Make Small Adjustments Daily 🧭 This is the Way

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Strategies for Results

As a coach, my role is to help you course-correct your lifestyle and movement habits so you can take charge of your health at any age. Health looks different for everyone, but one thing is clear: daily movement is the domino that makes everything else fall into place.

When you exercise consistently, you unlock better nutrition choices, improved mental wellness, deeper sleep, and better stress control. Exercise is the cornerstone of lifelong health.

That’s why I use the Health Compass Method—a simple framework to keep your habits on track:

  • North – Nutrition: What’s one small improvement you can focus on today?
  • East – Exercise: How can you move better or more consistently?
  • West – Wellness: What supports your mindset and resilience?
  • South – Sleep: What could help you recharge more deeply tonight?

Every time you see a compass, let it remind you to stay pointed in the right direction—tiny, daily adjustments in these four areas change your life’s trajectory.

Ready to upgrade your health and create real, lasting results? Let’s connect for a consultation—just message me today, and let’s set your personal course for better health!

Schedule Meeting ( Click Here )

Let me demonstrate how I have gone through my own journey of change. **21 Day Video You Tube**

Daily habits are the magnetic pull that drives positive outcomes.

Every fitness program on the internet is marketed, sold and completed at different effort levels by the participant. The people that follow the program to a T usually get great results, others who do some of it, get some of the results and people who quit or do it their own way are the people who say it didn’t work for me.

Everyone is on a journey and if you want to succeed, you will do the work. Just remember, “trust your compass” and always be course correcting. The daily grind of course correcting is “the work.”

Training with Coach Chris G

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Workout Plans

Train with Coach G – Click here
My 1st goal with any client is to establish Principles and Daily Actions Steps

…. then make it make sense your lifestyle.

Move like water – Bruce Lee

Principle 1: Joint by Joint
The Joint by Joint Principle states that each joint of the body has a mobile or stable duty while moving in functional biomechanics.  Together is the only way they work right.
“The whole is greater, than the sum of its parts”     

Movement Principle 2:  Move as ONE
Functional movement is defined as optimal joint biomechanics in human movement.  The 7 fundamental patterns also called archetypes of the human movement system.  By practicing the body will be durable and resistant to soft tissue breakdown and postural dysfunction.  Your movement is habitual and so is compensations
Posture, sitting, walking, sleeping, driving, working, etc.
Strength & Balance 7
1.  Squat 2. Lunge  3. Hinge  4. Push  5. Pull 6. Rotate 7. Locomotion

Movement Principle 3:  Follow your Compass
A compass is an instrument for navigational guidance. Its purpose is to give real time information on your current direction heading.  A compass has 4 cardinal points of North, South, East & West) Mirroring the 4 cardinal points of a compass.

The “Health Compass” is a guide to navigate (Nutrition, Exercise,Wellness & Sleep

Nutrition macros and micros effects muscle and soft tissue health, repair, hydration and performance especially MicroBiome Health.
Exercise effects movement quality, body tissues, stamina, endurance, strength, power, mind body toughness.
Sleep effects rejuvenation, recovery, hormonal health, growth and energy.
Wellness effects concentration, focus, stress relief, quality of life, energy, happiness, fulfillment and enjoyment of life. 

“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Train with Coach G – Click Here

Action Step 1: Morning Mobility

A morning stretching practice has been shared by many cultures, warriors, societies thought time and has proven to be beneficial to the human body. This Health Compass morning routine features movements that reboot, recharge and boost your energy to start your day. This routine can be the start of a day and also a warm up to a movement practice session.

Action Steps 2: Move with Intention

Moving with intention is a mindset you have while working out. A mindset willing to move with quality and purpose. Improving functional movement skills will take practice, but practicing to get 1% better each time you train is the program. Be intentional, why you move and exercise. You should love your movement practice. Be you and do physical fitness you enjoy.

It takes zero ( 0 ) skill to give a ( 100% ) effort, but effort and time is all it takes to build skill. Their are a lot of methods and techniques to achieving fitness and skillful movement. If you can train your mindset when your training your body, you will enjoy physical activity on a whole new scale, because of intention.

Action Step 3: Development of Your Movement Practice

Understanding your priorities and the hierarchy of movement should be considered when designing a program of fitness.

Train with Coach G – Click Here

What improvements can you make in your N.E.W.S.
N- Nutrition
E- Exercise
W- Wellness
S- Sleep

Learn at your own pace or sign up for the 21 day challenge
at Health Compass Academy

I Know What To Eat, I’m just Not Doing It. (Sound Familiar?)

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Uncategorized

So you know what to eat, but your just not doing it. Or maybe you eat healthy “most” of the time BUT,,,, you loose yourself over the weekend and get off track. Or you “eat healthy” BUT,,, your workouts are not as consistent as you’d like them to be. Believe me, I’ve heard every combination and then some, your not alone.

All of this can be frustrating and seem never ending. I agree, just when you get results going, something derails your efforts and you end up having to start over again or at least feel like it. I get it and I empathize with you.

I believe people generally know what to do for exercise and how to eat, it’s just sticking with it is the problem, especially when there are so many short cuts advertised and talked about. In this fast pace world, convenience is king, but very healthy. So called fast healthy options are fooling people with clever marketing and manipulated ingredients that always seem to hide sugar with new chemistry and fake heightened health benefits. If it’s not the sugar, then gluten inadvertently inflames your gut as well. Every time you eat their is something most likely you could have done better,,,, right? Even the fitness industry is trying to cut corners with workouts being sold like a buffet and promising 6 pack abs in 8 minutes. Hilarious!

We all want to have healthy readily available food with little to no effort and put minimal thought into preparing it. In a way we have all become lazy and demanding when it comes to our basic needs.

Answer these 5 questions:
But before you do, SET YOUR PRIORITIES. Once you know your priorities, you can set your goals. Once you know your goals, you can focus on habits. Once you have habits, YOU HAVE THE HABITS TO STAY CONSISTENT. Habits are the daily processes of actions that lead to accomplishing goals. Habits get results, not fancy new diets or 8 minute abs, unless those diets or 8 minute abs are done habitually.

5 Questions:
1. Is Health a priority and if so how much?
High, Kinda high, Up there, Middle of the road, Low-ish, Low, Don’t care

2. How do you rank your current efforts to be healthy?_____

3. Do you want to look good or feel good?_____ What would you rank higher?______

4. Do you plan your meals or wing it? And if so How often?
And could you Improve your Planning?____

5. Are you willing, ready and able to make a change?______
What are you Willing to do?_____When will you be Ready do this?_____

By answering those questions, you have just taken one step, one task, one win toward any goal in health.

Stick with it


Pain Free Exercise – Improve your Mobility and Flexibility 1st

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Workout Plans

During the course of your life you will experience aches and pains in various areas of your body.  It’s apart of being a human.  Pain is apart of life and the process of growing. We all

During this journey, you most likely have had:

*Foot pain, plantar fasciitis, Shin splints, tight calves and achilles pain *Rolled ankles or ankle disfunction leading to pronation of the foot *Knee issues like bursitis, tendinitis, patella femoral syndrome, IT band problems etc. *Hips flexor aches and pains, hip strains and hip asymmetry and complications with hip tilting causing low back pain and weak abdominals *Low back issues like bulging disk, herniation, chronic inflammation and posture complications due to core weakness and control *Upper back and neck soreness leading to shoulder dysfunctions like inflamed rotator cuff, bicep tendonitis and impingement syndrome to name a few. *Arm pain like golfers and tennis elbow

You get the picture and can probably relate to a few of them I’m sure of it.  So let’s do something about minimizing injuries and pain. Try these Mobility, Flexibility & Stability routines during your next workout.

Improve your Ability to Move with the Joint by Joint Rule.

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Strategies for Results, Workout Plans
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Movement patterns are combinations of movements we do everyday to live our lives.  Just getting out of bed is a combination of movements in planes of motion making a movement pattern.  How you move is a combination of repeated patterns.  The most common in exercise are known as the 7 basic movement patterns.
To improve your movement, one must understand the “JOINT by JOINT Rule. Which basically states,

“athletes who obey the laws of human joint mechanics will be efficient in athletic motion, thus improving performance when consistently given the periodized stimulus.”

The Joint by Joint Rule is a concept of each joint having a mobile or stable duty, stacked on top of each other from the ground up.   The foot has to be stable and the joint on top of it (the ankle) needs to be mobile.  Each joint moving up the body will  have a role and function.

Illustration of the “Joint by Joint Rule”

spine-muscles-560x341

In every movement you do during the day, your body is performing both mobility and stability.  If you can move the right joints at the right time in the correct sequence to complete your tasks of living, movement will be efficient and less injuries will be a consistent benefit.

So what do I do?
Test Movement !!

Learn more watching the “JOINT by JOINT Rule” Explained by Mike Boyle.

Running: The Pose Method

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Strategies for Results

Were you ever coached how to run? If your answer was no, you’re not alone.  We all ran around when we were little kids and didn’t think anything of it.  That is what kids do, they run around.  Put one foot in front of the other and move where you want to go.  No one thinks about it, they “just do it.”

I was a sprinter and never liked distance of any kind.  I would dread long runs when ever I had to do them and avoid workouts that had any running what so ever in them.  My body never seemed to like the pounding nor do I like, long slow cardio.  I remember saying to myself after completing the Twin Cities Marathon, “I will never do another $#@% marathon ever again.”

The excuses I told myself why I hated running were from injuries sustained over the course of my life.  Just to name a few:
* Broke foot from jumping down stair case when I was a kid.

* Breaking both my legs in farming accident when I was a kid.

* Chronic foot pain from long distance running leading to a stress fractures in Army basic training.  Had to re-do training after a 6 week rehab.

* Knee pain and hip pain training for Army Ranger School. Needed to complete 5 miles in 40 minutes with small hills.

* Multiple rolled ankles playing college Rugby.

*Partial Torn Achilles, long story.

* I could go on and on, but the TRUTH is, I never knew how to Run or Train effectively to get results.

But then I learned “The Pose Method.”  It has helped me overcome my injuries and has also helped me enjoy running again.  Haaaaaa NOT.
Still working on that, but at least the injuries have gone away.  The Pose Method uses gravity and body positioning to produce efficient motion.  Moving functionally the way we were intended to move makes a lot of sense once you understand the method.

Watch the next few videos and decide for yourself.  If you want more information, go to POSEMETHOD.COM and I highly recommend their training programs to learn how to run.

What I Believe and Why I Believe it.

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Fitness Mindset

My Goal is to Help 10,000 Veterans, more specifically Veterans with PTSD.

My original project was to help myself with problems of survivors guilt.  Learning to let go of the past and focus on the future is difficult, little lone having PTSD symptoms that felt out of control.  In 2015, 3 years after I left the Military, I started to help myself see that I was in control of my thoughts surrounding my past.  What’s done is done, learn from it and move forward.  We all have setbacks and parts of life we would rather not revisit.  But it is all opportunity and growth for what is to come.  Realizing the good that can come from pain and failure is a choice.  The Win the Day Everyday Journal has helped me realize I have a choice everyday and I choose to WIN.

I’m Paying it Forward to my BAND OF BROTHERS, “To The Last Man”

I BELIEVE it’s our DUTY in LIFE to GIVE what we have to OFFER the WORLD.  It’s also my BELIEF that everyone has a PURPOSE.  That Purpose is meant to be “The CHASE” of your very OWN Unique PASSIONS. If you TRULY want to Seek MEANING of YOUR LIFE’S PURPOSE.  You MUST TAKE ACTION on the BEST Version of YOU.

BUT,

Unfortunately most people have accepted a discounted version of themselves. Never having the CONFIDENCE to TAKE their DREAM SHOT.  I want to help people change that

https://a.co/d/56rEHfH – buy it at Amazon

What are Your Health Priorities?

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Simple Advice Big Results

What are your Health Priorities?

    If your wanting to make some changes in your health this year, you did the right thing by reading this article.  1st off, I’ve been making and setting goals with gym goers for over 10 years and every New Year, I hear some of the same shit.  I need to do this and cut out that, OR I need to start doing this and do less of that.  If I commit to that and not that, I’ll change.  And for a few weeks it works,,,,,,,, So let’s stop right here!!!!

Just focus on the basics! Focus on basic health habits you learned a long time ago. Yes, they still work.  Its only the market place that has changed 50x and confused everyone.  What can you do better today? What can you learn and apply tomorrow? Don’t worry about it, just focus on today.  Win the Day with the basics.  If you can Win the Day, you can Win another Day and another after that.  If you can Win the Week, you most certainly can Win the Month. If you string a few months together you can Win the Year.  If you Win the Year, You are Winning your Life.

Now back to the basics.  The basics range from personal hygiene to getting to bed on time.  Eating the right foods for you more often than not and staying away from unhealthy behaviors such as regular fast food.  PS. Fast food does not give you basic health benefits.  Fast food places have one goal….Make massive profits, by giving you less then basic nutrition.

The basics are the simple things we all make difficult.  The basics are drinking enough water throughout the day and getting balanced macro & micro nutrients, from real food.

            Macronutrients are the structural and energy-giving caloric components of our foods that most of us are familiar with. They include carbohydrates, fats and proteins.

            Micronutrients are the vitamins, minerals, trace elements, phytochemicals, and antioxidants that are essential for good health.

The basics also include, moving with good posture and finding time to work on flexibility.  “Mobility is the difference maker in long term joint health.”

The basics are different for everyone, but yet they’re all kind of the same.  If your health is a top priority this year, you will still have ups and downs. With that said, what would you change with your health and fitness in 2018?  Hopefully a lot of  basics you do as a lifestyle, but if not maybe start their before you say your gonna do this or accomplish that.

If I was your coach, I would start you out with outlining your PRIORITIES 1ST. Making a list of your priorities first will narrow down what to get started with. From there, I would have you write a GOAL for each priority.  From the list of priorities and a goal to go with them, I then would have you write daily tasks to chip away at your goals.  These daily tasks are going to be different each day.  Your best results will come when you write down your tasks each day and cross them out as you complete them.  I call these the “WIN THE DAY” tasks.  If you just commit to your tasks each day based off your goals, based of the priorities that created them.  You can “WIN THE DAY” everyday.

Here are a few topics and questions to think about in regards to Health and Fitness priorities:

    Fitness Program: Do you have one?  Do you need one?  Do you do it consistently enough to say its a program? Is it improving you or maintaining you?  Is it boring or it’s always changing? And is that the reason why its not working? Do you lift? Do you run? Do you mix it all together? Do you not know what you should be doing? Are you pushing yourself? Do you have anyone to workout with?

    Nutrition Lifestyle: The foods you most often consume on a routinely basis. Again, macros and micros levels? How do you make up a meal? Do you base it around a meat or vegetables?  What are your cravings? Do you need to change? What is your Nutrition education level? Or do you know everything? Have you stuck with something long enough to make real changes in your body?  Or are you just getting by on whats convenient?  Go get your body fat measured and compare it to last year. Do you know that figure?  Bad meals add up more than you think and they also derail progress more than you think.

Immune system: Your ability to fight off colds and heal infections. Look closely at your micronutrients levels if you have issues.

    Cardiovascular Health: The 3 Energy systems for exercise intensity.  (see energy systems article) The heart and its circulatory health.  These must be exercised.  30 minutes of Elevated Heart Rate work per day is the leading prescription for cardiovascular diseases.  The leading cause of death in America.

    Digestive system: Poop! Your immune system is closely linked to your gut, your bodies 2nd brain.  Shoot for 20-30 grams of FIBER per day from plant based foods.

    Nervous System: Your brain transmits nerve impulses to the spine and organs, if you have neck and back problems, you have spine and nervous system problems.  Issues in various places of the spine can lead to bodily organs being effected/  Take care of your posture and spine to be thriving in nervous system health.  VERY IMPORTANT, ALWAYS OVERLOOKED.

Mental Health: You are in charge of you. What you choose to think about matters.

Remember: Priorities 1st, then write your goals for each priority.  Write the daily tasks for each Goal each day and WIN THE DAY, EVERYDAY.

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Your Future Joint Health will THANK YOU!

by ChrisGiesking, posted in Workout Plans

Movement quality done consistently is far more important than random or infrequent high intensity efforts towards ongoing goals that never have clear direction.  Consistency working on and drilling functional human movements is the clear direction.  Develop a foundation for stability in all movement patterns, then strengthen all movement patterns.  Maintaining good function and pushing new limits will happen as a result of making MOVEMENT 1ST.

This 3 week program has only 4 workouts.  The purpose behind only 4 workouts, is to work on technique and skill in respects to mobility and mechanics .  All exercises should be done with the best form possible and never done at an intensity that takes away form.  Each week find a new way to make this program one step harder than the week before.  This can be done in the form of: Tempo, Speed, Rest Time, Intensity, Heavier Wt. or any other added stimulus, BUT just remember the GOAL is to move better.

***Do at your Ability Level***Switch out Exercises that you CAN DO correct*****
Workout 1
30 minutes of continuous movement of:
1st 15 minutes:
A1 – Sit to Stand 5
A2 – Elevated Push-Up 10
A3 – Pull-Up 5
A4 – Sit-Outs 5/5
A5 – Farmer Carry 40 meters
2nd 15 minutes:
B1 – Goblet Squat 10
B2 – DB Flat Press 10
B3 – Cable Seated Row 10
B4 – Band Core Rotation 10/10
B5 – Bike, Row Machine or Run 1 minute
____________________________________________________
Workout 2
30 minutes of continuous movement:
1st 15 minutes:
A1 – Walking Lunge 10/10
A2 – Band Chest Press 20
A3 – Band Lateral Walk 10/10
A4 – TRX Rows 10 + TRX Roll Outs 10
2nd 15 minutes:
B1 – Box Step-Ups 5/5
B2 – Elevated Push Up 10
B3 – Lateral Lunge 5/5
B4 – Renegade Rows 5/5
B5 – Dead Bug Holds 5/5
_____________________________________________________
Workout 3
30 minutes: (3 minutes Rest Between Rounds)
1st – 10 minutes do:
A1 – Floor Core Series 10/10/10
A2 – Floor Hip Series 10/10/10
A3 – Dead Lift to Calf Raise 20

2nd – 10 minutes do:
B1 – Ab Roll Outs 10 + 5 Push Ups
B2 – Reverse Lunges 5/5 + 5/5 Step Ups
B3 – Jump Rope 50

3rd – 10 minutes do:
C1 – Box Jump Progression 5
C2 – Power Step Ups 5/5
C3 – 1/2 Kneeling Core Band Anti-Rotation 10/10
C4 – Single Arm KB Swings 5/5
___________________________________________________
Workout 4 –
A.  40-20 Work Rest
12 minutes:
A1 – 5 Burpees + Jump Rope
A2 – 15 KB Swings + Jumping Jacks
A3 – 5 Wall Ball + TRX Rows

B.  40-20 Work Rest
12 minutes: (All 3 Rounds, then Transition)
B1 – Row Machine
B2 – Air Bike
B3 – 5 Med Ball Slam + Shuttle Run
B4 – Farmer Carry, Lunge, Run

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