Archive for Health and Fitness
Coordination exercise
Posted by: | CommentsDid you laugh at this coordination exercise?
Coordination exercise for natural flexibility
Things which look easy take a lot of coordinating actions and natural flexibility.
Developing this kind of flexibility can be achieved via a learning process using the brain’s intent to create movement patterns and experience them in novel ways which releases any holding or compensatory patterns we carry.
When we’re stiff and too contracted or not as mobile as we’d like, a movement like that coordination exercise may seem to take a lot of effort.
Coordination exercise to build strength
We can naturally and quickly develop the requisite strength by setting up the building blocks of movement so a coordination exercise such as the one in the video… becomes effortless.
Strength can be achieved in many ways. Somatics exercises lead us down this path as we need the requisite freedom in movement of our smaller muscles to move the larger ones.
Coordination Exercise Class
We’ll do more than just that particular movement you saw in the video in this week’s online class, though not on a table like you saw. We’ll give it a whirl on the ground instead.
You’ll get the chance to see and feel how your hamstrings and back will lengthen
by doing a simple test at the beginning and end of class.
What sets up our ability to do a coordination exercise easily and naturally is accomplished using the pandicular process which is at the heart of somatics exercises.
You can join our online hamstrings and coordination exercise class for the hamstrings, back, knees and more.
Hip and Knee Pain
Posted by: | CommentsEasing hip and knee pain
Was that an easy move for your hips, knees and your back? To ease hip and knee pain, the back needs to be supple and flexible.
While some people will argue the case for strengthening the core, we can find ways to ensure the middle of our self is loose enough to have the requisite mobility to move easily.
Hip and knee pain can often be alleviated when our middle, the spine, begins to unwind itself from holding patterns which prevents us from moving our hips and knees comfortably.
Better mobility lessens hip and knee pain
Hip and knee pain sometimes go hand in hand when the hips have lost their mobility as well as the spine. Our knees may continue to get pounded in the same manner day in, day out when our mobility is less than optimal.
To move the knee around comfortably is to regain the ability and mobility we once had. Since movement is a memory, we can refoster those memories by going back to the well – of youthful movement in the artful ways in which somatics exercises remind us to move easily and with the least effort.
Natural flexibility allows hip and knee pain to abate
Instead of hard work or over zealous exercising, somatics exercises offers us a reverse way into the brain by slowing things downs so our hip and knee pain gives as we regain our natural flexibility once our mobility returns.
This week, you can join me for an online somatics exercise class where you’ve already seen the last movement. Now all we have to do is do the steps before that so the hip and knee pain abates when our movement software is updated.
We can learn to our way back to getting out of hip and knee pain by regaining the mobility we had and rediscovering our natural flexibility…otherwise you can kiss your knees hello!
Chronic Pain
Posted by: | CommentsLiving with pain we feel in our muscles, nerves, joints, organs and even our skin which hangs around for more than six months is a doorway to chronic pain.
I lived with strange nerve and chronic pain while enduring sciatica, inflammation, tenderness, soreness and stiffness which all attributed to an ongoing state of unhappy muscles, nerves and limited painful movement. It even felt as if I couldn’t get enough breath into the muscles to move easily.
Chronic pain is a thing of the past
When I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, it was a relief to learn that the uncomfortable feelings I had been having in my 20′s and 30′s had a name to it.
As a kid, I remember looking at the muscle magazines learning what I needed to do to make this skinny kid into a muscular powerhouse. Even while living in chronic pain, I went to the gyms, stretched, lifted weights, thinking this would be a way out since exercise is usually considered a good thing.
Muscles and Chronic Pain Need Not Co-exist
Unfortunately, lifting weights and stretching didn’t solve the pains. Eventually, movement provided the key to getting the muscles and chronic pain to no longer co-exist in order to comfortably move.
There are many approaches to helping people naturally overcome chronic pain. You can find out about some of those in this month’s Max Sports & Fitness where yours truly has finally made it in a muscle magazine.
Living with Chronic Pain
Our brain and body can serve us naturally to ward off the stiffness, aches, and pains we feel in our muscles and elsewhere. Through a long series of trials and errors, I stumbled onto how animals naturally self-correct and move so well.
While I believe in a natural aproach of pandiculating, the process animals use. This has been systematized as somatics exercises which offers a key to un-lock muscular stiffness, improve mobility and take us to a place of natural flexibility.
There are other complimentary approaches which can take us a step closer to a life not full of chronic pain. Being free in our body and moving well is our birthright.
Sometimes we need a little help and a plan to get out of chronic pain with the desire we can return to all the fun activities life has to offer.
Exercises for Feet
Posted by: | CommentsCan exercises for feet bring back the love?
Don’t you love your feet? As a soccer player, I’ve got no choice but to love the feet since I rely on them to create all the magical moments I get to experience.
While exercises for feet can have positive effects on the knees and hips…differentiating the movements leads to a more comfortable sense of walking… free of aches, stiffness and pain.
Do exercises for feet create lighter legs?
When we free up the feet, our knees tend to be more comfortable. When we use the brain which is what we do with somatics exercises, we are delving deep into our sensory-motor system to find out “if” we do indeed experience our self differently.
Describing our internal experiences is unique. At times, we don’t have the words to rightly describe the feelings and sensations we are aware of. Just as moving gracefully is art in motion, we can use mindful specific exercises for feet to get closer at noticing how we experience what the brain can do for us in a matter of minutes.
Using the brain for exercises for feet
Instead of the usual ways we exercise the feet, we can change how muscles respond using cortical pathways using our awareness to facilitate changes. We can feel those changes which will guide us towards more comfortable movement.
We can also self-correct using simple exercises for feet so the knees and hips don’t have to feel so heavy or restricted or leaden in some cases.
You can try a couple of somatics exercises in the video above… and you can spend a little more time exploring how quickly your brain can change the feelings of the feet, knees and legs, by getting this class on somatics exercises for feet.
Just as we did as children, if we can still reach the feet… we can love those feet with simple somatics exercises for feet.
Exercises for face muscles and more
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s Face It. Can exercises for face muscles help you move easier?
A looser jaw helps if you’re a runner and exercises for face muscles may be something you haven’t considered.
Did you know that in some countries they actually target future runners by seeing who has the loosest jaw? If they only had some exercises for face muscles, maybe there would be a surge in competitors or at least, we could have freer jaws.
Somatics exercises, a different set of exercises for face muscles
Somatics exercises are usually the reverse of most approaches since we work with changing the brain’s output to the muscles.
By decreasing high levels of muscular tension, these special exercises for the face muscles work with 1/3 of the brain’s sensory-motor cortex.
Using the brain to change how muscles respond is naturally what we did as children through the process of what is known as a pandiculation.
Exercises for face muscles and then some more…
You can join our online classand learn how to have a more mobile spine to go along with those exercises for face muscles.
Besides, you’ll learn 2 simple movements which will also help you sit more comfortably crossed-legged or in the lotus posture.
So please join us on Friday and find out if somatics exercises for face muscles can set you free.
Improve Eyesight, Loosen the Neck
Posted by: | CommentsWhat can we do to improve eyesight, lessen jaw pain, and improve the neck’s ability to move comfortably even though we may be sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Improve eyesight… free up the neck.
There are any number of eye exercises, diet considerations and things you can do for the eyes. Sometimes getting up and drinking some water is enough to take out the strain.
Sitting at a computer for longer periods of time is not a way to improve eyesight since our range of vision and motion is compromised into a smaller space. Unless of course, you are working on building shorter, more contracted eye muscles.
Simple neck mobilizations and moving the eyes just a little differently are enough to ward off hours of limited motion.
Improve eyesight in just a few minutes
Relaxing the tension from hours of using our eyes in a small space or holding our neck a certain way, takes just a few minutes. Yet how many of us are really going to spend the necessary few minutes to take care of it.
Don’t we usually wait until the jaw pain or neck immobility becomes too great before we act. Pain is a great teacher, but why wait for our body to get locked up and not be able to lessen the accumulated tension and muscular stress.
Just a few minutes of careful self awareness combined with releasing the tension as naturally as any animal will do, allows us to keep on doing the things we human animals think we need or want to do.
Healthy animals do things like yawn. Well they contract their jaw muscles so it looks like a yawn. Go ahead, give yourself a big yawn and pay attention to all the muscles in your neck your tightening up.
Somatics exercises improve eyesight
The way to let go of tension and improve eyesight is to do what animals do. Thank goodness we’ve systematized what animals do as somatics exercises.
We’ve borrowed the very same process which is done in movement, not a static hold and release for a certain period of time.
With periodic self-adjustments and self-corrections, our neck will be freer, our jaw will be looser and we can improve eyesight simply.
Why hold all the tension in place when we can consciously learn to let it go with a little simple practice of awareness and easy movement patterns.
If you want to learn more, please join me in this online exercise class to improve eyesight, free the neck and ease a tight jaw today.
Somatics Shoes
Posted by: | CommentsAwhile back I had the pleasure of meeting Barefoot Ted and some of the tribe from the Exuberant Animals. A great group of physical educators who turned me onto a pair of great shoes that feel as if someone just put a warm glove on my feet.
Somatics Shoes… The no shoe shoe if you will.
It’s my understanding that the best shoe is one that has the flattest sole and gives us some protection from the elements. Shoes like the old PF flyers and Converse flat sole shoes are excellent examples.
The moccasin has been a favorite of many people. Another group of people, runners, are going at it in their bare feet.
Many people have told me that while at home, they enjoy the feelings they have being in their bare feet.
Vibram Five Fingers are definitely somatics shoes
Somatics which is defined as the body experience from within has met its match with the Vibram Five Finger Shoes that I call somatics shoes.
Imagine if you will putting glove liners and mittens on your hands all day. What do you think will happen to the function of your hands and arms? Wonder what is happening to our feet?
Somatics shoes fits like a glove, moves like an animal
If you want to move like an animal…try a pair and let me know if you can ever stand to wear another shoe again. Vibram has hit a home run with these somatics shoes.
Better Walking
Posted by: | CommentsBetter walking by not walking?
I remember when I could barely walk 50 feet and my shoulders would sear in pain and my ongoing tight back… well it would simply stiffen more as I trudged my way through it like a trooper. Why oh why?
Good news is, I was moving. The bad news, it wasn’t getting better and so after some time I just learned to continue to move painfully and suck it up.
So what can we do about better walking?
To be able to facilitate better walking, just imagine those lost feelings we had of childlike, easy movement.
We all know how well a panther can move.
Setting up movement is what all healthy vertebrate animals do before they have to run away or go after the prey.
Walking with stiffness like a zombie scared a lot of us as kids. Why did we lose our childlike feelings of easy, effortless movement? Is this the reward of aging or forgetting to move like an animal.
Better Walking by Not Exercising
The other side of the coin is using our brain, the one big muscle, to facilitate better mobility, agility and flexibility naturally as all healthy vertebrate animals do.
Simply through the conscious act of a pandiculation which has been systematized as somatics exercises can we move more effectively.
Somatics is not exercise in the traditional manner since all we are doing is using the brain to decrease excessive muscular contraction levels.
By decreasing those levels, we can move more easily so better walking is accomplished through the release of held muscular positions that we consciously can’t let go off or those that we aren’t aware of in the moment.
You can access this online class for better walking now.
Recuperation
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you go out to do whatever physical activity you engage in and over exert yourself, what form of recuperation do you use?
Do you use a hot tub? Do you use ice or ibuprofen to soothe your muscles?
Laurie and myself thought we were going to play in an over 45 co-ed soccer tournament last past weekend and found out it was over 40 instead. What are you going to do at our age?
Preparation & Recuperation
Good thing we both practiced our somatics exercises in preparation. We also did them in between and after the games all weekend.
This method of preparation and recuperation allows us to move more freely after engaging our bodies in an activity that is not normal in terms of our human development. All the cutting back and forth while wearing cleats is not what the natural design of the body has been used for over time.
Wearing our joints down with this un-natural and at times risky movement activity can exact a price. We’ve watched over time how many people struggle.
Even this weekend, we are watching how teenagers are barely making it through one game of soccer, in spite of all the training they are receiving.
Makes you wonder how much knowledge is applied when it comes to recuperation even at this young age.
In our age group, while others were doing some stretching, using tiger balm and downing ibuprofens… I kept a keen eye on who would make it through all the games without hearing the usual complaints of stiffness, soreness, aches, and over exertion that is very common not only in playing in adult leagues but the extra level it sometimes takes to make it through an entire weekend-warrior competition.
With our gray hairs, we both comfortably walked away with a 3rd place trophy. We were both happy how our bodies held up in the 90°+ heat in Yakima, WA at the aptly named Sunburn Tournament.
Our Preferred Method of Recuperation
Our preferred method of recuperation, using somatics exercises, allows us to be able to successfully compete and not have any of the usual stiffness afterwards. We had other weekend plans in store for the drive back.
On our way back, we drive through Mt. Rainer National Park.
The fresh air felt incredibly well to breathe. It was odd that only a couple of hours before we played in the heat of eastern Washington.
We didn’t have to traipse around at some 5400 feet, instead we comfortably ambled about enjoying the 5th National Park in the U.S.
Nature has a way of restoring one’s health even after grinding it out on the playing field. It’s as if our recuperation was fostered by hiking in the clean mountain air full of alpine flowers and snow in August.
The following night we headed over to our usual over 50 fun league to play a more recreational level of soccer and once again our bodies were well recuperated so that we could enjoy playing at the indoor arena.
The indoor game is a different type of game than the outdoor version. The movements are shorter and sometime quicker on account of the ball bouncing quickly off the boards and glass. Our quick reactions and the ability to respond without being hung-up is vital.
Laurie’s son accompanied us. He also got to play in a game. As we were leaving, all 3 of us were asked to just stay one more game, so we played with the younger 20’s somethings.
Now in between games, I thought I was done for the evening and would enjoy one of those malt filled beverages that many people use as a form of recuperation. Little did I know that I was about to play once again.
On our ride back, our teenager complained of being tired. Both Laurie and I heartily laughed as we compared the number of games we all had played. The old folks had him 5 to 2 (and 98 years to 15) and neither of one of us were sore, stiff, or aching as a result.
Even Grandma knows how to wield recuperation
I cannot rave enough about how amazing our recuperation powers are when we use the brain using the simple somatic movements.
While it’s of great help to have a positive mind-set, it’s fun to see how the body just keeps moving well along for the ride.
Even grandma, who missed the last step of getting off of the boat on their boating excursion to Canada, twisted her knee and asked Grandpa to show her some of those somatics exercises he diligently practices.
Grandma, like the rest of us, found how quickly her own powers of recuperation came to the fore when she used the somatics exercises which gets the brain to release held states of contraction while improving muscular function.
Brain based exercises like somatics take the edge off of the muscular tension, stiffness, and the stress we accumulate. Now had I only known this when I was living with fibromyalgia, I might have spared myself the many years of chronic pain.
No matter, to move well… can happen at least at age 50 and beyond for others. I’ll let you how it goes when I get to 60.
My hunch is… in the next decade I’ll probably learn a little more on re-balancing the nervous system and refreshing the body with somatics exercises.
All it takes is simple, easy movements which remind the nervous system to calm things down a notch. The powers of recuperation and moving comfortably lie well within us.
