26 Oct
Blog

The Move Well Project | Breaking Muscle

Our guest today is Chris Peil. Chris is a sports rehabilitation professional who specializes in helping people get back to their best performance after the medical community has tried and failed. His no-nonsense, logical, no-nonsense approach is a breath of fresh air compared to much of the hot air and self-promotion you see from people who are far less skilled.

Chris flies under the radar for someone to work with Olympians, professional athletes, and World Champion of the Strongest Man, Eddie Hall. Its lack of self-promotion is refreshing, but it robs the world of its wealth of wisdom. Listen to this episode to learn from a real gem in the fitness industry.

If you enjoyed this podcast and cared about it, rate and rate it so we can get the word out and motivate and inspire others to take their performance to the next level.

You can find more podcasts like this on the Breaking Muscle Six Pack of Knowledge page. Here you can find all podcasts for most of the available streaming services including iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, YouTube, Stitcher, PlayerFM and PodBean.

I am the host, Tom MacCormick, and I am a personal trainer and online coach whose goal is to be the curator of the greatest hypertrophy experts in the world. If you're interested in working with me or learning more about me, follow me on Instagram @tommaccormick.

04 Sep
Blog

How To Tell If Your Skin Is Purging Or Breaking Out

When trying to take care of your skin with a new routine, the last thing you want to see after a week or two is a less than outstanding complexion. Whether you add more active ingredients or carefully follow a cleansing routine, you may be wondering what on earth is causing the increase in tiny pimples, noticeably clogged pores, or even blotchy dryness if you haven't experienced them before. Top Questions: Are these new products the source of your problems? Are they causing a temporary purge or a permanent reaction? How can you tell if your skin is flushing or breaking out?

Here's what happens: Whenever you start a new regimen or incorporate new products into your current skincare routine, skin cleansings are common. Every time you use ingredients to boost cell turnover (think of ingredients that shed dead skin cells to reveal fresh, younger-looking cells), there's a good chance you're going through a period of cleansing too! That is not to say that everyone experiences a cleanse after using an exfoliating product. All skin types are different and while some may cleanse more than others, it all depends on what is deep inside the pores that can be pushed out.

While seeing a skin cleanse in the first few weeks of a new routine may not be encouraging, there are a few tips you can incorporate into a routine to help your complexion get through this transition period.

What is skin cleansing?

Before these youthful-looking cells are exposed from deeper layers of the skin, many other things are pushed to the surface, resulting in tiny white heads or blackheads, as well as peeling or dry, flaky skin. Different ingredients in a skin care product react faster to the cleansing process than others. For example, agents formulated to increase or speed up cellular turnover or exfoliation are likely to trigger a cleanse – chemical peels like hydroxy acids are one of the most common types of ingredients behind a skin cleanse. After applying an active scrub to the skin, it loosens the clogging deep in the pores and pushes it to the skin surface – what looks like a breakout but actually just goes through your skin.

Another point to consider: the cleansing you see after starting a new skin regimen or after using active scrubs are typically microcomedones (tiny pimples that are not visible to the eye) that are present under the surface of the skin and during it accelerated cell turnover reaches the surface. You may also find that the common areas of your breakouts such as your nose, chin, or forehead become more flushed.

Skin Cleansing Vs. outbreaks

While flushing can be normal after starting a routine or using a new product, it's important to understand the difference between flushing and breakouts from a reaction so that you know what is considered "normal" and whether you're on one Ingredient react or not.

Here are some features to look out for when determining if your skin is cleansing or if you are actually experiencing a reaction-type breakout:

For most skin types, using acid peels for the first time can cause some initial dryness and redness – especially if they are used too often at first. If you use products outside of this category, e.g. For example, if you have non-active ingredient serums, toners, or moisturizers and find that your skin is irritated or breaking, it may be because of sensitivity to a particular ingredient.

Remember that there are huge differences between causing flushing and promoting acne development. What Causes Acne? Factors like hormones, oil production, and bacteria are usually responsible for breakouts. It's also a good idea to understand the five most common types of acne, how they differ from a skin cleanse, and how they present themselves in different ways so that you can customize your routine.

How long does it take to clean the skin?

A good rule of thumb when following new products is that you have about a month to really start working with your skin to adjust to the ingredients and go through a proper sales process.

Following a routine is one of the best things you can do for your skin when starting out with new ingredients.

The average skin cycle lasts around 28 days. So, do at least one full cycle to remove dead skin cells and go through most of the cleansing process before making any changes in a routine.

Although every skin type is different, it usually only takes one cycle for the most noticeable cleansing to be done. However, it can take anywhere from four to six weeks to truly see the benefits of using powerful skin care ingredients. Consistency is the key!

What to do when your skin is flushed

When your skin is going through the cleansing process, maintaining a routine is important, but you also want to be gentle. Keep these tips in mind when taking care of your skin during a cleanse:

Avoid picking on bumps or small pimples.

As tempting as it may be, leave your skin alone to prevent further inflammation, acne, or discoloration.

Don't add products that routinely dry out the skin.

When using active ingredients or scrubs, avoid anything that can lead to dryness. For some, the cleansing process involves removing any excess sebum or oil so you don't want to over-exfoliate and cause dry, red skin.

See a professional.

Contact an Eminence Organics Spa Affiliate for a virtual or in-person consultation and book a facial when your skin begins to remove imperfections deep within the layers of your skin. Your esthetician can help remove excess impurities and gently cleanse them for a clear and glowing complexion.

Here's how to prevent outbreaks caused by reactions

Would you like to incorporate new products into your routine but don't want to deal with a full flushing process? Start slowly. Gradually incorporate actives like acid scrubs into a routine that will allow your skin time to adjust without noticeable cleansing or reaction. The best way to start with a product is to use it twice a week and then increase it up to three or four fold over the course of a month until you use a product on a daily basis or as directed.

What to do if your skin reacts

Using active ingredients too quickly and too early can lead not only to breakouts, but also to dryness, peeling and redness. All of this can be avoided if it becomes easier to use over time.

Do you have a skin reaction that seems like more than a cleansing? Do not use any new products for a week. If the breakouts go away, then your skin is most likely reacting to an ingredient and may not be the best option for your skin type.

One way to ensure that you are finding the best products for your skin is to seek advice from a licensed professional at an Eminence Organics spa partner who can analyze your skin type and concerns, and then provide a range of options that Meet your requirements. To find out more about which active ingredients are suitable for your skin, or to get in touch with an Eminence Organics spa partner for a personal or virtual consultation, visit our spa locator.

29 Jun
Blog

Is Your Gym Healthy? | Breaking Muscle

Is your gym healthy? - Fitness, clean gym, public security, viral, commercial gyms, ihrsa, covid-19, boxing gym

One of the great moments of the great pandemic was reading gym owners' social media posts explaining that they were not allowed to open, but bars for health reasons.

No one should seek medical advice from someone who is not a medical professional, or assume that the guy who just made you lift your body weight is a health professional.

Let us clarify that. Most gyms were all about looking good naked first, and then everything else. Let’s not pretend that bringing society to gyms is a salvation for society because it only sounds selfish.

All of these gym owners can correct the future situation by figuring out how to make their gyms safe for use in a pandemic world and how they can be part of the long-term solution to chronic illnesses rather than pitch pitching. It won't happen, but it's nice to think that things could change for the better.

Does that sound cynical? Well, maybe, but it's the truth and it's not the gym owners' fault that they are in the situation they are in.

They would probably like to have hundreds of members who pay them for walking or being more active, rather than lifting their weights after them or cleaning their room.

Because yes, most healthy activities and chronic disease reduction can be achieved without a membership of USD 150 per month or a group class of USD 20 per session.

But that's not why you're there and part of the problem and part of the solution if you only agree to be. You want this membership and you want it in a boxing gym because it has a different meaning for you.

Your gym is approximately 2,500 square meters, maybe more, maybe less, but it's not a huge, cavernous room. They have some bars and rings, dumbbells and squats, kettlbells, dumbbells, ropes and things that look well stacked on the wall. It's a dark, moody prison yard, but you love it.

You will be the type of person who spends a good hour or more in this small gym, sweats profusely, breathes heavily most of the hour, and does so with little time for the intricacies of fitness etiquette.

You drop weights, you run around, you drip sweat, you spray sweat, you are with your community of moisture freaks to the bitter end when the last bell rings.

Yes, you are probably healthier than most people. Although you would probably do the same thing whether it is healthy or not. In fact, you don't do it because of your normal physical condition, that's nice, but you do it because of performance, the need to lift more, develop a new skill, or even compete. You go to your boxing gym even if you are injured because it is your rite of passage.

And this is where the boxing gym dilemma opens up. They are not like the Globo-Gyms, in which treadmills and equipment take up every square meter and in which about 80% of the members never show up.

They are reducing their cholestrol by having these $ 20 monthly payments in their accounts. It reduces the stress of thinking about the actual work of the training.

Boxing gym visitors are more likely than any other gym visitor to spend most of their time in their gyms (there is an article about New Your Time that makes this clear). They are the one percent of the gym that goes public. That's about 600,000 people across 5,000 gyms (an average of about 120 people per gym) in the United States alone.

After being blocked, boxing gyms are under pressure to be safe places like they were never really designed. It's a fact, it's not insurmountable, but it can't be done by the gym owner alone.

As a member, you have to be so committed that the environment is safe for everyone. The big question is whether you are up to the task.

The health and safety problem for gyms

The International Health, Racquet & Sports Club Association (IHRSA) has a vast amount of information that it provides to its members, the owners of health clubs, about best practices for creating a safe environment.

Granted, there is no way to enforce these recommendations because there is no way to monitor their implementation. It doesn't matter who says it, what they say, and how they plan it. Ultimately, the gym you go to lives in its own deterministic universe, where the owners and the most active members have given the end results.

The biggest problem I see is the fact that the typical boxing gym is a one-stop shop for group and one-to-one classes. There is no real difference in the organization between a group of people who happen to do their own workouts and a group who follows the whiteboard routine that day.

That alone creates a number of logistical problems, and to be honest, it takes patience, diligence, and teamwork between members and employees to enable effective protocols to be implemented in a COVID-19 world.

So you have to ask two questions:

  1. Does your gym have written guidelines and protocols for cleaning and maintaining social distance? If not, why not?
  2. Does your gym offer alternatives for members who are either uncomfortable or at higher risk? Could it be distance learning, online training or even personalized sessions in a clean environment? If not, why not?

If not, why not follow up is pretty important. I can understand how difficult it will be for boxing gyms to cope in a COVID 19 world. But the attitude is important. You will still be in a closed environment with many other people for a considerable amount of time and the likelihood that a lot of air will be shared.

If bars have been responsible for the surge lately, how different is the setup from a gym? Many people come together and have a great time.

From a purely logical point of view, this is not the best situation, but reduce the risk and you have reduced the likelihood of an outbreak if someone is exposed to the virus. If damage limitation isn't even a consideration, this should be of great importance.

As I said, it is not up to the individual business owner to determine the fate of their members. It is up to you, the paying customer, to control your own risk. Make your decisions wisely and if nothing happens, it is success.

Can you work really hard to do nothing? It goes against your mentality, but that's exactly what it will need. Time will tell how successful box gyms will be in a COVID-19 world.

We hope that community really means more than letting a few people clap for you each time you get a PR.

You might like it too:

28 Jun
Blog

Is Your Gym Healthy? | Breaking Muscle

Is your gym healthy? - Fitness, clean gym, public security, viral, commercial gyms, ihrsa, covid-19, boxing gym

One of the great moments of the great pandemic was reading gym owners' social media posts explaining that they were not allowed to open, but bars for health reasons.

No one should seek medical advice from someone who is not a medical professional, or assume that the guy who just made you lift your body weight is a health professional.

Let us clarify that. Most gyms were all about looking good naked first, and then everything else. Let’s not pretend that bringing society to gyms is a salvation for society because it only sounds selfish.

All of these gym owners can correct the future situation by figuring out how to make their gyms safe for use in a pandemic world and how they can be part of the long-term solution to chronic illnesses rather than pitch pitching. It won't happen, but it's nice to think that things could change for the better.

Does that sound cynical? Well, maybe, but it's the truth and it's not the gym owners' fault that they are in the situation they are in.

They would probably like to have hundreds of members who pay them for walking or being more active, rather than lifting their weights after them or cleaning their room.

Because yes, most healthy activities and chronic disease reduction can be achieved without a membership of USD 150 per month or a group class of USD 20 per session.

But that's not why you're there and part of the problem and part of the solution if you only agree to be. You want this membership and you want it in a boxing gym because it has a different meaning for you.

Your gym is approximately 2,500 square meters, maybe more, maybe less, but it's not a huge, cavernous room. They have some bars and rings, dumbbells and squats, kettlbells, dumbbells, ropes and things that look well stacked on the wall. It's a dark, moody prison yard, but you love it.

You will be the type of person who spends a good hour or more in this small gym, sweats profusely, breathes heavily most of the hour, and does so with little time for the intricacies of fitness etiquette.

You drop weights, you run around, you drip sweat, you spray sweat, you are with your community of moisture freaks to the bitter end when the last bell rings.

Yes, you are probably healthier than most people. Although you would probably do the same thing whether it is healthy or not. In fact, you don't do it because of your normal physical condition, that's nice, but you do it because of performance, the need to lift more, develop a new skill, or even compete. You go to your boxing gym even if you are injured because it is your rite of passage.

And this is where the boxing gym dilemma opens up. They are not like the Globo-Gyms, in which treadmills and equipment take up every square meter and in which about 80% of the members never show up.

They are reducing their cholestrol by having these $ 20 monthly payments in their accounts. It reduces the stress of thinking about the actual work of the training.

Boxing gym visitors are more likely than any other gym visitor to spend most of their time in their gyms (there is an article about New Your Time that makes this clear). They are the one percent of the gym that goes public. That's about 600,000 people across 5,000 gyms (an average of about 120 people per gym) in the United States alone.

After being blocked, boxing gyms are under pressure to be safe places like they were never really designed. It's a fact, it's not insurmountable, but it can't be done by the gym owner alone.

As a member, you have to be so committed that the environment is safe for everyone. The big question is whether you are up to the task.

The health and safety problem for gyms

The International Health, Racquet & Sports Club Association (IHRSA) has a vast amount of information that it provides to its members, the owners of health clubs, about best practices for creating a safe environment.

Granted, there is no way to enforce these recommendations because there is no way to monitor their implementation. It doesn't matter who says it, what they say, and how they plan it. Ultimately, the gym you go to lives in its own deterministic universe, where the owners and the most active members have given the end results.

The biggest problem I see is the fact that the typical boxing gym is a one-stop shop for group and one-to-one classes. There is no real difference in the organization between a group of people who happen to do their own workouts and a group who follows the whiteboard routine that day.

That alone creates a number of logistical problems, and to be honest, it takes patience, diligence, and teamwork between members and employees to enable effective protocols to be implemented in a COVID-19 world.

So you have to ask two questions:

  1. Does your gym have written guidelines and protocols for cleaning and maintaining social distance? If not, why not?
  2. Does your gym offer alternatives for members who are either uncomfortable or at higher risk? Could it be distance learning, online training or even personalized sessions in a clean environment? If not, why not?

If not, why not follow up is pretty important. I can understand how difficult it will be for boxing gyms to cope in a COVID 19 world. But the attitude is important. You will still be in a closed environment with many other people for a considerable amount of time and the likelihood that a lot of air will be shared.

If bars have been responsible for the surge lately, how different is the setup from a gym? Many people come together and have a great time.

From a purely logical point of view, this is not the best situation, but reduce the risk and you have reduced the likelihood of an outbreak if someone is exposed to the virus. If damage limitation isn't even a consideration, this should be of great importance.

As I said, it is not up to the individual business owner to determine the fate of their members. It is up to you, the paying customer, to control your own risk. Make your decisions wisely and if nothing happens, it is success.

Can you work really hard to do nothing? It goes against your mentality, but that's exactly what it will need. Time will tell how successful box gyms will be in a COVID-19 world.

We hope that community really means more than letting a few people clap for you each time you get a PR.

You might like it too:

16 Apr
Blog

Don’t be an AskHole | Breaking Muscle

Do you ask "strangers" about your training online? Post videos and get technical advice? I bet you're even the type to follow the sheep with the ideals that best suit you. The comments that allow you to subside or the path of least resistance. Congratulations, you are an askhole!

Best defined as someone who constantly asks for advice and yet always does the exact opposite of what you have been told. In this case, you interviewed a large group of the population and chose the easiest way.

And against the popular opinion here … Professional athletes are not always the best people to ask. They are talented in their sporting skills, are trained by a qualified expert in the field and can only speak for what works for them. That doesn't make her a trainer.

Accredited and valuable trainers do not become like this with a weekend course and spend their entire career learning. From courses to reading magazines and studies to guinea pigs or working with other trainers and groups to help you get the most out of you.

In my 17 years as a coach, I still learn and pass on things. I use scientifically sound principles for the many successes of my athletes. Don't even let me start with subscription-based generic robot programming!

Before following Karen's advice, which works for her and could still injure you, you should investigate whether Karen is qualified enough to offer you free social media coaching without any background information about your fitness level and skills.

Not all experienced, trained coaches cost an arm and a leg, some of us do it for the growth of the sport. You may even find one that only helps you with your technique. Welcome to the digital age where you don't have to have the same zip code.

Can we agree to end the social media madness and focus on building the machine to have the healthiest, strongest, and fastest season yet? I'm cheering you on!

15 Apr
Blog

Don’t be an AskHole | Breaking Muscle

Do you ask "strangers" about your training online? Post videos and get technical advice? I bet you're even the type to follow the sheep with the ideals that best suit you. The comments that allow you to subside or the path of least resistance. Congratulations, you are an askhole!

Best defined as someone who constantly asks for advice and yet always does the exact opposite of what you have been told. In this case, you interviewed a large group of the population and chose the easiest way.

And against the popular opinion here … Professional athletes are not always the best people to ask. They are talented in their sporting skills, are trained by a qualified expert in the field and can only speak for what works for them. That doesn't make her a trainer.

Accredited and valuable trainers do not become like this with a weekend course and spend their entire career learning. From courses to reading magazines and studies to guinea pigs or working with other trainers and groups to help you get the most out of you.

In my 17 years as a coach, I still learn and pass on things. I use scientifically sound principles for the many successes of my athletes. Don't even let me start with subscription-based generic robot programming!

Before following Karen's advice, which works for her and could still injure you, you should investigate whether Karen is qualified enough to offer you free social media coaching without any background information about your fitness level and skills.

Not all experienced, trained coaches cost an arm and a leg, some of us do it for the growth of the sport. You may even find one that only helps you with your technique. Welcome to the digital age where you don't have to have the same zip code.

Can we agree to end the social media madness and focus on building the machine to have the healthiest, strongest, and fastest season yet? I'm cheering you on!

30 Mar
Blog

Morning Mobility Check-In | Breaking Muscle

Check-in for morning mobility - fitness, mobility, morning, self-assessment, exercise at home, at home, staying fit

Last week I wrote that mobility – the ability to move and move freely and easily – is not a separate facet of fitness. Mobility is rather an expression of your fitness and informs you of your reality from moment to moment.

Just as the martial arts masters insist that we have to be able to get cold, and Kelly Starrett's famous analogy describes how a leopard must always be ready to make a living, how you can move at every moment of your life ?

Getting out of bed fresh in the morning may be the ultimate test of your true mobility. If a group is only as strong as its weakest member, You are only as mobile as your stiffest moment.

To add some practical tests and actionable advice to this theoretical consideration, I am offering a mobility check-in this morning. In this video I describe and demonstrate three quick movement sequences that you can perform at any time of the day and / or fresh out of bed in a few minutes.

We are most used to paying attention to our movement patterns in the gym. Similarly, we measure our physical abilities against PRs and other measures that are taken after we have carefully prepared and warmed up.

When you follow these quick mobility sequences, pay attention to what you feel in your body. This can tell you a lot more than you might find in training and can provide valuable guidelines for controlling your movement practice.

Check out this list of fun workouts and simple exercises you can do at home.

29 Mar
Blog

Morning Mobility Check-In | Breaking Muscle

Check-in for morning mobility - fitness, mobility, morning, self-assessment, exercise at home, at home, staying fit

Last week I wrote that mobility – the ability to move and move freely and easily – is not a separate facet of fitness. Mobility is rather an expression of your fitness and informs you of your reality from moment to moment.

Just as the martial arts masters insist that we need to be able to get cold, and Kelly Starrett's famous analogy describes how a leopard must always be ready to make a living, how can you feel at any moment of yours Moving life?

Getting out of bed fresh in the morning may be the ultimate test of your true mobility. If a group is only as strong as its weakest member, You are only as mobile as your stiffest moment.

To add some practical tests and actionable advice to this theoretical consideration, I am offering a mobility check-in this morning. In this video I describe and demonstrate three quick movement sequences that you can perform at any time of the day and / or fresh out of bed in a few minutes.

We are most used to paying attention to our movement patterns in the gym. Similarly, we measure our physical abilities against PRs and other measures that are taken after we have carefully prepared and warmed up.

When you follow these quick mobility sequences, pay attention to what you feel in your body. This can tell you a lot more than you might find in training and can provide valuable guidelines for controlling your movement practice.

Check out this list of fun workouts and simple exercises you can do at home.

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