6 Ways to a Healthier Back

1) Strengthen your abs. Your abs do half the work in carrying you. Your abs and lower back are also referred to as your core. By strengthening your abs your core stays strong and upright. This helps in creating better posture when you sit and when you are moving about through the world. No matter what your back ailment, strengthening your abs will help to alleviate you from most pain you may be having in your back. 2) Lift by bending your knees, don’t bend at the waist. When lifting objects, no matter what the weight, you should bend your knees. Many people injure their lower backs when lifting objects that are below waist level. To execute a proper lift you must try to get your belly button as close to or even below the object you are attempting to lift. This can only be done by bending your knees to decrease the amount of stress in the lower back to virtually zero. 3) Avoid twisting motions when carrying heavy objects. If you are carrying a heavy object, it is not a good idea to twist while holding it. The twisting motion puts that same twist on your lower vertebrae plus the weight of the object. You can easily twist a vertebrae, more so than by lifting with your back. If you are lifting and transporting an object, move your feet in the direction you want to move rather than plant your feet and turn your shoulders. 4) Keep objects you are lifting close to the body. The further you hold an object away from your body, the more your back has to compensate to try and keep you up right. When you bring things in closer to your body, you can use your abs to keep you up right and maintain your posture. 5) Push don’t pull. The back was made for pushing not pulling. When possible, opt for pushing heavy objects. You can exert more force with your stronger muscle groups in your legs by pushing instead of pulling. 6) Sit-up straight. Dad wasn’t joking when he said if you don’t sit up straight you will grow up to have a hump in your back. When you slouch your shoulders, you put excess pressure on your lower back and in your upper back and shoulders. Your lower back suffers because there is excess weight in the front of your body and your back along with your ribs become the only thing keeping you from falling all the way over. Your neck was not meant to carry a lot of weight, but by sitting with your shoulders forward and slouched, you put the weight of your head on your neck instead of your shoulders. This often leads to neck and shoulder soreness. By following these simple rules you should see an improvement in your posture and will feel more confident in moving anything that mother nature throws at us.

Yoga Adventure

The other day, something came over me. I needed to take a yoga class. I am not normally the one to jump up for a yoga class, I’d much rather just stretch on a mat, but something was telling me that is what I was needing at the time. When I first went in, I did not know what to expect, my only real experience with yoga was with our outdoor yoga instructor Ashleigh, who I may add, did a phenomenal job teaching Valley Forge Fitness yoga last year (Thanks Ash! Can't wait till spring!). The environment is totally different so I was not sure I would get the same “oneness with the universe” so to speak. After a light stretch we proceeded in a progression of stretches, binds and twists that had me feeling quite limber. There were of course some in the beginning that I didn’t even attempt for fear that I would not be able to get back out of the pose in one piece. I found myself becoming more confident with each pose and feeling my body release tightness and tension. Not bad for my first indoor yoga class. I left feeling renewed and refreshed and the effects lasted not only through the next day, but weeks at a time. When I left that yoga class I had realized something that I hadn’t realized when I was more active. Sometimes we go through the motions, but if you consciously stretch each muscle you can get more in tuned with what our body is trying to tell us. It is easy to muscle and power through the stretches, but if you are conscious of what each stretch is supposed to do, it feels so much better and you subsequently become even more relaxed. I have not studied yoga, but now I know it is more than just stretching. Its an internal journey. Indescribable by word and only properly expressed through movement. I can‘t wait for our yoga classes to start back up in the spring. I can feel my chakras aligning for some interesting experiences. Forge On!

Traffic laws: Are they for everyone?

The road was built for more than one mode of transportation. On any given road on any given time of day you will see bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, cars, small trucks, large trucks and slew of other modes of transportation. For most of these modes of transportation you need a license of some sort and you must obey the traffic laws or you will receive a citation. The two that don’t need them came up in a recent controversy in Oregon. Oregon was considering passing a law where bicyclists would now not need to stop at stop signs. When I first heard this, I was completely in favor of it. I ride my bike just about everywhere and find it tedious to have to stop at signs when there is no traffic. It breaks my concentration, breathing, induces cramping etc. I often find myself blowing through stop signs or jumping on the curb to save time or reduce the potential that I might meet a sign or any potential stoppages altogether. I thought about this a little longer after reading the town hall discussion for reasons both for and against it and came to a different conclusion. The issue with mopeds was raised and how they are a vehicle in which you do not need a license, but yet still have to obey traffic laws. They say that whatever traffic laws are put forth should be abided by everyone on the road. What do you think? Should bikers be allowed to blow through stop signs in our city?

Nature versus gym equipment part 2

We compare the standard bench press to the push-up in this article. The standard bench press can be done while lying on your back and pressing upward on either a machine, dumbbells or a barbell and weights on each side of it. To increase the resistance usually you would increase the weights. The standard bench press is a fundamental part of most workouts because of its focus on auxiliary or major muscle groups in the upper body. The face-up technique in this exercise works at both an advantage and disadvantage when strength training. The advantage to facing upward is that not only do you have the weights and gravity giving you resistance, but you also have to fight your own muscles to control the weight up and down especially when not using a machine. The advantage to the standard bench press can also a be a large disadvantage. Normally when looking to get any satisfactory gains from this exercise, you need to use a sufficient amount of weight. This also means that you would most likely need someone to supervise your lift. This is one great advantage of a push-up. A push-up is done while facing downward so gravity is the main resistor in this exercise. To increase the resistance of this exercise, you would add more weight. In this case it would help to grab a buddy to add more body weight to the exercise. The best part about this exercise is that not only works your upper body like your chest, arms and back, but it also works your abs. Your abs are used to hold you up and keep your lower back from falling so you get the added bonus of core work when doing a push-up Another advantage to a push-up is that is can be done at different angles. In my boot camps we have a wide variety of push-ups that we incorporate into each upper body class. The variety of push-ups focus on specific muscle groups that you would not have the ability to focus on with a bench press. Looks like nature wins another one with its ability to focus on more muscle groups and to help in getting a rock hard stomach. Remember there is always a great workout hiding in plain view. See you Outdoors!