Fast Fitness - Hip Stretch and Spine Stability Training When Stretching Legs

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Retrain your standing leg stretches to hold your spine and hip in healthful position, get more stretch to the front of the hip, use your back muscles, practice balance, and learn functional stretching - the way your body needs to move in real life in a healthy way.

When you raise one leg to stretch when standing:

1. Keep your standing leg straight. Don't bend at the knee and hip, as pictured.
2. Don't round your back or let your pelvis and hip round under you, as pictured.
   
3. Stand straight. Relaxed. Don't force or strain. Breathe.

When stretching, remember function. Why practice a position that is rounded, tight, and detrimental to how you move in real life when you lift your legs. It would look silly and unhealthy to stand up that way. Why stretch that way?

Get functional stretch by lengthening your body enough to be able to straighten out. That is the purpose of the stretch.

Use the new length and your brain to stand straight. Transfer the positioning to real life when you are standing and lift one leg to take stairs, kick, dance, play sports, climb over things, and other life activities. Standing without being so tight that you round your body forward, or just round from habit, is healthier, better looking, burns more calories, and stops many sources of chronic aches and pains.

Send me your photos of fixing this stretch. Doing is the best learning. I will post the photos in a reader success story.


See how to retrain this same stretch lying down:

• Fast Fitness - Don't Shorten Hip When Stretching Hamstring

See photos of fixing this same stretch for kicking and stairs:

• Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs

Related posts:

• Improve Stretch and Strength With Better Kicking
• What Does Stretching Do?
• Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
• Better Achilles Tendon Stretch
• Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch
• Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise?
• The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
• Better Exercise on the Stairs
• Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs

Labels: balance, fast fitness, fix pain, hip, hip stretch, leg stretch, lower back, posture, stretch, upper back

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How Doctors Use The Wall Stand

A reader wrote in that he tried the "wall test" done by standing with your back against a wall. The wall test is a quick general assessment to see if you can comfortably stand up straight, and if not, where the tightness exists that prevents it. The reader said the test hurt. He was angry and wanted me to warn everyone not to do the wall test.

The point of the wall test is to see if you are generally standing upright, or have tightness preventing healthy stance, not to cause pain by forcing it. If you can't comfortably stand straight, it is likely that you are going about your day in a tight, crooked position that contributes to pain syndromes and gradual spine and disc damage. That is the point of doing the test - to determine the source of the problem right then. Then, see if it is just a bad habit of how you stand, if you don't know how to stand well, or if tightness prevents it. Specific functional stretches easily restore resting length to the area. Then you use the new ability to stand and move in healthy ways.


In the photo, Dr. Clara Hsu stands well while checking a patient. In the photo, the patient looks tight, both at the hip and the front of the shoulder. The patient seems to be straining to pull in her chin. She is lifting her ribs and overarching the lower back to try to get the upper body to the wall. These two compensatory moves are things to check for. Instead, pull neck and chin back loosely. Bring upper body upright by unroundng the upper back, not by leaning back, increasing the angle at the lower spine.

Dr. Clara Hsu was featured in a reader success story in How Doctors Help Patients With Fitness Fixer.

The wall test is a general test, not an exercise. It shows three things:

1. How you are standing at the moment, and perhaps as general habit
2. Where bad habit or tightness may be that prevents standing in healthy positioning, for example a forward head, bent or tight front hip where it meets the leg, or overarched lower back
3. The wall test is done a second time as immediate feedback after doing specific retraining stretches, to see how well you have achieved the purpose of the stretches to restore normal length of these areas.

The wall test is a general, not absolute measure. The assessment works for most body types. Many people who think that larger lower body prevents upright stance, may actually be standing bent forward at the hip.

Straining to stand straight is not healthy straight standing. Making it possible to be healthy is the point. Causing more pain would be silly, and counter to the point. Often it is just a matter of identifying what is straight stance using the wall test, and standing better from then on. If the wall stand is uncomfortable, or not possible, check your standing habits. If there is tightness, then stretch the hip, shoulder or wherever else is holding you in tight bent position.


To stretch front chest and hip to make straight standing comfortable:

• Fast Fitness - Quick Relaxing Hip Stretch
• Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs
• Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain
• Nice Neck Stretch
• Friday Fast Fitness - Better Shoulder and Triceps Stretch

Posts to understand and fix compensatory movements:

• Breasts Causing Upper Back Pain is a Myth
• Fast Fitness - How to Feel Change to Neutral Spine
• Fix One Pain, Don't Cause Another

Coming soon, Dr. Clara Hsu asked me to tell the story of, "Class is always in session."

Labels: fix pain, hip, posture, readers inspiring story, stretch

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Fast Fitness - Don't Shorten Hip When Stretching Hamstring

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Get a more functional hamstring stretch, and a built-in posturally helpful functional stretch to the front of the hip at the same time.

When lying on your back to stretch your hamstrings by lifting one leg:

1. Lie flat. Keep the leg you are not lifting flat on the ground, not bent at the knee and hip, or with upper body curled and neck craned, as pictured.
2. Don't let your pelvis and hip round under you. Don't let your backside curl up off the floor.
3. Keep your hip, leg, back, shoulders, and head relaxed, flat, straight, touching the ground.

It is a myth that you must bend your knee to protect your back. If you must bend your knee to protect your back, how are you supposed to stand on one leg and lift the other in real life to climb stairs, kick, and even run and walk, without curling into bent over, old-looking, tight, injury-producing position?

When stretching your hamstrings, remember function. Why practice a position that is rounded, tightening, and detrimental to how you move when you stand and extend your legs. Get stretch by lengthening you body enough to be able to straighten out.

Send me your photos of fixing this stretch. Doing is the best learning. I will publish the photos in a reader success post to come.

Related posts:

• What Does Stretching Do?
• Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
• Better Achilles Tendon Stretch
• Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch
• Healthier Hamstring Stretching
• Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise?
• The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
• Good Life Works Better Than Bad Ab Exercise

Labels: fast fitness, hamstring, hip, hip stretch, leg strength, myths, strength

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How Much Inward Curve Space Should There Be In The Lower Back?

Reader Carina asked a good question on the post Prevent Back Surgery about how much space there should be in the lower back inward curve. Comments were not accepted by the Blogger software for several weeks, and I could not reply in the comments. Her question is so good, it was chosen for this Fitness Fixer post.

Carina writes:

"Hello Jolie,
"Your information is so wonderful. Thanks for this stuff it's priceless.

I have been using the wall trick during the day when my back hurts (How to Feel Change to Neutral Spine). Wow it feels great. Only thing I can't STAY and walk like this. My knees are STUCK bent (or I go back to the big arch). I'd seriously look very odd walking around with bent knees. So here are my questions

"1) How much of my hand should go through when I am standing against the wall???
When I stand at the wall and do it naturally I can stick my whole arm to my elbow behind the arch.

"2) Besides these links you provided from a previous question
Fast Fitness - Quick Relaxing Hip
and
http://windowsxp-privacy.net/?id=198760105 "
(Note - the above link didn't come through in Carina's comment; I don't know which it is.)

"is there anything that helps me walk in neutral spine and not looking silly?
"Thanks for caring about our backs,
Carina"

Carina, great work. You have found that simply changing spinal angle (wall "trick") to reduce overarching works right away to reduce cause of pain. Next, here is how to retrain neutral spine into a normal natural stance:

1) Don't worry about "How much hand fits." It doesn't indicate amount of overarching. Lower spinal angle is what matters. Body proportions change the distance from wall - independent of spinal angle.

• If you have too much tilt to the pelvis or you lean the upper body backward, lower spinal angle increases. To reduce an arch that is large, press the lower back closer to the wall.


• The post Neutral Spine or Not? shows how to tell if your hip (pelvis) is tilted or straight, and/or if overarching (hyperlordosis/swayback) is coming from the upper body (leaning back). The wall maneuver shows you how to reduce the overarch. Don't press flat against the wall or you'll round like a beetle :-)


• While standing at the wall, see if you can do a small "crunch" movement without rounding your upper body forward, to reduce the overly large arch. Movement is just from the hip and mid-torso. Hopefully, you will feel that you easily move the body without bending your knees. That should produce reduced lower back arch. Send some photos if you like and I will take a look.

2) Next, you need to make it possible and comfortable:

• Check if you are tightening muscles. Don't tighten or clench backside or abdominal muscles. Tightening makes it harder to move to neutral - Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine.


• See the post for stretches to restore length to the areas needed - Which Stretch Stops Back Pain by Making Neutral Spine Possible?


• Check how you are standing. Don't try to touch the back of the legs to the wall. Just heels, backside, upper back, back of head.


• Thank you for already checking the other links and finding the relaxing-hip-stretch. I couldn't tell which other stretch you wrote, but most stretches that lengthen a tight front hip can help. One that is functional for daily bending that you need to do anyway is Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs.

Hope to hear more about your successes. Send photos and I can post your continuing success in Readers Inspiring Stories.

Labels: abdominal muscles, fix pain, hip, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, posture, readers inspiring story, stretch

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Fast Fitness - One-Legged Party Trick for Strength, Flexibility, Balance

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - have fun while building balance, flexibility, coordination, concentration, and leg strength.

1. Stand on one foot with a can or other small container on the floor in front of you
2. While balancing on one leg, bend to lower yourself toward the floor
3. Retrieve something fun from the floor with your mouth - no hands.

Labels: balance, children, fast fitness, hip, leg strength, leg stretch, lunge, squat, strength, stretch

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Fast Fitness - First Morning Stretch

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - straighten out first thing in the morning and help your back feel good.

Instead of sitting on the bed first thing in the morning, which loads the discs, try this:

1. Before getting out of bed, turn face down propped gently on elbows
2. Hold briefly
3. Get out of bed without sitting.

Don't droop your head downward, jut your neck or chin forward, hunch your shoulders, or fold back sharply at the lower spine. Find a low gentle position that makes your whole back feel good. The idea is to feel better and straighter, not strain, force, or make your posture worse. That would be silly.

Also do this several times throughout the day. Feels good after long sitting and physical work.

For most people this stretch works well. If it hurts your lower back, go to a lower position. If you flatten completely straight and still feel pain or pinching in the lower back, then how can you stand up straight without the same problem? Don't use this First Morning Stretch until you find why it is not comfortable. One common reason is front hip tightness. Try the Quick Relaxing Hip Stretch.

Labels: disc, fast fitness, hip, hip stretch, leg stretch, lower back, posture, stretch

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Married 63 Years With Good Balance

Reader Joe Blatt recently celebrated his 63rd wedding anniversary. He was a Broadway choreographer and dancer.

He demonstrates how to keep good flexibility and balance through the ordinary daily activity of standing to put on shoes and socks, and tying your shoes.

• Click Ancient Shoe Exercise for Hip Stretch and Balance to learn more about keeping fit through this normal daily activity.
• Click Fast Fitness - Balance, Strength, Stretch, and Socks to see the short movie of it made by reader David from Belgium.

Moving in the way your body needs for daily function is a functional exercise. Use this functional exercise every day.

Labels: aging, balance, hip, hip stretch, leg stretch, readers inspiring story, stretch

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Fast Fitness - Relaxing Hip, Leg, and Groin Stretch

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - A nice stretch for inside leg and hip that does not involve sitting. It is called Rocket Ship:

1. Lie face down. Feel both hipbones touch flat on the floor.
2. Bring one knee out to the side. Don't rock or tilt to the side. Keep both hipbones flat on the floor.
3. Bring the other knee out to the other side. Breathe. Relax.

Photo is of reader Bernie Cleff, age 80, who:

• Fixed Leg Numbness, Back Pain, Flank Pain, Knee Pain, Nerve Pain, Three Unhealthy Surgeries,
• and demonstrated Quick Relaxing Hip Stretch
  
• and Dynamic Partner Balance Challenge.

Labels: fast fitness, hip, hip stretch, leg stretch, readers inspiring story, stretch

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Fast Fitness - Leap for Balance on Leap Year

Here is Friday Fast Fitness for the intercalary year (Leap Year) - Leap to develop ankle and knee stability, leg power, and balance.

1. Leap forward, landing on the other foot with soft shock absorption. Don't land hard, which jars joints.
2. "Stick" your landing, without wobbling or setting the first foot down.
3. 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.

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.

Labels: ankle, balance, fast fitness, feet, hip, holiday, impact, knee, leg strength, sprain

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Fast Fitness - Core Hip & Body, Posture Strength & Balance

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - training and challenging abdominal muscles to hold neutral spine.
Use this, not as an exercise to "do," but to use to retrain neutral spine. Reader Mike, who did a A Whole Big Fix sent this photo to illustrate:

1. Hold a plank.
2. Lift one arm straight in front.
3. Figure out which is the opposite leg and lift that one. Keep straight spine

Mike writes:

"Here's some more feedback on your exercises: it seems the more planks I do with opposite arm/leg extended, the less my hip pops, so I'm doing those every morning for about 4 sets of 10 sec. holds on each side, along with the side planks. Those seem to set my posture off right for the rest of the day. I'm using my hand and wrist muscles to take weight off the bones, as you've said, and my wrists, are getting stronger.

"BTW: my daughter's badminton coach has a PhD in exercise physiology and she's also a big fan of your site."

Labels: abdominal muscles, arm, fast fitness, hip, hip strength, leg strength, neutral spine, wrist, yoga

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Fast Fitness - Quick Relaxing Hip Stretch

Here is Fast Friday Fitness. A stretch for front hip muscles, often tight from sitting and counterproductive forward-bending exercises in fitness and Pilates classes

1. Lie over a bed or bench with hips right at the edge and legs dangling
2. Feel wonderful stretch in front hip muscles
3. If your lower back hurts, you are probably arching your lower back, as in the left photo, Click and read this post - Innovation in Abdominal Muscles. Correct it by tucking your hip (by flattening lower back) toward the bed - right photo.

Reader Bernie, age 80, supplied these photos. He had registered for my Fix Your Own Back Pain workshop but skipped it to do surgery instead. He returned to me in worse pain two years later. His story how we successfully fix the worsened situation is posted in:

• Fixing Leg Numbness, Back Pain, Flank Pain, Knee Pain, Nerve Pain, Three Unhealthy Surgeries, Part I
• and Fixing Leg Numbness, Back Pain, Flank Pain, Knee Pain, Nerve Pain, Three Unhealthy Surgeries, Part II

He also demonstrates:

• Fast Fitness - Dynamic Partner Balance Challenge
• and Fast Fitness - Relaxing Hip, Leg, and Groin Stretch.

Labels: fast fitness, hip, leg stretch, lower back, stretch

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A Whole Big Fix

This is the first part of a great reader story. Mike has been fixing many things. Pain started with a local radiating pain, then became much other pain. Mike looked for something to fix the first area, then ably used other techniques.

Mike writes,

"I'm sorry it's taken so long to write back. Along with teaching and family time I've been taking a graduate class and I've just finish my final project for the class. Now I have time. Here goes.

"Back in 1983 I developed a deep pain and spasms in my right buttock along with radiating pain down my leg. I had been running 40-90 miles per week as a high school and college cross-country/track/road runner. For the past 20+ years this pain has come and gone every week while lying down, walking, and mostly sitting, making it very difficult to work at a desk, sit at a class, and drive. I've assumed it was a type of sciatica and read and tried everything I could for relief.

"The only temporary relief I found was in cycling, which stopped the pain for up to 48 hrs after rides, so I ended up cycling for 20 years, including racing for a team for 2 years. All that cycling caused other problems including a slumped, impinged shoulder from a separated collarbone in a crash, tight hip flexors, allergies from all the car exhaust and desert riding, and too many close calls from SUVs with drivers calling, texting etc. in heavy traffic. I was eating far too many simple carbs for energy on these intense rides. I stopped cycling to improve my health, decrease my risks of collisions, and to save money on all that equipment.

"The pain and spasms in my rear and down my leg increased in frequency and duration. My shoulder was not improving despite a month of visits to a physical therapist. Through searching in the internet I came across Dr. Bookspan's Fitness Fixer and books in early 2007. The logical stretches and strengthening moves worked much better than anything I had tried before. One time during a long class my rear and leg were killing me, so I applied a stretch (I learned from one of the books) while sitting in the chair without anyone knowing. The pain went away for the rest of the class. (Since applying Dr. Bookspan's shoulder retraining) my shoulder rarely bothers me and I've gone months without any pain in my rear and down my leg.

"I've also been enjoying Jolie's books for the sections on nutrition, spirituality, mental focus and general health and exercise advice. Working on all the parts at once seems to help the individual parts even more. I'm now working on walking comfortably without orthotics (it's getting better) and figuring out why my left knee and right hip pop so much. I'm very fortunate that I'm without pain now though, thanks to Dr. Bookspan's advice.

"I've attached some photos of the (hip) moves and stretches that work for me. Thank you! Mike "

Just as I was uploading this post today, Mike wrote me:

"Just wanted to let you know that my wife had a lot of pain and tightness in her hip yesterday from squats without warming up enough and possibly poor technique. She was very uncomfortable in any position, even lying down. I showed her how to do the hip stretch that worked for me, from your book, and it IMMEDIATELY, stopped the pain and tightness and she still feels great the next day! Mike"

I asked Mike about his statement, "I stopped cycling to improve my health." His story will continue, I hope next week.

Labels: biking, computer, hip, orthotics, readers inspiring story, running, sciatica, shoulder, squat

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Fast Fitness - Balance, Strength, Stretch, and Socks

Here is Friday Fast Fitness with a new debut - web movies!

Fitness Fixer reader David D of Belgium has been making us many helpful mpegs. This one shows how to get several important physical skills and daily built-in fitness as a lifestyle by simply standing while dressing:

1. Stand with one ankle crossed over opposite knee
2. Put on your sock while balanced, safely.

If you want more, stay balanced and retrieve your shoe from the floor and put that on too. Stand to put on trousers and other clothes instead of sitting. The more you use balance, the more balance will develop.


Don't strain or force or round your back or make anything go pop. The idea is to learn to move in healthier ways, not unhealthy ones. The post Ancient Shoe Exercise for Hip Stretch and Balance explains more. Breathe. Have fun.

Labels: balance, fast fitness, hip, hip strength, hip stretch, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, video/movie

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Pearl is 97

After reading about success with exercise and stretching over various posts including Monday's Getting More From a Hip Stretch, reader Dr. Alan, sent this photo at right of his mother Pearl, age 97, stretching her hip. The straighter upright you sit, and the farther toward the ankle the leg is placed over opposite knee, the greater the stretch. If you are at your desk, try putting ankle over opposite knee, keeping the lifted knee under the desk. More stretch when low desk height keeps your knee down. Pearl also does the "ankle over knee" hip stretch while standing.

Pearl gets regular leg exercise through good bending as she goes about her busy days - she bends well with one foot in front of the other - the lunge, and with feet side by side - the half-squat. This post tells why this kind of bending gives better exercise, maintains mobility, and prevents various knee problems.

Thank you Pearl!

Labels: aging, hip, leg stretch, readers inspiring story, sitting, stretch

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Fast Fitness - Better Posterior Hip, Iliotibial, and Piriform Stretch

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Quickly improve a common stretch for the back and side of the hip.

Note step 2 and 3 which slides the supporting leg sideways. That change makes it different from the usual ankle over knee stretch:

1. Lie face up. Bend one knee to put one foot on the floor or bed, comfortably close to your backside. Other ankle crosses knee.
2. Notice which direction the raised foot is facing. Slide the other foot (the one on the floor or bed) and knee in that direction. Reader David demonstrates. In the left photo, the raised foot faces left. Move the whole leg on the floor to the left. Feel the stretch increase in the raised leg.
3. Switch sides. Right photo shows raised foot facing right. Slide supporting foot and knee sideways to the right.
   

This stretch is often called a piriform muscle (or pyriformis) stretch, but it stretches other hip muscles more. The piriform muscles are external rotators (turn the leg outward). More external rotation with the usual ankle over knee does not stretch it much. The changed foot position helps, and future posts will cover more on piriform.

Don't make this stretch hurt or send pain down the leg. The point is to relax and loosen the area, not tighten, constrict, and impinge. Breathe.

This is another 'ooh' stretch. As soon as you do it right, it feels good and you say ooh.

Labels: fast fitness, hip, hip stretch, iliotibial band, leg stretch, stretch

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Fast Fitness - Stronger, Straighter Upper Back

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Quickly strengthen and straighten the upper back, improve balance, and learn better shoulder position for reaching.

Last Fast Fitness Friday started this one for a strong base. Now that you have practiced, add the upper body:

1. Stand on one foot. Lift the other leg in back and bend at the hip until your body is perpendicular to your leg as in the photo, like the top bar in letter T. See how the body is straight in line with the brown field in the photo?
2. Hold both arms in front of you, parallel to the floor, hands level with, or above your head. Lift from your chest, not neck. Keep your shoulders down and back. Don't hunch or round your shoulder or it will impede raising the arms.
3. Hold straight as long as you can. Switch legs. Hold straight as long as you can.

Work with a mirror or friend until you can tell straight positioning on your own.
Want less? Raise only arm.
Breathe. Enjoy.

Labels: arm, balance, fast fitness, hamstring, hip, leg stretch, lower back, posture, shoulder, upper back

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Fast Fitness - Better Back and Backside Muscles

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Quickly strengthen lower back and backside muscles, improve balance, stretch your legs, and learn straighter positioning:

1. Stand on one foot.
2. Lift the other leg in back. Bend only at the hip until your entire body is parallel to the floor (like the top bar in letter T) as in the photo. Do not droop your leg down in back or droop your chest in front. Do not jut your chin forward. Chin in. Look in a mirror until you can tell straight positioning on your own.
3. Hold straight as long as you can. Switch legs. Hold straight as long as you can.

Want more? Do the same, standing tip-toe.

Labels: balance, fast fitness, hamstring, hip, hip stretch, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, posture

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Fast Fitness - Great Hip, Side, Leg, and Iliotibial (I.T. band) Stretch

Here is Friday Fast Fitness. Stretching the side of the hip and ilio-tibial (I.T. band) does several good things. Here is a fast, healthy way to do it:

1. Lie flat, face up.
2. Place legs like clock hands, one to 10 o' clock, the other to 2 o'clock (or wider).
3. Bring one ankle over the other, leaving the other at 10 (or 2 o'clock). Keep hips flat against the floor, don't tilt or twist. Legs straight. Hold. Switch.

This is an "ouu" stretch because when you do it right, you say "ouu." If you don't feel an instant great stretch, pull both legs more to the side. Ouu.

Smile, breathe.

Labels: fast fitness, hip, hip stretch, iliotibial band, leg stretch, lower back, stretch

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Lunges and Beans

To get a better lunge stretch and stop pressure on the medial knee (the side facing the other leg), don't turn your back leg outward (left photo). Turn your back foot parallel, and face forward (right photo)

The previous post Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs shows a key move to position the hip to get a great stretch on the front of the hip and feel a better strengthener for the legs as you lower and rise in standing lunges.

One of my students, Lily, demonstrates good hip and leg position for the lunge (second photo at right). Instead of tilting the hip forward in front and out in back, you tuck the bottom of the hip to maintain it vertical from the top of the leg (hip joint) to the middle of the waist. Note the stripe of the side of the pants compared to the vertical line in the wall behind her.

On occasion, Lily makes me a wonderful bean dish and brings it to class in a glass container. The glass is a thoughtful healthy touch to avoid whatever may leach out of plastics into food. My students and I try to do this with food and drinks carried to work and class. Here is her recipe. Just throw it all in a bowl:

Lily's Wonderful Beans

Cup or two of cooked black beans
Cup or two of corn
1 jalapeño pepper, diced
1 red onion, chopped
1 red pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons cumin powder
1 bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
sprinkle of olive oil, just enough to blend ingredients
squeeze 1 fresh lime over the top

Some people with celiac omit the corn. Celiac causes various discomforts after eating wheat and related products.

Good bending gives free exercise and stops a major cause of several chronic pain syndromes (muscle strain, disc degeneration, disc herniation, and sciatica) at the same time. Click the labels under this post for related posts. If you use the lunge and squat around the house for all the things you need to bend for instead of bad bending, you will stop a major source of back pain back, and get hundreds of free leg exercises a day. Enjoy healthy eating and healthy lunging.

Labels: celiac, disc, hip, hip strength, leg strength, leg stretch, lunge, nutrition, sciatica, stretch

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Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs

When you lunge to get a stretch, to strengthen, and to bend to reach or retrieve things, keep your hip vertical instead of tilting forward. You will feel a better strengthener for your legs and a wonderful stretch for the front of your hip.

Neither photo, above left, shows straight hip position. The left and right photos both show the hip tilted forward. The stripe in the pants tips forward between the top of the leg and the middle of the waist-band.

The photo below right shows straightening the hip. The moment you tuck the bottom of the hip under to straighten the hip, you will feel the stretch move to the front of the hip. If you use the lunge for bending and leg exercise, keep the hip tucked and vertical as you lower and you will feel a far better stretch and strengthener.

One way to do the hip tuck:

1. Put your hands on each hip, thumbs in back, fingers in front.
2. Roll your hip down in back so that your thumbs roll down in back.

The front of the hip and upper leg will feel very good when you do this right. You will feel the large arch reduce and the front of the hip stretch. The front of the hip is an area often overly-maintained in bent and shortened position from hours of sitting, then exercising with the hip still bent, as in the top-left photos.

Don't push the hip forward, just tilt the bottom under until vertical. This is the same hip tilt in:
Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique
and
Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine.

These two posts show the key to position your hip so that your lower spine returns to neutral position and the hip stops tilting. You get a nice stretch with the benefit of stopping one kind of lower back pain that comes from going around all day with your hip tilted forward.

Bending the legs with one foot in front of the other is one of two healthy ways to bend for all the daily bending around the house. Click here to see it. The half-squat with feet side by side is another. Click here to see it.

The lunge is not an exercise that you do ten times then bend wrong for the rest of the day. It is one of several ways to do healthy bending for all you do. Use the lunge, not as an exercise, but a retraining for healthy body function and easy fitness as a lifestyle.

Labels: hip, hip strength, hip stretch, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, lunge, squat

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Strengthen and Retrain Function With The Lunge

The previous post Leg Exercise That Helps Your Back introduced the lunge. The lunge can be a quick effective fitness and health enhancer when you understand that you use it for real life bending, not just as an exercise to do for a set number of "reps."

The idea is to use the lunge in a healthy way instead of bending over "wrong" for all the hundreds of times you bend around the house and workplace. Then you stop one of the major sources of back (and knee) pain and degeneration while you get free built-in exercise, calorie burning, and leg and hip stretch and strengthening. The post How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending shows just how many times every day you need to know this.

Reader Ivy from New Zealand sent in the photo above right showing a great way to bend for some of the many times you need to bend to reach and get things - the standing lunge:

• Upright torso
• Bending straight downward, not forward
• Front shin pretty much vertical
• Front knee over the foot
• Front knee does not sway inward. This is key in retraining knee stability during real life bending, stairs, and other movement.
  
• Back foot facing ahead, not turned out
• Front heel down. Better for knee and gives built-in Achilles stretch
• Feet nicely spaced
• Hands free, not on front leg
• The side-seam of the jeans from hip to waist-band is vertical, not tilting forward. It is somewhat hidden by Ivy's arm, I know. But the idea is important - do not tilt your hip forward to stick the backside out in back. Keeping the side seam vertical does several important things to strengthen and stretch, and keep neutral spine that I will cover in future posts on lunging.
• Looks comfortable and doable.

When using the lunge, do not bog down in "rules" over placement. The idea is to move in simple, healthy positioning, not hold yourself rigidly.

The post The Cause of Disc and Back Pain shows more on why healthy bending is key to fitness as a lifestyle, and Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending introduces the half-squat as one of several fit and healthy normal ways to bend for every day activities.

Going to a gym three times a week is not fitness as a lifestyle. Instead of "doing" exercise, lift, and bend, and move in healthy ways all the time for real fitness as a lifestyle. Give it a try and send in your success stories.

Labels: achilles stretch, hip, knee, leg strength, lunge, stretch

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Calories Burned in Prayer

Last week at the sports medicine conference, I talked to a researcher from Kuwait University. Dr. Jasem Ramadan presented a lovely little study called Bioenergetics of Islamic Prayers, measuring the amount of oxygen and calories the physical movements of the prayers burned.

Five standard prayers (Salat) are mandatory every day for every adult male and female Muslim. Each prayer has a continuous sequence of body movements (Rakkas) consisting of standing, bowing, kneeling and sitting. Each Rakka lasts between 3 and 6 minutes. Dr. Ramadan looked at the energy cost of two and four Rakka prayers in thirty-two male and female adults. He found that Salats have a positive effect on metabolic function. For an 80 kg person, energy cost of daily prayers was about 80 calories a day, and could be considered a form of physical activity that enhances fitness.

Dr. Ramadan told me, "The prayers have been done for thousands of years and no one thinks about it as physical exercise." I told him I think that often. I told him that Russian Orthodox prayer was pretty physical. A liturgy lasts hours, done standing and continuously crossing yourself from the floor in a squat to high overhead. Everyone including the oldest people do this, up and down, and up and down, and up and down, stretching and squatting, reaching and bending. I always thought it was group community health activity, probably found long ago to be protective against many ailments (and attributed divinely). The original yogas were the same, reaching upward to exalt the heavens, bowing, kneeling, prostrating, rising, over and over.

I told Dr. Ramadan that many Westerners aren't comfortably able to do the kneeling Rakka shown in Healthy Toe Stretches or rise to a stand without using their hands, as in the post Quick and Easy Strength and Balance Exercise, not only the elderly, but the rest of the population too.

He seemed surprised and interested. I told him I believed that this lack of basic human movement for real daily life was a major contributor to the epidemic numbers of people who are too weak and unstable to get up unassisted, to walk without canes and walkers, have trouble taking stairs, have poor balance, and for much knee and hip pain and degeneration. Dr. Ramadan said that elders in his country do not suffer knee and hip arthritis in high numbers, and can easily rise from the floor into their old age. I told him that many Westerners are familiar with a device that is worn, with a button to press for help if they cannot get up from the floor or chair. At this point, he was sure I was kidding.

If you cannot get up from the floor or low chair easily without using your hands, you likely have dangerously decreased leg strength and balance. Use good bending to strengthen your legs and knees many times a day and improve your fitness, explained in the post How Often Should You Be Healthy? Use healthy movement every day to sit, rise, bend right, clean, garden, give thanks, stretch, take stairs, and play to get healthy functional exercise, and prevent common joint pain. That is fitness as a lifestyle.

Labels: aging, arthritis, balance, fix pain, hip, hip stretch, knee, leg strength, leg stretch, strength, stretch, weight loss, yoga

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What is Neutral Spine and Why Does Sticking Out In Back Harm?

"Neutral spine" is an often-used phrase in exercise and back pain rehab. What does your spine have to do to be neutral? What does it matter?

In general, (this interesting topic can be involved) think of a line through the crest of your hipbone from back to front. The line from the top bump in back (medical abbreviation is PSIS) to the top bump in front (ASIS) should be approximately horizontal (left-hand figure in the drawing).

If you let your spine slouch so that the front of the hip (ASIS) drops downward and the back of the hip tilts outward in back, the small normal inward curve of the lower back increases (drawn figure on right). The spine is no longer neutral. It is over-arched.

Another way to see the anterior hip tilt when the spine is over-arched is to check the line from the ASIS to where the pelvic bones meet in front, called the symphysis pubis (PS). When you hold your spine in neutral, the line from ASIS to PS will be vertical (left drawing). When the ASIS tilts forward and the behind sticks out in back (right drawing and photo), this is an anterior tilt to the hip. The spine is no longer neutral. It is arched - hyperlordotic.

The anterior tilt is easy to see when people stand arched. It is a little harder to measure. Since some experimental subjects are disconcerted to have measuring devices put on their symphysis pubis (PS), the line can, instead, be drawn from the top of the leg bone to the center of the crest of the hipbone. The blue line in the left drawing is vertical, showing the hip is straight and level. When this line tilts forward in front and back at the bottom, that is an anterior tilt to the hip. Note the arrow drawn onto the photo showing the abdomen sticking out in front and the behind pushed out in back. The photo shows standing with pronounced hyperlordosis - too much arch or inward curve to the lower back.

In my laboratory work, I have identified three ways the spine can become hyperlordotic. The anterior hip tilt is one. Hyperlordosis pinches and compresses the lower spine. By any name - overarching, anterior hip tilt, swayback, hollowback, sticking out in back - hyperlordosis is a common contributor to lower back pain. The area may ache after long standing, walking, running, or lifting overhead. Eventually, (over years) overarching can damage the spine joints called facets and nearby structures.

Holding the hip and spine in neutral and not letting the hip tilt forward happens to use a particular set of muscles - your abdominal muscles. Strengthening the abs does not automatically keep the spine neutral. Tightening the abs also does not move the spine to neutral. Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine explains more of why. Simply moving your own spine on purpose and holding healthful position as you go about your activities is how you keep your spine neutral and not sinking into injurious overarching.

Hyperlordosis during daily movement and exercise, and how to prevent the injuries it causes, have been an area of my laboratory investigations for years. I have done several interesting experimental studies (interesting to me, anyway). Upcoming posts will tell a bit about them.

Book:

• Fixing the pain of hyperlordosis and how to get more effective abdominal exercise - The Ab Revolution™

Labels: abdominal muscles, fix pain, hip, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, posture

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Leg Stretch that Strengthens Arms

Readers have e-mailed for more upper body strengtheners.

Increasing upper body strength helps many things. The post Quick and Fun Arm and Body Strengthener listed several benefits to your health and daily activities, and gave a quick, fun upper body strengthener that needs no weights or equipment, no trip to the gym, can be done in the home or office, and improves balance at the same time. It is not as hard as it looks.

Consult the post link and exercise your brains and common sense first:

1. Crouch down in front of a wall (drawing 1).
2. Put one foot up high on the wall (drawing 2).
3. Raise the other so that both feet are on the wall (drawing 3) to produce a quick and easy to do handstand.
4. Hold yourself steady. Relax and breathe.
5. The above link explained how to use this easy handstand to do various other exercises to progressively strengthen.

To add an effective leg stretch:

1. While holding the wall handstand, gently, carefully, lower one foot on the wall, then lift the other foot far away from the wall
2. Open legs overhead into a wide split (drawing at left)
3. Hold, breathe, relax, enjoy
4. Switch legs to stretch the other side.

This stretch feels great and is fun to do. As far as I have been able to determine, it is good for the shoulder (as long as you don't fall on it or do something not intended in this stretch).

Hold weight on your hand and forearm muscles instead of only mashing your wrists back to keep this move a good strengthen for the wrist, which is often needed to prevent wrist pain.

This fun exercise improves balance and is effective to improve your ability to hold body positioning steady - two important skills for health. Use your muscles to hold your torso straight, without letting it sag and sway.

Have fun and develop fun healthy movement with this combination stretch, balance exercise, and strengthener. This stretch and others for all ability levels is in the book Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier.

Labels: arm, balance, hip, leg stretch, strength, stretch, wrist

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Why So Many Aerobics Injuries?

A recent New York Times article quotes aerobics teachers and devotees saying they now have painful, chronic injuries from years of aerobics classes. Why did this happen?

I receive frequent e-mails from aerobics instructors, many only in their 20s and 30s, saying they are too old to continue teaching because of pain and injuries from teaching. I am older than their parents. At the schools and clubs where I teach classes, teachers and trainers are often absent, or replaced, because of herniated discs.

The Times article quotes major aerobics spokespeople, attributing the injuries to jumping on "concrete floors in bad tennis shoes," and related how former well-known-names in the aerobics industry now teach low impact classes. The article continued, "A lot of people doing aerobics back then can no longer do any jumping whatsoever. They have problems with their backs, feet and hips."

Conventional "impact activities" are not the problem.

• In the years I spent in the lab studying injuries, seeing patients, and teaching students, I have found that the problem is not that impact must be avoided. I see patients who are instructors of Pilates, stretch, yoga, rowing, martial arts, and Alexander technique for degenerating joints. It is simple misuse.
• It is not that people are doing the exercises "wrong" but the movements themselves.
• If you saw someone bend over at the waist or hips to hoist a suitcase or child, you know it is bad bending and it hurts the back. The same people will bend over the same way to lift weights in a gym or do yoga stretches. It is the same disc-injuring bending in all cases.
• The post Common Exercises Teach Bad Bending gives interesting examples from a class that is "low-impact." Wear occurs on the lower back and neck discs regardless of how expensive and engineered the aerobics shoes.
• The post Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy? shows you how to put the knowledge of bad positioning together in your mind with how people are exercising, to realize it is not rocket science when people have pain, even though they "do their exercises."

You can run, jump, walk without jarring impact

• Many people walk with higher impact than a good martial artist will kickbox.
• Many people are unnecessarily restricted from favorite sports and told to walk instead, based on the fallacy that running or tennis is necessarily higher impact, instead of looking at how heavily they clomp around letting spine, hips, knees, and ankles sag and grind.
• One story with helpful links is told in You Can Fix Your Own Knees.
• Another is Walking Softly Benefits Olympic Wrestler
  

What about body weight?

• Many of my obese patients with knee pain stand and walk with their knees in sagging positions. This is not a consequence of their body weight.
• When I show them to simply hold their knee from knocking inward (or outward) by using their own muscles to hold straight, the pain quickly goes away. They say that they can then, for the first time, *do* any real exercise to lose weight.
• Lightweight people can have the same knee and other pain. They may move heavily without good shock absorption or hold joints in angled painful ways.

The post When Did Health Become Thinking Out of The Box? explains more of why you don't have to have pain from exercising or even long sitting while studying (or watching TV). I don't take people away from their favorite activities when injured. I even use their sport as rehab, showing them how to do it in healthier ways so that they can do more, lift more, and run more than before, not less. Health care should not be "Limit to the patient to limit the pain."

Read Inspiring Patient Stories on my web site - how patients fixed their own pain and could do more than before.

Labels: ankle, disc, fix pain, hip, injury, knee, martial arts, planter fasciitis, shoes, yoga

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Which Shoes Help Exercise, Fall Prevention, and Ankles?

We are in the cold, damp Tennessee mountains for the rest of the week, teaching at a medical school program of wilderness medicine. It should be warmer than home in the Northeast US where it's snowing, and the Schuylkill River, and water bottle on my bicycle are frozen. I won't have Internet or phone access at the wilderness camp. Unflagging Healthline staffer Carrie Locke is posting the blogs for me all week. Thank you Carrie, once again.

For wilderness treks and hikes, and everyday walking, you need to walk on uneven surfaces without stumbling or spraining your ankles. Expensive shoes, inserts, arch supports, braces, ankle supports, and orthotics are sold on the belief that they are needed to hold your foot and ankle in position. However, this is an expensive fallacy.

You are the one who can hold your ankles in straight position or let them sag into foot pronation. You don't need, or even want, shoes that hold your ankles straight for you. Without use, your ankle muscles weaken. With shoe support, your ankle doesn't have to work to hold itself. It gets weaker. It forgets how. It is the opposite of what is needed.

It is not high top shoes or ace bandages or taping or orthotics that prevent falls and ankle sprains, or prevent ankles from sagging inward or "pronation." The most important thing you can do for healthy ankles and preventing sprains is to use your own leg muscles, and simply hold your ankles without sagging, the same as any other posture. Think of a beginning skater. At first, they let their ankles bend and sag inward. They do not know how to hold their legs using their own muscles. Eventually, they learn to hold straight, healthful positioning.

Letting your ankles sag inward can press the joints of your arches, ankles, knees, even hips. In most instances, supportive shoes and inserts are no more needed than putting your mouth in a sling to keep it from falling open when you walk around. Thinking that you need supportive shoes to brace uninjured ankles for hiking and walking is a common myth that perpetuates weak, unstable ankles. Many people who use arch supports never learn how to use their own muscles, and are told to never go barefoot. This is an unfortunate and unnecessary restriction to their health.

The post Healthy Knees shows what inward-sagging knee positioning looks like and how to fix it. It is easy to do and makes an immediate and important improvement to your joint health.

Often in wilderness settings, I see hikers in expensive boots. The native mountain guides and pack-bearers are wearing flip-flops. This is not just a salary inequality. It is not that the guides don't know ankle health. They know something crucial - the health of your ankles comes from your own muscles. You will save much money on footwear and products that prevent your foot and ankle muscles from working, and you will get free, built-in leg and foot exercise with every step.

Read more how to have healthy ankles and ankle support in the book Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery.

Labels: ankle, arches, feet, hip, orthotics, pronation, shoes

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Making Thai Massage Healthier Part II - Avoid Snapping Elbows or Knees Backward

The previous two posts told a little about Thai massage and some of the benefits and pitfalls.

Some massage practioners say that Thai massage is an "energy-based" system, not a physical one. However, there are direct physical moves that bring direct physical change, both good and bad.

Many of the stretches of Northern style Thai massage can be helpful to restore length to tight muscles so that you can restore healthy body positioning. For example, in the photo at left, the legs are lifted upward so that the front of the hip is gently stretched. The practitioner puts their foot on the back of the the person's hip to prevent the lower back from being overly-arched by the stretch and to concentrate the stretch more on the front hip muscles. This is a beneficial stretch because the front of the hip is often tight from long sitting and faulty standing positioning. This Thai massage stretch restores length to the front hip muscles.

There are a few moves that are usually better to skip. Some practitioners may straighten your elbow or knee too quickly and too much, sometimes adding a forceful snap. The elbow and knee joints are not shaped to hyper-extend. Hyperextension means to go more than a normally straight position. Hyperextending the knee or elbow can damage the joint and strain the cartilage. In the photo, the knees are bending normally.

It is not usually healthful to snap a joint, especially repeatedly over time, to reach the end of its range of motion. Although many of us learned to do this in massage school, and were taught that the snapping and hyperextending motion has benefits, it is better to skip joint snapping, and do other moves that have benefit without harm.

Next:
Keeping Thai Massage Healthy Part III - Should You Do "The Blood Stop?"

Previous Fitness Fixer Posts on Thai Massage:
Changing Thai Massage to Be Healthier Part I - Avoid Pressuring Lower Back Discs
What is Thai Massage?

Labels: elbow, hip, knee, massage, stretch

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What is Thai Massage?

There are many claims for massage, some real and some exaggerated or false. I searched for methods that provide real benefit. I studied sports massage in India and Nepal, and in certification programs of Shiatsu in Japan, TuiNa in China, and Nuad Borarn, (which is Thai for "ancient massage") in programs in the United States and Thailand. We are here in Thailand now, working on many projects.

Thai massage has been called "Yoga Done For You." You rest comfortably on the floor on a soft mat, clothed, except for bare feet. There is no rubbing as in Swedish massage, but pressing and wonderful stretches.

The person associated with founding or codifying Thai Massage was Shivaga (or Jivaka) Komalaboat. Some practitioners in the United States call him Dr. Zhivago, like the main character Yuri Andreyevich Zhivago in the Russian epic by Boris Pasternak. But that is just a funny mispronunciation.

The "Father Doctor" or "Hermit Doctor" Jivaka is reported to have been born in northern India, and became a doctor of traditional medicine. According to some sources, he was a contemporary, even advisor, of The Buddha and great kings. He moved to what is now Tibet. His teachings came to Thailand and Burma over a thousand years ago. Father Jivaka is so important to traditional medicine throughout all these areas that he is also called the "Thrice Crowned King of Tibetan medicine." Drawings and statues of him, many with small shrines, are common in massage and medicine schools and pharmacies.

Many Thai massage stretches and movements are used in traditional Western sports medicine to reset resting muscle length, and find and relieve unhealthy muscle and joint tensions. I learned these techniques in school in the United States when I studied orthopedics. When I first came to Thailand to train and compete in martial arts, I was surprised to find they were established techniques for massage, and helpful for boxers recovering from injuries and strenuous training and matches. The photo, to the left, shows a nice stretch for the front of the hip. Several past posts explained how important it is to stretch the anterior hip. Most people keep the hip bent forward in a shortened position all day for sitting, then only bend forward more to exercise with crunches, pilates moves, toe touches, and others. A tight, shortened anterior hip contributes to many pain syndromes, and results in not being able to use hip and leg muscles properly when walking and exercising.

Many Thai massage moves are helpful. There are a few Thai massage moves that can be unhealthy. When I give or teachThai massage, I omit the unhealthy moves. When I get Thai massage at home in Thailand, it is an art to politely manage to stop the tiny practitioners from holding you in an iron grip to calmly apply these moves. I will cover what is beneficial in Thai massage and what to avoid in posts to come. If you want to come study Thai massage with me in the States, see my web site.

Photo by Jolie

Labels: hip, martial arts, massage, performance enhancing modality, yoga

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Better Hip Stretch - Check Your Ankles

We are on the long trip south to Malaysia. The next posts will tell the interesting story of why. The previous post Unhealthy Yoga Ankles showed how you can reduce the good stretch on the hip and increase a bad stretch on the ankles by letting your ankle bend inward instead of keeping the ankle joint straight when sitting cross legged.

Look at the photo, at left, of the good positioning of the people, sitting to chat, in the morning of the overnight train ride. Besides their good upright sitting positioning, note the straight ankle position. They do not turn the outside of ankle, but get the needed stretch to sit with knees out, from the hip - a better stretch.

Good positioning is common in people of all ages here in Asia. People of all ages, even aged people, sit easily this way to eat, travel, or read the paper. Fitness as a lifestyle is not difficult and does not require exercise machines or gyms or trainers.

Related Fitness Fixer:

• Spot and avoid overstretching the outside of the ankle - Fast Fitness - Develop Ankle Stability Sense While Stretching.

Labels: ankle, hip, leg stretch, posture, sitting, stretch

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Improve Stretch and Strength With Better Kicking

Thai boxing (Muay Thai) kicks are among the most devastating and effective kicks in the world. Thai fighters spend hours a day kicking heavy bags and posts, and years toughening their legs and shins for kicks and blocks by bashing them with pipes and against coconut trees. A blow from a Muay Thai fighter's leg is like a blow from a club.

When you practice moves that lift the leg for martial arts training, for self-defense, for dancing, or for exercise in an aerobics class, watch for several bad habits that increase strain on muscles and joints, and reduce effectiveness of the kick. It is not the point to kick someone else and wind up injuring yourself.

1. Look at the photo, above left. The teacher is holding his hip and neck straight. The blocking student is not. The orange arrow at the student's leg shows how, when the student lifts the left leg, the right leg pulls forward instead of remaining straight at the hip. This is a sign of tightness at the hip and poor technique. He needs to stretch the front of his hip and retrain kicking and blocking technique to prevent this common bad habit. Read more on this in the posts, Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise? and Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs.

2. Next, check the white arrow at the student's belt line. It is tilting up in front. The teacher's hip remains level as the leg is raised. Curling the back and letting the hip roll under, as shown by the white middle arrow is another sign of tight hip muscles in the front and back of the hip, and poor movement habits. When you raise one leg to kick, block, prepare to kick, do a knee strike (whatever), check if you curl your hip or round your back. Hold your back straight and upright for more exercise, a built-in hip stretch, and more effective technique.

3. Third, note the black arrow showing how the student rounds the upper back and neck forward, instead of holding straight. With practice, the student will learn to hold the neck straight as the teacher is doing.

For all the exercise you do (kick, block, ascending stairs, whatever is done raising one leg), keep healthful positioning. Yes, rounding the back is taught, and done for fighting, but you will be beating yourself up in the long run. You can still be an effective fighter and at the same time, prevent hurting yourself with common strains from unhealthful technique, plus get more exercise with healthier ways.

Previously:

• Thai Boxing

Related Fitness Fixer:

• Fast Fitness - Hidden Source of Groin Pulls
• Fast Fitness - Don't Shorten Hip When Stretching Hamstring
• Black Belt Hall of Fame - Black Belts and Black Tie
  
• Muay Thai Monks on Horseback
  
  

Labels: disc, fix pain, hamstring, hip, injury, knee, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, martial arts, neck, partner exercise, posture, shoulder, spirit, upper back

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Exercise and Stretch for Long Travel Sitting

We have just gotten home to Thailand after over 40 hours of flights. It would have taken longer to walk here, so we are happy. We unfolded husband Paul, just under seven feet tall, from the seat. During the next month and a half we will travel on 14-hour overnight trains and ferries to places we need to be. Paul will practice good bending almost everywhere as he tries to fit under low Asian doorways, roofs, and bus ceilings, bow lower than the old people, and stand and sit with his head lower than the head of the monks, as is respectful.

Most people sit a great deal even without long travel. Sitting puts higher pressure on the back and spine than standing. Long sitting pressures the back far more. Sitting also means keeping the hip bent forward at the crease of the leg. The muscles in front of the hip shorten and tighten. When most people exercise, their exercise is usually more bending forward. The result for most people is that the hip stays bent almost all the time. Much tightness results that prevents normal hip function, and reinforces the same tight, bent positioning that is so hard on the spine.

Long airline flights sometimes provide a video or printed message encouraging in-seat exercise and stretching. Often the advice is forward bending. That is the last thing most people needs. Instead, try the following:

• Stretch your back and shoulders backward, not forward. Pull your chin in while pushing your upper back backward against the seat back. Stretch arms overhead. Breathe.
• Lean the back of your head and upper back against the seat, press your feet on the floor, and raise your hips, trying to straighten your hip at the "crease" of the leg. Don't bend your neck forward; leep it straight. You will feel your thigh and hip muscles working to do this.
• Turn in your seat to each side to brace your elbow against the seat back for the pectoral stretch, shown in Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain.
• Stretch the back of your legs by straightening your knees and pulling your toes back using your shin muscles.
• Increase leg circulation by pressing both feet against each other, then cross your ankles and pull both feet outward against each other, then cross your ankles the other way and repeat. Try it again with both legs out in fron, as in the stretch above.
• Get out of your seat as often as you can. Restore length to the front of your hip with the hip-tilt quadriceps stretch shown in Instantly Better Hip and Quadriceps Stretch.
• With one foot far in front of you and the other in back (lunge position) tip your hip under you to stretch the front of your hip. As soon as you tilt your hip under, you will feel the difference. While holding the hip tilt, bend both knees to dip straight down almost to the floor, then up. Do many, then switch legs and do many more.
• It is easy and unobtrusive to do wall stretches while waiting for the rest room: Rest your head, heels, hip, and upper back against the wall, described in the post Breasts Causing Upper Back Pain is a Myth. Bring both arms overhead, hands touching the wall. Lean your body far to one side then the other. Keep both hands touching the wall. When Paul does this one, his head is often either against the ceiling or he can't stand up fully at all, depending on the type of aircraft. He bends knees and grasps each elbow overhead, keeping elbows touching the wall behind him. For other people short enough to fit standing up, just stand straight.
• Then stand a step away from the wall and stretch arms overhead and back to touch the wall, fingers pointing downward. Straighten elbows as much as comfortable and keep the stretch coming from your upper back, not lower back.

Click labels under this post for more on each topic.
More stretches in the book Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier.

Labels: circulation, fix pain, hip, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, sitting, stretch, upper back

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Ancient Shoe Exercise for Hip Stretch and Balance

Readers have been asking what happened to the weekly reports of my martial arts classes. Others wanted to hear about my other classes including yoga. My martial arts students continued becoming skilled and disciplined. Next semester I will post some of the fun drills they do to build natural strength, discipline, and flexibility using themselves and each other instead of weights and equipment. In my yoga classes we learn that the poses themselves are not what gives good posture and focus. We learn what healthy positioning is, then apply it to how to move for daily life after walking out of the class.

In my sports medicine practice, I regularly see yoga teachers as patients for back, knee, and neck pain. That is because several yoga moves are not good for anyone - just as not all food is healthful. Many moves are fine, but other traditional poses injure joints, even when done "right" (or especially when done right), like bending over from a stand or a sitting position, whether the back is rounded or straight. We omit those moves and use others that are better stretches without the degenerating forces on the lower back and neck discs, for example, Healthier Hamstring Stretching. You don't have to injure yourself to get exercise. Fitness is supposed to be healthy.

This week in yoga we did a fun, effective hip stretch. We stood on one foot and reached for the other ankle crossed over the bent standing knee (drawing at left). When we do this, we practice the daily healthy position of keeping the upper body upright and straight, with the chin in, not craned forward. One new student was not happy with my class. She was used to sitting on the floor in classes she ordinarily took. She was peeved that we did so much standing. Although people call yoga "mind and body," she didn't like that we used the body. Although people frequently say that yoga is about understanding and light, she whined and complained and cursed me under her breath for most of the class. She wanted to know why I was making everyone do an extreme and bizarre movement.

I told the class it was healthy and happy to do this move every day. I pointed to my crossed foot and spoke the name of this ancient move - "Putting on shoe."

I hope you will try this too, to get a normal and healthy hip stretch and better balance everyday. Remember that most of the world stands to dress - the ones lucky enough to have shoes. Stand up now and try it. You will get free balance, healthy hip stretch, and leg strengthening every day from daily life. When you get good at this fun move, keep your ankle crossed and bend the standing leg enough for you to reach to the floor to retrieve your other shoe or sock. Keep your chest up and your back straight to prevent practicing unhealthful rounded position. Even though this one bends over, it does not transfer the pivot force to the lower discs for several reasons.

Have fun adding new healthy movement to your New Year. Write your stories and take photos of how you make your life better by fixing your fitness to be functional and healthy. Send link to your photo sharing site of your examples, and I can put you up in lights as a role model for healthier life.

Related Fitness Fixer:

• What Does Stretching Do?
• Getting the Right Yoga Medicine
• The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
• Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch
• Better Balance by Christmas
  
  
  

Labels: achilles stretch, balance, hip, hip stretch, leg strength, leg stretch, strength, yoga

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Don't Confuse Exercise With Real Fitness

Reader Dr. Zoe Eppley e-mailed, "I have been trying to apply your "bending right" approach to my daily activities. I find my tight leg and hip muscles seriously limit my ability to squat. Could you please recommend some stretches that will help?"

I receive this inquiry often. People are realizing that they are too tight to move in healthy ways for normal everyday life. I hear it from instructors of aerobics, yoga, Plates, personal trainers, and many others. This is an important epiphany. If you are too tight to move in healthy ways, then it is likely that you spend every day of your life moving in tight ways that create pain and perpetuate tightness.

The good news is you do not need to "do" stretches and exercises. Keep bending right and you will get exactly the stretch and strengthening you need. My most important message that I stress in all my work about exercise is not to "do exercises" but get crucial, functional, effective exercise by moving in healthy ways during normal everyday life.

People spend fortunes on treatments for pain, gadgets, potions, pills, prescriptions, adjustments, and ongoing medical scans and tests. Tightness and body pain is often made to be a mystery because it persists even after surgery and exercise programs. The reason is that they don't stop the cause. My successful techniques for fixing pain, even the most resistant back, neck, knee, and other musculoskeletal pain, emphasizes that you don't "do exercises" but simply stop the source of the injury by stopping unhealthy injurious movement patterns, and using healthy ones. Many people do ten repetitions of an exercise and hold each stretch for 30 seconds, then go back to unhealthy moving, sitting, bending, walking, exercising, and everything else that caused their pain and tightness in the first place.

If you are too tight to use your legs to bend down and get back up without using your hands or getting help, you need the hard realization that you lack normal function. It may be common in Western society to not be able to lift your own body, but it is dangerously unhealthy weakness.

Dr. Zoe e-mailed me a second time and mentioned watching an Indi-pop movie. She noticed the healthy posture and flexibility of the actors and how easily they squatted. She wisely reflected that she had probably lost much flexibility by not using normal bending and from "spending my life in chairs."

Keep bending right with your heels down, knees back, and your body upright. You will stretch your Achilles tendon and hip, and strengthen your thighs and knees hundreds of times a day - every time you bend.

One fun way to greatly help your bending is not a specific stretch or exercise but another normal daily activity: apply the same healthy positioning to ascending any set of stairs. I will post more about stairs, as it is interesting and enlightening. Until then, any time you go up stairs, notice if you tilt forward and let your heels lift. Instead:

• keep your heel down as you step up,
• keep your knee back over your ankle as you step up, instead of sliding your knee forward,
• keep your body upright.

Use healthy positioning for both bending and stairs and you will quickly gain functional and healthy strength and flexibility.

Related Fitness Fixer:

• What is "Fitness as a Lifestyle?"
• Bending Right is Fitness as a Lifestyle
• Healthy Aging Starts Now - Part II
• Good Life Works Better Than Bad Ab Exercise
• Fitness and Health as a Lifestyle for Thanksgiving
• Want Weightlifting? Plant A Food Garden
• Fast Fitness - Balance, Strength, Stretch, and Socks
• Better Balance by Christmas

Labels: achilles stretch, balance, fix pain, hip, hip strength, knee, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, practice of medicine, squat, yoga

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Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?

Most people know that sitting badly at your desk, as in the left-hand photo, is unhealthy.

• It is easy to see that he is rounding his back forward.
• He is not sitting up.
• His ear is far forward of his shoulder (even with his shoulders so rounded that the shoulders are forward too).
• He is jutting his head and chin forward.
• The weight of his head is straining on the muscles and joints of his upper back.

The post Breasts Causing Upper Back Pain is a Myth explained how the bad body ergonomics of rounding forward is a common cause of upper back and neck pain, often mistaken for "stress," even contributing to pain down the arm as you slump the weight of your upper body on nerves that go down the arm, compressing them. The post Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix showed how the forward bend to the spine squeezes your discs of your neck and lower back, gradually degenerating them and forcing them outward, which is called herniation.

Now look at the right hand photo of the bicyclist. The rounded forward positioning is the same. It does not magically become healthy because you are calling it an exercise. It is just as unhealthy whether you are at your desk, on a stationary or real bicycle, on an exercise ball, motorcycle, or in the car.

What to do instead is simple. Sit up. Don't round your back. Are you rounding forward reading this right now? In a chair at your desk:

• Pull your chair in closer to the desk.
• Put your hips all the way back against the seat back.
• Lean your upper back against the seat back, not your lower back.
• Gently bring shoulders and chin back.
• Have your chair far enough in to rest your arms on the desk. Don't crane your wrists to type. I will write more about wrist pain. It should not come from keeping arms comfortably on the desk, which keeps the weight of your arms from hanging forward on your neck.
• Don't push your lower back against the seatback. Many seat backs are rounded outward so that you have to sit bent forward if you rest your back against them. If the seat back is concave, put a small cushion (or loosely rolled towel or shirt) about as small as your forearm in the space between the seat back and your lower back. Do not press against the roll - that makes the useless to stop back pain.
  

Don't tighten and strain to sit straight. It is common to be so tight from a lifestyle of forward rounding that sitting straight is not comfortable. Do the pectoral stretch in Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain, then use the wall test in the same article to check if the stretch worked. On a bike, unless you are in a high level race, straighten up. It is simple. Healthy.

Why exercise in unhealthy ways? Watch people at the gym and in life. Notice how often fitness publications ask you to practice being bent over forward. Instead, get free built-in back muscle exercise and prevent strain and pain just by sitting with healthy positioning.


More on lumbar rolls and how to make sitting comfortable, in the book Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery

Labels: disc, hip, lower back, neck, posture, practice of medicine, shoulder, sitting, upper back, wrist

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Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs

Tuesday night my martial arts students showed they had improved. When I came in they were waiting in two neat rows. I still had to cue them to sit up straight.

In the post Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise? I mentioned showing the class not to let their neck, back, and hip round forward when kicking. By straightening, strength and stretch are built into regular movement.

Several readers e-mailed me that they noticed for the first time that they let one leg pull forward when lifting the other (notice the standing leg in the left-hand photo, at left). They said they felt a good difference when they straightened (right photo).

If the front muscles of your hip are tight, when you lift one leg high you may find that you round your back and bend the other leg. Watch for this during kicks in martial arts and aerobics, when lying on your back raising one leg overhead to stretch the hamstrings, and ascending stairs. The common practice of allowing the other leg to bend forward perpetuates a tight anterior hip, which in turn, contributes to walking bent forward and back pain.

In martial arts, you don't want your standing leg completely straight. That is an invitation for your opponent to kick your knee, snapping it backward. But for both health and effective martial movement, you don't want to bend the leg more than a small amount. Bending the back, hip, and leg when kicking decreases force of the kick, pressures your discs, and reduces stretch on the hip and hamstrings. The rounded-under hip position keeps the hip tight, a hidden cause of groin pulls. It also looks weak and unskilled. For lying hamstring stretches with one leg overhead, it is often taught to keep the second leg bent to "protect the back." However, keeping the leg (and body) flat on the floor give a far better stretch and is healthier for your back. Even in slow easy motions of stair climbing, leaning forward and allowing the second leg to pull forward reduces the normal hamstring and hip stretch, decreases the exercise on your hip and leg muscles, and reduces the back muscle activation for holding the straight position you need for health and back pain prevention.

It is said the martial arts gives you discipline and strength. It won't if you practice unhealthy habits. When raising one leg, hold your neck and back upright. Prevent the other leg from pulling forward. You will get a built-in hip stretch, one of the places you need to stretch most. You will get back and hip exercise in the way you need to move in real life, and prevent tightness and weakness that leads to poor movement and pain. You will change from kicking like a bent over old lady to a young strong athlete. Exercise as a lifestyle is not something done "for body parts." It is built into your normal movement to make it healthy movement.


Photo (and more healthy techniques) from the book Healthy Martial Arts

Labels: achilles stretch, balance, chest, disc, hamstring, hip, hip stretch, knee, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, martial arts, neck, posture, stairs, strength, stretch, upper back

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Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique

My Tuesday night martial arts students had another good class tonight. At the beginning of class, I showed them how to greatly strengthen their punch using a technique that also stops a common cause of lower back pain. The reason both benefits occur from one technique is that it changes body positioning to shift the effort and leverage of the punch off your lower back and onto the muscles of your abdomen and back. You can use this technique any time you punch, or push anything from a baby carriage to a piece of furniture to a car.

One of the commonest misconceptions in fitness is that you are supposed to stick your behind out in back. It is not cute or healthy. It is a major source of pressure on the joints and soft tissue of your lower spine.

There is supposed to be a small inward curve to the lower back for shock absorption and protection of the discs. (But only a small curve.) When people lose the needed small inward curve by rounded forward sitting, standing, and bending over wrong, it pressures the discs and eventually damages them (Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix). The problem is that people hear they need a small inward curve, so they make a big one by tilting their hip and/or leaning their upper body backward. This overarches their lower back. You can see this silly-looking and unhealthy over-arching in many fitness classes and gyms, and fitness publications and videos.

By straightening your hip, you will have the healthy small curve without sticking your behind out in back. When standing, your hip should be vertical, not tilted, from the top of your upper leg bone to the middle-point of the crest of your hip. To reduce the large lower back arch, tilt your hip under you as if you are starting an abdominal crunch while standing up. Do not push your hip forward, just straighten your back by changing the hip angle. This is called a pelvic tilt. This is what we did in class. Try this:

• Look at the double photo above left, and stand facing a wall as in the photo, with one arm outstretched. Put the knuckles of your curled fist against the wall as if you had just punched the wall. Elbow slightly bent.
• Stand badly, as shown in the left-hand photo. Stick your behind out in back. Let your lower back arch inward. Let your upper back lean backward. Press your fist hard into the wall. You will probably feel pressure in your lower back.
• Now, keep pressing your fist hard but stop the bad positioning by tucking your hip under you, shown in the right-hand photo. The movement is like a hip thrust or a standing crunch. The arch in your lower back reduces.
• The first thing you will notice if you do this right is your back stops hurting. You should also notice a stronger push against the wall and new strength in your arm and upper body. You will feel the muscles in your trunk and abdomen working.

I developed this technique and called it The Ab Revolution, because it uses your ab muscles all the time for real life. Don't stick your behind out to lift weights, to exercise, or to stand and walk. Use your muscles to position your spine so that your weight does not sag on your lower back. You will get free built-in exercise and back pain prevention while doing all your normal activities. You will stop one of the commonest silly-looking mistakes in fitness. You will also be able to throw a surprisingly strong punch.


Photo from the book Healthy Martial Arts

Labels: abdominal muscles, arm, fix pain, hip, knee, lordosis, lower back, martial arts, neutral spine, posture, strength

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Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending

If you think that not having time to exercise is the problem, here is good news. Thinking that your life and your health are two separate things is the problem. You don't have to stop your life to get exercise.

The last post explained that you bend many times every day as part of normal life (How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending). This post shows one way to do healthy bending when you are bending with feet side by side - the squat bend.

Look at the drawings, above left. The left-hand drawing shows bad bending - letting weight rock forward, heels lifting, and overly arching the lower back. The right-hand drawing shows healthy bending - keeping weight back, heels down, and the lower back in healthy position, not rounded and not overly arched. Look at the right-hand drawing and try it:

• Keep your upper body as upright as you can, instead of rounding over forward
  
• Keep both heels down as you bend your knees (right drawing).
• If you find you lift your heels, use your leg muscles to deliberately pull your knees back so that your weight shifts back over your heels. Shifting your weight back keeps your weight on your leg muscles and off your knee joints. There should be no knee pain with good bending.
• Keep your knees back toward your ankles. If you just let your weight flop, the knees will come forward past your toes. Don't allow your knees to shift forward.
• Don't overarch the lower spine (overly sticking your behind out in back). Keep neutral spine. If you overarch, tuck your hip (tailbone) under you just enough to prevent having a too large arch (inward curve) in your lower back. Although it is often taught in exercise and weight lifting classes to stick far out and overarch, increasing the arch increases pressure on the joints of your vertebrae, called facet joints, and the soft tissue of your lower back. Overarching is a major hidden cause of lower back pain and injury.
  

Use good bending every time you bend - even to look in the refrigerator and get in and out of your chair. Don't use your arms to lean on the arm rests to sit down and get up; use leg muscles. If you need to use your arms, or you lean your body forward to sit or rise, you need to improve balance, Achilles tendon stretch, and leg strength. Bending properly does all that for you. (Practice safely. Don't fall down.)

Have a friend (or a camera set on timer) take photos of you from the side as you stand and bend, showing how you fixed your bending from unhealthy to healthy during whatever you do all day for work and at home. Write a fun summary and e-mail your photos and stories to me. If you can, put the photos on a photo sharing site. That is easier for me to retrieve and post on Fitness Fixer. I can put the best photos and most fun stories up in lights.

Realize that a big part of your health is the way you move in real life. Make a conscious decision to change your idea of exercise, fitness, and health from stopping life to "do exercise" to how you live. Have fun - the best health.


More:

• Fast Fitness - Count How Many Times You Help Or Hurt Your Body Daily
• Readers Count - Second Missed Cause of Back Pain With Golf
• Household Fitness in the New Year

Labels: abdominal muscles, achilles stretch, disc, facet joints, fix pain, hip, knee, leg press, leg strength, leg stretch, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, posture, squat, strength, upper back

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How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending

Imagine how good your legs would look if you did 400 squats and lunges a day, and how many calories you would burn. Using your legs would strengthen them and reduce risk of both osteoporosis and arthritis. It has been found that a major predisposing factor of knee arthritis is weak thighs.

Now remember how many times a day you bend for ordinary household and work activities. It is more than you think. Some time ago I did an intensive tracking of how many times a day the average person bends. I also put my graduate students on this as a formal study. This kind of counting is a grad student specialty. Many of my other students wanted to count also.

We all found about the same thing. The average sedentary person bends an average of 100-200 times a day just getting things out of the refrigerator, dishwasher, closets, washing, and doing other little things around the house or workplace. The average nonsedentary (but still not active) person bends 200-400 times a day. The average fidgety and active person bends over 500 times a day.

Now realize how many times a day you are hurting your back and missing free exercise by bending over in unhealthy ways, as in the photo, above left. Leaning over all day is also a factor in neck pain. If you only burned half a calorie each time you bent properly, keeping your body upright, and bending knees, you would get a lot of exercise. You would not have to change clothes or go to a gym or pay a trainer. You would not have to take pills because you make your back ache. You would not have to do anything except live your life. You life is supposed to be healthy. You are not supposed to stop your life to go "do exercise." It is a sad thing to see people do squats and lunges in a gym, then bend over wrong to put their weights down, and bend wrong again to pick up their things to leave.

When you bend, keep your upper body upright. When you are bending with feet side by side (squat bend), keep both heels down and your weight back over your heels to keep your weight on your leg muscles and off your knee joints. Don't stick your behind far out in back. In these ways, healthy bending saves your back and gives much exercise without going to a gym, and helps, not hurts, your knees. Healthy bending is life changing.

Next: Change painful to healthful bending for real daily life. Changing exercise to healthy medicine - Free Exercise and Free Back and Knee Pain Prevention - Healthy Bending.

Labels: achilles stretch, arthritis, fix pain, hip, hip stretch, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, lunge, osteoporosis, posture, squat, strength, weight loss

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Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise?

This week marked several beginnings. The equinox began the journey of the sun away from the northern hemisphere bringing longer nights. The festivals of Ramadan, St. Sophia, Navarati and others celebrate origins and understanding. The university semester began, including the full-to-capacity martial arts class I teach on Tuesday nights at Temple U's Center City campus.

When I arrived, students were sitting on the floor waiting. Some sat in bad rounded posture that you know is unhealthy at your desk. They straightened when I asked them to. In past semesters there were students who refused. Once, one stormed out shouting she didn't understand why she had to sit straight when class hadn't started yet. She didn't know that class is always in session.

Students got their equipment - bending wrong to yank weights out of bins. I told them, "Healthy bending. This class is for health." Some didn't understand the connection. Others tapped those still bending wrong, "Teacher says bend your legs." Several looked surprised. One said, "I'm getting leg exercise before class even begins." I told her that class is always in session. I reminded students to use healthy bending at home and work for every time they bend (Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix). I showed them how to get more exercise by helping others who came in late.

We began stances. Students sometimes have a stereotyped idea, sometimes learned from aerobic boxing classes. They stand with shoulders hunched up, upper back rounded, head and chin jutting forward, and their behind tilted out in back. I mimicked them. They giggled at how bad it looks. I told them, "You don't look tough. You look ninety." It's true that you use shoulders to block some strikes, but you are not supposed to hunch. Don't do things to harm your neck in order to protect your neck. Overarching your lower back so that your behind tilts out in back is a frequent cause of back pain in daily life (Fixing the Commonest Source of "Mystery" Lower Back Pain) and injury when giving or receiving a blow. It's silly to go to boxing class and beat up yourself.

Look at the photo above. It shows terrible positioning that injures, and perpetuates the tightness that causes more troubles. When you lift one leg to kick (or stretch or take the stairs), notice if your other leg pulls forward. That shows tightness in the front of your hip. Instead, stand straight and keep the standing leg from pulling forward. Don't round your body to lift your leg. You will get built-in anterior hip stretch, one of the places you need to stretch most, and prevent several problems that I will cover soon.

The point of exercise is to improve life. It is missing the point to exercise in unhealthy ways, training unhealthy habits. If you are interested in learning how to retrain healthy movement in martial arts or aerobic boxing classes that you transfer to daily life, let me know and I will post more on what my students learn.

Book:

• Healthy Martial Arts - www.DrBookspan.com/books. Winner of the Black Belt Hall of Fame Readers Choice Award.

Labels: hamstring, hip, injury, knee, leg strength, leg stretch, lower back, martial arts, neck, posture, shoulder, strength, stretch, upper back

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Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain

Many people let their lower back curve inward (arch) too much when they stand, walk, exercise, and carry things (drawing on left). This is commonly called sway back, hollowback, arching, lordosis, or hyperlordosis. People who overarch this way get back pain after long standing and walking. They often feel they need to bend forward or sit to relieve it.

The pain is from overarching, which tilts the weight of your upper body downward onto your lower back, arching and pinching it inward (drawing on left). Think of the foot-rests in bars. The reason putting one foot up on the low foot-rest reduces back pain is that you unwittingly reduce the large lower back arch that so many people allow when standing.

It is not normal or "neutral spine" to have a large inward curve. A large curve is not "just the way you are made." Sticking your behind out is not cute or healthy, whether in daily life or exercise. It does not protect your back. It is bad posture that hurts, and that you can easily change. You don't need pills or injections or treatments for the pain. All you need to stop the pain forever is to stop allowing your back to sag, and simply move your back to straighter position while you go about ordinary life (drawing on right). Here is how:

1. Check yourself - Stand up and reach your arms high overhead. Do you lift your ribs, arch your back, or lean backward? Did the front of your belt or hip tilt downward? These are all indirect pointers to different kinds of hyperlordosis (drawing on left).


2. To reduce the arch, tuck your hip under you (drawing on right), like doing an abdominal crunch or pelvic tilt while standing. Don't round your upper body or hunch forward. Imagine wearing a belt buckle and tilting your hip to lift the buckle upward, closer to your ribs instead of hanging downward.
   


3. Reach up again and hold your straighter spine position. Your belt line should be level. Your ribs do not lift upward. Your upper body does not lean backward. Now the reach has to come from your shoulder where it belongs, not your lower back, an additional benefit. The post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique shows more on how to do the tilt to correct the overarching. Future posts will show more about problems from overarching in exercises and daily life.

Yes, this is different from what we learned in the gym and in school, including medical school. It is simply stopping the source of this pain - stop pain from arching by voluntarily moving your back, like moving any other body part, so that you reduce arching.

I developed this method, called The Ab Revolution™ that you can apply to all your daily life to stop pain, and to get more abdominal exercise than through conventional methods. Posts to come will show more. I will teach The Ab Revolution™ in downtown Philadelphia, Saturday morning, September 30th, and a workshop on how to fix your own back pain will run Oct 7 & 14th. Info on my site, www.DrBookspan.com

Related Fitness Fixer:

• What Does It Look Like to Not Use Abdominal Muscles?
• Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine
• Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain
• Overhead Lifting, Reaching, and Throwing Part II - Lower Back
• Healthier Carrying - Get Free Ab Exercise and Stop Pain
• Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique
• Prevent Back Surgery

Labels: abdominal muscles, facet joints, fix pain, hip, lordosis, lower back, neutral spine, posture, strength, upper back, wrist

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Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones

A study making recent news concluded that taking calcium supplements does not do much to reduce bone fractures in childhood or later life. The study did not cover all reasons, but it does not stand alone. Studies over many years show that bone density depends on more than eating calcium. Calcium loss occurs through smoking, drinking too much alcohol and soda, lack of exercise, and eating animal protein. A young person can thin their bones through bad habits to the equivalent of an elderly person.

Bone density when you are older depends on what you are doing now. Sedentary lifestyle is a major risk for osteoporosis and fractures. Exercise thickens bones from the muscles pulling on them. Without exercise, you can lose bone density no matter how much calcium you eat. Without exercise, you "pee" the calcium you eat back out. You need to give calcium a reason to stick on your bones.

Even if you are a young man you need to build bone now. Osteoporotic hip and spine fractures are a major cause of illness and death for both women and men. One in eight men over age 50 will have an osteoporosis-related fracture, greater than his risk of prostate cancer. The death rate in the year following a hip fracture is nearly twice as high for men as for women.

Research in elder populations shows ability to increase bone density with exercise. Weightlifting is often mentioned as needed. People think they need to go to a gym or buy hand weights for home use. Weightlifting includes lifting groceries, children, and packages around the house. Weight-resisting activity includes moving, pulling, and lifting your own body weight. You can load your upper leg at the hip, a major site of osteoporosis, by bending right using your legs for all the many times you need to bend every day. Go to Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix for tips. Future posts will show more bone building exercise from daily activities.

Several vitamins and minerals in fruit and vegetables help bone density. Calcium also needs vitamin D to work. Sunlight is an often forgotten source. Sunlight is necessary for your immune system, bones, mood, and overall health. There are some who say there is no safe sun exposure. Balance your time of exposure to reduce risk of cataracts and skin cancer. Get out of your chair and get outside in the sunshine for exercise every day.

Related Fitness Fixer:

• Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures
• How Often Should You Be Healthy?
• What is "Fitness as a Lifestyle?"
  
• Human Growth Hormone
• A Reader Asks About Osteoporosis and Walking Lightly
• Getting Stronger Without a Gym
• Getting Stronger is for Everyone
• Calories Burned in Prayer
• Sunlight Needed for Physical and Mental Health
• Forensic Anthropology and Bone Density
• Click labels below this post for all Fitness Fixer article on those topics.

Labels: aging, cancer, drugs, hip, nutrition, osteoporosis, practice of medicine, smoking, squat, strength

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