During my 16th year of organized hockey, I was beaten down mentally and emotionally more than physically. I didn’t find or express the same joy I had when I started the game. At the beginning, I was playing with friends, we all had fun, and feeling safe was never a question. Nearing the end, the focus became a competition, and safety blurred into fear and anxiety. Though I didn’t have the words then, I knew that a sport that once brought me nothing but peace and joy was no longer fun. When an athlete’s organized sporting life is over, it’s not uncommon to question your identity: if I’m not a [BLANK] player, who am I?

The first time I stepped on the ice with the Write-Offs dates back to 2006, as I was navigating this existential question. It’s hard to believe that I’ve shared the ice with Jim and the Write Off family almost every week for close to 16 years now, easily over 700 games. Typing that number surprises me; it’s hard to believe how quickly time flies! But, I guess that’s what happens when you’re having fun, and I’m grateful I found that again.

Growing up, I would often hear the saying, “you never know how valuable time is until it’s gone.” There are many areas of life where I experienced this, but Thursday Night Hockey was never one of them. It was there that I found peace and quiet within myself, which allowed me to participate and be present with those I played with fully. I knew how valuable Thursday Nights were, and as time continued to fly and my skates slowed down, I could see it even more vividly. I see Jim sneak up beside the net ready for a pass. I pass, and whatever happens next doesn’t matter because the point isn’t the point. The point is found when you can see your teammates.

My gut tells me Jim understood this, and beyond my gut, the evidence through his actions was crystal clear. Jim lived the quote on my friend Matt’s gym wall: “simple things done savagely well.” He was always the first at the arena, ensuring the dressing rooms were ready, water bottles filled, etc. At first glance, this may not seem like rocket science, but try doing this for over 50 years while radiating a sense of peace and joy.

Thursday night evolved from playing hockey to spending time with family. It surpassed the mundane mechanics of the game, and brought to life the spirit of the game. I find it difficult to define “spirit of the game” with words alone, because it’s an experience that requires your presence and participation. I remember asking Jim what his secret was to playing as long as he has, and he responded with two words: show up.

I remember losing my grandfather in September 2017. Our family had arranged a viewing on Thursday, so I missed hockey that week. I was standing at the front of the viewing room when I looked up and saw Jim in a full suit making his way towards me. I didn’t tell anyone from Thursday night hockey about my grandfather, but Jim found out in his own way, and he showed up.

Jim’s 50+ year on-ice relationship with hockey was the same secret behind his successful relationship with friends: he shows up. Many times I feel I need to do more than show up, I need to [fill in the blank], but what I’ve learned from watching Jim is that showing up positions us to react to people’s needs as opposed to our perceived needs. Showing up is truly a time-saver, a time savor-er.

One month after my grandfather’s funeral, my uncle Ted, who played many significant roles in my life, passed away. Around the same time, I was in the middle of contract negotiations for a new position, and Ted was always my go-to for these things. I remember thinking who I knew that I could trust to guide me, and Jim came to mind. At this point in time, I’d been playing hockey with Jim for 11 years, I had no idea what he did professionally, but I did know he was an honest man who respected time and his teammates.

We met at Tim Horton’s before our game. We sat there, and I talked, talked, and talked some more. He listened. I asked him how I should approach the financial discussion. I had a number in mind, and I shared it with him. I asked how he’d go about the negotiations. His response was simple, clear, and sensible: “Ask your boss what they are comfortable with.”

Interview with Jim Dadson

Nearing the end of 2021, Jim called me and gave me a heads up that he would be hanging up the skates for personal reasons at 79. The news hit me hard, but before the sadness could take over the mood of the conversation, he said, “Georges, this is the privilege of getting older.”

Georges: “Jim, what’s the secret of playing the game of hockey as long as you have?”

Jim: “Keep showing up.”

Georges: “How do you suggest I approach financial negotiations?”

Jim: “Ask what your hiring boss is comfortable with.”

Georges: “Jim, I’m really sad to hear this news. Are you sure there isn’t anything else that can be done….”

Jim: “This is the privilege of getting older.”

Jim’s lessons have continued to pay dividends. My main goal when it comes down to hockey is to show up, and that alone has paid off in more ways than I can mention. His advice around financial negotiations paid off too, literally! I received a higher split than the one I was preparing to negotiate for. And finally, Jim’s view of aging through the lens of privilege leaves me with hope.

Off the ice, Jim currently serves as the president and chair of the Deaf-Blind Ontario Foundation. After listening to his stories, I realized the most important lesson: hope can be found in our deepest challenge. Sometimes it requires us to slow down, look up, see our teammates or neighbors, and know we’re never alone.

To all the coaches, parents, and people working with the next generation, sport is bigger than a game, a score, or any other KPI. If our young ones are having fun and smiling through the wins and losses, then we’re living our calling.

How often have you seen a coach or personal trainer bellowing such commands to an athlete/client as they attempt a heavy lift? Probably too many times to count.

The idea of “breathing and bracing” gets thrown around a lot in training, but to truly understand the term and its importance to athletic performance, we need to unpack it.

The relationship between breathing and bracing isn’t as simple as we might like.

The core or brace strategy you use while running will not be similar to the brace or core strategy you use while lifting a heavy weight off the floor. Simply put, they require different approaches.

Have you ever tried taking a deep breath in, holding it, squeezing all your muscles, and then attempting to run a mile? I’d imagine it’d be very difficult to move. Have you ever seen a powerlifter walking up to his or her one-rep max and breathe like they’re out for a light jog as they attempt to execute the lift? No, because again, this would be very difficult and inefficient.

Or when Serena Williams returns a serve, or a martial artist kicks a heavy bag—have you heard the noise that comes out of their mouth upon contact? What’s their approach to breathing and bracing?

Based on these three examples, we have a basic understanding that breathing and bracing comes in many different flavors.

What about sports like hockey, football, lacrosse, baseball, etc.? Picture a hockey player skating up to the ice, his opponent lining him up for a big hit. This player is left with a decision: Does he brace for impact or blow past him? The core (bracing or tension) strategies are very different. This isn’t simply limited to bracing for impact. What about changing direction on the ice, or preparing to connect with a one-timer?

The fundamental questions to answer on breathing and bracing are:

1. Are you able to hold your breath and brace for stability?
2. Are you able to breathe while bracing for stability?
3. Are you able to mix and match these two abilities on the fly in response to your unique athletic environment?

What’s the message?

It’s not as simple as yelling “brace.”

When someone is learning how to drive, you don’t just instruct them to floor it.

The pressure you place on the gas pedal should be influenced by your ability level, the speed limit and how quickly you need to get somewhere. The pedal-to-the-metal mentality might be acceptable on the Autobahn or the race track, but in a school zone when kids are out, the limit is 20 mph.

What does this have to do with bracing?

Simple. Your brace also differs based on the task at hand. Picking a heavy barbell up off the ground requires you to tense your muscles to a greater extent and probably momentarily hold your breath. This helps you bend at the hips and knees to pull the bar off the floor as opposed to your spine being bent by the load and you yourself being pulled toward the floor.

But if the goal at hand is to run as fast as you can, holding your breath and generating a maximal brace won’t do you much good.

Bracing is not an absolute. Its duration, implementation and intensity varies depending on the person, the task, etc.

What about breathing?

Breathing can be used to further enhance stability during high-tension tasks, such as picking up a barbell or elderly person off the floor. It can also be used to assist folks who need to run a mile to catch the train because their phone died, and Uber is no longer an option! This task would fall under a lower-tension task and will not require the same approach.

Breathing and bracing work together along a spectrum. However, due to the rise in popularity of different mediums such as Youtube, blogs and Instagram, there seems to be a trend leaning toward opposite extremes with little appreciation for the in-between. The only absolute in my opinion is that if you are unable to breathe, you’re dead.

The relationship between breathing and bracing when it comes to movement, lifestyle and sports performance is not black and white. A wise mentor of mine, Dr. Murphy, once said to me something along the lines of, “if the grey areas in life make you uncomfortable, roll up your sleeves and learn to get uncomfortable, or simply get out of the way.”

Now let’s return to the question I posed above. Are we able to truly train our ability to both brace and breathe? To divorce our diaphragm from our “core” muscles?

In hockey, you can be as strong and as muscular as an ox, but that first practice after a long offseason, regardless of how much weight you can lift, you will feel it in your lungs! You’ll be fast, but you may struggle with endurance.

Beyond that, there will be times you’re skating hard, bracing for a hit or getting ready to rip a shot while balancing on one skate. All these examples require different bracing strategies and different levels of tension; however, if these are never exercised, the likelihood of them happening organically is low.

When it comes to training, anyone can play “copycat”—watch a video and copy an exercise. But there’s an art and a nuance to breathing and bracing.

Two people can attempt to perform the exact same movement but have two completely different results based on the relationship between bracing and breathing they’re employing. There isn’t much room for passively copying an exercise when it comes to conditioning and training your core: you have to understand and train that relationship.

Below is an example of one exercise, a Pallof Hold, and how four different breathing strategies impact torso (“core”) stability during this movement. See if you can spot (and hear) the differences:

I explore these and other insights about the diaphragm, breathing, performance and bracing in much more detail in my original research study, which can be found here.

Photo Credit: Ridofranz/iStock

READ MORE:

• Use Belly Breathing to Recover Faster
• Breathing Exercises to Strengthen Your Lifts
• How to Breathe While Running

The Burpee is one of the most controversial movements in fitness. Some have even dubbed it “The World’s Worst Exercise.” It was invented in the 1930s by a physiologist named Royal Huddleston Burpee. Burpee needed a way to assess the fitness of non-active adults for his Ph.D. thesis at Columbia University, so he utilized a four-part move he deemed the “Squat Thrust.” It consisted of, in sequence:

• Squatting down and placing your hands on the ground
• Jumping your feet back to assume a Plank position
• Jumping your feet forward to return to position one
• Standing back up out of the squat

Royal H. Burpee made his participants perform only four “Squat Thrusts” at a time, and he specifically warned against unfit individuals performing the exercise for high repetitions, as a lack of core strength could lead to knee and back pain.

His methodology was to measure heart rate before, during and after those four reps. It was a simple, inexpensive way to quickly assess someone’s cardiovascular capacity. Over time, the movement was adopted as a fitness test by the U.S. Military and came to be known simply as the “Burpee.” In the decades since, doing a ridiculous number of Burpees in a short span has become normalized, and the inventor’s original standard for form has been largely forgotten.

What was once a fitness test is now mostly used as fitness torture. It isn’t revolutionary to say that repeating a movement over and over again despite pain and fatigue isn’t the wisest thing you can do. Abusing any movement is a bad idea, and Burpees are one of the most abused movements in existence. The original Burpee is now commonly called a “Half Burpee,” while a move that often leads people to flail themselves onto the ground and jump between each rep is deemed the real Burpee.

However, I think the validity of Burpees all comes down to programming. If you’re programming high repetitions in a competitive environment (like CrossFit), the odds that form will degrade and pain will occur increases exponentially. But done for a more manageable number of repetitions at a smooth (but not rushed) pace, the exercise becomes a much safer full-body movement that can build upper-body and core strength and get your heart rate up–even if you do touch your chest to the ground:

The Burpee is a multifaceted movement that should have multiple transitional points. One major issue people run into is one they think of the Burpee as one movement and simply look to get themselves on the ground and then up off their feet into the air as quickly as possible with no regards for what happens in between. I believe owning the following movements is the key to owning the Burpee:

• Squat
• Quad Hover Walk Out
• Tall Plank
• Push-Up

If you’re not able to perform any of those movements correctly or your transitions between them are sloppy even when done at a slow pace, you probably shouldn’t be doing Burpees!

When you are moving deliberately and owning the checkpoints of the Burpee, higher reps become much less of an issue. This is purely anecdotal, but when I participated in a SEALfit event last year, I performed thousands of Burpees in one week. During my six months of preparation for this “Hell Week”-esque training, I didn’t do a single Burpee. Yet I survived. Now, obviously this is way too many Burpees for anyone to be doing on a regular basis, but the point of such an event is to push you mentally and physically. That being said, there are a couple key reasons I believe I was able to do all those Burpees and escape relatively unscathed.

One, I had owned the movements that make up the Burpee. Two, the way the SEALs had us doing them challenged not only our fitness, but our communication, timing, coordination, listening skills and ability to function as a team. At any given time, only one person was leading the team through the movement. Everyone else had to follow their cadence. This leader needed to exercise judgement and humility. If they went at a pace that left someone behind, the whole team suffered. They needed to go as fast as the slowest person could adequately handle so that no one got left behind.

For someone who may be leading a group workout, this is wise advice. For what some of these Burpees looked like in action, here’s myself performing an 8-point Burpee with a sandbag somewhere between the hours of 3-5 a.m.:

Do I think Burpees are really the world’s worst exercise? No, I don’t. When they’re done with sloppy form and programmed poorly, they’re inarguably a bad choice. But I think that Burpees have plenty of value when done right. Are they something that should be a staple of a team sport athletes’ routine? No, there are likely more efficient ways to spend their training time. But for those generally pursuing greater fitness, some deliberate, well-executed Burpees can be a valuable exercise and/or warm-up.

Instead of using the movement as a form of punishment, let’s get back closer to how the original inventor envisioned the exercise.

Photo Credit: FluxFactory/iStock

READ MORE:

• Who Invented the Burpee?
• 8 Challenging Burpee Variations to Amp Up Your Workout Intensity
• How to Do Burpees to Build Endurance and Strength

I’m very thankful that the spine has the ability move. It makes life a bit easier. We can bend forward and tie our shoes. We can also extend up and reach for that organic grassfed, gluten-free cookie jar on top of the fridge (for our friend of course).

If the spine couldn’t bend forward, backward and rotate, it would be harder for us to do these and other everyday activities. So, it’s ability to move make sense.

RELATED: 10 Back Exercises That Develop Strength

However, when it comes down to putting weight on your back, whether it’s carrying a child, an adult or a barbell, you need another attribute. That magic attribute is called stability.

Flexibility and mobility are useful for placing you in a good position from which to move. But with weight on your back, to reduce the risk of injury, you have to be able to keep that good position throughout the movement.

Don’t believe me? Imagine placing a child on a dog’s back. If the dog’s spine lacks stability, the child’s weight will make the dog’s spine look U-shaped. But if it has stability, the dog’s back will be perfectly flat. The same applies to us humans.

So while the ability to move your spine is critical, you also need the ability to stabilize and lock it into position. The result will be that you can lift more weight safely, and ultimately get stronger.

RELATED: 15 Core Strengthening Exercises for Athletes

Below are three movements you can perform to make sure you have the necessary stability to go along with your spine’s mobility and flexibility.

Dead Bug

Alternating Straight-Arm Plank

Swiss Ball Stir the Pot

There are times when the Squat can get complicated—almost too complicated. At times it can feel like we are really in a battle with ourselves before we even step under the bar. Should it really be that complicated? Absolutely not.

You can find hundreds (or more) of articles on fixing specific parts of the Squat, but sometimes they constitute the source for complicating the exercise. Fixing your overall approach to the lift might be more effective in the long run.

Luckily for you, I have tips from Brian Carroll on his “Big 5” cues for correcting the Squat. Why should you listen to Brian? Well, he has 35 powerlifting competition Squats of over 1,000 pounds, which makes him one of the best squatters of all time.

Watch Carroll perform his 1,185 World Record Squat here.

It’s important to understand that not all five cues might be applicable to you personally. However, you should be able to walk toward the squat rack during your next training session with a better idea of how to improve your Squat.

Brian’s “Big 5” Squat tips

1. Create tension in your setup

Head to toe stiffness when unracking the bar, bending the bar with your hands, firmly white knuckling the bar. What does white knuckling mean? Basically, you squeeze the bar as hard as you can until your knuckles turn white! Why? This generates tension.

2. Walk out with as few steps as possible

2-3 steps is optimal. Focus your eyes on where the wall meets the ceiling. If you look up, you’ll go up. This will be helpful when you reach the bottom of your Squat.

3. Take a deep breath in and hip hinge to start the Squat while gripping the floor like a monkey

Moving from your hips keeps your spine/back strong, straight and stiff. This allows your back to do its job and not break form.

4. Maintain the lifter’s wedge during the descent

The lifter’s wedge means that your lats are pulled down, chest is up, head is up and knees are out (in line with your feet, not collapsing inward) with a nice forward body lean at the bottom of the Squat as shown in the video above.

5. Drive through your heels

To come up, drive heels through the floor while pulling your lats down and pushing your chest up. This prevents you from tilting forward.

The hip hinge is a foundational movement pattern that everyone needs to master.

Think about it: as you’re reading this, there’s a good chance your butt is planted on a seat of some sort. Eventually, you’re going to stand up, only to  find another garden (seat) in which to plant your butt once again!

To make this simple action happen, you need to hip hinge. But unfortunately, we see people round their back and use other bad habits to get into these positions.

In the video above, I talk through the the nitty-gritty of the hip hinge with legendary stength coach Tony Gentilcore.

After watching this video, you should undestand what the hip hinge is, common mistakes and how to fix them. The result will be increased strength and power in athletic movements, improved form on lifts and generally better health.

Here are the key points discussed in the video:

1. Own the bodyweight hip bridge on the floor.

2. The key is to hinge from the hip as opposed to the low back. Avoid lumbar (low back) hyperextension; your back will thank your later.

3. Stand a few inches from a wall and bend at the hip in a fashion similar to the hip bridge. Picture a hip check in hockey without rounding/bending your lower back.

4. When the standing bodyweight Hip Hinge has become second nature, add a basic loading strategy.

5. Finally, your Deadlift will look like one performed by Tony Gentilcore!

Extras:

Before you say anything about the sound, I know! But even though we had technical difficulties, I thought some of this info was cool, light,and interesting. So just stretch your ear a little more, go sit in a quiet room, and listen to Tony G and me shoot the breeze and compare weightliftng/powerlifting accessories to ladies’ fashion accessories.

MORE FROM GEORGES DAGHER:

• Try the Lean Away Chin-Up for Serious Back Strength
• Why the Turkish Get-Up Might be the World’s Best Exercise
• A Full-Body Mobility Warm-Up You Can Do in Less Than 5 Minutes

Holiday beverages can totally defeat your nutrition goals. They’re so calorie dense, even one drink can create an obstacle that takes a week to overcome.

Put simply, regularly hitting your local coffee shop for holiday beverages is not a sustainable way to live. Your body cannot afford the caloric cost of many admittedly delicious drinks.

Heck, a Peppermint Mocha at Starbucks has 320 calories for a fat-free Grande with no whip, and 580 calories for a Venti with the works.

And when people go all out, they tend to go ALL out. It’s a part of the holiday season, and the taste is hard to resist.

My goal is simple: Create a couple of workout drinks that taste like the holidays but are calorie for calorie nutrient dense champs.

P2 Hottie

I call the first workout drink the P2 Hottie (Protein Peppermint Hottie). It has 28g of protein, 2g of fat, 2g of carbs and a total of 152 calories—plus it delivers a nice hit of caffeine to wake you up.

The pros of the P2 Hottie:

• TIME. Takes less than a minute to prepare, with no added stress.
• KCALS: Pound for pound nutrition you can use.
• PROTEIN: 28 grams.
• TASTE: second to none!

Ingredients

• Vanilla Protein Powder
• Grass fed cow milk, Coconut milk or Almond Milk
• Coffee
• Cinnamon
• Peppermint extract

Directions

1. Brew a fresh cup of coffee.
2. Shake the protein powder with your milk of choice (note: it’s important to do this separately, otherwise the protein will clump up).
3. Pour the coffee into a mug, and follow by pouring in the protein milky mix.
4. Add a drop of peppermint extract.
5. Pinch in a bit of cinnamon (my definition of pinch is a healthy 1-2 grams).

Golden Milk

For the second drink, I consulted with nutrition expert Marc Capistrano* to get something that’s tasty and that aids with recovery after an intense workout. He gave me a response that’s akin to gold! Two words: Golden Milk.

The health benefits of turmeric root are numerous, but its most impressive benefits for performance and recovery are its anti-inflammatory properties and pro-circulatory effects. This is due to the active ingredient in turmeric known as curcumin. A more effective and therapeutic effect is gained from the extracted and concentrated form of turmeric, but the spice found in your kitchen cabinet should not be neglected.

Turmeric can be included in your diet in many ways, but one simple and effective way is by making this Golden Milk recipe. This gem of a drink is as tasty as it is healthy. This simple recipe can be used in the post-workout window or as your new pre-bedtime drink.

Ingredients

• Grass fed cow milk, Coconut milk or Almond Milk
• Turmeric
• Pepper
• Coconut Oil (Optional)
• Cinnamon
• Honey or Maple Syrup

Directions

1. Add your preferred milk to a small pot with a teaspoon of coconut oil.
2. Add 1 teaspoon of turmeric, a pinch of pepper and ½ teaspoon of cinnamon.
3. Bring to quick boil.
4. Take the pot off the stove and add honey or maple syrup (your personal preference).

Alternatively, you can combine all the ingredients and blend them together. Once blended, heat the golden milk on your stovetop. Add some whey or vegan protein if needed.

Now that you have two drinks that get you ready for a workout and help you recover from a workout without compromising that great holiday taste, it’s time to get to work!

READ MORE:

• How to Fuel During the Holiday Season
• 3 Holiday Recipes that Won’t Ruin Healthy Habits
• Your Guide To Healthy Holiday Eating

* Marc Capistrano (B.A., CNP, ROHP/RNCP) is a Certified Nutrition Practitioner, athlete, and Certified Personal Trainer (PTS). Learn more at: LIVEITHOLISTIC.COM.

Want to get a strong and injury-proof upper body? Perform bodyweight vertical pulling exercises, which include Pull-Ups, Chin-Ups and their variations.

RELATED: Pull-Up and Chin-Up Grip Guide

I’m a particular fan of the Lean Away Chin-Up, which I’ve found to be a demanding exercise that challenges your major back muscles while requiring torso and shoulder stability.

The exercise is simple. Perform a Chin-Up, then lean away from the bar and slowly lower yourself, almost in a reverse pressing motion. You can see this demonstrated in the video above.

RELATED: Triple Your Chin-Ups in 8 Weeks

To get the most out of this movement, it’s essential for your muscles to work in synergy, not in isolation. If you crank on your shoulders to perform an exercise, your shoulders will be cranky. If you use your entire body to support smooth shoulder movement, then your shoulders should be A-OK.

All pulling exercises require a healthy range of shoulder motion and engaging muscles such the lats and teres major (the lat’s little brother). This is in addition to other key muscles that come into the play in a coordinated and specific fashion to create a smooth movement. When you use the chin-up hand position, your biceps are in a position to contribute to the movement.

The following video is an example of a weighted version. Once you’ve mastered the movement using your own body weight, then and only then would I suggest loading the movement.

RELATED: Pull-Up or Chin-Up: Which is Better?

Until next time, move more, talk less and be curious! And have a little fun!

Co-authored by Kyle Neagle, a chiropractor, movement enthusiast and nutrition fanatic. Learn more about Kyle here.

Let’s be honest: The holiday season is not the most popular time to start a detox or diet. Even those of us who eat healthy 80 to 90 percent of the time are guilty of kicking up our heels and going to town during the holidays, bathing in sugar with a YOLO attitude.

The best way to balance one extreme is with another extreme. To do this effectively, you have to face the truth and create a strategy, as opposed to drowning in delusion.

RELATED: Healthy Eating During the Holidays

To get you started, here are three holiday hacks that we’ve deliberately kept simple. All you need are

1. Cinammon
2. A weight of some sort: kettlebell, dumbbell or your little cousin!
3. A journal, piece of paper or just a napkin.

Your goals are to:

1. Write a little. (Write a little more.)
2. Eat with a little cinnamon. (Drink with a little more cinnamon.)
3. Move a little.

Nutrition Hack

Add a little cinnamon to your carbohydrates. It has the potential to give some purpose to that aimless, lazy sugar swimming around in your body after that slice of pie. The purpose is simply to put that sugar in a position to work to fuel your workout or recovery. Incorporating cinnamon results in a better workout and a better recovery after smashing a workout or a piece or three of grandma’s apple pie!

RELATED: Losing Fat: How to Stay Focused During the Holidays

Couple carbohydrate/protein with cinnamon (1-2g) for optimal absorption of proteins and carbohydrates into muscle (think post-workout shake or meal). You can use cassia—common household cinnamon. Other options include the slightly spicier Saigon variety, or the more expensive Ceylon, which contains less coumarin (a blood thinner) than the other varieties and for that reason is potentially less stressful on the liver.

To be safe, 1-2 teaspoons of cinnamon per day is plenty, since it does contain things that may put unwanted stress on the body. People using blood thinners should consult with a medical professional before incorporating large amounts of cinnamon into their diets.

In terms of measurement, a half teaspoon equals about 1 gram of cinnamon

Movement Hack

Swing a kettlebell or dumbbell. It will wake up your muscles. Many kettlebell movements are thought of as hip-dominant, but there’s much more to it than meets the eye. They effectively integrate the hips with the feet and ankles, which is incredibly important from a rehabilitation standpoint.

RELATED: Stay Strong Over the Holidays With This 10-Minute Routine

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Easily transportable, the kettlebell can give you a great 10-minute (or less) workout that will elevate your heart rate, enhance your posterior chain (perfect after all the sitting while traveling), and open your muscles’ sugar gates (activate GLUT4 receptors).

Guidelines

1. Do not bend/flex at your back, especially your low back, when swinging. Hinge (bend/flex) from your hips. When you bend at the hip, you should feel a stretch in your glute, not your back.

2. Your feet should be intimate with the floor. In other words, pretend your feet are screws and you want to attach them to the floor. Your foot muscles should feel “on” short (“short foot”); if someone were to bump you while walking by, you would not move an inch.

3. With your feet planted, bend at the hip. Feel that stretch in your glutes like an elastic band being pulled back, and then “snap” your hips like the elastic band. At the top position, when you’re standing straight and the kettlebell is in front of you, your stomach/core should be “on” to prevent you from bending backwards with your low back (i.e., going into extension).

Mental Hack

Do some journaling. Before all the “manly” men abandon ship on this last holiday hack, hear us out! There is a large and steadily growing body of evidence that supports the efficacy of journaling, not only for its mental benefits but its physical benefits as well. Journaling can help you build better habits, hold yourself accountable and recognize behavioral patterns that influence success and failure.

Think about this: as the holidays approach and you want to stay on track, having your goals written down and reminding yourself of them daily will reduce the likelihood of dropping off your fitness or dietary routine.

Daily journaling also has been proven to make you feel more gratitude and happiness—especially when you write about something that makes you happy or that you are grateful for. It can also enhance “flow state” and creativity, and often provides a feeling of freedom while reducing stress, anxiety and depression.

How you write is important. Writing about stressful events to get them out of your head can aid in reducing anxiety/stressful states. Writing about happy events (and revisiting them) when things are tough is a great way to enhance your mood. Writing about successes in business, personal life, and fitness can be a way to recognize growth, improvement, and identify positive patterns/relationships. And writing about negative events/ failures can help you recognize patterns/relationships and learn from them.

Savasana was one of the first yoga poses I was introduced to. Literally translated as the “corpse pose,” it’s quite simple, yet it addresses several variables that influence the body’s ability to recover. It heightens your awareness around breathing, focus, scapular position, glenohumeral joint tension, abdominal breathing and ribcage motion.

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If there’s one takeaway here, it’s that if you’re stressed, you’re not at rest. Savasana truly defines rest.

One can find rest in a variety of positions, whether through traditional yoga or normal life, from culture to culture; however, if I had to articulate one yoga pose that truly defines and takes rest to a new height, it’s Savasana.

Rest in this sense addresses the whole person—body, mind and spirit. It allows your brain to stop thinking and your muscles and joints to recover, and it refreshes your spirit with a burst of energy. Savasana also heightens your sense of bodily awareness. Once you become better aware of your body’s movement restrictions, you can adopt specific mobility strategies that will save you both time and energy.

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The best way to reap the benefits of Savasana is to sow the Savasana seed—or, in other words, just do it! Below is a step-by-step video that will guide you to get the most from this pose.

Savasana Benefits

1. Heightens bodily awareness around breathing, scapular position, glenohumeral joint tension, abdominal breathing, and direction-specific rib cage movement at certain levels.

2. Encourages muscle relaxation.

3. Lowers pulse rate.

4. It’s adaptable. You can perform it anywhere: all you need is your body and enough room to lie down.

5. As a warm-up, it gets you mentally focused. As a cool down, it relaxes your central nervous system.