There’s a lot of talk these days about the nervous system and for good reason. We live in a hectic world and our nervous systems are constantly put to the test. I think many of us “soldier on” day after day and never care for our nervous systems. Why is this? For one, because our society indirectly rewards the “type-A go-go-go” personality, making a jacked up nervous system seem like a positive thing. And two,...
Remember when fitness studios had classes called High-Impact Aerobics and Low-Impact Aerobics? Also, did you know there was (and is) NIA which stands for Non-Impact Aerobics? I’m bringing the topic of impact up today because “impact” doesn’t get mentioned much anymore. I guess it’s a bit overlooked, but mostly, what has happened I think, is impact level is now getting clumped in under the intensity level umbrella. The problem with this is 99percent of the time, is it assumed that high impact is higher intensity. But is it? ...
“A boat in the harbor is safe, but in time its bottomwill rot out.” – H. Jackson Brown The older I get the more spiritual I feel about the human body. I mean, just wow…what a divinely designed masterpiece, right? We’re lucky to have a body and even when a part of it is injured or out of whack, it’s important to remember there are millions of other parts in perfect flow. An especially vulnerable part of the body is our knees....
There’s what I call “the fire tower trail” in the next town over that I’ve been very much into lately. I park my car and hike a steady incline that’s in a wooded area, for about 10minutes. I then arrive at this tall metal structure that consists of 10 sets of 12 steep stairs, circling up and up. When I get to the top, there’s a panorama view and I can see for miles and...
I wake up early. I love hot beverages and have an aversion to air conditioning. I’m obsessed with dogs and trees. In fact, as a child, I drew the same thing over and over again – a dog walking through a landscape of tall green trees! I bring this up as a reminder for you to work with what you are. You have built-in preferences, inclinations and personality traits, many of which are non-negotiable. For me, going to a 5am workout is nice, but...
Did you know there’s a chain of gyms called Fitness For Life? (I think it’s the best name ever…says it all!) Well, fitness is for life, for a good, capable, high quality life. Mud doesn’t stop me from taking my two labrador retrievers on a hike. Sometimes I think it should, as the clean up required post-hike is urgent, physically demanding, a little gross, time consuming, and not fun! At any rate, here’s how it typically goes: I get the...
I’d like for you to do one of two things: 1. imagine balancing a book on your head, or 2. grab an actual book and place it on your head. If you can, do it right now and then walk around for a minute or two, or go from sitting to standing a couple of times, all while maintaining the position of the book. Notice anything? What you probably notice is your head is micro-aligning...
I want to go way back to the day I met Pilates. It was in the mid-nineties and at the time I was fully invested in the workout world, teaching aerobics classes. These classes were all standing, lots of jumping, double knotting sneakers, and moving fast, like a tiger was chasing you. Pilates Mat couldn’t have been more opposite. First off, in Pilates we left our shoes at the door. This was revolutionary to me....
I bet you have a pessimistic friend or family member. This is a person who tends to think about the worse case scenario, or perhaps they offer a negative comment here and there. Sometimes this person is super funny and pessimism is part of their humor. They crack you up and their words are benign to your psyche. Other times, this person is bad for your health. (Not kidding!) I’ve recently distanced myself from a...
There are two major differences between the male and female knee: 1. the female’s ligaments are softer and thinner, and 2. a female’s femur bone connects at the knee at a more pronounced slant. There are other physiological differences too, from lower bone density to higher percentage of body fat, but the two I mention above makes the female knee especially vulnerable to excessive high-impact activity and to reactive/sudden pivot-action, a.k.a., masculine training. Over the years, I...
