Stretches and Exercises for Tight Calf Muscles

By Christian Bossert

Tight calves are generally a raise no major concern. They will become annoying and potentially lead to more tedious chronic pain. Nothing serious, but certainly unwelcome discomfort. When this happens what can you do?

Well, first let’s dive into the ‘why’ of this issue. What can cause you to have painful or tight calves?

Muscle weakness and Inadequate Stretching: It’s rare that tight calves are experienced without weak/tight hamstrings or  glutes. When the glutes and hammies tighten up, they will redistribute the demands or everyday movement, such as walking, climbing stairs, sitting and standing, to the calves. Consider strengthening and stretches your hamstrings and glutes constantly.

I recommending adding the following to your daily routine for stronger more flexible glutes and hamstrings.

1. Hip Thrusts: (start video at the 1:25 mark): 1 set of 20 reps
2. Hip Abduction: 1 set of 15 reps/each leg
3. Standing Wide Stance Hamstring Stretch: 60 seconds/each hamstring
4. Downward Facing Dog (start video at the 0:35 mark): 60 seconds

Genetics: One of the inconvenient truths of life. Some people are just predisposed to tight calves.

Shoes: You know how girl often express the painful experience of wearing high-heeled shoes. Well, they’re not being wimps. The calves are kept in a perpetual state of muscular contraction when walking, dancing, or standing in heels. My calves start to burning around rep 15 when doing bodyweight calf raises. I can’t imagine what an hour or two of heels feels like.

I’ll never quite understand why girls like wearing heel. It doesn’t make any sense from a place of reason or logic. I mean, they’re painful to wear. I get that they’re pretty or other girls may compliment you. Guys for the most part are not going to look at your feet. Why put yourself through that?? I dunno.

Do any of these symptoms or diagnoses apply to you? If so, maybe your doctor or physical therapist can help direct you in the right direction. If you do not have a diagnosis, try one of these remedies to see if your calf tightness diminishes.

9th Key to Happiness: Guardrails

by Christian Bossert

My 9th Key to Happiness

#9: I Set Guardrails

What is a guardrail? The most common type is a barrier that we see on roads and highways used as a precautionary measure. Hopefully you won’t need them, but they are there ‘just in case’.

How does this analogy apply in my life? What ‘just in case’ guardrails have I set up to lead me down a road of happiness?

Remember, a guardrail is not in the danger zone. It prevents us from entering the danger zone. For this key to happiness, I lean heavily on my three priorities in life: my health, family and close friends, and business. If an event, action, or a form of content is going to prevent me from staying true to what is most important to me in life, it’s important for me to set up a barrier to avoid going there.

Here are three guardrails I have set up in my life. FYI, I’m going brutally honest and real with you.

1. Porn: I believe the most subtle yet poisonous form of content that exists is porn. According to a survey conducted by Proven Men Ministries, a non-profit Christian based organization aimed a helping men overcome their porn addiction, 64 percent of men admitted to using porn monthly. This is the percentage that actually admitted. This figure is probably closer to 80 percent or higher. The study claimed that 30 percent of men ages 18-30 used porn daily (I think that figure is closer to 70 percent). The percentage of married Christian men who admit to using porn daily is 7 percent (again, I think that number is closer to 30 or 40 percent).

Quick personal story. When I was in college I did go through a period when I did watch porn about once a week. This escalated into watching porn a few times a week. I found that my moral, self confidence, and ability to be my best self significantly plummeted during this period. I felt symptoms of depression, made strong efforts to seclude myself, and did not workout regularly (which was a total kicker for me). It was clear that the instant gratification from porn was not only wrong, but it was impacting my life far beyond the barriers of my apartment. I decided to drop the porn cold-turkey, experiencing a few relapses over the past decade or so. I have trusted friends that held me accountable in the beginning and following each relapse. Having someone there to hold me accountable was monumental for me. I cannot understate how life-changing this was for me. Hands-down one of the best life decisions I ever made. Thank you Jesus!

My main point here is porn is poison. It’s an absolute devastating drug that will ruin lives. I say lives (plural) because it will impact everyone around the user especially if it becomes a habit.  It’s like carbon monoxide, subtle, under that radar mostly because using it has become socially acceptable. If you’re struggling with porn, I suggest talking to a trusted friend or family member or check out ‘Fight the New Drug’ or this reddit community (not ‘G’ rated, but a supportive helpful community nonetheless).

2. Missing Mass: Going to Mass is a powerful experience for me. I feel forgiveness, clarity of mind, and an abundance of energy throughout the hour. I’m not quite my normal self during the week. This is enough for me to set up a guardrail.

3. Going more than Two Days Without Exercising: Let me clarify my definition of exercise: “Intentionally physical activity free of distraction from the outside world.” Sometimes I exercise for 5 minutes. This could be stretching or push-ups, but the important thing is I am doing something intentional to better myself. It doesn’t happen often, but when I miss one day of exercise I can tell the next day. Missing two days in a row isn’t a good feeling for me. I personally like to intentionally exercise for 30-45 minutes six days a week with 5-15 minutes of stretching on the seventh day.

Guardrails ensure for me that I am not placing myself in harms way. They aren’t in place to say, “No Christian. You are not allowed to break these rules.” They are extremely helpful guidelines that help me live a fulfilling life. They allow me to be proud of the work I do each day. The guardrails ensure that I prioritize things most important to me. They have saved my life.

Lose Fat and Kick Emotional Eatings Arse!

by Christian Bossert

I’ve worked with hundreds of people on strength training, weight loss, and the development of positive lifestyle habits. I may have identified the core to this emotional eating dilemma.

How many times have we heard someone say they want to look like the models in magazines, the hollywood stars, or the fit attractive people they see in their daily lives?

Of course, it's easy to want look like them and live their lives. But do we ever hear those people say that they want to spend hours grocery shopping, food prepping, and working out weekly. Do they talk about how they’re excited about their 8:00pm bedtime and 4:00am wake up time? Of course not.

They just want the results.

I believe everything that is worthwhile and good in life takes a bit of sacrifice and hard work to receive. It’s hard to fully appreciate something if it’s free or easy obtained.

Unfortunately to transform your body or to lose five to ten pounds of body fat, permanently, is going to be tough at first. It’s going to involve change inside and out. We are where we are because of who we are. And if you want to lose that body fat for good, you will have to embrace discomfort and develop grit.

There are two forms of discomfort: physical and mental. Physical discomfort is easy to understand. Exercise or take a cold shower (you don’t have to do this, although I do recommend it every once in a while).

Mental discomfort is far more complex. It’s the reason we emotionally eat.

Here are my four triggers to overcoming emotional eating. Being aware of these and how they uniquely apply to you will help you build mental grit.         

1. Desire
2. Fear
3. Distraction (mental sloth/laziness, lack of focus)
4. Fantasies  

Desire

Desire is the wanting of pleasure. The wanting of fast food, alcohol, mindless swiping on dating apps, or an impulsive purchase of that new fancy thing are predicated on desire or pleasure.

Success overcoming emotional eating comes with the ability to postpone indulging in these things. Saying no to guilty pleasures will increase your capacity to resist boredom. You will fill “empty time” with life giving activities which I will discuss later on.

Fear

To overcome emotional decision making we must be comfortable with our own fears, acknowledge them, but not let them control us.

For example, I am afraid of public speaking. To combat this fear I have joined a Toastmasters group. This has been one of my best life decisions.

Identify your fears. In Napoleon Hill’s “Think and Grow Rich” he identifies the Six Basic Fears. I think we can all relate to most of them.

1. Fear of Poverty
2. Fear of Criticism
3. Fear of Ill Health
4. Fear of Loss of Love (Loneliness)
5. Fear of Old Age
6. Fear of Death

Understand, accept, and embrace the opportunity to tackle your fears.  

Distraction

The mark of the unfocused mind. We all do it. We live in the age of distraction. Between the internet and social media, unwavering concentration is a key ingredient to stiff arming the jaws of emotional eating.

What does unwavering concentration have to do with emotions? Everything. When you have a nutrition game plan that you enjoy, understand, and successfully execute you are in a state of unwavering concentration. You may vear from the path occasionally, but you immediately get back on the wagon. That a sign of someone with unwavering concentration.

Focus will reward you like nothing ever has. Plus, it will strengthen your frontal cortex which is responsible for self-control and discipline.

Fantasies

This is controversial. If you don’t like the way I word this, message me so we can make it more relatable.

To be clear, I don’t mean fantasizing about what the future will be like or brainstorming a plan about something important that you want to accomplish. This means fantasizing about that girl or guy you’re crushing on, the body you would like to have, or your future wealth/vacation/car/etc. Fantasizing about yourself will keep you in a state of inaction. This leads to drifting. Imagining fat loss success instead of taking action doesn’t work very well.

Steps for building resistance to emotional eating

~Here are some practical steps for building your mental grit

• Reduce new purchases of non-essentials to a minimum
• minimize impulse spending in general
• save and wisely invest your money
• Delete all social media or minimize its use
• keep internet use to a minimum
• treat info-tainment sites (ie: sports, hollywood gossip, politics) like the plague
• Eliminate all phone notifications or bring them to an absolute minimum.
• The only notifications I have on my phone are: texts, phone calls, calendar events, and bedtime alert)
• Reduce fast food and sugar to a minimum
• Fast (ie: pick a day where you don’t eat from sunrise to sunset, or choose your preferred fasting method)
• Meditate
• This will increase your focus and ability to cope with emotions when they arise
• Read books
• Reduce smartphone use to an absolute minimum
• Know your schedule
• identify when you will workout, eat, read, meditate, grocery shop, write, etc
• Wake up and go to bed early
• Do public speaking or take an acting class
• Ask that guy or girl out
• Work on hard puzzles or problems
• Take up an instrument

I Believe in You!

You won’t be perfect. It will be a slow process. Going from impulsive decision making to completely discipline sounds like the opposite of fun. I promise you that you’ll experience greater happiness than you could ever imagine once you apply these daily disciplines into your regular routine.

It’s okay to be scared and unsure of where to begin. Send me a message (it’s facebook messenger, dangerously close to being social media) if you need help getting started.