Is This Really For Me?

[Zach Nielsen]

I am very interested in this, but to be honest, I am rather skeptical, but willing to be convinced!  Here are my "defeater" objections.  

1.  I am 40 years old and have never been able to touch my toes.  Genetically my whole family has total lack of flexibility.  

2.  Chronic back pain between the shoulder blades and lower back.  It has gotten a bit better from doing rows on the rowing machine.  Running helps my lower back feel better.  I assume this is mobility related.  Chiropractic care for six years didn't really help.  Wasted money!

3.  Chronic pain in my elbows from doing pull-ups for many years, especially through p-90x.  They pretty much hurt all the time at a low level that is annoying.  I got rather strong doing p90x, but seemed like my back pain and joint pain was exacerbated.  

4.  My body isn't exactly ideal.  I was born with slumped shoulders naturally and knock knees.  

5.  I am concerned that a video format will be good for showing me what it should look like, but how do I know if I am doing it right?  I don't have someone next to me who knows what they are doing, able to tell me what I am doing wrong if I am doing something wrong.  For example, I'm sure a professional could show me how to do these moves without joint pain, but if I am by myself or with a partner with no experience trying to help me, how can I know this will work?

6.  I am willing to work hard over the long haul, that is no problem.  As long as I can see little by little results.  P90x was great in this way.  I got stronger than ever.  But my body hurt.  At age 40, the "hurting" tends to just increase.

7.  I am rather in shape but my mobility sucks.  And my joints hurt.  I was an above average high school athlete in basketball, but that was 22 years ago.  

What do you think?  Thanks for enduring my concerns!

Zach

[Coach Sommer]

Hi Zach,

Great questions.  I like the way your mind works.

- Many adults who have come thru the GB doorway have never been able to touch their toes and now can.  Orench who is the lead male instructor in the GB Fundamentals videos was one such.  When I first got him six years ago, he was a complete wreck.  Shoulders hurt, back hurt, chest hurt, elbows hurt, hips hurt, knees hurt - basically everything hurt.  He was very strong, had no mobility whatsoever and was in constant pain.  What he did have however was an insatiable curiousity, a drive for improvement and an eye for detail.  Which has led him to where he is today.

I regularly get messages from people who are so excited to now be touching their toes for the very first time in their lives.  It will take time.  And it will take patience.  But what it will not take is intensity.  Consistency will be the key here.  And an attitude that is measured in months, rather than days or weeks.  The journey begins with Fundamentals.  Then you may add in either the stretch courses or Foundation 1 or both depending upon your degree of commitment to training.

- I would suspect middle trap atrophy due to a lack of proper strength focus, lack of scapular mobility and lack of thoracic mobility.  The traps and the serratus anterior are the primary muscle groups responsible for holding the shoulder girdle onto the body.  They have to be fed thru exercise in order to be healthy and functional, otherwise they simply wither away - painfully.

- Symptomatic of working to muscular fatigue and ignoring connective tissue developmental needs.  'No pain, no gain' is only a short term game plan at best.  In order to achieve long term success, 'no brain, no gain' needs to be embraced as the order of the day.

- It is what it is.  It's not like you can run down to the store and pick up a brand new you.  My attitude has always been that we are not responsible for the situation/talents/deficits we are dealt in life; we are however responsible for doing our best with the hand we have been given.  Besides it's the only game in town.

- Tons of customer support in place for you.  In fact I know of no other fitness company anywhere in the world who goes as far with customer support as we do.  The course is designed with follow along videos.  You may contact customer support at anytime to request curriculum clarifications.  In the next few days, you will be able to privately submit videos of your training for a brief video analysis.  There are private course forums available with literally thousands of members all discussing the materials on the same journey as you overseen by highly trained Forum Coaches.  You may also submit video in the private forum for evaluation by your peers and the forum coaches.  Later in Foundation One/Pro+, your daily workouts are custom generated follow along videos that are actually created expressly for you based upon your current progress thru the course.  

- I would disagree that your previous experience of having pain throughout the body represented progress of any sort.  

The immediate task at hand will be rebuilding balance within your body.  Developing patience within your training and embracing reasonable rates of development.  There are no miracle cures.  It took time to break your body and it is going to take time to rebuild it.  Be prepared for your strength training to go into maintainence mode while addressing your mobility deficits becomes your primary focus.

There is no way to foresee where you are going to be one or two years from now and how much or how little progress you will have made.  Whether you will stay the course or will drop off part way along the journey.  We can however, with absolute certainty, ascertain exactly where you are today; and it sounds as though it is a painful, nonfunctional place that you no longer wish to be.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

[Si Hoang]

Hi Zach,

welcome onboard!

I was halfway through writing you a reply but Coach beat me to it with a more informed and better written one.

All I can add is that I am only a couple years behind you and know exactly where you are as I am not that far along either, still overcoming my injuries of the past. I have been consistently working the Foundation course alongside my physiotherapist assigned exercises for the past 6 months and can say with complete certainty that my body has not felt this good since I was 18. I am looking forward to seeing where I will be in 12 months time.

I suggest giving it a go. I really believe that considering where you are today in terms of the condition of your body, you won't regret it.

Good luck!

[David Rioux]

Hi Zach,

You most likely are going to have many responses to this post, here are a few things to consider.

1. Flexibility and mobility have much to do with neurological patterning, until now you probably haven't practiced movements to enable you to touch your toes, this program is a system of movement practice. This not just exercise.

2. Strength & Mobility need to be developed together for health. Chiropractic care can help with mobility, but chronic issues will remain if you are not stronger than everything you do on a daily basis or you activity takes you to your limit of your range of motion. 

3. There is a imbalance in your forearm strength, and because gymnastics requires high levels of forearm strength Coach has great exercises to address this. Your programing will also change moderating fatigue which will help control inflammation you have developed from focus on repetitions under time limits. These exercise have helped other athletes & occupations susceptible to elbow pain like rock climbers and construction workers.

4. You weren't born with anything other than a human body and immediately started practicing poor movement. Here you will learn to practice good movement patterns.

5. You'll be able to video yourself and send it in to the forum for evaluation. Dialog with members on the forum will lead to corrections in your PRACTICE.

6. Sometimes, progress is slowed down because someone is not working hard enough, but to start with relax your mind and focus on reading and reviewing as much as you can from this site and above all be consistent with your practice. No matter your age the human body cycles and adapts, you will show improvement with the practice of better movement skills. This is not participating in gymnastics, it is skills pulled from the sport of gymnastics to promote essential human movement. Movement skills you have been suffering without.

7. You are not in "shape" if your mobilty sucks and your joints hurt.

I have heard it stated best, "the fitness industry is confused"& till now you have focused on exercise, but here you will learn how to move well. Most of the industry has no knowledge of what they do. They tell you much in completed error because you don't have the education or experience to know any different. You are led to believe you are on program for strength when it is more suited to develop some endurance and only little strength.  Your told more repetition is better under limited time, then you develop injury because you are not strong enough to endure the fatigue that is induced upon you. Your also fooled into thinking you're stronger just because you can continue to squeak out one more repetition. You would be best served to start gauging your strength and mobility by positions you can achieve for a single repetition. Touching you toes for the first time or single press handstand pushup freestanding later in the future if you can't perform one now. 

I have used the material on this site to help contruction workers and rock climbers to get past their joint pain. Everything in this site has proven to make functional results on most anyone. Even someone with a permant injury or disability could select and benefit from what ever movements they could participate with.

David Rioux

[Daniel Taylor-Shaut]

Hey Zach,

Have you looked through the forum posts at all? 

Seems that there are quite a few 40 year olds coming to GST at a later stage and trying to figure it out. There is strength in numbers. Anyways, I thought it may be of some help and clarify your concerns.

[Zach Nielsen]

This is all SUPER helpful.  Thank you!  My wife and I are starting today!  Heard about it from the Tim Ferris podcast  

Zach

[Parkerson Seward]

I'd also be curious as to what your diet is like. Proper nutrition and a few key supplements could also help with the pain and soreness as you begin Foundation, etc.

[Zach Nielsen]

Parkerson, I would be interested in any ideas you have along these lines.  Generally speaking, we try and eat mainly whole foods.  Not much refined sugar.  

[Daniel Taylor-Shaut]

1 hour ago, Zach Nielsen said:

Parkerson, I would be interested in any ideas you have along these lines.  Generally speaking, we try and eat mainly whole foods.  Not much refined sugar.  

Hey Zach,

There's a nutrition program with GB that is quite effective for training purposes. Especially if you and your wife are jumping in together.

[GoldenEagle]

Here is all I am going to say...

Take a good look at the planet we all live upon and realize how young you still are.

[Jim Small]

Hm. 40 seems like a spring chicken to this 62 year old!

I also listened to the show and am thinking about this as well. I'll post on the regular board.

But Coach is right, take care of the body now and don't beat up your joints. Your lifespan is probably another 50 years!

Jim