If someone cuts you off on the road or in a line and pushes ahead of you:
Smile, nod, and wave them ahead.
They may be on their way to the hospital. They may have just lost their job, their mother, their child. It may be their last day on Earth. They may be a lump who doesn't know goodness. Show them.
They insulted you? Smile, nod, and wave them ahead. It was never between you and them. It is between you and your Highest Spirit.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Inspirational Ivy II - Beating Foot Drop and Sciatica, and Getting Healthier
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Ivy had serious sciatica with foot drop. She had knee and other injuries. She was in awful pain. In this kind of foot drop, the nerve cannot serve the muscles enough to lift the foot to walk normally. The toes drag. The foot hangs limply and slaps the ground with each step.
Commonly, someone with foot drop is put in a leg brace for life. One surgery done for foot-drop fuses the ankle so the foot is rigid and doesn't hang. Other problems come over years from changes in walking mechanics. For the terrible pain, patients are often directed to drugs and surgery. These are not healthy.
We changed that:
Monday's post Inspirational Ivy told the essentials of stopping the cause of the sciatic pain and nerve impingement, rather than treat the results with unhealthy means. Links to specific methods are there.
Sciatica, disc damage, facet pain, and impingement are results, not the cause of pain. They are not a diagnosis. When you have them, find what is causing them. Then you can reverse the cause: The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
Ivy followed my directions exactly and used her brain to understand how to get the intended results, not just "do a bunch of exercises." When she first began, she wrote,
"Over the past few days, I have been very conscious of my movements and, hey presto, I have not experienced any tingling or pain. I have to take total responsibility for every movement I make. I am constantly telling myself 'Think before you go to the fridge or need to pick up something off the floor - think lunges.'"
I gave her simple gait retraining. Ivy quickly discarded the cane she had used for nearly 7 months.
Ivy went on to teach several neighbors in her community how to fix their own pain. One story is posted in Each One Teach One.
In April 2006, Ivy wrote,
"It is nearly 5 months since I started your wonderful programme so I thought it was time that I gave you an update. I am fit and well, the sciatica has disappeared, if I get a little niggle in that area, I ask myself as to what have I done wrong, my left knee (IT Band) is no longer a problem, my balance has improved immensely and the "dropped" foot is great, in fact, when I go for my daily walk, I no longer hear the plop, plop of which I hated. I can also now wear "normal" shoes.
"Without your help and support and putting me on the right road so to speak, I would still be in constant pain plus making the chiropractor richer. Please note, I no longer go to him for treatment - I DON'T NEED HIM."
At age 70, Ivy is steadily improving strength and range of motion using healthy movement for daily life. She is eating healthful vegetarian food. January 2007 brought this note:
"The reason for this e-mail being that I feel somewhat excited re a remark made by the son of one of my fellow villagers. His very words being, "How did you become the woman that you are now. I have watched you over the past couple of years - when I first met you, you were obviously in a lot of pain, what is your secret?"
"I also sent the photos to my son and daughter-in-law who live in the US, they too, could see the improvement - they thought I looked great. Mind you, over that 2 year period, I gradually lost 20 lbs."
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
This week Grand Rounds selected medical posts that reflected Narrative Medicine, which Susan says has three essential components:
Attention: Listening carefully to patients, remaining sensitive to what they may not be saying.
Representation: Using writing to reflect on patient interactions helps caregivers understand both their own feelings and those of their patients.
Affiliation: The process of attending carefully to patients and reflecting on patient stories ultimately makes caregivers stronger and more passionate patient advocates.
Last October, Ivy from New Zealand left a comment on Fitness Fixer how she first found me while looking for relief from severe sciatica with foot drop. For 11 months, she had tried treatment and an exercise regimen from a chiropractor. Last week, she e-mailed me a funny update of improving mobility and health from a new stretch. I started writing this post just to tell of Ivy's stretch and how readers can have the same success.
I looked over my file of Ivy's comments on Fitness Fixer and her e-mails to me over the last two years - each story weaving to the next - of improving health, mobility, and joy of life for herself and people in her community. Reading them again was like sitting by a stream that sparkled over rocks on its way by, inspiring and lovely. Some are private, some I have her permission to tell.
Last October, Ivy wrote:
Ivy wrote, "I knew I should be feeling better than I was. During those months I was continually surfing the net looking for answers, then in November 2005, I discovered Dr Jolie Bookspan's "How to fix your own pain without drugs or surgery." Everything she described was ME, 69 years of bad habits had finally caught up with me.
"So began my journey to good health and freedom from pain. I began with the pec stretch, trapezius stretch, wall stand, sitting correctly at the computer without sticking out my chin, hamstring stretch, isometric abs (no more crunches), squats and lunges instead of bad bending.
You can imagine my joy when after 2 days I was free of pain. I was so excited that I contacted Dr Jolie, who in turn, took time out from her busy schedule to e-mail me giving me further advice and exercises which I might add, I follow religiously along with a daily 30 minute walk (weather permitting).
"Some months ago, I decided to follow a vegetarian diet. I feel so well and happy, in fact, I have loads of energy. I turn 70 at the end of this month (Oct 2006) and am looking forward to the next stage of my life feeling healthy and free of pain."
This year Ivy followed up when we were corresponding on making sure of healthy nutrition:
"This is the second winter that I have not had either a cold or 'flu. For someone who was always getting the 'flu, that is really something. I put it down to my healthy vegetarian diet."
Ivy used my free web site summary sheets on fixing pain, my books, and Fitness Fixer posts. Here are links to posts Ivy used:
Wall stand - this is a quick check of functional muscle tightness to see if you can use healthful positioning for normal activity. It is described in the first paragraph of the post Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain, above.
Isometric abs (no more crunches) - this one isn't up on Fitness Fixer yet. It is in my book The Ab Revolution and Fix Your Own Pain, and on my web site summary on functional use of abs to stop overarching the lower spine. Ivy sent a photo of doing this exercise. I will post it when I post about this fun, different, functional abdominal exercise.
The posts on lunges, Doorway Hamstring Stretch, and Functional Achilles Stretch, feature photos that Ivy sent me. I had written Ivy earlier this year asking if she could send me photos demonstrating what she is doing. She invited a neighbor to visit and take the photos, had them developed, then mailed a pack of them to me from New Zealand. Ivy writes:
"My dear 86 year old friend took them and we certainly had a lot of fun doing what I will call a "photo shoot." Bear in mind her age when I tell you that while I was trying to hold the pose, she would press the incorrect button and would have to start all over again. I would lose what I would call the correct form and so it would go on... I can now sympathize with models who have to hold poses for what seems an eternity."
In February 2007 Ivy sent an update, signing it:
"I shudder to think where I would be if I had not found your web site over 15 months ago. I mean it when I say "Thank you for helping me get my life back." I am fit, I am healthy, what more can one want in this life. I have passion about what I do something that I haven't had in a very long time."
Fast Fitness - Great Hip, Side, Leg, and Iliotibial (I.T. band) Stretch
Friday, August 24, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness. Stretching the side of the hip and ilio-tibial (I.T. band) does several good things. Here is a fast, healthy way to do it:
Lie flat, face up.
Place legs like clock hands, one to 10 o' clock, the other to 2 o'clock (or wider).
Bring one ankle over the other, leaving the other at 10 (or 2 o'clock). Keep hips flat against the floor, don't tilt or twist. Legs straight. Hold. Switch.
This is an "ouu" stretch because when you do it right, you say "ouu." If you don't feel an instant great stretch, pull both legs more to the side. Ouu.
The space shuttle Endeavour landed yesterday at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Endeavour's two-week assignment to the International Space Station was shortened for safety arrangements concerning Hurricane Dean.
The Endeavour name uses British spelling because it was named for the HMB Endeavour, a sailing ship commanded by 18th century explorer James Cook. Before launching the space shuttle Endeavour, NASA hung a humorous, quickly replaced "GO Endeavor" banner. The formal name is STS - Space Transportation System. This mission was STS-118.
During STS-118, crewmembers went outside the vehicle for assorted tasks. Going out is called extravehicular activity (EVA). Space doesn't support human life. Crew going on EVA wear pressurized suits to protect against radiation, space debris, temperature extremes, and low air pressure. The suits aren't just called suits, they are Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs). EVAs get interesting because EMUs are pressurized higher than the near vacuum of space, but aren't pressurized as much as inside the shuttle. Because of the lower air pressure inside EMUs, risk increases for problems like gas embolism, but chiefly, decompression sickness, also called the bends.
Air pressure around us keeps nitrogen gas dissolved all over in our body all the time. When you go up a mountain, in a high airflight, or on an EVA, there is less surrounding pressure. Nitrogen becomes undissolved. If you reduce pressure slowly enough, nitrogen comes out peaceably and you can breathe it out. If you come up from a scuba dive or jump out for your EVA too fast, nitrogen offgases too fast, making bubbles, which are believed to be the basis of decompression sickness. Beside the role of exercise in countermeasures for space health and after returning, exercise is one of several factors affecting risk of decompression sickness. The post Exercise and Fitness in Decompression Sickness Risk explains.
If you could start an EVA with less nitrogen in your body, you could reduce your risk of decompression sickness. Crew preparing for an EVA do lengthy de-nitrogenation procedures. They breathe oxygen instead of air, and do physical exercise to "wash-out" nitrogen in several stages taking many hours. One goal of aviation scientists is to develop faster protocols for denitrogenation without increasing risk of decompression sickness during EVA.
American and Russian space programs use different denitrogenation protocols and different EVA suits. Russians use EMUs with higher suit pressure. The American suit design uses lower pressure, making it more flexible and maneuverable. The lower pressure suit is considered riskier for decompression sickness, and needs longer prebreathing and denitrogenation exercise. The Russian suit, higher pressure inside, is stiffer, needing more muscle to move. My Russian scientist friends say it is like the AK-47 - tough but good. My American scientist colleagues state that the Russian egress suit is a bull, lacking dexterity. My Russians reply they don't need it, as their vehicles, suits (and cosmonauts) are built strong and austerely, not needing fussy fine-tuning. Da.
My crew surgeon friends from both agencies are all submerged in triplicate paper forms for permissions to send me mission stories and photos to post for you. Nice that everyone can feel universally understood.
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - updates via e-mail or RSS, upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
---
Endeavour STS-118 on Pad39A photo by jurvetson Endeavour STS-118 blastoff by jurvetson STS-116 Spacewalk over Cook Strait New Zealand photo by elroySF
Inspiring Update from Jill - Celiac, Knees, Fasciitis, and Restoring Happy Life
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Jill hasn't sent a photo yet, but her words are a beautiful picture. Her story can help many readers stop pain and improve strength and function for happier daily life.
In the post Lunges and Beans Jill commented on Celiac disorder, an immune reaction to foods with the gluten protein - principally wheat plus a few others. Symptoms can be baffling until identified as coming from gluten.
Jill writes: "I had bad and steadily worsening joint problems, especially in the knees, for ten years before I found out about my gluten sensitivity. By that time my legs were extremely weak from having been unable to put weight on a bent knee for so long.
"I let the knees heal without doing anything special for them until I hit a plateau, then started doing isometric exercise for the quads (the classic wall chair), then six months after that started running slowly on an elliptical trainer. Weightlifting exercises for quads, though, still left me hobbling.
"That's where I was when I found your blog, and since then I've been doing squats at every opportunity, which was very hard at first and got much easier. Along with the foot stretch you gave, the Achilles tendon stretch in the squats also caused tremendous improvement in my plantar fasciitis.
"After a few weeks of that you posted the stair climbing posts and now I'm having far less trouble on the large numbers of stairs I climb every day. I am shying away from lunges from long associating them with pain, but plan to get over that soon and try them (gently) according to your detailed suggestions.
"Your blog has given me an enormous number of ideas to help in rehabilitating my knees from the years of gluten, which has made an enormous improvement in my quality of life. Thank you for the care and skill you put into it."
Jill, thank you for your care and skill to write things that will help many, and to do empowered good work to shine again. I put the posts with their links. Everyone, add your favorites:
In May, blog reader Bill (Lieutenant William Slabonik) sent an inspiring story - Freed From Pain, He Rides Again. Bill had been told by several sources that surgery and disability retirement were his only options. He used Fitness Fixer information to change a future as damaged as x-rays of his spine, to the active life he loves, without pain. He used information from the upper back and shoulder posts, among others, to learn how neck discs, upper back muscles, and other structures are damaged with mal-positioning, and how to employ healthy muscle use so the discs can heal and arm numbness stops, even riding long bike trips, lifting heavy gear, and in his demanding work as a pilot. He fixed low back chronic pain with the simple neutral spine repositioning away from a hyperlordotic (over-arched lower spine) when standing, shown in Prevent Back Surgery and all the posts on neutral spine.
In the May update, Bill told how he fixed the injuries and rode the Pennsylvania State Police Memorial century ride. Last week Bill reported in:
"My goal of riding the 200 km night ride down the Jersey shore was a success. I rode from 10pm 'til 9am with no problems covering the distance of 125 miles. I actually felt like I could go on a lot further. I have also completed a 2-day 200-mile ride to visit my brother-in-law in Maryland. I now can get on my bike on any day and reasonably crank out a hundred mile ride. No serious pain or discomfort noted. Only the usual slight soreness in the rear end and hands and elbows that seems to come with any long ride. The neck, shoulders and back did incredibly well, - I constantly checked my position while on the bike and did some "Healthy Stretching" whenever I was off the bike. Mission accomplished."
Note to readers - I will cover hand and arm soreness with biking in posts to come. I already worked with Bill to prevent local hand numbness from compressive leaning on the wrists, which Bill put to immediate use. I asked Bill to take photos for you of his simple changes in biking positioning to change damaging neck, shoulder, arm, and hand use to healthy ones.
Bill says,
"My son has promised to help me with the photos. I must ride herd on this project and get back to you soon.
"My confidence and health have skyrocketed. My daughters are leaving for college and I am looking forward to an empty house soon. They have thanked me for being there when they needed me and asked me why I just don't go and do something I would love to do. I am applying for retirement this morning and have completed an interview for a job flying in mainland China. I have two other airlines trying to get me to interview. Wish me luck on my next amazing adventure. And thanks for your help and encouragement."
Bill - Free Man
Bill, all hats off to you. Keep flying high. More good things are still to come. Keep us posted.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quick strengthener for arms, shoulders, body, legs, hands, feet. Healthier than bending over for rows (hard on discs) and more functional strengthening than lying on a bench:
Lift with the other arm 10 times. Try various lifts - front, back, sides.
Want more? Add a pushup, lifting the weight on the way up. More? Lift one foot. More? Use an unwieldy barbell for balance challenge or pinch grip to strengthen hands.
Tuck your hip to straighten your lower spine to strengthen abdominal and back muscles too. Hold your head up with neck straight to strengthen neck and upper back muscles the way they need for healthy straight standing.
Grand Rounds is a lot of work to do and has been called "the weekly best of the medical blogosphere."
Bachmann writes that the post shows "even everyday movements may be subject to positive change, that is, to a healthier way... Jolie Bookspan, the Fitness Fixer, tells you how."
I received an invitation to take a course to learn a new back surgery for damage to the facets. Facets are the joints at the back of each vertebrae (spine bone). The surgery was advertised as a good revenue producer.
In the surgery, the facet joint is cut off and replaced by "lumbar position preservation hardware" rigidly attached so that the area can no longer bend or arch backward. At right is an X-ray of the lower spine with surgically implanted hardware. The person is standing sideways facing to the right. Surgical facet rigid fixation surgery is considered innovative because it replaces the more drastic spine fusion. It also replaces repeated injections into the painful area. The seminar would teach me the surgery with a cocktail reception following.
Why does the surgery want to prevent arching the lower spine? The facets are in the back of the vertebrae. Chronically letting your spine arch (too much inward curve) squashes the facets in back. According to work I've done over years in the lab, the overarching, called hyperlordosis (or slouching backward), is a chief factor in damage and pain to the facets and surrounding soft tissue. That means that you can stop this yourself without the surgery.
Notice if you allow overarching when carrying things in back (1. left) and in front (2. right). The pictured overarching is not the normal curve of the spine. It is too much:
The drawing at right is from Back Pain in Pregnancy - and Why Men Can Get It. Imagine lifting your baby overhead (or any weight) and allowing your spine to pinch backward on the facet joints instead of standing upright and holding neutral spine.
You can stop overarching, thereby preventing crushing force on the facets, and instead, distribute the weight through the core muscles. It is a simple positional adjustment that takes seconds (shown below). It is a healthier approach than surgery over both the short and long term.
Following rigid fixation surgery, you will no longer be able to stretch your lower spine as far backward, even when you want to stretch for range of motion and better disc health. You will still be able to slouch your body weight backward - onto the implants. They may eventually wear, along with adjacent bone, from the chronic crushing. Because the surgically fixed area can no longer overarch, increased forces occur on the joints above and below which have to bend more. If you thought the spine in the x-ray above still looked overly arched, not neutral, you are right. The areas above and below the implanted devices are over-arching backward, and the backside is tilting out in back (hip axis is tilted anteriorly). After years, those facets may be next to break down. It is no surprise "when the pain comes back." The cause of the pain was never removed.
Instead of allowing your spine to be pulled into damaging position, use your muscles to hold neutral spine. Here is one easy way to learn to feel it:
Stand with your back against a wall. Touch heels, backside, shoulders, and head. Do you feel a large arch in the lower back making a large space?
Put your hands on your hips. Thumbs in back. Fingers in front.
Roll your hip so that thumbs roll down in back.
The large space between lower back and wall becomes a smaller space. Do not flatten against the wall or round your back. Just feel the strain come off the lower back. Use the new neutral for daily positioning. Simple. Check the photo at right (spine positioning is shown standing sideways, not with back to wall). Left is arching. Right is neutral. A small inward curve remains with neutral spine (right). Neutral spine does not mean rounding the back (which pressures the discs). Make the belt line level, not tilting down in front. The photo is from the post Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine. Click for additional ideas.
The muscles used to maintain neutral spine are your abdominal and core muscles. It is not strengthening ab muscles that stops pain or teaches you neutral spine. It is using them to prevent damaging spine position. You get built-in core muscle exercise through the same repositioning technique that allows you to avoid back surgery.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - nice stretch for hands, wrist, and forearms:
Face a wall and raise both hands to about head height.
Turn palms up, thumbs to the outside, fingers downward,
Press toward wall. Bend elbows to various amounts for a full-range wonderful, gentle stretch.
Keep body straight, not sagging inward or tilting out in back.
Breathe. Smile. Feel good.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
This weekend in the Northern Hemisphere, the moon will be new, and the night dark, and the skies filled with the shooting stars of the Perseid Meteor shower.
Every 130 years or so, the Swift-Tuttle comet circles the Sun, streaming icy, dusty debris the size of sand and peas. Every mid-August, the Earth passes the orbit of Swift-Tuttle, raining fiery remains through the atmosphere. Igniting against the air's intense friction, they "shoot" across the sky. Books by people who study these things say they fly about 37 miles per second (60 kps), most burning away far above the ground.
The Perseid showers are seen in the sky around the constellation of Perseus the Hero, giving the name. Early Greeks explained that the god Zeus, father of Perseus, visited Perseus' mortal mother Danae in a shower of brightness. Later the event was renamed (or reborn) as "The Tears of St. Lawrence" for their appearance during the August festival of Saint Laurentius. Chinese, Japanese, and Korean writings of Perseid showers date from the 8th century. I grew up on Russian childhood social-utopian folk bedtime stories of comets, mixed with my Grandmother's whispers of fiery conflagration, later determined from an unknown comet or part bursting over Tunguska Krasnoyarsk Siberia around 1908, devastating the forest (later politically reinvented as a nuclear event, and editorially as UFOs for Russian science fiction writing and American television).
What about your neck? When watching meteor showers standing or sitting, don't martyr your neck. If you crane your neck and push the chin forward when looking upward, you put destructive force on the neck, shown in three examples that follow:
Three images above show craning the neck and jutting the chin. Injurious compression builds in vertebrae, discs, and surrounding soft tissue.
The left and middle images show leaning the upper body backward. Thoracic lean overly arches the lower back (hyperlordosis), adding weighted compression to the joints called facets and soft tissue of the lower spine.
The right photo shows unhealthy craning with the chin forward, common in some yoga and exercise classes. It adds sizeable compressive loading on the back of neck vertebrae plus shearing force on the discs. When raising arms upward, it contributes to rotator cuff compression and injury. Click Overhead Lifting, Reaching, and Throwing Part I - Shoulder and Rotator Cuff Injury.
I understand that jutting the chin far forward is often taught as proper form. I have taken yoga classes in India with major names and those unknown to the outside world. One teacher told me pushing the neck and chin forward protects the discs. It unfortunately doesn't. Shearing force on the discs is severe when you jut the chin forward then raise it. Shear is a structural strain when one layer shifts sideways (or front to back) in relation to the other. Damage may take years to accrue until visible on x-ray. Don't jut your chin forward, especially not when looking upward.
Photo 3 above shows tilting the neck forward when looking through binoculars (left figure with yellow arrow). The chin is not forward, but the forward head still creates painful forces on the upper back contributing to upper crossed syndrome, disc trouble, and muscle strain in the classic diamond and hangar shape across the upper back. The pain is easily stopped. Keep neck vertical and chin in (right green arrow).
You can look directly upward for all you need in healthful position. Here are ways:
Keep your chin in, loosely and relaxed.
Shoulders back.
The back of your head lifts loosely upward without strain.
Straighten the rounded-forward curve of the upper spine - get more upward gaze range from your upper back.
Don't yank or force the head and chin back, or the corners of your neck will ache.
Don't lean back by arching your lower back.
Healthy upward gazing is a nice good-feeling stretch and exercise for the upper back and neck without injury. Use it for all overhead needs, photo 4 of Amsterdam policeman at right.
The time where we pass through the Perseid shower is long, from about July 15 through August 25. The highest activity is predicted over the Northern Hemisphere this coming weekend. Look up on Saturday, 11 August before dawn, Sunday morning the 12th, late Sunday night through Monday early dawn.
Because of the tilt to Swift-Tuttle's orbit, its fiery dust falls almost entirely on Earth's northern hemisphere. Southern hemisphere friends see few Perseids. The next good Southern hemisphere meteor shower is hoped to be the Geminid showers in December.
The constellation where meteors appear to come from is called the radiant. The Perseid meteor shower radiant is the constellation Perseus. The Leonid shower is hoped to peak this 18 November. Look toward the constellation Leo. The Geminid shower radiant is the Gemini constellation. Watch in mid-December with the evening crescent of the moon.
In photo 5 at left of looking up through the telescope, the general position is pretty good, but the neck is a bit more forward than needs to be. Get more healthy range from the upper back by "unrounding" and lifting up with the upper back, and less by jutting the neck forward.
Experiment on your own. Use a mirror and send in your photos of remaking healthful fun overhead gazing activities.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels, links in posts, archives, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe free - updates via e-mail or RSS, upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for direct feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Dr. Lei said the post "uses some very illustrative pictures."
In a hospital, Grand Rounds is a lecture for doctors about a patient or topic. On the web, the weekly Grand Rounds is a post that lists its vote for the best medical posts of the week.
The week before I left to teach at the Wilderness conference, I taught my University yoga class entirely on an exercise ball. I will post about functional movement on a ball in weeks to come.
We don't use three of the most ineffective things you can do on a ball - crunches, sitting on the ball (for almost anything), and arching the lower back over the ball. These seem to be three of the more common things done on the ball in fitness classes, but they are not fit or effective.
Another myth is that an exercise ball will magically make you sit straight. You can sit with as faulty positioning as on any other surface.
Most of my students brought in an owned or borrowed exercise ball. I brought in three more for students without access. Some of the students pin-balled cheerfully through the narrow doorway with a large inflated exercise ball. One came in on the subway holding hers. I managed a comic, calorie-burning commute with three on a bicycle. A few students brought theirs uninflated. Wow, such an idea.
They asked me if I had a pump.
I told them, "Yes, your lungs, blow it up."
They sat politely waiting for the other students who brought a pump to finish with theirs.
I chided them that people talk all about yoga and breathing but here was opportunity in the tangible. They sat politely waiting for the pump. I demonstrated - "fffooooooooou."
I told them that when I was small, I was transfixed when my father, a Russian ice swimmer, blew up a beach ball in one breath. I decided then and there that I wanted to do that. I experimented with bags. I'd inflate to all my capacity and compare the bag to my little chest. I later practiced this in my swimming career until I was measured by scientists who came one day to test our whole team. My lung volume (not counting residual that you cannot breathe out) came in close to 6 liters. They called me a sports car. I didn't know what that was and hoped they were not flunking me. Who knows how much was from my 35 to 40 mile a week swimming training, or inherited, or just lung size relative to height. Still, a "big engine" can be trained and added to the mix. Click the label "breathing" under this post for entries about training breathing and exercise capacity.
My students took a chance on believing me that breathing and yoga and health had something to do with real life, and took a big breath to the ball. Bigger, bigger, full. Then quick hands to cap it off. They laughed. Laughing is good for breathing too. Then we started class.
Take a nice full breath in right now. Let your lower abdomen come outward. Exhale normally.
Breathe when you cook, clean, and do daily life. Don't hold your breath or gasp.
Blow up balloons, pool floats, air cushions, enormous inflatable beach toys. Don't overbreathe and get dizzy.
Exercise until you have to breathe a lot. Don't let yourself get so out of shape that it ever becomes unhealthy to try fun exercise.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Photo - from the world's strongest lungs competition
Strengthen Legs Without Knee Pain - Standing Lunge
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Many people know they need to bend "right" but don't because it hurts their knees.
Bending right will not hurt knees. It will help fix one of the things that has been injuring them - bad bending habits which pressure and grind the joint.
Good bending will also give your knees the exercise they (and you) need.
Some knee patients are told to never "bend right" with a half-squat or lunge because it is bad for the knee. There are specific things about bending and straightening the knee that can increase certain kinds of pain, to be covered in future posts. Use your brain and try the following gently and safely. Done right, it should reduce knee pressure, not increase it.
How To Lunge:
Stand with one foot far in front of the other. Both feet face forward. (Left photo.)
Feet remain normal width from side-to-side, not directly in line front-to-back.
Lift your back heel. Don't turn the back toes outward. Look at your back foot and check.
Tuck your hip under (click "neutral spine" label for posts explaining how). You will feel a far better stretch and strengthener.
Bend both knees to lower straight downward. Don't touch back knee to the floor. Use leg muscles. Watch your front knee and keep it over your front heel, not sliding forward. (Right photo.)
Don't let your front knee sway inward.
Keep upper body upright and straight. (Right photo.)
Lower and rise several times, then switch legs. Keep feet still, not stepping forward and back.
Tips:
To keep healthy knee positioning for the front knee, peek downward to see your front knee and foot.
You should be able to see your front toes all the way through the bend.
If your knee slides forward covering your toes, you are shifting weight to your knee joint and off your leg muscles. This is one of two common ways to increase knee pain while bending. Letting the front knee sway inward is another.
Keep front knee steady over your front ankle, not sliding forward or inward. You will strengthen and stabilize your knees and legs instead of hurt them. You will feel more muscle use when you keep healthful positioning.
Lunge is a Lifestyle, not an Exercise to "do" 10 Times:
No need to go to a gym to do lunges. Use the lunge for daily bending around the house. It will add up to many lunges every day, built-in as fitness as a lifestyle. The posts How Often Should You Be Healthy? and Bending Right is Fitness as a Lifestyle give ideas of how to use healthy bending for normal daily life.
Benefits of the Standing Lunge:
Strengthen leg muscles
Strengthen the knee
Stop harmful forces on the knees from bad bending
Stretch the front of the hip of the rear leg
Stretch the Achilles tendon and foot of the back leg
Learn knee stabilization
Practice balance
Retrain healthful bending for daily life - transferring to function instead of just being an arbitrary exercise - free exercise all day
Retrain straight upper body position for bending - more functional exercise
Provide beneficial general exercise, warming which makes further movement easier, and healthful body movement.
Have fun practicing this now. You will need the standing lunge for tomorrow's Fast Fitness - Quick Warm Up. Enjoy.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
In a hospital, Grand Rounds is a lecture for doctors about a patient or topic. On the web, Grand Rounds is a weekly post that lists "the best medical posts of the week."
