Archive for the ‘Exercise Tips’ Category

What you need to know about “CORE” training

Sunday, March 28th, 2010

outer-unitWhen it comes to needing strength in your abdominal muscles everyone out there from Yoga Instructors, to Physical Therapist, to Personal Trainers and even Mds will tell you that you have to strengthen your core muscles.  What exactly does this mean and do these professionals have a complete understanding of what muscles make up the core?

We have been told over and over again that the in order to get a stronger core you need to do sit ups and crunches, this information isn’t false but it is missing other valuable information.  The core as we know it and how it has been taught to us is that it is just made up of your abdominal muscles.  This is not true.  Did you know that when it comes to core stability you have two systems that are made up of groups of muscles… these two systems are the inner unit and the outer unit.

The inner unit which provides segmental stabilization is made up your diaphragm, pelvic floor muscles, multifidus and the transverse abdominus.  The outer unit is made up of 4 other muscular systems sometimes described as slings and they are…The Deep Longitudinal System (DLS), Anterior Oblique System, Posterior Oblique System and the Lateral System.  Each of these systems is then made up of groups of muscles that provide us not only with stabilization but also become prime movers.

Deep Longitudinal System:  erector muscles of the spine, bicep femoris (hamstring muscle) and the peroneus longus muscle of the foot.

Anterior Oblique System:  Internal Oblique and contra-lateral external oblique and the contra-lateral adductor muscles (muscles of the inner thigh).

Posterior Oblique System:  Latissimus dorsi and contra-lateral glut maximus

Lateral System (fig 4):  Glut medius and minimus, ipsilateral (same side) adductors and contra-lateral Quadratus Lumborum

For some of you reading this, this may all sound foreign and a little over your head.  The point that I am trying to make is that when it comes to core stability and strength there are other muscular systems that need to strengthened and strengthened appropriately.  If you are someone who suffers from low back pain and have been given sit ups and crunches as exercises with no results you many want to find someone who understands these systems that I have written about.  Your body is a chain, a set of systems that are dependent upon one another and just as you can’t spot reduce for weight loss you can’t spot fix either.

If you would like to learn more about the inner and outer units I recommend reading Paul Chek’s book How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy.  You can also search for CHEK Practitioners in your area, CHEK practitioners have been educated on the systems above that I have spoke about and are taught to treat the person not just their parts.

 

Lori Metroka Yu

Nutrition & Wellness Specialist

CHEK Practitioner

Picture by http://www.coachr.org/outer_4.jpg

Reference http://www.coachr.org/outer_unit.htm

http://www.coachr.org/innerunit.htm

Personal training Los Gatos, Nutrition Coaching San Francisco, Chek Practitioner Los Gatos, Chek Practitioner San Francisco, Core strengthening, muscles of the core, how to exercise the core correctly, exercising the core correctly, core exercises, exercise tips for the core

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Understanding Functional Exercise

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

lunge-with-weight-over-head1How do you move throughout your day?  Have you ever taken the time to stop and notice?  Our bodies are meant to move in a variety of motions and it is through these basic everyday movements that we are able to perform functional tasks.  These functional movements are:  walking, lunging, bending, squatting, pushing, pulling and twisting and are movements that most individuals become weak in because of the lack of mobility in our day to day lives.  As a result when we don’t exercise or move around for that matter our bodies get weaker and weaker thus resulting in an injury.  Therefore, I ask you how much of your movement throughout your day consists of the above 7 functional movements?  Below are some tips of how you can begin to pull functional exercise into your daily lifestyle and not only start to get stronger but also reduce the chance of injury and burn some calories along the way.

Before I give you your list of functional exercise tips I would like to say that for those of you who have not exercised in a very long time, do not exercise  regularly utilizing  functional exercises or are recovering from an injury please  ease into the exercises listed below slowly and in a safe manner. 

Tips for functional exercise:

  • 1. Stop using machines: if you are a person who already exercises and is at the gym using machines STOP! Machines take away core stability and you cannot get dynamic with your movements you are only restricted to one movement at a time versus multiple.
  • 2. Exercises to start with at home: for those of you who have not exercised in a very long you can use support such as a wall or table or countertop to help you during your squatting exercises as well as lunges.
  • a. Lunges: holding onto a wall for support place right leg in front of your left and slowly drop your left knee towards the floor going as deep as you comfortably can and then rise back up. Repeat one each side.
  • b. Squats: holding onto a countertop with both hands and placing a chair behind you (this will help you to keep good form) squat down as if you are going to sit in the chair (but don’t) and then rise back up and repeat.
  • c. Pushing - wall push up: stand in front of a wall placing both your hands flat against the wall shoulder height in front of you. Allow your elbows to move out to the side as you bring your chest towards the wall and then push yourself away, repeat.
  • d. Bending: Standing nice and tall bend down as if you are going to touch your toes and stand back up, repeat
  • e. Pulling: get out that vacuum cleaner and there you have not only your pulling exercise but also your pushing.
  • f. Twisting: stand in place with your arms on your hips or out at your sides and just twist from right to left.
  • g. Walking: need I say more get out and walk!
  • 3. Form is key! If you do not know what proper form is get yourself some literature or hire a trainer this is how injury is avoided and optimum strength is achieved.
  • 4. Combining Exercises: This is for the advanced exerciser or the beginner who has a trainer: If you are that person who has an understanding of proper form and have adequate strength then you can tolerate more advanced versions of the exercises above such as a squat with a pull, lunge with a push, lunge with a twist all the more reasons not to use machines.
  • 5. Tempo/speed: I see this time and time again of individuals who want to move quickly through the exercise “just to get it done”. Stop this immediately, you are setting yourself up not only for injury but you are not strengthening the muscle properly. There are different tempos/speed depending on what you are training for, make sure you have an understanding of what you trying to accomplish and have the tempo match. This is why so many people don’t see results because they are not training/stimulating the muscle appropriately.
  • 6. Variety: have variety in your exercise program and allow rest to be apart of it. Variety keeps the body guessing, this is a good thing!

If you have any questions or concerns we would love to hear from you.

 

 

Lori Metroka, Nutrition & Wellness Specialist

 

 

 

 

Los Gatos personal training, San Francisco personal training, Nutrition coaching Los Gatos, Nutrition Coaching San Francisco, Corrective exercise, injury prevention, how to prevent an injury, primal movement patterns, safe exercise tips

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Exercise tips for a safe workout!

Sunday, July 19th, 2009

male-female-bicep-curlExercise is a great thing and is very much needed.  However, there are so many people out there exercising improperly and I know this because I am in gyms on a daily basis; that is why I have decided to write about exercise tips for a safe workout.  There are many items that go into working out, working out is not just about getting your run in, seeing how much you can lift, following the next fun craze or performing exercises that you learned off of a DVD.  It’s about understanding the science of the body particular to a specific exercise.  Now, this may sound a bit much but it’s the truth.  How many of you out there found an exercise that promised you flat abs in a week in some exercise magazine? You found yourself trying them and either you hurt yourself or you saw no results, this is because you did not have the proper education and this is how injury happens and exercise goals are not met.

For the purpose of this blog I am going to keep it simple but you do need to understand that having the correct exercise prescription entails having a routine that includes reps, sets, tempo, intensity and volume.  Now, some of these words may make sense to you and others may not.  If that is the case then I suggest you find yourself an educated trainer particularly a CHEK trained practitioner.  All of the variables that I listed above influence how your body responds.  So many times I see in the gym individuals both male and female lifting weight too heavy.  For example, let’s take a bicep curl, you hold weights in your hands with your arms hanging down by your sides, you bend your elbows and move your hands up towards your shoulder and then you lower the weight back down to the start position. That is all the exercise should be, is the elbow bending and straightening but  what  I see so many times in the gym are people arching their backs  or using momentum (rocking back and forth) to get the weight lifted up.  You are doing nothing good for your body here, you may think you are but you are a back injury or bicep tear waiting to happen.  When lifting weights it is about isolating the muscles, what do I mean by this…well, if you are performing a bicep exercise then why does your back need to come into the picture?  When you are moving too fast through an exercise and most people do because they “just want to get it done” you are not working the muscles the way that they are to be worked in order to get results.  This is one reason why so many people don’t get the results they are looking for because they don’t have a clear understanding of what needs to go into a program to make change happen and prevent injury.

Remember this one exercise program does not fit all, what works for Mary is not going to work for Jane; everyone has different needs and different bodies.  Therefore, the safe exercise tips you will be reading below are general but very important and are usually not taught.  If you have specific questions or concerns feel free to ask us on our blog.

 

Safe workout tips

  • 1. Never use momentum. If you find that you need momentum to complete the exercise lower your weight and finish your set. When you use other muscles then the ones that are meant to be used then this gives your nervous system the wrong information and injury can occur. There are exceptions to this rule such as when you are working in the power phase but we will not be discussing this for this article.

 

  • 2. Breathe - when performing an exercise you must remember to breathe. For more specific information about how and when to breathe read our blog article entitled “To breathe or not to breathe”.

 

  • 3. Never put your hands under your low back when doing abdominal leg raises- If you are placing your hands under your low back because your low back is lifting off the floor then guess what you need to alter this exercise. If your low back is lifting off the floor then you have an imbalance between your hip muscles and your abdominals and most likely have low back discomfort or hip muscle tightness. By placing your hands behind your low back you’re not correcting the problem but just disguising it.

 

  • 4. Never do the same workouts - mix up your workout routines. When performing the same routine over and over again whether its cardio, resistance training, and yoga etc the body needs a change in the stimulus to cause change in the body. Remember rest is good too; this is how your body repairs and builds.

 

  • 5. Do not look up at the ceiling when crunching - we are taught to look up at the ceiling when doing crunches, this is wrong! All you are doing is causing a forward head posture which so many of us suffer from to begin with because of desk jobs and poor posture. Think about it, we want the body to be in balance, right? Well, if we are bending our thoracic spines (mid back) and lumbar spines (low back) then why should be not be bending our cervical spines (neck)? Therefore, when crunching keep your mouth closed, tongue resting at the roof of your mouth, chin to chest then come up and crunch. If you have neck weakness yes, you will feel this exercise more in your neck at first than in your abdominals. Take your time and go slow and never put your hands behing your head but rather across your chest!

 

We hope these exercise tips are of help, for more exclusive articles about health, wellness and exercise that are not listed on our blog sign up for our newsletter by visiting www.replenishingsoul.com and Happy & Safe Exercising!

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How to rid yourself of the “pooch belly”

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

belly-fatPaunch belly, pooch belly call it what you may but I know many of you out there reading this wonder how you can rid yourself of the “Pooch Belly”.  Believe it or not you can, but first you need to understand how this situation occurs.

The most obvious situation that brings on pooch belly syndrome is pregnancy as many of you women reading this know.  But did you also know, men listen up… weight gain and an inflamed GI system (gastrointestinal) can also be culprits and all of these situations can lead to chronic back pain among other aliments.  Many times I can tell if someone is suffering from back pain or weak abdominal strength not just by looking at someone’s abdominal area but also their butt.  Why is this?  Because when the abdominals are weak the entire core system that includes the pelvic floor muscles also becomes weak and as a result the butt appears flat and looks like an upside down heart. Think of the core system as a sling when the sling is healthy it is taut and lifted and when it has become stretched and weakened it hangs thus causing instability.

Let’s talk about a few common situations that lead to weakened abdominals.

  • 1. Weight gain - whether you gain weight from pregnancy, an inactive lifestyle or poor food choices the belly begins to grow resulting in lengthening of the abdominal wall. As the abdominal muscles begin to lengthen this action produces a stretch force. When the abdominal muscles have been under a prolong stretch they become long and weak therefore causing pooch belly. The lengthening that occurs can be fixed over time however you should be aware that the longer the muscles have been under a stretch it may take a bit longer in getting them back to their original length. Therefore, ladies it is always better to not become pregnant too soon after you already have had a pregnancy and be cautious of C-sections. The reason to be cautious of C-sections is that you already have the abdominals lengthened from the pregnancy itself then the abdominals get cut (all 3 layers), which causes more weakness. In addition, when these layers get sewn back together again scarring and adhesions can occur which then make it difficult for the muscles to slide across each other effectively. As a result when muscles cannot work efficiently they begin to shut off and other muscles take over thus destabilizing the back and causes weakness.

 

  • 2. Inflamed GI system- an inflamed GI system can be caused by food allergies and/or food intolerances. The reason this happens is when we are eating foods that are not good for our bodies or we continue to eat the same foods over and over again (this is usually what causes food intolerances) this will inflame the digestive system. When the digestive system gets inflamed the organs can swell. When the organs swell this pushes on our abdominal muscles and makes it difficult for the abdominal muscles to activate properly. When the abdominal muscles cannot turn on guess what happens…they begin to get weak and we now know what happens from there.

 

If you suffer from pooch belly syndrome or any ailment caused from weak abdominal muscles this would be a great time to go see a professional.  I would advise you to first look for CHEK practitioners in your area at www.chekinstitute.com.  CHEK practitioners like us here at Replenishing Soul have been trained on how to look at the person as a whole not a part.  For example, you can strengthen the abdominal muscles until you’re blue in the face but if your problem is not being assessed appropriately and your root cause is coming from inflammation in your digestive system and has not been identified all the physical strengthening in the world will not fix the problem. If you have any questions please feel free to contact us. We are more than happy to help you.

Replenishing Soul

“An alternative solution to better health”

 

Resources:  “How to Eat, Move and Be Healthy” by Paul Chek

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Eat to Lose Weight

Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Skipping meals seems like a natural way to lose weight,especially woman-eating-saladsince we’ve all heard that to lose weight, you need to take in less calories than you burn. It’s actually not that simple. When you skip just one meal, your body panics and turns on a stress response through the sympathetic branch of your nervous system called the “fight or flight” system. This response tells your body that it is in a life-threatening situation. Your body then responds to this alarm by telling your liver to release stored sugar from your liver (in the form of glycogen) to raise your blood sugar.  In response, your pancreas releases insulin to help balance out your blood sugar. When skipping meals or eating too many carbohydrates ( or in the absence of protein and fat) this stress response is turned on over and over again causing you to become insulin resistant which causes more and more calories to be stored in fat cells. Any time you miss a meal your body increases the release of fat storing enzymes. When this happens, the amount of fat burning enzymes are decreased. Remember, if your body is in a stress response, the last thing it will want to do is lose weight. It’s going to hold on to whatever energy it gets, because it doesn’t know when the next meal is coming to replenish it’s fuel.    

The key to losing weight is to keep your blood sugar balanced, to eat the right proportions of protein, fat, and carbohydrates for your biochemical needs, to maintain a level of physical activity that is right for you, and to have a system in place to manage the stressors in your life that are affecting your body. To learn more about how your nutrition and lifestyle are affecting your health and may be preventing you from reaching your wellness goals, our Wellness 101 Workshop is a great place to start.  Always feel free to call us for a complimentary phone consult. Our goal is to always help you help yourself.

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Exercise-One size does not fit all!

Sunday, March 29th, 2009

chest-press-picWe are brainwashed as a society that we need to join a gym, hammer out cardiovascular exercises daily and do strength training.  Well, we are here to tell you that this is not so.  Being a Nutrition & Lifestyle Coach I cannot tell you how many people walk into my office stating to me that they hate going to the gym.  My response to them is “then why are you going?”

What everyone needs to understand is that your body requires movement daily and how ever you enjoy moving should be the choice of exercise for you.  Picture this …your leaving your house, getting in your car and all that is on your mind is how much you don’t want to be going to the gym.  You have just fed your body/mind negative thoughts.  How can a body heal and re-energize if it is full of negative energy?

Generally, as a society everyone has behind the desk jobs, with little to no movement throughout the day, stuck in a cubicle with little to no natural sunlight. So, why not pick an exercise that you enjoy and fills you with positive healing energy and lifts your mood?

There are many forms of exercise that one can partake in.  Explore and do your research, play around with exercises that you might not ever consider or think you can do.  You just might be surprised how much you learn about yourself with trying something new. Explore cycling, skiing, yoga, mountain biking, swimming, tai chi, hiking, weight training, qi gong, tennis, golf, kick boxing/marital arts or maybe even dancing.

Regardless of the exercise you pick there are some general guidelines to exercise that one should be aware of.

  • 1. Have more than just one form of exercise. When you perform the same movements over and over this can lead to muscle imbalances, injury and pain. In addition having more than just one type of exercise gives your body the opportunity to not adapt to one single stimulus.
  • 2. If you find that you are always catching colds or getting sick easily you should limit or postpone intense exercise/training. The reason being is that the adrenal glands are most likely stressed and further intense exercise will cause your body to break down further leading to a weakened immune system and possible injury.
  • 3. No Pain-No Gain - if you have that mentality please get rid of it. Pain= No Gain the reason being is that your body gets stronger at rest not while exercising. The exercise is just the stimulus that triggers the growth and repair response that builds more muscle and increases metabolism.
  • 4. Since you live in a society that is constant go, go, go it is always a good idea to have one form of exercise that replenishes the body and helps it to heal. Exercises such as yoga, qi gong and tai chi are great for repairing the Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) - this system is the REST AND DIGEST SYSTEM. This is the system that helps us heal and prevent disease. Massages are also a great way to relax the body and help muscles heal and replenish after being active.
  • 5. Explore circuit weight training- with circuit training you are not just getting the benefits of muscle tone and increasing your metabolic rate but you are also getting cardiovascular benefits. So this is a great way to get in your aerobic exercise without over taxing the body. And for you ladies reading this blog this form of exercise works well for us!
  • 6. Do your research! If you would like to get started in a gym with the help of a Personal Training make sure you interview them to know if they have a good understanding of the human body/Anatomy. Remember, strength training is not just about getting tone and fit it is also about correcting muscle imbalances. If you do not correct muscle imbalances or work with someone who understands the importance of correcting imbalances or how to look for them you will end up in pain if not injured. Trust me on this I am a Physical Therapist and have treated patients who became injured because their trainer not having appropriate proper education/training.

 

If you do not know what type of exercise you could benefit from or how intense you should or should not be working out contact us and we can help you. In addition we here at Replenishing Soul have a network of  Personal Trainers and Massage Therapists who we work closely with who are well educated and who we trust. 

Happy exercising!

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