Fast Fitness - Seventh Group Functional Training: Advancing Ankle and Knee Safety With Single Leg Jumps
Friday, April 16, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - seventh in the series of Functional Fitness Training (Bookspan Basics) to teach your group, teams, classes, students, kids, battalions, or self. In this Bookspan Basic Training, you advance lower leg stability from single leg vertical jumps to lateral movement:
Assemble your group in neat rows. Stand in front in view of all. Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to learn how to reduce lower body injuries during sideways jumps. Remind them they need to use the same principles from the Third, Fifth, and Sixth FFT of vertical jumps.
Have everyone crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill). Remind them that when they land from a jump they use the same neutral ankle.
Stand with good stance on one leg only. Have them leap side to side from one leg to the other
Then try it jumping side to side on the same leg. Switch and repeat.
Use this for improving ability and reducing injury potential from changing direction, cutting, lateral movement, landing to the side from jumps, slips and missteps, and more. It builds on the Third, Fifth, and Sixth Functional Training exercises where you learned to jump vertically (up and down), laterally (side to side) with good lower body mechanics, then advanced to vertical single leg jumps.
During actual real life walking around, practice this by hopping (from one foot to the same one foot only) from point to point. Use street cracks and lines as goal points.
Trainers, Drill Instructors, readers, send in your stories of how you use these in your program.
Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.
Fast Fitness - Sixth Group Functional Training: Advancing Ankle and Knee Safety With Single Leg Movement
Friday, February 26, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - sixth in the series of FunctionalFitness Training (Bookspan Basics) to teach your group, teams, classes, students, kids, battalions, or self.
Today, Feb 26th, is my birthday. Celebrate with healthy movement and having some fun. In this Bookspan Basic Training, advance your lower leg stability with single leg use, to be ready for landing from jumps, slips and missteps, and more.
It builds on the Third and Fifth Functional Training exercises where you learned to jump vertically (up and down) and leap laterally to one foot (side to side) with good lower body mechanics.
Assemble your group in neat rows. Stand in front in view of all. Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to learn how to reduce knee and ankle injuries during sideways jumps. Remind them they need to use the same principles from previous (Third) Basic Training of vertical jumps:
Have everyone bend both knees to crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill).
Have them stand on one leg only. Repeat crouching then rising to the ball of that foot (half-toe) on that one leg. Rise and lower on one leg. Don't let body weight sway outward to the small toes, turning the ankle. Keep strong neutral stance. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and need.
Remind them that when they land from a jump, they use the same good bending and neutral ankle. Then use all good mechanics to hop - jump and land on that one leg. Hop 10-100 times, depending on time and need. Change legs and repeat.
Photo - lower limb stability and placement during landings of all kinds prevents injuries. Practice so you don't turn your ankle or knee.
Each new Functional Training exercise shows how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculoskeletal problems during the team season or operational theater.
Trainers, Drill Instructors, readers, send in your stories of how you use these in your program.
Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.
--- 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.
Fast Fitness - Fifth Group Functional Training: Ankle and Knee Safety With Lateral Movement
Friday, January 15, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - fifth in the series of Functional Fitness Training (FFT) to teach your group, teams, classes, students, kids, battalions…
In this FFT, learn to be ready for changing direction, cutting, lateral movement, landing to the side from jumps, slips and missteps, and more. It builds on the Third Functional Training exercise where you learned to jump with good lower body mechanics.
Assemble your group in neat rows. Stand in front in view of all. Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to learn how to reduce lower body injuries during sideways jumps. Remind them they use the previously learned principles from the Third FFT of vertical jumps.
Have everyone crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first FFT skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill). Remind them that when they land from a jump they use the same neutral ankle.
Next, have everyone to leap sideways at once, off one leg onto the other foot, landing softly with good knee bending and neutral ankle. On landing, the knee is already above the foot, not bent inward. Foot is neutral, not flattened inward (pronated) or turning outward like a sprain (inversion and supination).
Leap back to starting place onto the other foot. On landing, the knee is already above the foot. Repeat leaping sideways from foot to foot. With each landing, watch the knee of the landing leg. Make sure the knee doesn't sway inward of foot.
Improve by jumping increasingly fast, and far, for longer periods of time.
Each new Functional Training exercise shows how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculoskeletal problems during the team season or operational theater. Learn this one to be ready for the fourth one coming next, needed for cutting, changing direction, lateral movement, more.
Trainers, Drill Instructors, readers, send in your stories of how you use these in your program.
--- 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 to The Fitness Fixer, click "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. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Fast Fitness - Third Group Functional Training Exercise: Ankles and Knees in Jumps and Landings
Friday, October 02, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - third in the series of Functional Fitness Training (Bookspan Basics) to teach your teams, squads, classes, students, kids, groups, battalions, etc.
Assemble your group in neat rows. Stand in front in view of all. Tell them this is a basic, functional physical skill to reduce musculoskeletal injuries, that puts together the first and second skills, previously learned:
Tell everyone to crouch using good bending (knees do not sway inward or slide forward, taught in the first skill), then rise to toes with stable neutral ankle (not bowing outward at the side, taught in the second skill).
Next, have everyone bend and rise increasingly rapidly and smoothly, in a jumping motion, first without rising from the ground, then barely jumping. With each bend and rise, they maintain good knee bending and neutral ankle. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and needs.
Next, tell everyone to jump, landing softly using thigh and hip muscles for shock absorption, and good knee bending and neutral ankle. Start jumping moderately, then work for increasing height with each repetition. Repeat 10-100 times, depending on time and needs.
Use conscious control to prevent inversion sprains and turns by not allowing the ankle to invert (turn sideways) when rising to toe during push-off in running and jumping, and coming down during landings. Watch for healthy ankle and knee stability and placement throughout the team season.
Each new Functional Training exercise shows how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculoskeletal problems during the team season or operational theater. Learn this one to be ready for an upcoming FFT, needed for cutting, changing direction, lateral movement, more.
Trainers, Drill Instructors, readers, send in your stories of how you use these in your program.
Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.
--- 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. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Reader Success With Functional Fitness Training - Stronger Ankles, Better Balance
Thursday, October 01, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is a good start to October. I had invited readers to send in names for my group Functional Fitness Training program (tentatively named FFT) and success stories using it. Reader Paul J sent in both. He wrote:
"I don't think I can come up with a better name than FFT.
"Some ideas….let's see,
"Simple Training Big Benefits. (The toe balance training is great; I suppose a success story is in order.) Bookspan's Basic Training. Bookspan's Body Basics. Basic Fitness Training Basic Functional Fitness Jolie's Joint Jewels (That has a nice ring to it, it might be good for something like a list.) Functional Physical Training.
"Well, what do you think, any keepers?"
Readers - votes? The "Basic Functional Fitness" name has the advantage (as does "Bookspan Functional Fitness") of the initials BFF, young person lingo for "Best Friend Forever."
Paul J. continued with his success story:
"I have been doing your toe balance training and have noticed some interesting things. Before I learned your toe balance training I would usually stand on one foot to put my sock on and had decent balance from martial arts, but felt my ankles were weak. I even bought a BOSU and it may have helped, but you have to be on it, to get a benefit from it. I remember the first time I tried your technique and how quickly my right foot tried to roll out.
"Thanks to your simple do-anywhere training my ankles are stronger and my balance is much better. The other day stepping out of the tub I had such an odd sense of stability when standing on just my right foot, I looked at my ankle. My general balance has improved too. I have a folding bike with 20” wheels and for the past 3 years hands free was a very bad idea, just the other day it was quite easy. All though to some this may still be a bad idea, it was done in a nice low traffic neighborhood.
"May your favorite physiologist have a fun Friday afternoon. : ) "
--- 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. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Second Group Functional Training Exercise: Ankle Stability and Ability
Friday, September 25, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - the second of the promised series of Functional Fitness Training (call it FFT or Bookspan Basics until we create a better name) that you can teach your teams, squads, classes, students, kids, groups, battalions, etc.
Assemble your group in neat rows. Footwear is whatever used for their sport or activity. Stand in front facing forward. Everyone sees your feet and you see each participant's feet. Tell them this Functional Fitness Training exercise is a basic, needed many dozens of times every day, for their sport or activity, and for daily life - ankle stability when rising to toes, stepping down, landing from jumps, running, turning skills, and other motions requiring ankle stability:
Tell everyone to stand straight and lift heels to stand on the ball of the feet
Tell everyone to look down at their own feet. Weight should not shift outward/sideways over the small toes. While everyone holds tip-toe, make sure each participant straightens ankles, shifting weight back over the big and second toe. Prevent teetering and turning outward.
Have everyone stand flat again, then rise to toes again, this time properly without needing to adjust ankles. They should feel the difference - using leg and ankle muscles instead of letting body weight slide sideways, which bends ankles into classic sprain position - turned at the outside (inversion).
Repeat good toe-rising 10 times or any number that suits your group's need - more for groups needing higher training (or groups with poorer memory), faster for teams requiring this skill done quickly in actual use, and so on. Tell everyone they will need this for skill #3 - for stepping down and landing from jumps. This is scheduled for Fast Fitness Next week.
Watch them for good ankle stability practices throughout the team season. Reduce ankle injury from letting the ankle invert (turn sideways). Instead use muscles and conscious control to prevent inversion sprains and turns, and get leg, foot, and ankle exercise, from the many needed neutral-ankle stability needed for varies movements daily.
Each new Functional Training will show you how to teach your groups (or self) how to prevent common musculo-skeletal issues during the team season or operational theater.
Send in your ideas for a name for this program. Trainers, Drill Instructors, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.
Good body mechanics are a powerful performance enhancing aid.
--- 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. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Develop Ankle Stability Sense While Stretching
Friday, June 05, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - prevent a common source of overstretched lateral ankle ligament, which is one contributor to repeated sprains - turning the ankle when stretching:
When you stretch your hip and legs, or sit cross legged or in yoga poses, notice if you allow the foot to turn, increasing stretch on the outside ligaments of the ankle - too much supination. Reader Liz demonstrates in photo 1 below.
Straighten your ankle, Liz photo 2, below.
You may notice you get more good stretch from your hip to make up for the motion you were getting by turning your ankle. Holding straight gives better stretch in the hip, and better ankle stability training.
Avoid turning ankle, overstretching outer ligament, demonstrated by Liz in photo 1 above /\
Then remember to use the sense and knowledge of ankle straightening when you stand, run, take stairs. Lying down to stretch will not train stable ankles. The idea of this post is not to make ankles worse with your stretches. Not all things are good to stretch. Avoid the unhealthful practice of lengthening the side ankle ligaments, shown again in the photo below:
Ligaments are like a briefcase latch. They attach the top bone to the bone below it. Like a latch, a ligament is not supposed to stretch, but hold position, so that the briefcase hinge (your ankle joint) does not rattle and the briefcase does not pop open (side of your ankle sprain). While sitting cross legged, straighten the ankle so that it does not turn up.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
---
Healthy photos thanks to Liz of New Zealand Ligament stretch yoga ankles by Than Tan
Fast Fitness - Fixing Arches, Knock Knee, and Knee Pain Without Orthotics
Friday, January 23, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Stop one major source of inward-turning knees (knock-knees). Click the movie arrow to run:
Look at your bare legs in a mirror with feet facing straight forward.
See if the knees turn inward to face more toward each other than forward.
Feel how the muscles can pull outward to gently move (not force) knee position. These muscles like to be used correctly, not left unused.
Often, knees turned inward are a simple case of letting body weight sag downward onto the inside of the leg and arch of the foot, not a case of unchanging anatomy. Pain often comes from letting the knees and ankles twist, rotate, and sag. Restoring neutral position can stop this source of pain. Don't yank or force one segment, like the knee, causing problems in others. Restoring neutral means healthy position for the whole leg.
Orthotics are hard inserts that hold your foot in a certain position. Orthotics are different from cushion inserts that make a softer landing for each step. You can control leg and foot position without orthotics. That doesn't mean orthotics don't work, just that you can do it without them. It's cheaper and you get a free leg muscle stability workout at the same time.
Remember, don't force. If it hurts, it's wrong. Creating new strain instead of restoring function is not health or good thinking. All you are doing is restoring muscle length and using that to learn how to stand neutral, not tilted so much that you compress your joints.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make articles from fun ones. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Read success stories and send your own. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. More fun in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Your Muscles Are Your Orthotics for Arches, Knock Knee, and Knee Pain
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
David from Belgium has been a success story and valuable contributor. He frequently makes us photos and movies showing how to fix pain and unhealthful fitness using Fitness Fixer techniques. He first left a comment on a post in 2007:
"I'm training to be a yoga teacher and I'd love to teach the right things to my pupils such as good posture. Your insights are very inspirational. After struggling with minor but persistent knee pain for some years, I was diagnosed with seriously fallen arches recently. I'm not really flat-footed, but ankles that drop inwards too much. (I could clearly see that on the video my podiatrist made of me walking on bare feet). In a week I'll be getting new orthotics. Though, after reading a patient's testimony on your site I decided to try and use my feet differently. So now on my walks to and from my day job I'm trying to walk 'right'. Rolling on the entire foot, heel to toes, leaning more on the sides and using all five toes. It feels awkward though and I notice that I often forget it. I wonder if this will 'fix' my feet eventually? Anyway, thanks for sharing your knowledge!"
I replied that it "fixes" arch positioning as soon as you do it. It is natural to control how you stand and move - the whole intent of functioning in a healthy way in life, and the intent of yoga (supposedly). It seems at odds to say that yoga teaches body awareness, strength, or positioning, then let ankles slump without control, and purchase devices to do it for you. Once you understand the purpose, it will not be awkward. It is the same as any other good posture.
Since then, David has consistently made good use of these materials, and shared many success stories. He has fixed various pain producing habits for himself and his students, fixed his mother's herniated lumbar disc by showing her healthy bending around the house - Bending Right is Fitness as a Lifestyle, and developed a new yoga system of healthier movement - Getting the Right Yoga Medicine.
Orthotics are rigid shaped devices, fitted by prescription, that specifically move and hold your foot in a certain position.
Orthotics are different from over-the-counter shoe pads that can help by cushioning impact.
Orthotics do not do anything you cannot do yourself using your own muscles and sense of positioning (kinesthetics).
It is a myth that only a device can move your foot and leg leg. Click the label "myth" under this post for all Fitness Fixer posts on fitness myths.
Try these in relaxed way:
Stand and see that you can raise your own arches back to normal, taught in the post Arch Support Is Not From Shoes. It takes only seconds.
Make sure you are also not pronating from higher up - Healthy Knees.
Remember, don't force. If it hurts, it's wrong. All you are doing is learning how to stand neutral, not tilted so much that you compress the joints.
The concept is to hold your feet in the same healthful position that shoe supports would. It is like an ice skater holds their skates straight at the ankle, not angled.
During walking and running, a brief and small inward drop (slight pronation) occurs right after foot contact that creates part of the "spring" and propulsion. The idea is not to prevent all foot motion, but to not let the knee twist inward. You can do that with your own brain and muscles.
See if your answers are already here by clicking links, labels under posts, archives, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer - Click "updates via e-mail" - (trumpet icon) upper right. Find fun topics on See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
This is the story of trekking to record the sacred music and art of LUNG-TA, the Windhorse.
Travel was by horseback and walking, at elevations approaching 14,000 feet, over treacherous areas with washouts, slides and erosion, some with sheer drop-offs over 1000 feet.
Composer Andrea Clearfield and artist Maureen Drdak trekked a month in Nepal in September 2008, to research and collect music, history, personal accounts, and art from Buddhist communities and monasteries, for a commissioned major work to be performed in March in Philadelphia.
They spent fourteen days trekking northward across the western highlands, arriving at Monthang, capital of the remote restricted Kingdom of Lo in Upper Mustang, close to the Tibetan border.
The Kingdom of Lo has been described as the "American Southwest on steroids." The artists' trek led northward following the canyon of the Kali Gandaki river, recognized as the worlds deepest gorge, cutting between the Himalayan mountains of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri.
Andrea had been one of my students for several years. Before she left for Nepal she met with me to ask what conditioning she should do.
I told her that good bending will serve her for many of the most important things she will do.
I reminded her she will be sitting horseback for hours and will not need exercises that sit or bend forward, but those that restore muscle length to get straightened up again. She would benefit by sitting and squatting comfortably on the ground. I evaluated her ankles for stability and reminded her that while the Westerners on treks will have expensive boots holding their ankles up for them, atrophying and leaving their muscles without use, the porters for her trek will likely be in flip-flops, holding their own leg position using their own muscles.
Andrea wrote me:
"On my trek to Nepal, what I found most beneficial was having learned from you the proper use of bending from the knees with straight back, particularly for squatting - necessary for using the "toilets" and for other functions in village life. I also incorporated your teachings of good posture into my long treks on horseback, and found my back to be strong and pain-free, even after 8 hours of riding through fierce winds and remote high desert environments through the Himalayas. I also practiced daily yogic asanas in the various tea-houses where we stayed, paying attention to keeping a straight spine, relaxed shoulders and open chest. Although I left the States with an ankle injury, this has slowly healed as well."
"Thank you, Jolie, for helping me stay healthy and pain-free on the trek!"
Namaste and Tashi Delek, Andrea
Andrea and Maureen were accompanied by Dr. Sienna Craig - Dartmouth anthropologist, and Dr. Gyaltso Bista, Amchi physician to King Jigme Palbar Bista of Lo.
They met with the King and Queen of Lo, Bista nobles, high ranking lamas, and the court singer Tashi Tzering. They met with John Sanday and Luigi Fieni, international experts in restoring the treasured monasteries of Monthang and newly discovered caves of the region. They also met with the Lobas, the people of, "this last enclave of pure Tibetan culture."
Lung-Ta, the Windhorse was commissioned by the Network for New Music. The Lo Monthang region of Nepal is home to a horse culture that is, "threatened by the encroaching pressures of the outside world." The horse carries the prayers of the faithful upwards toward the heavens.
The performance will be March 6, 2008 at the Great Hall at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Relatives of the King of Lo have been invited to speak to the audience about the cultural and environmental fragility of this remote kingdom.
Lung-Ta: Music by Andrea Clearfield. Group Motion Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck will choreograph accompanying dance, performed by Network for New Music. visual art by Maureen Drdak, Dance by Group Motion Dance Company.
Maureen writes: "The title refers to the Tibetan Buddhist prayer flag, as well as that quality of the individual that manifests 'inner vibratory power' – the wellspring of infinite compassion. Incorporating text written for this work by Senior Lama Tenzin Bista of Lo Monthang’s Chode Monastery, it is a prayer for the planet."
Three large paintings will be suspended (like prayer flags) across the expanse of the Great Hall in the University of the Arts, beginning two weeks before the premiere.
A second performance/exhibition of Drdak's work and Clearfield's music will be held at West Chester University on March 8, 2009.
Information for the LUNG-TA project is on the Network website, networkfornewmusic.org.
Read more success stories and send your own. Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column. Find fun topics on the Fitness Fixer Index.
Fast Fitness - Make Your Own Balance, Agility, and Leg and Ankle Retrainer
Friday, October 24, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - how to make your own device to get a high tech workout that retrains important motor skills, balance, and lower limb proprioception. Proprioception means to know where and how your body is moving.
Put a sturdy board on a rock or hard, fairly round object like a solid ball.
Step up on the board and balance. Do a variety of movements that mimic your sport, like tennis and golf swings, martial arts punches and kicks. Do daily life movements like reaching cabinets, and bending like squats and lunges. Try all the same on one leg.
For intensive training, place lengths of inexpensive putty or child's reusable clay to make chutes (channels) on the board. Control the motions of the board with your feet to direct the marble to the center target.
Good for kids and adults of most ages.
Be careful and use your brain. Remember the board can move suddenly and slide. That is the whole idea. Control movements with your strength and balance to prevent uncontrolled falls. Start with supervision and near a safety wall, not the stairs or the china closet. Know ahead of time how to fall safely.
--- Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click updates via e-mail - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
Fast Fitness - Balance and Ankle Stability in the Dark
Friday, August 22, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quickly improve balance and ankle proprioception - the ability of the ankle and foot to correct positioning, reducing sprain and fall potential.
This one helps balance for daily life, and also helps footing in darkness, which can be encountered on stairs, curbs, and late hikes.
Stand on one foot.
Balance on that foot with eyes closed. Switch feet.
Extend length of balance time with frequent practice.
Balance and proprioception are key to preventing and fixing ankle, foot, and balance trouble.
Obviously, don't do this near the stairs or the breakables. Use common sense to get started safely.
The commentators for US gymnast Justin Spring's great Olympic floor exercise routine last week told how Spring underwent months of rehabilitation for knee, ankle and other injuries. The commentators continued about his rehab, exercises, physical therapy teams, and surgeon. Spring landed the end of his difficult routine with straight-legged jolt. One of the commentators mentioned again about the surgeon who fixed the injury. The other commentator replied, "The surgeon should have told him to bend his knees."
The commentator is right. The best health care is not to collect money to cut and treat someone, but prevent the need for cutting them. Landing with a straight knee transmits impact to your spine, neck, ankles, hip, and knee joints. Landing with properly bent knees absorbs impact more through the muscles. Landing hard with a straight knee can push the upper and lower leg bones hard against the two tough pads in each knee called menisci (singular is meniscus) that help cushion each step.
Over repeated hard landings, holes and tears can bore through the meniscus. With repeated landings at an unhealthy joint angle, cartilage can overstretch or tear. The tough strap that crosses the middle of the knee joint, called the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL), can overstretch or tear with repeatedly landing on a twisted knee. More on this to come. It is mostly an avoidable training error, not a gender issue as previously thought. Ankle wear and injuries can result from the same. Injury forces increase when the landing is on knee or ankles allowed to sway inward instead of maintaining motion at the midline. These injuries can heal without surgery. More on this in posts to come.
Sometimes injury results from a single high-force landing, such as a bad parachute landing, jumping from extreme heights, or a car crash where a passenger sitting with straight legs is propelled forward (or the engine backward) hard against their feet forcing compression past strength. An example is an ankle injury called a pylon injury, where the far end of the lower leg bone crushes.
Know the mechanism of injury so that you can get out and have fun, and do extreme sports while you move in ways that reduce unhealthful forces. Preventing repeated bad movement habits can also give your joints a larger margin for occasional unexpected dings.
Check what you do with your knees when you step or jump down. From small landings, bend knees a small amount.
Larger heights and circumstances (carrying a heavy backpack) can benefit from more shock absorption using the thigh and hip muscles with deeper bending. It should not be the knees that take up the shock of the bending. It should be the muscles of the hip and leg.
Keep effort on the muscles through how you position your knees. Letting them slide forward shifts weight to the joint. Keeping knees back by only sticking out the backside in back can shift weight to the lower spine. Keep knees back with neutral spine and you will feel the effort in the muscles.
Justin Spring and other gymnasts know to bend their knees. Athletes giving their all at Olympic levels need no criticism from anyone. We just want them to stay healthy.
Fast Fitness - Sprain Prevention and Rehab Training
Friday, April 18, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - feel how your own muscles work to hold ankle position, so that you can have stable ankles without artificial shoe supports or bracing, which weaken the supporting muscles from disuse:
Stand with feet parallel and look in a mirror where you can see your feet, or just look down.
Rise to toe and hold
Keep body weight over big and second toe with straight ankle position as you remain on tip-toe. Don't let your weight shift over the small toes, allowing ankle to bend outward.
Click the arrow to see this short movie of my student Diana's feet, as she first allows rolling the ankle outward when rising to toe, then at second 3 in the movie, she uses ankle, foot and leg muscles to pull to straight neutral ankle position. She prevents outward rolling as she again rises to toes three more times.
Prevent rolling outward whenever you rise on toe or push off or land from a jump or step.
Developing positioning sense in the receptors of your ankles prevents the sprain-promoting position called inversion, and gains built-in foot and ankle muscle strength and stability. Nice foot stretch too. Practice balancing on tip-toe, and rising up and down without rolling outward every day.
Fast Fitness - Fix Flat Feet, Pronation, and Fallen Arches
Friday, April 04, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - feel how your own muscles work to hold arch support, so that you can have healthy arches without artificial shoe arch supports or orthotics, which weaken the supporting muscles from disuse:
Stand with feet parallel and look in a mirror where you can see your feet, or just look down.
Pull outward (straighten) until your arches rise and restore to neutral position, and your ankles are straight.
Learn to feel neutral position. Don't hold rigidly or roll outward. You gain built-in muscle strength and arch stability with each step you take.
Click the > arrow to see the short movie made for us by reader David from Belgium:
First he allows his weight to shirt inward, pushing his arch flatter toward the floor. At seconds 3 to 4 in the movie, he uses the outer muscles to pull to straight neutral ankle position. At seconds 8 to 9 he allows the arch to sag again, then restores and holds healthy arch from second 13 onward. The "exercise" is not to roll back and forth. It is just to learn to feel what allowing sagging too much feels like, and how to restore neutral position.
During walking and running, there is a small natural inward drop (slight pronation) that is part of the spring and propulsion. Allowing exaggerated sagging is like rounding your shoulders too much. Legs and feet have posture that you can control yourself. Use your own muscles and get free built-in exercise and arch support all day, and stop painful poor positioning.
Some people with existing abnormality or growths in the ball of the foot will roll inward (or outward) to get the pressure off the deformed area because standing straight hurts. See your doctor first. Remember, don't force. If it hurts, it's wrong. All you are doing is learning how to stand neutral, not tilted so much that you compress the joints. The concept is to hold your feet in the same healthful position that shoe supports would. It is like an ice skater holds their skates straight at the ankle, not angled.
--- 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. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Here is Friday Fast Fitness for the intercalary year (Leap Year) - Leap to develop ankle and knee stability, leg power, and balance.
Leap to a point in front of you. Then leap back again:
Leap forward, landing on the other foot with soft shock absorption. Don't land hard, which jars joints.
"Stick" your landing, without wobbling or setting the first foot down.
Leap backward to the original foot and place. Hold your landing steady. Try several leaps forward and backward, then change the leading leg and repeat.
This skill is good fall reduction training, and ankle sprain prevention for many terrains.
When landing, keep ankle stable by preventing your foot from rolling to the outside. Info in the post No More Ankle Sprains Part II. Train knee and hip stability by preventing your knee from swaying inward upon landing - Healthy Knees.
--- 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, archives at right, and the Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Strength, Abs, Balance, and Ankle and Leg Stabilization
Friday, November 09, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quickly increase functional stabilization of the knee, leg, and ankle while increasing overall strength and balance.
Anyone can lift weights, but can you do it balancing on a basketball? Get started by standing on one foot:
Do your regular lifts, curls, presses while standing on one foot (and then the other). Breathe.
Notice the leg you stand on. Don't let the arch of your foot flatten toward the floor, or knee roll inward toward the other leg. Hold knee, ankle, arch inline, using your muscles. See Arch Support Is Not From Shoes.
It reduces exercise to sit, even on a fitness ball. It is more exercise, more functional, and better balance training to stand on one foot than to sit. You sit all day already.
Be safe, be excited about having fun doing functional movement, be happy.
For the next two weeks, I'll have uncertain access to Internet, mail, or messages, to read or answer comments. I stored some fun posts for you. New Healthline staffer Leigh is scheduled to put them online while we make our way 'out West' during the week before the meeting. Thank you Leigh.
With each trip out to this part of the US, we work to document and preserve various martial arts systems of Native American Indians, as much as they want us to have. Will also make our way through the Rocky Mountains.
For going off-trail, we don't carry a tent or sleeping bag, let alone a computer. Simpler. There are still things to carry. The post Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain explained the role of using abdominal muscles to prevent one kind of back pain from carrying backpacks. It is not by tightening the ab muscles, but using them to position the lower spine forward enough to reduce an overly large lower back arch, and stand with neutral spine. Strengthening exercises, whether for abdominal or back muscles do not make the spine attain neutral position in place of overarching. That is why strengthening core muscles does not stop this kind of pain. You get better and more functional core exercise by preventing overarching when carrying loads than by doing crunches or exercises for any specific back muscles. When you hold neutral spine, a small inward curve remains, just not the large one with the "backside-stuck-out-in-back" tilt that damages the lower back.
The post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique gives a quick effective way to feel how to move your hip and lower spine using your abs away from arching to neutral. This Friday's post should cover preventing upper back and neck pain when carrying backpacks. In pretty much any terrain, we don't wear hiking boots or fancy cross-training shoes. I wear roomy, cheap (ten or fifteen dollar range), discount store sneakers (usually in tatters). A shoe should not be what holds your foot in position - it is better when your own ankle, leg, and foot muscles do that. For me, shoes are more to avoid hookworm, other parasites, tetanus, and bites. The posts Arch Support Is Not From Shoes and Which Shoes Help Exercise, Fall Prevention, and Ankles? show how to hold healthy foot and arch position, and give ideas for better gait and balance. In technical climbs, tight shoes are often worn. I'm not much of a climber, but decline tight climbing shoes for bare feet, and enjoy feeling the rocks. For daily wear, tight shoes are not healthful: See, Are Your Shoes Too Tight? My near-seven-foot-tall husband Paul does the same, in his size 17 sneakers or flip-flops (approx size 52+ European).
We don't bring "sports food," commercial hydration drinks, or energy bars and drinks. Refined sugar is not health food. Unfermented soy in many of these products is increasingly documented to promote unhealthy over-estrogenic effects for both men and women. The post Is Your Health Food Unhealthful tells hidden dangers to avoid. The posts Healthy Mother's Day and Independence Day for Fitness give a few quick, good-tasting, healthy foods and drinks to try instead. If you don't have a blender, mash ingredients by hand for arm exercise. Dehydration is important to prevent, and can be done with healthy food and drink.
We hope to arrive in Snowmass by Saturday for the toxicology symposium before the meeting. Then interesting lectures, my two workshops (come take them) and other workshops. The WMS will present the first Fellows of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. I have been advanced to Fellow, along with Wilderness expert and Medicine for the Outdoors blogger Paul Auerbach, and others in the field. Dr. Auerbach could have easily been "grandfathered" to Fellow status for his stack of achievements, but he went through the exacting point system along with the rest of us. You set the bar high Boss, wow, thank you.
I will try to get to the conference Internet café during the meeting. For the week after, will again be outback without access. If you comment or e-mail, I may not have access to reply. Check existing replies to posts for answers already there. Look for fun posts until then. Hope to see you at the meeting.
"Utility is when you have one telephone; luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none."
A few weeks ago, I attended a lecture on forensic anthropology. In general, this is the study of things you can tell from human bones in a crime setting. How old was the person? Were they male or female? How big were they? What was their probable race or ancestry?
Why was I there when my work is with the living? Two main reasons. I am the science officer for the Vidocq Society, an international forensic society. I might evaluate data, for example in an aviation disaster, whether someone might have been conscious at each point when undergoing G-forces or different temperatures and amounts of oxygen after a depressurization at various altitudes. In a scuba death, I might advise on physical changes that occur with different situations. The second reason was to learn more about bones. Bones are remarkable. Your bones know a lot about you. What was your health like? Were you active? What kind of activity did you do? When I was small, I read about an archaeological dig in ancient Rome. The bones of a girl were recovered. The account stated they could tell she carried loads too heavy for her, and was therefore (in conjunction with other evidence) probably a servant or slave. I was riveted. How could they know that? I spent years after that learning more about telling how someone moved from looking at their bones.
Throughout your entire life, when you exercise you stimulate growth of new bone cells. The physical pull of muscles thickens your bones where the muscles attach. Using your arm muscles thickens arm bones. Using your legs strengthens leg bones, and so on. This is a main mechanism of how exercise prevents osteoporosis. Without exercise, you don't stimulate enough new cells to counter the normal loss as old ones break down. Your bones thin no matter how much calcium you eat. The post Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones tells more about this. Bone demineralization is rapid and serious in astronauts in microgravity (Collapsing Astronaut Gives Healthy Reminder).
How you use your muscles causes them to pull differently, giving evidence about the kind of habitual motion. More interesting is that when you are active, your bones grow and shape themselves to facilitate your motion. An example of interest to readers following the posts on squatting is that people who habitually sit for normal daily life in full squat grow "squatting facets" on their lower leg bones. These are small areas on the bone that quickly grow to make squatting more comfortable. At one point, it was a debate in anthropology that squatting facets were a marker of someone of Asian ancestry, until it was found that others who squat also grow them, and that squatting facets disappear when the person adopts a Western sitting habit of chairs and no longer squats. Babies of all races can have them.
Someone who habitually slouches can change the shape of their bones, eventually deforming them. This can occur in the spine, knees, hips, ankles, shoulders, feet, toes - everywhere you pressure your bones. Changing positioning habits to healthier ones can, in many cases, reshape the bones back to healthier shape. Think of braces on your teeth. It's human bonsai. In cases of extreme dystrophies of the muscles, someone who sits without function of their trunk muscles to hold the spine upright, can eventually deform their spine until their ribs sit on their hip bones. How are you sitting right now? The recent post What Does Stretching Do? explained a bit of why stretching isn't reducing injuries. People are stretching, then exercising and going about daily life in bent over positions that rub and grind the joints and soft tissue.
You literally shape your own health. Use the articles throughout this Fitness Fixer blog to do healthy exercise in healthful positioning so that your bones will only tell good tales about you.
Use conscious control to prevent inversion sprains and turns by not allowing the ankle to invert (turn sideways) when rising to toe during push-off in running and jumping, and coming down during landings. Watch for healthy ankle and knee stability and placement throughout the team season.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7f3cda12-f181-4c7a-9393-ff9d7b56df77)
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