EFL Blog

As he was warming up and doing his mobility yesterday Nate Green, who is now authoring and editing a book for fitness professionals with Precision Nutrition, told me of a conversation he had with another of PN’s coaches regarding how we can better help people who get stuck in the process of trying various trends only to fail and start over. At the root of this issue is the reality that we the public are bombarded with marketing claims for various diets or exercise methods that are ultimately unsustainable. Then the question is how does one reach a place of a healthy, balanced approach to health and fitness that is sustainable.

I answered “by learning the principles of what they, the individual, needs to do.” And as an example I simply pointed to another EFL member who was doing his workout. This individual had come to us wanting to move better and needing to lose weight. He had tried various ways over the years only to gain the weight back and go back to a sedentary lifestyle. Our process was to step by step guide him in ways to improve his eating his physical movement – and the hows and whys what we did worked so that he could do it on his own. Along with that we encouraged him to engage in other activities outside the gym, and as he incrementally improved his ability to move without pain and less stress he enjoyed it more and thus moved more. This overhaul of his day to day lifestyle ultimately led him to dropping 90lbs and improved his health in a number of ways.

What is really key here is that he came to understand what level of activity and what foods worked for him, and principles of how to move better that made being active more enjoyable and more effective.

As another example yesterday another member posted the following on Facebook  regarding how this process had helped her:

This is noteworthy. Usually when I do gardening, I’m really sore the same evening, to the point of hobbling because my back hurts too much to walk properly. Today I lifted a lot of weight. I hefted 50lb bags of rocks and 40lb bags of potting soil, carrying them up stairs, maneuvering them in and out of my car. I dug holes. I moved large and heavy rocks. I lifted and poured soil from heavy bags. I did a lot of work on my hands and knees, usually with one arm outstretched and working hard. And the surprising thing is that I’m not that sore. I’m a little tight in my hamstrings, but apart from being just physically TIRED, I feel great. When Elemental Fitness Lab says “functional movement”, they really mean functional movement. This everyday AVAILABILITY of strength and flexibility, whenever I need it, is a revelation to me after a lifetime of immobility and weakness.

And to be sure we at EFL would be much less effective without our chiropractic, physical therapy, and massage therapy partners that help our members. We are fortunate to be able to refer out to Dr. Phillip Snell, Zak Benson, Amy Bennett, Patrick Ward, and other quality practitioners who have helped make the success of our members possible.

For anyone reading this who is looking to get out of the cycle of stopping and starting there are good practitioners out there who can assist you in learning the principles by which you can take control of your health.