you increase confidence without capability, you'll just have conjured up false confidence.

So in our training, we focus on capability first, and have consistently found that more enhanced capability automatically improves psychological performance state.

If you want to train with our approach, and enhance your capability in a well-rounded way - check out athleticengineering.ca/personal-coaching for more information.

In that case, without knowing the individual and just making a general recommendation, I would recommend walking (or lightly running if manageable) BACKWARDS for 5-10 minutes maximum, keeping a continuous rhythm.

If you have access to a backyard/park/track you can do this continuously along a path you map out or you can mark two points 20-50 yards part and go back and forth, always going backwards. For extra benefit if manageable you can drag a sled or sandbag that weighs anywhere from 10% to 50% of your bodyweight (whatever you can handle safely and keep moving continuously with a smooth rhythm). Simply attach some kind of straps so you can stand upright and hold the handles of the straps and drag the weight has you walk backwards smoothly and rhythmically. Breathe naturally.

Lastly if you don’t have the space but you have access to a treadmill, you can use the treadmill with the power OFF, face backwards holding on to the handlebars on the treadmill and walk backwards getting the belt moving continuously. These options provide a safe way to get some cardiovascular conditioning/exercise while ensuring you’re interacting with the ground properly (most people run/walk forwards badly causing damage to the knees/lower back etc over time and to correct the would require some coaching whereas backwards is largely self correcting).

The idea is to feel the legs burning but no joint pain. Once you do this a few times per week (or daily if you can manage and recover well enough) for 5-10 minutes max, and eat properly, excess weight should come down naturally and you can work towards adding the movements in the video as long as you don’t experience any pain in any joints. That’s the best recommendation we can make in an FAQ without knowing/seeing you. Enjoy your training!

Most people think that the primary source of strength is the muscles. This is not true. If you want real strength, the primary source is the sinews - the bands that tie the body together.

Athletes who are experiencing chronic pain, joint degeneration, and common injuries like meniscus tears, ACL tears, rotator cuff issues - most of the time, the damage is to ligaments, tendons, and cartilage.

Even if damage is done to muscles, it will heal more quickly because muscles get a much richer blood supplu than sinews. Sinews take a lot longer to heal.

If you want a really strong body, then take the time to strengthen your sinews.

It is essential for your knee to go passed your toe when you squat. That is how your body is designed. The squat is one of the human body’s resting position. Think about it - the squat is supposed to be for rest/sitting, elimination (i.e. going to the bathroom), and childbirth. It is essential for the knee to go passed the toe line in order to squat properly. In most (if not all) cases of people preaching about the dangers of letting the knee go passed the toe line, they cannot demonstrate a proper, natural, full-depth squat.

Get rid of rules around what the position should look like. Once you know what the position is (picture a baby resting in a squat, or someone gardening at ease), just aim for that. Obviously, if you lack the ability to compress in your hips and knees, and your ankle mobility is non-existent, it’s going to be hard for you to achieve that position. But don’t fear - there are individual things you can do to improve your mobility in order to restore your squat.

Here are three guidelines to know about the squat. Firstly, your weight should be balanced over the midfoot the entire time. It’s common to see people go forward onto the toes when trying to squat. This is something that will aggravate the knees, among other things. Secondly, your knees shouldn’t feel like they are caving inward. Lastly, keep your heels on the ground for the entire squat.

At the end of the day, the squat should be the most natural position for anyone to get into. People say you shouldn’t squat if you have knee pain. Well, maybe you have the knee pain because you haven’t been squatting. Our knees and hips are made for squatting. If you don’t use it, you lose it. But use common sense - to start re-using it, your approach should be gradual, instead of suddenly trying to force yourself into that position by using external weight/load.

You need to gradually re-introduce that position to your body. There are easy ways to re-groove the squat pattern that go outside of this Q&A. If you want help on regaining your squat, stop by our Saturday morning classes at Grand View Hotel, starting at 10:15am. We always work on squatting there, and all are welcome!

Your knees can hurt for many reasons – the most common being misuse or underuse. In fact, you’re like to have bad knees because you aren’t squatting or you’re squatting improperly.

The knee (and entire lower body structure) is designed to compress fully and rest in a deep squat. The squat is the human body’s natural position for sitting and going to the toilet. Every baby squats. Children play in the squat. As we age and start to use things like toilets, chairs, desks; and as we stop being on ground, we stop using the squat. Look at places where the lifestyle is still to squat, like in eastern countries. You’ll see people of all ages cooking, eating, gardening, working, even waiting for the bus comfortably in a squat. So losing the squat position is a consequence of lifestyle and nothing else.

The full squat position is where the back of your upper leg (the hamstring) covers the back of your lower leg (the calf) with heels flat on the ground and a torso comfortably upright. If your knees and lower body have lost this mobility due to years of neglect, it could be painful (and inconceivable) to get into a full squat.

Luckily, there are a few potent, tried-and-true ways to restore this mobility. The best one is for you to start squatting every day. The 30-day squat challenge is the most bang-for-your-buck way to make a huge difference in your squat mobility. All you need to do is accumulate 30 minutes in the squat position each day for 30 days. The key is to accumulate – so try setting a timer for 1-2 minutes spread across the day, adding up to 30 minutes. If it isn’t comfortable, you can try elevating your heels by placing one (or 2) books under the heels, then once you feel comfortable, reducing the elevation until your heels are on the ground.

If you’re looking for help, check out our blog and our YouTube channel for free resources to get yourself started.

When we think of increasing flexibility, we tend to think of ‘stretching’ muscles. But muscles don’t respond well to being forcefully stretched. Stretching can be time consuming, can weaken muscles, and can increase risk of injury.

Flexibility is a function of mobile joints, elastic tendons/ligaments, and relaxed, supple muscles. Lack of movement in modern lifestyles breeds inflexibility. For example, overuse of chairs, or wearing shoes that impede natural foot/ankle function instead of ones that let your feet function naturally, makes the average person unable to rest in a natural deep squat. Even of those who can squat, many are still not at ‘rest’ in the position, which is how it should feel. To function at our best, we need to be strong AND flexible. So how do we become more flexible? It’s a big topic and the approach should be individualized. Instead of specific methods or exercises, here are three principles of safe and effective flexibility training. First, focus on the joints, not muscles. Move them in their full range of motion with control and refinement, letting the muscles contract and relax automatically. Our Joint Prep membership at The Strength Cave gives access to classes solely focussed on joint preparation and muscle health.

Secondly, don’t push through pain. Remember this new saying: no pain, all gain. While discomfort is fine, you should never train through pain, especially with flexibility training - pain is likely causing damage. Thirdly, work at maximum range. Find ways to creatively challenge end ranges of motion. For instance, to improve leg flexibility, try tapping progressively higher points on a wall with your foot. Keep the focus on movement rather than stretching or pulling the muscle.

Remember that flexibility without strength is dangerous. Avoid developing lax ligaments and too much flexibility without enough strength to support your bodyweight and to control the range of motion. Strength and flexibility compliment each other when trained properly. Only a body that is both strong and flexible will truly work at its best.

Lastly, smile! A grimace indicates you’re working against your body, not with it. Working to enhance your physical capability should be a joyful process, not a miserable one!

Balance is how well you can work with gravity. If you’re walking around, you’re balancing. Think of an infant learning to walk - it takes them a while to figure out how to balance on two feet. If you can walk around with ease, they think you’ve mastered some great feat.

You have three centers of balance in your body - your head, your chest/rib cage, and your pelvis. They all work together and counterbalance each other and maintain total balance of your body. So walking is just happening because you’ve figured out the right alignment of your head, ribcage, and pelvis to work with gravity in order to stay upright and move and you have a stable enough structure to stand and walk.

The other hand to balance is stability - the structural integrity required to maintain a position. Set a timer for 1 minute and stand on one leg. You might notice your lower leg and foot start to fatigue. So to improve balance in that position, all you need to do is strengthen and improve the integrity of the lower leg. This is as simple as it gets. Sometimes gyms, physical practitioners, and other wellness enthusiasts will claim you need certain tools or gimmicks to improve balance. It simply isn’t true, all you need is your body and the ground.

Another aspect you can work on is proprioception, in other words, your ability to perceive your own body’s orientation in space. Movements like rolling, cartwheels, flipping, or even simple inverting (e.g. going upside down like in a headstand) require more proprioception, because your body goes into unfamiliar orientation.

In reality, your body is constantly moving and finding balance, even if you cannot perceive it. Your organs, are not fixed, your cells are not fixed - they are in a constant state of balancing and finding a way to be at ease while working with gravity. So the same goes for your body as a whole. Getting more balanced is more a case of working towards geometric balance. This is the aim of yoga, to perfect your geometric alignment. You figured out how to align your structure to walk around. Now, you just need to figure out how to align your structure to feel a higher level of balance.

We know obesity is getting worse. But what is at the root of obesity? Obesity means you do not know how to convert wealth into well-being. It means your wealth becomes a huge weight that you carry around like a burden. This is not to chastise or shame obese people, at least see obesity for what it is. You cannot properly address a problem if you can’t see it the way it is.

Obesity has nothing to do with greed. Greed is relative. A person on foot can think a person with a bike is greedy, who can think a person with a car is greedy, who can think a person with a private jet is greedy. Wealth is not a sin; but do you have the capability to use your wealth for well-being, or has your wealth become your own suffering? If you have built up huge muscles for show and in the process destroyed your joints, spine, and ability to move properly, then you too are 'obese'. The only question is, can you turn whatever you have into well-being, or do you carry what you have around like a weight because you don't know how to convert it into your well-being?

Some might say there are obese people living in poverty, so it's wrong to assume obesity means wealth is present. Well poverty is also relative, just like greed is relative. If you have enough food to become obese, then you are not starving. A truly starving person can never be obese. You can be nutritionally starved if you're eating/drinking nutritionally deficient calories in excess, but you are not starved.

Obesity does not come about because of lack of exercise, so exercise is not the solution. Places that try to sell exercise as a solution to obesity are either heartlessly trying to profit on people’s ignorance or they are misinformed and don’t know what they are doing. Trying to exercise away obesity is likely to cause serious injury because there is already an excessive amount of load on the physical structure. Instead, focus on inner well-being first, and not the outer shell. You don't need some idiot giving you a diet plan or yelling at you to exercise. If what is inside is a problem, then what manifests itself outside will always become a problem.

This question typically comes for one of two reasons. The first reason is purely aesthetic - trying to put on more muscle just to look a certain way. The second is perhaps more functional - trying to put on more muscle with the assumption that more muscle is needed to perform better in a sport or other life activity, or perhaps with the assumption that more muscle will improve general physical fitness or longevity.

If it’s the first reason, purely aesthetic, then maybe ask yourself why there is this need in the first place. Is this what you really want for yourself or are you copying what you see somewhere? Do you somehow think that bigger muscles will make you a bigger person? This shallow and short-sighted thinking is very limited. There’s nothing wrong, per se, with being limited, but will hold you back and will not lead you to becoming the fullest life that you’re capable of. We recommend you at least take an honest look at why you think you need to put on muscle just for the look of it. Why limit yourself to such a small and surface level pursuit when the life that you are is much deeper and capable of much more than that.

If it’s the second reason, then the question is perhaps just a bit misguided. Maybe you do need more muscle in order to perform better physically at something, but the pursuit of muscle is not the right approach. How much muscle you need and how much you have should be a natural consequence of how you use your body. No animal in the jungle is trying to build bigger muscles in certain areas to hunt better, to run better, to climb better, or to do anything better. Instead, if you take up a proper movement development approach and natural strength development approach, you will naturally build the right amount of muscle and it will be balanced to support your movement properly. Trying to build up isolated muscle groups is like reverse-engineering the body - it doesn’t work well in terms of enhancing performance and capability.

For a deeper, more inclusive, skill-building, life-enhancing approach to fitness, strength, and movement development that will help you put on the right amount and type of muscle (there isn’t just one type!), in the right places, come and see how you can move and train with us. We offer personalized programs. More people are starting to realize the limitations of mainstream ways of exercising and working out. And that’s a very good thing. Break the status quo. Don’t settle for less than what you are. Move. Play. Grow. Learn from nature. Live better.

The most important thing as an athlete is commitment, to both your sport and yourself. If your goal is to reach high levels of performance and physical achievement, you need to realize that you likely will not get there with a part-time commitment.

A largely misunderstood aspect of athletic development is sports-specific training. Upcoming athletes should not follow the path of set by the last few decades of North American and European athletes, where overspecialization is the focus of all training, particularly in early ages. The repercussions of too much sports-specific training are only now surfacing, and the world is seeing athletes who are supposed to be in their prime suffering from debilitating, career-ending injuries, those which would have rarely been seen so early (if ever) in an athlete’s career 20 to 30 years ago.

One of the key reasons for why this injury epidemic exists is because modern lifestyle weakens the human body, and young people are less and less exposed to elements that help build a strong body. Joints deprived of natural movement and cells deprived of proper and natural nutrition, results of adopting a lifestyle of convenience, contribute to weakness in the structure. When you start sports-specific training without re-engineering the body to handle the physical demands of a sport, it is a question of when and not if an injury is on the horizon.

Sport-specific training will prepare you for the technical aspects of a game or event, but of equal importance is how you cultivate a healthy body and mind. You need to prioritize achieving peak physical health if you have an aspiration to compete at an international level. This means all of your free time should be devoted to training, recovery, nutrition, and physical preparation. Leave the liming, drinking, and smoking for people who don’t have the commitment to be an athlete.

Once you have the bases covered on athletic preparation and sports-specific requirements, then you will be well-positioned to enhance your athletic creativity and style. What separates great athletes like Muhammad Ali and Michael Jordan from other high-performing peers is their next-level creativity, improvisation, and full involvement in their sport.

Distinguishing the type of soreness you’re experiencing is critical. If the type of soreness you’re experiencing is not painful, and instead only a noticeable feeling that you’ve worked an area of your body, this is normal and to be expected within 24-48 hours after physical activity, depending on the intensity and novelty of the movement. The best thing to do is move whatever is sore in very high volumes at a very low intensity, ideally extremely regularly until the soreness is taken care of. Using the upper body as an example, perform up to 500 loose, light, circular swings of the arms throughout the day to improve circulation to the area and loosen any tightness.

If you are feeling achy, dull, aggravated, or sharp pain in an area of your body during or after exercise, this is a screaming indicator you are doing something to hinder your body and not help it. Like a headache, pain throughout the musculoskeletal system says you’ve been exposed to some kind of physical stress that doesn’t go well with your structure. Unsymmetrical pain (e.g. the left side of your back hurts, yet you feel nothing on the right side), or pain at the joint (e.g. knees, shoulders, wrists) are particular warning signs that something you are doing or the way you are doing it is not good for you and will likely lead to an injury.

We’ve regularly hear from athletes that they are feeling extremely sore and fatigued after training weights – something they are doing to try to improve their physical ability and sport performance! As an athlete, if you are going to put extra effort into training yourself aside from sports-specific training (which is a must to be truly competitive), it is paramount that you do the right thing for yourself. Sports puts significant demand on the body, and in order to sustain performance while ensuring longevity for you as an athlete, doing the right thing includes training for structural balance, joint health, integrated strength, and coordination.

We offer athletic assessments, consulting, and individual training for both athletes and fitness enthusiasts online. Apply now at https://athleticengineering.ca/apply

If there is a most important part of the body it would be the spine, an extension of the central nervous system (CNS) which includes the spinal cord and the brain. Everything else in the body stems out from the spine.

In a fitness context, people usually categorize the body into different muscle groups, but that is a flawed approach which leads to training the body parts as isolated muscle groups. This trains you to rely on muscle dominant movement patterns instead of using the whole body as a system through which spinal dynamics and coordination are fundamental. We’ve trained many athletes who were unable to express maximal strength and power simply because they were too muscle dominant and didn’t understand how to use spinal dynamics and harmonious body coordination to move effortlessly and explosively.

Body coordination stems from the spine. If your spine is flexible and you understand how to move from the spine, the limbs will work properly. The limbs are just an extension of the spine. Problems occur when your spine is rigid and you become accustomed to using the limbs to create leverage. That is how the majority of “fitness people” have been groomed to move, as a result of the way exercise machines and common exercise routines limit movement complexity and gradually “dumb” the body down.

The human body is the most sophisticated machine on the planet. Muscle development should be a natural consequence of a proper movement development process, one that is rich is diverse, complex, natural movement which forces you to move the spine. Everyday should be ‘spine day’ whether you’re training at the gym, the beach, the park, or at home.

No matter what, make sure that every day you are moving your spine. Remember, you’re as old as your spine! Check out our YouTube channel (youtube.com/athleticengineering); we have a number of daily routines and follow-along classes for spinal stretching, spinal health, and exercises to improve practical flexibility in the spine.

How do you know if you are fit? If you can run a marathon, are you fit? What if you can carry 400 pounds of weight in your back? If you have a “six pack” are you fit? If you’re slim are you fit?

To be fit simply means that your body is not an obstacle in your life. Whatever you want to do in your life, if your body is not the issue, then you can say you’re fit. Most people cannot even sit on the ground anymore or sit on the ground and get back up without struggle, because the ankles are too stiff, the knees hurt, or the hips are weak and tight. If your own body is in your way, you are not fit.

We buy in to the comforts and conveniences of modern life, and then expect to make it up with a few hours per week of exercise. It doesn’t work like that. A basic level of fitness should be the default. You should be able to climb a tree, sprint to catch a bus (or to escape a dangerous situation), squat to rest without needing a chair, throw a ball, and carry a child up a hill. Regardless if you want to participate in recreational or competitive activity, you should still be fit enough that your own body is not an issue in day-to-day life, and you are not overly reliant on modern technologies to survive and be comfortable.

Above all, fitness is a certain “aliveness.” It’s kind of buoyancy and lightness where you can just enjoy living in your body. When you’re driving your car, it creaks, feels like it will break down, then you will be constantly worried about its condition. Fitness means your body is engineered so well that it’s not even an issue... just a joy to drive!

Gym machines, boot camp classes, and other mainstream fitness activities will not engineer your body to work the way you really want. Nothing wrong with those things if you truly enjoy them, but they are not needed for fitness.

A part of what we do through Athletic Engineering is to try to inspire people to reconsider what it really means to be fit, while of course offering guidance and support to find true fitness. Re-think fitness. Become young again.