Posts by Chris Grotefend
Stretching: The Important Element of Exercise You Forgot About
Our muscles can do two things-contract (shorten) and extend (lengthen). Most folks tend to get hyper focused on either the strengthening part or the extendability part, usually depending on what they are good at. You will see people who build muscles well in the gym lifting weights. Alternatively, people with excellent flexibility generally enjoy yoga…
Read MoreCoordination: You’re Not Just Born With It
Many people believe that as we get older we begin to lose our ability to balance. This may have been the case for previous generations, but I would say they just didn’t practice. Our nervous system is worthy of our attention because it is infinitely trainable. The different movement systems interact with each other and…
Read MoreHow I Learned the Importance of Breathing Well
The Life Changing Day As an aspiring young fitness professional in the early 90s, I stumbled across a gentleman named John Douillard from Boulder, CO. He was a presenter at a convention in Copper Mountain and I was fortunate to get some one-on-one time with him. He took me out to the running track and…
Read More6 Health Reasons Not to be a Mouth-breather
It turns out that our nose is on our face for more reasons than sneezing, smelling the roses and blowing! It also gets the job of being our primary breathing apparatus. Here are six reasons to focus on using your nose for most of your breathing. Hydration– When we take in oxygen through the nose,…
Read More3 Reasons Cardio is Essential
Cardio is breathing efficiency and effectiveness. It’s ingesting and expiring oxygen into and out of the lungs. There are two places through which we ingest oxygen, the mouth and the nose. The nose is the most efficient and effective thing to use for breathing. Hydration, thermo-regulation, circulation, nervous system integration and filtration are the primary reasons it…
Read MoreUse this ONE Simple Breathing Technique to Ignite Your Parasympathetic Nervous System
Do you ever feel your brain behaves like a runaway train? Anxiety, depression, and stress are reaching unprecedented levels today and all three of these are the by-product of addiction to compulsive thinking. This mental dis-ease is caused by an overactive mind that is not coherent. Unfortunately, in our society, there has been no one…
Read MoreAre You Swimming Upstream in Your Life? Read this.
A river seems solid at first glance. We all know it is not. Whether it’s a lake or an ocean there is not a single molecule that isn’t moving at all times. Our bodies are exactly the same, at first glance we seem solid, but there is not a single cell that isn’t constantly moving…
Read MoreGenetics Don’t Dictate Aging. Your Lifestyle Does.
I was speaking with an ‘elderly’ woman, who to me is very obviously NOT conforming to current standards of aging. I was struck by an explanation of aging that this amazingly vital woman gave me, including pictures that depict young people as standing up straight, middle-aged people with shoulders rounding forward, and elderly people just…
Read MoreThis is How You Can Be In “The Zone” All The Time
Human performance is a fascinating interdependence of mind and body. In sports performance, both team and individual, the “mental” aspect is a key player. A significant amount of focused alertness, combined with grace and ease, is a consistent combination we see from great performers. This refinement is rarely taught by coaches. This is due to…
Read More4 Ways Cardio Does More For You Than You Might Think
There are so many conflicting things we hear daily about health and fitness. In the next few articles, I will attempt to clarify the what’s, the why’s and the how much, for you in your personal quest for optimum exercise prescription and creating the life experience you choose. Myth 1: WEIGHT LOSS. We do…
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