Reader Peg S. put healthy bending to work in real life, wrote in with this success story, sent a title for it, took photos and sent them with captions. Thank you Peggy for great work:
"Dr. Bookspan, your emphasis on squats and lunges in place of unhealthy bending has saved my back during long hours of snow shoveling.
"Lots of snow has fallen in far western Maryland - over 265 inches so far this season - with three back-to-back blizzards (22 feet of snow, or 673.1 centimeters).
"All that snow needed to be moved. I avoided unhealthy bending and had no back discomfort after hours of lifting snow-laden shovels.
"When I took a break, I emailed my yoga class students reminding them of the healthy movements such as squat and lunge in their snow removal efforts. They later thanked me for the reminder.
"Thank you for the information on back health!!!" Peggy S
Peggy is teaching these and other healthy movement techniques to developmentally disabled adults to train useful work skills and prevent injuries. See the first results in Functional Fitness as a Lifestyle By Mail Room Workers Peggy, her colleague Patty, Reader Paul J, and I have been working on Peg and Patty's project of using human powered devices like bicycles, to make electricity. More on this to come. Contact me if you can offer real input to design or build.
Anton, Alberto (farioreo), and others have asked how many "sets and reps" of exercises and stretches will help. The answer is in a story my Mother told me when I was small:
A young boy in school always made the same mistake in English. Instead of the proper, "I have gone…" he said, "I have went." The teacher told him to stay after school and write 100 times on the chalkboard, "I have gone, I have gone, I have gone…" The boy wrote "I have gone" the required 100 times. When he finished writing, he saw the teacher had stepped outside. He left her a note, "Dear Teacher, I wrote "I have gone" 100 times, and now I have went home."
The answer is that repetitions are not the entire answer - you have to understand and use the result. I am asked the question so many times of how many "reps" (repetitions) of a rehabilitation or training exercise are needed, that it has become a "light bulb" joke - How many (whatever) does it take to change a light bulb?
Readers ask:
Q. How many sets and reps of upper back exercises does it take to straighten rounded forward posture? A. None, you just straighten up right then and hold it. A2. Or you can say one repetition is enough. Then use that one all the time. A3. Or until you actually use it - Note the person slouching (photo right) to measure posture.
Q. How many sets and reps of back exercises does it take before my disc pain stops that I got from bending over wrong to pick up things. A. None if you stop bending wrong to remove the cause. A2. A whole lot more than if you stopped bending wrong.
Q. How many sets and reps of good squats with heels down does it take to get enough stretch in the Achilles tendon to be able to squat well? A. Doesn't matter, if you use good bending in your ordinary day, you will get hundreds of Achilles tendon stretches throughout the day and it will be built in for you. You aren't supposed to stop your day to do a number of repetitions, then go back to heel up squatting, or bending over wrong.
Q. How many sets and reps of squats does it take before I can squat right to bend right? A. Until you do it right.
Q. How many sets and reps of your exercises on Fitness Fixer should I do? A. Until you remember them.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
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Photo of slouching while measuring posture by Neeta Lind
In the previous two weeks, I wrote about the Japanese diving women, the Ama. Readers asked about the divers of Korea. Although they are sometimes called Ama divers, "ama" is a Japanese word. The Korean diving women are the Hae-nyao. Both ama and haenyao mean "sea woman." The Korean divers are also called Jamsoo, or diving lady, and Jam-nyao, or diving woman.
The diving women are a respected profession of hard work to gather food for their communities. The work is difficult and cold. The numbers of both Ama and Haenyao are decreasing every year, as the daughters who would take their mother's roles go to other work in the cities.
The first recorded Korean diving (that I know of) is from the 400's A.D. around the Chechu (Jeju) Island area. It is likely that diving had gone on centuries before that. The Haenyao historically dived all year (even in winter), and without assistance of weights or ropes to ascend or descend. They made as many as 30 dives an hour, to depths from 10 to 30 meters, at temperatures in the winter as low as 10 C.
In the 1960s, many physiologic studies were carried out on the Ama and Haenyao to see what their lung volumes were before and after dives, their temperature regulation and tolerance to cold, their ability to tolerate strenuous work, changes in heart rate and blood distribution during breath hold diving, their physical characteristics compared to non-divers, how alveolar gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide in their body) changed during their breath hold dives, and other interesting topics. Some say that the sudden huge scientific interest was because they dived nearly naked.
Diving clothes varied by geographic area, with some divers wearing only a rope belt or loincloth. No fins were used to help swimming. Later when wet suits were developed, only male divers wore them. Women were prohibited protective suits by their cooperatives, since they were considered more cold tolerant to begin with, and the advantage of the suit would "accelerate over-harvesting" Later, the work became pretty much exclusive to women.
Taking many large breaths before a breath hold extends time because "overbreathing" lowers carbon dioxide in the body. Carbon dioxide signals you to breathe, so it is protective to have it build and make you want to return to the surface before you go unconscious from lack of oxygen. Hyperventilating (too many large breaths) before a dive can cause a drowning accident. The haenyao and ama practice a short hyperventilation with a distinctive whistling maneuver which was studied to find why it may not cause the problems of hyperventilation without the maneuver.
To call them "The haenyao women divers" is redundant. The word haenyao already refers to the female. I asked them what the males were called and the Haenyao laughed at me, saying that males cannot withstand the hard work or the cold, and it is known that women do better in the cold. Dr Suk Ki Hong, one of the best known researchers of immersion and the haenyao and Ama divers wrote, "The shivering threshold is elevated as compared to men, and thus women are distinctly in a better position than men to work in cold water. Undoubtedly there could be many other reasons. However these facts lead us to postulate that men could not compete successfully by virtue of their poor tolerance to cold."
Sadly, Western sport divers started writing articles and presenting lectures at dive conferences in the 1990s, mistakenly claiming women did not have better cold tolerance and had greater risk of cold injury. The myth was repeated in diving magazines, scuba classes, and textbooks of the era.
Are there male indigenous divers? Yes. I will write of them and their stories in the future. Stay tuned.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and send your own. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Fast Fitness - Built In Functional Achilles Tendon Stretch
Friday, July 31, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - get a free, built-in stretch for the Achilles tendon in the way your legs need to stretch during normal movement.
Every time you bend with the squat, keep both heels down on the floor (upper right drawing) instead of raising heels (left).
Every time you bend with a lunge, keep the front heel down, not lifted up and shifting forward to the toe.
When ascending stairs, step up on your entire foot including the heel, down on the step, not just the toes and ball of the foot.
Many people stretch their Achilles tendon holding still. Is it such a mystery to get a pull during movement? Prepare your body how to stretch during movement. This normal daily life activity practices lengthening under body weight during normal movement.
Why do a few seconds of Achilles stretch then go back to tight, shortened real life use. Get hundreds of free stretches built in to your day in a way that gives free muscle and bone building exercise too.
Good bending benefits your back, knees, and Achilles Tendon at the same time.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, 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.
Fast Fitness - Count How Many Times You Help Or Hurt Your Body Daily
Friday, July 17, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a simple tool to help you notice how many times during your ordinary day you can either get functional built-in exercise for leg, back, and hip muscles plus a Achilles tendon stretch, or produce a common factor in back and knee pain.
Every time you bend down to reach or retrieve something, count it
See how many bends you do for ordinary chores and by the end of the day
Choose if you want to hurt or help your fitness each time.
David from Belgium has written numerous Fitness Fixer success stories and created many photos and videos for better learning. He writes:
"I just spent half an hour vacuuming our house downstairs.
"When I do chores like these, I try to practice some focus instead of letting my mind wander all over the place.Usually this means I try to remain aware of my breathing (breathing normally, not grunting, straining, or holding breath to reach or lift things).
"But today I thought of one of your articles that said how many times on average a person bends over during the day. So I decided to count this for myself, just for fun and something to focus on.
"In the roughly 30 minutes of vacuuming, I counted 67 squats. Now that's a good workout! =)
Photos by David of squat and lunge for household bending
Bending over "wrong" is a common factor in back pain, and not only for out of shape people. It is common in many weight lifters. Bending "wrong is often done as an exercise. It doesn't strength back muscles as much as other ways, and puts large load on the discs, So it's not a helpful trade-off.
Previous Fitness Fixer posts explained that doing a few good rehab exercises and stretches for back pain won't undo a day of bad bending, and that you bend hundreds of times each day. "Fitness as a lifestyle" does not mean doing crunches during TV commercials or doing squats while on the phone. It means how you live. Get real exercise, built in, during real daily movement.
You get to choose whether you add an obvious check mark in the pile of things that don't benefit your fitness or whether you get functional exercise.
Fitness Fixer post on good bending for knees and back at the same time:
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, 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.
Notice general good bending using the lunge and half squat
Notice all the times you can do good bending around the house, the gym, and for good deeds.
Functional exercise is how you bend and move all day. Exercise your legs and spirit while you prevent disc degeneration by stopping bending over for things, and instead, using good bending, for all you do.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I'm bailing the ocean with a bucket. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, 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.
Here is the latest fun update from Robert Davis on losing fat and increasing strength and flexibility. He has been sending success after success using Fitness Fixer techniques:
"I have noticed a big improvement since I started in my flexibility. I noticed this the other day when I realized just how much farther I can stretch now. I could not lower completely into a sitting squat without tipping before. Now I can and it sure as heck makes working in really low areas for a longer time very easy without resorting to bending (bad weighted flexed) which I refuse to do at all now.
"I have seen increases in all areas of stretching. I see that it just takes time and consistency.
"Since I am a musician, I carry a guitar bag everywhere. I decided to make a "portable" gym. Got a pull-up bar that goes in doors (removes and mounts quickly) and my guitar bag. That is all I need. I fill the bag with random objects to add weight and strap it on (like a backpack) and do everything from the books with increased weight and also pull-ups of all kinds of grips/variations for more challenge. You mentioned the wall handstand pushups and this reminded me of that. I strap my weighted bag to my back and do those now too. No need to go to the gym =P
"PS my friends think the wall stand pushups are "nuts" and can barely hold themselves up in position when they try. Who needs the military press? I actually found this to be much harder because of all the stabilization. Unlike a machine or barbell, it feels like a lot more muscles are coming into play a bit more when doing them like that. Seems so with almost all the body weight exercises. No wonder aside from cosmetics, weight training has no functional use outside of the gym. Takes a bonehead like me to realize this!
"Oddly, since I had changed my diet from meats and animal to Vegan (inspired by the body builders you have shown on the Fitness fixer) I have had people comment that I seem to be getting bigger! This is kinda funny because I actually lost some mass and it is mostly body fat from the weightlifting diet (now changed to vegan) and doing these exercises in place of weight training. They often do not believe me when I say I have not touched the bench in 3 months or so now. =0"
Watch for Fast Fitness this Friday to see what Robert Davis will show you next.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from cool ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Become certified through the Academy - Dr.Bookspan.com/Academy BrowseDr. Jolie Bookspan's books on her website.
Fast Fitness - Better Legs and Pain Relief Comes From You Not The Exercise Ball
Friday, April 03, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Be healthful when you do health activities. What a concept.
How fit is it to use fitness equipment in unhealthy ways?
When you pick up and put down an exercise ball, or any exercise equipment, how do you bend? Unhealthfully? During an activity you use to improve your health?
Robert Davis sent in this change of bad bending to good bending . Good bending shifts weight and leverage off lumbar discs and onto leg, hip, and back muscles.
Robert Davis wrote. "I had to use my cell phone on timer so the pictures are not the greatest quality."
Here is the ouchy
Here is the squat
Robert Davis was a weight lifter with a painful back injury from conventional lifting. He fixed his back pain with Fitness Fixer, intelligently applying principles of healthful movement for everything during exercise and also daily life. He wrote:
"I took a picture of what was causing "ouchy" because it is so normal in America *for adults!*.. (upper photo of forward bending). Then ouchy started to go away the more I did, 'ah much better' (squatting)... Pretty soon ouchy was gone from the bad forward bending.
"I am now doing a complete head to toe revision... Point was that my back stopped hurting, and as you said, heals when I let it, with better movement.
"I am glad there is someone out there like you who tells you how it is. It gives encouragement and hope. I have seen people my age already with a few surgeries (and they are in the 20s to 30s!). They were from injuries, and sadly they never had a chance to find that they didn't need it.
"I was encouraged by others' stories and with your statement, "don't let them scare you" because I was a bit scared. I have never been injured before with that much pain. But, I was more then willing to try this because I did not want limitation as I had seen in my friends who had surgery. Some multiple times. "
Mr. Davis has been sending in success stories one after then next. Here are some of his Inspiring Functional Fitness:
--- 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. ---
Reader Robert Davis has been enthusiastically sending in success story after success story. He sent his first story of fixing a painful back injury from weightlifting - Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise.
Since getting the idea of using healthy daily movement instead of injurious movement during daily life and exercise, Robert stopped major causes of his injuries. He has rapidly been getting strong using fun functional exercise, and improving function. He has been taking ingenious photos using his camera phone. His stories and photos will be posted. He is sending them in fast and furiously. I enjoy hearing how he experiments with each thing, and sees and understands how they work so he can incorporate the concepts into daily movement, not just going thorough arbitrary motions and calling it exercise.
We are still having problems uploading photos and movies for you - since October. It has been a time-intensive and difficult process to get any photos at all uploaded for these posts. It has changed and delayed a few of the articles I wanted to write for you. When Healthline staff can help, they will. Robert generously made a page to store visuals so you can link and see them. Start with:
Watch how he uses a healthful squat for real life, not just 10 times in a gym.
Robert writes:
"Make a mess and pick up only one item at a time via a squat. If you need to clean the house only pick up one item at a time. The constant up/down motion of the squat etc should get the heart rate up for a good cardio workout. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Tired of the stationary bike? Do this for a half hour:)"
Good bending is natural built-in cardiovascular exercise, leg strength and stretch, Achilles tendon stretch, hip strengthener, warm-up for stretching, and back pain prevention, since it stop one major cause of back pain - bad bending (bent over at the waist or hip). Done properly, good bending strengthens knees and does not cause knee pain. The Related Posts below explain more. For all Fitness Fixer articles on each topic, click the labels under this post - for example, "Achilles stretch."
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking 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. SeeDr. Bookspan's books.
Fixed Injuries, Got Strong, With Functional Exercise - Real Life
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
This fun note and great story came in from Robert Davis:
" I have tried to find a way to contact you for a while now!
"I have a story I thought I would share and I am so glad I had found your books and website.
" I had injured myself via weight lifting in late October. I had felt the warning signs before this, however I ignored them and continued to train full out. The result was I had hurt my lower back very badly. The pain was unbearable.
" Sitting hurt. Getting up and walking hurt. To top all this off, I was so adamant that one's "back" health is determined by how well you can stretch forward bending! So this became a discouraging struggle as the more I tested that, the worse I hurt! I had many bad habits besides that and will go into that in a moment.
" I kept training "thru" the pain and bad movement thru to about November 24th. I kept aggravating the area thru bad habits (while doing these exercises. Arched back, rounding etc). I finally went to the doctor and he just made me do some simple movements and the typical straight leg lift. He had decided for now that it was not something all that bad and said that we would do a MRI (or was it CAT scan?) if it did not get better.
I struggled for the next few weeks as I was told to simply rest. I realize the fallacy in this because "just taking it easy" had lead to muscle weakness. It was now a double edged sword by Christmas. I hurt in my back, but when I tried to exercise it it was so weak it hurt more.
I finally ran across your website just after Christmas and before the new year. I started to play around with the ideas at first. I was still stuck though on "better" meant no more pain bending forward. So for a week or two more I played back and forth with these ideas.
" Finally around the 15th or so after the new year I decided "what the heck" I will order some of your books. They seemed more promising then anything I had looked at and I realized in an "aha" moment that it was a form of exercise, which I so very much craved at the time as I simply love to exercise. This "resting" was driving me nuts..
I was watching a show on TV one night on beaches and shell collecting of all things and the biggest "aha" came to me in the form of a little girl. I watched adults picking things up and they bend right over without thought. This went on for a while. Then I saw a child pick up shells. She squatted every time! I said to myself "jeez these books are absolutely right, I am basing everything on bad habits!"..
" I immediately started becoming aware of everything I did during and after exercise. I took your book "fix your own pain" and have almost memorized every chapter and decided if I am going to do this I am going to balance my whole body.
" So after weeks of this (trial and error). I slowly got better. Things I learned along the way are this.. Bending over to pick stuff up is not healthy nor is it natural (that child in the show!).. I learned even after doing weight training for 2 years that my legs were still not as strong as I thought. I learned I had developed bad leg positions from unhealthy squatting (on the knee joints instead of behind). I had further learned that I was holding my feet outward and I think this had come from doing leg pressed with feet slightly out to try to target certain areas.
" I learned to strengthen my core much more effectively and better thru the ab revolution and fix your own pain. I was a 500 crunch type person. I am no longer doing sit ups crunches or whatnot. The stuff in your ab revolution is much more difficult to do and healthier.
I learned to strengthen my body thru its own weight, destroying the myth that you need "weights" for gains as I found these exercises to be just as challenging, if not more in some cases because of the added balance and flexibility required.
" I am now sitting here writing this and I tell you that compared to the initial injury and repeated re-injury (doing the same exercises with bad habits) to now, I am close to 100 percent.
" The funny thing is, I no longer have the desire to go back to weight training, which is odd because that was my life! I have discovered a whole new world of fitness with body weight alone. I am trying more challenging things by the day and I have realized that this is actually more fun the weight training for health and I am getting the same, and often better results (since I am not a body builder, just love exercise and looking fit). I had gone and bought a few things like pull up bars and planche devices and am currently working on mastering some very difficult moves that require body strength alone, but at the same time a mindful awareness of how I am doing it by using your techniques (keeping the back straight with slight tilt etc, no arching).
" It is fun working up to one arm pull-ups in good form. Jeez, to think you could bench press close to 300 a few months ago but doing a few of these exercises in your book were hard! I was surprised I could not do very many pull ups or hold these planks and whatnot.. I am set on a new adventure and I love it because it feels so "free" and balancing. I don't have to spend a huge fee to go to the gym. My gym is my body and functional movement.
" Thank you for your knowledge. Having my back back (sorry for that funny saying!) is great. I intend to keep it healthy now and have begun the correction process of all my body, all the way to my feet!
" I don't look at my injury as a mistake anymore. I look at it as a life changing experience and a chance to explore more functional and fun ways of living. I have passed this site and your books on (not my personal copies!) to a lot of friends into fitness. Some are already reporting healing knees and what not and even re-considering how they live and workout!
" PS I have also changed to a Vegan diet just to see what happens. I was very intrigued by the 72 year old body builder who is vegan.
"You are a godsend. Robert Davis"
Great work Mr. Davis! Robert has been sending me many insightful updates with photos, to be posted with his ongoing success stories. His next story starts here: Cardiovascular Cleanup.
Junk food can be vegan and vegetarian with unhealthful additives, dyes, refined processed sugar and flour. Click the label "Nutrition" under this post for all posts on how to get healthy fun sports food and Healthier Fitness by clicking the label "Green Fitness."
Weightlifting and Weightbearing With Lower Spine Overarching (Sticking out too much in back) Compresses Vertebral Facet Joints:
Read success stories of these methods and send in your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
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.
Readers Count - Second Missed Cause of Back Pain With Golf
Monday, September 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Although twisting during the golf swing is often thought to be part of spine injury, two far more injurious movements are the most ignored.
Reader Jean Christophe wrote asking about the second factor - how many times do you bend wrong, instead of bending right using the leg and back muscles. This is a largely missed cause of back pain both in every day life and in golf. I asked readers to count how many times every day they bent badly. Jean Christophe wrote:
"Dear Dr Jolie Bookspan, "One year ago, I wrote you about golf and you gently answered. I could not play then because of the season and just wanted to share with you that we have to bend and reach the floor a lot of times: We tee the ball 18 times, and pick up the tee from the ground 18 times, we take the ball from the hole 18 times, we repair pitches on the green 10 to 15 times, we putt 36 times, we go to the bunker 4 times so we have to take the rake on the ground, we make divots that we take from the ground 18 times, and we have to take the flag from the ground 6 to 12 times; this means that we bend in a golf course around 115 times in a round of 18 holes. If you add the practice session where we put a ball on the ground 60 times or the putting practice, this means that we bend 200 times each time we go to play golf.
"Now, all of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that) or to pick up the ball from the hole (ie under the ground).
"So I tried to stand on one leg and make the kind of stretch you spoke of ones putting the trunk and the other leg horizontal. This is more nice looking but not really the solution.
At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way.
"Last but not least, I made a swing more on my whole feet (instead of on the balls of my feet) and played solid. So the swing doesn't lose with good posture. But these 200 bendings need some work. "Dear Jolie, thank you for all you help. "Jean Christophe"
1. The reader captured the problem with this summary: "All of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that)." To solve this problem, the first thing to do is to make good bending, using a squat (also called crouch) or lunge (drawing at right), practical to tee and pick up the ball:
2. Standing on one leg, lifting the other keeping the back straight and upper body uplifted, rather than bent over is a useful way to bend for objects on the ground. It is often called the "golf pick-up."
3. Reader Jean Christophe counted 200 bad bends in a single game of golf. No wonder it hurts. He reminds that bad bending is not the answer and wants to know how to get out of the habit: "At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way." One good way is to realize that bending right as an isolated strange action will not build the brain and body habit. This is bending you want the day when not golfing:
--- 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. ---
"Short history, I have hurt my lower back and neck several times previously through poor lifting technique and bad posture. My chiropractor did help, but it kept happening. I used to sit at a computer most of the day at work, then drive home, then go for a 30min walk with minimum stretching.
"Last year, when my back was ok, I decided to try riding my bike to work, three days a week, for the environment, the money, and for my fitness and weight. Each way is 12 kms, very hilly too in Auckland (New Zealand). After one week, my lower back was very badly hurt. I thought I'd never be able to ride to work again, that I'd have to get dressed sitting down for the rest of my life and I could barely walk. I felt like an old arthritic lady and I was only 38.
"I searched every book and website I could find, I had the idea it was my posture but I didn't know what to do about it. I found some information, but often what they recommended I couldn't do, they were too extreme or hurt me more or made no difference.
"Then I found your website www.drbookspan.com. Aha! I thought-this sounds good. And it was.
"I bought your book "Fix your own pain" and learn't more and got stronger and healthier, following your advice.
"But still my back hurt a bit, I would forget to tuck my pelvis, then it hurt and I'd remember. I would get up and move around more, I adjusted my chair and computer to help my posture at my desk, but would forget and slump and my back or neck would hurt and I'd then I'd remember.
"I can't believe how long it took me to "Click." When you say it's for every time you bend, you mean Every Single Time! Keep your pelvis gently tucked All The Time. Keep your back straight, heels down and knees over your ankles Every Single Time you bend.
"Then I started to remember alot more, and my back only hurt a little bit. Then just recently I decided to try cycling again.
"And my lower back hurt again. I went back to your book and read some more and thought. I read about the hip stretches and read your blog and thought.
"And I tried two stretches I hadn't tried before, the sitting figure-4 stretch and the stretch on your blog where you lay on your back to do the figure-4 stretch and gently lean to the side your foot is facing.
"What a difference they have made. I have to tell you just those two stretches have changed my life. Now I walk (pelvis gently tucked) with no pain, I sit (small lower back arch, chin in, relaxed) with no pain. Any little twinge and I do the seated figure-4 stretch and it's gone. After my bike ride I get down on the ground (in the changing rooms!) and do the stretch on my back.
"I found that I needed to lift my foot well up from the floor, keeping my hips level, and move both legs, still in the figure-4, over to the side my foot was facing, helped by holding my crossed ankle with my hands and keeping this stretch for about 30 seconds. This increased the stretch and felt sooooo gooood. And continued to feel good after the stretch.
"This is the first time I've added a comment to a blog, but I just had to let you know how grateful I am to you and your generosity in sharing your knowledge and I wanted to share with your readers about the increased stretch, I've learnt so much from reading their stories and your replies, I wanted to contribute a little bit too."
Many many thanks, Liz Auckland, New Zealand"
Liz, thank you for great work applying the concepts, rather than just doing treatments and exercises, and taking time to write to inspire and teach other readers. Send updates and photos when you can.
Going to a chiropractor does not solve the cause of the pain. Something may be tight or "out" but that is the result, not the cause. Save a lot of money and time by spotting the cause and making simple changes to stop it from happening again, yourself:
When Liz says "tuck the hip" it means straighten the lower spine to neutral position, not to round the back. Rounding is tucking too much. There is a difference. Here is a post with descriptions and drawings - Prevent Main Factor in Back Pain After Running and Walking
Readers Carol, Don, Teresa, AJ, and others asked about strength, and knee pain and placement when descending stairs.
Physical trainer Teresa wrote:
"Hello Dr. Bookspan, "The post on "Better Exercise on the Stairs" from July 2007 contains the following statement: 'When descending stairs or hills, bend your knees when landing for soft shock absorption. Don't step down on a straight, locked, knee.'
"Some clients I work with have the habit of descending stairs on one leg because they can land straight-legged on the "weak" leg. Pain or fear of pain keep them from having the confidence to bend that "weak" leg sufficiently to support themselves for a soft landing on the other leg, but the "strong" leg will let them land softly on the "weak" one. When I get them to practice it, they find the proper motor pattern that is pain-free, but end up falling back on the old motor pattern that creates pain.
"Do you have any ideas on this one since descending usually requires more use of the toes than climbing the stairs does?
"I keep recommending your site to loads of people because you are sooo right. It's about motor patterns of moving our bodies, not just "exercise." Thank you for your time and assistance!" Teresa Merrick, M.A. ACSM HFI, NSCA-CPT/CSCS, NASM CPT Master Trainer
Climbing stairs is a functional (real life) skill. Not having the strength to support your own body weight is serious weakness:
It is not healthy to land straight-legged with a locked knee on either a weak or strong leg. The functional life skill needed to descend the stairs is similar to what is needed for simple daily healthy bending (right drawing). Bending knees to retrieve and reach is something everyone needs to do many times a day. How many times a day do you think you bend for ordinary actions? Click How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
Use the simple built-in life activity of healthy bending using the half squat (right drawing) to train your legs for the strength and mobility needed to descend stairs in a healthful way.
When you bend in the half squat, keep both heels down and your weight shifted back over the whole foot (right drawing), not just the toes (left-hand drawing). Pull back more to the heels if you slide forward.
No need to increase the inward curve, called hyperlordosis, or overarch (left). Hyperlordosis pinches the spine and can cause impingement and mystery back pain (Prevent Back Surgery). Overarching is sometimes taught to weightlifters because it shifts some of the effort onto the lower spine joints called facets, making the lift easier. It is healthier to keep the weight on the muscles and not overarch. Keep neutral spine (right drawing).
Keep heels down for bending using the half-squat, instead of lifting the heel. Keeping heels down shifts weight to the thigh and hip muscles and off the knee joint. Enjoy the free, built-in Achilles stretch with each bend. Specifics on this in the post Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending.
Descending the stairs should not be a toe-intensive maneuver. Your body weight belongs on the strong muscles of the thigh and hip.
Once you have the idea of the healthy bending you need for daily life bending, transfer that healthy movement to the stairs:
Keep more weight on the leg on the upper stair, instead of flopping and stomping all weight down on the foot that is stepping down.
Keep your weight back more toward the heel on the upper leg.
Keep heel down longer on the upper leg, instead of lifting the heel right away. Get the free, built-in, functional Achilles stretch.
Bend knee slightly upon stepping down instead of landing straight-kneed. Remember this is the same strength and skill that you need and have been developing (or should have) for ordinary daily bending, which totals many dozens every day.
Use good shock absorption from the thigh muscles of the leg stepping down.
Instead of dong artificial leg exercises like leg raises, use legs for real life to get automatic built in exercise in the way you need to move. The movement gives built-in strengthening and stretch and movement patterns. The built-in strengthening and stretch and movement patterns directly improve daily function.
More will come in future posts. Have a real life of activity and fun, and enjoy.
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 in the comments, 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, free by using "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
What Is The Difference Between A Leg Press and a Squat?
Monday, July 14, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Is a leg press the same as a squat upside down? Both the squat and leg press bend and straighten the legs against resistance. But something special makes opposite forces on the joints.
The post Exercising With A Friend - Partner Leg Press showed a fun leg press without equipment using a friend for resistance, balance, and teamwork. Reader Nina left the comment on the post: "This could being done another way. Sit on a bench or sumthing (sp) else back-to-back with your partner. Interlock arms sitting straight with your backs pressed together. Rise up and down, and feel the pressure on your leg muscles."
What Nina describes is called a squat or half-squat. The exercise in the post is a leg press. Standing on your feet changes it to a squat.
The squat has opposite joint and muscle dynamics to the leg press. In the kind of leg press described in this post, your body is fixed, and the feet move away. In the squat, the feet are fixed and the body moves. The difference in which end is stationary creates different forces on the muscles and joints.
My students Lily and Biji demonstrate one way to do a fun partner leg press. Hold your body (and head) stable.
To do half-squats with or without a partner, it is usually better exercise and balance training without the bench. There is no need for equipment. Instead, use your own muscles to hold up body weight, rather than sitting or touching down to a bench between each raise. The squat is functional - meaning it uses your body the way muscles need for real life. The key is using the half squat for healthy daily bending instead of "bending wrong." Bending over forward unequally weights the discs of the spine. Over years of bad bending, you can accumulate enough small pushes on the discs to begin to break them down and push them outward toward the back. This is the process of disc herniation. It is not a mysterious situation or a disease process. It is simple mechanics. The resulting disc damage, slippage, herniation, is an injury that can heal, usually easily and quickly when you stop the injury process of bad bending during standing, sitting, and lifting.
Your body needs to practice both kinds of leg resistance to be good at both. Have fun building functional squatting into daily life instead of dong artificial squats in a gym, then bending wrong hurting your discs the rest of your day. Have fun doing leg presses balancing friends and family that move and squirm, instead of ignoring real humans to interact only with artificial stationary gym equipment. Get real fitness with real life.
In the 1960s, many physiologic studies were carried out on the Ama and Haenyao to see what their lung volumes were before and after dives, their temperature regulation and tolerance to cold, their ability to tolerate strenuous work, changes in heart rate and blood distribution during breath hold diving, their physical characteristics compared to non-divers, how alveolar gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide in their body) changed during their breath hold dives, and other interesting topics. Some say that the sudden huge scientific interest was because they dived nearly naked.
Diving clothes varied by geographic area, with some divers wearing only a rope belt or loincloth. No fins were used to help swimming. Later when wet suits were developed, only male divers wore them. Women were prohibited protective suits by their cooperatives, since they were considered more cold tolerant to begin with, and the advantage of the suit would "accelerate over-harvesting" Later, the work became pretty much exclusive to women.![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=52d1f1f2-7e37-46d7-8039-2c70a89fc982)
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