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As girls, we were taught to revere the bra. It symbolizes a rite of passage — that day when we can slip one on and take one step closer towards womanhood is an important day indeed. Most girls can’t wait to buy their first bra, not because it’s more comfortable (most of the time, it […]
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Potentially controversial statement alert: burgers are the most perfect food.
Hear me out.
Burgers are delicious. They are portable. As meat goes, ground beef is relatively affordable. It takes less than 10 minutes to cook a burger on the stovetop or grill. Kids and adults like them equally.
Most of all, they are endlessly adaptable. Burgers are the vanilla ice cream of main dishes: great on their own and also a perfect canvas upon which to build your culinary masterpiece.
The problem is, since burgers are ubiquitous in the fast food world, they sometimes garner an unfair reputation for being unhealthy. Not so! Sure, a drive-thru burger isn’t the world’s healthiest food. Nor is it the worst by a long shot. In any case, there are ways to take a basic burger and build a healthier meal.
It’s time burgers ascend to their rightful place in the food hierarchy—at the top, obviously. First, though, let’s give them a little glow up to make sure they are as nourishing as possible.
Primal folks know this already, but it still has to be said.
A few short years ago, ancestral diets were labeled as fads. Today, every restaurant from fast food to fine dining offers lettuce wraps like it’s no big deal. What a shift! Iceberg lettuce is the most common bun substitute, but don’t stop there. Try red romaine or Swiss chard. Collard greens are my favorite. Try blanching them to make them softer and less bitter (see below).
Bun lovers can make grain-free buns, of course, but who says you need to eat burgers with your hands, anyway? Cheeseburger salad is the best way to enjoy a burger if you ask me.
Mark has been beating the drum about grass-fed beef and why it’s superior to CAFO-sourced meat for as long as MDA has been around. That’s not the only way to upgrade your burger, though.
From a nutritional perspective, the best thing you can do is add organs to your burger. Coarsely chop a few ounces of heart, liver, or kidney in a food processor, then mix it into a pound of ground beef before cooking. You won’t be able to taste it and neither will your kids, wink wink.
Pro tips: Quickly saute the liver or kidney before grinding it for a better texture. Heart can be raw or cooked. Your butcher might even be willing to grind it for you.
Don’t limit yourself to beef, either. Bison is almost exclusively pasture-raised, has slightly more protein and less fat, and is richer in omega-3s compared to beef.1 Lamb makes excellent burgers, too. Bison and lamb are usually more expensive than beef, so try a 50/50 blend to stretch your dollar. Poultry isn’t as nutrient-dense as beef, but for variety, maybe include a turkey or chicken burger on the menu now and then.
Iffy condiments are usually the biggest strike against restaurant burgers, especially mayo or mystery sauce that are probably made with soybean oil. I happen to know a source for mayo, ketchup, mustard, and other condiments made only with ingredients that the Primal community would approve.
When you’re dining out, be willing to be that person—the one who asks for their burger to be lettuce-wrapped with no condiments and then pulls a bottle of ketchup or barbecue sauce out of their bag when the food arrives.
Besides being a delicious source of mostly monounsaturated fats, avocados deliver prebiotic fiber to support a diverse microbiome.2 They may also help mitigate any postprandial inflammatory response to your meal.3
Yes, I know there will be an extra charge for that avocado. Worth it.
One of my favorite things about burgers is that you can transform them in countless ways by adding different toppings. Balsamic glazed onions, mushrooms, and Swiss cheese? Yes, please. Blue cheese and buffalo sauce? Don’t mind if I do!
Use burger night as an excuse to add a variety of colorful vegetables to your plate. Think outside the classic lettuce-and-tomato box:
You can even mix vegetables directly into your ground beef for variety and flavor. Try finely chopped mushrooms or shredded carrots or beets. This is also a great way to use beet or turnip greens if zero-waste is your thing.
Don’t worry, carnivores, I haven’t forgotten you. Double or triple down on your burger by stacking corned beef, pastrami, bacon, eggs, or even pulled pork. I can’t say that this makes your burger healthier per se, but tasty? Absolutely.
The top of this post is a bit tongue-in-cheek, but in all seriousness, I’m struggling to think of another food that checks all the boxes: adaptable, delicious, portable, Primal-friendly, and kid-approved. Tell me why I’m right or wrong in the comments!
The post How to Turn a Burger Into the Perfect Food appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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I hated studying for certification tests. Right after college, I took one of the more reputable certifications for strength and conditioning. While preparing, it wasn’t very reassuring to memorize concepts the test-makers thought was more important than I did.
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The pull-up might be the best measure of overall strength and fitness. As a simple measure of strength, it’s unmatched; you’re actually lifting and moving through space and time an entire human body. It targets almost every muscle in the upper body, and more than you’d think in the lower body. If you want to build muscle or lose body or just get fitter and stronger, there’s no getting around doing a pull-up or two or ten. If I had to choose one upper body exercise to do for the rest of my life, it would be the pull-up.
Pulling your entire weight is hard, though. The vast majority of average people walking around in this world are unable to do a single unassisted, high-quality pull-up. And half of those who think they’re doing pull-ups are doing them completely wrong, setting them up not just for suboptimal results but life altering injuries.
Today, I’m going to tell you why your pull-ups aren’t working and how you can improve them.
Here are some common mistakes people make when doing pull-ups.
The fix: Be strict.
This is about mastering the strict pull-up, not any of the other momentum-driven varieties. That means pulling your body with intention, avoiding momentum, and using only the strength of your upper body.
The fix: Brace yourself.
As with most other exercises, maintaining a cohesive line running from head to toe is important. Tighten your glutes, brace your abs. You’ll find yourself forming a “hollow” body position, with a slight curvature running through your spine. These kinds of pull-ups are actually harder (no kicking or momentum allowed), but they’re more rewarding and get you much stronger, much faster.
The fix: Chest to bar.
A full pull-up occurs when your chin goes over the bar, but using “chin over bar” as a cue can sometimes lead to people leading with their chin or straining their neck to clear the bar. A better cue is “chest to bar.” Even if you don’t actually touch your chest to the bar, you won’t feel compelled to compromise your neutral head position just to get your chin up and over.
The Fix: Locked elbows at the bottom.
Lock your elbows out entirely at the bottom of the pull-up. Not only does this makes the movement stricter, harder, and more beneficial, it also takes the strain off from and fully unloads the bicep tendon. If your elbows are still flexed at the bottom, your bicep tendon never gets a break from constant tension.
The Fix: Drive elbows toward the floor.
As you ascend from the bottom, imagine driving your elbows into the ground. This is a great cue for engaging your lats and back muscles, rather than just pulling with the biceps.
The Fix: Try different hand positions.
There are several different ways to position your hands during the exercise. Overhand grip (hands facing away from you) pull-ups are the classic form and probably the most difficult variety. Underhand grip (hands facing toward you) chin-ups may be the easiest and incorporate more of the biceps. Neutral grip (hands facing each other grabbing two parallel overhead bars) pull-ups are the gentlest on the shoulder capsule. If you have shoulder pain or mobility issues, neutral grip is worth a try.
What if you can’t do more than one or two pull-ups?
All you need is one.
Every time you pass the pull-up bar, do a pull-up or two. Every single time. If you’re greasing the groove at the gym during a workout, just do pull-ups in between sets of other exercises. One or two here, one or two there. Keep each rep crisp. Don’t struggle. You should be resting long enough between grease the groove sets that you’re fresh every time. You’re building neuromuscular pathways that make the movement easier and more efficient.
Ladders are simple ways to build a lot of volume. If you can do 2 pull-ups, here’s how a pull-up ladder workout looks.
1 pull-up, rest 30 seconds, 2 pull-ups, rest 30 seconds, 1 pull-up, rest 30 seconds, 2 pull-ups, and so on.
If you can do 3 pull-ups:
1 pull-up, rest, 2 pull-ups, rest, 3 pull-ups, rest, 1 pull-up, and so on.
If you can only do 1 pull-up, just do sets of 1 with 30 second rests.
Continue the ladder until you feel failure approaching. Keep the reps crisp.
What if you can’t do a single full pull-up?
Not to worry. There are ways to get there.
If you have access to an assisted pull-up machine, you can use that to build up to a full, unassisted pull-up. Attaching a resistance band to the bar and looping it underneath you to start pulling you up is another way.
You can also use a chair or stool to apply a counterbalance. Place the chair just in front of the pull-up bar, and lightly rest one foot on it as you do a pull-up. If you want more assistance, allow a bit more of your leg’s weight to rest on the chair. If you want less assistance, allow less weight to rest on it.
Jump up and grab the bar and do a pull-up, using the momentum from the jump. Gradually titrate down how hard and high you jump, giving yourself less of a boost each workout until you’re barely using any momentum, and then none at all.
Stand on a chair or bench and get yourself into the top position of a pull-up (chin over bar, chest touching ideally) and hold yourself up over the bar, slowly lowering yourself and accentuating the eccentric.
The post This is Why Your Pull-ups Aren’t Working appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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When you ask people what foods they learned to cook first as a child, most often they’ll tell you scrambled eggs. Even though a kid can do it, there’s a lot of variation to your scrambled eggs. They can be dry or watery, fluffy or flat. That goes for other egg methods too – there’s a big difference between an overcooked hard-boiled egg and a perfectly jammy egg. So, I put together a tutorial on how to cook eggs perfectly, no matter how you like them.
Eggs cook quickly and are inexpensive, so you can try your hand at a cooking method you’ve never done before! If you mess up, you’re out a few pennies and a few minutes, and you can try again.
Let’s start with the most intimidating of the cooking methods: poaching eggs.
For poached eggs, you want to use super fresh eggs. A fresh egg will have a firmer, tighter white that will stay together better when poaching.
Fill a pot with water no greater than 2 inches high, about the height of a teaspoon if you measure it from the tip of the bowl to the beginning of the spoon handle. Bring the water to just barely a simmer and add a pinch of salt. You should be able to see some bubbles at the bottom of the pot.
Using a meat thermometer, watch for your water to come to around 190 degrees. Then you’re ready to go.
When you can maintain 190 degrees, crack an egg into a small ramekin. Use a large spoon to swirl the water in the pot to break up any bubbles at the bottom of the pot.
Spin the water gently with the spoon in a circular motion around the inside of the pot to create a small vortex so there’s a still spot of the water in the middle and the rest of the water is spinning around it.
In this middle spot, gently press the ramekin into the water as you are pouring the egg into it. Watch your fingers – the water will burn! The lip of the ramekin cup should go under the water as you pour the egg in. The egg will swirl in the pot and the egg white will start to solidify. If the white part is loose and starts to travel around the pot, gently spin the water around the inside edge of the pot again with a spoon to encourage the egg white to stay together.
Set your timer for around 4 minutes. At the four-minute mark, use a slotted spoon to gently pull the poached egg out of the water. The egg is done when the yolk has a nice spring to it and still feels soft and liquidy in the middle, but the white is pretty firm.
Poached eggs are delicious on so many things. We served ours on toasted sweet potato slices, arugula, and topped them with a pinch of salt and pepper. Gently cut the poached egg open while it is still warm so the warm yolk can run over the sweet potato toast.
When boiling eggs to make hardboiled eggs, soft-boiled eggs, or jammy eggs, it’s best to use eggs that have been in the refrigerator for at least 2-4 weeks, as they will be easier to peel. (If you bought them at the grocery store, there’s a good chance they’re that old by the time they get to you.) Use the float test below to make sure your eggs are still good!
Fill a pot of water about half full with water and a pinch of salt and bring it to a boil on your stovetop.
Once the water is boiling, add your eggs and set your timer.
Set up a bowl filled with ice and water. Once the timer goes off for your soft or hard-boiled eggs, use a slotted spoon to take the egg out of the pot and plunge them into the cold water. This will help the egg yolk stop cooking. Allow them too cool in the water for around 10 minutes.
Once the eggs have cooled, gently place the egg on a hard surface (we used a cutting board) and roll it back and forth to help the shell crack in a bunch of different places. Carefully peel the cracked shell away. Sometimes running the egg under lukewarm water when peeling helps.
For jammy eggs, slice the egg in half lengthwise. Enjoy as is, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, or spoon out the silky yolk onto a slice of bacon or sweet potato toast.
For hardboiled eggs, pack for breakfast or snacks, or slice in half and serve alongside sliced avocado or crispy bacon.
In a small bowl, whisk together 2-5 eggs and a pinch of salt and pepper if you’d like.
Heat a well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Once hot, add 1 tablespoon of avocado oil or butter to the pan and swirl it around. After adding the oil or right as the butter is just melted, pour the eggs into the pan so they fill the entire diameter of the pan.
Just as you see the edges start to set against the side of the pan, use a silicone spatula to move the soft egg from the edges to the center of the pan. As you drag the egg from the edges to the center, some cooked egg will be pushed to the center, while the uncooked egg will be displaced to the edges, cooking the egg slowly.
Continue dragging the edges of the egg toward the center of the pan and add about another ½ tablespoon of butter cut into small chunks to the pan. This part is optional, but it helps make the eggs extra creamy.
When the egg mixture is still a bit runny but beginning to firm up slightly, begin folding the egg with a silicone spatula by folding the edges of the egg towards the middle of the pan. This will encourage the egg to cook gently without breaking up the egg into a bunch of tiny pieces. After doing this a few times, turn off the heat and continue folding the egg to the center of the pan to encourage light cooking. The eggs are finished when they are soft and silky. They should have a little gloss to them and be creamy, but still mostly cooked.
Remove the egg from the pan to stop it from cooking and place it on your plate. Top them with a pinch of salt and pepper and serve alongside your favorite breakfast foods. We served ours with an arugula salad and a few slices of crispy bacon.
In a small bowl, whisk together 3-4 eggs and a pinch of salt and pepper. Arrange any fillings you want to use in the omelet (we used chopped up roasted broccoli and shredded cheddar cheese).
Heat a well-seasoned cast iron pan over medium heat. Once hot, add a tablespoon of avocado oil or butter to the pan and swirl it around. Right after adding the oil, or after the butter is just melted, pour the eggs into the pan so they fill the entire diameter of the pan.
As the egg cooks, you will see the edges of the omelet turn from translucent to opaque. Lower the heat slightly and watch the egg continue to cook. Once the egg begins to bubble and parts of it begin to firm up slightly, add your toppings to one half of the omelet.
Carefully flip the half of the omelet without toppings directly on top of the half with the fillings. Allow the egg to cook for an additional 45 seconds to 1 minute.
Use a spatula to carefully flip over the omelet and allow it to cook for an additional minute or so, or until the egg is fully cooked and the cheese filling inside is melted.
Place on to a plate and cut in half, if you’d like.
Tip: Sunnyside eggs are a little finicky and the time to prepare one to another may vary based on the temperature of the pan, size of the egg, freshness of the egg, etc., so feel free to adjust the time it takes for the white to set.
Heat a well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Once hot, add 1/2 tablespoon of avocado oil and swirl it around. After swirling the oil around in the pan, gently crack an egg into the center of the pan.
Allow the edges of the egg white to set and turn from clear to white, but the egg whites around the yolk should still be very runny. When you see this, drizzle a tablespoon or two of water to the pan around the edges of the egg white.
Quickly cover the pan with a lid. Once you hear the water you added sizzle aggressively, turn off the heat. Keep the lid on the pan for 45 seconds to a minute or so, then take a peek at the egg. When the egg is finished, the egg white should be fully set but the yolk still liquidy. If the white around the yolk is not yet set, cover the pan again. If the yolk starts to film over with white, you’ve cooked the egg a little too long.
Serve your egg as is, or dip a piece of bacon or sweet potato fry into the yolk.
Heat a well-seasoned cast iron skillet over medium-low heat. Once hot, add 1/2 tablespoon of avocado oil and swirl it around. After swirling the oil around in the pan, gently crack an egg into the pan. If you are making multiple eggs at a time, use 1 tablespoon of avocado oil and crack a few eggs into the pan at a time, trying to confine them to different areas in the pan.
Allow the whites of the eggs to mostly set. You’ll see the whites begin to bubble as they firm up. Once the white is fairly set, carefully flip the egg over with a spatula. The whites near the yolk may still be shiny and not set yet, but as long as the edges are set and the whites are bubbling, you should be able to flip the egg over without an issue.
Allow the egg to cook on the other side. Use a finger to feel the yolk in the center of the egg. When it feels firm and no longer springy, the yolk is firm and fully cooked.
Repeat with more eggs, if desired. Serve with your favorite sides.
Tip: For an over easy or over medium egg, simply cook the egg for less time before removing it from the heat. For an over easy egg, the yolk should feel liquidy when touched. For an over medium egg, the yolk should feel springy like a ball of fresh mozzarella.
While there are some less toxic non-stick cookware out there compared to the past, we think a well-seasoned cast iron skillet is a great primal option. It is durable, heats evenly, and cooks eggs quickly. For boiling and poaching, a stainless steel saucepan works best.
There are a lot of tutorials out there on how to make eggs in different ways, but I find that at least for methods like scrambling and frying eggs, you see mostly non-stick pans are used in tutorials and videos. Don’t shy away from cast iron! It’s intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it will become your new favorite.
Whenever possible, opt for pastured eggs. Chickens that are pastured have the best chance to eat not just packaged chicken feed, but also bugs, roots, and other scraps that make their yolks rich and nutritious. Here’s an article with details on how to choose the best eggs for your family.
Local farmers and farmers’ markets are a great place to find quality eggs. You can also talk to them about how they raise their chickens, what they feed them, and maybe buy some other proteins or veggies from them.
You can often tell the difference between a store-bought and farm fresh egg by looking at the yolks side by side. A fresh egg yolk will have a rich, deep yellow to orange color, while mass-produced eggs are a much paler yellow. ,
Keep in mind that farmers can add items like marigolds to chicken feed, which artificially turn their yolks more golden or orange.
Eggs in the United States are refrigerated because their protective shell layers are washed off in preparation to be sold. If you get eggs from a farmer or your neighbor, ask if they’ve been washed.
Unwashed eggs are shelf-stable for about two weeks, and they keep for up to three months in the refrigerator.
Eggs have a decent shelf life in the fridge, but how do you know if an egg is still good to use? Oftentimes, eggs can be used beyond their sell by date, but to be sure, I use the float test.
Fill a large jar with water and carefully place the egg into the water.
If an egg has spoiled, you’ll know the second you crack it. The rotten egg smell is so strong that there’s a good chance you’ll have to open your windows and leave your house until it clears. When in doubt, use the float method. It’s not something you want to experience.
The freshest eggs aren’t always the best option for every egg preparation.
For 1 Large Egg:
Calories: 70
Fat: 5g
Saturated Fat: 1.5g
Cholesterol: 185mg
Protein: 6g
Carbs: 0g
The post How to Cook Eggs Perfectly, Every Time: Poached, Sunnyside Up, Jammy, and More appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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Hey folks! You may have noticed something a little different this Friday. Weekly Link Love is now our New and Noteworthy series. We’re following the same format that a lot of you have been reading for over a decade now: it’s a collection of interesting reads I found around the Internet over the week. Enjoy!
Research of the WeekThe interaction between alcohol sales, crime, and how long a baseball game goes after the 7th inning.
Spending money on your pet might make you happier than spending money on yourself.
CEO facial aging responds reliably well to market and business stressors.
Soybean oil causes changes to the microbiome that look atherogenic.
Strength training is enough to reduce liver fat, even without weight loss.
Episode 475: Dr. Al Danenberg: Host Elle Russ chats with ancestral periodontist and Primal Health Coach Dr. Al Danenberg.
Episode 476: Ryan Baxter: Host Brad Kearns chats with Primal Health Coach Ryan Baxter about the power of nasal breathing.
Health Coach Radio: Meredith McCarty thinks you might just be your own bottleneck.
Will Princepal Singh be the first Indian in the NBA?
Cows: part of the solution.
What one person learned helping thousands get off anti-depressants.
The app that lets you sabotage your own Zoom meetings.
Can Covid change your personality?
This looks bad: Controlling for energy intake, added fructose or sucrose increases liver fat; added glucose does not.
Interesting article: Lost in Thought: The Psychological Risks of Meditation
What do you think?: Is it time for a lockdown on sugar?
This is interesting: Vaccine passport roadmap for the EU.
Great news: More HDL, lower covid severity.
How are you training lately?n
One year ago (Mar 5 – Mar 11)
“As a retired Latin teacher, I am completely in love with etymology! My favorite and very applicable Latin word used in English is addict. We live in a world full of addictive substances. Ad means to or toward (think advance). Dict, like diction or dictation, means speak. When you’re addicted, that substance keeps speaking to you!”
-Fascinating, Cynthia.
The post New and Noteworthy: What I Read This Week — Edition 122 appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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It seems counterintuitive to fear the very thing you want. But let me assure you, fear of success is real and there’s a good chance it’s what’s holding you back right now.
You’re familiar with the fear of failure, right?1 Those of you who’ve had a major setback or flop in one or more areas of your life probably know this one pretty well. That fear of feeling disappointed, embarrassment, shame, or even public humility can stop you in your tracks.
Fear of failing isn’t the only thing that keeps people stuck though. Spoiler alert, it’s not a lack of willpower or motivation either.2 Like a lot of challenges in life, the issue is rarely the thing you think it is.
It’s not success itself you’re afraid of, but the potential price you’ll have to pay for it. I see this a lot in my health coaching clients. Their fears often manifest as anxiety around the changes and consequences that may occur if they were to knock their goal out of the park. Even before we really get started in our sessions, they’re obsessing over the regular workouts, the uncomfortable conversations they’ll be having about why they don’t eat bread, the glaring they’ll get from envious friends who no longer want to associate with them because they’ve “changed.”
Sure, there are a lot of obvious reasons to want success, but depending on your environment, your level of self-efficacy, and your internal self-talk, your fears around it may overrule your actions 3
Humans love routine. So much so, that you might be apprehensive about anything that’s outside your comfort zone — or your ability to control it. Because of that, you might actually be resisting opportunities and sabotaging your own success because you’re scared of what will be different if you succeed.
It’s a scary proposition to believe that it’s possible to have everything you want in life, especially if self-doubt plays a recurring role in your psyche. But let me be the first to tell you, that you can have it. In fact, you deserve to have it and you can totally handle whatever changes come up.
As I mentioned, one of the most common reasons you could be consciously or subconsciously sabotaging your own success is the fear of change. The brain loves predictability — and that unpredictability is enough to derail anyone’s well-intentioned plans from the get-go.4 Other reasons you could be fearing success are:
Maybe it’s the way your family talks harshly about people who don’t eat “regular food.” Maybe it’s your internal dialogue that tells you that you’ll always be a “snacker” or uncoordinated. Or maybe you did get your health on track at one point but had an awful experience — and doing it again would be too painful to do again.
The original theory about Fear of Success came from a doctoral dissertation by M.S. Horner, specifically around women and success, in which she studied the relationships between the motive to do well and need for achievement. In her research, Horner used a modified Thematic Apperception Test that relied on verbal prompts, instead of visual cues, then assessed her participants’ reactions to the scores.5
She found that 65% of the women responded negatively to placing high on the test due to their perceived negative consequences associated with success, reporting that “women, in general, learn early on that success in certain areas represents deviance from the prescribed social norms and results in social criticism.”
Keep in mind this study was conducted in the 1970’s and we’ve come a long way since then, but fearing success in one way or another is common in both men and women. And really, I’d argue that it’s been holding us back for way too long.
If you want to get past your fear of success, you’ve got to get clear on what’s causing it. You might already know the source, or perhaps you didn’t even realize you were self-sabotaging. Either way, these steps will help you work through what’s stopping you so you can start moving forward.
Really think about it — the positives, the negatives, and everything in between (there’s no wrong answer here). The key to moving ahead is to acknowledge where you are, so take 20 minutes to jot down any possible consequences of losing the weight, getting stronger, or whatever it is that you’re working toward. Things feel a lot more overwhelming when they’re circling around in your head and this is a great way to nail them down and see what limiting beliefs are holding you back.
Depending on your goal, you might be adding more tasks to your already full plate. Or you might get more attention. Or maybe you’ll make some people jealous. Self-doubt plays a huge role here, so consider this your friendly health coach reminder that you have what it takes to handle any of the consequences that come your way. You’ve handled change before, and you can absolutely handle it again.
People spend so much time worrying about the “what ifs.” But what ifs are all we’ve got. Instead of trying to control every outcome, have faith in the process and find peace in the fact that there will always be changes in life, whether you self-sabotage or not.
Describe the characteristics of someone who’s excited to get up 15 minutes early to make themselves an epic protein-forward meal. Or lovingly high-fives themselves in the mirror. Or prioritizes walking because it makes them feel amazing. Keep a running list of these characteristics, review them daily, and begin to feel what it would be like if those characteristics belonged to you. And if self-doubt starts to creep back in, review step 2.
Heck, be okay with flat out failing. Take this quote from inspirational author, Anthony J. D’Angelo who said, “In order to succeed you must fail, so that you know what not to do the next time.” Or this one from Thomas Edison, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Adopt a growth mindset when it comes to your goals, knowing that setbacks and failures are just opportunities to learn how to get better at whatever it is you’re doing.
Right now, you’re establishing new habits that will bring you closer to your goal. Take a little pride in those new habits and remember that even if you’re taking baby steps, you’re totally lapping everyone else who’s stuck in their old ways. Listen, if your goal is to stop drinking soda, the idea of going Coke-free all day probably sounds scary, so start slow, decreasing one habit (soda) and increasing another (water). One day you’ll look back and be amazed at how far you’ve come.
Depending on where you’re at, the road to success might be paved with a lot of self-reflection, but it’s 100% worth it if you want to stop self-sabotaging and finally start living. Follow all six of these steps or try a few on for size and see what happens. Let me know in the comments what works for you!
References
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Everyone needs to squat.
The squat is a foundational human movement pattern and resting position. Watch a young child study the ant trail on the ground, and they don’t bend over to gawk at it. They squat down and sit in that squat position comfortably for as long as it takes. Watch Hadza tribesmen cook and share meat around the fire. They aren’t sitting on camp chairs. They aren’t standing awkwardly. They’re sitting in a squat, comfortable as can be. Go to many Asian countries and you’ll see regular people, even elderly people, sitting in a full squat as they wait for the bus or visit with friends.
To squat is to be human. It is to explore and inhabit the full range of our body’s motion. It is to remain mobile, agile, and effectively young. If you can achieve and sit in a full squat at age 70, you’ll be in the 99th percentile and, hopefully, avoid most of aging’s physical ravages and functionality degenerations.
Squatting is also an incredible exercise that targets every muscle in the body, particularly when you do so with added weight. Glutes, hamstrings, quads. Core, lumbar, traps. For that reason, squatting is incredibly anabolic, meaning it provides a total-body hypertrophic stimulus. Anecdotally, people report growing muscle everywhere after picking up a regular squatting habit, even those muscles that aren’t directly involved.
But whether you’re squatting just to maintain the ability to move into that position or squatting to train, you need to do it with proper form.
The basic form for squats, whether you’re carrying a load or doing with with just bodyweight:
This can vary. What I like to do to determine the optimal distance between the feet for squatting is to take a step, gather your feet, and imagine you’re about to jump as high as you can. Stop, and look down at your feet. How far apart are they? That’s a good place to start. But for most people, this will be about shoulder width.
Toes should be pointing mostly forward, with some wiggle room (5-20 degrees). If you have “duck feet” and your toes flare out far to the sides, you run the risk of your knees caving inward and seriously shortchange your power (and safety). The wider your foot stance, the more your feet should be turned out.
With the feet planted, “screw” your right foot clockwise into the ground and your left foot counter-clockwise into the ground.
This can also be described as “spread the floor.”
A squat doesn’t work very well if your core is fluid and floppy. You need to be a solid, cohesive piece. That means having a flat back, engaged abdominal muscle complex, engaged lumbar muscles, and a neutral spine. You need to brace before you squat and stay tight throughout the entire movement.
The neck is part of the spine. Don’t forget to keep a neutral head position.
You “sit back” when you squat, as if you’re reaching for a chair behind you with your butt. You break at the hips first, not the knees.
Your knees should line up with your feet. If you find your knees caving inward (valgus), which can be devastating to your knee health, the cue “knees out” will help.
Keeping your chest up will help you maintain a neutral spine and “aim” you in the right direction as you rise from the squat. This becomes especially important when you have weight on your shoulders.
Some people will get all the way ass to grass before their form breaks down. Others will barely break parallel before their back starts rounding. Go as low as feels safe.
What are some common squat mistakes and how can you fix them?
The first joint to “break” in a movement is the joint that accepts the majority of the load. When attempting a squat, the average person with no experience squatting and a lifetime of sitting in chairs will start bending the knees before the hips. This places the bulk of the load on the knees, a relatively weaker joint.
If you break at the hips first, you place the bulk of the load onto the posterior chain/hip complex, which is much stronger than the knee joint.
Imagine there’s a chair behind you and you’re reaching back with your butt to find it. That’s how a squat should feel, and it’s how you cue yourself to break at the hips.
As I mentioned above, your knees should stay in line with your feet during a squat. When they cave inward, also known as “valgus,” you disrupt the transference of force, almost like putting a “kink” in a hose.
Valgus knee during a bodyweight squat might not be catastrophic. It can actually be a normal movement pattern in a resting squat, especially if you know what you’re doing. But with added weight or at a high speed, knee valgus is a great way to tear a meniscus.
To avoid knee valgus, think of the cue “knees out.” Another good cue is “press the lateral heel,” meaning feel and focus on the outer half of your heel pressing into the ground. Doing so will enforce your knees staying in line with your feet.
When your calves are tight, your ankle dorsiflexion (bringing toes toward shins) is poor. Squatting with poor ankle dorsiflexion is a bad idea for a couple reasons. First, if you can’t dorsiflex, you won’t be able to keep your heels on the ground. You’ll come up onto your toes, which can place a ton of undue pressure on the knee joint—especially if you’re squatting under a load. Second, you’ll have a hard time keeping an upright torso posture. Some “lean” is normal and expected, but squatting with really tight calves will force you to lean so far forward that you drop the weight or bend at the lower back.
Fix your calves before you do any serious squatting. Work on your ankle mobility.
People can have their torso in the right position, perfect knee placement, good hip drive, but their head and neck are all over the place. To fix this, pick a spot on the wall ahead of you and keep your eyes on it throughout the movement. This mitigates your tendency to look around and move your head and neck out of neutral.
I see this a lot. Rather than rise up from the squat as a single cohesive piece, people will rise with the hips while leaning forward at the torso. This turns the squat into more of a deadlift or good morning, and it takes the legs out of the equation and places a ton of stress on the lower back.
Think of “chest up” as you rise and you will ascend as a single cohesive piece.
Remember how I said to get your core and back and entire torso tight before you squat in order to create a cohesive lever for moving the weight?
All too often people will get under a bar, accept the load on their shoulders, and then try to brace. Your body is already compromised with the weight; you can’t truly get tight with 300 pounds on your shoulders. You have to get tight and brace before you accept the weight.
When you only squat to parallel, you are placing a ton of stress on the knee. Research indicates that the greatest compressive and shear forces acting on a knee during a squat occur at 90 degrees, or parallel. Beyond 90 degrees (deeper), the compressive and shearing forces actually get smaller.
Now consider that people are able to squat a lot more weight when they only go to parallel, so they’re placing a ton more force on the knee than the person who squats past parallel with less weight.
It’s probably safer to stop short of parallel than it is to stop at parallel.
The descent of a squat should be controlled. If you’re dropping or collapsing into the bottom of a squat, you are more likely to get injured, get slack, and get sloppy.
Slower down, faster up.
I hope this article helps your squat, whether you’re trying to lift heavy or simply improve your mobility as you age. Happy squatting!
The post Proper Squat Form: Common Mistakes You Might Be Making appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
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