HNL Movement Podcast

This episode is all about the importance of off-season training, and how to do it so that your body gets what it needs to develop.  Everyone, not just athletes alone, can benefit from listening to this episode, as it can be applied to so many things.  The off-season is a time to focus on elevating your performance to set you up for the next season.  Emphasis should be placed on the word “training” during the off-season.  It’s a time to build your body up, develop yourself further, and get ready for the next season.  Part of this is letting your body have a break and focusing on these key elements:•   Developing movement•   Developing strength•   Becoming a more well-rounded athlete•   Becoming a well-rounded mover Off-season training is also a time for the body to get a break from all of the demands put on it during the season.  Think of training that is less specific to your sport and focus on strength and conditioning, as well as giving yourself a mental and emotional reset.  The off-season is not a time to continue going hard and strong in your sport, but it’s a time to let your body train in other ways so that you can elevate your performance, even more, when the next season comes around.  Listen in on this episode to learn how to train smarter during the off-season.  Andrew emphasizes everyone giving themselves a good reset during the off-season, and in this episode, he will tell you how.  Tune in and learn how to direct your training in a way that works for you to become a stronger and more well-rounded athlete.  Aloha!Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

In this week’s episode, welcome UFC fighter, Louis “Da Last Samurai” Smolka to the podcast! Louis shares his passion for fighting, beginning with his story from childhood and growing up in Hawaii.  He has had quite the journey, beginning from an early age in martial arts.  As an MMA fighter, he has become agile in many forms of martial arts over the years, but the very first was karate. He began taking karate at 7 years old, picking up judo and wrestling a little later, which became his two major sports in high school. Louis was not athletically the best in high school, and he shares his story of how he overcame certain setbacks and worked through obstacles to get to where he’s at today. It took some true grit at improving his craft to becoming a professional fighter. His career has not been without setbacks either. At one point, he got let go of the UFC. Louis shares what he learned from that experience and how it developed his mental toughness to get back in.  Listen in on this episode as Louis shares some of his favorite memories and lessons from fighting in the UFC. Of course, his story does not come without injuries, so you’ll hear inspiration based on his injury recovery and his time working with Andrew. Louis encourages everyone not to push themselves too hard and to do what their body will allow. He also touches on the importance of body awareness, which is the best base practice for anyone, no matter their sport or lifestyle, that pays off the most.  Louis is very entertaining to listen to, this episode contains many gems that are not to be missed.  Be sure to listen to the end when Louis describes his experience playing X-box as himself in the UFC game.  Enjoy!Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

In this episode, let’s talk about calories.  How many times in the last week have you decided to eat or not eat something based on the number of calories it contained?  If you are a calorie counter, this episode is for you.  The truth, we have all been misled by the information we have been receiving about calories.  Listen in as Andrew provides a new perspective on calories and what they mean to us.  Andrew begins by diving into some history, but not too far back.  Calories were never a thing until the 1900s.  Before then, no one paid any attention to calories or even knew what they were.  At the same time, people were in much better physical condition back then, and no one was counting calories.  It wasn’t until the 1920s that calorie counting became a mainstream thing.So what is a calorie?  A calorie is a unit to measure the amount of energy that is in something.  This measure of energy has become a way for many people to determine what they can and cannot eat.  However, placing excess attention on calories is not health-promoting.  Here, Andrew gives us 3 reasons why:1.      Calories are not an accurate way to measure energy in food2.      Everyone utilizes calories differently3.      Calories don’t represent the quality of the foods we’re eating Nutrition is a complex issue, and there is a lot of information out there.  Let this episode help you gain some new knowledge on the ways to eat more intuitively, focused on quality and not quantity.  Enjoy this episode, and hopefully, it will shed some light on a subject that has been misleading people for almost an entire century.  Aloha! Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

In this episode, welcome NFL linebacker, Manti Te‘o, to the podcast!  Listen in for some great stories and insight, as Manti Te‘o shares his background, journey, and everything he’s learned along the way.  He shares his stories from childhood up to college and playing for Notre Dame.  His entire journey has shaped him tremendously as a person, especially when it comes to his mental strength and sense of self.  Growing up in Hawaii, Manti was always active in many sports.  In fact, he played all of them!  Manti explains how playing different sports growing up helped him to become a better football player.  He agrees with the importance of trying different sports growing up to become better at the sport of your choice.  While playing the sports that he wasn’t the strongest in, that’s where he has learned the most.  Andrew and Manti touch on the subject that failure is where growth happens, and even as a kid, those times when you don’t succeed are the ones that lead you to the most growth. When it comes to his success, Manti emphasizes the fact that he wouldn’t be where he is today if he didn’t have parents who instilled important qualities and characteristics in him as a child.  Manti has some great stories to share here about his experience growing up and the different ways that he received encouragement and support from his parents.  This is a great episode for anyone looking to be inspired by ways of furthering their children or their students on the road to success.As a star player, one thing he started to become clear about before he even hit college was the difference between arrogance and confidence.  This distinction made him a better athlete and teammate.  It’s not just all about what you do, but it’s also about who you are.  There have been times in his career when this distinction was challenged, especially by the opinions of others.  These challenges are what led to him strengthening his sense of self and staying strong in who he truly is.  Listen in on this inspiring and entertaining episode with Manti and all the little gems shared throughout it.  Aloha!Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

How often do we say to ourselves or others that we just don’t have enough time?  We all have busy lives, balancing work and family, running businesses, or going to school.  How can we make the time for ourselves in our busy schedules, time for working out, and time for doing what we love?  If you have asked yourself this question, listen in on this episode about making time.  In this episode, Andrew highlights an inspiring TED Talk by Laura Vanderkam on making time for your priorities.  In Laura’s TED talk, she takes a deep dive into the fact that when we say that we don’t have time, it actually means that we’re not making it a priority.  What if we can all see what our priorities are and put them first?  She says, “We don’t build the lives we want by saving time.  We build the lives we want, and time saves itself.”Andrew invites all of us to see what’s been on the back-burner.  How can we utilize our time a little better and make our time more efficient so that we can do the things we want to do?  How can we make more time for taking care of ourselves?Listen in on this episode to learn how to make time more elastic.  Laura emphasizes that time will stretch to accommodate what we put into it.  The first step is to see what your highest priorities are.  Look ahead in the next year and decide what you would like to focus on the most in your professional life and in your personal life.  What do you want to accomplish the most out of your professional life?  What do you want to accomplish the most with your family life?  What would make you the proudest to accomplish by the end of the year?  When it comes to your fitness goals, what could you add to your routines that would elevate your performance?  What can you incorporate into your workouts that will elevate your performance that perhaps you’ve been skipping to save time?  How can we utilize our time better to meet our fitness and nutrition goals?  No matter what area your goals are in, this episode is for anybody who wants to make more time and build the life you want.  Also, try listening in on Laura Vanderkam’s TED talk:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3kNlFMXsloEnjoy! Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

This episode features Tessa Fournier, who is professional volleyball player, Kupono Fey’s girlfriend.  Tessa speaks on playing volleyball, overcoming injuries, and playing smart to achieve optimal performance.  Tessa shares her story from growing up in Redondo Beach, California with a highly athletic family.  Her family was not just athletic, but highly competitive too, which gave Tessa her spirit for winning and success.  She speaks about the ways her family would compete over anything and all of their endearing qualities that made life fun.  Like many professional athletes, Tessa began her journey playing other sports, mainly soccer.  Yet, growing up in one of the volleyball hotspots of the world, she found her love for volleyball at age 11.  From there, she didn’t really look back.  Volleyball was her thing, and once she entered high school, she played on the varsity as a freshman.  Tessa is inspiring to listen to.  You can hear her passion and drive, but also her dedication to what she does.  Her journey has not been without injuries, and the stories of how she overcame those injuries are proof that she has developed her mental toughness.  Her first major injury was a pars defect, which is a fracture in a section of the vertebrae that make up the spinal column.  This took time to heal, and she shares her healing journey with that injury.  She also played several games at Seton Hall with a broken wrist, which happened following a collision with her teammate.  In college, Tessa landed a volleyball scholarship at Seton Hall University in New Jersey.  She shares a lot about that journey as well and what it took for her to pursue that dream.  She is now a coach for girls’ volleyball and feels passionate about inspiring other young women to go after their dreams and aspirations.  Listen in on this episode and to Tessa’s wisdom that she gained along the way of her athletic journey.  Enjoy! Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

In this episode, Andrew takes a deep dive into the subject of proper knee alignment and the importance of taking care of your knees throughout your life.  This episode is for anyone, no matter how active or inactive your lifestyle is!  Throughout each day, the majority of our activities involve weight-bearing movements that affect our knees.  This includes walking, going up and down the stairs, squatting, jumping, running, etc.  Having proper knee alignment is one of the big things we all need to focus on for injury prevention and knee health down the line.  This episode covers the details about what exactly affects the alignment of our knees.  It doesn’t start and stop at the knees.  Everything is connected, and there are so many variables that affect the knees.  Our knees are impacted, not just by our movement, but these other factors as well: Foot placementAnkle mobilityHip alignmentHip and core strength/stabilityHip and core mobilityWhen it comes to movement, our knees are only supposed to move in a hinged fashion.  In other words, our knees are not supposed to move in multiple planes.  This is when injuries and wear and tear on the knees start occurring.  If you do not have proper knee alignment, it creates the risk for these injuries:SprainsWear and tear on the knee joint itselfTears in ligaments, such as the ACL, MCL, and LCLPatellofemoral injuriesListen in on this episode as Andrew shares his in-depth knowledge on how to properly care for the knees and avoid any injuries or issues in the future.  The knowledge shared in this episode will help you learn how to bulletproof your knees and give you insight into the ways that all of our parts are deeply connected.This episode is complimentary to episode 8, which is all about how to improve your squat techniques.  To revisit episode 8, click here.Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

In this episode, Andrew welcomes baseball player, Jensen Park to the podcast!  Jensen Park shares his story and talks about his journey with baseball, as well as what he’s learned in rehab with Andrew.  Rehab has helped him overcome injuries and learn to elevate his performance in the long term.Jensen grew up playing a wide range of sports, including gymnastics, tennis, and surfing, but baseball was always his favorite.  He speaks about the ways that playing other sports besides baseball growing up helped him develop as an athlete.  The strength that he developed in learning gymnastics translated to his performance in baseball.  Jensen shares the story of his professional and collegiate career in baseball and the ways that he has developed himself as an athlete while navigating through school.  HIs journey is inspiring to anyone pursuing a professional career in sports, as Jensen’s hard work has truly paid off, and he agrees that any struggles that he has experienced along the way have helped him in the future.  Jensen experienced some injuries along the way, which led him to become a client of Andrew’s and has worked on the intricacies of restoring movement in the rehab process.  They both touch on the importance of maintaining functionality in the body and implementing practices to support longevity.  We’re always learning ways to attune our practices and implement those fine details that eventually lead to major breakthroughs for optimal performance. Jensen loves to inspire others and uses his experiences to be a positive influence on upcoming players and students.  Recently, he’s been working with kids and is happy to help young players learn what he has learned along the way in baseball.  He invites anyone who is interested in working with him to email him at jparkcoaching@gmail.com.  Enjoy this episode!Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

This episode is great for coaches or anyone who aspires to be a coach or is looking to improve their coaching style, and not just in health and fitness!  The information that Andrew provides in this episode can be applied to any area of coaching, so listen in for some key advice on how to become a great coach through client-centered coaching.Coaching is an art, and Andrew agrees that becoming a great coach doesn’t just happen overnight.  Becoming a great coach takes a lot of practice and skill through experience.  Taking the approach of client-centered coaching means that as a coach, your kind of like a lazy tour guide.  You’re letting the client experience their journey first-hand, and your job is not to take over their journey.  Let the client take the wheel and emphasize the client’s skills and strengths. Build on those skills and strengths as they become more involved in their progress. Listen in on this episode to hear Andrew’s full in-depth talk on client-centered coaching and how it can help the client grow the most.  He gives some great advice on how to stay with the client’s needs without getting overly involved.  Enjoy this episode, no matter where you are on your coaching journey!  Aloha!Did you enjoy this episode?Please subscribe and leave a review on:AppleSpotifyGooglePandoraiHeartRadio

This episode features the iconic Augie T., the successful stand-up comedian, relating to people of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life in Hawaii and beyond. Augie shares his backstory filled with unique experiences as well as obstacles that he has had to overcome since childhood. Everything has collectively impacted his life, shaped his values, and made him a stronger person. He shares his inspiring story about how Mrs. Murakami believed in him and helped him to win his first speech contest in intermediate school. Not only did he win, but he learned invaluable lessons of hard work, dedication, and overcoming adversity that he carried with him through his comedic career.Augie also grew up as an amateur boxer, and eventually became a professional boxer. He shares the parallels of boxing and navigating through life. His work ethic, competitiveness, and drive to succeed has helped him both inside and out of the ring. Listen in to his motivating stories from his boxing career and some of his best memories of winning by knock out at the Blaisdell, traveling to places he dreamed of, and even meeting the legendary Mike Tyson.Most recently, Augie has worked extremely hard and was elected to the Honolulu City Council representing District 9. Listen in to his inspiring story of hope, hard work, and finding a way to do what he believes is best for the community. Augie truly has a passion for doing his absolute best to create a better future for everyone in his community. He advocates that we all need to pitch in to help each other, listen to one another, and work together to create positive change. He sums it up best by sharing his favorite quote: “The best exercise for the heart is lifting one another up.” Listen in to Augie’s inspiring journey and enjoy the episode!Website: https://www.augiet.com/