Fast Fitness - Fixing Yoga Warrior and Lunge Exercise to Neutral Spine
Friday, June 13, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - quickly change your posture to change your luck on Friday the 13th. Hyperlordosis (swayback posture) seems to be unlucky - it causes lower back pain. You can do this in seconds to make a certain change to healthier spine for yoga or practicing the lunge. If you don't believe in luck, you're lucky. It's just good posture and simple anatomy.
Reader David from Belgium demonstrates in this 20 second movie that he made for us:
First ten seconds - he steps into a yoga pose called Warrior pose, but allows overly arched lower spine. He also demonstrates leaning more weight forward of center line, which is a different issue.
Note how the belt line tips downward in front and the lower spine overly curves inward - more than a normal curve.
At second 11 he levels the hip to bring the posture to neutral spine. Then he kindly demonstrates overarching when raising the arms further. Instead, hold neutral spine and raise the arms from the shoulder, not the lower back.
To prevent shoulder impingement when raising arms, keep shoulders down and back, don't just chin and neck forward, keep them gently in. A forward head posture compresses the rotator cuff when lifting arms. See Safer Overhead Military Press.
I never expected repeated requests to see how to do neutral spine in different activities. It is the same. Just apply the same neutral spine and that’s all. I thought one post would do it, but will post each activity readers ask about. I am aware that there are yoga and fitness places which teach to overarch the spine as part of the move. Teaching swayback does not seem to be as helpful as teaching neutral spine. Changing lunge and Warrior pose to neutral also improves the stretch to the front hip muscles of the back leg. Lucky.
Fast Fitness - Fixing Your Handstand to Neutral Spine
Friday, May 16, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Last week's Fast Fitness showed a movie of how to step up into an easy handstand and get back down. This week shows a common pitfall - letting your lower spine sag under gravity - and how to fix it and hold neutral spine.
My student Dennis, Olympic medalist in wrestling, demonstrates:
Step your foot up behind you high onto a wall, then the other.
For the first 5 seconds of the movie, Dennis allows the lower spine to overarch (increase the inward curve) under the pull of gravity, a bad posture called hyperlordosis. It is not the normal inward curve, it is an easily changed bad posture.
At second 5 he changes the tilt of the hip and lower spine back to neutral spine. The action is like doing an abdominal crunch to bring the spine and torso just forward enough to be straight.
This technique practices the muscles and positioning for straight standing, making it better than just a handstand. If you want to gain abdominal strength, using neutral spine uses those muscles. An important difference in Fitness Fixer exercises is that they are not only exercises alone. All the techniques I developed are supposed to be used to train muscle function and positioning for when you stand up and walk away.
Use neutral spine, not only for handstands, but all you do. Examples are in Prevent Back Surgery.
Fast Fitness - Easy Handstand for Balance, Upper Body Strength -The Movie
Friday, May 09, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - a quick, safer way to try a handstand. Standing on hands has many health and strength benefits and can be easily practiced in this way.
My student Dennis, Olympic medalist in wrestling, demonstrates in this short movie. Click the arrow to watch the movie:
Stand with your back about a foot in front of a wall, and crouch to put your hands on the floor (avoid slippery surface)
Put one foot high up on the wall, then lift the other foot up too
To get down, step one foot back down, then the other
To see step by step still photos and more explanation, click the post Fast Fitness - Easy Handstand where David from Belgium shows the handstand plus how to add a nice overhead hamstring stretch.
Keep breathing. Smile. Relax. Send in your own photos of trying this. Be safe and have fun.
Fast Fitness - How to Feel Change to Neutral Spine
Friday, May 02, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Use a wall to learn neutral spine while standing, to know how to stop a major source lower back pain during standing, walking, and running.
Many people learn pelvic tilts lying on their back in physical therapy or fitness classes. What does that do? Little. The purpose of learning the pelvic tilt is to know how to do it during real daily life so that you do not overarch (hyperlordosis) and create back pain. My student Dennis, Olympic medalist in wrestling, demonstrates learning a functional pelvic tilt (he is holding his shirt away with hand so you can see better - you can relax your arms at your sides):
Stand with your back against a wall. Touch heels, hips, shoulders, and the back of your head.
If you allow a large arch in the lower spine there will be a large space between lower back and the wall. Press your lower back toward the wall.
Don't touch or force your lower back to the wall. Just learn how to tilt the hip so that the lower spine comes closer to it and reduces in arch.
Use a wall often to practice, then the idea is to hold neutral spine without the wall during the rest of your day.
Reducing a large arch back to neutral stops the painful lower spine compression on soft tissue and facet joints during standing activities (and bad pushups and handstands).
Fast Fitness - Sprain Prevention and Rehab Training
Friday, April 18, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - feel how your own muscles work to hold ankle position, so that you can have stable ankles without artificial shoe supports or bracing, which weaken the supporting muscles from disuse:
Stand with feet parallel and look in a mirror where you can see your feet, or just look down.
Rise to toe and hold
Keep body weight over big and second toe with straight ankle position as you remain on tip-toe. Don't let your weight shift over the small toes, allowing ankle to bend outward.
Click the arrow to see this short movie of my student Diana's feet, as she first allows rolling the ankle outward when rising to toe, then at second 3 in the movie, she uses ankle, foot and leg muscles to pull to straight neutral ankle position. She prevents outward rolling as she again rises to toes three more times.
Prevent rolling outward whenever you rise on toe or push off or land from a jump or step.
Developing positioning sense in the receptors of your ankles prevents the sprain-promoting position called inversion, and gains built-in foot and ankle muscle strength and stability. Nice foot stretch too. Practice balancing on tip-toe, and rising up and down without rolling outward every day.
Fast Fitness - Fix Flat Feet, Pronation, and Fallen Arches
Friday, April 04, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - feel how your own muscles work to hold arch support, so that you can have healthy arches without artificial shoe arch supports or orthotics, which weaken the supporting muscles from disuse:
Stand with feet parallel and look in a mirror where you can see your feet, or just look down.
Pull outward until your arches rise and restore, and your ankles are straight
Use this as your new natural position, gaining built-in muscle strength and arch stability with each step you take.
Click the arrow to see the short movie made for us by reader David from Belgium. First he allows his weight to shirt inward, pushing his arch flatter toward the floor. Then at seconds 3 to 4 in the movie, he uses the outer muscles to pull to straight neutral ankle position. At seconds 8 to 9 he allows the arch to sag again, then simply restores and holds a healthy arch from second 13 onward.
You can have healthful arch position too. Legs and feet have posture that you can control yourself. Use your own muscles and get free built-in exercise and arch support all day, and stop painful poor positioning.
Reader Mike sent this flawless Canadian commercial showing lack of exercise as a mindset. Have a laugh:
The commercial is for a company that sells products, but the message is right. A few years ago I was attending a major sports medicine conference. In the Grand Hall, was an escalator next to stairs. Both went to the same place. An easel with a plainly marked notice stated that a study was going on of exercise habits. Even with the written notice, by the end of the study, which consisted of a student sitting and counting, few took the stairs. Sports medicine professionals were overwhelmingly taking the escalator on their way to major presentations on disease consequences of sedentary behavior, and exhibit halls selling pedometers.
Fitness as a lifestyle isn't going to exercise class a few times a week. Check your mindset, and how you bend, lift, and move all day:
My student Leslie is 67 years old. She has been working with me for several years. Click the arrow of this 30 second movie to watch her knock off 30 pushups.
At around the 25 second mark of this short movie, enjoy the reaction of the student who will appear at right.
Leslie holds straight neutral spine position. She does not let her lower spine sag, or her head and neck sag downward. To see a movie to practice how to change overarched hyperlordotic sagging spine to neutral spine for pushups, click Fast Fitness - Strengthen by Changing Your Plank.
Leslie says hello to all the readers and that she is strong with such great positioning due to my classes and emphasis on being able to hold up your own body weight in healthful positioning for regular daily life. I hope to post more of Leslie's and other students' happiness and strength.
Bookmark this post. Open it every day and do your 30 pushups with Leslie.
We are here working in Asia. Everywhere, we see schoolyards with kids playing sepak takraw. Modern sepak takraw is played on a court with three players on each side. Players don't use their hands to volley. They use feet, legs, shoulders, and head to keep the ball in the air, volleying back and forth. Main features of sepak takraw are acrobatic mid-air kicks to keep the ball in play, and the athleticism and speed of the players.
Sepak takraw has been played in Southeast Asia for hundreds of years. The word "sepak" is Malay for kick and "takraw" is the woven ball. In Thailand, the game is often simply called Takraw. In 1984, a Thai inventor revolutionized the sport with a synthetic takraw to replace the slower traditional rattan ball.
Takraw has roots in Malaysian, Chinese, and other national games. In Bangkok Thailand, there are wall paintings at the Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) of Hanuman, the Vanara (Monkey-like) Hindu god, playing takraw in a ring with his monkey troops. The game developed into teams competing across a court with a net, about the size of a badminton court. This modern-day version is a Southeast Asian specialty.
Thailand wins most of the gold medals at the Asian Games. Here is a motion clip of just 48 seconds of playing Takraw. Click the arrow to watch.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - fixing painful swayback to neutral spine.
If you have lower back pain after standing, walking, or running, or feel that you need to bend forward or lift one leg to relieve lower back pain, you may stand with too large an inward curve in your lower back (hyperlordosis).
Stand with hands on hips, thumbs in back
Roll hip under so that thumbs and the back of the hip come downward (not forward)
Use the neutral spine position for normal posture.
Reader David from Belgium made us this short video of correcting overarching (hyperlordosis). At first he is standing with the front of the hip tilted forward and the upper body leaning backward. Both actions increase the lower back curve. Then he tucks the bottom of the hip under to neutral position, correcting the hyperlordosis.
Don't tighten your abs to do this. Just use them to move your lower spine out of unhealthful arching to neutral spine. Breathe.
As you read this, we have been traveling for work and are again on several days of flights back to Asia, with a few errands on the way. For the next two months in Asia, I will check in and post from Internet cafes as we make our way through work and travel on overnight trains and ferries. Here is the link to the post and photos from last year on our way back.
I won't have access to Internet or e-mail for the next week. If you have questions, I won't be able to receive them until after that. Check for posts already here on Fitness Fixer. The post New Year's Resolutions Made Easy gave a list of labels that access all posts with each topic. I drafted a post on long sitting that Healthline staffer Jerry will post for you on Wednesday, thank you Jerry.
If you send photos, send small jpgs so that my e-mail does not fill, and so that I can directly upload them without finding a graphics program to resize them for posts.
Later this month, at the full moon, we hope to be learning more about wound healing at the Thaipusam. Then back to the north to the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback, and training at several places in Thai Boxing.
On our travels through Thailand we hope to see our friends, including an eagle who adopted me.
These ladies are in their 80's and 90's. Last year we all went to the King of Thailand's flower exposition. They wore their best clothes. When friends arrived with their truck, the ladies easily climbed up the tailgate over the side of the truck bed. I thought Paul and I should ride outside and let them sit inside. The daughter took my arm and said, "No. She stronger dan yooou!" They explained that the Grandmothers had sat outside all their lives, and walked before they had rides.
We will stay for some time at a school that has become a home to us. The cook there, named Ahn, escaped from desperate conditions in Myanmar (Burma). Earning a few dollars a day in Thailand, working long days without time off, is riches by comparison. One year I got her a children's ABC book to learn to read English. I was thrilled when she took the arm of another Burmese helper and sat with the book, writing in page after page. She worked on it for days. She proudly presented it to me - translated all in Burmese. She thought I wanted to learn Burmese and spent her only free time to do this as a present for me.
A few years ago, before leaving the US for Asia, some of my students asked if they could donate to help her. About 150 students enthusiastically agreed. They signed a card, that we translated into Burmese. They all put money in a hat, totaling strangely, only about $50. I matched it to make a $100 gift. This is more than a month's salary for Ahn. We could give her much, put her niece through school, with so little.
I put it in a drab little purse and wrapped it as a present. Ahn graciously received the gift of what she thought was an ugly cheap bag. She smiled and thanked us and bowed low. I told her, "Look inside later." The next year, we found that she donated the entire amount to the temple to ask for blessings - for us.
At the same school, the Grandmother there is a feisty funny lady. We came to love her quickly and look forward to seeing her every year. She is in her 90's. I am not sure exactly, but maybe more than 95. She loves to joke and tease. In the photo above she is sitting at lunch that Ahn brought. She sits easily in full squat and rises easily.
Once as we were entering the school, she squatted down fully to rummage through her purse to get her keys. I tried to get her photo. When she saw me raise a camera, she bolted up and ran to a table with Western style chairs, and sat there, upright, with legs crossed and hands on her knees. She said she didn't want her photo "sitting like a farmer." Nothing I could manage to ask in my best Thai convinced her to let me show the world how strong and great she is.
Last year, while visiting them, the subject of Muay Thai came up, a martial art which is the national sport. She once ran a Muay Thai school. The next thing we knew, she was giving us lessons. I trained and competed in Muay Thai in the Netherlands and Thailand, and know that she gave us all a tough training. Then she grabbed her friend, a lady in her late 80's and sat her on the floor for a lesson too. Look how easily they bend and sit on the floor in this photo.
Here is a short movie of the last 30 seconds of her giving a lesson. Click the arrow to play. Watch how easily they both rise to a stand at the end. We hope you feel happy and inspired by her, and try it too. Last summer, she passed away, strong to the last.
Fast Fitness - Functional Agility, Flexibility, Strength
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - build balance, leg and hip strength, and flexibility as a lifestyle.
Lightly sit down on the floor and get up again without your hands.
Being able to rise from the floor is natural lifestyle movement, done in many places in the world by people up to the oldest years. My martial arts student Ms. Han demonstrates in the short mpeg movie. Click the arrow to run the video:
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - fix your plank (hold pushup position) to strengthen core and wrists, and train standing neutral spine posture. In yoga the plank is done in high and low positions called chaturunga.
A sagging inward curve to the lower back is not the normal curve, it is too much curve - pictured at the start of the MPEG movie below. Holding a plank with a sagging (overarched, hyperlordotic) lower spine "hammocks" body weight onto your spine joints called facets, adding to lower back pain, and does not use your core muscles. It is counterproductive as an exercise. Instead:
Hold a pushup position
Change sagging lower back to neutral by tucking the hip. Head up, neck as straight as standing.
Don't flop all weight on wrists. Press with hand and fingers, and use forearm muscles to reduce wrist compression and shift weight to surrounding muscles - see Stronger Pain-Free Wrists When Biking for ideas.
Reader David D. from Belgium sent this excellent movie. He pushes up into plank. You can also can start on hands and feet without pushing up. He first demonstrates badly overarched lower back, then changes to neutral spine in seconds 8-11 of the movie, then holds. When you do this you will immediately feel the effort shift to your abs. Use this instead of crunches for functional core training. If you push up from the floor, hold tucked neutral spine, not lifting upper body first.
(The exercise is not to do overarching and change to neutral - it is to hold neutral throughout.)
Fast Fitness - Balance, Strength, Stretch, and Socks
Friday, November 02, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
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:
Stand with one ankle crossed over opposite knee
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.
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