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Jason Harrison

You Don’t Know What You’re Doing

June 22, 2016 By Jason Harrison

A guy walked into my gym the other day and asked me if I offered memberships. “No,” I told him. “This is a personal training and private yoga studio.”

“Oh, because I don’t need a personal trainer,” he said. “Do you offer any quick bootcamp style classes? I just want to get rid of my belly. I already know what I’m doing.”

“Well,” I replied, “your belly is probably more about what you’re eating than anything else. A bootcamp isn’t necessarily the answer.”

“I’m a vegetarian,” he said, “and I already eat clean.”

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At that point I just wanted him to get out of the gym as quickly as possible.

I like when neighbors pop in and ask questions. I like to give as much information away for free as I can. And I especially love the idea of people in Dayton seeing my place as a resource. Personal training is expensive, but I’m confident that there are enough people who see the value in my services that I can give away information as a sort of good neighbor policy. I do it all the time.

But nothing annoys me more than when people ask me questions to which they already pretend to know the answer.

Especially when they’re so, so, so wrong. I just don’t understand walking into someone else’s place of work with that level of arrogance.

Believe it or not, there are people who spend a lot of time figuring out how to get specific body compositions.

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Here’s where my rude visitor went wrong. There are a few issues tangled up into his presumptive line of questioning.

1.) “Abs,” or body composition: One can be weak and have visible abs. One can be strong and have visible abs. One can be healthy and have visible abs. One can be unhealthy and have visible abs. One can eat vegan and have visible abs. One can eat Paleo and have visible abs. If your goal is abs–you can tell it’s not my favorite goal in the world–then telling me that you’re a vegetarian doesn’t do much to help me get you there.

2.) “Eating clean”: I’ve written before that people often tell me they’re eating clean when what they’re really doing is not eating enough to sustain their activity level. These people often have trouble achieving their body composition goals because they’re constantly catabolizing muscle just to stay alive.

3.) “Bootcamps” are the answer: Think about the logic of a bootcamp for a second, and think about where the terminology comes from. When a military recruit goes to bootcamp, they’re reporting to a purposefully challenging entry point to a career in which they will be asked to fight and possibly die with their brothers and sisters. Meeting at the park for abs exercises and calling it a bootcamp sort of misses the point.

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Aside from the nomenclature, the real issue with a bootcamp style class is that you’re throwing twenty people into a group of varying skill levels, fitness, and injury histories and asking them all to do essentially the same thing. Sure, a good teacher will suggest modifications, but it’s difficult to ensure that five people are on point with their form, let alone twenty.

I’m not against all classes. We live in an area rich with them led by really good coaches. I’m against the idea of a class built upon the false and potentially dangerous notion that hard work alone–not programming, not form, not nutrition, not sleep, and not recovery–is the pathway for an unfit person to achieve abs or a “summer ready” body.

Use Your Eyes and Ears, Not Your Mouth

I’ve said before in this space that you don’t need a personal trainer or a coach. That’s true, but only if you’re willing to admit that you don’t know what you’re doing and you’re willing to put the time in researching, asking questions, and listening.

I’ve been doing this for a long time now, and I continue to research, ask questions, and listen. I can’t imagine training people now the way I did even five years ago, which means I’ve learned a lot in that time, discarded some techniques I once thought were sound, and added new ones. If you’re a lawyer or an architect with only a passing interest in fitness, why would you think it would be any different for you? So just shush for a moment and listen to the strong man or woman wearing the shorts. They might just know a little more about you when it comes to fitness.

Filed Under: Community, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Empathy: Part II (Gay Edition)

June 15, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Jason arms foldedI’m a proud Ohioan. I grew up here, I went to school here, and I cheer as hard for the Ohio State Buckeyes as anyone else. The state and specifically the community of Dayton has been incredibly kind and supportive of my business and my approach to fitness. But I’m troubled by what I see as an empathy chasm, which I’ll define in this context as a gap between our purported values and our demonstrated ability to put them into action.

Last week I wrote a bit about my own empathy blind spot when it came to homosexuals, and how I, unfortunately, required personal experience to understand the unquestioned humanity of our gay brothers and sisters. I grew up ignorant, I went to college and met a lot of gay people, and I learned from the experience. I’m a better person because of that growth.

Details are still emerging about the horrific attack against an Orlando gay club, but I think we can all stipulate that the gunman targeted the club because it was a sanctuary for gay people.

If you can't wrap your head around a bar or club as a sanctuary, you've probably never been afraid to hold someone's hand in public.

— Jeramey Kraatz (@jerameykraatz) June 12, 2016

I’ve been thinking about the stories I’ve heard from gay clients over the years. Stories about coming out to hostile parents; stories about punishing verbal and emotional abuse from peers; stories about feeling unsafe and vulnerable in cities with smaller gay populations.

My wife and I spent a recent weekend in Brooklyn and were surrounded by gay couples chatting, drinking coffee, going to the movies, and walking their dogs. I rarely see open displays of basic coupling among gays here in Dayton (outside of specific sanctuaries)–and I assure you it’s not because we don’t have a significant gay population. It’s because we are more hostile to homosexuals here.

The hostility isn’t necessarily overt. Our reputation here in the Midwest is for being unfailingly polite. “Please,” “thank you,” and “pardon me.” But that propensity for politeness, coupled with our relatively high degree of religious faith, mask an underlying empathy chasm for people who may love, make love, or identify with gender differently than you do.

My Facebook feed has been full of sympathetic Ohioans expressing outrage at the shooting in Orlando. (I’m not as interested in those armchair quarterbacking antiterrorism experts who wouldn’t know the difference between Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Pakistan if you gave them a map and a month’s head start to begin reading.) I’m fascinated by the polite, seemingly helpful, and kindhearted mourners who express condolences along with the ubiquitous “thoughts and prayers.”

These social media posts often begin with “while I may not agree with their lifestyle,” or “they’re sinners just like me,” “whatever they want to do behind closed doors is fine,” or some version of an argument that dismisses the validity of how gay people live their lives while simultaneously acknowledging that crimes against them are terrible.

"Love the sinner, hate the sin" is homophobia wrapped in a sanctimonious platitude.

— Broderick (@BroderickGreer) June 14, 2016

This is not enough. An empathetic, welcoming, diverse, inclusive society recognizes not just the humanity of gay people but also the basic validity of two men (or women) loving, kissing, and making love. I’ve overhead enough homophobia and felt enough of it in my own heart at one point to understand that what makes so many people uncomfortable is gay sex acts. This is precisely why polite, otherwise loving people go on Facebook and say things like “love the sinner, hate the sin.” The sin, in other words, is the gay sex.

I remember saying to a gay classmate during my freshman year at Ohio State that I found the idea of gay sex “disgusting,” but that I would never discriminate against a gay person. I thought I was being inclusive and open-minded, but really I was creating a hostile and even permissively violent environment for my fellow students by denying them their right to express physical love without scorn.

People argue that their religion teaches that homosexuality is a sin. I have no counter to this, and I doubt anything that I could write would change anyone’s mind. But expressing public condolences infused with judgment or disgust, all the while masquerading as inclusive or open-minded is not at all helpful. Worse, it reveals a profound discomfort with and disregard for the fully formed humanity of our neighbors.

By framing our understanding of people whose sexual orientation is different than ours as sinners, we diminish our capacity for empathy. This in turns makes our country, our society, and our community less well. Kelly McGonigal in her 2013 TED Talk made explicit the connection between how we deal with stress and our capacity and need for empathy.

Here’s part of what she had to say:

Oxytocin is a neuro-hormone. It fine-tunes your brain’s social instincts. It primes you to do things that strengthen close relationships. Oxytocin makes you crave physical contact with your friends and family. It enhances your empathy. It even makes you more willing to help and support the people you care about. Some people have even suggested we should snort oxytocin… to become more compassionate and caring. But here’s what most people don’t understand about oxytocin. It’s a stress hormone. Your pituitary gland pumps this stuff out as part of the stress response. It’s as much a part of your stress response as the adrenaline that makes your heart pound. And when oxytocin is released in the stress response, it is motivating you to seek support. Your biological stress response is nudging you to tell someone how you feel, instead of bottling it up. Your stress response wants to make sure you notice when someone else in your life is struggling so that you can support each other. When life is difficult, your stress response wants you to be surrounded by people who care about you. (emphasis mine)

A well city is an empathetic one. We can be a well city in which gay couples can feel comfortable being themselves, holding hands if the mood strikes, or stealing a kiss along the river. But not until and unless we collectively get over our discomfort with the very idea of gay sex. When as a freshman I told my classmate that I was disgusted by the idea of gay sex, what I was really saying to him was that I was disgusted with a fundamental piece of who he was as a man. And if you think I’m wrong, ask yourself how important your sex life is to you and how fundamental it is to expressing your love to the person closest to you.

As a personal trainer, I hear about people’s darkest secrets. I hear about the demons that have tormented them since childhood. It’s because of this that I so often write about empathy. I know just how integral it is to a healthy, well-rounded, fulfilling human experience. Many of us think we exhibit it at the same time our attitudes, actions, and language make life miserable for our neighbors.

You want to make Dayton a healthy city? Make it a welcoming city–for everyone.

 

 

Filed Under: Community, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Empathy for Strangers

June 8, 2016 By Jason Harrison

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Swedish witnesses

Like many of you in the Dayton area, I’ve been talking and thinking a lot about the Stanford rape case involving Brock Allen Turner, who last month was convicted of three felonies stemming from a sexual assault in January 2015. Two people saw the sexual assault and intervened. Here’s one of them describing what he saw:

“She was unconscious. The entire time. I checked her and she didn’t move at all,” Carl-Fredrik Arndt said.

Arndt and his friend later told authorities that they saw Turner on top of the victim “aggressively thrusting his hips into her.”

“The guy stood up then we saw she wasn’t moving still. So we called him out on it. And the guy ran away, my friend Peter chased after him,” Arndt said.

The anonymous victim described in detail what the assault has done to her life in a statement she read to Turner in the courtroom last week, where Turner was sentenced to six months in county jail and probation. Please read her statement in its entirety. Here’s just a portion of it, where she describes the dizzying reality of surviving a brutal assault only to face the emotional trauma of a trial.

“I was not only told that I was assaulted, I was told that because I couldn’t remember, I technically could not prove it was unwanted. And that distorted me, damaged me, almost broke me. It is the saddest type of confusion to be told I was assaulted and nearly raped, blatantly out in the open, but we don’t know if it counts as assault yet. I had to fight for an entire year to make it clear that there was something wrong with this situation.”

My great shame is that I only tangentially paid attention to any of this until this week. The initial news reports about the case itself; the coverage of the trial; and even the sentencing all receded into the background. Whenever I’ve had the misfortune of losing someone close to me in my life, I’ve thought at the funerals that death feels like a thing that should be national news. This person was a giant in my life, I thought, and so everyone should be mourning along with me.

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I imagine that’s how the victim and the victim’s family must have been feeling. How could anyone not care deeply about this trial? About her body and soul, torn asunder beneath a predator? How could I not stop and focus on the news story? And how had I let it recede into the background noise of an election cycle, keeping a small business running, and working on client training programs?

Earlier this week a local woman I respect posted a negative message to Twitter about the local band, Good English. That same day my Twitter feed had references past which I scrolled about a “childhood friend” writing a despicable letter to the case’s judge in Turner’s defense. I remember thinking as I scrolled past these messages something along the lines of “what kind of asshole writes something like that?”

As I was preparing for bed I did a modicum of searching and found the connection between that negative Twitter message and the rape case: Leslie Rasmussen, the talented drummer for Good English, had written the letter. Here’s one of the more disturbing parts of what she wrote:

“I don’t think it’s fair to base the fate of the next ten + years of his life on the decision of a girl who doesn’t remember anything but the amount she drank to press charges against him. I am not blaming her directly for this, because that isn’t right. But where do we draw the line and stop worrying about being politically correct every second of the day and see that rape on campuses isn’t always because people are rapists.”

I know Leslie a little bit. I’ve seen her band perform, I’ve purchased her music, and I’ve tried to talk about Good English publicly to whatever meager following I have. I was proud of what she and her sisters had built.

Now I’m disappointed and angry. But I’m also grappling with my initial “what an asshole” reaction and juxtaposing it with the acquaintance I know from around town.

My Own Ignorance

When I was in high school MTV came to town to shoot a pilot episode of a teenage roundtable touching on a range of topics. I was chosen to participate, and I was excited to have the chance to prove how smart I was, and maybe I was even more excited to meet John Norris, the famous MTV newsman who moderated the discussion.

I don’t remember a lot about the taping, but I’ve been bothered for decades now about an answer I gave to a question about homosexuality. I didn’t quite say God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, but believe me when I tell you the sentiment was damn near close to that. My answer to the question–I don’t even remember what Norris asked, to be honest–was delivered with the certitude only a teenager can summon. I was ignorant, close-minded, and unaware of how much of the world I had yet to experience.

I don’t know if that episode ever ran on television (I think maybe local public access?), and no one in my circle of the world would have criticized me for having the views on gay people that I did.

In 1994 I graduated from high school and went on to Ohio State, where I encountered a greater diversity of people than I had ever experienced. I took an office job with the Honors and Scholars Center, and I was surrounded for the first time with openly gay students, most of whom where better read, smarter, more worldly, and more open-minded than me. I was confronted with my own ignorance, and I felt shame.

I worked through it. I asked questions. I got smarter. I became a better person. More empathetic. More open-minded. I moved to cities with large openly gay populations and formed friendships with people I once would have described as “making a lifestyle choice.”

I’ve been thinking a lot about my own evolutionary process as I’ve digested the news and Leslie’s connection to it. And I’ve been thinking a lot about how I might have been treated in the social media universe had I been in a famous local band and espoused the homophobia that I expressed in that MTV roundtable. Maybe, though, I’m most disturbed that even after all these years my empathy still seems to have startling and inexcusable blind spots.

Empathy for Others: Personal Experience Isn’t Necessary

I wonder about the men, like me, who scroll past the campus rape story. One of my favorite columnists is Alyssa Rosenberg, who writes for the Washington Post. She wrote a column last year called “Why are men still surprised when they learn about rape?” It was a review of John Krakauer’s “Missoula,” a book about a series of college 51OmLU9LfHL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_town sexual assaults. Krakauer writes near the end of the book that “As the scope of my research expanded, I was stunned to discover that many of my acquaintances, and even several women in my own family, had been sexually assaulted by men they trusted.”

About that quote, Rosenberg writes this–she might as well have been writing it directly to me:

“I appreciate that Krakauer has worked to educate himself. But Krakauer’s good intentions have produced a bad book. ‘Missoula’ recaps a number of rape cases in detail. But Krakauer doesn’t answer the obvious question raised by this admission at the end of the book: How could it be that a smart, worldly journalist knew so little about sexual assault?”

Since reading that column I’ve tried my best to educate myself, once again. I’ve followed feminist writers on Twitter, digested bell hooks, and worked every day to include gender as a key ingredient in my worldview. This process has undeniably made me a better person, a better trainer, and a better husband. Even after all that work I largely ignored this rape case. How empathetic am I really?

I’m left wondering whether the anonymous victim will ever find solace with her own body again. And I find myself hoping that Leslie will find the space in the midst of this maelstrom to learn and grow and find empathy for the millions of women who’ve been sexually assaulted. I was an ignorant kid when I did that MTV roundtable, but I was able to work on developing my own empathy away from the spotlight. She doesn’t have that luxury, and in many ways that’s beside the point. She must learn, get smarter, and develop her empathy, perhaps most especially for people she doesn’t know.

My days of bragging about the cool local band are behind me. I vehemently disagree with the tone and substance of Leslie’s letter. But I won’t think of her as “an asshole.” I won’t go on social media calling anyone names. And if I happen to bump into her, I’ll say hello. I’ll ask her how she’s doing. And if we ever had a long enough conversation I’d gladly offer any advice if requested. My hope is that she seeks out the counsel of not some acquaintance like me, but a trusted woman who could help mentor her and introduce her to victims of rape so she could hear their stories.  I hope she’ll listen to this mentor more than talk, and I hope that our community allows her the opportunity to grow and to learn that rape apologia in part creates a permissive environment for sexual assault.

photo-1430329429612-babb42f88673As you consume the news, check the vocabulary you’re using to think about things and describe them to your friends and family. Who’s a thug and who’s not? Which victims of violence are multidimensional human beings? Which parents deserve scorn?

Are you using the vocabulary of empathy or ignorance? Understanding or hate? Perhaps the most important question is this: are you able to put yourself in the shoes of someone who might come from a different neighborhood, speak a different language, practice a different religion, or identify as a different gender? If not, you’ve likely got some work to do. This episode has reminded me that I do too.

For more information on sexual assault, please visit RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

 

 

 

Filed Under: Community, The Featured Articles

Strength Training for Old Folks

June 1, 2016 By Jason Harrison

There really is no disputing the fact that strength training is good for everyone. But when we think of “everyone,” we tend to leave out people in their 40s, 50s, 60s, and 70s, as if there is no benefit to beginning a strength training regimen when one becomes too old to go to the club.

What should strength training for older populations look like? And what are some of the special considerations for pumping iron when one pushes into the fifth decade of life? I’m going to answer these questions with an eye toward people who have never worked out before.

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Recovery Time

If you’re older and you’ve decided to start lifting weights, understand that you’ll need to do weight-bearing exercise at least two days a week. In fact, for the first several months I wouldn’t advise you to do much more than that if you’re not currently active. Your aging body will need more recovery time in between workouts than someone who’s younger or someone who’s been working out for years. (And you’ll need no less than two days because getting stronger is a learning process that requires repetition.)

If you’re seeing a trainer, try establishing a Monday/Thursday or Tuesday/Friday split. You’re going to need those couple of days in between sessions to recover. A lot of times people will ask, “what about cardio?” If you’re older, one of the best things you can do in between lifting sessions is to walk for thirty minutes. The purpose of these walks isn’t to “burn more calories,” but to aid in your recovery from lifting sessions and to develop your cardiovascular capacity. Walk at a brisk pace twice a week in addition to your strength workouts and you’ll be happy with the way you feel. The great thing about walking is it’s a simple, low-impact exercise that you can do for the rest of your life. 

Learning

People feel shame around the fact that they’re not already in great shape. So they avoid trying to get into shape because they feel like they already should be. Pretty vicious cycle, right? Well, it’s not too late, and there’s no reason for you to feel ashamed. Just be ready for the fact that it might take you longer than your 20-year-old nephew to pick up some of the basics.

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You’ve been moving the way you move for five decades or more, and if one assumes that some of those movement patterns aren’t the most efficient, then it follows that you’re going to have to learn new movement patterns in order to lift weights safely. This can take time–and that’s okay.

The older my client is, the more time I spend on the most basic movements like squatting. It can take several weeks just to get someone to the point at which they’re ready to work hard. Again, that’s okay. The key here is patience and an understanding that learning how to move is at least half the reason one should lift weights. It’s not just about getting leaner or a number on the scale. Longterm quality of life hinges upon good movement, and you’ll neither learn how to move well on your couch nor sitting on a bicep curl machine. Stand up!

Terminology

Chances are if you’ve never stepped foot in a gym by the time you’re 40, then it’s safe to say that working out isn’t your thing. So it’s likely that you’re not going to be familiar with a lot of the terminology of the gym. It’s relatively important for you to pay attention to the way people talk about the human body so that people around you (like personal trainers, doctors, chiropractors, etc.) can help you.

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I had a client once tell me that they felt like an exercise was “pulling” on their leg. I had them immediately stop with the forceful concern of a parent who was watching their child head to a light socket with scissors.

“What’s wrong?” they asked.

“A pulling sensation is not good,” I said, “so we need to stop and evaluate what’s going on.”

“Well, maybe pulling isn’t the right word,” said my client. Turns out, by “pulling” my client actually meant “burning” or “difficult.” They were feeling the lunges in their quads just as they were supposed to be feeling them. But because they used terminology I associate with potential injury risk, I made them stop. This type of interaction happens a lot with people who aren’t accustomed to using or paying attention to their body.

You Can Do This

Don’t let the marketing around fitness fool you. This is for you too. I’ve never had an aging client tell me that strength training wasn’t worth it, even among those people who didn’t see a quick transformation in body composition. Just feeling better was worth the price of admission.

Aging doesn’t have to mean painful lower backs, using walkers to get around, and leaning on railings to get up and down from the toilet. It’s only that way in our culture because people stop moving. If you’re reading this I want you to know it’s not too late for you to avoid immobility and weakness. All you have to do is strap on the sneakers and be willing to learn.

Filed Under: Community, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

The False Choice Between Yoga and Strength Training

May 25, 2016 By Jason Harrison

False dichotomy is one of those nickel phrases college freshmen toss around to sound smart. I know I’ve used it before exactly for that purpose (along with paradigm. Paradigm’s a good one for that first Thanksgiving visit home from college). But just because the phrase is trite at this point doesn’t make it entirely without merit. I can think of no other example than the false dichotomy between yoga and strength training.

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I’ve talked to yoga people who have a warped view of what strength training is, and it tracks with the popular view of why one would chalk up one’s hands and attempt to pull a few hundred pounds from the floor, swing a heavy kettlebell around, or press a dumbbell over one’s face. Vanity. Narcissism. Testosterone. General bro-rificness.

And I’ve talked to strength people who have a warped view of what yoga is. That it’s just stretching, or that it’s woo-woo Oprah-fied soft fitness, or that people do it when they want to avoid actually working hard.

These sound like straw man arguments, but I promise you I’ve heard them in one capacity or another recently from otherwise well-informed, smart people.

Generally I’ve found that the people who engage in such arguments back and forth generally don’t know a lot about the exercise modality they’re busy bad-mouthing.

I don’t enjoy yoga. I actually think it’s safe to say that I find it torturous. I find it to be boring, and rather than leaving a class feeling energized, rejuvenated, and relieved of stress, I feel almost the opposite of all of those things.

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Yoga isn’t for me, in other words. But it might just be for you! And even though I’m a barbell, kettlebell, and dumbbell guy I think yoga is one of the best exercise practices one can learn.

  • It can be progressively overloaded to an extent, so body transformation is possible.
  • The right studio can be an empowering and comfortable space.
  • It promotes mindfulness, body awareness, and good posture.
  • You can take it anywhere–hotel rooms, vacations, and studio apartments.

And though I love the gym, I recognize that there’s a significant portion of the population out there who will never love strength training the way I do. But everyone needs to do some form of strength training if they wish to build and maintain muscle, develop mobility, and enjoy quality of life during the aging process.

Yoga can fill that void. It is a form of strength training. Instead of barbells, one is using gravity and body weight to build muscle and mobility. The downside of yoga as I see it is its comparatively limited capacity for progressive overload: with good programming and solid nutrition, I can keep adding weight, and thus new stimulus, to a barbell. There’s a ceiling for that kind of overload with yoga–but this amounts to the picking of nits when one considers that more than two in three adults in the United States are obese. Chances are if you’re a couch potato right now that the overload for which yoga allows will be enough to change your body and get you stronger for several months to come (if your nutrition is on point and you’re getting enough sleep).

On the other end of the spectrum, yoga enthusiasts tend to downplay the mobility requirements of barbell strength. The strongest people I know happen to spend a lot of time on warmup, mobility, cooldown, and recovery. Not exactly meathead principles we’re talking about. Don’t confuse the guys you see doing bicep curls in front of the dumbbell rack at your big chain gym for the type of strong, mobile, athletic men and women I’m referencing. You can’t truly get strong unless you’re also mobile–it’s just too difficult to avoid injury otherwise.

These two seemingly disparate communities ought to learn from one another. If you’re a gym rat, challenge yourself to take a yoga class–and don’t judge the process or turn it into a competition. Allow yourself to be humbled. (You will be humbled.)

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Likewise if you’re a multiple-day-a-week yoga practitioner, I challenge you to learn some basic strength training movements. If yoga is your only form of strength training, your biggest gaps are likely to be pulling movements (like pull-ups and rows) and weighted squatting or hinging movements (like squats and deadlifts). By supplementing your yoga practice with some targeted strength training movements you’ll likely gain muscle mass and burn a bit more fat than you might otherwise from yoga alone.

The key takeaway is this: stop being so judgmental of things you don’t understand. Yoga and barbell training have been resilient against other, more dubious exercise trends. There’s a simple reason for this.

They work.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, present tense fitness

Family Obligations and Fitness

May 18, 2016 By Jason Harrison

When I trained in New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C. there was a notable absence of family obligations for many of my clients. These coastal cities tend to be more transient* than a place like Dayton, Ohio, so to the extent that people had social obligations, they were more likely to involve friends and coworkers than family.

Here in Dayton many of us are surrounded by sometimes several rings of extended family, so it’s not uncommon for a weekend to be consumed by a cousin’s wedding or a childhood neighbor’s graduation party.

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I’ve noticed in recent weeks my own struggle to balance the routines that I’ve implemented to make my life work for me against things like Sunday family dinners, invitations to social outings, and holiday gatherings one might otherwise ignore if not for family tradition.

It’s a lot easier to say no to happy hour with work “friends” than it is to the aunt who practically raised you and has invited you over for brunch. So what can you do to stay organized when a family obligation happens to fall right in the middle of your usual grocery shopping, food prep, or workout time?

The standard answer of course is you have to plan around these things. You have to know your calendar well in order account for a family command performance.

But that feels like glib advice to me. Sometimes bad timing is just bad timing, and no amount of calendar preparation and planning ahead can make up for the fact that Sundays are your grocery shopping days and going to the cookout will get in the way of that.

This is one of those areas in which my best advice is to give yourself permission to do the best you can most of the time and good enough the rest of the time. What I mean by that is if you have a well-established grocery, cooking, and workout routine and you get invited to a family gathering, then you ought to go. (I’m assuming here for the sake of discussion that you have a healthy, non-abusive relationship with your family. If you don’t, then this advice doesn’t really apply. Don’t put yourself into situations that are bad for you–family or no family).

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Uncle Joe might not serve the healthiest food. And the spread at Sunday dinner might not have the best composition of macronutrients. But you’ll be glad that you spent that time with family, and you’re more likely to remember those Sunday dinners than you would the extra rowing workout you squeezed in. The people you love aren’t going to be around forever, and it’s best that you keep that in mind.

Here’s another thing to consider. The more authentically and openly you live your life, the more likely the people around you will be to consider your healthy choices when they decide to invite you over. Don’t proselytize–nobody likes that fitness guy–but be you. People will notice that you tend to always add vegetables to your plate, even at breakfast. And when they invite you over for Sunday dinner they might ask you what kind of vegetables you’d like, or even what you’d recommend. It’s then that your lifestyle choices begin to rub off on the people who matter most to you.

The other thing living authentically will do for you is allow you to say no sometimes. Don’t be insecure about the fact that you love to work out, love to eat well during your work week, and love the yoga class you’ve been attending. Set the precedent right now that these things are important to you so that you can say no to some things and not hurt anyone’s feelings. If they love you and care about your health, they’ll understand when you don’t come to everything.


*When I say these cities are transient, I don’t mean to suggest that there aren’t longtime residents for whom generations of families have called, say, the District of Columbia home. These cities are transient insofar as there are a number of residents moving in and out–but that’s not true of everyone living there. We tend to ignore the longtime residents who form the backbone of places. I don’t mean to do that in this case. For more on transience in American life, check out this helpful report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

 

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Judge Not Your Friend Who’s Now Fit

May 11, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Your friend has never been particularly fit nor particularly interested in nutrition. Maybe she was your old college roommate, and you have distinct memories of late nights, bad decisions, and otherworldly alcohol consumption. But something has gotten into her lately. Maybe she started going to that new yoga studio down the street. Or she hired a personal trainer. Or she started running and has fallen in love with piling up miles.

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She’s not obnoxious about her healthy pursuits. She still talks about literature and movies and books and the occasional reality TV show. It’s just, now when you suggest drinks or happy hour she tells you that she’s scheduled for a class or a lift or a run.

You have a choice to make here. You can be supportive of her new healthy lifestyle, perhaps ask her questions about her yoga studio, personal trainer, or running coach.

Or you can do what a lot of people choose to do and be an asshole.

Unsupportive friends do whatever they can to derail a newly fit person’s journey. “Come on, just skip the workout,” these people will say.

 

“Oh look at you! Now you decide to run. Whatever happened to the girl I knew in college?”RunningMom

Some version of this happens in work settings all the time. Someone decides to stop treating their body like a dump truck at lunch and instead of going out for bar food he brings lunch from home. But instead of asking how this person is going about overhauling their lifestyle, people pressure him to eat garbage alongside them.

We rightly have pushed back culturally against body shaming and unrealistic expectations of women in particular to “be thin.” But it’s okay somehow for us to make fun of the friend who favors organic food, perhaps even more expensive but high-quality food, and home-cooked food over fast food, microwaved food, and processed food.

Why do we make fun of fit people? The simple answer is that our ridicule reveals some insecurity about ourselves. It sounds like trite analysis, but I think there’s something to this.

Have you ever met someone who’s incredibly accomplished, good-looking, and nice? And your initial reaction rather than appreciating the opportunity to meet this person was to search for something wrong with them? I sure have. If I find myself comparing my accomplishments to someone else’s and see that I don’t quite measure up, sometimes I’ll start deducting points from their side of the ledger to make myself feel better. I’m not proud of these moments, but I know myself well enough to be able to admit to them. Getting older has done wonders for helping me realize that talent, merit, accomplishment, and admirable traits aren’t a zero-sum game: there’s enough out there for all of us. Still, I can be petty just like anyone else and it ain’t pretty.

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If you find that a friend or family member is making an effort to live a sustainably healthy lifestyle, be supportive. Ask questions. JOIN THEM. Your ridicule and shaming of their choices could quite possibly undermine their efforts–leaving both you and them less healthy.

Besides, ridiculing someone else for doing something positive for their wellness just isn’t a good look. Don’t do it. Ever.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Are you busy or disorganized?

May 4, 2016 By Jason Harrison

There’s a group of people who pride themselves in the frantic nature of their days. When they’re in a meeting at work they’re also checking their email; when they’re checking their email they’re also walking to their next appointments, precariously navigating the work hallway or the streets outside; and when they’re driving to their next meeting, they’re clocking 45 miles per hour on Interstate 75 because they’re reading responses to the email they sent during their previous meeting; and on their way home they’re tapping out responses to those emails while swinging through the fast food drive thru because they forgot to prepare something for dinner.

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Any of this sound familiar? If so, you might not be busy. You might just be disorganized and chaotic. While this might make you feel like you’re a hard-charging, go getter who’s making things happen, what’s really going on is you’re allowing life to happen to you and wasting energy that could be used to enjoy life, fall in love, make love, learn a skill, serve your community, or explore a new neighborhood.

Chaotic people come to me all the time seeking personal training. Their calling card is rescheduled sessions, questions about things we clearly discussed in an email, and last-minute cancellations. It’s not that they don’t value my time or that they’re bad people. They just don’t have a firm grasp of their own time because they never slow down enough to take inventory. They live in a constant state of anxiety bubbling just beneath the surface because they’ve overbooked themselves, leaving too little time to get from one appointment to the next and not enough energy to be fully present at any given moment.

Training sessions with people addicted to chaos can be difficult because their minds are racing and I have to corral their energy and push them to focus. “Tell me that story after this set,” you’ll often hear me say. Or “PAUSE. Pay attention to what you’re doing here.” These sessions require more of my energy because these clients lack focus. One moment of me not paying attention can lead to a herniated disc, pulled muscle, or a dangerous fall.

Sometimes people will ask me why my business is called “Present Tense Fitness,” and at least part of the answer stems from my experience with clients addicted to chaos. In my gym I don’t have any clocks, and I quietly encourage people to store their phones out of sight (as I do with my own). Pay attention to what’s going on in your body RIGHT NOW. And if we can learn to do that in the gym we also can learn to do that outside of the gym. More people would eat well–or at least not eat so poorly–if they stopped for a moment or two to pay attention to the way that lunchtime fast food run actually made them feel.

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If you are addicted to chaos, here are some simple ways to begin to live a life more deeply connected to the people and moments that ought to matter.

1.) Use a calendar: I can’t stress this one enough. You need a calendar, electronic or otherwise. Start by blocking off seven to eight hours of sleep every day, schedule in when and how you’re going to eat, and then schedule in workouts. Only then do you fill in the rest. (“But Jason, if I filled out my calendar that way, wouldn’t my entire life be structured around wellness?” Why yes. You are on to me.)

2.) Put your phone away. Get your phone out of bed. Get your phone away from the dining room table. Keep your phone in your bag at the gym (unless you’re taking evaluative video of an exercise). For the love of god keep your phone away when you’re on a date or having dinner with someone you love.

3.) Give yourself enough time. One of the things I say to personal training clients about working out on their own is if you don’t have time to warm up properly then you don’t have time to work out. One could alter this slightly by saying if you don’t have enough time to get to an appointment without speeding or rushing, then you shouldn’t have made that appointment in the first place. Rushing to an appointment is the surest way you can bake anxiety, inattention to detail, and wasted energy into your day.

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4.) Value relationships. This is strongly related to the point about putting your phone away, but be mindful of where your attention is when you’re talking to someone. Are you listening to what they’re saying or are you planning your next meeting? What can you do to be present and make the most of the time you’re spending with this person? This can be more difficult at work than in our personal lives, but even in that command performance work lunch you couldn’t avoid, you’re still sitting in front of another human being. Connect with them. Listen to them. Exhibit empathy. You have to be there, right? So why not make it as authentic of a meeting as possible?

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t just the chaos-addicted who inspired the name Present Tense Fitness. It was also the Pearl Jam song, “Present Tense.”

“Do you see the way that tree bends?
Does it inspire?
Leaning out to catch the sun’s rays
A lesson to be applied”

If your nose is in your phone, you can’t lean out to catch the sun’s rays, because you won’t notice them. If you’re rushing around, you won’t feel the warmth of that sun, nor will you feel the warmth of the people around you who want nothing more than to be with you because they care about you. If you’re not sleeping enough, eating well, and moving well, you won’t be able to reach for anything at all.

Aim in your life to be present.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, present tense fitness

About That Abs Class…

April 27, 2016 By Jason Harrison

The other night someone stopped by my gym to ask about what kind of training I do. After explaining that I focus primarily on personal training with a strength focus, the person asked if I do training sessions specifically focused on “abs.”

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This made me think about the gap between what people want and what they actually need. I can tell a lot about whether a person is committed to goals and process or their comfortable routines based on what types of exercise they do.

Generally, I’ve found that devotees to classes and cardio machines are addicted to their routine. They like their 7 PM Zumba class, their elliptical session while watching Morning Joe, or their abs sculpting class at noon. These things make them sweat and generally make them feel good. These aren’t bad things.

The problem is that they’re not going to be particularly effective either. Hopefully, you know me well enough to understand that I’m not here to shame or belittle anyone’s choice of exercise. I’m not. And hopefully, you also know me well enough now at this point to realize that I’m not dogmatic about exercise. My non-negotiable is that everyone ought to be doing some sort of progressively overloaded weight-bearing exercise, but that can look like a lot of different things for different people based on goals, interests, and experience.

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Zumba is only going to work for so long before it stops changing your body. It’s not that it’s not challenging, but that it’s difficult to progressively overload and it’s not weight-bearing in the sense that you’re targeting your central nervous system, bones, muscles, and joints for adaptation. One can lack mobility in significant areas but still complete a Zumba class. This is what makes it a great option for someone who’s never exercised–but not as their ONLY form of exercise. Because if one lacks mobility, one ought to work to gain mobility. That’s not going to happen in a class like Zumba.

Abs classes might make your belly burn, but chances are you’re not going to flatten out anything if you’re not also doing squats, lunges, presses, and pulls along with a healthy dose of well-balanced eating that includes a lot of vegetables. You might view your stomach as your “problem area,” but that pathway to a flatter midsection is paved in the kitchen and in the strength training facility or yoga studio–not the abs class.

That morning elliptical ritual you have is great if you’re using it to clear your head and get a good start on the day. But don’t think that you’re going to elliptical your way to the body you want without also a good bit of strength training or yoga. The more you use the elliptical, the more efficient your body gets at handling it–which is the death knell for forcing an adaptive response.

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My sense of why people opt for routine instead of actual change is they’re afraid that they’re somehow the people for whom fitness doesn’t actually work. Why commit to an actual goal only to be disappointed? This is fear talking to you. Don’t listen to it. I’m here to tell you that if you lift progressively heavier weights or practice yoga with a good teacher; if you sleep seven to eight hours a night; and if you eat vegetables and protein at every meal (and your protein can come from the right veggies) you can change your body.

Don’t resign yourself to routine when you can accomplish. Don’t settle when you can achieve. Don’t give up when you can succeed.

So before you sign up for that next abs class, ask yourself this: Do you want to do what you like? Or do you want to do what works?

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Family Conversations About Meals

April 20, 2016 By Jason Harrison

What are you having for dinner tonight?

You should know the answer to that question, even if your spouse is the one responsible for preparing dinner on this particular evening.

Lately I’ve been coaching a number of people who can’t answer that question, usually because they’ve outsourced all responsibility to their significant other. The problem with this scenario–even if, at best, it represents a mutually agreeable division of labor–is that it removes responsibility, buy-in, and empowerment from one half of the household equation.

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Most of the time–though not quite all–it’s us dudes who aren’t quite dialed into what’s at the table. I’m sure someone smarter than me could give you an entire socio-historical breakdown about why this continues to be the case in 2016, but for now let’s just agree that husbands and boyfriends ought to be a part of the discussion.

Food is such a source of guilt (I shouldn’t have eaten that), turmoil (read: picky child eaters), and judgment (I can’t believe you’re eating that) that I can understand why we avoid talking about it. By outsourcing the cooking duties to someone else, I think there’s a part of us thinking that we’re absolving ourselves of responsibility.

“I’d like to eat a little better, but my wife does all the cooking.”

“I’d like to eat a little better, but my husband usually does the grocery shopping.”

If you’re married with children, my guess is you spend some amount of time discussing college funds, vacations,  and visits from the in-laws. You have those discussions because navigating each of these things requires some degree of planning. I’m here to argue that food for your family is more important than all of those things combined–and requires no less planning than figuring out how to save for college.

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Too many people talk about food in terms of willpower and discipline, but in my experience the real issue around eating well is planning.

Who does the grocery shopping and when?

What’s going on this week?

Kids have a softball game on Wednesday? Cool–what’s for dinner?

Compulsory after work drinks with the new boss? Cool–what’s the plan for eating well so you don’t end up eating all of the mozzarella sticks?

Traveling for work? Have you checked Google maps to see where your hotel is and what decent food options are around?

We think we get stuck, don’t we? “Well, I only ate McDonald’s because we had the thing and then I got off of work late and then–”

No.

You ate McDonald’s because you didn’t have a plan, you didn’t have fresh food in the house, and you didn’t coordinate with your partner. It’s not because you’re dumb or because you lack discipline. It’s url-5because you’re a human being with responsibilities and the only way to eat well under such circumstances is to plan for it with the seriousness you apply to other important things in your life.

 

I’m in no position to be giving you homework, but I’m going to do it anyway. If you’ve never talked to your spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend about food, do it today. See where the conversation leads. You might be pleasantly surprised about what you’ll learn from each other.

Filed Under: Active Living Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Do You Have Any Rituals?

April 13, 2016 By Jason Harrison

Do you have any rituals? Bedtime? Work? Morning?

Life comes at us in waves, and we don’t often have the time or take the time to appreciate the details. One way to combat this passivity, this letting life happen to us, is to develop some rituals around the simplest day-to-day activities. My rituals may look nothing like whatever would turn you on, but I thought I’d share some of mine to give you an idea of what taking the time to smell the flowers can look like in your own life.

The Ritual: Morning coffee

Every morning I walk over to Press on Wayne Ave. to grab a coffee. I can make my own coffee at home (which would be a nice ritual in and of itself), but I make it a point to walk to Press, chat with the baristas, and take in the morning. My mornings sometimes start really early—like 6 AM early—so I’ll hit Press after my early clients.

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What it does for me

I get to drink a world class cup of coffee, but more importantly, I’ve found connections at Press that I don’t know I could have found anywhere else. I ALWAYS have interesting conversations there with the owners, the people who work there, or the diverse range of former Ohio State football players, musicians, artists, moms, dads, and occasional misanthropes one is likely to find there. This ritual is especially important if I’m having a bad day or I’m feeling especially stressed about running my own business. Sure, I can brew my own coffee at home, but once a day, every day, you’ll find me at Press. The ridiculously good coffee is just the starting point. I’m really there for the community.

The Ritual: Sitting and Reflecting

photo-1448998239730-7682a10fd814Lately, I’ve been finishing my training sessions and heading over to work on a new personal training studio in the Oregon District. Friday evening I finished at 6:30 PM and worked straight through the weekend until about 9 PM on Sunday.

But you know what? I finished every one of those evenings by just sitting. Running one’s own business can be stressful, time-consuming, and frightening, and it’s easy to get lost in those less-than-fun emotions. (Lately, I think I’ve mostly been frightened). So every night, no matter how late, no matter how tired, no matter how ready for bed and no matter how bloodied my hands (cleaning agents + dry hands + cinderblock walls), I just sat. Admired our work. Thought of the future. Imagined how happy my clients will be to walk into the space.

What it does for me

A funny thing happened when I allowed myself that reflection, which could have seemed like a frivolous waste of time. I relaxed! You might not be opening up your own shop, but at the end of your work day you can take a few moments in your cubicle, your office, or in your truck to take in the weather/view/birds/sunset/trees. I’m not saying you’ll be able to turn a terrible day into a good one, but that taking the time to sit with what you’ve done can be a great way to lower the temperature and remind yourself that you’re okay. I know I need those reminders a lot.

The Ritual: Writing for Dayton Most Metro

Every Tuesday evening I sit down to write this column whether I have the time or not. (Lately I have not had the time). I go through the usual writer’s process of freaking out because I’m worried people will hate what I write, freaking out because I’m not sure I have anything useful to say, and freaking out because that’s what I like to do.

Then I just sit and let my mind wander to what I’ve been thinking about lately. What’s been on my mind? What questions have I been receiving online or from clients? What do I want people to know?

And then it happens. I just start typing. And in the end, I’ve been delivering these columns once a week without fail since I signed on.

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What it does for me

Writing more than anything else is a discipline. Having this weekly deadline has forced me to be more mindful throughout my week about what I’m seeing, hearing, and feeling. I have to be aware of what the people around me are asking consistently because I know at some point I’m going to have to sit down in front of a blinking cursor.

Sometimes commitments can be soul-sucking regrets. But this Dayton Most Metro column has made me a better and more attentive coach because it has forced me to notice patterns, and the writing process itself has forced me to sharpen my own thinking around some complicated subjects.

Is there a project you can take on at work that would stretch you? A volunteer opportunity? Could you resolve to write a letter or an email to someone who’s been important to you at least once a week? The difference between an assignment and a ritual is mindset–and you’re totally in control of that.

Your rituals

The point of all of this stuff is to give yourself permission to notice the small, beautiful things that surround you every single day. We know the world is a cruel, hard place. And we’re here and often there’s nothing we can do about the cruelty or the hardness. But we do possess the power to take a moment every day to find what’s good in us and what surrounds us.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, present tense fitness

Let’s Talk Butt Stuff

April 6, 2016 By Jason Harrison

If you’re committed to the pursuit of strength, then you ought not worry about whether or not you’ll be able to fit into those skinny jeans. In fact, if you’re getting progressively stronger, more mobile, and healthier, chances are you’re NOT going to be able to fit into those skinny jeans. That’s a good thing.

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But I still have clients, mostly women, who worry about fitting into their same jeans after a few weeks of working out. They’re losing body fat, feeling stronger, and moving better, but there’s a connection between how and whether clothes fit some women and their self esteem that I’ve not been able to break, try as I might.

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So let me make the case for big butts. I’m not talking big butts from indulging in too many fried cheese sticks, but big, powerful butts sculpted from lunges, glute bridges, hip thrusts, and curtsey lunges.

The performance case

If you want to be a strong squatter or deadlifter, you’ll need a strong butt. These full body movements demand what we call a strong “posterior chain”–that is, the muscles that predominate on the back of your body from top to bottom–and your glutes are a relatively important part of that chain. Glutes are responsible for what we call “hip extension.” Want to pick up something heavy from the floor safely? Hip extension is a key part of the equation.

The metabolism case

The biggest mistake I see people making in commercial gyms when I’m traveling and working out in one is focusing too much time on minor muscle groups (biceps, calves, etc.) instead of major muscle groups (back, quads, hamstrings). People think the path to sculpted arms lies in things like tricep extensions, but really what they need to do is squat and deadlift more while eating more vegetables and balanced meals. This in turn will help you burn more fat, which will reveal the strong arms you’ve been building from your rowing and pressing. What you’re after if you’re trying to lose body fat is working big muscles every time you work out–and your glutes are among the biggest in your body. So having a big, strong butt will actually help you burn fat while you’re not working out.

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The aesthetic case

The old sexist punchlines centering on a woman asking her husband if “these jeans make my butt look big” ought to be dead if they aren’t already. The cultural tides have shifted–in a good way, in my estimation–away from the drive to be skinny and toward the pursuit of a strong, curvy body. Men and women alike seem to enjoy looking at “squat butts” more than ever. Fitness is my life, but I’m not naive enough to think that people aren’t working out in part to catch other people’s eyes. Filling out those yoga pants, jeans, slacks, or shorts with a big ole squat butt will definitely get you noticed.

Resources

Now that I’ve convinced you that you need a bigger butt, it’s time to put thought into action. How do you build a strong, big butt?

To answer that question, you really should start by reading and watching as much Bret Contreras content as you can. Dude has built a career out of building butts (and publishing serious research in fitness). Start here for his myriad resources on butt building.

I would also check out what TNation has done on building strong glutes. Within just the past few days TNation editor Dani Shugart wrote an entire piece on the how’s and why’s of building strong glutes. That article, “The Flat Butt Fix,” is here.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

You Changed Your Body. Now What?

March 30, 2016 By Jason Harrison

This week I’ve had more than one person express fear to me about their new habits. They’re lifting now, eating better, feeling better, and looking better, and just when you think things couldn’t be any better the old adversary pays a visit.

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Fear.

If you’ve done the hard work and engaged in the self-reflection necessary to change your body, you want to keep the “new you.” This desire can cause more than a little anxiety about slipping back into the old ways that yielded the old you.

I wish I could tell you or my clients that I can guarantee that you won’t slip back into the old habits, but there’s no guarantee for that. I can only share with you what I’ve seen from people who’ve successfully made dramatic changes and who continue living a healthy lifestyle.

A Focus on Strength, Not Weight Loss

Strength, and thus, muscle mass, is the best insurance policy against sliding back into an old unhealthy body that there is. If you’re continuously getting stronger, then it’s going to be difficult to simultaneously continue getting fatter. This doesn’t mean that you might not gain weight, but it means that your ratio of lean mass to fat mass should tip in your favor as long as you’re–

…Eating Vegetables At Every Meal

Tired of me talking about veggies yet? Sorry. I’m not going to stop. You need to be eating more vegetables. Right now, in fact. Seriously. Stop reading this post and go eat some damn vegetables.

If you’re getting progressively stronger and you’re filling half your plate with vegetables every time you sit down to eat, it’s going to be really, really difficult to slide back into your old ways. You’re going to feel too full to eat extraneous calories, especially if you stick to the rule: veggies at every meal. The corollary to this is that you also should be eating protein at every meal, but generally I’ve seen people fall short in the vegetable department. The key is eating balanced meals full of nutrients, the building blocks of immune health and muscle, and satiety.

photo-1418669112725-fb499fb61127The people I’ve known who’ve successfully changed their lifestyles have incorporated some sort of weight bearing exercise and eaten well. At least some of these people had tried the usual prescription of “eat fewer calories and do a lot of cardio” and failed before adopting the sustainable path built upon muscle mass and balanced meals.

When someone says to me that they’re nervous about returning to their old ways, often I’ll ask them to compare how they used to approach wellness to their new approach.

Old Approach

Often what I’ll hear about their old approach is that they counted calories, they ran a lot, and that they were injured a lot. I’ll hear that their weight loss journey generally made them miserable.

New Approach

In comparison, their sustainable approach often involves fewer workout sessions (but with more intensity), eating more often (but with nutrient dense foods rather than calorie dense foods), and feeling stronger.

So the fear usually stems from the fact that most of the time when people embark on a weight loss journey they’re engaging in behaviors that are patently not fun. Who wants to be injured all the time? Who wants to feel hungry all the time? Who wants to feel weak? Who wants to eat bland chicken and broccoli for dinner every night?

No one.

The most important thing you can do if you’re trying to change your body is ensure that the process you’re using feels good, tastes good, and is fun. You’re going to be sore if you’re new to working out–I’m sorry, that’s just the price of admission for the first couple of weeks. As you get stronger, however, as you walk up and down the stairs without pain, as you play with your children or grandchildren without tapping out because you’re tired, as your clothes fit better (even if the scale doesn’t change), you will feel good about yourself. And you’ll want that feeling for the rest of your life.

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Worried about the eating part of the equation? I promise you that a well-prepared home cooked meal will always taste better and make you feel better than fast food, processed food, or anything you can get from a big chain casual restaurant. What this means though is that you have to learn how to cook. The people I know who’ve changed their lifestyles sustainably have almost always incorporated more cooking into their weekly routines. This is not negotiable.

If you’ve changed your life using the sustainable path, if you’ve learned to cook, if you’ve learned how to get stronger, and if you’ve embraced the process–you have nothing to worry about.

If, on the other hand, you’ve dieted your way down to that dress size you’ve been chasing; you’ve been doing hours upon hours of cardio; and you’ve been counting every calorie, I can’t say that you won’t slide back to your old ways. I’ve seen it happen too many times.

Turns out you have to enjoy your body in order to sustain it.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Does Your Trainer Cancel on You?

March 23, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I recently had to cancel three days of clients because of some vile stomach illness I wouldn’t wish upon my fiercest of enemies. I hate canceling on my people, but the primary reason for my reticence to send that apologetic text may surprise you.

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I know from experience that once I cancel on people, I’ve sent a subtle signal that canceling our training sessions is okay. I fight hard to stay healthy, not just because it feels better for me—but ultimately because my clients’ success depends upon me being there. Every. Single. Time.

The personal training world gets a bad rap in part because it seems this don’t cancel on your clients policy practiced by every good coach I’ve ever known isn’t the standard it should be for many fitness practitioners. Sometimes I’ll take on a new client who’s used to working with a less than professional trainer, and they’ll begin the relationship with several cancellations. I have to have the conversation with them about how I will almost never cancel on them and in fact I expect the same courtesy in return.

Am I being prickly? Nah, because the truth is people know I have a 24-hour cancellation policy. So if they cancel on me late, I can still charge them for the session. I get paid for doing nothing.

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What’s really going on is I know just how important establishing the fitness habit is, especially in the beginning of change. If you hire me to train you and I cancel on you rather than keeping our appointments, I’m failing at a significant part of the job—which is literally just showing up for you.

Life happens, and some canceling is inevitable (as my three-day stomach bug vacation proves), but a successful trainer/client relationship depends upon a mutual culture built on keeping appointments. You have to show up for each other.

If you’re working with a trainer, here are some signs that you need to find someone who takes you more seriously.

1.) Do you have set appointments with your trainer, or are you consulting your calendar every week? For the most part you ought to have a slot that’s yours unless your travel schedule or shifting work schedule dictates moving appointments from week to week. What shouldn’t happen is that your trainer texts you on Sunday night every week attempting to squeeze you into slots.

2.) Your trainer should never—and I do mean never—no show you. I heard from a former client in another city recently who had to give up on his current trainer because of incessant canceling and no-showing. This is simply unacceptable, and it shows that whomever you’ve hired to help you on your fitness journey really doesn’t much care about whether you succeed or not.

3.) Last minute cancellations should be a rarity. I used to work with a guy who would text his early morning clients and check in just to make sure their 6 AM was still a go. This is ridiculous behavior that you shouldn’t tolerate. If you said last week that you’re training this week on Wednesday at 6 AM, well that’s exactly what should happen unless an act of God, family emergency, or illness intervenes.

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But it’s not all on your trainer. This is a partnership and the responsibility for your success can’t be all on her. Here are your responsibilities:

1.) Show up on time ready to work out. If you have a 12 PM session and you show up at 12:10 consistently, you’re sending subtle signals to the trainer that you’re not really invested in your own success. Early on in my career I used to show up for a 6 AM client at 6:03—until she rightly called me out on it. Frankly I was too grown to be acting in such an unprofessional and careless manner, and I’m glad she had the courage and self-esteem to say she wouldn’t stand for it. (She ended up being a good friend and one of my favorite clients). She was always on time, ready to work, and I’m a little embarrassed to think back on how I didn’t automatically reciprocate her behavior until she said something.

2.) Never no show, almost never cancel late, and rarely cancel at all. You’re not going to improve if you don’t show up. And again, the way you act toward your trainer sends subtle cues about how you want to be treated. The person who shows up a little early, ready to work out, always keeps appointments, and appears to be respectful of their trainer’s time is the person who will be rewarded with extra effort, extra research, and extra attention to detail.

My industry has failed a lot of you countless times because of a lack of basic grownup behavior. Early on in my career, when I still viewed fitness as a means to other ends (I’m going to be a writer or a journalist or an actor!), I was as guilty as the very people I’m criticizing today. You shouldn’t stand for this because your body is too important. But remember always to hold up your end of the bargain as well. A relationship this critical, this intimate, is based on mutual trust, respect, and professionalism.

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

Where You Spend Money Says Something About Your Wellness

March 16, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I used to work with a trainer who would tell his clients that they ought to leave their jobs if their careers didn’t allow them to live healthy lifestyles. I always thought this was ridiculous, impractical advice, but I’ve been wondering lately if I was too dismissive of this trainer’s logic.

photo-1454023989775-79520f04322cModern American life is replete with responsibilities, financial pressure, and seemingly unrelenting time-consuming demands. So I mostly try to offer advice that allows people to make the best of a suboptimal situation. Lately I’ve been wondering if this practicality actually is feeding into an unhealthy approach to life by justifying it in a way. “Listen, I understand that you have two kids, a mortgage, and college to save for, so I understand if you don’t have the time to cook three meals a day, every day.” That’s probably a version of something I’ve said before.

The problem with my approach, however, is that I’m not sensing that most of us are actually happy with the way we’re living. The parents I talk to say that they’re overwhelmed, and people seem to feel less in control as they rise through the corporate/government/organizational ranks. We get more, in a sense, and then we’re afraid of losing what we just earned.

When I ask people how they would like to be living, almost invariably they tell me they would like to be spending more time with their children, they would like to be exercising more, and they would like to have more time to cook. The conventional wisdom suggests that people are just idiots and that’s why they eat the way they do and avoid exercise. But I think what’s happened is we’ve bought a narrative about what our lives–and by extension our houses, cars, and clothes are supposed to look like. In short, I wonder how much our unbridled consumerism is linked to our declining wellness.

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By investing in stuff instead of experiences and our health, we’re voting for stuff in a sense with our dollars. Let’s take cable, for instance.

“According to estimates from the NPD Group, this year the average subscription pay-TV customer will pay an astonishing $123 per month for pay-TV. NPD estimated that same figure was $86 in 2011, which indicates an increase of 9.4% annually between 2011 and 2015.” —Motley Fool, February 2015

$123 a month seems high, but that’s not the only cost associated with that cable bill. There’s also the lost time with family, with books, with friends, with creativity, with love, with sex, with thinking, with doing, with our communities. $123 a month is almost $1500 a year. Once we start to appreciate how much money we’re essentially throwing away, then the choice to stay at that miserable, life-sucking job seems less like a sacrifice necessitated by saving for college and more like a silly choice to watch “Say Yes to the Dress” instead of spending time with our spouses.

I pick on cable television a lot, but there are other examples. We eat out at mostly terrible restaurants and fast food joints. We buy two gigantic cars instead of trying to make due with one. We even buy gigantic homes that are expensive to heat and maintain.

Lest anyone think I have some sort of superiority complex, I can assure you I’m guilty of wasting money on stupid things too. When we first moved back to Dayton I was a baby about how the water tasted. So I convinced myself that we “needed” to have water delivered every month. Several weeks ago we eliminated that water delivery service from our ledger, bought a filtered container at the grocery, and now we’re saving a lot of money as a result. (Bonus points too for eliminating the wasted energy used to ship water to me on a truck instead of turning a faucet.)

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I’m not telling you to quit your job. I am asking you to think about where your money is going. Could you make less money but live closer to your home, thus buying you valuable time with your family? Is there a walkable neighborhood to which you could move where you wouldn’t need multiple cars? If you took a hard look at things like cable service, could you reduce the amount of monthly costs?

When we think about our choices related to fitness and health, general we focus on nutrition and exercise. But I’m here to tell you that where and how you choose to spend your money is as much a wellness decision as what you’re having for dinner tonight.

So don’t quit your job…

…but think about how your life might be different in another one.

 

 

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

On Discipline and Fitness

March 9, 2016 By Jason Harrison

I keep returning to this theme of understanding, loving, and respecting one’s body because every week I’m reminded of how many people don’t fully grasp the ideas. So I try to come up with new ways of saying the same thing. You, the fearless reader, probably suffer from deja vu every day my column appears.

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Today I want to explore the ideas of discipline and norms as they relate to our bodies because I think there are some misconceptions packaged within these concepts that require some scrutiny.

I often talk to be people who tell me that they need to be more disciplined, and I’d say the majority of the time what they’re referencing is an inability to wake up early and work out. They think that fit people live like a boxer in the Rocky and Creed franchise, waking up at the break of dawn to run five miles, drink a raw egg, and do one-arm push ups. With this type of mindset–only slightly exaggerated here for underwhelming comedic effect–it’s no wonder that many people intimidate themselves out of getting fit.

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Not everyone reading this is a morning person. I happen to be able to function rather quickly upon waking, so getting in a workout in the early morning hours is something that’s doable for me. That doesn’t make me more disciplined, it just means that when I was in kindergarten the neighborhood mother who drove carpool called my mom to tell me once that she really loved driving me, but my energy and mouth were a bit much in the morning.

My point is that we are who we are to a large extent, so you shouldn’t beat yourself up if you can’t quite make the morning workout happen.

BUT, this shouldn’t be an excuse for staying up later than you know you should. Not being a morning person is one thing, but lacking the processes in the evening that allow you to get to bed at an hour that would allow you seven or eight hours of sleep is quite another. You might not be a morning person because no one is on five hours of sleep. If this sounds familiar, then maybe the problem isn’t that you’re not a morning person so much as you’re just not going to bed on time. Know the difference. If, even after a decent night of sleep, the thought of working out just isn’t something that’s going to work for you, then you need to troubleshoot ways of getting in a lift during the day or evening.

Now that we’ve dispensed with the idea of “discipline,” let’s tackle norms. During an initial consultation, new clients often will say to me preemptively, “well I know I should…” Sometimes they’re right, as in, “I know I should be eating more vegetables,” but often they’re wrong, as in “I know I should be eating low carb” or  “I know I should be eating low fat” or “I know I should be running more.” What they’ve done is adopted questionable conventional wisdom as an accepted fitness norm with little relation to the actual science. Worse, they beat themselves up for not following a norm that doesn’t really exist in the first place.

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When the idea of discipline meets false norms, fitness becomes an overwhelming, all-encompassing project rather than the beautiful, mind-opening, life-enhancing journey it can really be.

How do you know the difference between a true lack of discipline and a false narrative you’ve adopted?

1.) If you haven’t worked out at all in more than two weeks, then you need to troubleshoot what’s going on that’s not leaving you the time to care for the one body you’ll ever have.

2.) If you have worked out in the last few weeks, but your consistency has been sporadic, then you need to figure out why. Often this is a process issue–meaning, your days are not organized enough to allow you the time to be good to yourself. Do you use a calendar? How often do you check it? Better organization usually trumps discipline for busy people.

3.) Are you happy with the way you look naked? Do you have unexplained aches and pains? Do you have energy crashes during the day? A negative answer for the first question and affirmative answers for the latter two could mean that something needs to change in your diet. Remember, you have to be eating for YOUR goals. When I’m in a heavy training cycle, I’m eating as many potatoes as I can get my hands on. If you’re trying to decrease body fat to get ready for a photo shoot, then reducing the amount of starchy carbs you’re consuming might be a good idea. The key is to understand that there are different ways of eating for different people. There is no normative diet, in other words. There’s just the right way of eating for you.

 

Filed Under: Active Living, The Featured Articles Tagged With: Jason Harrison, presenttensefitness.com

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Community Clothing Swap

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Community Clothing Swap

Come join us at the Russ Nature Reserve for a fun day of swapping clothes with your neighbors! Bring your...

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Color Our World – The Art of Stories

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Color Our World – The Art of Stories

Each session of this freeform art class will focus on a different children's book illustrators' works and provide children an...

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Enjoy a curated selection of wines that capture the essence of patios in every pour! We will be offering small...

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Tai Chi & Qigong at the River

Offered by Immortal Tree Qigong. Each hour-long Tai Chi & Qigong session will start with breathing exercises, warm up, and...

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ILLYS Fire Pizza

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ILLYS Fire Pizza

We are a mobile wood fired pizza company that specialize in turkey products such as Turkey pepperoni, Italian Turkey sausage,...

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Fairborn Farmers Market

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Fairborn Farmers Market

The Fairborn Farmers Market was established with the intent to provide the Fairborn community access to fresh and wholesome products...

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Trotwood Community Market (presented by American Legion Post 613)

July 2 @ 3:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Trotwood Community Market (presented by American Legion Post 613)

A celebration of locally sourced foods and products from small businesses in Trotwood and the surrounding communities! Stop by and...

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Miamisburg Farmers MarketAt Miamisburg Christian Church parking lot.1146 E. Central Ave in Miamisburg.Fresh Produce, sweet treats, food trucks and more..

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What the Taco?!

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What the Taco?!

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Yoga – Arcade Arts & Wellness

The 2025 Arcade Arts & Wellness Series is a rejuvenating journey with a variety of local yoga instructors amidst the...

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**Skeeball Tournament – First Wednesday of Every Month!** J Welcome to the Skeeball Tournament at Level Up Pinball Bar! Get ready to roll...

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Grab some friends and join us every Wednesday night at the brewery for a pint of your favorite ALEMATIC brew...

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Lebanon Farmers Market

The Lebanon Farmers Market is open 4 pm to 7 pm every Thursday mid-May through mid-October.  We are located in...

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3rd Annual Crab Rangoon Eating Contest

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3rd Annual Crab Rangoon Eating Contest

It’s back—and bigger than ever. Join us for the 3rd Annual Crab Rangoon Eating Contest at Loose Ends Brewing. Last...

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Grapes & Groves

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Grapes & Groves

Join us every Thursday to Taste Wine at your own pace. Each Thursday we will have one of our highly...

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Middletown July 3rd Fireworks + Festival

July 3 @ 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Middletown July 3rd Fireworks + Festival

5-10 PM: Free Kids Zone, including face painting and inflatables 6-7:30 PM: Live Music 7:30-8 PM: National Anthem Flag Jump...

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Centerville Americana Festival

July 3 @ 5:00 pm - 10:30 pm

Centerville Americana Festival

The Americana Festival Committee is excited to bring the Centerville – Washington Township community together once again for what promises...

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Member’s Group Crit Night

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Member’s Group Crit Night

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Matilda: The Musical

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Matilda: The Musical

Winner of 47 International Awards! Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence, and special powers. She's unloved by...

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Open Collage Night

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Open Collage Night

Admission is $10 per person at the door / Free for Co Members / Become a Member at codayton.org/membership Join...

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West Milton Red, White & Run 5k

July 4 @ 8:00 am - 9:00 am

West Milton Red, White & Run 5k

Description The Red, White, and Run 5k in West Milton will be held on July 4th!  This fun and enjoyable...

$30
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Cruise In at the Roadhouse

July 4 @ 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm Recurring

Cruise In at the Roadhouse

Cruise In at the Roadhouse is taking place at Rip Rap Roadhouse, which is located at 6024 Rip Rap Rd. in Huber Heights....

4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Kevin Sonnycalb Memorial Fireworks Festival

July 4 @ 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Kevin Sonnycalb Memorial Fireworks Festival

The Kevin Sonnycalb Memorial Fireworks Festival is Xenia’s signature Independence Day celebration, held at Shawnee Park. This event is hosted alongside the Red, White &...

4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What The Taco?!

July 4 @ 4:00 pm - 10:00 pm

What The Taco?!

Chipotle Chicken Taco GRILLED CHICKEN, SHREDDED LETTUCE, PICO DE GALLO, CILANTRO SOUR CREAM & MONTEREY JACK $10.00 Ground Beef Taco...

5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Wheel Fresh Pizza

July 4 @ 5:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Wheel Fresh Pizza

Pepperoni Pizza Classic pepperoni, mozzarella, provolone and fresh-made sauce $17.00 Cheese Pizza Mozzarella/Provolone blend, and fresh-made pizza sauce $16.00 Sausage...

6:00 pm Recurring

Matilda: The Musical

July 4 @ 6:00 pm Recurring

Matilda: The Musical

Winner of 47 International Awards! Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence, and special powers. She's unloved by...

$39 – $79
6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Recurring

LIVE TRIVIA with Trivia Shark

July 4 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm Recurring

LIVE TRIVIA with Trivia Shark

Join us every Friday night at 6pm for Dayton's Best LIVE TRIVIA with Trivia Shark at Miami Valley Sports Bar!...

6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Kettering Go Fourth!

July 4 @ 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Kettering Go Fourth!

Go Fourth! is Kettering’s premier Independence Day celebration, featuring live entertainment, food trucks, bounce houses, and a spectacular fireworks and drone show. Hosted...

+ 6 More
8:00 am - 11:00 am

Cars and Coffee

July 5 @ 8:00 am - 11:00 am

Cars and Coffee

Join SW Ohio's most passionate car enthusiasts with this nationally recognized gathering. As the largest Cars and Coffee gathering in...

Free
8:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Yellow Springs Farmers Market

July 5 @ 8:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Yellow Springs Farmers Market

For over 20 years this market has been made up of a hardworking group of men, women and children, dedicated...

8:30 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Downtown Franklin Farmers Market

July 5 @ 8:30 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Downtown Franklin Farmers Market

Join us every Saturday through Sept 13, 8.30 a.m. - 12 p.m. for local products including fresh produce, honey/jams, and...

9:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Oakwood Farmers Market

July 5 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Oakwood Farmers Market

The 2025 Oakwood Farmers’ Market will be held Saturdays, June 7th thru October 11th, from 9 am until 12pm. The...

9:00 am - 1:00 pm Recurring

Greene County Farmers Market

July 5 @ 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Recurring

Greene County Farmers Market

The outdoor Farmers Market on Indian Ripple Rd. in Beavercreek runs Saturdays, 9-1 even during the winter months. Check out...

9:00 am - 2:00 pm Recurring

Shiloh Farmers Market

July 5 @ 9:00 am - 2:00 pm Recurring

Shiloh Farmers Market

The farmers’ market is located on the corner of Main St. & Philadelphia Dr, in the parking lot of Shiloh...

10:00 am - 12:00 pm

The Buzz about Bees

July 5 @ 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

The Buzz about Bees

Dive into the fascinating world of bumblebees and bees as we explore the vital roles and ecosystem services that these...

$3
10:00 am - 2:00 pm Recurring

Farmers Market at The Heights

July 5 @ 10:00 am - 2:00 pm Recurring

Farmers Market at The Heights

Join us for the Farmers Market at The Heights Saturdays 10a-2pm. All products are either homemade or homegrown or support...

+ 8 More
9:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Downtown Troy Farmers’ Market

July 6 @ 9:00 am - 12:00 pm Recurring

Downtown Troy Farmers’ Market

Downtown Troy Farmers' Market will run Saturday mornings 9:00 am to 12:00 pm from June 22nd, 2013 through September 21st,...

11:30 am - 5:00 pm

Filled Pasta Class

July 6 @ 11:30 am - 5:00 pm

Filled Pasta Class

Join Chef Casey in a hands-on culinary adventure and learn what makes our pasta so delicious! You'll try your hand...

$128
12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Recurring

Mozzarella & Mimosas

July 6 @ 12:00 pm - 1:30 pm Recurring

Mozzarella & Mimosas

$30
12:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Montgomery County Fair – Red White & Bloom

July 6 @ 12:00 pm - 10:00 pm

Montgomery County Fair – Red White & Bloom

Summer's biggest celebration is just around the corner!  This year's theme, "Red, White & Bloom," promises a week-long celebration of community,...

6:00 pm Recurring

Matilda: The Musical

July 6 @ 6:00 pm Recurring

Matilda: The Musical

Winner of 47 International Awards! Matilda is a little girl with astonishing wit, intelligence, and special powers. She's unloved by...

$39 – $79
7:00 pm

24K Magic: #1 Tribute to Bruno Mars

July 6 @ 7:00 pm

24K Magic: #1 Tribute to Bruno Mars

All concerts are free. Food trucks and beer sales will be available for guests to enjoy. Friday night Party in the...

Free
7:30 pm Recurring

Dayton Poetry Slam

July 6 @ 7:30 pm Recurring

Dayton Poetry Slam

Dayton's longest running poetry show is celebrating it's 24th year.  Open mics, competitions, and featured poets await you twice a...

$3
7:30 pm - 11:30 pm Recurring

Becca’s LOTD Dart Tournament

July 6 @ 7:30 pm - 11:30 pm Recurring

Becca’s LOTD Dart Tournament

Every Sunday night at Miami Valley Sports Bar -- a Luck of the Draw Dart Tournament hosted by Becca. $10...

$10.00
+ 2 More
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