Month: August 2022
Relationships and Adventures on Two Wheels with Jenny Johnson of CYCLERIE | Ep. 76
Live LOUD Life Podcast
Lafayette Colorado
Episode 76
EP. 76 | Relationships and Adventures on Two Wheels
With Jenny Johnson of CYCLERIE
Jenny Johnson is the founder and president of CYCLERIE, a children’s cycling education company based in Erie, Colorado. There is a huge decline in kids outdoors doing organic play that is healthy. Therefore, CYCLERIE was born from a need to have children to get outdoors and getting them to appreciate the nature and the open air, rather than turning to their iPad or TV screen
Jenny Johnson created CYCLERIE in 2019, and it launched in 2020. They offer bike programs like camps, kids’ cycling training, and events. Today, CYCLERIE not only attracts people from the Erie community but also from Lafayette and Broomfield.
Episode Highlights
00:38 – Jenny Johnson’s motivations for founding CYCLERIE
02:50 – Overview from CYCLERIE’s Learn to Pedal and Adventure Bike camps for kids
03:41 – How COVID impacted CYCLERIE
08:02 – A tip for getting your child to ride a bike
09:51 – Biking trails to consider taking your family
13:30 – What to consider when buying a bike for your child
17:45 – Other biking events and camps to consider for children
About Jenny Johnson of CYCLERIE
Background:
- Founder and President of CYCLERIE in Erie, Colorado.
- Passionate about children’s outdoor lifestyle.
Check Out Some of Our Other Blog Posts and Podcast Episodes
Dr. Antonio Gurule 00:09
Awesome. Well, welcome back to the Live Loud Life podcast. Today I’m sitting down with Jenny Johnson, and we’re going to be talking about her newish-
Jenny Johnson 00:19
2020
Dr. Antonio Gurule 00:21
Okay, 2020. Newish, but been around for a few years. But what they’re doing in the local community East Boulder County, Weld County, with biking and family. So welcome.
Jenny Johnson 00:32
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 00:33
Yeah. So talk to us a little bit. It’s called CYCLERIE. What is CYCLERIE?
Jenny Johnson 00:38
Yeah, CYCLERIE. CYCLERIE, the name, was sort of tossed out there. It’s French for the word cycling. So it’s kind of a play around words, Cyclerie. I didn’t know that at the time because I’m a Spanish person more than a French person. But that was kind of a fun twist. But it’s Cyclerie meaning, you know, based in Erie, tried to circle around the Erie Community. But also, we get a lot of people from Lafayette and Broomfield. I created it, probably in 2019. It had been brewing for a while, but 2020 was when we launched it.
01:17
I always had neighborhood kiddos coming over to our house, and we were constantly just kind of exploring together on the bike. I was kind of the fun mom, but it was something I love to do. So I thought, you know, a lot of these kiddos aren’t getting the chance to go outside. Or maybe their parents are busy, or they’re usually just turning to an iPad or the TV screen. I started researching it, and there’s a huge, huge decline in kids outdoors in that organic play, which is so important in life. And as children, especially if you try to speak to a kiddo about climate change, when they’re seven, or you know, environmental facts, you’re just not going to get anywhere with a seven-year old or an eight-year old. So, or as young- our campers are as young as three and four. So but getting them outside in nature and having that experience just, I don’t know, it invests the value in them, I think, for future appreciation of the outdoors and just being a kiddo and playing.
02:18
And so that’s how CYLERIE started. And then the bike aspect of it is so cool because we’re able to get from point A to point B, much faster than we would walking or hiking. So it’s just more kids on bikes, and you get more adults on bikes by getting more kids on bikes. So that’s my philosophy is just getting more people outside in nature and building confidence.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 2:40
So walk me through a little bit like- so they’re on bikes- I think you just had a camp that just ended?
Jenny Johnson 02:50
Yeah. So we have multiple camps. Right now this summer, we had two. So we have a Learn to Pedal camp for the really young kids. They’re just maybe on training wheels. Or it could be older kiddos that just haven’t learned yet. And we’ll usually break those age groups up. There is a Learn to Pedal camp that’s Monday through Thursday, three hours in the morning. And then we have another camp, which is alternating weeks called Adventure Bike Camp. And that’s where what I was talking to you about, where we go somewhere. We have a destination. We usually meet at Star Meadows Park in Erie, and we ride to various nature areas. And then the last day of camp is Ice Cream day. So Dairy Queen, usually, but we try to hit up some other local spots if they’re open at 10 a.m.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 03:41
That’s really cool. I think that- obviously, that kind of self-developed or starting to develop in 2019, but then 2020 launch, if you will. I think that came around in a good time because so many kids were then yet put in doors for longer periods of time having to catch up with school based on COVID and everything, just being stuck. And or, you know, they’re kind of like hesitant about playdates because it was inside. So it’s like, this is all outdoors. It’s all exploration. And I think that’s so important, too, because so much of what we try to, at least, encourage for other parents, or at least for our own kids, is just that exploration model of just seeing where things go and develop.
Jenny Johnson 04:19
Yeah. I was devastated, honestly, in 2020 because I had been brainstorming this idea for several years, really, since my oldest, who’s now almost 10 started riding a bike. And then whenever March 1st, I was going to launch it 2020, and then that was right when the pandemic really was starting to become full swing. And I was just crushed, but like you were saying, turns out there was a bike boom, a whole bike, what are they calling it, evolution or revolution, that’s happening.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 04:50
You couldn’t buy bikes anywhere.
Dr. Jenny Johnson 04:49
Couldn’t buy bikes anywhere because so many families were getting out on bikes. And kids’ bikes were booming. I also sell children’s bikes. It’s not my primary business at all. It’s just more of a complementary aspect for kiddos that are at camp.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 05:06
Is it like specific types? Or is it like Striders for just like introductory type of stuff?
Jenny Johnson 05:12
It’s kid-specific bikes anywhere from the Strider size, which would be the 12-inch size tire all the way up to 26 inch tires for the older kids. So pretty much any kiddo that’s not yet able to fit an adult bike.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 05:25
Yeah. So that being said, obviously your passion for biking and kids. How would you- I mean, obviously, I think most people know Striders like the thing to do, but why is that such a beneficial tool for kids learning how and or, as a sidebar to that, should they be using training wheels at some point in time?
Jenny Johnson 05:48
Yeah, so, you know, I hate to say it’s one way or another because if you’re willing to get your kiddo outside, like whatever works for your family. However, from an expert’s point of view, training wheels are a lot harder to teach to balance. If they’ve been on training wheels before, I can always tell at camp, which ones are the Strider kids and which ones are the training wheels because training wheels are essentially converting your bike to a tricycle? You’re not really learning to balance. So if you can’t get a Strider, that’s even your size for your kiddo, if say they’re seven and they haven’t rode yet, you can always take the pedals off of any bike and turn it into a Strider bike. And that’s much more beneficial teaching them to use certain core muscles and balance rather than leaning from side to side.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 06:35
Yeah. That’s a good point. Now, I do have another question. Well, my oldest what he struggled with was he could kill it on the Strider. Like he could go down hills and do everything. But the point when then trying to get them on the pedals, he never could understand like propulsion was all like this. How do you then encourage kids, from a propulsive mechanism, to being here grabbing your feet and pushing versus understanding how the pedals actually work?
Jenny Johnson 07:03
Yeah. It’s tricky. It’s incremental, just like with anything. So a lot of repetition. There is some an option to bring a trainer bike, a stationary style bike that can set up where the bike is still stationary, but the kiddos are on the saddle getting that motion without going anywhere or with risk of falling, just like an adult does at spin class around a peloton. It’s a stationary bike. It teaches them the different cadences.
But when they’re really young, that’s hard for some of that to click. So we just incrementally go from picking our feet up, gliding, frog jumping, and then eventually they’re putting one foot on the pedal. So it may just start with that quick, they have a dominant side. And then it just natural progression and over. Usually our camps are four days, the private lessons I’ll do are usually three to five lessons, 30 minutes each, and it’s just that small incremental repetition.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 08:02
And well, the good thing about kids, too, is like they catch on to things mostly fairly quickly when you have the repetition. They just get it so fast. Yeah, well, it’s funny. Speaking of ice cream, my oldest, he was being a stinker about- we got on this because we bought them new bikes. We got him a new bike, it was bigger, all this great stuff. And he was kind of intimidated by it. And, you know, we kept asking him, it was like weeks until he even wanted to try it. So he’s into bribery. Like, “Hey, we’ll go get you ice cream if you go ride your bike.” And this was Saturday 8 a.m. He’s like, “Are you serious?” I’m like, “Yeah.” He’s like, “All right. Let’s go do it.” We went outside and he rode it like he’s been doing it for like a year. Just like that, he just took off.
Jenny Johnson 08:41
I hate to call it- yeah, it is bribery, and it almost always works. But I think part of it, too, is just autonomy, like giving them- they have the power and the vehicle to get to where they want to go. And once they figure that out, it’s pretty inspiring, I think, for them, even as an adult. I rode here, and it’s pretty nice.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 09:00
That’s, I think, the hard part as you had mentioned with kids like in commuting and stuff, sometimes you can have that opportunity. I would love to be able to commute every day to work just on the bike. I think it’s such an amazing. I did it in college. I lived at CU Boulder okay. I had a car. I think I put like 1,000 miles on my car in like the four years I was in college. I never drove anywhere. I rode my bike everywhere
Jenny Johnson 09:25
Then you run into people that organically you wouldn’t in a car because when we’re in a car, we’re-
Dr. Antonio Gurule 09:30
You’re shut off from everything.
Jenny Johnson 09:31
Not to say that I commute everywhere. I still use my car yeah a ton with three kiddos and multiple pickups, and we do activities in Boulder, but just having that ability when you have the time to go on your bike is pretty cool.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 09:44
So being now, so you’ve moved from Texas. How many years have you guys been here?
Jenny Johnson 09:49
Since 2018. So four years.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 09:51
So figuring out the area, I think a lot of people like to know, too, what are some of the more family-friendly. Most trails around here are family-friendly, but it could also be like elevation gain and things like that. What are some of your favorite trails around here to take let’s say like a family that either has someone on a Strider and/or learning to pedal but not too intense?
Jenny Johnson 10:13
Yeah, and you can- before I get to the location specific, you can bring a bike trailer and maybe get your kiddo to pedal halfway with the agreement, like hey, if you get tired, the bike trailer’s here. We can throw you a small bike safely in there with you and get from point A to point B. The Coal Creek Trail is very flat and docile. If you’re looking for more of a mountain bike trail, Heil Valley Ranch, H-E-I-L, Heil. People get it confused with Haul. Heil Valley and Boulder, they have a fun schoolhouse loop.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 10:46
Okay. I didn’t know that.
Jenny Johnson 10:46
Oh, yeah. It’s a mountain bike trail. So I probably I would think starting at like age four, maybe even boulder. You never know. [crosstalk]. Yeah, if your kiddo has never been on mountain bike trail, it’s a good starting point. There is some elevation gain, but Valmont Bike Park is great, too.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 11:05
Yeah, we love that one.
Jenny Johnson 11:05
Just to test out your skills, and you’re not far from home. The cars usually, you know, they’re in the parking lot if you need to go grab a snack. I guess the main thing is always bring snacks. That’s what we always say at camp, ride, snack, you know, game, ride, snack, game. And yeah, Coal Creek Trail. And also just if you have bike paths in your neighborhood, we have several where we are, but it’s kind of easy if you can go from the house or find a quick path to school. Before you take your kiddo out, maybe do some of your own research. I just say keep it simple and try to find somewhere fun that has a destination. It doesn’t have to be ice cream. We have a ton of fun. The kids love just finding any kind of water.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 11:47
Yeah, water is key. Anything they can [crosstalk]. That’s awesome. What have you heard of the TowWhee strap? That just reminded me.
Jenny Johnson 11:56
Yeah. I haven’t used one.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 12:00
Yeah, that was a huge game changer for us. My oldest, for some of our rides, because he could go far. And he actually- it was crazy. At four-and-a-half, we love going to Frisco for the marinas and we would ride from Frisco to BRAC. And his little legs, he rode from Frisco to BRAC and back. It was like 10 miles round trip. But some of those hills were tough and elevation’s different, too. So the TowWhee strap is a retractable toe strap, which is huge, because what we had used previously did not retract and it almost got caught up in the tire. So that’s super helpful. But even just small little things, we’re just like, hey, do you need a boost, hook up, and then pull them over the hedge and you can go. That’s a fantastic tool to have.
Jenny Johnson 12:43
You probably don’t want to hear this being a chiropractor, but I tend to push them up by grabbing their shoulders, which is so bad probably for your back.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 12:52
No. I do the same thing, too, because oftentimes you don’t want to hook it up.
Jenny Johnson 12:55
I’m like, oh, what did I do? That’s right. I pumped.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 12:57
You’re pushing them.
Jenny Johnson 12:59
Yeah, I’m riding up the hill pushing their back. We call it giving it a boost. Like do you need a boost? And I’ll do it for kids at camp, too. Even though it is Erie, there are still some significant hills. They’re not for kids. That’s the other aspect is getting a quality, lightweight bike is pretty key because imagine if you were or I were trying to ride an 80 pound bike somewhere, but that’s the weight to power ratio that we’re dealing with in some of the big box store bikes. And you would never expect yourself to be able to do that. And we’re expecting our children to do that and up hills.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 13:30
That’s a good point. We’ll talk about some of the- you had mentioned spikes you saw because that was some of the things we ran into is first and foremost, A, it was kind of tough when you have a kid, you’re like, well seems crazy to spend X amount on a bike when they’re, A, growing out of it fast or, B, just learning. But it has made a significant difference because some of the ones we had, A, they were heavy, B, being that they were used, not really tuned up well. So bearings are very dry and gritty and it’s cracked, to say the least. When you’re thinking it, you’re just like man, not even also having gears, their torque output or [crosstalk] based on torque is significantly change. What makes it so much harder for them, even when they’re just trying to learn. So what do you guys recommend?
Jenny Johnson 14:13
You know, if you can find a good use bike, if you don’t have the budget, because some of these entry-level kids bikes, say for a four- or five-year old can be $300 or $400 that are the high quality bikes. If you don’t have that upfront money, if you could look for a good quality used bike and, you know, obviously take it to the bike shop and make sure everything is functioning and safe. But if you do have the ability to get into the $400 or $500, depending on the size, market, you can buy that, hand it down to siblings. The resale value is excellent on the higher quality bike. So you almost always get back at least 50% of what you paid for.
I don’t want to drop any name brands, but I would just say that there are kid-specific design, not something from the bigger box stores. They’re designed specifically for children, meaning like their brake levers are the right size. Because so many times, you just go into these big stores and the brake levers, it’s a flashy looking beautiful bike, but they can’t even break and stop. I’ve seen that so many times. At camp, the kids or their parents will come to me, like, Oh, they’re just really timid. And I look and they can’t even stop on their own because the brakes are adult levers that they just throw in a kid’s bike and then throw it on the shelf and sell it with the cute basket.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 15:34
Yeah. That being said, do most kids bike from an early standpoint? Do they start with a coaster brake or are they trying to get more to lever brakes? Because I found maybe it’s because levers are too big, but I feel like just the grip strength of kids, it’s kind of challenging to pull levers. So is that partially why they have coaster brakes or are coaster brakes advantageous?
Jenny Johnson 16:00
I personally don’t like coaster brakes. But even some of the higher quality brands will put a coaster brake on their teeny tiny bike. But when you’re going downhill or if you’re in any kind of loose gravel, the coaster brake can cause you to skid. And when kids are naturally trying to find that cadence and that pedal forward, a lot of times they’ll pedal backwards and then they stop and they don’t know what’s going on. But you and I probably grew up with coaster brakes. We’re obviously totally fine. I didn’t learn ‘til I was, you know, a little bit older, five. But you see these two- and three-year olds riding and they’re able to grab the handbrake. You can adjust the brake, too, on the kid brakes so they can grab them a little easier.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 16:42
There is. If you have a bike that has coaster brakes, there’s a way to take the coaster brakes out. It’s actually not that hard. You just YouTube it. You just take apart the hub and you just take the pads out.
Jenny Johnson 16:51
Yeah, a lot of the companies that they sell they have a free wheel kit. If it comes with a coaster brake, you can buy the free wheel and swap it out whenever your kiddo is ready for that handbrake set. All the bikes that I used to teach with at camp and in my experience teaching tons of kiddos, they’re absolutely fine with the handbrake, even some Strider bikes now that have no pedals come with a great practice to teach them that because it’s the stopping power is also so much quicker. They can stop a lot faster with handbrakes than they do that the coaster brake action.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 17:23
And I think just, like you said, the coaster brake as they’re trying to learn that cadence is just so confusing when they’re thinking pedals move, I go forward, but then they go backwards, and then they stop and it just throws them all off. That was at least one of the tougher things for our kids. My son, though, now that he knows how to do it, he loves coaster brakes.
Jenny Johnson 17:43
You can do those with the handbrakes, too.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 17:48
True. So one camp just ended. How often do these camps run?
Jenny Johnson 17:53
So normally, it’s just the summer okay. And 2020, when school was out of session, we did fall programming and a lot longer summer session. But with the weather in Colorado in October, it can be dicey. We ended up having to cancel a few later fall sessions. But yeah, I might do a fall program. 90% sure of that just waiting for staff. I’m always unsure of- the staff that we have is usually college kiddos transitioning off to college or they just graduated high school and they move out of Erie after school. So once we get our staffing figured out, then we go ahead and open the program. So it’ll probably start in like September, October, and it would just be four or six weeks, once a week. So in the summer, we do pretty much daily, Monday through Thursday, 9 to 12. And then the fall would be once a week, just like you would go to dance class or you could go to soccer practice weekly.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 18:53
So that’d be like an evening class, not weekend?
Jenny Johnson 18:55
It’d be like an afternoon, probably like 4 to 5:30 is what we’ve done in the past.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 19:01
You guys ever go up to the Erie Bike Park with the age group?
Jenny Johnson 19:06
Yeah, we do. Our summer camp this year, we always have- naturally there’s sometimes more of an advanced group. And then there’s a group that’s a little more cautious. And so those breakout into two different age groups, advanced and beginner. So the advanced group this year, they went to the pump track because they’re able to ride longer, too. So from Star Meadows Park, it’s probably, I would say, five to six miles round trip to get to the pump track and back. So the group that wanted to hang out closer to home, we did that and still explored and saw, you know- we think of ice cream store that day we went nature discovery. And then the older kids were like, we really want to go to the pump tracks, so we made it happen. Sort of let them decide what they’re going to do and when there’s a safe route to get there. The pump track’s really fun. It is one of those places is where you just have to know the rules, which way to go, because there can be other kids there and it can be dangerous.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 20:06
I’ve seen a couple collisions there. But it’s fun. And the kids love that. It’s such a fun thing for them to do.
Jenny Johnson 20:13
Yeah. And it’s a great starting point, too, if you are thinking about doing some mountain biking. The pump track is a great way to just get used to the hills and gravity.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 20:21
That’s awesome. Well, I know it’s kind of in the infancy- well, not infancy. It’s been around for a couple years, but what are some of the- do you have any other plans or things with it moving forward that you want to be able to do with it?
Jenny Johnson 20:34
Yeah. I would like to get more grownups involved. So we’ve thought about doing-
Dr. Antonio Gurule 20:41
I think that’d be huge. Because I know like my- I mean, my wife knows how to ride a bike. But, you know, we’ve tried doing some mountain biking and stuff. And she’s like, I just don’t really know how to approach or deal with even obstacles and things like that.
Jenny Johnson 20:54
100%. I learned to mountain bike in Texas. So mountain biking in Colorado, I had to step up my game, big time. So I can see why the barrier to entry is there. because mountain biking trails in Colorado aren’t green trails always. And there’s this machine that you have to learn how to operate and make sure the tires are aired up and the chains lubed and everything has to be dialed. Then that’s half the battle just to get out on the trail. So I can see why there are a lot of people that are hesitant to get involved in the sport. So we’ve thought about having some clinics, obviously teaching families and parents. All right, here’s what to do if you get a flat tire. Here’s a flat tire clinic. If something were to come up, we’re going to give you the tools so you feel empowered to go out there. If something were to happen, you can change your flat.
21:42
Also, just basics in mountain biking classes, maybe just starting out with trail etiquette. Like if someone’s coming up behind you and you feel panicked or nervous, you don’t have to get over right away. You get over when it’s safe and announce when you’re coming. Just basic trail etiquette, just to feel comfortable. And then we’ll get to maybe more of the small drops or going over big hills or big rocks and roots. But yeah, that’s how I see it moving forward is doing some group rides, family group rides, then maybe some clinics, especially more for the moms that are involved, because there’s so many moms that come to me saying I don’t even know what bike to buy. What about the bike trailer? And what do I need to connect a bike trailer to my bike? Like there’s a lot of details? And I’m always trying to remember, okay, not everyone’s been doing this for 10 years. And this is new to everyone. So what may seem easy for some people, I just tried to break it down and make it open to everyone because there are so many people in the last two years that have gotten into cycling with the pandemic. And it’s sad to think that their equipment is just sitting in their garage because they’re feeling stumped.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 23:00
I think that I was thinking too. We saw a lot of people just like, What do I do? And then just bought it? And like you said, just kind of sits there and not actually being used?
Jenny Johnson 23:07
Yeah. So we’re thinking about- not just thinking. We are planning some programming and have that-
Dr. Antonio Gurule 23:15
And we’re going to have some races and all of that.
Jenny Johnson 23:20
Yeah. It does need a location to have a hub to get this all started. And then oh, man, I have so many ideas for the racing. I would like to call it events more than racing.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 23:27
Yeah, no, yeah. It’s great.
Jenny Johnson 23:29
You know, some kids just love the competition. And, you know, just having- giving to kids what we would have as adults, like a little podium and some pedals and just fun prizes, quality giveaways. That’s also on the radar, too.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 23:45
That would be awesome.
Jenny Johnson 23:47
Yeah. The single track is a little dicey to have a race there. For some kids, it can be intimidating, but it could be somewhere in like a flat field. It doesn’t have to have huge hills or jumps. If anyone has any recommendations or any opportunities that they’re aware of, please connect with me because I’m looking for some opportunity.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 24:05
Yeah, I’ll keep my eyes open. Speaking of races, there was an obstacle course race I recently saw on some random farm in East Erie near I25. Yeah, it was off a county road. It was off Erie Parkway. And south of that, and I was just like, what are these people doing? And they were running an obstacle course race out there.
Jenny Johnson 24:29
Okay. It may have been The Recess Factory.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 24:33
I didn’t look up what it was. I just saw an obstacle course.
Jenny Johnson 24:37
[crosstalk] open anymore, but it used to be like a mud run type setup.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 24:41
It was only like a month ago.
Jenny Johnson 24:42
Okay. Yeah, I’ll have to have to connect you with that person, but I’m pretty sure that would have been what it is. But yeah, but it was on foot, right? Like a foot obstacle
Dr. Antonio Gurule 24:51
Yeah. It was exactly like what you’d see like a Tough Mudder or Spartan Race, but it was just in this field out there.
Jenny Johnson 24:59
Because I know the RadRover event that the town does is really popular.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 25:02
RadRover, I have not heard of that. What is that?
Jenny Johnson 25:06
So RadRover, the town of Erie, they do that every- I think it’s July. It might be coming up- I’m not sure. Don’t quote me on the dates, but last year it was in July about this time. I think they used to try to have like a kids triathlon, and it wasn’t as successful. And so they just focused more on keeping it simple to RadRover, like one sport, and that seemed to do really well.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 25:27
So that’s a biking event?
Jenny Johnson 25:28
No, sorry. It’s an obstacle course event. It’s put on by the town of Erie, but I would like to do something like RadRover, but only do the bike instead of incorporating any kind of like swim bike run. Keeping it simple for kids that’s key.
Dr. Anthono Gurule 25:45
Yeah. Limit the variables.
Jenny Johnson 25:45
Yes. Yes. Yes. But kids’ triathlons do happen, but there’s a lot involved to get there.
Dr. Anthono Gurule 25:50
For sure.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 25:50
For sure. Yeah. Yeah. Well, also from just set up, but liability issues with water and stuff. That’s a whole another game.
Jenny Johnson 25:56
And I think just exposing kids to that, not even competition, but just hey, like, my neighbor is doing this. Like this is a normal thing. Like we go out and we run together and we have fun and we high five at the end. And, like, I don’t know, for me, I’m not super-fast, but I love doing little races, cyclocross events and things like that.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 26:19
I don’t even think of- I just think of two. Like we did the turkey trot last year and our kids had a blast. And it’s the thing that everybody does every there’s five knots and races all the time, but there’s really not- and granted, I think it’s harder to structure bike events like that because there’s road closures and things like that from my kids’ perspective. They love anything like that.
Jenny Johnson 26:39
And it can be small. Doesn’t have to be anything grandiose. And I don’t know, I just love the community aspect of events like that, whether I’m going fast that day or not. Yeah, like at the end, you know, everyone’s hanging out, it’s family oriented. So I pursue that for Erie.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 26:56
Have you done the Venus de Miles since being out here?
Jenny Johnson 26:59
No. I do cyclocross. And actually, funny enough, my kiddo got me into that last fall because it’s basically like riding a road bike on gravel. So it’s a unique kind of- richer in a way.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 27:16
Jump over obstacles, do crazy stuff.
Jenny Johnson 27:19
Yeah, you carry your bike. So I primarily mountain bike. I do some road biking, but the cyclocross was really fun. And most of them are in Boulder. I would love to see one in Erie because the cyclocross races have men’s, women’s, and little kids. And so it’s a family event that everyone can do on a Saturday.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 27:41
I think they could do. They just need to find or there’s enough open-
Jenny Johnson 27:45
Permitting and getting people out to Erie. I think a lot of people, in Lafayette too, I think a lot of people think this area is still like cows and pasture. But you know, there’s such a market for young families. And no, it would be great to not have to drive into Boulder for every event.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 28:04
That’s awesome. Well, I’m looking forward to seeing all those things come up. I think that’s going to be awesome. And we’ll keep an eye open for what happens for fall. And so I should say, before I forget because I’m always bad about this. How do people learn more? Where do they find more information? How do they connect with you if they wanted to get into the camps or just stay in the loop about when camps are, when events are, so on and so forth?
Jenny Johnson 28:28
Yeah, so it’s cyclerie.net, C-Y-C-L-E-R-I-E. cyclerie.net. I’m most active on Instagram. It’s @cyclerie. So you can find me there. I’m Jenny Johnson. I have a Facebook page as well and a website that has all of the program information. So we always have summer programs. The registration usually opens March 1. And if you’re ever interested in private lessons or getting a group of kids together, too, we do that year round as long as it’s not too cold. If there’s not snow on the ground, we’ll usually have our bikes out as a family
Dr. Antonio Gurule 29:04
And then do you guys have like a newsletter or anything? Or is that where most things are announced? Like if there are group rides or anything coming up or anything like that?
Jenny Johnson 29:15
Yeah. We’re actually kicking off a newsletter this fall. Previously had just relied on social media. But I know a lot of times that can just be inundated with so many events. So the newsletter and direct email is going to be our next method of communication for bigger events.
Dr. Antonio Gurule 29:32
Great. Well, thanks for spending time and sharing about this. I think this is awesome. I can’t wait to see how it builds and grows because we’re huge on just family bike rides together, too. We have the trailer, we have the TowWhee, we love packing up and just be like, Hey, we’re going to go somewhere new, ride, see what happens. So this is amazing what you’re doing.
Jenny Johnson 29:54
Thanks for having me.
–
Are you Dealing with Shoulder Pain? Best Shoulder Pain Relief Exercises!
Are you dealing with shoulder pain? Best Shoulder Pain Relief Exercises
Are you currently dealing with some sort of shoulder pain, whether that’s pain in the front of the shoulder, the top, or the back? Or is it a shoulder pain that only really comes around when you’re exercising or doing some sort of physical activity?
Shoulder pain is a very common condition, especially if you are an active person with a busy adventurous lifestyle.
For those of you who are dealing with shoulder pain, and who want to lead a LOUD, active life, this can be a big hindrance that prevents you from doing all of the things that you want to be able to do.
So, if you’re interested in:
- dealing with your shoulder pain
- fixing your shoulder pain
- understanding how shoulder mechanic’s work
- what can you do to make your shoulders more bulletproof and stronger
This is the blog for you!
PLAY VIDEO ⬇︎
Now, shoulders, because of the nature of the ball and socket joint, it allows for a lot of free range of motion, a lot of active range of motion, but because of that, many of us lack the basic stability that allows our body to move. Now, this is an important concept that we’ll discuss throughout the video.
Many become biased to only thinking physical therapists or orthopedics might be able to help with shoulder pain. But here at Live Loud Chiropractic in Lafayette Colorado, we are able to help you test and diagnose what is causing your shoulder pain. So if you want to once and for all fix your shoulder pain and issues please do not hesitate to reach out and schedule you initial consult and assessment. 303-717-6323.
STABILITY OR STRETCHING For Your Shoulder Pain
Stability is what is needed to allow your body to express mobility. So oftentimes, we’re stretching and stretching and stretching, hoping that that will help with our shoulder pain, when in fact, it’s not really getting us anywhere.
Now, while stretching might be beneficial.
You have to understand who, what, when, where, and why.
Who would benefit from stretching?
Why would you need to stretch?
What are you actually stretching?
And again, what’s the outcome we’re trying to get out of that?
Now what you need to understand is a proper assessment and an evaluation to determine the cause of shoulder pain.
Unfortunately, this is oftentimes mismanaged through simple diagnostic procedures, such as X-ray and MRI, assuming that there must be some form of a soft tissue injury or damage, that is eliciting the shoulder pain that you’re describing.
When many times this is, in fact, not the case. It usually breaks down to some sort of overloading principle, whether that is an overuse injury due to improper mechanics, due to an increase load variation that you just came across, or just not using it enough.
In this video, we’re going to break down and show you some of the common causes of why shoulder pain might be occurring, some of the neighboring attributes such as the spine that might be contributing to why there might be some shoulder pain, and more importantly, a few things that you can do that will help the shoulder pain that you currently have, whether it is acute or chronic. Now again, this is just a very sneak peek of what’s to happen. Because of the complexity of the shoulder, the shoulder issue, we really have to dive in to determine what’s best for you.
The Key to determining an overuse injury, for shoulder pain
As we were saying, in the intro, shoulder pain, outside of trauma, you’re going to be dealing with usually some sort of an overuse type of injury.
Now, the key to determining an overuse injury is having a very in-depth conversation to detail the programming or the load progression that might have led to the pain your shoulder has.
Right?
If you are someone who is doing Orange Theory, or Group Fitness, here are some questions to consider.
- When did you start?
- Is this something new?
- Did you increase your weight?
- Did you increase your reps?
- Was there an immediate spike in your loading progressions that might have just caused more acute overuse injury?
More commonly, we see nothing changed, but it was over months, if not years, the shoulder injury just started acting up more.
What this tells us is that there’s probably some sort of a range of motion, stability, or movement discrepancy that was adding more load to a particular area over time, thus creating this overuse injury.
It’s important if you are having shoulder pain that you go through an in-depth conversation with whomever your provider is to determine what that progression might have been like to better direct you.
Common Areas of Shoulder Pain
For the shoulder, we see a couple of common areas as your main hub of where the pain is:
- Front of the shoulder
- Top of the shoulder
- Back of the shoulder
Three Usual Main Causes of Shoulder Pain
When we’re looking at shoulder pain, there are three usual main causes that we will try to rule in or out during our evaluation at Live Loud Chiropractic and Coaching.
- When you have pain at the back of the shoulders it is usually some sort of rotator cuff, irritation, capsular tension, and or some sort of maybe tendinitis
- On top of the shoulder in the front of the shoulder, we’re going to be seeing the impingement type of issues. Whereas when you go to lift the shoulders, it pinches at the top here, creating pressure on tendons or other soft tissue structures and pain. And then bicep tendons similar could be part of that impingement syndrome process.
- But we also see this as a loading discrepancy meaning how you’re pressing, or loading the shoulder is causing more load to go to the bicep tendon, creating tendinitis and irritation
Movement Criteria to Determine the Cause of Shoulder Pain
At Live Loud Chiropractic, here are a few of the different movement criteria that we use to determine what the cause of your shoulder pain might be.
Basic range of motion
- Stand tall (this is important to look for cheats in other parts of the body)
- Bring arms up overhead
- Arms up from the side
- Arms reaching behind you
This is where we look to see if you have adequate range of motion to be able to perform an overhead press or other movements required by the shoulder.
Oftentimes, when people were performing either a stretch or something that they feel to be beneficial, and they have their arms turned in, that’s actually creating an internal rotation of the shoulder. That’s going to enhance impingement symptoms, which could then make something worse. So, we have a conversation around positioning based on the movements that you’re doing.
Push-Up Mechanics give a good look at loading mechanisms of the shoulder
Another movement that we want to test at Live Loud Chiropractic is a push up. You’ll want to do a push-up at an incline. This gives us a regressed format, especially if you’re having pain. This allows us to look at your position in a push-up type of holding pattern or even a plank.
What we see very commonly is a “dump” of the shoulder, that creates more tension on the bicep tendon. I.e. then creating bicep tendonitis. When you have tendonitis of the shoulder, it gets super irritated through almost anything you do.
Modified Cat-Cow to assess back mobility which may be the cause of your shoulder pain
We also talked about this with the neck pain video, if you have not seen the neck pain video and you’re dealing with neck pain, be sure to go check that out HERE.
The neck, like the shoulders, are directly attached to the mid-back.
So, if we’re dealing with a shoulder issue, we have to look at the thoracic spine and determine if there’s movement, range of motion discrepancies, whatever that might be, that might be creating our issue.
Here we will have you start on your hands and knees and sit back towards the heels. This is a modified cat cow. We’re going to do cat cow here, then extend now so we’re looking at mobility to determine if there are any catching spots.
Globally, it might look fine. From an isolated perspective, we might see some areas that need either more flexion or extension. Then we might do a kind of “Wag the Tail” motion. So that would be a side-to-side motion. This allows us to see how well the spine flexes laterally.
Then last but not least, we’re going to put one hand behind the neck, and then rotate up towards the ceiling. With this motion we can assess rotation. While rotation and lateral flexion might not seem directly correlated to the shoulder, we have to look beyond just our basic segmental sagittal pattern.
We know that sports, athletics, and even just training, there’s rotation and side to side movement involved, that would affect the position of the shoulder.
Impingement Syndrome Diagnosis for Shoulder Pain
So, impingement syndrome, again, is one of the main issues that you’re going to see in the front of the shoulder/top of the shoulder. When we’re dealing with this, similar to our movement mapping with our shoulders, we have to teach the body what we want and that is usually directed towards mobility restrictions.
Very commonly, people are coaching and queuing you to pull your shoulder blades back, back and down.
This is important for rows and pulling types of motion. When we are reaching forward and up that is actually counterproductive. If you are pulling your shoulder blades down and back that is opposite of the direction of up and over.
So, the main issue with impingement syndrome is the roof of the shoulder called the AC joint, creates impingement syndrome.
So when are thinking or cueing down and back you are restricting the AC joint and the roof of the shoulder creating more compression of the soft tissue under the AC joint.
Conclusion
If you’ve been dealing with some sort of form of chronic shoulder pain, or you’re just at a management level, “eh I can do most of these things…”
But there are certain things you just don’t want to do.
If you want to get back to those, please feel free to reach out to us here at Live Loud Chiropractic in Lafayette, CO.
I know these tools will help in the short interim, of helping with this kind of immediate pain. Still, shoulders being as complex as they are, you have to set up a framework in a progressive loading pattern to gain more confidence around various positions that are more challenging.
We’d love to be able to help you out with dealing with that shoulder pain issue that you’ve had for maybe even years.
Please feel free to reach out.
Let’s get you back to Living Loud with all the activities you want to be doing.
We’d love to help you!
EP|75 with Rebecca Bach of Mecha Fitness | Being Your Best Even When You Are At Your Worst
Live LOUD Life Podcast
Lafayette Colorado
Episode 75
EP |75 Being Your Best Even When You Are At Your Worst
With Guest Rebecca Baack of Mecha Fitness
About Rebecca Baack
Background:
- Owner of Mecha Fitness
- Diverse Training Philosophies
- Has an extensive background in the Colorado Fitness Industry.
Check Out Some of Our Other Blog Posts and Podcast Episodes
Can you be at your best, when you’re at your worst?
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
mecha, people, denali, cardio, summit, strength training, core, hiking, yoga, grit, locations, altitude, pandemic, fitness, training, love, add, guide, deadlifts, power
SPEAKERS
Anthony Gurule
00:29
All right guys, welcome back to another episode of The Live Loud Live Podcast based in Lafayette, CO. I’m here with Rebecca Bach. She is the owner of Mecha Fitness. we’re going to talk a little bit about her background, as she was sharing her extensive fitness journey in the fitness industry, especially in the Colorado area.We’re also going to get into some of her training philosophies. Finally, we’ll get in to some of the more recent adventures she’s been doing. I’ve been following along on social media, which actually looks really epic. We’re just gonna kind of chat and see what Mecha and you’re about. So thanks for having me. Yeah, so Introduce yourself. Give us a little bit about the as far back as the history if you want to. My name is Rebecca. I am the owner of Mecha Fitness in Boulder and Louisville two locations. I’m the co owner of 34 core power locations around the US and a co owner of Ape Co Movement school which is located in Boulder and in Edgewater down in Denver. When did you first start? You were the first franchise with Core Power correct? That was back I want to say mid 2000s. I opened core powers first franchise location, Broomfield east, okay, so over on 144 symbol, and then core power franchise for a while to a couple of their partners. Then they stopped franchising for a while I had I opened also the Flatiron small location, okay. And then I joined forces with some other co workers I knew from the telecom industry. So my background is in telecom, corporate strategy. And we combined our locations and then continued to expand. So in total, we have core powers in North Denver, South Denver, suburban Chicago, the Carolinas, Charleston and the Phoenix, Arizona area. Wow. That’s awesome. Yeah, a long time. Yeah, a long time. So I did that was the core power for probably like, little over 15 years. And then so you guys probably can’t see on the video here. But we’re sitting in a very different room than what core power would be. So walk me through what was the journey of starting Mecca? Like how did that transition into in now? What is this.
02:52
so I, there’s a lot, there’s a big journey on this. So core powers, corporate parents had exercised a buyout option of the core power locations. I’m part of that transition was set to occur in April 2020. And we all know what happened in April 2020. And so we kind of got stood up at the altar in that transaction, and then took them to court for that. And that’s still in the legal process right now with them. But as part of that journey, I could see that that was coming to an exit, whether I wanted it or not. Yeah. And started looking for other opportunities. Mecha was owned by two other owners. So I I’m not the founder of Mecha. It had shut down during the pandemic, like everybody had to you know, so I purchased it out of COVID shut down, and then reopened it. And then grew it to this location here in Louisville.
03:50
So obviously you had a very strong feeling about the possibilities of Mecha. Yeah, to be able to revive for Yeah, I tried it when I was at core power. So it used to be on the Pearl Street Mall, and it was called Coco fit. Not on the Mall area, but on the east East Pearl Street. And a lot of yoga teachers were were going there because they loved it because it’s similar to yoga and that it’s really slow paced and about mindful alignment, but more strength training focus to it. So I loved the brand. I love the concept back then, since then, the owners had added on the cardio element to it as well. So there’s a second, there’s kind of two concepts under one roof. So this this room that we’re sitting in, which is the low impact strength training room, and then the other room which is the low impact cardio hitt room so took that on and expanded it to Louisville in 2021. So I’m curious to get your perspective on this because someone who does not do enough yoga, but having conversations with those that enjoy yoga is a I think it’d be valuable to get your perspective for someone who has so much background in that, but yet also doing strength training. And then also seeing you do deadlifts and things like that. Right? We’ll get into that is, how do you where do you how I’m gonna say one is better than the other? But how does this benefit someone who strictly does yoga, thinking yoga? Is enough strength? And that’s obviously a very specific definition for the person. Sure, right. But I think enough people do yoga, we’re like, Well, I’m getting strength training through yoga, but I feel they need some more. So how could this be different? How would this benefit them?
05:35
Right? Right. I mean, I would say, like, the first principle is just do movement that you love. So if you love yoga, and it keeps you coming back, then awesome, keep doing yoga. At some point you sort of tap out on yoga, it’s all bodyweight-based in yoga. So you can’t add weight to it in any kind of realistic way. So you just get to a point where there’s no juice in the squeeze anymore. What’s nice about the resistance classes we have is it’s all spring-loaded tension. And so you can add weight as you go, you can constantly be progressing in this room. It feels, in your body, similar to yoga, and that it’s mindful and slow. So that’s really why I think people in some ways, I mean, they you know, yoga is awesome for a lot of different things to but it I guess, quote unquote, kind of graduate from yoga as their physical practice, because they just top out and you know, the bodyweight holds of it, and they need more resistance to
06:41
- Yeah, that’s, that’s such a good point. And like you said, there’s, it obviously depends on the goals, the context of the person. And yes, doing the thing that you enjoy keeping you back is huge. So that’s good. It’s a good stepping stone and into some other stuff. So then the cardio piece, which is in the other room right next to us, right? What are some of the equipment that are pieces of equipment or things that you guys utilize over there? Yep. So
07:03
we use Versaclimber. Over there, which now there’s not that many gyms around that use it and it is killer. It’s a great low impact, contralateral workout too, so good for your brain. You can add resistance to that machine as well. So you can do a resisted climb on it. So we use Versa climbers, we use assault bikes. So rogues assault bike, and which is common in the CrossFit industry, most people are familiar with that. But that is also killer piece of equipment. And then we use skiers, so a standing skier, platform, and then we have weights, free weights, we have a pull up rig, TRX, slam balls, all kinds of equipment. So you know, it’s different every day, depending on what day you come. And, but you’ll always be on those three cardio machines and doing like some kind of cardio challenge. And then some sort of floor work challenge as part of that.
07:52
That’s awesome. I mean, that was, I think that’s what’s so great. It’s just it, it gives you the taste of what people liked, but then also like diversification, because I know for me, and bias Lee, I have certain things that I enjoy more, and I don’t diversify enough, which is, you know, that’s another conversation. But that’s good. It’s good, because you can hit all those different things in such such a different time. Yeah. But for you and your training, you’re adding another layer to that walk us through some of the training that you currently are doing.
08:21
yeah. So I also do just heavy strength training. As we’ve talked about before, I have a gym in my garage. So you know, classic lifts, front squat, back squat, deadlifts, benchpress, you know, the classic ones. And so I like to do that as a compliment. Actually, I would say that’s like, my main probably my main focus is strength training. And then I’ll take resistance maybe twice a week. I like resistance because it’s unilateral work largely. So it’s good for stabilization of both sides of your body because as you know, as a strength trainer, you tend to in any move like a deadlift, like dominate into one leg. Yeah. And so you have to be you have to constantly be managing that trying to make sure both legs joints are equally strong and you’re getting like same tension both sides to prevent prevent injury or weightlifting, you know, so a lot of people love this room that do that kind of bilateral work like cyclists or runners so that they can work on one side of their body and the other and get symmetry. So I like this work for kind of my this is sort of my accessory in my core work yeah, and then I’m a big believer even though cardio is not my favorite thing to do. I mean, I love hiking, I will get cardio hiking, but hitting that like max heart rate threshold like one to two times a week just a minimum dosage, you know of a couple minutes of maybe some sprints or whatever it is that’s like really pushing your cardio threshold. I’m a big believer in that for just health and wellness and longevity in your life and also being able to then pick up when someone asks you if you want to climb a 14 or and it’s like right away no problem you know you don’t get altitude sick and it’s it’s fine. So
09:59
does Your training also include like a subset or baseline of steady state or is that just basically the hiking that you get? So yeah, is sufficient for that. Yeah. I mean, I would say that for steady state cardio, that’s when I just do the stuff I enjoy, like a walk with my dog or a hike or something like that. But yeah, I never just get on a treadmill or just, you know, go for 45 minutes or something like that. That’s not my, my personal preference. Yeah, that’s no, that’s great. I mean, and that’s what, that’s what so many people I don’t think are doing well, I see. I see. I feel like a dichotomy of not doing enough and or doing too much of it. We’re not seeing the balance of having some steady state. They think just redlining all the time. Oh, yeah, is the best.
10:44
Yeah, I definitely, you know, try to talk people out of that coming every single day to Mecha, taking Dell, you know, double up both classes, because what’s great about Mecha is the workouts are short, they’re only 50 minutes long. And they’re very intense. And that’s how I like if I’m going to, if I want an adaptation in my body, like hit the intensity really hard and do it for a short amount of time, like minimum viable product, you know, no more than that. Because then you get wear and tear on your body and just things start breaking down. And I think in Boulder County, in general, we all like fitness, because it’s like our mental health, too. So you got to be mindful about the overtraining, just like you said, because we actually enjoy it. You know, a lot of people just didn’t enjoy the fitness and can tend to overdo it.
11:29
For sure. Yeah. And I think I mean, the minimal viable product term is something I use a lot too, because it’s like, wow, we enjoy fitness. Like, wouldn’t you enjoy doing other things other than just fitness? If you can get what you want out of just doing this? Would that be enough? For sure. And most people would agree. But then yet they think, Well, if I get it out of this, if I do more than wholesale get more, right. But sometimes it goes the opposite direction. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. That’s a good point. So with that a lot of this has been obviously supplementing and supporting some of your recent adventures. Yeah. I’m curious to hear how some of those were. Sure. So what you’re referring to is I just I attempted to summit Denali. Let’s see that was last month. And my training for that was largely like strength training, a lot of spine stabilization and isometric spine strength. So a lot of one arm heavy, carries nice, you know, for a mile on the other eye, that is where you would use a treadmill sometimes. And strength training work for that, getting a lot of like load in the hips. So my hips could stabilize my knees, you know, work in that whole chain up and down. And, and then the, you know, cardio realm, because I needed to work that but sort of hypoxic state that you have to be in at altitude. And it’s a great way to do it in a short period of time. Like, it’s hard for me to do sprints, or like run outside sprints or something like that. So being able to do that on the Versaclimber where it’s not impact. And I could just completely gas myself and like hit that max heart rate threshold in 30 seconds, and just do that a couple rounds. That I mean, I went into Denali being just feeling really strong really fit until I got to the top. And when we crashed and burned, was it. Do you think it was sheer altitude? Factor? Yeah, for
13:25
sure. So I was starting to show signs of of high altitude pulmonary edema. Like I really fought for that summit hard. I got to summit day, I lasted, I don’t know, seven hours through summit day. So got through all the technical terrain. And you’re at your like the very last part, you’re literally like at the base of that final Hill, it’s maybe a third of a mile. It’s the first time you can actually see the summit from the entire time you spent on Denali, like you can’t see the summit until really right there. And I started having like wheezing, you know, with my breath. And like we were at a final break the break where you get to take off your backpack and go without your backpack. And that’s it, you’re done. And I was just like a puddle on the ground. And it like really terrible flu like symptoms, and the guide was like you still gotta get down. Yeah, so I don’t think you should I think like you need to just chill and rest and I sobbed. It was all I mean, I just was so crushed. And I was you know, I was also just crushed because the youngest guide had to stay with me. So I limited his ability to summit so I just felt terrible about that too. And that was super humbling. But then the hardest part was in getting down because all the technical part of the route I’d already done, so I had to get down that piece. And the guide you know, there’s there’s all sorts of like protective equipment on Denali, like stuff where you clip in. So in case you fall like not everybody falls and you’re safe. Because of the state I was in, they were worried about me bending over and clipping and unclipping into the carabiners. Oh, yeah. And so the guide was like you, me, and in this another client that was on the trip, are going to travel down unhooked. And I was like, I’m not comfortable with that, you know, because I like that. I mean, we’re all going to risk our lives, like, Isn’t there another way? And he’s like, No, this is the safest way. Like, I don’t think you should bend over, like clip in and clip out. And so none of us will clip in. And I was concerned, because, you know, I had done a lot of research about Denali, and where are the places where there’s been accidents in the past. And so, you know, we had to travel down these sections, which are, you know, you’re literally walking a tightrope ledge, foot in front of foot, and it’s a sheer drop off, and we didn’t clip in. And so I just was like, you know, I really am a believer of training grit. And one of the levels of grit is like, can you be at your best when you’re at your worst? And so I just like, the whole time, I was thinking, like, I gotta be at my best, even though I’m at my worst, because if I slip and start sliding down, and they can’t self arrest me, like, all three of us go down. So just trying to make every step perfect. On the way down, which I did, and we got down. But then like, once I was at kind of the bottom of each technical section, I had to melt into a puddle for a while. Yeah, sure, recover is just took everything out of me to get down there and keep every one that was on my team safe and be safe. And it was, it was pretty challenging. I mean, one of the most like humbling experiences I’ve been through for sure, to where, like, at the end of those two days, there’s sort of two days of technical climbing to get down, you know, I would just be a puddle, and my, my tent mate, who was the one who was on my rope, would like, take off my boots, change my socks for me, you know, bring me food, just do everything she could to take care of me, like the whole team carried a lot of my weight. But right around right around 11,000 feet. Like it’s just changed, I just perch right back up. So it really was that altitude and, you know, like, I really, I would like to try it again. I hope I get a chance to try it again. I learned a lot. One of the big things I will do differently next time is I will take the freakin Diamox which is altitude sickness prevention medication, I wasn’t taking that in the dosage that was recommended. And so you know, that in addition to a whole host of other things that I learned, but it was also I don’t regret any of it too. Because like if I just strolled to the top and been able to take like the sweet Instagram photo, you know, to my eyes, sacks and everything like that. I learned so much from this and it really cracked open my heart in a way that I think I needed you know, to experience having people need to take care of me and to be the vulnerable one and to be the weak one. And so no matter what I don’t regret like any moment of that journey it was a fantastic and amazing
18:14
that’s an amazing story. I’m so I’m so obviously medication helping outside of that. I mean, we have big peaks, but is there any way to get additional high altitude training? Yeah, I mean, you you can like step on a mountain, right? Like you can like buy the expensive tent that you sleep in, you know, in your house. So you can like do that. Yeah, I think that’s what a lot of people that live at sea level do. Yeah, I I did like some winter fourteeners a lot of winter hiking. And I have no problem at 14,000 feet. I mean, a lot of the people on the team were feeling sick at 14,000 feet, and not doing well. And I was I was fine there. It was 17,000 feet was where I started not to feel great. I didn’t sleep the night before we summited. And I, when you get to the next camp, the high camp at Denali, you have to build camp too. So I was like sawing ice blocks out of the mountain. Like we had to like stack ice blocks up around our tent. You probably didn’t get to bed till 11pm that night. And then you’re at 17,000 feet, so it’s hard to sleep. I didn’t sleep at all that night. I woke up the next morning already nauseous, no sleep, having a hard time getting water down. I mean, it was kind of like already a train wreck from from the start, which was the summit of Denali
19:30
20,330 I believe or 20 Somewhere around 20,300.
19:35
so in you had mentioned being a believer in grit, right being your best at your worst, and just from a cause. I mean, I think most people would understand this, but how does your everyday training philosophy and mentality like built into it?
19:51
I’d say a lot of it is doing things that suck. Doing stuff you don’t want to do. I did a lot of cold weather hiking. I did a lot when I was tired, still getting up in my garage doing back squats, even though I just was exhausted or didn’t feel like it. Just pushing through and that, you know, that sort of saying embrace the suck. Trying to find situations where you have to embrace the suck.
20:24
Do you do anything? So this is a failure because Jaco willing, he talks a lot about this, right? And a lot of people do, right. And it’s using physical suck to harden you mentally. Right? Which, which makes sense, right? Because you just have to overcome something. Is there anything that you do from a mental perspective that’s consistent that helps with that?
20:46
Yeah, I would say opening opening gyms in the middle of a pandemic. That’s definitely a good mental challenge. I opened really like three three gyms across two different fitness concepts throughout the pandemic. So that takes a lot of hard work, a lot of grit, a lot of smarts, a lot of just scrappiness. So that is one of them. You know, I haven’t been back since the pandemic, but I was a practitioner of jujitsu prior to the pandemic. And I think that is an also a fantastic way to build grit and calmness under pressure, you know, literally under pressure. They’re like, so somebody laying on top of you and just like waiting for them to make a mistake. You know, that patience? Yeah. So that that one as well. And it’s something I’m always seeking out and thinking about, like, if I’m if I don’t feel like I’m being challenged, emotionally and spiritually, I’ll think about like, what would be something that I could take on? That would be a struggle that would push me in that way? Where I could learn.
21:54
That’s amazing. I love that. Yeah. Thanks. I mean, I think that’s a kind of a cool way to wrap up. I don’t have any other questions. Other than maybe if there’s anything you wanted to add about how you added it’s the cardio, the resistance training, being supportive of obviously bigger goals, but Yet can be a standalone as well alone. Yeah, obviously, not everyone has Denali goals. Sure. I know it’s a little bit better or differently tailored. But is there anything else you wanted? I mean, that was an awesome story. Is there anything you else you wanted to add or any other like big mission that you have coming
22:31
big mission?
22:33
You know, just like enjoying life, figuring out work life balance? I have kids too. We talked about that, and figuring out like, how do you get them to build grit? You know, how do you push them? Let’s add a little bit that I mean, because I wouldn’t say the majority of people listen, our parents but a lot of people who are part of Live Loud, are parents, but a lot of us are younger, right? Parents, right? Meaning our kids are like my oldest is six. What are some of the ways you’ve tried to instill that mental toughness and grit and teaching your kids like, hey, the worlds not all roses and butterflies?
23:08
Definitely. I mean, I’m a big believer in chores. It Oh, and giving your kids chores. I had a lot of chores growing up. And that was what like someone who used to work restaurant industry told me that’s the first interview question she would ask people is what choice did you have growing up? They couldn’t answer that. She’s like, interviews over. Yeah. So I’m a big believer giving them chores Yeah, just a simple response for that. But yeah,
23:33
it works really well. Yeah. It also just, I mean, from early get go, to his chores, and a sense of not like you have to do these things like hey, we’re part of a family. This is a collective thing together as part of this being a unit. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That’s awesome. For sure. Well, this was amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. I love the gym. This is an amazing setup. And I loved hearing that story. And hopefully we get to see a Denali Summit. Fully someday, maybe in a year or two. Yeah, really. Back to the drawing board. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Thanks so much for Antonio. Perfect, that was fun. Thank you a super wild adventure. I mean, I loved it. And you know it’s funny because we the only
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Low Back Pain Explained! If you are Suffering this is for You!
Low Back Pain Explained! If you are Suffering this is for You!
It is estimated that 80% of the population at one point in time, will sustain or suffer some form of lower back pain.
Understanding how the back pain was generated is the MOST critical component of understanding the solution to your lower back pain.
This blog post is for you if:
- You have dealt with lower back pain in the past
- You are worried, apprehensive, or not confident about your back
- You are refraining from doing certain activities that you want to do because of your back
- You just sustained an injury
PLAY VIDEO ⬇︎
After having low back pain explained from this post you will know how lower back pain occurs, the proper way to go through a cause of pain evaluation, as well as going through movement assessments and orthopedic assessments to determine if there’s actually structural damage.
Simply looking at Xrays and MRIs to determine what’s causing pain from a structural approach is not enough!
If you want to deal with your back pain once and for all, if you need a solution, if you want a plan, Live Loud Chiropractic in Lafayette, CO has your back! Dr. Antonio’s specialty is lower back pain. He loves explaining lower back pain and helping individuals who are feeling defeated by lower back pain gain more confidence, strength, mobility, and ultimately gain more life!
If this isn’t for you, but you are researching for a family member or a friend, we appreciate you putting in the time and effort to share this with them. This is such a prevalent topic and again unfortunately it is being mismanaged across the board.
We at Live Loud Chiropractic want to be able to help you out by having low back pain explained to you!
What's the majority of Low Back Pain Caused by?
Back pain is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal conditions across the world. It’s estimated that roughly ⅓ of individuals are dealing with some sort of lower back pain. The majority of lower back pain is almost always some sort of flexion intolerance.
Flexion Intolerance is when your body doesn’t tolerate bending forward well. Now, knowing this really helps us determine the best course of action for you. Flexing forward is normal, and you should be able to do that pain free and with enough stability that you’re in control. Often there are times where we have to manage that. So a lot of our conversation, depending on how acute the individual is, will determine what the immediate course of action is!
First and foremost, our goal is to just help you get your pain down. Because if you’re in pain, you’re not able to do a lot of stuff as it is. We need to break that cycle and understand what your lower back pain triggers are! We want to understand what keeps causing you pain and then we can figure out where to go from there.
Functional Approach Vs. Stagnant Approach
Now, more times than not if you have a good clinician and they’re asking the right questions, we’re going to know right off the bat, right? A good clinician can see it in how you move and see it in the description of what your symptoms are. When things are being mismanaged people are looking at a stagnant perspective of your pain. This means they’re taking an X-ray or an MRI to determine what the cause of pain is.
What we need to do is look first and foremost functionally at what’s causing the triggers of your lower back pain. This will tell us the issues or the site of pain that we need to be more cautious of, but then also the area we need to focus on and strengthen afterwards!
We’ve got the solution about how to deal with your lower back pain.
Examination Process for Low Back Pain
Touch Your Toes
We are going to want to start off with a basic toe touch, this will help us determine if you are flexion intolerant.
- Bend down and attempt to touch your toes. Does this create any symptoms? Does it cause any pain?
- Now take your arms overhead, come back up, and extend back.
Something to note here is, oftentimes when someone is flexion intolerant they actually become extension intolerant for a while too. This is a possible cause if when you are coming back from the toe touch position you feel pain as well. The exercises Dr. Antonio is going to give you today help soften a lot of your lower back tension. These exercises give you your mobility back in a subtle way that won’t trigger your pain.
Again, understanding the triggers of your pain will help you get out of pain sooner than just putting some proactive exercises toward it.
Compression Test
The next thing to determine the extent of flexion is a compression test.
- Find a chair or stool to sit in
- Sit up nice and tall and grab the bottom of the chair or stool
- Then with your hands grabbing the chair or stool, you will pull yourself into the chair
What this does is create compression in the spine. Does this create any issues for you? When we are in a neutral stacked spine, more times than not, this does not create the issue. If you had a plate injury, meaning you fell some sort of distance or took a hard landing, this might aggravate you.
Next we’re going to repeat the test but this time instead of sitting up nice and tall we are going to tuck the lower back. This causes us to slump in flexion, meaning we are creating compression under flexion.
Does this create any issues for you?
For those of you who might be having acute pain at the middle of the back, that tells us one thing. However, if you get some sort of shooting pain down your legs, that tells us something else.
We’ll have a separate condition video tailored towards disc injuries and sciatic injuries. Where we will further explain your low back pain.
This compression test for your lower back pain allows us to determine the extent of how flexion intolerant you are.
How Live Loud can help your Low Back Pain
Dr. Antonio specializes in low back pain here at Live Loud Chiropractic and Coaching in Lafayette, CO. He knows exactly what patterns to look for that are associated with flexion intolerance. What Dr. Antonio does is secondary to what we’re about to give you today. He tells every single one of his low back patients:
“If I can help reduce your pain without me touching you, that creates autonomy in your lower back pain. Then all you have to do is rinse and repeat when you get at home to help decrease your pain. Like compounding interest, the more you do it, the better it gets.”
Now we are going to give you the exercises we give to help you decrease your lower back pain once and for all. We want to not only have low back pain explained for you, but also give you the tools to do something about it too.
At Home Exercises to END Low Back Pain Once and for All
Hip hinges
The first one is understanding how to hip hinge.
- With soft knees, hinge your butt straight back
- Notice we’re getting the torso down towards the ground, but all the load is going into the hips and the hamstrings
- If you need to get lower, all you do is simply bend the knees a little bit
Supported squats
The next exercise is supported squats. If you have a TRX or suspension trainer you’re going to do this.
- Depth does not matter here, you’re just going to squat up and down
- The goal here is to give the hands the majority of the weight
What this exercise does is loosen up the hips that are oftentimes very tight from holding down and guarding. This also helps stretch the lower back a bit. Most importantly, what we have found is it provides mild pumping decompression in the lower back. This really helps decrease a lot of the pain that you are having in your low back.
Hip Drops
Exercise number three is hip drops.
- Start on your hands and knees (This is going to be like an upward facing dog but instead of being super active and prying up all we’re going to do is shift forward and let our hips sink down.)
- Shift forward letting your hips sink down
- It’s okay if you don’t get very far. Each time you want to focus on going a degree further
- If it hurts going forward, we’re going to go backwards to soften and work on our mobility
Now outside of that, there’s obviously many more stages into getting you back to all the activities that you want to be able to do. Seeing a low back specialist such as Dr. Antonio at Live Loud Chiropractic in Lafayette, CO. He’ll take you through the appropriate progressions from day one!
Conclusion
If you can do hard things or lift heavy things, you’re gonna have a lot more confidence in your back and not only from your acute injury you might have now, this is especially important for all having chronic lower back pain. If you’re afraid of picking up your children or even a bag of dog food let’s get you confident in your back!
So if you’re tired of dealing with low back pain, stop waiting, come in and see us and I guarantee we’ll be able to help you deal with this either chronic or acute injury to get back to all the activities that you love to do!
Thanks for following along with us as we get your low back pain explained!
