I is for Injury

"Are you injured or are you hurt?" is a popular line from football coaches everywhere.

The main difference is that one stops you from being able to effectively perform the task at hand, while the other is just  an unpleasant feeling that can be overcome with mental toughness or compensatory strategies.

As a physical therapist, most people dont seek me out until they are injured. They can no longer accomplish the things they want to do in life and want to return to being productive or active. If only they would come see me before they were injured, or even hurt. We can prevent these injuries from happening. We have screening tools and know the likely culprits that result in injury.

The main thing that attracted me to CrossFit was the methodology that combines functional fitness with promoting lifelong health. Is health simply the absence of disease? Or is health the ability to carry out any task that life demands? I hope we know the right answer by now.

Injuries are the worst. They cost money and are mentally draining. We can manage or recover from very extreme injuries but I always ask how can we avoid them altogether.

People should see their dentist twice a year to check their teeth. They should also see their musculoskeletal specialist to ensure the rest of the body is not heading in a bad direction!

Back to my usual advice:
Drink plenty of water
Eat real food
Move your body as much as you can
Get a musculoskeletal screening from a trained professional at least once a year and discuss all your imbalances, aches and pains
Be merry :)

H is for Hello Dubai

While I am going through mixed emotions during this transition, excitement for what's to come is certainly at the top of that mix.

When RhinoCo brought this idea to me a while back it sounded very exciting but I'll admit I knew very little about Dubai. Since then I have visited one time and done extensive research and networking.

So far what I know is the ex-pat community is extensive and almost as diverse as New York City. The locals are most hospitable and so far have been super nice folks as well as very pleasant to interact with. The entire culture seems to be changing day by day while the values of the UAE stay strong in their roots in guidance of these changes.

I am told the very hot summers will require a bit of time to adjust to, if one can ever truly adjust to such heat. But my mission is clear: establish a fitness community at CrossFit Gold Box that will bring forth the RhinoCo way and my own special set of values in enriching the lives of everyone who chooses to walk through our doors.

May 4 is coming quickly and while I am cherishing each day in NYC, I can't wait to get rocking and rolling in the Middle East.

G is for Goodbye NYC

It is with very mixed emotions that I announce I am moving to Dubai to run CrossFit Gold Box with RhinoCo on Star Wars day (May the fourth be with you).

This is a project a long time in the making and I am very excited about the prospects of affecting the fitness of a nation with one of the highest rates of obesity in the world.

It is with a heavy heart that I am leaving the city and people that I love so much in New York. I figure if things don’t work out I can always come back :)

I am trying to sell as much of my stuff as I can and will put up some separate posts on that. I am hoping to blog more about the journey that is coming my way. If you are in NYC before my departure I would love to see you so send me a message to coordinate. I am also hoping to have a small gathering to have another reason to drink :)

F This! (Foundation)

Would you start fixing a 30 story building on the 15th floor? Or would you first want to make sure the basement, ground floor and the rest of the support structures are well in place?

In relation to the human body we see medical practitioners often trying to attack the location of pain, but often times they miss the cause of the pain. My buddy, Dr. Perry Nickeltson, has a great brand called "Stop Chasing Pain" and a huge portion of that has to do with making sure the feet (the truest foundation of our bodies) are working properly. KStarr in his latest book, Ready to Run, discusses ensuring those same feet are prepared and built up to handle the load that running is on the body.

When CrossFit comes up with some folks, I hear "I want to get in shape first before I try it." I theorize this has to do with the mildly intimidating factor of seeing the fittest on earth on ESPN and thinking they will be doing the same thing. In reality, they are doing the same thing - only modified. CrossFit is universally scalable so that 5 year old children, 85 year old grandmas and the fittest man on earth are all doing the same workout, with some minor modifications. A classic CF workout by the name of "Cindy" is 20 minutes of work to get as many rounds and reps as possible of 5 pushups, 10 pull-ups and 15 air squats. For the 5 year old child those pushups may have to be on the knees, the pull-ups would likely turn to ring rows or another version of pulling. While for babushka (grandma in Russian) the pushups may be against a wall, pull-ups would be more in a horizontal lane to minimize the effects of gravity and air squats may be sit to stand from a chair (we also may cut it down from 20 minutes to 5 depending on her level of conditioning).

We are always working to build a foundation or strengthen it further. The trouble becomes when we ignore the feet or attempt advanced skills that the foundation has not been built for. We also see this a lot in CrossFit when people try muscle ups but don't have enough pulling and pushing strength (strict pull-ups and ring dips) thus putting a decent amount of strain on the shoulders. Furthermore, if the entirety of the shoulder complex is not firing and engaged or the same for the "core" muscles, compensations happen.

My goal as a physio+fitness trainer is to make sure you don't rush, to make sure you learn to fire all the right muscles at the right times. I love the template of teaching moves that follows this progression:
Position
Motion
Speed
Resistance

Make sure you have enough mobility to get in the full range of motion of that move.
Understand the path your body is taking in the entirety of the move.
Add some speed to see if we can coordinate everything and start to train the beginning of power.
Finally, add and build resistance to it to get #gainzz

Without a strong foundation, your building will collapse. And without a centered foundation, you can stay upright for a long time, but you probably won't be functioning very properly...

E- Evidence (Based Practice)

Evidence based fitness...

The model of EBP brought to us by Sackett shows a three part series including 

1) research, studies etc

2) clinician experience

3) patient expectations 

Big takeaways from this include:

In choosing what is the best path, try to encompass all three of these elements.

Unfortunately, the field of research is far from perfect and relying on what studies show can be quite a boondoggle. Going off on the flaws of research studies and worse how they are reported would certainly take me over my 5 minute rule. Just because they are flawed does not mean we can ignore them of course, we must be in constant learning mode as well as critical analysis mode of the research that comes our way.

If you are a practitioner be sure to remember all three of these pieces, especially the patient expectations! Often times at least one or two of these elements gets quickly overlooked. Like the absolute lack of high quality research to support that dietary cholesterol intake increases cholesterol readings... Oy vey

I will leave you with this thought: in the pursuit of lifelong learning we must be open to the possibility that what we were taught in school is blatantly wrong. We must be willing to change and intelligently discuss the best practice method. This is why medical professionals "practice"- to constantly learn and get better. If you stop learning you are more than likely missing some vital information that could improve the quality of everyone you interact with.

"The more I learn, the more I realize I don't know." 

-every smart person ever

D - Diet

A diet is not something you try out for a few weeks to see if you lose weight. A diet needs to be a set of principles based around food.
It is how we eat and why we eat.

Some people take their approach to eating very seriously - I have seen "extremist" vegans and paleos and many in between.

Ultimately, I think we need to adopt a common sense approach to "diet"
How did that meal make you A) look B) feel and C) perform
A little bloated from that order of general Tso's chicken last night? Maybe not the best food choice. Or maybe it was something else - this is rarely super straight forward until you start to really gain control of this self-experiment that is diet. Track your food intake and outcomes. Eliminate certain things that may bother you (Paleo diet says grains, legumes and dairy are difficult to digest for most humans - eliminate them for 30 days and then re-introduce one at a time to see what effect it has on your body).

I look at food a few ways...
1) How beneficial is it vs. how harmful is it?
- a food like oysters has many nutrients that are hard to get from other sources and little negatives unless they are high in metallic content which seems rare from research studies and biochemists.
- a food like quinoa has many exciting benefits the media loves reporting on, but I do not trust it. In listening to biochemists (the guys who really understand the effect these foods have on our body), quinoa is a saponifier, meaning it may cause little holes in our digestive system... without going too far down the rabbit hole let's just say I generally avoid it as the benefits do not seem to be overwhelming.

2) How fresh is it? Furthermore, how well sourced is it (wild caught, grass fed/finished, pasture raised). This isn't always easy to determine or read through the lines or even find (living in NYC - although there are a ton of great options). One has to get good at reading labels (or eating things with no labels :) and the more you know the easier these decisions should become.

Be careful what you listen to when it comes to food. There is a lot of bad information out there. The whole low fat, heavy on the "hearthealthywholegrains", cholesterol is bad for you, eggs are dangerous... so many myths out there - I will have to delve deeper on these in an upcoming post. Start reading and making up your own mind.

C - Change OR Catalyst

C is obviously for Cookie and that’s good enough for me

But for today, C will be for Change AND Catalyst

What does it take to make a change?

A major component in the art of teaching is figuring out what will get through to someone to imbed that desired change. People may be better with visual learning, tactile, auditory or combinations of these. A lot depends on what it is we are trying to teach.

We can also get into classical conditioning models to modify behavior, negative or positive reinforcement can be great tools. For instance at CrossFit Union Square, I use "punishment," when I catch anyone in "sexy pose" or with their arms crossed they have to do one burpee in front of everyone. My rationale here is to help improve peoples postures and imbalances. This strategy seems to have mild to moderate success in my presence as there are few repeat offenders.

"Sexy pose"

What about those new years goals most people set?

How do we improve our chances of making that change and following up?

What motivates people?

What I offered you $500 if you achieve your goal? Or you have to pay me $500 if you don't achieve it? Or we can escalate it to say your best friend will die if you do not add 50 pounds to your back squat in 6 months - would that change your behavior? Would you start squatting everyday? Why don't you do the same action to accomplish your goals without that threat.

This is a main reason with my one on one clients I always do a values assessment. Understanding what matters to someone helps us understand their motivation. This is how changes can be made.

This is a fascinating subject to me that could be turned into many books and I had trouble sticking to my 5 minute rule on this one. But what motivates you? Is it awesome quotes on instagram? Is it this post :)?

"Get busy living, or get busy dying" -bonus points if you name that very popular movie :)

B - BoFit

This one is cheating a little - all about me :)

FYI, the nickname comes from my last name "Babenko" - it was BoBo in high school then became the much more mature "Bo" when I got to college.

For some of my certifications you can see them here:
LinkedIn
OR
CF Union Square

Many updates need to be made on these but should give you some idea of who I am.

My passion is for functional fitness and lifelong health of my clients. This includes a focus on sleep, nutrition and exercise. A huge part of my approach includes identifying imbalances immediately via my full body assessments to avoid future issues.

I offer Physical Therapy services in NYC and believe it or not via Skype (consulting on exercise or injuries and/or prevention). A huge passion of mine is designing personalized programming for people seeking fitness goals.

Please do not hesitate to contact me if you are interested in getting yourself to the next level. I am here to help.

This one will be short but much more to come.

A - Aging

There is no such thing as "aging" - it is nothing more than accumulated damage.
Each day that passes, we do in fact add a chronological number to our "age" but our bodies have to balance out the amount of damage done to the amount of recovery we do.
The "cure for aging" would then be to figure out every single damage that is done to us daily from exposure to toxins to the act of working out (muscle breakdown) and how to counterbalance that with things like "antioxidants" or simply "ungluing the tight tissues" that result from sitting at a desk typing all day.

"We do not slow down as we age; we age because we slow down"
Motion is lotion! Our joints would agree, tight joints that don't see their full expression of range of motion are the ones that usually have arthritis. As a PT I see many OsteoArthritis cases of the hips, knees and spine, joints that we tend to stop stretching through a full range of motion around the age of 6 or so... yay chairs and sedentary lifestyles.

Sleep is crucial in the act of recovery. We release so many healing hormones with deeper and longer sleep, including Human Growth Hormone - invariably steroids - sleep better and you get free natural steroids and can live forever :)

We need to figure out a ratio of work to recovery. Working out hard may require a 1:1 amount of recovery, sitting at a desk all day may require 20 minutes of recovery for the full 8 hours of sitting - we can play with the math on all this but the point should be driven home. We can also try to control the damages that come our way (the idea behind the Paleo diet aka an anti-inflammatory diet - eliminate grains, legumes and dairy because they cause us damage that does not outweigh the nutritional benefit).

So after you are done seizing the day, be sure to seize the recovery and you may find yourself living a lot longer and happier life :)

Alpha Post

In congruence with my #3KaDay goal to row 1 million meters this year (which you can follow along at my training blog) I am beginning a first round of alphabet based blogging. As a fan of Sesame Street growing up and have a very structure driven mind, I plan to do a post for each letter of the alphabet with each day that passes (give or take).

My goal is to spend no more than 5 minutes writing each post as a trickle down effect to you, the reader, not having to spend too much time reading them. I am allowing myself an additional 5 minutes a day for fact checking, research and editing.

Suggestions and feedback are always welcomed.
Let's move :)