Archive for Exercise
Upper Body Exercises
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The other side of the coin when it comes to upper body exercises.
Generally, when we think of exercise we are usually pushing a weight, giving a bit more effort, holding a pose, stretching or breathing more rapidly.
Cortical Inhibition Upper Body Exercises
Do we ever take the time to un-do what we just activated with our upper body exercises?
Many people would think of stretching, which we know is bad for us according to the research. There is a unique way we can actively use our brain to un-do the activating of the muscles of the upper body.
When it comes to the neck, upper back, chest, shoulders and arms… how often have you consciously worked on getting those muscles to let go?
The brain can do this through exercises known as somatics exercises which primarily uses gravity as the load to release any held contraction levels.
Those contraction levels may remain higher after we activate our muscles with normal upper body exercises. If we remain activated and tight, then the muscles can’t lower their resting rates to be more fully activated the next time we need to use them.
While we may spend worthwhile time activating muscles, we can use the brain’s inhibitory process to bring those very muscles back to neutral resting rates so they are idling in neutral rather than revved up in 2nd gear to begin with.
Is the brain factor missing in upper body exercises?
The brain can be used to release relaxation back into our muscular system so we can feel how the muscles let go and become softer.
If we are living with a tight neck from everyday stress do we need upper body exercises to strengthen that which is already tight?
Wouldn’t it seem to make more sense to have a set of upper body exercises which could release the muscles we just jacked up thus giving us a more balanced use of ourself.
Many times we often talk of balance as working the front side or the back side when it comes to upper body exercises. Do we include the muscles of our side so that each side is balanced as well? By working with the front, back and both sides we can strengthen equally and attempt to be more in balance.
Anybody doing de-activating upper body exercises?
All of these upper body exercises are all well and good yet did we take the requisite time to actively de-activate those muscles too.
Getting stiff from exercise or feeling the tension increase in our muscles doesn’t necessarily have to remain. Any rigidity would be hard to balance by what, more upper body exercises to strengthen tight or stiff muscles on the other side of what we think we need to balance.
In normal exercise, we’ll lift or move with ideas like 3 sets of 10 to build strength or we’ll do many movements so our aerobic capacity increases through the repetition of swinging a limb many times.
By using the brain in a very conscious manner, all we need to do is just say three or less movements to get the brain to reset the muscles.
Then we can move onto perhaps a different angle or different intention to re-focus the brain and improve the movement and the memory of that particular movement.
Moving freely, easily and naturally as healthy vertebrate animals do comes from the very same procedure they use to move well, be agile, and appear graceful with their movements.
This type programming and learning comes from the brain. We human animals have forgotten how to use this other side of the coin when it comes to upper body exercises.
All it takes is just a different orientation with gravity and being mindful so we can more fully return ourself to a fuller capacity and have a more or deeper balanced approach with upper body exercises.
If you’d like to find out how to rebalance in a completely different way, then join us on Friday, July 16th. You can join us live, online or get the class which will be ready for replay afterwards.
We’ll explore how to use the brain with simple movements to reset those muscles which often don’t when it comes to upper body exercises.
Exercise and pain part 4
Posted by: | CommentsWhy exercise and pain don’t have to go together?
We often activate muscles and rarely think about de-activating them unless we think or are told to stretch. Stretching, as we know it is bad for us.
The other side of exercise and pain. Animal know-how.
Instead, the de-activation of muscles is the other side of the coin and is what can allow us to free a painful back spasm for instance.
Healthy vertebrate animals have this know-how to move well. Below is a video on a human animal, who at the age of 79, learned about the system of de-activation to control a back problem which plagued him since age 42.
A woman was scheduled for back surgery. She was curious as exercise and pain was going hand in hand in her life. During the course of one afternoon, she learned how how to de-activate muscles as animals do.
She went to Alaska on vacation and merely did 5 of these unique de-activating exercises and she traveled pain free in the car and plane for the next two weeks.
When she came back home, she cancelled the back surgery merely from learning how a unique form exercise and pain don’t have to go together.
Naturally, she saved herself and the healthcare system $39,000.
It’s amazing how life can change when we get back on track so we can do what we want again.
Exercise and pain don’t have to go hand in hand.
As a former member of what I call the pain club… I lived with a chronic pain condition known as fibromyalgia. This affects some 5+ million Americans. The minority of the 10% who live in this painful state are men.
Despite all our efforts, if we continue with both exercise and pain, then it ain’t working and there’s no need to push through it anymore.
If you want to be done with exercise and pain then learn to move like an animal again. You can even try it for free. Try the other side of the coin and learn how to deactivate painful, aching, tight muscles the way nature intended.
Get past exercise and pain.
Animals have the know how. We’ve merely lost the fine sense of moving well like the animals we truly are. You know, the nice ones who won’t bite you… though some of them bark awfully loudly, especially if you live in pain without a resolution.
Download some free animal moves so you can experience how exercise and pain will no longer be in the same equation.
Shoulder and Neck Pain
Posted by: | CommentsYou can relieve shoulder and neck pain. How? We’ll floss the joints of your neck and shoulder with simple somatics exercises.
To Free Shoulder and Neck Pain…
We’ll focus on how tight, contracted chest and abdominal muscles prevent your neck and shoulders from being pain free.
There is a yoga movement which we can somatically explore. In case you’re in a yoga class, the next time you get to this position, it will seem waaaay easier.
If you’ve never done yoga, no worries, we can lie on our side and you’ll be able to move comfortably or well within your comfortable range of motion.
When people try to “stretch” unknowingly the slightest of strain can cause the muscles to re-contract and re-tighten afterwards. This can exacerbate both shoulder and neck pain if the goal is to stretch.
Using the brain’s cortex to release muscles will allow for more freedom in movement and the lessening of shoulder and neck pain.
Releasing Shoulder and Neck Pain
Since the brain loves differentiated patterns, this is how we’ll floss the joints. Moving the joints in ways we normally wouldn’t think of since we’re generally upright. And how many upright exercises have we tried?
Changing your body’s relationship to gravity is key. To unwind ourselves from held tension, contraction patterns or binds we find ourself in, we can use our brain and muscles in a very delicate manner.
That’s why we love somatics to unwind shoulder and neck pain.
Inside of us are delicate tissues so when we carefully move with awareness, the tissues get reminded of their function. The brain keeps improving as a result. The muscles will move as I’ve said waaaay better. That’s my technical term. : ).
To get there, out of shoulder and neck pain, further and faster, is to learn how to slowly move and pay close attention. It’s quite simple.
The risk in holding a contraction pattern for too long only keeps the pain and discomfort going. Simple awareness and intelligence will easily free shoulder and neck pain.
Join us this Friday online. From the comfort of your own home, be free.
Register here for the Shoulder and Neck Pain class.
Breathing exercise class this Friday
Posted by: | CommentsWe’re having a simple breathing exercise class this Friday at 1pm.
You can enjoy this class right at home with us.
Online somatics classes usually incorporate our awareness of breathing while moving.
Breathing exercise class in the somatic tradition.
In this Friday’s class, we’ll work with variations of the basic somatic movement pattern which gets the spine to move more freely and easily.
Breathing while we move, integrates breathe naturally and effortlessly into our every day lives, especially when we engage in activities when we need to breathe and move easily.
A simple breathing exercise can un-lock tight muscles so we are free to do what we want with our bodies.
Held tension is easily remedied using somatics exercises which have been systematically designed to help us move better, recover from injury, and end all the bracing and flinching we live with when pain and discomfort happens to get in our way of doing activities we enjoy.
One breathing exercise may be enough
To unlock muscles which bind themselves together, we’ll move in a number of different ways so we have more keys and routes to facilitate more enjoyable and better breathing.
We’ll do a breathing exercise on our back and compare that it how we experience our breathing sitting.
The same breathing exercise can have profound effects.
When we do the same thing in a variety of positions, we can experience the breathe in ways we may not normally get the chance to. This opens up channels of breathing and possibilities of experience.
Come and explore with us how simple somatics exercises are a natural, gentle, easy, safe means to a path of internal freedom.
Sign up here for this online breathing exercise class.
Exercise and Pain part 3
Posted by: | CommentsExercise and pain is not how it’s supposed to be.
You can get 100% out of physical pain and stiffness, the way nature intended for us to get out of pain, not by exercise but by un-exercise the way animals do.
Exercise and Pain is not the way to go.
Immobility and bracing doesn’t have to be the way.
• Without drugs
• Without surgery
• Without any special equipment
You can naturally get out of pain and discomfort as simply as healthy animals do to move comfortably.
The secret of what healthy animals do to stop pain has been systematized for our benefit.
To heal agonizing muscles for good without surgery and without medication can be achieved with an un-exercise system.
Exercise and pain is not the animal way.
Using three simple steps that is similar to what cats and dogs do every day is the secret which will unlock the way out of a painful recovery and give us back the ability to walk easily for instance.
To be comfortable in long car rides or to go skiing once again, even after they’ve told you, you won’t be able to do it… is what they don’t know. There is a natural way out of pain.
If we experience exercise and pain, we’re moving further away from our natural birthright of moving easily and comfortably.
Living Pain Free is easy and instead of exercise and pain as we know it, we can un-exercise our way out of it.
We can follow Fido’s lead since animals un-do stiffness and immobility all the time yet no one really notices or pays attention to what it means for us human animals.
This little known animal secret comes with a $5 word called a pandiculation. When you do it, you can move like a tiger again and feel how exercise and pain no longer go hand in hand.
It’s simply a matter of un-locking the code of stiffness without all the fancy equipment. We’re already endowed with a brain which can un-do pain and stiffness.
Getting to the other side of exercise and pain
All you need is you and Gravity to live pain free. Moving freely in the field of gravity is easy with a little animal know-how.
If gravity isn’t working for you. You already know the pain of living in it. There is a way out of this misery. Simple, easy animal moves shows us the way out instead of exercise and pain.
If we’re living with the frustrations and limitations that pain brings, healthy animals know the easy way out.
To un-do physical pain right it its tracks is to un-exercise.
To get immediate relief from pain… with a little practice as healthy animals do, you can move easily again.
Exercise and pain is not what animals do. To move like a cheetah and get immediate relief from pain, all it takes is a little animal know how and the pain is gone.
Simple things like a back spasm is easily set right once you know what healthy animals know. Don’t have a cow, get relief.
When is the last time you saw a cheetah pull a hamstring or get into a back spasm?
You can discover how animals know-how to move freely by using an un-exercise system known as somatics exercises which gets us out of pain.
After you try the animal secret, you might think differently about exercise and pain.
Exercise for back pain to get your back on track
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Exercise for back pain is a natural way to help what ails our backs.
Somatics exercise is an exercise approach where you learn how to release tight, stiff, sore muscles which may have taken us off track.
Jonathan Hunt who played soccer professionally in England is a bud of mine. He left football, that’s soccer to us…
on account of back pain and eventually found his way to Somatics which helped him get out of his back pain where many other approaches failed him.
Get this, he actually discovered it moments before he was leaving from vacation. He was visiting Thailand for some r & r… He knew the plane ride would be a killer on his back.
How many people hurt just sitting in car or being on a plane?
He eventually became a fellow Hanna Somatic Educator himself and now can enjoy the games of his youth as he continues to play today.
If you’re in London, you can always check him out for a hands-on session. You’ll be in good hands.
Mail Online in the UK just posted an article in their health notes sections on Jonathan. See getting your back on track.
The very exercise for back pain which is described in the article is one in which many somatics educators teach people to have a healthy, flexible spine.
If you’d like an audio version, you can listen to several exercises for back pain and find out for yourself what somatics is all about.
Still exercising and having pain Part 2
Posted by: | CommentsBack to the question of ever seeing a cheetah or dog in back pain let alone ever seeing one pull a hamstring?
How does another animal tell the other one… wait, I just pulled a hammie… would you eat someone else today?
Unlike our fellow animals, we wouldn’t eat each other at a sporting event or when we merely move quickly enough to feel the pain of a muscle spasm and go down and out.
So what in the heck is it that animals know? What is their secret for not pulling a hammie?
There’s a little known animal secret that cheetahs, cats, dogs and pretty much every animal with a spine knows…
But every human intuitively understand it… even babies in the womb get it…
It’s odd how we really don’t know about it and use it to our advantage… otherwise, the statistic that some 70-85% of Americans have experienced back pain in their life is high when you consider that it happens even if you are exercising too…
Did you know… that you can un-do pain and muscle spasms with a relatively little known healthy animal secret?
There’s no mystery to transforming the root cause of physical pain and agony… you know that one of pulling a hamstring or getting taken out by a back spasm.
Once we understand there is a natural way for a human being to get back on track and be as well as any healthy animal.
Just like animals, we’ve got a similar movement software system built in… yet we don’t access it.
We have forgotten to access our movement software and update it… simply, easily and effortlessly.
Why have we forgotten?
As a human, we’ve evolved in ways where we’ve undermined our self, since we’ve basically forgotten this most natural ability…
How to move like an animal and reprogram our movement software. By doing this, muscles move comfortably.
While this might sound like a lot of work, it actually isn’t, in fact…
What’s ironic is that we had this programming down pat as babies in the womb. As adults, it’s as if we went into a sensory motor amnesia of sorts.
We’ve merely forgotten to remind our nervous system of its capacity so our brains just check out. You’ve heard the term, don’t use it, lose it.
Somewhere inside each of us, is what I call our lost movement files. Like childhood memories, youthful movement isn’t lost, it’s forgotten and the brain waits for us to access these long since forgotten ways.
Healthy animals…on the other hand practice what we think is a secret, yet this is what points a clear path away from those painful muscle spasms… the stiffness we sense… and the built up muscular tension which ties us in knots.
Check back on a future post as I’ll talk more about exercising and having pain. The healthy animal secret points the way out of pain and muscle spasms. In the meantime, you can find out for yourself how to move like a healthy animal again.
Ending your pain. High Tech meets Low Tech.
Posted by: | CommentsLearning to play with technology was introduced to me just a few years ago when my kids thought it was weird I didn’t have an ipod… little did I know I would soon have a website, and even a twitter account – for reasons still a mystery.
Whether you’ve been experiencing back pain, hip pain, neck pain, etc… you can take care of it at home.
For some time, I’ve been working with fabulous people all over the world offering private online somatics one on one sessions… all in the comfort of home.
This compliments the ongoing online classes which are also offered.
From my experience providing online webinars where you watch a presentation and follow it with some live somatics movements… combining the low techiness of somatics with a computer has been a revelation.
In fact, doctors are now using this approach too.
Cisco has been teaming up with them. They’ve discovered this is a highly effective approach which works well for many people.
All you need to do is answer an email and your computer does the rest, otherwise we can use the Free Google Video interface, Skype and if you happen to have a mac, we can use Facetime.
For those of you on the go, we’ve even done it over an iphone too while away from home.
Your initial session includes a health background intake.
Followed by:
• A posture assessment
• Movement sequences specifically tailored to your needs and concerns
• And you’ll receive an audio recording of the easy movements you did, so you’ll know exactly what to do
• + You’ll have access to a private members only area with videos and written files to further enhance your progress.
Press here to schedule a private video session.
Get out there and play
Posted by: | CommentsAfter you practice somatics… moving with awareness… get out there and really feel yourself… just like you did when you were young…
You can play at any age!
Still exercising and having pain…
Posted by: | CommentsWhat do most doctors, physical educators, professional sports trainers, magazine articles & even tv exercise shows have no clue about…
They don’t understand what Fido knows that could unlock your muscles and set you free once again.
There is a startling truth about your physical pain and how you can get out of it…
with a way most people aren’t talking about.
You can get out of pain more quickly and easily than you ever thought possible.
But let me back things up by saying “Having Pain Sucks”
Flinching & bracing is no way to live since living in chronic pain is hard… since it seems like it may never end or go away.
It might even seem like it keeps you guessing by moving around and not getting better, just becoming worse.
Having to take a hot shower just to get started in the morning to soothe already aching muscles… is no way to live.
Feeling older and over the hill before your time is not the way you thought it was going to be… but it’s become a way of life or so for the moment.
Is there any reason to live in this cave of despair?
You know that place to shut everyone and everything out since the relentless pain is too much.
That lingering flu-like feeling which doesn’t let go…
What’s interesting is that no one really get its since they say “you look fine to me”.
Like a bad movie version of Ground Hog Day… everyday you wake up in pain, everyday you wonder why does that mack truck keep hitting you… and you keep forgetting the license plate number too.
Sadly in this movie, you want to stay in the hole since you’re too tired…
And now what? Another day of aching pain… another day of misery… another day of the pain coming back.
But you know about this…you’re really tired and really tired of the endless pain which doesn’t go away.
So I’ve got a weird question…
Have you ever seen a cheetah or dog in back pain or ever seen one pull its hamstring?
The story will be continued…
