Fitness For Freedom Tips

In order to get stronger you have to progressively lift heavier weight, there's no way around it, however lifting progressively heavier weight has it's limits, as in you can only become so strong before you will start to become injured or your strength will plateau, if these types of things didn't happen people would be able to become infinitely stronger, but we know this isn't the case because even after years of training everyone still has their limits and world records are often held for years, sometimes decades before being broken.

Which brings us to this question and the one we're answering today,

How can improving your mobility help you become stronger and how do you improve your mobility?

Hip Mobility - assisted squat

Upper-back Self-Massage - massage your upper back

Hamstring Flexibility - Static and Dynamic Stretches

Shoulder Mobility - From Frozen to Full Mobility

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I'm trying to save time on my back workouts, I'm just curious if doing Deadlifts, Bent Over Rows, and Pullups/Chin-ups are enough to build it completely?

- Build My Back Bob

So here's the deal, I'm looking forward to compete in weightlifting, but I get sick a lot. So here's the question: when dealing with illness (common cold, flu) what's the wisest thing to do regarding training? If the illness involves/leads to infection (strep, sore throat) do the same rules apply or is it an exception to take a rest? How do you go about coming back to training after such illness? Thank you in advance

- Sick Steve

This is a 'Noob' question, but i'm at a loss. I lift early in the morning so I don't train with anyone to spot me. My lifts are getting stronger and the first dumbbell rep is getting harder and harder. How do I get the first dumbbell chest press rep?

- New Nick

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A couple weeks ago when I was away on holidays I woke up one morning with every intent of going for a run and doing a quick strength workout, but when I woke up that morning I still felt tired, I didn't have very much energy, I was reeling from a cold that even today I haven't fully recovered from and instead going for a run I negotiated with myself, through my rules for these types of circumstances,

Am I just being lazy or am I legitimately tired and unable to run?...

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Danica - What kind of training do I have to do to be able to make more distance while swimming and hold my breath for longer times under water? I want to be able to swim longer and stronger.

Too Extreme - When I go to the cottage with my family we like to take the boat out and go wakeboarding, tubing, and generally have fun on the water. It tends to burn for a few days afterward so we're definitely getting some good arm exercise - but how much is too much? It's a lot of fun but I'm worried about accidentally injuring myself in the process. When do I know to stop?

Born to Swim - Is swimming any good for burning calories and losing weight, or is it better for getting stronger muscles? I really love swimming but I want to know if it's enough for me to lose weight on its own or if I should look elsewhere.

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I just got back from a 'vacation' in beautiful British Columbia, I have to put vacation in air quotes because for the most part it didn't feel that way. We were there for a whole week, but social activities, family get together's and a wedding right in the middle of the trip left us crammed end to end with very little in the way of free time to relax let alone workout or formally exercise, this meant I had to be creative in doing my exercises with the cramped schedule and no equipment. Like we've talked about in previous episodes I followed a few different strategies to make sure I got at least something in, I scheduled it in first thing in the morning, I had the program pre-built so I knew exactly what I was doing, I kept it really short as well, because I knew I would be prone to getting interrupted and I used this strategy which is the topic of today's episode, I did everything really slowly, I mean really, really slowly, I did split squats for 6 to 8 seconds down and 6 to 8 back up, I did push-ups and pull-ups following the same tempo, I tried to do it with hanging leg raises, but it was just too hard, I had to settle for 2 to 3 seconds down and up because that was the slowest I could handle and my muscles were sore the days after I worked out despite the brevity and the fact I was only using my bodyweight.

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Reaping Rewards Rob - When it comes to everyday life and motivating myself to push to get something done, I like the idea of using a reward system - where I treat myself to something I like when I succeed, as it works to make me want to get that thing done. Is there a way I can apply something like that to weight loss? It just feels counter-productive to treat myself to something if that's going to add more calories.

Long Walks on the Beach - I just came back from vacation and found that exercise was a lot harder than when I took time off. I was fairly active while I was away, I took walks on the beach a lot and did a lot of walking around in general, but obviously that wasn't enough. What are some other ways I can fit exercise into vacation without necessarily having to take time away from enjoying the vacation itself?

Sporty Suzie - My friends and I are basic level sports players, as a group we play volleyball, badminton and similar moving around sports just for fun but no one is really any good at it. We mostly just play for fun, but I'd love to actually get better - what should I be focusing on to get better at volleyball?

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Have you ever heard this expression, 'Everything in moderation, except moderation.' I've heard this expression several times and I don't know where it comes from or who started it, but the first time I heard it I agreed with it and thought - you know everything should be done in moderation, but then I heard it again in a slightly different context and decided I didn't like it as much and now I've been thinking about it for several years (I know I'm a bit weird like that, but sometimes little things bother me for a really long time and it takes me some time to figure out why they bother me so much and I just need to reflect on them), anyways now that I've reflected on it, I've decided I don't really like it at all and I just want to dig into why, let's start with the definition.

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Master Chef - What are some good foods I can make from scratch at home? We want to eat healthier and I only have so much time to cook, are there any quick meals that can be made easy that are also good for you?

Amanda - I'm trying to learn proper movements for exercises, but don't really have anyone who can tell me if I'm doing it right. Will practising in front of a mirror by myself help me improve? Assuming I have a general idea what the exercise should look like.

Flimsy Arms - I have watched a lot of your videos, you put a lot of emphasis on pulling exercises. For someone like me who has poor upper body strength, they can be very hard - what are some beginner pulling exercises?

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Steps to a Pull-Up

Shoulder Mobility

Last week I made this huge giant salad. I used spinach as the base, with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers from our garden and then I put some olives cashews, hemp and chia seeds to top it all off with some balsamic vinaigrette. Of course, what I intended to be a modest lunch salad quickly turned into a giant beast of a salad, but I felt up to the challenge and started eating it with the intent of finishing the whole thing, but halfway through my son Cooper started to cry and I had to take an intermission from my salad to change his not so clean diaper, which took somewhere between 5 and 10 minutes. But here's the interesting thing that happened, when I sat down to finish my salad I was no longer hungry and instead of finishing it off like I would have in the past I put it in a container and ate it a couple of hours later when I was hungry again.

I don't know if something like this has ever happened to you before where you're famished at the start of a meal and get interrupted part way through only to realize when you come back to it that you're not actually hungry anymore and you don't need to finish all the food you prepared yourself. But it got me thinking about something, how often does the opposite happen, where you're hungry, so you ram a bunch of food into you as fast as you can only to feel not only full, but stuffed 20 minutes or so after you finish your meal, I think for most people this secondary scenario is much more common. I know when I was a teenager I fell into this category, because when I came home from school almost everyday I would devour an entire box of crackers as a snack, but then be so full after I would unable to move or do anything productive, until dinner time when I would eat again.

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Mandy - I've been losing weight doing exercise, and I know I have because I've been weighing myself every day, but I can't really see the difference. I feel better, but I want to look better as well. How long does it take for weight loss to show?

Sleepy Sally - I work long shifts on my feet all day. I want to exercise but when I get home I'm just so tired. I also don't have much time in the morning unless I want to wake up really early. What should I do?

Down with Doritos - I live with people who really like to eat junk. I'm working on my weight but sometimes it's hard to resist when they have a bag of chips out watching a movie. They can have junk if they want to, but I want to build up my ability to say no - how can I do that?

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