The Industry of Comparison?

Good 2015 to everyone reading this… hiiiiiiii

This is going to be more of a rant than informational, may some food for thought to chew around in your brain. Or just pure entertainment.

Something has been bugging me lately, well not really lately per sey, but more of a growing nagging brain itch over the last 3 or so years.

Maybe I spend too much time on social media (probably true) but I think there is some truth to this, and we are all guilty of it to some extent (including my self). I have run into the rare human flower that does not partake in the following in the health and fitness industry, and they are rare and wonderful creatures indeed.

What I am painfully building up to is: has the health and fitness industry become the industry of comparison?!?!

Maybe it’s always been this way, maybe I have been naive until becoming completely immersed in health and fitness as a passion and career. However, I read a lot, and I find a lot of the messages being put fourth by completely different training modalities and health/fitness philosophies seem to be very similar…

“THIS IS THE BEST AND EVERYTHING ELSE IS SHIT.”

I don’t like these messages. I think they are de-motivating and perpetuate the idealistic ivory tower that can be pushed health and fitness professionals (and those that partake in the exercises).

So I’m here to encourage you as the reader to try and change these messages (I know a lot of my readers or in the health and fitness industry) or not listen to them if you’re coming here for fitness advice.

Then what are you suppose to listen to if you can’t listen to anyone!!!

It’s a really simple answer in my opinion…. Yourself J

If you’re seriously looking to change your health behaviours (I’m going to avoid saying “for the good” because I also think this perpetuates the idea of “I am better than you because I do x”), you need to seriously ask yourself what do YOU want?

What are your values? You only have one life (that we know of) unfortunately, so why not spend it doing what you enjoy and value.

I did a similar rant on behaviour change that you can peruse at your leisure here.

The long and the short of it is… there are A LOT of health, fitness, and training philosophies out there. Some of them lead to different results compared to others. Being muscular doesn’t make you better than the bendi yogi, being injured sucks, but if you had a hell of a good time getting injured, I really can’t see how that’s a bad thing, it’s your body.

And if you want to stay injured that’s your choice, if not, there’s lovely health professional people that can help. And if those lovely people tell you to stop doing something you love to do, that’s really your decision to make, that’s when it’s time to revisit your values and assess if your behaviours align with your overall view of yourself and what you stand for.

To me, that’s more motivating than messages like “lose 50lbs in 30 days” and “people that do Zumba suck, it’s not real training” and “I don’t understand spinners, sitting on a bike for an hour doesn’t make sense” and my favourite one that I hear around this time of year “don’t make New Years resolutions, just CHANGE, you’re doomed to fail if you make a resolution”… those messages don’t help anyone, make people self conscious, and just de-motivate those trying to have fun and try their best in this world.

So the end of my rant is… don’t be a dick buzz kill bro.

However, the ironic part of my rant is by listening to me are you really listening to you? I guess if you enjoy being a judgmental, demotivating, meanie person, you can do that to….

I guess.

Ok that’s all for now,

Stay strong and amazing

~Byn

Evolving your body: More than what you think

Good Thursday to you Internet Friends

I haven't written in awhile due to lack of inspiration/time. However, once again I find myself at a point in my training life where I find that my perspectives are evolving and I think it may be beneficial for some of my readers (if there are still any!) who currently find themselves in a rut with their workouts/body/performance.

I recently had the opportunity to have a six week placement at a fantastic private physiotherapy clinic in Burlington, Ontario with an extremely talented and knowledgeable clinician with over 20 years in the field. This preceptor has done an incredible job at helping me continue to fine tune my approach to looking at the body, including my own.

I won't mention their name, as I haven't asked their permission to blog about them, but this physiotherapist has a strong Pilates, yoga, and manual therapy background and does an excellent job at combining all three to give patients what they need to get better and avoid injury in the future.

My first day in this clinic I was excited and apprehensive to see 4 Pilates reformers staring me down. Now, I've always turned my nose up at Pilates proclaiming "Pilates is bad for your lower back, and is not an efficient form of training...it's just another fitness fad to make money".  However, I thought why not give my preceptor's evening reformer class a go, since it was better than sitting on my but charting.

All I can say is … holy potatoes! I engaged muscles I never knew I had and have finally had a deep abdominal "a ha" moment. In school we are taught how to engage the deep stabilizers of the pelvis in one or two ways on our back and on all fours. My preceptor quickly taught me that engaging those muscles in isolation is all well and good, but if you cannot engage them when they count during everyday movement and exercise then they are essentially useless…. Pilates taught me just that.

Another wonderful thing I discovered about Pilates is that it is like yoga… but more… flow-ey, at least the way my preceptor taught it. We used our muscles in a way to lengthen and engage full range of motion. I found that after the class I felt fantastic. It is a great adjunct to my overall training.

Upon some reflection I had another a-ha moment. I had always dismissed training such as Pilates proclaiming that building muscle and functional strength is the "only" way to train. However, as I age (as we all do), strength training can only bring you so far without mobility.

I'm seeing something interesting happening in the fitness world with the heavy lifters. I don't know if it's because my friends are becoming older along with me, or if this is a true evolution of the industry, but mobility training is starting to become an essential part of over all body health and performance.

I kind of always knew this in the back of my head, and about 5 years ago made a solid effort to increase my flexibility. However, the more and more I learn about the body from a functional and injury prevention/rehabilitation perspective, I find that mobility training is way more than just stretching.

So to avoid further rambling, I'm going to put in point form some stuff that I have learned since last September on incorporating mobility into your sport/lifting/training program.


1. Breathing is way more important than you think it is: After I wrote this, it seemed kinda silly. Of course breathing is important Robyn, you need breathing to live and stuff. However, I've noticed through observation of myself and clients that we often do not breathe properly. Breathing seems pretty straight forward. However, as you are moving, working, stretching.. etc notice how you're breathing. Here are some common things I have noticed that contribute to inefficient breathing...

• Holding your breath: no brainer, don't hold your breath. However, pay more attention to your breathing during the day and notice when you do so (it's probably more than you think). Also, when people hold their breath they tend to tense their neck and upper back… bad news bears.

• Upper chest breathing: a lot of us, especially when stressed/working hard, breath with the top of our chest (think everything pec/boob up). Efficient breathing involves the entire lung, including the lower half (think belly button to bottom of pec/boob). When stretching/lifting/stressed out think about breathing from your belly, mid-chest, then upper chest last.

• Inhalation/exhalation timing: Some people will exhale when the abdominal cavity needs stabilization naturally. However, a lot of us don't or simply don't think about it. This is even more likely to happen during everyday movement. It feels weird at first to be constantly thinking about when to exhale, but eventually it becomes habit. The idea is simple…. we want the spine and pelvis to be as stable as possible when moving and lifting, so, ideally, we want to be exhaling and thus engaging the deep abdominal muscles during these movements. For example, when getting up from a chair, ideally, you should exhale and engage your deep abdominals (that's a topic for another day). The amount of exhalation and deep abdominal activation will vary on the amount of load you are moving (your body vs. deadlifting weight).

2. What is your body actually doing?!: This is something that I see as being a subtle/often overlooked contributor to overuse injuries. To go into depth on this topic is way beyond the scope of this blog post, so I'll just use this point to put a little birdy in the back of your head to pay attention to your body when you're using it.

• Cervical spine and head: your c-spine is your neck and your head is… attached to your neck. A lot of the time slight changes in your head and neck position during movement can lead to injury/pain over time. Something common I see is people "leading with their chin". This is especially apparent when people deadlift or squat. When going into a deep squat or deadlift the body actually needs quite a bit of thoracic (upper back) extension and hip flexibility (which a lot of us are deficient in since we SIT too much). Therefore, the body will naturally compensate by "poking" our chin out and extending through the neck. It looks like this….

Holy neck strain batman

VERSUS

Some sneaky chin poking/c-spine extending moments can also occur when driving, working on the computer, and going from seated to standing. So pay attention to what that head is doing!!!

• Thoracic Spine: Ohhh the t-spine. My love hate relationship. The t-spine can cause all sorts of problems. I actually contemplated going straight to lumbar spine/pelvis because mines so terrible and I'm not sure how the picture will turn out. As mentioned previously, lack of t-spine flexibility causes all sorts of issues in the head and neck (i.e., the head and neck will extend to obtain the extension lacking in the t-spine). Climbers and people with crazy back muscles I'm talking to you! If your t-spine is hypomobile/inflexible this will effect things above and below your upper back and just make everything so much less efficient. An example of an inflexible t-spine is when you generally look like this….

Notice the considerable rounding of the subjects upper back contributing to forward head posture and overall generalized sadness

So instead of being a douche-bag  unhelpful and just telling you to "stand up taller and don't round your back", how about I give you a simple thing to do to help your back extension.

First you need two towels (or a foam roller if you have one)….

two towels

Second, fold the two towels in half and then roll them tightly into a log type situation….

old-school foam roller

Finally, place the log towel down longitudinally (along your spine) and lye down on it starting at your bum all the way to your head. You can put your arms over your head to increase upper back extension or make your arms into a cactus to open the chest…. as so….

arms above head (not in cactus) for ease of viewing 

I would keep your knees bent to support your lower back. Here's some cactus arms….

Muther fudging cactus arms

If this position is too easy for you (the towel longitudinally along your spine that is), you can alternatively put it horizontally across your upper back. I like to do this with a foam roller at various hypomobile sections of my upper back. Cactus arms/arms over head still apply to this towel position.

Ok jeeze. I think I'm gonna leave it there. I'm not sure how this blog post started about me now loving Pilates and turned into me taking pictures of myself with a towel, but it is what it is.

There are, indeed, other parts of the body that we must be aware of (like everything below the belly button) that I'll try and make a post on before the ridiculousness of my 4th unit of physio-school ensues.

Any questions/comments are always appreciated. They actually keep me motivated to keep posting.

Stay strong!

~Byn

This year!!!!

HAPPY NEW YEARS and other holiday stuff!

As we wrap up 2013 and start the New Year, I thought a blog post was in order. Why? Because of New Years resolutions and all that jazz of course (this is a lifestyle blog right?). Now before you roll your eyes and say “I don’t believe in New Years resolutions Robyn, I live the dream”, well good for you, but do you really not believe with all of your being? No, well FINE then…

I only say this because I AM a believer! Not all of my resolutions stick, but at least one usually does to some degree. We are not perfect and are not going to stick to our “I’m never going to eat chocolate EVER again” or “I’m going to learn Chinese” promises that we jubilantly make to ourselves, but in my opinion that’s not the point. The point of resolving to achieve a goal is to simply work towards one in the quest of self-improvement.

This isn’t implying that your aren’t already a talented, funny, beautiful, wonderful (etc.) individual already (I know you are), but it’s to promise yourself you are going to try new things that you want to do! Now, figuring out if it’s really what you want or what you think you want is another issue. For insight on that click here.

Ok enough rambling. What this blog post is about is a method to help you if one of your goals is to improve or increase the amount of physical fitness you have. Big shocker there I know!

I have many blog posts on motivation, but in my opinion and through experience one the most powerful motivators to enhance the amount of physical activity you get is to seek out and achieve a sense of social connection/social support/sense of community!!! There is some research to back this up but at the moment strong evidence is lacking. For more see Bauman, 2012 for a review, which is cited at the end of this post (I put that there for all the physiotherapy students and researchers who are grading my level of evidence........Look what you've become).

Now, seeking a sense of community through physical fitness will not work for everyone. We are not a one size fits all species with all of our wonderful cognitions and “free thoughts”. However, for many seeking out activities that increase connection with others and feelings of belonging can keep them engaged and motivated when times get tough.

You know, when week 4 hits after January 1st and you are ready to give up or when you get the flu in March and never go back to the gym?… Those tough times.

So how do you know this will work for you? Well, there’s no easy way to say this, and hopefully you don’t close my blog as soon as you read this, but you have to simply try it. This means you have to put yourself out there!

Before you say “NO, I hate fitness people. They judge me and I’m not one of them”, hear me out. The truth is a lot of people in the fitness industry have their own success stories (i.e., they weren’t BORN gym rats) and actually quite a few lived unhealthy lifestyles, have been bullied, and were scared of the gym (aka me). Sure there are some not so nice characters, but they are lame anyway.

So how do you achieve this elusive sense of belongingness? Read on.

Tip 1: Figure out what activity you are most likely to enjoy.

I say to my classes ALL THE TIME that I hate working out. I’m not lying, I really do during the activity itself (except for restorative yoga and climbing). It’s the feeling  after I finish working out and the numerous benefits to my life and body that are the result of working out that I like.

So, there is a possibility that the idea of any physical activity is the most unappealing thing that you can think of. If that’s the case, try and think of an activity that would be the most tolerable for you to start.

This doesn’t have to be at a traditional gym by the way. Actually, there are plenty of "non traditional"  modes of physical activity that force involvement with other people and can also lead to a sense of community.

Some examples are…

1.     Rock Climbing (biased)

2.     Any martial art

3.     Recreational sport leagues (a lot of these have teams you can sign up for if you are a beginner or/AND are by yourself)

4.     Roller derby

5.     Zumba

6.     Bootcamp classes

7.     Spinning classes

8.     Running/walking clubs

And those are just off the top of my head.

Tip 2: Bug your friends/acquaintances

Another great way to get involved in an activity in a low pressure yet social way is to ask one of your friends OR acquaintances (new friend in the making) who does *insert activity of interest here* if you can join them the next time they go.

I LOVE IT when people want to workout or climb with me, and I can be pretty antisocial. So if you have that friend who does an activity you are super interested (or even just kind of interested) they will likely be more than happy, if not ecstatic, that you want to try what they do with them. It makes people feel super special and stuff.

I find one issue people have with this method is the negative self talk that surrounds asking someone that you perceive as in “better shape than you” to work out. It usually goes something like this….

“I’d love to try snowboarding/zumba/yoga/etc, but *person* is soooooooooooooo good at it, I don’t want them to think I’m out of shape/suck/am a loser/etc.”

If you actually read that it seems kind of silly, but that self-talk is powerful (for more of self talk click here and here). A lot of the time our ego will get in the way of taking chances and trying new things. Yea, you probably WILL suck when you try something you have never done before, and you know what, people (cool people at least) will not judge you for being a beginner. You’re not friends with those judgmental types anyhoo right?

Tip 3: Take the steps to try out a new activity in the most social way possible

If you aren’t one for taking the “lets go do things friend” method, or none of your friends do anything fun, try and involve yourself in your new activity of choice (see tip 1) in the most social way possible.

This may seem like a hard thing to do, especially if you are on the shy side. Fitness classes are great to give you a weekly schedule and put you in a situation with a bunch of people trying to achieve the same thing as you.

If you feel that you cannot afford a gym membership, you don’t have to get one.  Actually, most cities actually offer free fitness classes. I know right? A lot of people don’t know this, but if you go to the “parks and recreation” or “health and wellness” sections of most township webpages you’ll find a whole bunch of free fitness classes offered at a variety of times.

If you do have some money to spend, but don’t want to commit to a gym membership, there are also a variety of organizations that allow you to do punch passes and month try outs with no contract.

The way to find out which organizations offer these services is to call around and ask! Most people at alternative sport and fitness centers are super duper awesome and friendly.

So you are set to go to your thing that you have chosen. Now, something to keep in mind is when you go to said activity, even if it is IN a social setting (e.g., fitness class), it is really easy to not be social at all when going.

To avoid this trap I would suggest doing some of the following…

1.     DO go early or stay late: If you go to a fitness class 15 minutes before it starts there is a very good chance you will find yourself standing next to someone who is also about to do the same class. This is a prime opportunity to meet some of the regulars/new people in the class to form friendships to increase your motivation to go. Also, take your sweet ass time leaving. Usually the more social people hang around after the classes and talk to each other and the instructors.

2.     DON’T avoid eye contact: If you’re super shy, even just acknowledging people by looking at them and saying a quick “hello” may open the doors for conversation. If you avoid contact with people at all costs it makes it hard to make friendships to keep you motivated.

3.     DO take the opportunity to do meet and greets: A lot of facilities will have special nights dedicated to “women only” or “beginners”, especially if you are doing less conventional things like martial arts or climbing. Take these opportunities to meet people. It may be a little anxiety provoking at first, but the people running these events are usually experts at making sure people have fun.

4.     DON’T listen to your negative self talk: If you are a little on the antisocial side, and often have the self talk that no one would want to hang out with you, you’re out of shape, and all that fun stuff, learn to change that way of thinking. Often we are our own worst enemies when it comes to behaviour change, especially involving social situations. The first step is to recognize when you are saying these things to yourself. As previously mentioned I have several posts on self talk. The links are above, but if you don't want to scroll up just click here or here

My final tip is for those already active!

A lot of my blog readers are already active. So this tip is to specifically address you…yes YOU. If you’ve made it this far you have a little insight on what may be going through someone’s head when trying to lead a more active lifestyle. Unless you’ve been an athlete from a very young age you have probably been in the "I want to start to be active but am scared of everyone and everything" situation before (I know I have).

So, this year try to acknowledge those people in your life that you are hearing the “I want to lose weight this year” and “I want to be active this year” "BUT".....messages from.  I bet you can guess what I’m going to say next…

Invite them to do your kick-ass physical activity of choice. They may roll their eyes, they may give you the “well I suck and you don’t” self-talk, or simply say no. However, if you can get one person to say yes, you are being a super awesome leader in your own world. Not to mention a pretty wicked friend. Remind them that you are a non-judgmental super fun person that was a beginner once as well.

So go out and be your awesome self, and resolve to try new things this year. I bet you’ll like it!

Happy New Year everyone!!!!

Stay Strong

~Byn

Review on the determinants of physical activity:

Bauman AE et al. (2012). Correlates of physical activity: Why are some people physically activate and others not?" The Lancet. 380 (9839): 258-271

Taking Ownership and Living for Yourself

Good Afternoon Interweb friends.

Today’s post is going to be on the more philosophical side. What I am going to talk about in this post, in my opinion, is the #1 most important thing to overcome when it comes to behaviour change: Taking ownership for yourself and only yourself, while defining what’s important to you, and in doing so, living and achieving your goals successfully!

So why do you want to look or act a certain way? Well, it’s not a secret by now that we all have a bagillion messages being jammed down our throats telling us what we should do, how we ought to act, and what our values should be….essentially how we should live. These messages come not only from society/mass media/the government, but more importantly (and usually more influentially) from our families and friends. It can be confusing and frustrating to say the least.

In the world of health and “fitness”, we humans put a lot of pressure on how we should live. This is portrayed over and over again in fitness and health marketing (and marketing in general), and we soak it like up like sponges and regurgitate it to anyone in spraying distance (including ourselves). Fitness professionals are often the biggest perpetrators of this crime against awesomeness. 

For women, we need to be lean, have the right amount of muscle, and maybe be vegetarian/vegan, animal loving, yoga zen goddesses. Further, we need to be strong, even minded, emotionally and financially stable, beautiful, well dressed elegant flowers, who can handle anything life throws at them with stride.

For men, the situation isn’t much better. Men are told they must be strong, providing, muscular, smooth, funny, gentleman, with hair in all the right places, the right car, and have the right friends and pass time activities.

What do all these messages do to us? How do they affect the way we live and feel about ourselves? Well, first, they tell us that the unless we meet the afore mentioned states, we will NEVER be happy….  and that message can be quite powerful. 

As a “health advocate” (that’s what I’m calling myself these days) I have seen and been asked many many times how people can achieve these idealized qualities in themselves. I’ve also spent the majority of my life seeking out how to become the “ideal woman”. Sure, the specifics change between people to people, but they usually follow the general socialized patterns I talked about above.

And you know what, as I get older, how unachievable and transparent these ideal images are is becoming exceedingly apparent to me and, even more worrisome, how many of us continue to be a slave to them (Hell I’ve been a slave to them almost my entire life). 

So this post is for those who can relate to my ranting. For you, I’m going to give some tips that have helped me overcome the “you should be” and focus on “I want to be” over the years. If you don’t think this is of importance to you, but have come to my blog seeking fitness and health tips… oh boy are they ever important to you. Read on.

Define what you want. Period: 

So many people live their lives trying to please others. I’m not saying it’s a good idea to go out and deliberately do the opposite to what someone wants (for more on that click here), but rather, if you have a health/fitness goal (or any goal in general), is it really your goal, or is it someone else’s?'

Why this is of utmost importance is because if you are trying to change your life for someone else’s sake, you will fail and/or be miserable doing it. If you don’t –really- want to eat vegetables, do yoga, run, drink water…etc, then don’t do it. I’m not saying living a healthy lifestyle isn’t important (I believe it’s one of the most important things in life personally), what I’m saying is, if it isn’t important to you then why would you force yourself to do it? 

This premise is also important for goals within fitness itself. If you want a six pack, but like to go out and have beer with friends on a regular basis, you have to decide which one is more important to you? If it’s friends and beer every weekend, only –you- can decide that for yourself and you have to accept that you probably won’t have a six pack. Alternatively, if it's a six pack you and only you can make that happen. This pertains to taking ownership, which will be discussed below.

The point of this…..point…. is that we’re only here for a short time, so why live your life by someone else’s rules and opinions? Sure, you’re always going to get haters who disagree with your lifestyle and choices (some may even be close friends and family!). However, even if you were “perfect” you’d still have haters grumbling about how “perfect” you are. But you know what, there’s a million people out there that think like you, and when it comes down to it, you have to live with yourself, not those other people, so it’s best to accept who you are and why you do what you do (when it comes to spouses it obviously gets more complicated!).

My philosophy is, as long as you’re not hurting yourself, people, or animals just for the sake of it, who cares? (Ironically, if you live your life based on what I’m saying are you living for you or for me?!!! Ahhhhhhhh!!)

Take Ownership

This is also very very important when it comes to not only health and fitness goals, but life in general. Every choice we make in life is going to have both positive and negative outcomes; it’s just the way life works. However, when we don’t take ownership for those negative outcomes and blame external circumstances we are treading water psychologically (I call this the “poor me” phenomena).

I’ll use a common example that a lot of fitness professionals deal with on a regular basis. Chico* (made up name) comes to see you and wants to get shredded like you. He’s finally willing to do it this time, but currently smokes two packs a day, works night shift, and eats fast food. 

When you tell Chico what it takes to achieve his goals (i.e., working out, eating right, basically how you live your life), he’s all for it and ready to go. Except when push comes to shove he doesn’t think he can eat vegetables, he hates them, and he can’t give up his pop because he believes he needs it to function.

Chico continues to do behaviours that are counterintuitive to his lifestyle change goals (I’m not saying he’s a bad person for doing these behaviours, they just won’t help him get “shredded”), and thus gets frustrated. He blames the fact he works too much so cannot follow your program, and he just hates vegetables…so he ultimately gives up, and complains to his girlfriend he’s “destined” (I here this a lot) to be a fat slob.

Chico is not taking ownership for his life. If looking and living a certain way was really important to him over everything else, he would do whatever it takes to achieve those goals (maybe even quit his job and become a personal trainer). Instead, he blames his job, his tastes, and habits he just “can’t” give up. 

For a lack of a better word… that thinking is bullshit. I don’t care who you are, where you came from, or how much money you have, if you want something, and find the right way to do it (that’s where a lot of people mess up) then you cannot fail. 

How do I know this? Because I have done it myself. I’m not to saying “hey look at me I’m awesome” (even though I am, ha), but as soon as I stopped blaming everyone else and my past “circumstances” for why I was acting and thinking the way I was, and acknowledged that every action I make equals the consequences of my life, I started achieving my goals (with some bumps along the way).

Embrace Failure

To achieve your goals you need to not only accept, but embrace failure. This is because you will have a lot of set-backs if you are living the life you want to live. Now, these set backs can be big (e.g., not getting into the school you wanted to) or smaller (e.g., your dad doesn’t think it’s a good idea). However, the gravity of the set-back is not important, it is how you deal with them that will lead to your ultimate success. 

Now, overcoming failure is easier said than done, my husband can attest to my lack of grace in this domain.  Some people deal with failure with the perspective of “everything happens for a reason”, this has helped me in certain contexts, but what do you do when you fail, you tried your best, and it is directly in line with your goals that you know you want for you, and you are taking ownership for your life?

You embrace them. The only advice I can give here from my own experience is to give yourself a couple of days to be pissed off/disappointed/sad (however you feel after failing) then move on, and most importantly forward.  In moving on, taking a very close look of why you failed is very important.

This is the hardest part because it involves taking complete owenership for your actions and basically putting your ego aside (and I have a fucking huge ego). Was there something, anything, you could of done to prevent the undesired outcome. If so, learn from it and move on (in 99% of circumstances there is something you could have done differently). 

However, in doing this exercise it’s important not to beat yourself up over your short comings. This will usually emerge as negative self talk such as “I’m so lazy, if I only did this” or “I’m such a stupid loser, I can’t believe I didn’t do that”. No, you are not… you are trying to live your life for you… and you know what, you’ll make mistakes and things won’t work out, and that’s ok.

I think I’ll leave it there. Hopefully this helps someone. 

As always please leave comments, ask questions, or e-mail me if you’d like to talk about this stuff privately at byntraining@gmail.com.

Also, if you think this post could help someone else... pass on the love!

Stay strong my friends!

~Byn