I just attended Perform Better's one-day "Learn by Doing" workshop in South San Francisco. This is an annual event for me and this year's presenters were interesting. I really appreciated the opportunity to learn from one of the fitness industry's best, Mike Boyle; a renowned Strengthening and Conditioning Coach.
As a lifelong learner and a movement specialist who is constantly striving to learn more about the human body and movement patterns, I keep an open mind when listening to fitness professionals. However now that I am a Z-Health Movement Re-Educator who specialized in brain-based movement and performance, I find it difficult to listen to misinformation about the nervous system and brain function.
It was refreshing to hear two presenters encourage forced exhalation. The reasonings were different but the message is the same: BREATHE OUT THROUGH THE MOUTH. Strong. And long. Feel your lower stomach contract as you reach the end of the exhalation phase.
The Neuro-Revolution is here. Brain-based training is the future of fitness. I guarantee it. Don't wait for mainstream trainers to get the message; find a Z-Health Practitioner and get started today!
Everything beings in the brain; all thoughts and movement. Learn how to train your brain for better performance in daily life. HINT: Crossword puzzles are not the way to a healthy brain.
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
The oldest member of my recent Brains and Balance class lived in fear of falling. Many older adults live with the fear of falling because they fear that a fall is the beginning of the end. Most people who live alone live in fear of falling and not being able to get up from the floor. The thought of lying on the floor for hours or days, scares some people so much that they limit their daily activities. They quit doing things they enjoy and things that need to be done for fear of slipping or tripping.
This is the beginning of a vicious cycle because the less you do, the weaker you become. The weaker you become, the greater the risk of falling. This is known as the cycle of fear.
Fear of falling is a recognizable psychological condition that happens after a fall. A little fear is a good thing but when your fear of falling interferes with your daily life, you need some help getting back on your feet.
My class student's daughter recognized this fear in her mother and brought her mom from Fresno to Sacramento to participate in my four-week brain-based balance training class.
By the end of the second week, this 82 year old lady was sitting up straight, smiling and laughing in class. In the third week of class, she walked through the obstacle course without her walker! She was stopping and starting in response to verbal command and was no longer holding onto the counter when walking. The last week, she was doing weight shifts with her eyes closed and throwing her arms back and forth while doing multi-planar lunges.
On the last day of class, this amazing woman got up and walked eight feet with a steady, confident gait. She announced to the class that she was no longer afraid of falling and that her daughter had to remind her to take her walker with her. She has overcome the paralyzing fear of falling!
It's never too late to gain control of your body. Learn how to react when losing your balance. Be aware of your surroundings. Practice drills that will increase your reaction speeds. You do this with brain-based balance training. Enroll in my Brains and Balance Training classes and change the way you live your life.
Most improved student described how the four-week brain-based balance training classes taught her exercises to manage her hip and knee pain.
As a Z-health Practitioner, I teach people how to activate areas of the brain that inhibit pain. In other words, I teach drills that turn off pain. Based on laws of neurology, opposing joint drills help people manage pain.
This 66 year old frequent faller explained how many times she had fallen and how worried she was about falling again. While her goal was to become more steady when walking, she surprisingly learned exercises to take her out of pain.
She doesn't have hip or knee pain anymore. She learned drills to increase her awareness of surroundings, how to react to imbalances and what to do if she is falling. Mostly, she increased her lower body flexibility by nearly one foot!
While she was seven inches from touching her toes on day one, she can now reach six inches past her toes! Her legs are significantly stronger as evidenced by standing up five more times in 30 seconds! She moves more stable and with greater confidence as shown by her ability to get up and walk around a cone nearly two seconds faster!
I just completed my first four-week Brains and Balance Training session of 2019 and the post-testing scores showed the most improvement in the fifteen years I've been teaching fall prevention classes!
I am so proud of the eleven adults who came to the classes at the Fair Oaks United Methodist Church and put in the work to improve lower body strength, lower body flexibility and dynamic balance to reduce risk of falling. In other words, they got stronger, more flexible, and better balance for quicker reaction speeds.
Brain-based training is a new approach to an old problem; loss of balance and falls. This diverse group of older adults were willing to try sensory activation and muscle training and the results were amazing. Their ages ranged from 59 to 82 and one used a walker for mobility while another walks four miles daily.
After eight sessions in four weeks, four people improved lower body strength by 5. In other words, four people were able to stand up and sit down five more times in 30 seconds. That's an amazing improvement in such a short time that translates into reduced risk of falling.
The most improved participant was a 66 year old frequent faller. On the first day, she couldn't touch her toes; her hand was nearly 7 inches from her feet. On the last day, this amazing woman reached 6 inches past her toes in the same test! She gained over 11 and a half inches in lower body flexibility. That is a new record for ANY STUDENT in my fifteen year career. Congratulations!
Two other students improved their lower body flexibility over three inches. Lower body flexibility is necessary for a safe and stable walking gait and tight hamstrings are directly related to low back pain. No more back pain!!!
The third senior fitness test measures dynamic balance and agility. This is a life skill needed for safe movement through life so you can react timely to life's imbalances. The youngest student of the group increased her timed Up and Go test by seven full seconds! The oldest student of the class improved her time and walked stronger and more steady without using an assistive device.
These pre-and post Senior Fitness Testnumbers show objective, measurable data. This data is invaluable to students who put in the work and do not realize how much they've improved. What isn't measured is the improvements in posture, vision, reaction times and confidence.
Balance is difficult to measure. These numbers don't lie. How you feel is proof. Get enrolled in a Brains and Balance Class or enroll your loved ones. Invest in your future.
