20minute 5KM<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Free hand stand pushup<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clear sigh in both eyes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I want to know my heart. And for me, that means I want to know my potential, what I’m capable of in all realms of importance for me. This includes family, my experience of life and work\/business. As far as I can tell, my experience of life is greatly impacted by my health. So, by this logic, greatly improving my overall fitness could greatly improve my experience of life. As a reminder, this is from my relatively new perspective that I now hold dear: what I really want deep down cannot be broken. What I really want for myself is completely divorced of societal judgement, preconceptions, assessments of what is right, wrong, or selfish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For most of my life, I accepted I was bigger person and came from a family of heavier people, some of which have also struggled with their weight. I’ve dabbled with fitness, getting into running several times only to step away for some injury that kept me from it long enough to just drop it for months and years at a time once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One particular injury has been plaguing me since the first year of covid. It was a calf injury on my left leg that I just was never able to shake. When I became a contractor in the fall of 2025, I had a lot of energy to work with having just made this change and I got back into my speed training. I was trying to work towards one of my goals of running a 20 minute 5km, which for me is an elite speed and distance, and as I continue to get older, will become even more extraordinary. This calf injury flared up, and I could tell as I got a little faster that my body wasn’t ready. I had too many imbalances that remained from carrying my wallet in my right back pocket through my youth(and sitting on the wallet for long periods of time during work).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, I went tapped into my existing knowledge of corrective programs for building a body that could hold itself up the way it was intended. I remembered a favourite podcast episode I had listened from a favourite podcaster Rocky Lalvani (Richer Soul Podcast). I forget the name of the guest, but it was a developer of properties in the US who described a program he had followed that had gotten rid of his Raynaud’s phenomenon. For those unfamiliar this definition is from the Mayo clinic: “Raynaud’s phenomenon is a condition where small blood vessels in your fingers and toes overreact to cold temperatures or stress<\/mark>. This causes them to spasm and temporarily restrict blood flow. The affected areas typically turn pale or white, then blue, and finally red as circulation returns”. Basically your fingers go white and lose circulation prematurely when you have a chill or feel cold. It’s not the same as frostbite or hypothermia, and it can be quite painful. This is something I’ve delt with for years as \\ well. So I was hooked and fascinated when I first heard this on the podcast, and then later was able to recall it when the moment was right for me to address my physical imbalances. The program was 10 week program by Functional Patters by Naudi Aguilar. (As a point of reference, the two other programs I’ve dabbled with, but that are not as targeted or as complete for core correction are Movesmethod by Vanja Moves and Strength Side by Josh Macin, both are amazing, and I would recommend them for other goals). <\/p>\n\n\n\n So I signed up for for the 10 week program with functional patters, but it took me about 4 or 5 months to complete instead. This was in part because of some of the disfunction I had in hips and joints, and partially because it took some time for the new habit to stick and for me to take my physical health seriously. But I can honestly say, this program is worth every penny and much more. It will make things in your body right that you didn’t know were wrong and give you core strength and overall posture and health well beyond what you imagine is possible. In fact, I’ve incorporated a short session from the 10 week program into every day now, even going forward beyond completion because of how the results are stacking, and my body continues to heal and create better structure and strength.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ll share one very specific example of this restructuring that led to a eureka moment for my running. After finishing the program, I went back and started again and did a few of the exercises focused on glutes. From Naudi’s instructions and presentation, he explains that for most people their glutes and posterior chain are often completely asleep(muscles are firing), so it takes extra focus and specific exercises to get them firing again. After a few days of this focused work on glutes, I realized and was better at holding myself upright as I stood or walked using my glutes and hamstrings. This helped tremendously take weight and unnecessary pressure from the last part of my posterior chain, the calves (where my injury continued despite the myofascial release). This is where my Eureka moment happened: I’ve been running hard all these years without my glutes and hamstrings doing the heavy lifting (as they should). That combined with the frontal plane imbalance (where more of my core strength and weight is to one side) was leading to me absolutely crushing my left calf. This was the one with the injury and the one with all the core recruitment from my imbalance pushing down on it. It’s been amazing! Now I run trying to focus on the glutes and hamstrings doing the heavy lifting. Running from the hips and the posture. This is changing the pain I get considerably and leading to a lot less disfunction in that left calf.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My Raynaud’s phenomenon hasn’t fully gone away yet, but it’s very rare that I see it anymore as my joints, nerves and circulation improve. And with completing the program, I’ve now turned a little more attention to my running again. Building back up the volume somewhat carefully before launching back into my speed training in the weeks ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n With the two very specific measurable goals of a 20 minute 5KM run and a free handstand push up (by free, I mean not against the wall), I have no doubt the journey ahead is going to be amazing and challenging. This is a big step in learning to go from knowing what I would love in my life, and stepping into my power in order to actually create it. One weird memory which may explain why 20 minute 5km is something I chose deep down, I remember a neighbourhood family friend parent telling me when I was a tenager and just getting into running that I didn’t have the body for running. Basically too chunky. And they pointed to the Ethiopians and Kenyans who win all the long distances races. It’s important not to give the words “you don’t have a body that could ever run fast” any power. Best way to do that is by taking action. Take action on what you want and ignore the rest of the negative inner monologue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A fascinating perspective would be for me to work with a wholistic doctor and take VO2max and other blood and body measures to see what changes at a cellular level following these developments. Perhaps I could find a sponsor for this. Ideas to let percolate for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One last note about the vision piece. In 2021 I lost most of my eyesight in one eye from a virus related to shingles, but not shingles. The sight in that eye is about 20\/60. That means I need to be about 20 feet from a object to see something clearly that a personal with normal vision can see clearly at 60 feet. Of course, this has impacted me in some ways. I’m no longer a ping pong master. The “sous-bois” on my snowboard is probably something I won’t risk under these conditions. All ball sports and trail running are also affected. Thankfully driving is not, as you only really need one good eye to drive safely, I learned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I figure improved sight back to 20\/20 is possible in two ways. My body heals itself. Since my body did this to me, I suspect there is a path for it to heal itself entirely and reverse the vision loss. The second would be through technology and science, possibly enhancing vision with the help of technology, or science and technology finding a way to apply a surgery that would return the vision (not available today, June 2026). Possibilities are endless and you can bet I’m holding space for all of them. Eventually I’ll be able to return to being a ping pong master (haha, just kidding, more like in office master in the break room).<\/p>\n\n\n\n With abundance, curiosity and generosity<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 20minute 5KM Free hand stand pushup Clear sigh in both eyes I want to know my heart. And for me, that means I want to know my potential, what I’m capable of in all realms of importance for me. This includes family, my experience of life and work\/business. As far as I can tell, my … <\/p>\n