Welcome to Health Matters. As we make improvements to Healthline, Health Matters has been put on hold. You can still read all of our experts' great articles on Healthline, but there'll be no new ones posted while we work diligently to enhance the Health Matters section. Comments have also been temporarily disabled. Check back soon for the new and improved health expert area of Healthline.
Advertisement
Good Deeds With Good Bending
Friday, July 10, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - do good deeds using good bending. Readers Jeff and Sabrina made and sent this video:
Notice general good bending using the lunge and half squat
Notice all the times you can do good bending around the house, the gym, and for good deeds.
Functional exercise is how you bend and move all day. Exercise your legs and spirit while you prevent disc degeneration by stopping bending over for things, and instead, using good bending, for all you do.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I'm bailing the ocean with a bucket. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Better Back and Leg Exercise When Vacuuming
Friday, January 30, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Prevent lumbar disc degeneration, and strengthen and stretch your legs without needing a gym, trainer, or exercise equipment, or even changing your clothes:
Notice if you bend wrong - pictured at right with red X. It may stretch and feel good, but over time pushes discs outward to the back (herniates them).
Stand upright and bend both knees in a lunge - pictured center with green check mark.
Instead of only doing lunges as an exercise 10 times and paying for a trainer or a gym (right) use it hundreds of times a day for real life bending. That is functional exercise.
Good bending will not hurt your knees. Keep front knee back over your ankle (left and middle photo with green check mark). Healthy positioning keeps your body weight on your muscles and off your knee joint.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels below posts, links, and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
This is the story of trekking to record the sacred music and art of LUNG-TA, the Windhorse.
Travel was by horseback and walking, at elevations approaching 14,000 feet, over treacherous areas with washouts, slides and erosion, some with sheer drop-offs over 1000 feet.
Composer Andrea Clearfield and artist Maureen Drdak trekked a month in Nepal in September 2008, to research and collect music, history, personal accounts, and art from Buddhist communities and monasteries, for a commissioned major work to be performed in March in Philadelphia.
They spent fourteen days trekking northward across the western highlands, arriving at Monthang, capital of the remote restricted Kingdom of Lo in Upper Mustang, close to the Tibetan border.
The Kingdom of Lo has been described as the "American Southwest on steroids." The artists' trek led northward following the canyon of the Kali Gandaki river, recognized as the worlds deepest gorge, cutting between the Himalayan mountains of Annapurna and Dhaulagiri.
Andrea had been one of my students for several years. Before she left for Nepal she met with me to ask what conditioning she should do.
I told her that good bending will serve her for many of the most important things she will do.
I reminded her she will be sitting horseback for hours and will not need exercises that sit or bend forward, but those that restore muscle length to get straightened up again. She would benefit by sitting and squatting comfortably on the ground. I evaluated her ankles for stability and reminded her that while the Westerners on treks will have expensive boots holding their ankles up for them, atrophying and leaving their muscles without use, the porters for her trek will likely be in flip-flops, holding their own leg position using their own muscles.
Andrea wrote me:
"On my trek to Nepal, what I found most beneficial was having learned from you the proper use of bending from the knees with straight back, particularly for squatting - necessary for using the "toilets" and for other functions in village life. I also incorporated your teachings of good posture into my long treks on horseback, and found my back to be strong and pain-free, even after 8 hours of riding through fierce winds and remote high desert environments through the Himalayas. I also practiced daily yogic asanas in the various tea-houses where we stayed, paying attention to keeping a straight spine, relaxed shoulders and open chest. Although I left the States with an ankle injury, this has slowly healed as well."
"Thank you, Jolie, for helping me stay healthy and pain-free on the trek!"
Namaste and Tashi Delek, Andrea
Andrea and Maureen were accompanied by Dr. Sienna Craig - Dartmouth anthropologist, and Dr. Gyaltso Bista, Amchi physician to King Jigme Palbar Bista of Lo.
They met with the King and Queen of Lo, Bista nobles, high ranking lamas, and the court singer Tashi Tzering. They met with John Sanday and Luigi Fieni, international experts in restoring the treasured monasteries of Monthang and newly discovered caves of the region. They also met with the Lobas, the people of, "this last enclave of pure Tibetan culture."
Lung-Ta, the Windhorse was commissioned by the Network for New Music. The Lo Monthang region of Nepal is home to a horse culture that is, "threatened by the encroaching pressures of the outside world." The horse carries the prayers of the faithful upwards toward the heavens.
The performance will be March 6, 2008 at the Great Hall at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Relatives of the King of Lo have been invited to speak to the audience about the cultural and environmental fragility of this remote kingdom.
Lung-Ta: Music by Andrea Clearfield. Group Motion Artistic Director Manfred Fischbeck will choreograph accompanying dance, performed by Network for New Music. visual art by Maureen Drdak, Dance by Group Motion Dance Company.
Maureen writes: "The title refers to the Tibetan Buddhist prayer flag, as well as that quality of the individual that manifests 'inner vibratory power' – the wellspring of infinite compassion. Incorporating text written for this work by Senior Lama Tenzin Bista of Lo Monthang’s Chode Monastery, it is a prayer for the planet."
Three large paintings will be suspended (like prayer flags) across the expanse of the Great Hall in the University of the Arts, beginning two weeks before the premiere.
A second performance/exhibition of Drdak's work and Clearfield's music will be held at West Chester University on March 8, 2009.
Information for the LUNG-TA project is on the Network website, networkfornewmusic.org.
Read more success stories and send your own. Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column. Find fun topics on the Fitness Fixer Index.
Readers Count - Second Missed Cause of Back Pain With Golf
Monday, September 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Although twisting during the golf swing is often thought to be part of spine injury, two far more injurious movements are the most ignored.
Reader Jean Christophe wrote asking about the second factor - how many times do you bend wrong, instead of bending right using the leg and back muscles. This is a largely missed cause of back pain both in every day life and in golf. I asked readers to count how many times every day they bent badly. Jean Christophe wrote:
"Dear Dr Jolie Bookspan, "One year ago, I wrote you about golf and you gently answered. I could not play then because of the season and just wanted to share with you that we have to bend and reach the floor a lot of times: We tee the ball 18 times, and pick up the tee from the ground 18 times, we take the ball from the hole 18 times, we repair pitches on the green 10 to 15 times, we putt 36 times, we go to the bunker 4 times so we have to take the rake on the ground, we make divots that we take from the ground 18 times, and we have to take the flag from the ground 6 to 12 times; this means that we bend in a golf course around 115 times in a round of 18 holes. If you add the practice session where we put a ball on the ground 60 times or the putting practice, this means that we bend 200 times each time we go to play golf.
"Now, all of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that) or to pick up the ball from the hole (ie under the ground).
"So I tried to stand on one leg and make the kind of stretch you spoke of ones putting the trunk and the other leg horizontal. This is more nice looking but not really the solution.
At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way.
"Last but not least, I made a swing more on my whole feet (instead of on the balls of my feet) and played solid. So the swing doesn't lose with good posture. But these 200 bendings need some work. "Dear Jolie, thank you for all you help. "Jean Christophe"
1. The reader captured the problem with this summary: "All of us bend the wrong way. But frankly, I tried to squat but it is not practical to tee the ball (it is not nice looking either but let's forget that)." To solve this problem, the first thing to do is to make good bending, using a squat (also called crouch) or lunge (drawing at right), practical to tee and pick up the ball:
2. Standing on one leg, lifting the other keeping the back straight and upper body uplifted, rather than bent over is a useful way to bend for objects on the ground. It is often called the "golf pick-up."
3. Reader Jean Christophe counted 200 bad bends in a single game of golf. No wonder it hurts. He reminds that bad bending is not the answer and wants to know how to get out of the habit: "At the end, I reverted to bend badly like all the other players, unhappy because there must be a way." One good way is to realize that bending right as an isolated strange action will not build the brain and body habit. This is bending you want the day when not golfing:
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Feeling Better Than She Ever Has Part II - Fixing Herniated Disk and Reclaiming Active Life
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Barbara lives in a little town of 300 people in Yukon Canada - map at right. Part I of Barbara's story last Wednesday described why it didn't take six weeks to fix Barbara's herniated discs and severe sciatic pain and numbness, but it was six weeks until the "light went on" and she did the things to stop the cause of the injury, so it could stop hurting and start to heal.
Here is an insider's peek behind the scenes week-by-week:
"Dear Dr. Bookspan, "This is a bit of a long one, and probably reaffirms everything you've ever received in hundred and hundreds of emails and stories, but I wanted to share this with you anyway. I can’t thank you enough for working hard and sharing all your knowledge. I am almost completely pain free!
"After 6 weeks of severe sciatic pain and numbness and weakness of my left leg and foot, something just clicked on Thursday night and I became more determined than ever that I could get rid of the pain. Through your website, the Fitness Fixer, and reading lots of personal stories (on your web site and book), I realized that I had to fix (the) causes. I know this might sound dramatic, but you’ve changed my way of life.
"Pre-sciatica lifestyle: "A cycle of: 1) a few months, everyday, of "power" exercising with all the unhealthful postures and movement habits you talk about, then sitting at the computer in all the unhealthy ways you talk about and drinking coffee and smoking, feeling like I’d accomplished something in my day; 2) followed by a few months of complete laziness (not even power exercising). Power exercising consisted of running (without stretching at all) with bad form, and Hatha Yoga (forcing myself into the stretches and tons of forward bending).
"Sciatica struck.
"First two weeks: "I did absolutely nothing about it. I read stuff on the internet and was convinced from the stories that I had some debilitating disease that would affect the rest of my life. I thought the cause was that I didn’t keep up with my "power" exercising. But, I continued to sit bent forward in a chair, hunched over, bending wrong, doing yoga forward bends, smoking and drinking coffee. I know, how sad."
How to avoid herniating forces on the lower back discs during yoga and fitness stretches for the hamstring:Healthier Hamstring Stretching
"Third week: "Had to go back to work in the morning, teaching 4 and 5 year olds in a kindergarten class; in the afternoon, teaching reading strategies to Grade 1 and 2's - sitting in a chair all afternoon. No longer could I hobble around the house holding my backside and leg - full on activity - and pain, tingling, numbness in my left foot, and total weakness in my left leg. Felt like I was walking around all day with a Charlie horse going down my entire left side. Amidst all my continued Internet searches, stumbled upon your website when a friend said that slight forward bending doing dishes and getting ready in the morning leaning over the sink might be a cause. Your website made so much sense to me - if a slight forward bend is a bad thing, how much more unhealthy would my Hatha yoga program be, with all its constant forward bends. I might add here that the two people at work who talk about slight forward bending being a bad thing continually hunch forward while sitting and exercise using forward bends. Just something I’ve begun to notice."
Major news stories quote physicians saying that back pain is often a mystery and that no one knows why stretching isn't working. My readers regularly report that once they understand the simple principles, they see the unhealthful positioning that causes pain frequently - at the gym, in fitness magazines, and in exercise videos and classes:
"I started with lying on the floor propped up, upper and lower back extensions, pec and trapezius stretches, isometric abs, being continually aware of my posture and not doing ANY bad forward bending. Tried to do the lunges and squats for daily good bending, but my muscles were so weak and I practiced them half-heartedly. I tried to apply them in daily life but life seemed so fast-paced at work and I was in so much pain constantly, that I would get _ way into it and then just try to lean to the side to pick things up - result, I was contorting my body in very odd ways! I ordered a support brace and special support backrest (now I know why I never needed them) and seat cushion for my chair from other web sites, but also ordered your book Fix Your Own Pain, along with a few of your other books."
"Fourth Week: "Limping and terrible pain, my boss told me to visit the nurses station -living in a town of 300 in the far north, we have one general store and a health centre, doctor visits once every two weeks - and take every afternoon off during this week to rest up. He still needed me at work in the mornings. Taking my new prescription of Naproxen and trying the lunges and squats and some stretches but not really trying to apply them to the rest of how I was moving and bending and sitting. I would be in quite a bit of pain coming home from my mornings at work. In the afternoons I would basically throw in some stretches, but generally read (sitting badly) and nap for an hour. A lot of the pain would dissipate after my stretches and a good nap - only to be set into full force the next morning at work.
"Your book came in on the Friday and I was very excited. I read through it and practiced the retraining stretches that show how to restore straighter positioning throughout the day. I felt much better by Sunday night with the stretching. Still only half-hearted attempts at lunges and squats."
"Fifth Week: "Decided to start my morning off by doing my full range of stretches instead of sitting in the computer chair smoking and drinking coffee. I felt pretty good when I left for work. People at work were starting to call me "feisty" saying that I seemed to be walking better (that was probably because of my better posture from applying your method instead of just doing stretches!) Sitting in a chair almost killed me - after 25 minutes in a chair the pain was almost unrecoverable - to be endured for the next hour and a half at work."
Barbara was getting the idea about healthy movement, but was sitting in the same way that causes discs to be pressured. She thought it was "taken care of" because she used a commercial lumbar support she purchased the first week. However she was still sitting in unhealthy ways, right over the support:
"I could manage the pain better with frequent relaxing on my stomach propped up on arms and stretching, but I never felt complete relief until I got home at night. I still didn't realize it was bad sitting position, so decided to get rid of my chair and stand to teach. This was better, but the pain still kicked in(especially in my left buttock!). Once my left buttock got hit with pain it went downhill - down my whole leg, followed by the numbness and severe tingling. Midway through the week I went to see our visiting doctor - quick visit and the prognosis that I had a herniated disc L5-S1. He said it would heal. I was feeling pretty positive about this, as it seemed to coincide with what you say about herniated discs. Meanwhile, the sciatica was taking it out of me. I felt I was always either in pain, or awaiting a painful episode. I made it through, relieved that the weekend was underway. I decided to trying walking - every couple of hours I'd walk on my treadmill for 20 minutes and then do my stretches. I did this two times in the day, and then went for a walk outside in the evening (-35 degree weather so I bundled up really well). My dog and I headed out for what was to be the most agonizing walk for me. Half hour into the walk I started to get that butt pain but I was only half way home. By the time I got home after an hour walk, I wanted to hit the roof and I although I could alleviate some of the pain through lying on my stomach propped up, and stretches, I could still barely sleep. I was also completely consumed by whether or not I had slacked in my posture somewhere along the line while I was walking, or whether I was too tight or loose (still missing the big picture)."
"Sixth Week: "Still determined. Began the week at an all-day staff meeting where I lay on a gym mat on my stomach, propped up on my elbows- all day. Stretching at lunch and a couple of other times I walked out of the meeting to stretch. It almost floored me to do a 20 minute standing stint that we had to do during our meeting. Followed by a 2 hour course via video-conferencing where I did the same thing. When I got home the pain was less and I didn’t want to "over-do" it again, so I gently did my stretches throughout the evening- I didn’t try to walk. Next day at work, the pain was pretty bad from the beginning, but it was -60 degrees F outside and not many kids came to school - more time out to stretch when I needed to. Wednesday - more of the same. I tried to walk at night but got discouraged when I couldn’t walk for more than about 10 minutes without pain. Thursday - same thing, but I almost ran out of the school at the end of the morning to go to the nurses station. (We both wrongly assumed that I had overdone walking, not just walked in injurious ways.) She prescribed more Naproxen and told me to make sure that I walked but more frequent intervals. She also told me to keep stretching, but that lunges and squats were simply out - don’t do them. I kept wondering about this advice as I reread Ivy’s story and looked at the pictures of her doing those amazing squats and lunges. I spent most of my evening on the internet reading and rereading stories."
Barbara was lying face down propped up on elbows for long periods in a way that hurt instead of help. Instead of letting the entire spine gently extend backward so that the upper back "unrounded," she was "folding" a crease at the lower back, increasing pinching in the lower back.
"Friday of the Sixth Week: True Awakening! "I took Friday off work and first thing in the morning while I was doing my usual morning stretch routine, it just hit me! I became so obsessed with my posture, thinking that stretches should magically make my pain disappear, but I wasn’t viewing my body as how I used it during regular activity; I was also very guilty of giving up on certain things when they got "too hard" (lunges, squats). My balance was bad (despite trying to practice it while putting on my socks and shoes), my walking gait was horrible, I wasn’t really trying to do anything that required some effort, and I was continuing my bad habits of resting for hours before I tried to get back up and stretch again. Having reread some of the personal stories, I worked on my walking: feet straight ahead, feet hip-distance apart, heel to ball of foot, using my whole foot to walk - I was so focused on posture that I was holding myself stiff while walking instead of walking naturally with a bit of rotation at the waist). When I thought I was using my muscles, I was really just tensing them right up instead of truly using them. Reading posts and walking also made me realize how tight my Achilles tendon, hamstrings, and hips are. I decided to work on this through my stretches too. Next hour I was back up and walking, and stretching those areas after (using a counter to hold onto while doing a full squat, doorway hamstring stretch, and stretching my hip sitting on a chair rather than lying on the floor). Every hour I walked and stretched, and every walking session was longer, every stretching session I could actually stretch farther! Halfway through the day - now it was time to really engage myself in those lunges and half-squats - just do them and do them properly - no excuses - I need them for everyday life and unless I go beyond what I think I can do, I’ll never get to that point. They’re definitely not just part of an exercise routine, but unless I could do them with strength and stability in my living room, I knew I couldn’t do them in a fast-paced setting when I needed them.
"Time to stop making excuses. I was up and about constantly all day, walking, lunges and squats, stretching. By the end of the day, I can’t even describe my feeling of elation when I went to bed completely pain free, with my left leg hardly stiff at all, and some of the numbness in my left foot gone! Actually having been rather lazy, and in fear of lunges and squats doing more damage, they turned out to be the best stretches and strengtheners...now why wouldn’t I want to use these in all situations to get a beautiful natural stretch during my day! The confidence and calmness that all using your principles, and truly using my muscles to engage in activities is giving me give is fabulous. Not to mention all the energy! This is a new way of life for me. And quitting smoking is not a different story...it’s the same story...and my next step is to look into my eating habits and to quit smoking. It’s my life and my body is a temple...I’m sick of mistreating this temple with lethargy and apathy. No more unhealthy exercises in "power" work-outs and yoga for me...strength, balance and flexibility will is every moment, every day. Now I'm ready for your Healthy Martial Arts book...
"Thank you! Thank you! You (and Ivy) are my inspiration! Wishing for you all joy and true happiness in life (which I know you already have :) ). "Fondly, Barbara
"I'm truly thankful for your hard work and great insight into pain and how to live healthy in every day life!!
"PS I was frightened when I was told I had a herniated disk at L5-S1, and this was great news to me as I know I'm healing and I won't need any physiotherapists, etc. to help me through this! Your book Fix Your Own Pain is amazing - I think I've almost memorized it; two people at work have borrowed it already (including my boss) - I think they're seeing how much it has helped me. I'm thinking about giving your book to people for Christmas."
Summary "take-home" message - Barbara found that she doesn't have to "do" any exercises. That is the difference with this method and others. Moving for daily activities using the retrained healthful positioning stops the source of the injury. At the same time, it just happens to give much built in functional healthful movement. That is how exercise is supposed to be - a natural part of your human life.
There is more good news to Barbara's story, but that's enough for now.
Feeling Better Than She Ever Has Part I - Fixing Herniated Disk and Reclaiming Active Life
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Barbara's story came in over several weeks. Barbara thought she was healthy and active, and had done years of yoga. She had years of lower back pain, then a sudden onset of severe pain, leg weakness, and numbness. She couldn't push off effectively with her left foot, or stand on tiptoe. The heel of her left foot was completely numb, as well as the left side of that foot.
Barbara lives six hours from the nearest big town (there are 300 people in her little town in the Yukon and one general store).
Her doctor found that she had a herniated disc in her lower back, put her on anti-inflammatories. She was in continuing pain, and fearful of her future of pain and reduced activity, which would mean getting more out of shape and feeling worse. She was frightened that she had some "debilitating disease."
Barbara found my web site and this Fitness Fixer column with free information of how discs become pushed outward (herniated) through bad sitting and bending habits, and began trying some of the information. She wrote me excitedly the first week,
"I decided, after reading one of the many great patient stories you included in your book showing what to do, to lie on the floor on my stomach propped on my elbows to read your book. This felt amazing and when I got up again I could walk straight!"
Another e-mail followed that she was feeling worse again after that. I asked if she had gone back to all the injurious habits that cause the pain. She was surprised to realize that she had. Bad forward bending puts outward and eventually herniating forces on the discs. Barbara was bending badly all day at work when she need to pick things up, bending badly at home over the sink, counters, and while doing housework, then going to yoga class and spending much time bending over forward. Even in a yoga class, herniating forces occur from chronic forward bending, both sitting and standing bent over. It isn't magically good for the discs by calling it a stretch. Barbara also had been told by her health care providers not to do any lunges or squats. She later realized they were just the healthy bending she needed to do normal daily reaching and bending at work and around the house. Without them, she would only be doing the same bad bending that was contributing to the original problem.
Barbara wrote,
"I realized that part of my problem all week was that I had been half-heartedly doing "exercises" then going back to wrong bending while getting completely frustrated because it would seem things would start to feel better in the morning, but I'd feel like garbage by night. I wouldn't do all the things you recommended first thing in the morning, and I would get halfway through a lunge or squat to bend or pick something up and then bend forward out of frustration. So, I pampered myself yesterday - really, truly practicing and applying how to move in real life, especially concentrating on those lunges and squats when I needed to get something. It also finally clicked with me that while I was trying to concentrate on tucking the hip to neutral spine to walk, I was totally ignoring the forward bend of my upper back while standing and walking all week. I was walking all stooped over and feeling like an invalid."
I wish I could write that Barbara followed everything I said and was better the first day. What actually occurred was that it was six weeks until the "light bulb went on" and Barbara realized that "doing" a stretch or exercise doesn't magically erase the injury. Stopping the injurious bad movement habits that harms the disc is needed to let it heal. Using healthy movement in daily life for daily bending and reaching would improve strength and balance. Barbara said that reading the Fitness Fixer stories from Ivy sparked her "turning point" to understand. She then started feeling relief.
Barbara wrote.
"In short, I’ve come from having pain, and muscles completely unaccustomed to healthy movement lifestyle, to feeling stronger, more flexible and agile, pain free, along with a new attitude to everyday life and health, with fresh energy and a renewal of love of life. I know this might sound dramatic, but you’ve changed my way of life.
"Your website has been a godsend actually; especially when I surf the net and see "surgery" splattered everywhere.
"PS My principal just ordered your book - he borrowed Fix Your Own Pain for a week (I didn't think I'd get it back) and would like his own copy. That's saying a lot - he's doesn't take well to other people's advice."
It was six weeks of half-way recovery and recurring pain until Barbara got the idea that "doing exercises" doesn't heal an injury if you go back to bad movement habits the rest of the day. She also noticed how some of the most common exercises contribute to the original problem. Here are links to the information Barbara used:
Barbara generously wrote up her story to help readers see that they can fix pain sooner, rather than waiting six weeks. Coming next, Feeling Better Than She Ever Has Part II - a look behind the scenes.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
full squat for chores with feet facing the same direction as knees, and both heels down
A Thai villager sits straight, getting nice hip stretch, and keeps ankles straight - see Unhealthy Yoga Ankles
Our friend MomPon is relative to the abbot of the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback near the border of Myanmar (Burma). We stayed with her during the time we spent at the monastery. She sits straight and comfortably in full squat to get things for dinner from her garden, then to wash dishes in her kitchen. We do the same when we help. She stands straight with chin in to reach overhead to get tamarind fruit from her tree, see - Change Daily Reaching to Get Ab Exercise and Stop Back and Shoulder Pain.
Our friends, the elder Thai ladies, sit straight while they watch a parade - Healthy Sitting
A villager takes his children for a fun ride, while sitting straight. See how a reader fixed upper body pain from biking in Freed From Pain, He Rides Again
Sitting straight to wash the kids.
I gave these villagers soap bubbles for their baby. They played for hours. Enjoy life, laugh, and share good times.
A special story came in. I had been answering inquiries from a reader who wrote me to ask how to stop her mother's knee pain, and after her mother was better, to help her father. I was charmed by this good daughter who wanted to help her parents. She faithfully taught her mother everything I wrote her, and she wrote back with results. I didn't know where she was from, and didn't ask. In the weeks of letters back and forth, she caringly scanned and e-mailed me copies of lab reports and pharmacy prescriptions. She asked good questions about the medicines and tests and how they could help her parents. The tests and prescriptions had notes in Arabic and distinctive generic names. I wondered if I might wind up on a watch list of people who correspond with people from certain countries. In one reply that I wrote, I headed the instructions on knee pain with, "To whoever else may read this, please use it to stop your knee pain too, for more peace and less pain in the world."
Here is the story of Katayon:
"I belong to Afghanistan and I am very grateful to Dr. Jolie Bookspan. My mother’s knees pain was my biggest concern for a long time. She went to more than six best doctors here in Pakistan. But all she got was medicine for relieving her pain which not always helped her. She was also told not to walk a lot and rather sit on the chair most of the time. My mom is young and still it’s very soon for her to spend her life just sitting. Doctors said the cartilage inside her kneecap has dried and can never be recovered and she will always have the pain. And that the only way is to always use those tablets. This really bothered me to think of her feeling pain all her life.
"After trying the doctors in the city, I selected the option of getting support through the internet. That is where I fortunately found Dr Jolie Bookspan who always keeps telling me that medicine is not the only option. But rather we have to adopt healthy movements. In the first stage, this knowing this thing encouraged and cheered me a lot. She also introduced me to the free articles- exercises related to knee pain and back pain, on her website. I have checked almost a lot of those useful links and currently I am following a lot of those helpful movements, exercises and directions mostly for knee pain. Currently I am also suffering from knee pain which is due to weakness of my muscles as the doctors here have told me. Dr Jolie has been a great help for me and my mother.
"And now I and my mother are feeling much better. I learned not to use knee-bands (bracing) because it further weakens the joints instead of strengthening them. I have shared all what I leaned with my whole family. So we are all blessed with an opportunity of adopting healthy joints movements. Besides a lot of other very useful guidance, I learned these important things: climbing the stairs putting full flat foot on the ground avoiding knees coming forward, so overall moving the knees in a healthy way which should not create pain while walking – I am practically doing this and I really see how useful and pain free it is; while picking something from the ground, trying to avoid knees coming forward and instead making it like sitting on a chair. So all in all, we are following all of the guidance and tips which really are pain free and help my knee joints get strengthened. I and my mother regularly every morning and anytime during the day we find time do the squat and lunge exercise which are very much helpful. Not only this, but I have also shared this exercise and all of the other healthy tips with my office colleagues who are suffering from knee pain.
"I never thought of a way out but only as the doctor said that the only option is to have medicine for whole life, whereas Dr. Jolie changed the whole thing for me encouraging me to have fun and keep walking pain free. I feel very fortunate to have found her. And I appreciate all of her time and efforts that she makes to help the world live without pain. I and my mother are deeply inspired by what she is doing to help the people. And we wish her best of luck and lots of energy to keep on her good job." Katayon Q – Afghanistan
Why is there a picture of a flower with this story? A personal photo was not the right thing. I asked Katayon what photo she thought would represent her story and country. She wrote:
"With this email I am sending a picture to go with my story. I was thinking of something to show relief and happiness as a result of being healthy. And I came up with the idea of selecting flower picture for my story. To me, a flower presents every positive thing."
Farm Work, Lifestyle Exercise, and Preventing Overuse Pain
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Ivy from New Zealand wrote me that she was house-sitting for friends on their farm. When you read her note, remember that Ivy is a great-grandmother,
"You were very much on my mind yesterday. My friends had arranged for someone to come onto the property to feed the stock. By 5pm no one had turned up so I decided that I would have to do it myself.
"Picture me pushing wheelbarrow loads of hay - carrying buckets of water to fill the troughs and so the list goes on. The paddocks were muddy so had to wear gumboots. I was terrified of falling over. Chickens to be fed, eggs to fetch, pony to be fed plus the sheep and cows. Two of the water troughs had to be filled by hand hence the buckets. I tried to crawl (yes crawl) through the bush to get the hose through to no avail. I can laugh now, however, it wasn't funny at the time.
"This is where you come in - I kept repeating these words to myself the whole time "Now do what Dr Jolie has taught you, use your abs, tuck your hip" (to neutral spine so that the lower spine does not overarch) - "Squat, Ivy, squat - don't bend over."
"The whole thing took me 2 hours - I really thought I would have back ache and that the sciatica would rear its ugly head, but no, I am fine (Jolie's note: Ivy stopped previous sciatica using these healthy techniques). My evening meal consisted of a slice of bread and some fruit - I was too tired to even think of cooking. After a hot shower, I fell into bed exhausted and slept through until 6.30am. I don't have any aches or pain.
"That was my day."
I mailed Ivy a few days later to check how she was feeling. Ivy was still great and wrote,
"The neighbours arrived to check the sheep which are ready to drop their lambs. Needless to say Dr Jolie, I am hoping that they hold off until Harriet and family arrive back home on Monday."
We will see if there will be a post about Ivy using good bending and sitting mechanics to tend birthing sheep and baby lambs.
Related Fitness Fixer articles to learn the skills Ivy used:
Readers have asked for posts on wrist strength and stopping wrist pain with use and exercise. It is in the works. I am also still working on the post I started with, where Ivy wrote of success doing a hip stretch, coming soon.
Readers, feel inspired, get out of the gym and have some fun lifestyle exercise, have fun taking photos, and send in your own success stories.
"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." ~ Lou Erickson
Involve children in gardening at any level. Getting outside to dig, bend, stretch, think, and create in the fresh air is health as a lifestyle - improving physical skills, knowledge, confidence, cooperation, discipline, caretaking, and purposeful activity.
"What this country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." ~ Will Rogers
A few weekends ago, the Philadelphia City Gardens Contest ran final judging. Husband Paul and I are judges. I don't know much about horticulture, but Paul does, and I am good at holding the clipboard and getting dirty.
Each judging team travels to gardens all over the city, grouped according to garden purpose. There might be community vegetable gardens in the city's most blighted areas, flower gardens grouped according to size, or mixed use individual or group gardens. Gardens are judged for many points including health and variety of plants, whether natural or inventive bug and weed control is used, and interesting use of materials. In past years we visited a garden in one of the most difficult areas of the city, which had made neat container gardens from tires dumped in the area. Another garden gleaned trash from the street to help clean the neighborhood, including a bathtub and vacuum cleaner, reborn in the garden with painted smiles, streaming vines of flowers, posed like characters at a tea party. We met 90-year-old ladies who tended their garden in dresses and church hats, teaching neighborhood children self-respect instead of vandalizing, and to reap what they sow, and share what they harvest for healthier neighborhoods.
"Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar." ~ William Wordsworth
Last year we judged the city's Children's Community Gardens. Here are some of the stories to give ideas and inspiration for yourself or community:
Miss Vanoka Morris Smith and the kids of the Blaine School Strawberry Mansion were a shining example of showing kids how to be fit in body and mind, with teamwork and love. There were no treadmills or artificial exercise. All the kids involved got real fitness as a lifestyle. These inner city kids were well-behaved, disciplined, and educated. Each knew every plant, and information about them. The all-organic garden used heirloom seeds, vegetables, pollination by bees and butterflies, rotating beds to promote soil health, and complementary plantings to combat harmful bugs. They painted garden scenes on plant beds, picnic tables, and the tool shed. They learned discipline and got exercise and dignity by keeping all the areas clean.
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~ John Ruskin
At the Urban Nutrition Initiative in West Philadelphia, Debbie Harris's high school students created a health and life-enhancing school-wide program of cooking and nutrition that they call "personal and social change through food." Students get to keep the proceeds from their Farmer's Market, learn healthy social structure, get a high amount of functional physical activity, and the educational message that "Vegetables are cool."
"The philosopher who said that work well done never needs doing over never weeded a garden." ~ Ray D. Everson
St Paul's Church on Stenton Avenue began reclaiming a garden from a neglected site to encourage children to have reflection and contemplation outdoors. The garden joins their columbarium (low wall containing parishioners ashes), along with physical activity – a "prayground." They plan to incorporate garden plants and themes with their Sunday school teachings: kids will plant their prayers, and they will build small climbing apparatus with 'eight fruits of the spirit' on each of the eight rungs. Like life, their garden space is a work in progress.
"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~ Mirabel Osler
At the Beacon Summer Program at St. Sulzberger School, Crystal Martin teaches 8th graders botany using the garden and microscopes to see leaves and bugs. Built in a flood prone area, the garden is divided into three distinct "watershed" systems - country, suburban, and city - with different drainage systems. The different drainage clearly teaches the effect on the garden – three distinct garden looks and conditions result. Corresponding wall murals teach the crucial message of balancing need for water and drainage.
"Gardening and laughing are two of the best things in life you can do to promote good health and a sense of well being." ~ David Hobson, The Mad Gardener
Get inspired and think how you might like to get started. Young children can learn responsibility by having their own area near your shared area. Babies can sit with you and play in the dirt. On a small level, children can start with sprouting mung beans on a plate (posts to come will show how) and plant a windowsill of seasoning herbs for healthier cooking. Older children can grow healthful chemical-free food and flowers for the table and instead of unhealthy offerings at bake sales. They can learn that good posture during movement is healthy, natural, and good exercise. Get library books on composting, small building projects, organic gardening, and beautiful use of space. Learn the simple elements of a Japanese rock garden or Zen garden, called karesansui. Use healthy bending with one foot in front of the other (how to lunge) and feet side by side (how to half-squat and why it is great). Breathe. Smile.
"We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all." ~ Dorothy Day
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
---
Urban site before reclaiming photo 1 by jared CityGarden 2 photo by stu_spivack CityGarden 3 photo by davidsilver
Inspirational Ivy II - Beating Foot Drop and Sciatica, and Getting Healthier
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Ivy had serious sciatica with foot drop. She had knee and other injuries. She was in awful pain. In this kind of foot drop, the nerve cannot serve the muscles enough to lift the foot to walk normally. The toes drag. The foot hangs limply and slaps the ground with each step.
Commonly, someone with foot drop is put in a leg brace for life. One surgery done for foot-drop fuses the ankle so the foot is rigid and doesn't hang. Other problems come over years from changes in walking mechanics. For the terrible pain, patients are often directed to drugs and surgery. These are not healthy.
We changed that:
Monday's post Inspirational Ivy told the essentials of stopping the cause of the sciatic pain and nerve impingement, rather than treat the results with unhealthy means. Links to specific methods are there.
Sciatica, disc damage, facet pain, and impingement are results, not the cause of pain. They are not a diagnosis. When you have them, find what is causing them. Then you can reverse the cause: The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
Ivy followed my directions exactly and used her brain to understand how to get the intended results, not just "do a bunch of exercises." When she first began, she wrote,
"Over the past few days, I have been very conscious of my movements and, hey presto, I have not experienced any tingling or pain. I have to take total responsibility for every movement I make. I am constantly telling myself 'Think before you go to the fridge or need to pick up something off the floor - think lunges.'"
I gave her simple gait retraining. Ivy quickly discarded the cane she had used for nearly 7 months.
Ivy went on to teach several neighbors in her community how to fix their own pain. One story is posted in Each One Teach One.
In April 2006, Ivy wrote,
"It is nearly 5 months since I started your wonderful programme so I thought it was time that I gave you an update. I am fit and well, the sciatica has disappeared, if I get a little niggle in that area, I ask myself as to what have I done wrong, my left knee (IT Band) is no longer a problem, my balance has improved immensely and the "dropped" foot is great, in fact, when I go for my daily walk, I no longer hear the plop, plop of which I hated. I can also now wear "normal" shoes.
"Without your help and support and putting me on the right road so to speak, I would still be in constant pain plus making the chiropractor richer. Please note, I no longer go to him for treatment - I DON'T NEED HIM."
At age 70, Ivy is steadily improving strength and range of motion using healthy movement for daily life. She is eating healthful vegetarian food. January 2007 brought this note:
"The reason for this e-mail being that I feel somewhat excited re a remark made by the son of one of my fellow villagers. His very words being, "How did you become the woman that you are now. I have watched you over the past couple of years - when I first met you, you were obviously in a lot of pain, what is your secret?"
"I also sent the photos to my son and daughter-in-law who live in the US, they too, could see the improvement - they thought I looked great. Mind you, over that 2 year period, I gradually lost 20 lbs."
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
The Healthline Site, its content, such as text, graphics, images, search
results, HealthMaps, Trust Marks, and other material contained on the
Healthline Site ("Content"), its services, and any information or material
posted on the Healthline Site by third parties are provided for informational
purposes only. None of the foregoing is a substitute for professional medical
advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a
physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may
have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice
or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the Healthline
Site. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911
immediately. Please read the Terms of Service for more information regarding
use of the Healthline Site.
Sign up with Facebook
