How to Train for Cycling Season

What having a bunch of friends helping you move has in common with functional training.

Reboot Your Movement: The Power of Pressing Reset Our tagline is Move better. Get stronger. Feel Great. That's what we do. In that order. So when it comes to getting stronger, the most visible aspect of strength training is weight-lifting. The concept of progressive overload — increasing intensity, volume, loads, and other variables— is what makes you stronger. However, lasting progress starts with moving well first . High-quality movement leads to high-quality results. That’s why we incorporate two separate but complementary systems into our programming: The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and Original Strength’s "Pressing Reset" into our programs. The gist of the FMS is to identify what we do well, what we don’t do well, remove or improve the not-so-good, and add more of the oh-so-great. We include the FMS in every new client’s onboarding session and every program is designed only after we establish a baseline movement capacity. The FMS tells us what needs improvement. OS Resets are one of the ways we achieve those improvements. In this post, let's dig deep-ish into Pressing Reset as a foundational tool for better movement. What is "Pressing Reset?” Pressing Reset is a system developed by Tim Anderson from Original Strength that ”reboots” your body's natural movement patterns—the ones we developed as babies—to restore reflexive strength, coordination, and mobility . These simple, yet powerful movements (like diaphragmatic breathing, head nods, rolling, rocking, and crawling) help improve the function of your neuromuscular system, allowing you to move with less effort. Movement is a continuous loop of sensory input, processing, and action. Your body senses the world around you (through vision, touch, balance, and proprioception), your brain interprets this information and sends signals to your muscles, and you move. Each movement creates new sensory feedback, helping your brain refine and improve coordination over time. At its most fundamental level, the way we move is controlled by our nervous system. When it functions optimally, we move smoothly and with little effort. When it doesn’t, we struggle with stiffness (neural inhibition), poor coordination (inefficient movement organization), and pain (pain). Let’s break it down. Stimulating The Vestibular System The vestibular system , located in the inner ear, is responsible for detecting motion, balance, and spatial orientation. It has direct connections to the central nervous system (CNS) , influencing how we perceive movement and how our body maintains posture and stability. Purposeful movement—especially head and body repositioning—can sharpen this system, improving coordination, posture, and balance. When we Press Reset, we influence the vestibular system by performing controlled movements that change head position and spatial orientation. These movements provide sensory input to the semicircular canals and otolith organs in the inner ear, which detect rotational and linear acceleration. This information is then relayed to the brainstem and cerebellum, which integrate it with visual and proprioceptive feedback to enhance balance, coordination, and movement efficiency . As a result, movements become better organized and posture improves which lead to better exercise outcomes. The Role of the Vagus Nerve and the Autonomic Nervous System In addition to influencing the vestibular system, Pressing Reset can also influence the autonomic nervous system (ANS) via the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the longest cranial nerve in the body, extending from the brainstem down to the abdomen and is a key regulator of the parasympathetic nervous system. It helps control involuntary bodily functions such as heart rate, digestion, and respiratory rate, playing a crucial role in promoting recovery, relaxation, and homeostasis by counterbalancing the stress-driven sympathetic nervous system. Essentially, it regulates the balance between rest and digest and fight or flight. Movements like diaphragmatic breathing, rocking, and rolling stimulate the vagus nerve, helping to calm the nervous system, reduce inflammation, and speed up tissue healing.(1) Stimulating the vagus nerve through resets has the additional benefit of speeding up recovery from injuries, reducing inflammation, improving neuroplasticity, and other cool neuromuscular adaptions.(2)(3) How We Use It at Vitruvian Fitness At Vitruvian Fitness, resets are a key part of our training philosophy. Here’s how we integrate them: Movement Prep Before Training: Resets help prepare the body for movement, reinforcing good posture and control. Done with intention, resets help prepare you for your workout so you move more easily and efficiently overall. During Rest Intervals: Resets are great to use as active recovery between big lifts that require extended rest intervals. We can also use resets to "course-correct" when form breaks down, improving movement quality in real time. For Recovery & Longevity: Performing resets at home between workouts can accelerate recovery and improve daily function. The Resets: Simple and Powerful They are so simple, even a baby can do them! Actually, that’s who we learned them from. Breathing – Lips closed, tongue pressed to the roof of the mouth, inhale and exhale through the nose. Practice this method of breathing throughout all the resets. Head Nods and Turns – Lead with your eyes, then your head, while breathing properly. Rolling – Move your body in various directions while maintaining controlled breathing. Rocking – From a hands-and-knees position, shift back toward your heels and return. Connecting the X – Engage cross-body movement patterns like: Cross Crawls – Alternating opposite hand-to-knee taps. Crawling – Move across the floor with contralateral limb coordination (like a baby). Marching and Skipping – Add cross-crawls for enhanced coordination. The Golden Rules of Resets: Always breathe correctly. Never move into pain or discomfort. Follow rules #1 and #2—no exceptions! Watch a demonstration of each of the resets on our YouTube Channel. 

The Vitruvian Fitness Method to learn the Perfect Push Up The Perfect Push Up is an expression of strength that demonstrates serious determination and movement organization. Plus it comes with, in my opinion, more self-satisfaction than any other exercise after the Perfect Pull Up. Part 1 - The Set Up The position of the arms and shoulders is most important. Begin by lying face down on the floor and imagine looking down at yourself from directly above. You are going to make the shape of an arrow with your body. Place your chin at the imaginary point of the arrow with your upper-arms positioned at 45º to your torso and your hands directly below your elbows. If correctly positioned, your forearm will be pointed straight down or perpendicular to the floor. Looking down at yourself, you should look like a straight arrow with your arms flared out 45º. The reason for this is because when your arms/shoulders are in the 45º position, the joints and muscles are at their medium-est positions which, in simple terms, means they are positioned optimally to recruit all the muscles to help with the pushing up. It’s also healthier for your shoulders since you’re not rubbing up against any end ranges of motion. Next, drop your heels back and try to tuck your toes under your feet so your weight is resting on the balls of your feet. If your toes don’t bend that far, it’s ok but you’ll want to wear shoes. Whether your toes bend that much or not, you’ll still want to drop your heels as far back as you can. When you drop your heels, you’ll feel how your quads engage which is part of organizing your core to be as stiff as possible for the upcoming movements. After all, a Push Up is just a great plank with elbows that flex and extend. So, a solid plank is the precursor to the Perfect Push Up. Part 2 - Getting Stronger Push Ups are hard and take strength and good posture. Keep reminding yourself why you’re doing these - because people who can do great push ups have a lot to be proud of. In this part, we’re going to focus on the “down” phase of the Push Up. This is also known as the eccentric phase. It’s pronounced EE-sen-trick. (Not ECK-sen-trick like your goofy uncle.) It doesn’t sound intuitive at all but you can actually build strength faster by focusing on a very slow descent from the top of your ever-improving plank to the floor. So, get into the arrow position as described above and then get up into a high plank position by any means necessary. It literally doesn’t matter how good or bad it looks - just get to the top. Make sure your feet and hands don’t move out of their positions though. This is important. While maintaining your perfect plank – head, neck, core, hips, quads, feet all as stiff as a board – slowly lower yourself to the floor counting 5 Mississippi OUT LOUD along the way. When you reach the floor, take a breath and recommit to doing another 1. Repeat. Do this for a total of five 5-Mississippi Top-Down Push Ups. This all takes about 1 whole minute with 3-5 second rests in between each repetition. You’ve got 1 minute, don’t you? NOTE: You may not do these from your knees. They can only be done from your toes. Are they hard? Yes they are. You got this. NOTE 2: If you can’t time the descent to last 5 whole Mississippi’s, that’s OK. You’re still going to count out loud. If you get to the floor at 3 Mississippi, that’s fine. You’ve got 2 more Mississippi’s of strength to build. And these are hard enough that you might not be able to hold any Mississippi’s on your 5th rep. That’s OK! You know exactly where you are and what you’ve got left to gain. Start there and work on getting stronger. Once you’ve done five 5-Mississippi Top Down Push Ups, you’ve accomplished something terrific. Part 3- Repetitions The reason we never do Push Ups from our knees is because the difference between our knees and our toes is about 20 inches of body-length and that’s actually a huge jump in difficulty. Imagine if you were doing biceps curls with a 5 pound weight and then suddenly you had to do them with 25 pounds. (It’s not actually the same thing but the difference feels equally abrupt.) So, instead of doing Push Ups from the knees, we do them on an incline that we can gradually decrease which makes the Push Ups from our toes do-able and we can get in a lot of repetition. If you have stairs in your home, this will be super easy. In a gym, you can use a barbell in a squat rack, a smith machine, or anything you can get your hands on and gradually get lower. We’re going to use a “rep range” of 8-12 reps. This is important because this is how you’ll know when it’s time to increase the challenge. Your set up is the same as before - upper arms at 45º to your torso with your forearms pointing straight down and your heels dropped back. However, instead of your hands being on the floor, they're on the 5th or 6th stair up from the bottom. In this position, do as many push ups as you can stopping at 12 if you get there. If you couldn’t get to 8 reps, reposition your hands on the next stair up. If you did get to 12, reposition your hands on the next stair down. You’re seeking the stair where you can do at least 8 Push Ups but not 12. Can’t do 8? Make it easier. You can do 12, make it harder. Once you find that stair, keep working until you can do 12 Push Ups. That’s when you drop down a stair. Every time you get to 12, you drop a stair until you’re doing Push Ups with your hands on the floor. But what if you can do 12 Push Ups from one stair but you can only do 6 from the next one down? That’s OK! Do all the Perfect Push Ups you can do on the lower stair and then move back up one to finish the set. When the day comes that you can do 12 Push Ups from your toes and your hands on the floor, you’ve accomplished something so awesome. Congratulations! Be dedicated to the process and be kind to yourself. You got this. Curious to learn more? We encourage you to do a 14-Day Trial Membership. In 14 days, you will get a private onboarding session that includes the Functional Movement Screen® , then unlimited semi-private training sessions doing the program we design based on that first session. And you’ll get to be a part of one of the most inviting, inclusive, and fun communities you’ll find anywhere. At the end of your trial, you get to decide if you liked it and if you want to continue with a regular 6-month membership. All the options and prices are on our Membership page. Click here to sign up now! Our facility is conveniently located on the northwest corner of Denver in beautiful downtown Wheat Ridge.

How do you know how much of each to do? This is a great question. It may not surprise you that the answer is, "it depends." Some people love doing cardio. Some people love lifting weights. Some people dislike both. The short answer to this question, obviously, is both. Do both. Lots.

Heart Rate Variability – What it is and why you might be interested in it. According to experts, the key to a longer, healthier, and happier life comes down to these 5 things. I call them The 5 Things . A healthy diet. Abundant cardiovascular and resistance exercising. Sleep and restorative downtime. Stress management and mental health. Community. The famous Coach Ted Lasso, when challenged to explain the offsides penalty in soccer (or football, depending on where you watch the game), dodged the question by saying it’s kind of hard to define but you know it when you see it. Knowing if you’re getting the 5 Things right more often than wrong might not be as easy to recognize as an offsides violation. Until now. That’s where understanding and measuring Heart Rate Variability may interest you. What It Is – What It Measures – What it Means Heart Rate Variability (HRV) measures the variation in the time intervals between successive heartbeats, reflecting the beat-to-beat changes controlled by the autonomic nervous system. It’s an indicator of the body's ability to adapt to various stimuli, stressors, and activities. Things influencing HRV include diet, physical activity, sleep, and stress levels. Not coincidentally, that’s 4 of The 5 Things. Higher HRV typically correlates with better health and fitness, while lower HRV may indicate increased stress or potential health issues. HRV serves as an indicator of autonomic nervous system function, offering insights into the balance between sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest) activity. A higher HRV suggests a dominance of parasympathetic activity – a good thing – promoting relaxation and recovery, while a lower HRV may signify sympathetic dominance, indicating heightened stress or fatigue. Understanding HRV enables individuals to make informed lifestyle choices to optimize well-being, manage stress, improve recovery, and enhance overall health and performance. It is objective feedback about how well you’re balancing the 5 Things . Among all the ways we might describe people, two of those ways might be 1) people who geek out on technology and data and 2) people who definitely do not. HRV Monitoring Devices May Appeal to Both Types of People I became aware of HRV monitoring around 2012 from Joel Jamieson - a strength and conditioning coach who recognized the utility of tracking trends in HRV to maximize training efficiency. One of his companies is called Morpheus Training Systems . (Update: Joel was a guest on the Peter Attia podcast in June of 2024 where he makes a really great in-depth and nerdy case for using his system for cardiovascular exercise programming.) Since then, several companies have developed convenient wearable tech devices that measure HRV and other vital signs and then provide guidance on how to improve them. I have been wearing a Whoop wrist strap for about 2 years now. I have friends who wear the Oura Ring and others who use FitBit , Apple Watches , and Garmin Watches . With some variations between them, each monitors your HRV and gives you actionable insights about what to do about it. Here are some examples of how HRV monitoring devices can help you. Sleep tracking. Every morning you get a sleep score that tells you about the quantity and quality of your sleep. If it needs improvement, the devices have advice how to improve. Recovery score. If you’ve been hanging out with me for long, you’ve probably heard me say, “Work without rest is a wasted effort.” You need to recover between workouts because the magic happens on the rest intervals. If you’re not recovered, you don’t need to add more exercise stress to your body. When your device says you’re not recovered, heed! Strain Guide. Based on your HRV, Sleep and Recovery scores, these devices will give you advice about how hard you should train that day - if at all. Health Markers. While tracking HRV, these devices also collect respiratory rate, blood oxygen saturation, and resting heart rate data. If any are outside of normal, you get advice about how to improve them. These data are often your first signs that you're coming down with a bug. Trends. Like a lot of information, there is often more value in seeing trends in the information than individual scores or values on any given day. The Point Ideally, all of us would benefit having the intuition and self-awareness to recognize how we’re doing without relying on tech. But the truth is, external feedback is often the only way we see ourselves. Whether it’s a mirror, friend, mate, teacher, therapist, coach, or a tech device – objective observations of ourselves is how we see ourselves. HRV isn’t a technological solution to a lifestyle question, though. Your heart has always beat with some measure of variability and how much so is an indication of how you’re doing. The fact that we can measure that variability with inexpensive wearable devices is a modern technological development – and a really cool one at that (in my opinion). If you can do this on your own, that’s extra-ordinary. But if you can use one of these feedback tools to help you develop your intuition and self-awareness, then why not? Use them. Learn how. Graduate. Share your new skills. If you would like to experiment with Whoop, you can use my super special link . You’ll get a free Whoop device and your first month of tracking for free. Full disclosure: I’ll get a month for free, too. And don't forget the 5th Thing and hug your friends. Resources: Joel Jamieson – 8 Weeks Out An Overview of Heart Rate Variability Metrics and Norms - Fred Shaffer and J. P. Ginsberg Outlive – The Science and Art of Longevity – Peter Attia, MD Blue Zones Curious to learn more? We encourage you to do a 14-Day Trial Membership. In 14 days, you will get a private onboarding session that includes the Functional Movement Screen® , then unlimited semi-private training sessions doing the program we design based on that first session. And you’ll get to be a part of one of the most inviting, inclusive, and fun communities you’ll find anywhere. At the end of your trial, you get to decide if you liked it and if you want to continue with a regular 6-month membership. All the options and prices are on our Membership page. Click here to sign up now! Our facility is conveniently located on the northwest corner of Denver in beautiful downtown Wheat Ridge.