It looks like we're going to be staying at home another 2 weeks, at least.
Life changed instantly; routines are disrupted. It's kind of crazy right now.
My stress response is making it hard to stay on routine and stay motivated.
It's time to dig down deep down inside for the inner strength to keep going; to stay focused on the big picture; your health.
For me, success to getting through this uncertainty is setting small goals for each day.
My main goal is to move deliberately everyday!
I don't have a set time but sometime, anytime during the day I make myself do 20-30 minutes of continuous challenging movement.
Academy of Sports Medicine recommends all for adults over age of 60 engage in some type of resistance training at least two times a week in order to maintain muscle mass.
Body weight and resistance bands are examples of strength building exercise.
Grab your resistance band and follow along with me in this upper body routine.
Nagging hip pain, low back pain, shooting sciatic pain in hip and side of leg; if you have or had it; you have, or had, a nerve problem. In essence, because of the way we are built, we are really just one big nerve with lots of branches. When one of the 'branches' of nerve get compressed in high nerve density cramped spaces, communication within that nerve is cut off and pain results.
Sometimes space is an issue but we can relieve pain by creating more space for nerves to move. If you move poorly, that can cause pain at the joint. Poor spinal movements can place unnecessary pressure on the dorsal or ventral nerve root. That’s the bulk of chiropractic adjustments.
Poor tissue health can cause nerve pain which is why you want to take Great Lakes Hydrolysed collagen protein for improved nerve health and function. Order your Great Lakes Collagen Protein today for the health of your nerves and nervous system. Here's $5 off your first order: $5 Off Great Lakes Collagen Protein for Nerve Health
Our nerves transmit urgent data to the brain. The brain interprets the information and sends an response to nerves that run to the body. Keep your nerve highway clean and functioning with holistic drills that give the brain what it needs for healthy function.
I just finished teaching my last class of 2019 at the Woodland Community Center. I had 14 older adults in my brain-based fall prevention class and the results were some of the best scores I've ever seen. From 96 years old to the youngest in the class, age 60, these mature adults got stronger, more flexible and moved quicker in eight sessions.
In four weeks, a 96-year old lady improved her lower body strength by 3 chair stands, reached 1.5 inches closer to her toes and walked 1 full second faster around a cone eight feet away. These are tremendous improvements at 96 years old.
The most improved was 67 year old hispanic woman. She improved lower body strength by 5 chair stands in 30 seconds, improved lower body flexibility by 3 full inches and improved her dynamic balance and agility by 8.7 seconds! Yes, that's right! 8.7 seconds faster getting up and moving around a cone that is 8 feet away. This skill alone can save her life.
I am so proud of everyone in the class. Investing in this brain-based balance training can save your life. Learning how to move quicker, with more flexibility and stronger legs, will improve reaction times. We practice reaction strategies so if you lose your balance, you know how to react appropriately. This improves your self confidence.
Some other noteworthy improvements:
A baby boomer couple in the class for work-related interests both significantly improved lower body strength; one by 7 chair stands and the other by 3 in 30 seconds.
A gentleman who survived a stroke over 20 years ago increased his lower body strength by 2 chair stands and his dynamic balance and agility by 3.3 seconds. He moves a full 3.3 seconds faster getting up from a chair and walking eight feet, without a cane. His overall walking gait showed significant improvement as well.
A 72 year old lady did 5 more chair stands in 30 seconds and reached 3.3 inches further.
A 78-year old lady did 3 more chair stands and reached a full 4.5 inches further. "Reaching further" is a measurement of lower body flexibility. The ability to touch your toes. The ability to pick your foot up and not drag your toes, reduced low back pain because hamstrings are more flexible.
An 86-year old man increased lower body strength by 2 chair stands and improved lower body flexibility by 2 inches. AT AGE 86.
A lady with Parkinson's showed significant improvement in her posture and reaction speeds.
You're never too young or too old to improve the way you move. Movement is life and it's time to start living!
This brain-based training is great for anyone who wants to gain control of her/his body and enjoy life on life's terms.
I'm finishing up two amazing Brains and Balance classes at Sun River church in Rancho Cordova and my students are thrilled with the results. This awesome lady explains how the class changed her life but is giving her life back!
"This class is not just LIFE CHANGING,
it's giving me LIFE BACK!
She's been living with neuropathy for over 10 years. She went to multiple neurologists and physical therapists who told her there was nothing they could do for her. Discouraged, she stopped doing the things she loved.
Through sensory activation, she's gained control of her body and is hopeful about her future. She still has peripheral neuropathy but she feels stable and is more aware of her body and knows how to move it.
Do you want your life back? Do you want to do the things you love again? If so, join me in one of my Brains and Balance Training classes. Lots of classes scheduled for spring and summer.
If you can't make classes, I can come to you for private sessions. And thanks to technology, we can even do some training online!
Your brain controls everything, learn how to active different parts of your brain for better movement. After all, movement is life and it's time to start living.
Professional athletes make movement look graceful, flawless, effortless. We're not professional athlete's but your brain's ultimate goal of movement is efficiency. Efficient movement requires less energy and your brain likes to conserve energy.
So how does your movement become efficient? Practice, practice, practice!!! Practice solidifies neural pathways with myelin and your brain (and body) get good at that movement.
But here's the kicker;
your body gets good at whatever it does
exactly how it does it.
What that means is that if you're practicing sloppy, compensated movements, your body will get good at bad, inefficient form.
This is why you need to practice movements in perfect form. Dr. Cobb, creator of Z-Health, has identified four elements of efficiency that must be present in the "PERFECT REP". And they are:
Perfect Form
Dynamic Postural Alignment
Synchronized Respiration
Balanced Tension and Relaxation
What does that look like? Well, perfect form begins in Lengthened Spine. Dynamic Postural Alignment means that all joints are relaxed and properly aligned. You're sitting, or standing, tall and relaxed. Feet, knees, hips and shoulders all facing forward.
Synchronized Respiration is relaxed nasal inhale into your belly and nasal or mouth exhalation. This breathing pattern continues throughout the movements. It will change as energy requirements increase but you SHOULD NOT HOLD YOUR BREATH AT ANY TIME!
The final element of efficiency is the ability to maintain balanced Tension and Relaxation in your body. This means no contraction, flexion, forward bending, locking of arms when doing movements, no tension. This is a challenge when a person is asked to move a joint in directions and speeds they haven't done in....forever!
IT's very common to see people tighten up when trying to move a body part in isolation that has never been moved before. It takes concentration! Concentration can rob your body of efficiency because all your brain wants is to do the movement and not look stupid. This should be easy. But it's not.
One perfect rep means doing whatever drill with all the forms of efficiency present. Breathing. Relaxed. Postural aligned and perfect form. In my Brains and Balance Training classes, we practice drills that should be easy. You would think three circles clockwise and three circles counterclockwise would be easy. But it's not always the case!
Learn how to control your body with the elements of efficiency. Get good at good movement. Quit living your life in bad form! Say goodbye to poor posture and instability. Learn how to move each joint in isolation so you can move them all together efficiently.
Brain-based training: The future of Fitness.
If you're not training your senses, half your brain is dying. Use it or lose it.
Your brain controls how much each joint moves. Our joints have receptors in them that tell the brain about things like location, pressure, and temperature. This joint-receptor input forms a three-dimensional map of the body.
This 3-D map is located in the brain and this is known as the third sensory system called proprioception. This spatial awareness is how your brain knows where your body is in space at all times. The better your brain's map of the body, the better your movement.
Conversely, if you don't move a body part, the brain's map for that area is "blurry". If you were injured and didn't rehabilitate 100 percent (which is defined as the ability to move a joint in all ranges of motions at all speeds), then your brain's map of that injured area is blurry.
As a result, when your brain has to move the previously injured area, movement might be choppy, ratchety, spastic, or rushed. These types of movement indicate poor mapping, an indication that your brain doesn't know how to move an area.
The better the brain's map of the body, the more smooth and efficient the movement. Think about a highway. You can go fast on well-traveled roads. Similarly, when you repeatedly practice a movement, your body (and brain) get really good at that movement.
Practice makes perfect but you need to practice perfect. That's because your body gets good at whatever it does, exactly how it does it. This is known as the SAID principle or specific adaptations to imposed demands. You get good at whatever you do, exactly how you do it.
For that reason, you want to practice all movements in good form or your body will get good at bad movement. Your brain's mapping of the body is dependent on many other neurological factors but for this blog, just know that all movement is planned and controlled by your brain and your brain depends on receptor input to know where the body is in space.
Take-aways:
Your brain can forget how to move a body part if you don't move it.
Practice moving each joint in all directions at all speeds.
The better the brain's map of the body, the better your movement
Our posture is 90% habitual. Basically we walk through life on auto-pilot; unaware of our surroundings, not thinking about each carefully planned step or the balance skills and total body integration required to remain upright.
We take our balance for granted. We take effortless movement for granted. We take our brain's ability to receive billions of messages each second, understand and analyze that data and send a message to the rest of the body at just the right time, at just the right strength, and with just the right coordination for granted. In actuality, movement is amazing.
Because most of our movement through life is habitual and because your body gets good at whatever it does, exactly how it does it, our posture is the result of our daily habits. Vision and vestibular inputs have a tremendous impact on how your carry your head because all the brain wants is a horizontal horizon.
This typical forward head carriage is due to muscle imbalances caused by downward vision staring at the floor due to his fear of falling. After eight sessions, things are looking up!
During the first two weeks of class, he would get very frustrated when I would correct his downward stare with, "Look at your vertical target". He would shrug his shoulders and begrudgingly look up and correct his posture. This is going to take some time because we've got 79 years of poor postural habits.
Good postural habits begin in lengthened spine; Spine long, chin slightly down and tucked back. Every time you even think about your posture, lengthen spine and drop the chin and push back. Find the vertical target.
By the last session, this tall, lanky man was standing on a tightrope, ears in line with shoulders, shoulders in line with hips, hips in line with heels and weight equally distributed between the front and the back foot. And he wasn't staring at the floor!!!
When asked what the best part of the class was, he said, "the ladies!". It was amazing what he noticed when he quit looking at the floor. The lone ranger in a class of ten women including his wife, this guy hung in there and noticed all the pretty face in the room.
Quit letting life pass you by. Look around, pay attention to your surroundings. Peripheral vision training can increase your reaction speeds by 25%; start paying attention to what you're not looking at!
Posture is dependent on where you're looking. If you don't want "old age posture", look forward at vertical targets and stand upright. The Fall Prevention Lady
As a health and fitness professional who studies the neuroplasticity of the brain and the enormous physical and mental benefits of brain activation, I have goals. I want to make sure people understand the power of brain training and why they need to get started.
Kelly Ward, Brain Exercise Therapist
I am an avid follower and studying practitioner of Dr. Eric Cobb's Z-Health Performance brain-based Solutions training and my number one goal is to "Re-educate those neural systems rendered dysfunctional from injury and disuse". Dr. Cobb
Re-education of neural systems occurs via regular drills. Through comprehensive motor and sensory testing, I gather a picture of the brain's function and identify what needs more (or less) activation for optimal performance.
Once identified, I have my client do high pay-off drills frequently enough to make permanent changes. It takes time to 're-educate the nervous system. This requires behavior rehabilitation because a client has to do the exercises frequently and consistently to reap benefits on a permanent basis.
My second goal is to help you understand that big things come from little things. I can guarantee that the drills you will do with me are new and unlike anything you have done with other trainers or health care professionals. I do lots of 'sensory testing' and while these may not be huge "ah-ah"moments for you, I am gathering valuable data.
You don't have to have a background in neuroscience or know anything about the brain to work with me. You'll probably hear me mumble things like 'right PMRF' or 'left saccule' or 'right side cranial nerve 7' but never mind me; I'm just gathering data. The more sensory input, the greater the brain activation. These little activations can have a huge impact on how you move.
As a certified Brain Exercise Therapist, I provide optimal sensory input to activate areas of the brain with decreased function. These little drills add up. When the brain feels 'safe' the pay-off is remarkable. And pain-free.
Brain training. It's the future of fitness. What have you got to lose? Pain? Poor posture? Horrible balance? Fading vision? Yep, you can lose those things.
Let's re-educate your neural systems that have been injured or not used. Subtle, small things can make a huge difference to your brain. Let's get started!
Your brain is plastic. Your brain can change. The way you move can change. The amount of pain you live with every day can change. Your balance can change. The way you think can change. The possibilities are endless however in order to reap the benefits of functional neuro-antomy, aka "brain training", there are a few rules you must follow.
Learning New Method of Getting UP from Floor
The number one rule when training for change at the brain level; never move into pain. Pain is an output and is the brain's way of saying stop. In order to teach your brain how to move better, you have to break bad movement habits.
This means you have to move in ways you haven't moved. In some cases, it might be the first time you've ever moved correctly and that may feel different.
Different is good; pain is bad. When I train private clients and teach classes, I guide people through new movements. The brain loves novelty; it pays attention. It's fun to watch people move a part of the body for the first time; facial expressions, tense muscles, and absolute concentration fill the room. This is good! You can teach an old brain new tricks.
Learning how to move each joint of the body is essential for optimal movement. The better a joint can move in isolation, the better your TOTAL BODY MOVEMENT. If you want to walk better, you want to be able to control all the joints and body parts in isolation so when called upon to work together, there aren't any surprises to the brain.
Because some body parts haven't moved in full range of motion in years, it can be awkward but it should never be painful! All exercises can be modified to reduce pain. The way to reduce pain and still be able to move is to:
Slow down the movement
Make the movement smaller
Joints, muscles and nerves were made to move! We already know that if you don't use it, you lose it. Start slow and get bigger. Stay out of pain as you learn to control how your body moves, both in isolation and integrated movement.
I vaguely remember learning about the brain in high school. I recall lobes, dural matter, grey matter, action potentials, synapses; the basic science of it all. Over thirty years later, I am fascinated by the nervous system and how the brain works. In fact, the science of neuroplasticity gives old dogs like myself hope for a renewed future.
As a movement specialist and balance expert, I help people break poor movement patterns and re-learn how to move more efficiently with less pain. I study under Dr. Eric Cobb, creator of Z-Health Performance; a brain-based approach to movement. I love his teaching style and have learned amazing things about the brain and how the health of our brain is reflected in our postures and movement patterns.
Neuro101:
Input data from sensory systems travel to brain where the messages are interpreted and the brain sends an output. Input. Interpretation. Output. 1, 2, 3. Our nervous system works in a loop; the better the input, the better the output. In order to prevent a fall, this process has to happen in less than one-quarter of a second.
Everything we do is an output of the brain; strength, balance, flexibility, pain. Movement specialists train the outputs. Experts train the inputs. Dr. Debra Rose's FallProof™balance and mobility program introduced me to the three sensory inputs and my Master's studies focused on how to train the muscles and senses for better balance and mobility. I"ve been teaching multi-sensory balance training for over ten years. I've witnessed the fact "the better the input, the better the output".
My doctoral level studies in Z-Health Performance Solutions have taught me how to train the inputs in order to optimize performance, enhance balance and confidence while feeling less pain. It's a scientific fact that once your "old" brain feels safe, you will move better, see better and feel better. Simply said, the better the input, the better the output.
Why would a health professional train the outputs if the message going to the brain and the interpretation of the data is the source of the problem? Because they don't know; this is cutting edge applied neuroscience. New scientific research demonstrates the neuroplasticity of the brain and how precise training of the brain give you precise results.
Don't waste your money on outdated "Balance Manuals"; you can do the same exercises over and over but without training the inputs, the outputs will only improve as much as the brain allows.
Give your brain what it needs and get the results you want.
Kelly
Last month I was blessed with the opportunity of a lifetime; to watch and participate in a human cadaver dissection! This wasn't your typical anatomy and physiology lab dissection; this dissection was movement-oriented in that we focused on the muscles, nerves, tendons, and fascial tissue of the human body and how lifestyle choices affect the way you move.
Anatomy Live, Phoenix AZ 2017
Michol Dalcourt ofThe Institute in Motion collaborated with Tom Meyers of"Anatomy Trains" to offer this amazing weekend of enlightenment to personal trainers, physical therapists, massage therapists, and movement, balance and mobility specialists who strive to learn as much about the human body in order to offer our clients the most effective program for individual movement disorders.
For eight hours, four teams of seven students stood alongside and worked with a Master Dissector. While students dissected the torso and extremities to view the muscles and fascia at each table, one group focused on the internal organs, Tom's team studied the brain, expert dissector Todd's table went up one side in the morning and down the other in the afternoon while my team dissected the frontside in the morning and the backside in the afternoon.
Four lives lived. Four lifestyle behaviors reflected four cadavers. With much respect, we named our cadaver and learned how she lived her life by the condition of her muscles, soft tissues and joints. Here's what my team discovered about Frieda:
She was overweight with most of the fat around her belly, butt and thighs (pear-shaped)
She had typical "old age" posture, probably due to using a walker:
Rounded shoulders
Dowagers hump
Bent forward with chin jutting forward
She walked with a limp, favoring her right side
She had NO ANKLE FLEXIBILITY on her dominant left side
She couldn't raise her arms over her head
Later that evening, as I 'dissected' the day's event in my mind (pun intended), I realized the four cadavers reflected a lifetime of personal choices and the resultant muscle imbalances, limited mobility and diminished strength associated with personal behavior and advanced age.
It was fascinating to be able to deduce movement and compensation patterns of the person by the muscle integrity, joint mobility and connective tissue properties of the cadaver.
This was the best learning experience of my life.
I have a tremendous respect for the human body and the interconnectedness of the kinetic chain.
As a balance and mobility specialist and movement re-educator, I was able to witness firsthand the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle.
As a result of this hands-on learning opportunity, my passion to help people break poor habits and "re-learn" how to move more efficiently has grown tremendously. I am The Fall Prevention Lady and I want to help you move better, with less pain. I am here to help you live the life you planned for.
Last month I attended Perform Better's One-Day Conference in South San Francisco. Four icons in the fitness industry (Gray Cook, Dan John, Todd Durkin and Martin Rooney) presented one-hour lectures to an auditorium full of movement specialists, personal trainers, physical therapists, massage therapists and athletes in the morning and put four teams of us through an exercise component in the afternoon.
Dan John, a renowned Lifting and Throwing Coach, immediately caught my attention when he said,
"As a 59 year old man, it's better for me to be diagnosed with cancer than it is for me to fall"!
Statistically, he's right!!! According to the CDC:
1 in 4 people over the age of 65 and one-half of those over 80 will fall this year
Falls are leading cause of death and injury in people over 65
99% of hip fractures are due to falls
20% of people who break a hip will die within two years
Over half will need assistance in one or more activities of daily living the rest of their life
Wow! As an oral cancer survivor, I know the horrific pain of radiation. However three years after my treatment ended, the memory of the pain is starting to dull and I am blessed to say my life is not significantly different now than before having cancer. I can only say this because I worked out everyday during treatment and after six months of presentations and staff trainings, I took a six-month hiatus to rest, recover and routinely build muscle and self-confidence.
If I was twenty or thirty years older (69 or 79, respectively), tripped, fell and broke my right hip while walking on the sidewalk, statistically the fall would have a greater impact on my life than cancer did.
I'd like you to think about this for awhile. A ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Think about investing in your future by investing in your balance today.
The tips and techniques that I teach in my balance and movement classes, will stick with you for the rest of your life. Your self-confidence will blossom as your balance improves.
I. N.V. E. S. T. in Y.O.U!
I offer a dynamic one-time workshop that will help you better understand balance and how aging and exercise impact your independence. Remember that movement is LIFE.
I also offer the best balance training program for older adults. FallProof™ is a progressively challenging program that systematically trains the muscles and senses involved in balance. Definitely not your average 'senior center fall prevention class'.
