Self-Massage for Jaw Tension Class - Tuesday, May 22

I will be teaching a one-hour class "Self Massage for Jaw Tension" on Tuesday, May 22 from 4:00 to 5:00 pm. This will help anyone with tension headaches or people who get neck or jaw pain after seeing the dentist, and will reduce teeth clenching or grinding. It will be held in my office in Issaquah, and the fee is $25 per person.

I will teach how to ease strain in muscles around the skull and neck. I developed the protocol after a client asked me to teach her. (She wasn't crazy about having someone work inside her mouth, and it turned out that she was able to relieve her symptoms just be working on her neck and head.) 

To register for either class, send an email to anita [at) anitahellerworker.com. (Please use normal email formatting. I had to change it here, so my email address doesn't get picked up by every spam robot.) Space is limited, so reserve your spot soon.

Why do we like cat videos?

There’s nothing like a new cat video—or a favorite old cat video—to distract most people from the waiting piles of paperwork and long to-do lists. But what is it about watching our furry friends that reduces stress, literally reducing tension in the body?

The key may be in neurons that minutely activate muscles when watching or imagining an activity. While these are often referred to as motor neurons, it’s not really something accomplished by specific neurons, but a function of how our sensory-motor system works. This is how elite athletes improve performance. When watching videos or mentally rehearsing an event, the brain imagines the movement and the body pretends, on a subliminal level, that this activity is taking place.

When we watch a cat with all its muscles relaxed, moving only the muscles needed, does that help us relax? I think so, and I think that it teaches us how to move more efficiently, only contracting the muscles that are necessary to accomplish a task. When we see a cat swat at an alligator, do we feel powerful and get a surge of adrenaline and pride? That would explain why these videos are so addictive. Watching animals crawl through boxes, climb into bowls, or do anything to avoid getting a bath gives our bodies a mini-taste of the variety of movement we used to enjoy as children.

Watching cat and dog videos is actually good for your body. For even better benefit, follow up with some inventive movement of your own and you’ll drop even more tension and have more fun.

Unstretchable, but not Necessarily Inflexible

A good idea? Stretching before or after exercise

Stretching used to be the go-to activity to increase flexibility and reduce muscle soreness. However, recent research has found that stretching before exercise does not improve athletic performance, does not reduce post-exercise soreness, and may not even improve flexibility. Furthermore, biomechanics has shown that some muscles are in a mechanical position that prevents them from being fully stretched. This article, The Unstretchables - Eleven major muscles you can’t stretch (no matterhow hard you try), by Paul Ingraham lists more than a dozen muscles that can’t be stretched, including the tibialis anterior, coracobrachialis, masseter, temporalis, suboccipitals, supraspinatus, pectoralis minor, thoracic paraspinals, supinator, latissimus dorsi, the gluteals, the quadriceps (other than rectus femoris), the foot arch muscle, and the IT band.

I take issue with the article on several accounts.

• First, while it may be impossible to stretch these muscles to their maximum length, there are plenty of people walking around with quadriceps and tibialis anterior that are short of functional length, which contributes to shuffling, limping, and pain. Don’t stop stretching a muscle just because it’s on the list. 
• Second, even though stretching doesn’t improve athletic performance or reduce post-exercise soreness, stretching does help a lot of people feel better, especially people with chronic pain syndromes. 
• Also, there are goals of stretching other than lengthening a muscle to its maximum such as improving muscle tone and adaptability. 
• Most of all, these “unstretchables” aren’t a lost cause. Undulation is a way to improve the feeling of flexibility, regardless of biomechanics.

Take the suboccipitals for instance. This group of eight muscles (four on each side) connect the top of the neck to the base of the skull. They are chronically tense in many people as a result of how often we lean forward and look down (otherwise known as text neck), which often leads to a stiff neck and headaches. Many people complain of tightness and soreness at the base of the skull. If the suboccipitals can’t be stretched, what can you do to make them feel better?

The Nose Circles undulation (a variation of Neck Detangler) mobilizes the suboccipitals to unlock their habitual tight-feeling position. The muscles contract and lengthen in sequence bringing much needed relief. This video shows you how. (Instructions are also included on page 45 of Undulation: Relieve Stiffness and Feel Young.)

If your Nose Circles are jagged, it’s because some of your suboccipitals are tenser than others. However, if you practice Nose Circles regularly, the tenser ones will loosen up and your circles will become more smooth and even.

While you can’t technically stretch your supinator, you can create more freedom in your forearm, wrist, and elbow with the Octopus undulation. Small and unusual movements can help open up the carpal tunnel and ease tension in the elbow. This video walks you through it step-by-step. (You can also find this one on page 38 of my book.)

Of course, the Octopus undulation targets more than just a single muscle, so the feeling of flexibility extends through the whole arm.

It’s true that technically you can’t stretch the muscles along the side of your upper back, the thoracic paraspinals, but the feeling of tightness there is begging for some relief. Most people need to strengthen these muscles, but just contracting them will probably make them feel even tighter. Alternate between contraction and lengthening as in the Reverse the Slouch undulation (page 14) or create a wide variety of movement with Free Form. Free Form is demonstrated in this video. It’s also on page 20 of the book. Free form is the magic grease that can help any place in your body feel more flexible, even if it can’t be stretched.

These undulations are not only easy to do, it is easy to do them anywhere and build them into your daily activities. You don’t have to change into your sweat pants, you don’t have to carve out 20 minutes, you don’t have to leave your desk.

If stretching helps you feel better, keep it up, but if you’ve been stretching a muscle and it hasn’t made a difference, you now know there may be a reason and there are other alternatives to creating the feeling of looseness and flexibility.

Calling in the Movement Experts to Prevent Exercise Pain

Children are Movement Experts

Several Facebook friends forwarded videos to me last year that showed a simple stand to sit test that was correlated with longevity in a study published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. “What did I think of this test?” they wanted to know. Could I do it? I believe that the tenets of the test are true: being able to sit on the floor and get up without using your arms is an important skill to retain or regain. However, as you can see in the video below, the test from the study is hard on my knees. Can you hear the grinding sounds coming from my knees at thirty seconds?

My training and experience led me to believe that I should modify this test to avoid the grinding in my joints and accompanying pain, so I decided to call in some movement experts. I could have called a physical therapist or a personal trainer, a structural integrator or kinesiologist, a yoga therapist or a Feldenkrais teacher. While I respect professional training and do get advice from each of these types of movement experts, I believe that children have a lot to teach us about movement, too. Kids move naturally with ease. In this video, The Movement Experts, my grand-nephews Beau and Emil, show me how to sit on the floor and get up without using my hands.

Sitting on the floor and getting back up is an excellent way to stay in shape. Follow Beau and Emil in the above video and feel the workout. If you have lost the ability to get on the floor, don’t give up. Rebuilding your strength and flexibility is possible. I created a second video to show you how with a progression of strength building movements. Every time you sit down and get up from a chair, you can build your leg and core strength.

You can also use the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 30 second chair stand test to see if you are above or below average in strength for your age. However, my best recommendation is to find some kids and copy their movements. I will help you with that with upcoming videos from The Movement Experts, who will teach us all how to stay mobile. 

Stress Management Tips for the Holidays

I am not a glass half full type of person. I am a glass brimming over and splashing down on the table, staining the tablecloth type of person. It goes with my plate already full personality. I like my life this way, even though it causes me stress. It causes the most stress in December when there is more to pile on to my already full plate. Here is what is still left on my to-do list: a Christmas letter, Christmas cards, Christmas cookies, Christmas presents, stocking stuffers, maybe I should make gluten-free Chex mix for my neighbors (and what about the people in the office building?), plus year-end accounting, my 2017 business plan, and, and, and.

My husband says that the list is completely under my control, therefore I create my own stress. He’s right, of course. Other people have other stressors that they have less control over. An article in Psychologist World reports that 70% of people have work related stress and half worry about their weight. Then there’s stress about money and stress because of gridlocked traffic. The point is that all of these things are magnified in December. The to-do list is longer, the expenses are higher, it’s scarieer to drive in the dark and the rain, and after we’re stressed out about finding time to make the cookies, we are stressed out about how much weight we’ll gain after eating them.

A voice inside our head says, “You should relax,” but it's not as easy flipping a switch in the brain. Stress is as much in the body—maybe more so—than in the mind. The most successful stress management strategies involve changing tension in the body. This article gives you three concrete ways to manage your stress. All three have helped me through the holidays.

Fingertip breathing meditation

The beauty of this technique is that you can do it anywhere, while waiting at the checkout line or while sitting at a stop light.

As you inhale, open your hands and spread your fingers. On a slow exhale, bring your thumbs and little fingers together. Slowly open your hands again in time with your inhale, and on the next exhale, bring your thumbs and ring fingers together. Inhale and open, on your next slow exhale thumbs and middle fingers together. Open on the inhale again and on your fourth exhale bring the thumbs and pointer fingers together. Repeat the sequence until you feel less tension. For example, my to-do list overwhelms me at times and I don’t know where to start. At some point during the fingertip meditation, I will gain clarity and the next step will become obvious. It might take me four or five rounds, but the “time out” from my scurrying gives me the ability to focus and find the next best step.

Variations

I think it’s helpful to vary the amount of pressure on the fingers. What’s the difference if you press them firmly together or try a feather light touch? How about pressing the finger pads together or the finger tips? Trying to touch left and right thumbs and fingers at the exact same moment seems particularly helpful to me.

Why does this work?

Focusing on and slowing the breath is calming and can shift your nervous system from “fight or flight” to “rest and digest” mode. Adding movements from the hands helps unlock stress patterns all the way from your fingers to your neck, patterns like clenching your fists, gripping the steering wheel, or hunching your shoulders.

Being aware of your body is also calming. In the days when we were outside and subject to danger more often, knowing where the body was in space (technically called proprioception) was vital to surviving stressful situations. Even though we aren’t in danger from wild animals or falling tree branches, our nervous system is still soothed by developing proprioception.

Also, you might recognize each of these hand positions as a gesture used in yoga or other meditation practices, called mudras, which are purported to  channel energy in certain ways. When I taught this meditation practice in yoga class, my students found that one finger position was more comforting than the others. I invite you to explore if there’s a mudra that is most effective for your stress, and if different mudras are more effective in different situations. (The sitting in traffic stress relieving mudra might not be the same as the arguing with your spouse stress relieving mudra.)

Stress shaker undulation

This one is easy and depending on how self-conscious you are, you might not want to do it in the checkout line, or maybe just do so on the sly. Simply shake your wrists so that your fingers wobble around. Try to make your hands rubbery.

To extend the undulation, change the movement from your shoulders so that your elbows also have that rubbery feeling. Wobble your shoulders up and down and front and back and let your arms and body follow easily along.

Variations

You can also “shake a leg” if you are holding on to a chair or wall for balance and try to get that rubbery feeling in the ankle and foot. You can also wobble your head, but do so gently.

Why does this work?

We spend so much time being still and this shaking movement is very unusual. Your body has to orient itself differently to do the movement and has to figure out how to let go of tension to be able to feel rubbery.

Isn’t this the type of thing we did regularly when we were limber kids? We like to think that we did unusual things when we were more limber, but actually, we were more limber, because we did unusual things.

Animals naturally shake to relieve stress. You often see it when watching nature programs: zebras and pronghorns shake after being chased by a lion. Dogs do the same thing for smaller stressors as shown in this video.

Go outside

This one is simple. If you are stressed in your work cubicle or building tension when you can't find an appropriate, affordable gift, get up, put on your coat (and hat if needed) and go outside. In the outside air. Feel the temperature difference. Feel the breeze, maybe even rain or snow, on your face. Walk around a bit, or a lot. Find a plant to look at, hopefully some birds as well. Let your eyes focus on things far away instead of that computer screen 18 inches in front of your face. Let your peripheral vision open up.

Variations

Going down the hall to the bathroom or getting exercise by climbing steps won’t substitute for this one. This isn’t taking a break from sitting by standing and walking. This is taking a break from being inside where most stress now happens and going outside to the natural environment. Outside can be a city street or just walking around your house or apartment. But it needs to be where you are under the sky and have space around you.

Why does this work?

Taking a break from a stressful situation gives you the opportunity to create a new perspective according to the American Psychological Association. Since most stress today involves inside activities, getting outside expands the perspective even farther. It also gives our eyes a break from short-distance focus, and for those of us, like me, who believe in a mind-body connection, the expansion from physical focus translates to mental focus as well.

Things we find outside—fresh air, plants and animals, the sky—are resources to the nervous system. Even the sensations of cold, wet rain will initiate a change that allows you to let go of stress. Bonus: there aren't any cookies to tempt us outside.

Whether you use these tips a little or lot during this holiday season, I hope they help you relieve tension in your body and give you more peace of mind. After all, that’s what this season is supposed to be about.

Post script for my grammarian readers. For consistency, I had to choose between overwhelming this article with hyphens or eliminating them. Yes, it is missing hyphens, a lot of them.

Don’t Over Do it on Thanksgiving: A Guide to Preventing Common Injuries

Thanksgiving is just a week away. It can be a dangerous holiday; I’m not kidding. After this contentious election, there are sure to be heated discussions, icy silences, and maybe even fisticuffs as Republicans and Democrats gather around the dinner table. But that’s not the danger I am talking about--hopefully thankfulness will win out over politics. Every year, a handful of my clients get hurt preparing Thanksgiving dinner. This article will prepare you so you can prevent injuries that would otherwise upset your holiday season.

Problem #1 – Take a 20 pound turkey, put it in a metal pan, load it with moist stuffing and you can be lifting more weight than you do at the gym. There is a good reason that the gym doesn’t have a weight bench or machine where you bend over as you twist to one side with your arms outstretched holding a heavy weight. That’s a recipe for straining your low back.

• Possible Solution A – Appeal to the younger, stronger people who are lounging on the couch watching Dallas beat Washington. You’ve done the preparation, let them do the heavy lifting. Before the coin toss, let them know that they will need to hit pause to come into the kitchen and take the turkey in and out of the oven several times. There’s no free dinner!
• Possible Solution B – Treat this task as a weight lifting exercise. Engage your core as you lean over. Bend your knees a little. Keep your arms as close to your sides as possible without burning yourself on the hot oven. And exhale as you lift or extend.
• Possible Solution C – Cook a smaller turkey, maybe even a turkey breast or chicken to lighten the load.

Problem #2 – A dinner plate weighs about two pounds. If you are setting the table for a dozen people, that’s 20 or more pounds of plates. If you are like me, you’ll want to be efficient and carry all the plates in one stack with silverware piled on top. This little exercise can hurt your shoulders, your neck, your low back, or your knees, basically hitting the weakest link in your myofascial chain.

• Possible Solution A – Take several trips and limit each load to a sufficient weight that you are building strength, but not enough to overload your body.
• Possible Solution B – Follow the guidelines above for using your core and breath to help with the heavy lifting.
• Possible Solution C – Call on the football fans to help. Maybe it’s the job of the people who are rooting for the team that’s currently in the lead. They don’t need to cheer as much.

Problem #3 – Dirty dishes and pots and pans don’t clean themselves. Most lumbar spines can handle leaning over a sink for only a short time before the ligaments and muscles wear out.

• Possible Solution A – When leaning over keep your spine straight and bend at the hips. Draw your belly button in toward your spine to protect your low back. When you can’t hold this posture, take a break.
• Possible Solution B – Avoid a dish washing marathon. Wash a few then sit down to watch a few first downs or Snoopy dressed up as a Pilgrim. Washing dishes only during commercials will give your back a break.
• Possible Solution C – Start a new trend: Nice paper plates and silver could just be the next cool thing.

You might be the type of family that doesn’t watch football—or even television—on Thanksgiving. In that case, you should have plenty of unoccupied helpers to share the work of putting together and cleaning up after the feast. In terms of how to avoid getting injured in the after dinner family touch football game, I suggest that you take the role of coach.

After hours of planning and preparing for Thanksgiving, you deserve to take some rest time for yourself. Make time on the weekend for a restorative yoga class, a walk in the woods, or other activity that feeds your body, mind and spirit.

Moving Past Pain

Humans shun pain. The pang of a stubbed toe, the agony of losing a childhood friend, the ache of a wrenched knee or twisted ankle, back spasms after a day raking leaves, or the pain of embarrassment when stammering in front of a crowd. From the first throbbing of labor contractions, pain is an inevitable part of the human experience.

As a survival mechanism, our brains unconsciously create patterns of behavior to avoid pain. You don’t have to think about how to avoid putting weight on a sprained ankle. Your body (brain, actually) automatically transfers the weight through different muscles so you feel less pain. Long after an injury heals, echoes of these compensation patterns often remain. Likewise, when we experience emotional pain, our brains create patterns, usually of anger, blame, or denial, to relieve us of the discomfort. The more unconscious the compensation, the more likely it is to persist.

When pain is present, the natural reaction is to try not to feel it. Usually we do this by holding our breath and limiting movement. Feelings are e-motions or energy in motion. Stopping motion is one way to stop feeling. When used for this purpose, consciously or not, not moving is also a great way to get stuck.

We must move through pain to get unstuck. It’s good advice to breathe when stressed, but often breathing isn’t enough to get to the other side. Breath is only the beginning of movement. Here’s another option.

Take a moment to feel your pain; don’t push it away. What shape does your body want to take when you feel? Emphasize that shape with small, slow movements while breathing and feeling. That doesn’t mean to create injury in your body. If you have a back spasm or a sprained ankle or a wrenched neck, you don’t want to make it worse, but you can explore the edges of the pain for the length of a breath. Then come back to a neutral shape, either seated, standing, or lying down and breathe and feel. Go back and forth—undulate—between the positions of where your pain is felt and the positions of neutrality.

By putting energy in motion, your body’s wisdom will uncover the underpinnings of pain so you can move past it. Pain is part of life, so is growing from the experience. It’s what we do with pain that makes us remarkable. 

Are We Having Fun Yet?

I recently read YoungerNext Year by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge, MD. They make a very strong case for why we need to stay physically active every day. Here’s my take: Our biology is programmed to repair our tissues when we are moving at a moderate pace. On the other hand, when we are sitting around—like the grandparent who stays safe in the cave while the rest of the family is out hunting and gathering—our DNA and brain don’t send the signals to keep us functioning optimally.

Crowley and Lodge recommend exercising an hour a day, 6 days a week at 65% of maximum heart rate. This heart rate is surprisingly easy to achieve, just enough to produce a sweat, but not enough to be breathing heavy. Even at that rate, my first thought of exercising 6 days a week is, “Ugh, that doesn’t sound like fun.” But Michael and I are sold on the logic of it and are keeping each other on track.

Going to the gym is not what I normally consider a good time, but it works for Michael so we go together two days a week. The gym seems boring to me, so I have to change it up, one day on the exercise bike, another on the cross trainer, one on the recumbent bike, sometimes on the elliptical. There is no way I would go by myself—having my partner makes it fun. We also reward ourselves by goofing around on the equipment after meeting the aerobics goals. It’s entertaining to play with the PRX equipment or try some fancy “power clean” moves with the free weights. 

Last Friday was beautiful, so we went for a walk instead and enjoyed the falling leaves, a peaking view of Mt. Rainier, and the crispness in the air.

I also dance twice a week, so that’s four days out of six. It’s been a struggle to get the other two days in, so I have to come up with a laundry list of possibilities.

·        My favorite, of course, is to go to the property and play lumberjack. It doesn’t even seem to be exercise when we’re clearing brush, exploring the woods, or even lugging heavy chains around. That is the key: when activity gets the heart rate up, but it isn’t drudgery. Yesterday, I chopped down a tree with an ax. (It was a little tree, but still!)

·        Running around after my grand-nephews falls in this category, too. Watching TV with them doesn’t count, but taking them to the creek or getting on the floor to play Legos does. It’s time to make another play date.

·        Since Michael’s back surgery, we’ve also been doing a weekly core exercise routine. Routine isn’t quite the right word. Although we have some regular exercises, like plank, we also come up with ideas to challenge each other, a bit like kids who ask: “Can you do this?” It was starting to get a little boring, so I bought a Bosu ball to add some variety. It also helps us work on our balance.

·        A couples times a month, I have a private Pilates session. Even if the Pilates routine isn’t 100% fun, it’s 100% helpful and my Pilates teacher is always enjoyable.

·        Yoga is fun sometimes and sometimes it’s not. I realize that’s my mood—not yoga itself—that makes the difference. When it the physical aspect of yoga sounds fun, I do it. (I try to practice the non-physical, non-exercise aspects of yoga every day.)

Playfulness is an important part of staying younger, particularly when it applies to exercise. I want to be the old grandma in the cave, but the grandma who is laughing joyfully, not groaning because my joints hurt. So I look for fun activities and try to add them to my regular repertoire of six days a week of exercise.

Please feel free to comment and let us know what you do for exercise that’s fun. 

Creepy Crepitus, The Strange Scary Sounds You Hear When You Move

I woke up in the middle of the night troubled by a dream that my teeth were crumbling, my bones dissolving. I walked downstairs to get a drink of water, my heart already running fast, when I heard a creaking sound. At first my anxiety amplified, then I realized it was just my knees. It wasn’t a scary sound, but what has become the familiar, occasional creaking as my bony knee caps and ligaments loudly reminded me that I didn’t stretch my thigh muscles as much as I needed to.

Strange noises that come from our bodies—creaking, crackling, crunching, grinding, popping, and snapping—are known as crepitus. My clients find them creepy, or sometimes downright scary, but the noises don’t usually signify as much destruction as people assume. In this article, I’ll explain what these noises mean and what you can do to improve your body’s health so they aren’t so frightening.

“The popping sounds from my knees must be my arthritis. It must be getting so bad that the bones are rubbing together.” I’ve heard that sentiment dozens of times as clients try to give an explanation to grinding. Fortunately, the real reason isn’t as destructive. Granted, arthritis is commonplace, especially as we get older, but it would have to be very advanced to get to the point where bones actually rub together. It also helps to know that arthritis doesn’t correlate to pain. Many people have arthritis that doesn’t cause pain or other symptoms.

A common cause of crepitus is gasses escaping from joints or muscles, like the sound made when cracking knuckles. Unless the sounds are accompanied by pain or swelling or unless they start after an injury, they are generally considered harmless—even if they are loud.

Another cause of a popping sound is when ligaments or tendons snap over a joint. This happens when a ligament or tendon isn’t flexible enough to stretch around the joint, and often occurs when stretching hip flexors. There are nine hip flexors; to thoroughly stretch them all requires a variety of movements. Since few of us (me included) don’t regularly do all these movements, the tendons can lose flexibility. One way of avoiding the snapping is to stop stretching and moving less. I don’t recommend that! My advice for popping tendons is to limit the range of movement to just before the pop and to stretch regularly to this point. You can develop the awareness of sensations to feel for and avoid the pop. When I stretch regularly, my tendons get healthier and over time (it’s not an overnight fix by any means) my pop-free range of motion increases.

A similar noise is caused by calcification of the tendons. It most often occurs in the tendons of the shoulder, but any tendon can be affected. Calcium salts are deposited in the tendons of muscles that are overused when there is lack of blood flow. Chronically tense shoulders are a prime environment. Based on the grinding sounds that I hear when I roll my shoulders, I have a salt mine inside my tendons. It’s not too surprising since I use my arms a lot in my work.

However, I was once able to dissolve the calcifications in my shoulders and had a week of noise-free shoulder rolls. That was after taking a three-day undulation workshop. By simply moving my body fluidly for hours, my shoulders—and knees and fingers and every other joint in my body—worked out all their inflexibilities and crunchies. Knowing the cause of crepitus—and more importantly, knowing that it doesn’t have to be permanent—takes the fright out of these disconcerting noises.

If you want to read about something really scary, click the link to this article I wrote nine years ago titled Scary Sarcopenia about the very real danger of losing muscle mass as we age. But don’t let it give you nightmares either. You can fight the sarcopenia monsters with regular strength training.

Dynamics of Soft Tissue Injuries and Healing in Yoga

I was recently interviewed by Eva Norlyk Smith of YogaUOnline to preview a class I am teaching on soft tissue injuries. In the interview, I discuss how dynamic soft tissues are, plus knowing about how they work gives us insights to prevent injuries and speed healing.


You can sign up for the course, which includes two one-hour video segments, plus a yoga practice and a bonus range of motion practice HERE. If you sign up in advance, you have the opportunity to ask questions during the class. I look forward to sharing what I have learned in my practice as a structural integrator and from my researching to prepare for the class.

TFC Day 20 - Organic, not Mechanical

Do you consider your progress to be less than optimal if it isn’t moving upwards on a straight line? Are your ideals for movement goal focused, such as running faster each time or lifting increasingly heavier weights? Unfortunately, we are made organically, like cats, dogs, antelope, and octopi. Our energy and cycles are in tune with the Earth, we make progress and we reverse and then progress again.

 

Perhaps the most important part of the Therapeutic Fitness Challenge is learning to assess your own physical and energetic condition and using your mind to help your body heal and increase fitness. One of the best ways to do that is to make comparisons. Today, we will redo the range of motion assessments from Day 1. You may notice “improvements,” and you may not. The body adds strength and flexibility in a non-linear fashion. Learning to realize the ebb and flow of your body is one of the most important things you can do for yourself. After the assessments, there is a breathing practice and a scheduling assignment. Do them in any order you wish.

 

Range of Motion Audio #1 (13 minutes)

 

Range of Motion Audio #2 (17 minutes)


Range of Motion Audio #3 (9 minutes)



Breathing Practice: Observe your breath. Notice the length of your inhale and exhale and the spaces between. If it isn’t already, extend your exhale so it is at least as long as the inhale. Spend 5 minutes with your breath making it as smooth as possible. Make a note of what you notice and compare it to your breath on Day 1 of the challenge.

Third assignment: Make a schedule for yourself next week with activities that will continue the progress you have made in the TFC.  

TFC Day 19 - You've Got the Power

 Yesterday my husband and I took a walk through the woods. We ended up traversing a patch of logged forest and had to scramble over branches and logs for more than an hour.  Today we are quite sore all over and our energy is low. Because I put three day’s worth of exercise into yesterday afternoon, I am going to take a break today.

My primary goal in this Therapeutic Fitness Challenge is to empower you to reach a new level with your fitness. Improved awareness and energy management is the first step of getting fit without injury. I also hope that I’ve given you a new variety of activities to meet the goals of aerobics, flexibility, and strength. (On off-trail walk in the woods is a unique and fun activity . . . if you don't get lost or twist an ankle or get a Devil's Club stinger in your thumbs.)

On the second day of this challenge, you assessed your heart rate, leg strength, and flexibility. Today’s assignments repeat the tests so you can compare.

1. Sit comfortably with good posture breathe through your nose.  Keep your jaw relaxed but closed and breathe consciously for 5 minutes. If you feel anxious, try inhaling through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

2. Keeping your heart healthy is one of the most important parts of fitness. Do your typical aerobic exercise and measure your heart rate 5 minutes into the exercise and at the height of your aerobic activity. Then stop exercising for 2 minutes and measure your heart rate again. Write down the numbers. From this webpage, determine: a) if you are exercising within your target range, and b) your Heart Rate Recovery. 

3. Time how long you can comfortably do a wall sit (instructions here) and write down the length of time you held the sit and the approximate angle of your thighs.  Keep your knees in line with your middle toes the entire time. “Comfortably” means that you aren’t wishing you were somewhere else, that you can breathe deeply, and that you can stand up again without groaning or hurting. (You can count seconds in your head, or you can use a stop watch.)

4. Stretch. 

5. Test your flexibility. It is important to do this test with no pain. Standing with slightly bent knees, bend forward to see if you can touch the ground. If so, notice if your fingers or palms touch.  If not, measure how far from the ground your finger tips are.  Bend your knees, stand up carefully, and write down your results.

6. Review the intentions you wrote. What progress are you making on them?

TFC Day 18 - Put it Together

To stay fit requires being able to monitor your daily needs. What is the right amount of activity on any given day? That depends on what you’ve done in the days previous and your energetic and physical state. Today, you design your own practice. Here are some guidelines to help you.

1. Start with your breath and energy.  Notice if your energy is up or down, if your breath is even or irregular. Spend 5 minutes with a breath practice; choose one from the previous days or another that you like, one that supports an energetic state that you’d like to have.

• If your energy is down, pick a breathing practice that will pick you up, one that focuses on the inhale such as the core breath video from day 12, the inhale practice from day 10, or the full breath from day 3.
• If your energy is uneven or you feel stressed, choose one of the practices that focus on the exhale such as bhramari from day 16, the exhale video from day 9, or extending your exhale to twice the length of your inhale as on day 8.
• If you are unsure, try a balanced breath practice such as the square breath from day 17 or the combination breath from day 13.

2. With the support of improved energy choose your physical practice. How long has it been since you’ve brought your heart rate up? If more than a day, be sure to include at least 15 minutes of an aerobic-type activity. Include some flexibility as well, either undulations, stretches, or yoga. If your balance was not satisfactory yesterday, spend a minute or two working on that as well. If you aren't feeling strong, practice the core exercise video. Take the available time you have and divide it between the activities you need, choosing each one that is the best combination of safe and challenging.

3. For a mental practice, choose your favorite meditation or spend 5 minutes writing affirmations (day 3), watching your thoughts (day 4), or smiling at yourself in the mirror (day 12). It doesn’t matter if it’s dorky. It's effective.

TFC Day 17 - Balance

Today it’s all about balance. A balance between mind and body and spirit. A balance between work and home. Physical balance translates into life balance, and vice versa.

1. Breath practice: Square (or box) breath. There are four parts to the breath: 1) inhale, 2) the space between inhale and exhale, 3) exhale, and 4) the space between exhale and inhale. The inhale and space after it are the energizing parts; the exhale and space after are the relaxing parts. In a square breath, all the parts are equal in length so it is a balanced breath.

• Start by noticing what parts of the breath are naturally long for you and what parts are short.
• Then try to bring balance to them by shortening the longer parts and lengthening (or perhaps just adding) the short parts.
• Try a breath with 2 counts for an inhale, 2 counts pause after the inhale, 2 counts for the exhale, and 2 counts hold before you inhale again. If this is comfortable for you, then increase each of the counts to 3.
• Build your breath to a comfortable maximum with all parts even.
• Then let go of the pauses before and after exhale.
• Then let your breath return to its normal rhythm.
• Notice your breath and energy, how they are different from when you began.

2. Physical practice: Improve your balance. Not only does good balance engage the core, but practicing balance poses will help you not fall down. Start with this easy balance practice by my teacher, Robin Rothenberg. She designed this for the MS program at Evergreen Hospital.

One you’ve mastered basic balance with the practice from the link above, try these variations of tree pose. Stay close to a wall until you are practiced, and please, do not put your foot on your standing leg’s knee.

3. Mind practice: Draw a picture of yourself as you’d like to feel. As you are drawing imagine yourself feeling that way.

TFC Day 16 - Aerobics and Fun Breathing

Aerobic exercise is the cornerstone of a cardiovascular and mental health. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise every week. That’s more than 45 minutes three times a week. Hopefully this Therapeutic Fitness Challenge has helped you create a habit of aerobic exercise that you can build on.

Assignments for today:

1. Choose one or more of the aerobics activities in this program (hike or walk, therapeutic aerobics, dance in your living room, or any other activity that gets your heart rate up safely) to create a 45-minute aerobic exercise for yourself today, and do it. Stay conscious of when you need to take a break. If 45 minutes is still too much to do at one time, do not push yourself, but make a note so you can include aerobic activities more frequently, perhaps 20 minutes every day instead.

2. Include your mental exercise with the aerobics. Stay conscious of your breathing as you exercise. See how long you can keep your focus on your breath without letting your mind stray. Please note that your breath is an indicator of the tension and strain in your body and mind. If your breath is labored beyond the target heart rate from Day 2 or becomes ragged, back off until your breath is smooth and even.

3. Try bhramari breathing, also called bee breath.  Inhale through your nose and exhale with closed lips as you hum. Feel the vibration in your lips.  Experiment with different pitches of humming. A higher pitch hum is typically more energetic and a low pitch hum is usually relaxing.  Either way, the humming slows down the exhale and engages the core.

 

Remember to drink plenty of water and keep track of what activities cause your symptoms to increase.

TFC Day 15 - Undulation and Yoga

Mary Bond, author and fellow structural integrator, is one my mentors.  Her way of teaching movement is very inspiring.  Her blog is fun to read, this post explains how posture affects movement, which affects how well the body functions.  You can help your body function better with today’s assignments:

1. The physical practice is unique, a combination of yoga and undulation moves. You won’t find anything like it anywhere else.

2. The breath practice is included in the Undulation Yoga practice, but if your energy needs to be adjusted add a breath practice of your choice.

3. Mind practice: Write down all the good things that have come from your commitment to taking care of yourself. Give yourself several high-fives.

If you enjoy the undulations and you spend any time at a computer with a Windows operating system, try the Undulation Break program that will remind you to take breaks with fun undulations. You can try the program for free for 5 days and customize it to address stiffness in the neck and shoulders or low back.  Learn more at www.undulationbreak.com.

TFC Day 14 - Improve Your Ability to Rest

You have worked hard for two weeks.  Today is a day of rest.  For the breathing and mental assignments, use today to catch up on one if you need to.  For the physical exercise, spend 5-20 minutes with your thighs strapped in either the constructive rest position or with your legs up the wall.  Only do legs up the wall if you have learned to do this in yoga class.  If not, constructive rest position with your calves resting on a chair will give you similar results.  Do tie your thighs with a yoga strap or bathrobe belt (as shown in the legs up the wall photo) so they are held in alignment.  Since there is more muscle on the outside of the thighs, they will naturally fall into external rotation without being tied and that can cause strain on the sacrum.  Both the constructive rest position and legs up the wall pose are rejuvenating for the body, like a power nap.

TFC Day 13 - Modify As Needed: Breathing, Aerobics & Stretching

Today we have another opportunity to assess a previous practice and modify. Learning to evaluate an activity and changing it to suit you is an essential skill to avoid injury. Inattention to your needs—going on autopilot—is frequently the source of overdoing it or doing “something stupid.” Likewise, not being willing to make changes is a sign that your ego is willing to sacrifice your body for its interests. Strengthen your awareness, grow in wisdom, and stay fit.

1. Breathing: Develop a sequence of breath: i) Breathe as big as you can (inhale and exhale) for a minute. ii) Then let your breath return to a natural rhythm for a minute. iii) Extend your exhale for a minute to slow down the breath and relax.  Repeat this sequence once or twice more.

2. Choose an aerobic activity to get your heart rate to its target range as you learned in Day 2. You can hike or do the Therapeutic aerobics again, but modify them if needed.

3. Follow the stretching video, but feel free to change the stretches or add your own.

Remember to stay hydrated. Keep your water bottle handy all day.

TFC Day 12 - Core Breathing, Yoga, and Self-Kindness

1. The practice today starts with a core breathing video. Learn to breathe with your core and you can take this “exercise” with you anywhere. (This is not the same as the Core Exercises.)

2. Then reassess your ability to do the Therapeutic Sun Salutations from Day 6.  If they are not above your ability, do them again and notice if you feel stronger and/or more flexible. If they were too challenging, try one or more of these yoga practices created by my yoga teacher Robin Rothenberg for her students with MS.

3. Finish in front of a mirror. Smile genuinely at yourself and say nice things to yourself. (What does it mean if this is difficult or weird?)

TFC Day 11 - Step It Up (Or Not)

If you get injured with exercise, it’s important to know when to step it up and when to back off. Today’s assignments challenge you to make this distinction for yourself based on your body’s energy and fitness today. Assignments:

1. From your daily journal (or notes or memory), make a list of the activities that exacerbate your symptoms. Next to each activity write a modification for it, with an option being Don’t Do It.

2. The breathing assignment today is a combination of the breathing exercises from day two and three: Breathe through your nose combining chest and abdominal expansion on inhale and extending your exhale until you develop a comfortable maximum breath. Draw in your abdominal muscles from the front and sides as you exhale. Sustain this breath for 10 or more breaths, then let your breath return to its natural rhythm. 

3. Evaluate your ability to do the core exercises and alignment exercises from day 4 and/or 8. If you are comfortable that your core is strong and that you can keep in alignment with challenging exercise, try the Therapeutic Calisthenics. If you are not confident, then redo the core exercises from day 4 and the alignment exercises from day 3. Remember to modify (for example, don't lift your arms as much as shown in the video or stop before it is finished) if that is what's best for your body. You might also want to take the Understanding and Healing from Soft Tissue Injuries online class. 

Please remember: This program is not intended to replace professional medical care nor contradict medical advice you may have received.  If you experience physical discomfort or anxiety, stop and consult your medical advisor.