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.

More Related Fitness Fixer:

• Sixth Group Functional Training: Advancing Ankle and Knee Safety With Single Leg Movement
• Fifth Group Functional Training: Ankle and Knee Safety With Lateral Movement
• How To Treat Ankle Sprains and Prevent Them
• No More Ankle Sprains Part II
• Which Shoes Help Exercise, Fall Prevention, and Ankles?

Random Fitness Fixer:

• Gluteal Muscles Myth - Shaking The Dog's Paw

Labels: ankle, balance, fast fitness, feet, hip, holiday, impact, jumping, 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."

More:

• Retrain neutral spine - Innovation in Abdominal Muscles
• David of Belgium made us this movie of fixing your plank to neutral - Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank
• Photos of changing over-arched unhealthy plank to healthy neutral spine - Abdominal Muscle Exercise - Better, Different, Not What You Think
  
  

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.
   

The way this stretch is usually done, without moving the bottom foot, does not stretch the piriform (or pyriformis) muscles much, even though it is often called a piraform stretch. The piriform muscles are external rotators (turn the leg outward). Adding more external rotation with the usual "ankle over knee" does not stretch the piraforms. Changing the bottom foot position with this different stretch adds adduction, which means "moving toward from midline." A second movement action of the pyriform muscles is abduction (moving away from midline), so this new method lengthens it, and can truthfully be called a piraform stretch. Future articles 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, piriform muscles, 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.


Related Fitness Fixer - "Unround" your upper back for healthier daily neck mechanics:

• Is Your Drinking Hurting Your Neck?
• Gaze Perseid Meteors Without Neck Pain
• Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain

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.
Add the next step next week in - Fast Fitness - Stronger, Straighter Upper Back

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

The photo at left shows a commonly done motion, often mistaken for a stretch. With the back leg turned outward, stretch is reduced or lost on the back of the leg, the bottom of the foot, and the front of the hip.

To get a better lunge stretch for the foot, leg and hip, don't turn your back leg outward (left photo). Point your back foot straight forward (below, right photo). Facing the back leg and knee forward instead of turned, also prevents angulation force on the medial knee (the inside knee, that faces the other leg).

One of my students, Lily, demonstrates good hip and leg position for the lunge (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.

The previous Fitness Fixer article Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs shows a key change to position your 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.

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.

More Good Lunging:

• Hip Stretch While You Strengthen Legs
• Strengthen and Retrain Function With The Lunge
• Leg Exercise That Helps Your Back - Why The Lunge?
• Fast Fitness - Fixing Yoga Warrior and Lunge Exercise to Neutral Spine
• Strengthen Legs Without Knee Pain - Standing Lunge
• Grand Rounds 3.41 Calls the Lunge "The New Pink"
  

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 Fitness Fixer article 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 Fitness Fixer article 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.

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.

• The Cause of Disc and Back Pain shows more on why healthy bending is key to fitness as a lifestyle
• 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.
• How Good Would You Look From 400 Squats a Day - Just Stop Unhealthy Bending
• Household Fitness in the New Year shows examples using it in daily life
• Functional Fitness as a Lifestyle By Mail Room Workers is a top example of good thinking and moving at work
  

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.

What About Shoes?

• Common myth are that you must wear "supportive" shoes, and that flexible soft shoes cause injuries.
• Hard shoes increase shock and load on your ankles and knees.
• Supportive shoes reduce or prevent the natural stretch on the plantar fascia and Achilles tendon that you ordinarily get with bare feet or soft flexible shoes. Tightness and risk of injury rises.
  
• Supportive shoes decrease your need to balance and stabilize yourself, reducing your own abilities.

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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