Think Fit. Be Fit.

What’s slippery, sloping and jolting?  If you think it relates to one of the most difficult things to do in sports, you might be right.  Once again, we’re joined by our friend and esteemed colleague, Dr. David Behm, who shares his insights into what constitutes the hardest skill in sports.

While acknowledging the need for physical prowess in performing motor skills, the trio shifts the focus to the often overlooked cognitive requirements of skill, which are highly influential in determining performance outcomes.  How do cueing and feedback affect cognitive performance?

Finally, we return our skill-based conversation to the gym. We introduce new substrates of skill and describe how these can be used to promote skill acquisition, even in an exercise as pedestrian as a leg extension!  How?  You’ll have to listen to find out, so jump right in and enjoy this unique and layered exchange that is chock full of practical ideas that you can try yourself!

In this episode we discuss:

• The relative difficulty of skills
• The concept of  events and its effect on the perception of time
• Is exercise a skill?
• Do we need to replicate a skill in the gym to get better at it?
• How can a skill-based approach to exercise help us reach our goals faster?

Glossary:

Perceptual Substrates - The use of visual, auditory, and proprioceptive information in the execution of a motor skill.

Psychological Substrates - The required level of confidence, emotional readiness and coping ability associated with a motor skill.

Selective Attention: The conscious direction of attention placed on relevant features of the environment for the purpose of maximizing skill performance.

References:

Behm, D. G., & Carter, T. B. (2020). Effect of Exercise-Related Factors on the Perception of Time.  Frontiers in Physiology, 11, 770

You might also like:

Season 1, Episode 1 - Why we Move

Season 1, Episode 5 - Whose Movement is it Anyway?

Season 2, Episode 3 - In the Moment

Follow your hosts on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fitnessforconsumption/ 

Follow the podcast network: https://www.instagram.com/thinkfitbefit_podcast/ 

Episode page: 

www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/speed-bumps/

One of the big myths in core training is that one muscle is more important than the other.

For example: videos that claim you must do leg lifts to strengthen your ‘lower abs’ or therapeutically releasing the psoas to help back pain are simply not accurate.   

Christopher Verdi, the inventor of Core Restore Training System™ talks with Jenn to break down this myth and they share their perspectives for challenging the core muscles in an effective way. 

Chris's truly unique training system has the ability to challenge muscles in a 360 degrees set up and decrease recovery time for athletes and those with chronic tightness alike. 

Check out Chris and The Core Restore on instagram, YouTube and if you are interested in purchasing a CRTS™ reach out to [email protected] 

Topics:

• Development of core muscles after spinal fusion
• What muscles are included in the Core
• Core training myth revisited: no one more muscle is more important than the other 
• The transition from MAT to exercise and core exercise

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected]

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

HOST can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Related episodes:

Chris's first interview from July 2020 

Core Myths presented by Jenn Core Training Myths podcast episode

And, we’re back!  A little change of scenery is in order to kick off season 3 of Fitness for Consumption.  Catching up after a short summer break, GG offers his view from his own personal training camp while Dr. J invites us on his road trip to California.  While regaling us with a story from the road, PJ shares an insight describing how driving with cruise control can quickly scale up from an activity controlled with a simple flick of the wrist, to one that demands complex spatial and temporal problem solving.

And thus we introduce the prevailing theme of this season’s episodes; motor skill.

Episode one begins with a question, what is the hardest skill to perform in sports?  But before we can answer that, we need to define skill.  What is it exactly, and how does it relate to the exercises we do in the gym?  Is an exercise, in fact, a skill, or the thing we do to develop skills?

Continuing, PJ and GG deconstruct skills into their constituent parts, while introducing different categories of skill.  What must we possess in order to solve them, how do we organize our movements to perform them, and how can we train to improve skills without performing the skills themselves?  It’s all unveiled in episode 1.

In this episode we discuss:

What is skill?

The degrees of freedom problem

Types of  motor skills; open vs closed

Fitts law - the speed/accuracy trade off

Gentile’s taxonomy

Dimensions of skills

Considering modifying skill difficulty

Glossary:

Closed Motor Skill - a motor skill involving an environment in which the spatial and temporal components are relatively certain and predictable.

Cognitive Load -  the volume of information that must be processed during a specific motor skill. 

Degrees of Freedom - the number of independent elements within a system and the number of ways each element can act individually and then collectively.

Degrees of Freedom Problem - a control problem that exists when determining how to constrain a system’s many degrees of freedom in order to produce a specific result.

Gentile’s Taxonomy - a classification system of motor skill progression designed to include a variety of movement characteristics. This incorporates several factors including environmental context, object manipulation, movement or stability of the body, and the presence of independent timing mechanisms.

Open Motor Skill - a motor skill involving an environment in which the spatial and temporal components are relatively uncertain.  

You might also like:

Season 1, Episode 1 - Why we Move

Season 2, Episode 8 - It’s About Time

Follow the host and co-host at https://www.instagram.com/fitnessforconsumption/

Check out all of their episodes: https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/tag/f4c/

Contact the network for advertising rates or sign up for our newsletter at https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/ 

The “Frog Pump” exercise has been called the “the best butt exercise” by Women’s Health Magazine and is also viewed as a ‘glute activation drill’ by many in the booty building scene.   Jenn and Meredith take a bite into these claims and they present a critique of the exercise design.

After listening to this episode you could potentially examine the exercise for yourself and independent of the idea that the same ‘glute activation’ drill is for anybody and everybody.  

Get a look at the Frog Pump here from 'The Glute Guy" Bret Contreas: 

https://youtu.be/HyCiZVMMDW4 

Get ready to be inspired by perspective and industry wisdom on exercise trends, past and present!

Your hostesses can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Meredith Mack

Instagram 

Website 

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected] 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. 

There is not much useful substance in a long list of ‘ab’ exercises. Core training myths have infected the fitness industry’s ability to teach exercise in a meaningful way.  Today’s episode is a beacon for a better understanding of our core exercise parameters and strategy.

Fitness has been oversimplified for too long. Jennifer shares her beliefs about core training and her perspective that an oversimplified view of exercise has created a mainstream fitness culture full of cheap, palatable information without substance.  

Jenn goes into 6 Core Training Myths and even shares a story from her clinic about a basketball player's post surgery back pain and core training .  

Items discussed:

• Learn the critical thinking tools Jenn uses when scrolling the internet
• Is the core really the starting point of all movement?
• Is there really a best exercise for training the core?
• Is one core muscle more important than another?
• Expanded thoughts on why ‘sucking in your belly button’ is not helping your stability
• How compression is a necessity when considering core functionality

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected] 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

You can find us on a variety of podcast apps:

Spotify

Pandora

iHeartRadio

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TuneIn

Google podcasts

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

HOST can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Links of interest:

Online trainer education ideas:

https://www.exerciseprofessional.com/ 

http://muscleactivation.com/ 

Related episodes: 

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/the-f-word-part-1/

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/nikki-naab-levy-on-exercise-safety-cues-that-dont-work/

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/the-f-word-part-2/ 

https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/clinging-to-the-idea-of-the-core/

Welcome to the first Peach Pit Fitness show, Jennifer and her new co-host Meredith Mack will dive into fitness buzzwords, workout trends or exercise through 2 segments: current trend critique and bringing back the classics of 90’s fitness. ⁠⁠

⁠⁠We aim ​to be your guides in a new commentary on how fitness shapes our lives with our knowledge of and experience in exercise mechanics, strength training for women, anatomy, injury and how the body adapts.

Be sure to subscribe to the TFBF feed so that you don’t miss these episodes and the opportunity to enjoy exercise beyond a superficial level.  

Join the podcast network newsletter here: https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/ 

Follow Meredith on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meredith_mack/

Follow Jenn on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jennifer_simone_schwartz/

The podcast network on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thinkfitbefit_podcast/

It’s our mission to help you navigate the fluff and get into the results.

This inaugural episode explains it all!

music composed by Darren O'Brien of Activity Partners https://darrenpatrickobrien.com/

Here at Think Fit. Be Fit. we are constantly on a quest to identify the best way to communicate effective exercise techniques and concepts.  Today, Nikki and Jennifer discuss 3 commonly used cues in exercise instruction that simply do not do your movement justice.

If you have ever found exercise instructions utterly confusing then tune in and start sharing because the cues that Jenn and Nikki cover in this episode are overused daily.  

Topics discussed:

• An alternative to cueing that doesn’t make a lot of sense
• How injuries are not likely to be associated with structural alignment
• Pervasive fitness myths
• 
  
• Body resilience 
• 
  
• #freebritney and fitness purity culture 

Nikki is an experienced fitness professional.  “Workouts that don’t hurt” is one of the by-lines on her instagram bio @naablevy

She shares messy and intimate positions on recognized fitness myths and how the fitness industry can be dehumanizing and unfair to consumers.  

To me, she really sets the tone for change in the fitness industry.  We discuss one of the most important factors in the consumption of exercise and fitness- context matters. 

Nikki Naab-Levy is a strength coach and Pilates teacher with bachelor’s degrees in both Exercise Science and Journalism from Ohio University, and over a decade of experience helping people achieve strength and mobility with less pain.

Her work has been featured in SELF magazine, Women’s health, and Girls Gone Strong.

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected] 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

You can find us on a variety of podcast apps:

Spotify

Pandora

iHeartRadio

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TuneIn

Google podcasts

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thinkfitbefit for a chance to be featured!

HOSTS AND GUESTS can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Nikki Naab-Levy

instagram

website

The Fitness Influencer culture is messy and full of gaping knowledge holes.  Because of the popularity of Fitness Influencers, it's becoming more apparent that the things we typically celebrate in fitness are too extreme and unrealistic for them to work and this leads to a lack of activity and burnout.  

Jennifer and Nikki Naab-Levy of www.naablevy.com discuss the context of our fitness practice shaping so many things in our life.  This episode is part spontaneous conversation and part solo-cast from Jennifer. 

They discuss one of the most important factors in the consumption of exercise and fitness- context matters. 

Topics discussed:

• how the fitness industry can be dehumanizing and unfair to consumers.  
• 
  
• Fear of weight training and basic strength training models
• being burned by fitness culture and trendy workout routines.
• decreasing the chances of falling prey to false marketing

Nikki Naab-Levy is a strength coach and Pilates teacher with bachelor’s degrees in both Exercise Science and Journalism from Ohio University, and over a decade of experience helping people achieve strength and mobility with less pain.

Her work has been featured in SELF magazine, Women’s health, and Girls Gone Strong.

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected] 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

You can find us on a variety of podcast apps:

Spotify

Pandora

iHeartRadio

Amazon music

TuneIn

Google podcasts

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thinkfitbefit for a chance to be featured!

SUPPORT THE SHOW: by checking out LADDER SPORT, a line of high performance nutritional supplements created by Lebron James and his trainer.  They are high quality and NSF certified.  Use the code BEFIT10 for a special discount! 

HOSTS AND GUESTS can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Nikki Naab-Levy

Instagram

Website

Email [email protected]

When we train our body with access to our unconscious mind we are taking advantage of our biology's ability to reset and unlocking the potential for tremendous physiological and psychological health benefits.

Jennifer discusses the advantages of training the unconscious mind with Utah's only MAT Rx™ specialist, Jesse Wild of www.jessewildma.com 

Jennifer even shares her experience with knee injuries and integrating this type of training for a full recovery.  

Your mind is powerful.  Are you consciously creating a strong and healthy body?  Start to harness your jedi mind power by tuning in to this episode.

Topics discussed:

• Pain, injury and emotions that wreck havoc on your progress
• 
  
• Why fitness culture hurts our chances of being relatively pain free
• 
  
• Muscle Activation Techniques™ as a tool to help people with injury and tightness
• 
  
• How Jesse integrates MAT™ with Neuro-Linguistic programming and hypnosis

Jesse Wild is a MAT Rx Full Body Practitioner in Utah. He is an enthusiastic and experienced exercise professional with a passion for education. Jesse is dedicated to maximizing and restoring the full physical potential to individuals of all abilities. He is Utah’s highest level trained Muscle Activation Techniques Certified Specialist (MATcs MAT Rx), Master Level Resistive Training Specialist (RTSM), and holds a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science from the University at Buffalo.

Links of interest:

http://muscleactivation.com/

http://www.jessewildma.com/ 

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected] 

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

You can find us on a variety of podcast apps:

Spotify

Pandora

iHeartRadio

Amazon music

TuneIn

Google podcasts

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

SUPPORT THE SHOW: by checking out LADDER SPORT, a line of high performance nutritional supplements created by Lebron James and his trainer.  They are high quality and NSF certified.  Use the code BEFIT10 for a special discount! 

HOSTS AND GUESTS can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Jesse Wild

http://www.jessewildma.com/

Instagram 

www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/jesse-wild-on-training-the-unconscious-mind/

Once we understand stress and resilience and that it is key to take feedback from our body, we can truly experience how exercise reaches us on a deep level. 

Jennifer discusses how exercise and cold thermogenesis are the cornerstones of building strength and resilience.  Jesse Wild joins her to discuss how to use the body as a bridge to both greater health, pain free movement and higher states of consciousness.

Resilience is built from partnering with your body.  With intuition, tracking our activity or technology we can see the internal state of our body that is responsible for responding to stress.  

Resilience is not simply being a bulldog and "toughening up". It has nothing to do with aggression and the ‘do-more’ culture of high intensity exercise or sports.  Resilience is about accepting what is within our control.  We must tune the body back into itself and understand that the human body actually loves acute stressors. 

Listen in to learn about the mindset that Jenn uses and Jesse's first time in the cold water.

Topics covered:

• A resilience mindset and why it is so important for continued progress
• Cold Thermogenesis
• Jesse’s first cold plunge experience
• Why Jennifer and Jesse love the ice plunge practice

Jesse Wild is a MAT Rx Full Body Practitioner in Utah.  Jesse Wild is an enthusiastic and experienced exercise professional with a passion for education. Jesse is dedicated to maximizing and restoring the full physical potential to individuals of all abilities. He is Utah’s highest level trained Muscle Activation Techniques Certified Specialist (MATcs MAT Rx), Master Level Resistive Training Specialist (RTSM), and holds a Bachelors of Science in Exercise Science from the University at Buffalo.

Links of interest:

Dr. Elisa Epel PhD on Found My Fitness podcast: 

Related episode: Think Fit. Be Fit. with Bob Soulierre https://www.thinkfitbefitpodcast.com/finding-your-power-with-bob-soulliere/

ADVERTISE WITH US: Reach dedicated exercise professionals, future trainers, and exercise enthusiasts all over the world. Send us an email to get the conversation started, [email protected]

JOIN THE CONVERSATION: If you have a question or a topic you want us to address, send us an email here. You can also connect to us through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Tag #thinkfitbefit for a chance to be featured!

SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER: Dive deeper with us. Sign up here. We offer a unique view on muscles, portals to new ways to respect the body and health.  Learning and ‘enjoy the process’ is a buzzy term.  We take learning seriously and want to take our listeners on that journey with us and through us.

SUBSCRIBE: Subscribe to the podcast to make sure you never miss an episode. 

episode. 

You can find us on a variety of podcast apps:

Spotify

Pandora

iHeartRadio

Amazon music

TuneIn

Google podcasts

WRITE A REVIEW: Leave us a rating and a written review on iTunes so more listeners can find us.

HOSTS AND GUESTS can be found at:

Jennifer Schwartz

Instagram

Twitter

Jesse Wild

Website

Instagram