• Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

SOLCORE FITNESS

it’s not just working out. It's building a foundation for a better life.

  • Home
  • About SolCore Fitness & Therapy
    • Ekemba Sooh My Story
    • SolCore Fitness Team
      • Elizabeth Quirante – SolCore Fitness Integrator
    • Reviews
  • Services
    • Personal Training and Manual Therapy
      • Personalized Workout Program
    • Semi Private Personal Training
    • Group Exercise Classes
      • SolCore Fitness Group Class Calendar
    • Online Personal Training
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Member Login
  • Take A Trial

Exercise Tips And Support

Jan 06 2024

How To Overcome Plantar Fasciitis And Reclaim Your Mobility

Trying to live your life with plantar fasciitis is not fun. And it’s especially not fun when you look for plantar fasciitis exercises and plantar fasciitis treatments, and they don’t help and, a lot of the time make it worse. Check out this video on how to overcome Plantar Fasciitis and reclaim your mobility, which will cover the main cause of plantar fasciitis, what is traditionally done, and the best way to overcome it.

Plantar fasciitis is a pain in the foot, literally the foot. It’s a sticking in the inflammation process of the different soft tissue layers in your feet, causing a lot of bottom of your foot pain and towards your heel pain. I’ve heard of some cases taken up to a year to get rid of, and some people always still have it around. But, that’s because the approach that most people take to correct these things isn’t totally the best thing to do.

So, I want you stay tuned. We’re going to talk about the best way to look at how to train and treat your plantar fasciitis. Greetings I’m Ekemba Sooh. I’m the owner of Solcore Fitness. It’s a therapy and fitness company. I’ve been in this field for almost 30 years. So I’m a therapist and trainer, which if you haven’t heard, it’s like a physical therapist but much more detailed, and it’s underneath the osteopathic discipline of which I’ve been studying for quite a while now.

I’ve had quite a bit of success treating plantar fasciitis. It’s because I took a holistic method on it to where prior to that, people took a allopathic, symptom-related type treatment or excess protocol, and that’s not the best. So, I’m going to talk about the holistic approach and that’s what I talk about on this channel is a holistic approach and etiology, the cause. I want to treat the cause, not the symptom. So you want to hear more about this holistic cause-based system, then subscribe to the channel. If you like this video, give a thumbs up and don’t forget to share with your friends.

As I said at the beginning, plantar fasciitis, a inflammation process in your layers of soft tissue and fascia and feet, and a lack of sliding process. They get stuck. Because of this, you get pain. So I don’t have flow, like I’m pinching a tube, then that pressure builds and if my tissue, which should slide upon each other, it should slide, becomes stuck, but I try and move that also develops more inflammation process.

This inflammation, like all inflammation, leads to pain and this is especially damaging to plantar fasciitis, because you got to walk. So whenever you walk, you keep pissing it off and keeping it worse. These layers of soft tissue I keep talking about are a lot in your feet. So, at your feet, you have three layers of fascia on your feet, as you can see with these pictures I’m going to be putting up. You have a top layer that goes left to right or right to left. You have a bottom part which goes front to back. You have a middle layer which goes front to back, but also a bunch of different directions. These three layers should slide upon each other. They should move.

All soft tissue, and if you eviscerate your organs, should slide on a watery substance, fascia liquid. So it should move, it should be even. The problem is that when it gets stuck, and that’s where plantar fasciitis comes in. These three layers of fascia attach though to the back of your leg, namely your Achilles tendon. Your Achilles tendon also has a bunch of different layers. The two main layers we’re going to talk about today are the layer to your soleus and your gastroc, your calves.

But not the muscles, the fascia that surrounds these muscles, because it’s the fascia that surrounds these muscles that connect to the plantar fascia, and then connect up to your hamstrings, namely your bicep femoris, which is your outside hamstring. Again, the fascia of the bicep, and then that goes up to your [inaudible 00:03:17], your butt, which goes up to your back, up to your head, out to your arms.

This is what I’m talking about, a holistic approach is not just a plantar. Sure, you have pain in the plantar, but where in that chain do you also have issues that can be contributing to the plantar? So you don’t have to be a genius to understand that a plantar fasciitis is a lack of sliding on the soft tissue and lack of flow. You need to restore the sliding process and restore the flow.

So sliding process, obviously, you need those different layers of fascia and muscle to slide upon each other. When I say decrease the flow, I’m mainly talking about the flow of liquid through your fascia. Your fascia has little collagen tubes, little things that go through it. It is not inert, it’s a living tissue. It’s very, very important and it’s a big focus on how I work with people. So you have to increase that flow within that tube, because that flow brings nutrients to that area, takes away waste and helps keep you everything nice and smooth.

Current techniques to treat plantar fasciitis are Graston technique or aggressive technique like that. Some sort of myofascial release, either with a ball or a roller or by hand, heat and stem, strengthening or stretching. What else is there? I think I’m missing something. But, these techniques fall short because mainly, they’re not addressing the body holistically. They’re focusing on just the symptom, just the foot, just what’s happening, and that’s not how the body works. The body is interdependent, interconnected, and part of the reason people have pathologies is because your body’s lost the ability to do this.

So, if you go to try and find treatment for your plantar fasciitis and that person wants to do Graston technique, run the other way. I wouldn’t wish Graston on my worst enemy and I would never, ever do to my body. It is way too traumatic to the body. Graston is a medieval-looking piece of metal that they push into your tissue and scrape it up and down, like they trying and peel paint off the wall. I’m not quite sure why they do that, but it gives you the opposite effect of what you want.

If the goal is to increase the sliding process and the flow of liquid through these fascial collagen tubes, well, then pushing a piece of metal that smushes the tissue down and crushes the tubes is the exact opposite thing you want to do. My most current case of plantar fasciitis, she did that first at a physiotherapist. That made things a hundred times worse. It wasn’t until we took this holistic approach that she got better.

Now, if you go do myofascial release, it’s not as aggressive, but it’s very similar to the outcomes you get from Graston, just not as traumatic, especially if you’re using some sort of tool. So I see people roll their foot on a ball, a little ball, with pokey things on it, or on top of a roller. They’re doing it, because they’re trying to treat the symptom, which is the pain in their foot. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know. Sometimes if people feel relief, that’s great, but it’s not going to correct anything, because again, you didn’t increase the flow, you didn’t increase the sliding process, and you traumatized the tissue.

Heat and stem, heat, I mean, I guess it’s okay. It brings some liquid, some heat to the area, but it doesn’t work with the sliding process, it doesn’t work holistically. A waste of time for me. And cold icing should only be done for the first 12 to twenty-four hours of having an injury, never afterwards because cold stops the inflammation process, which will make you feel no pain, because you’re on ice. But then it stops the good inflammation. Inflammation is your first line of defense to heal your body or to correct some sort of virus. Now, if I’m stopping that process, then I’m stopping the process of healing.

There’s other forms, like acupuncture, which I’m not acupuncturist, I don’t know the techniques, but, in terms of increase in flow and energy through the body, sounds fantastic, sounds like something you should do, but you need to do it with an exercise protocol and treatment protocol to help increase the chain that I keep talking about.

Have you had or have plantar fasciitis? What treatments have you tried? Have they worked? Have they not worked? I’d love to know. Put them in the comments and then stay tuned for how I approach plantar fasciitis. So how have I found success working with plantar fasciitis? I’m going to tell you here in a little bit, but I’m going to give you a little asterisk here. First and foremost, this is not a prescriptive thing for you to follow at all. This is not me showing you a bunch of exercises and things to do, and then you go on home follow them. Because you’re not just, you’re however many people are watching this video, and each person has a different body which each person would need to be addressed specifically.

Two, each one of these things I’m going to go through needs to be taught with factors of progression. When you exercise, you’re retraining the body, you’re retraining the body, because the soft tissue always wins and so you want to tell it to do something different. Well, each person needs to be taught a little bit differently on how to do each one, because each person has different areas that are smart and not smart, to be general. So I can’t give you an outline to follow, sorry, but not really sorry.

So, the first thing I do with people is I give them exercises. I give them holistic exercises. I give them holistic stretches, which is called myofascial stretching. The myofascial stretching is stretching not just the muscle but the fascia and the fascia, which connects the whole body. I first give them the soleus and the gastroc, because as you remember at the beginning of this video, I talked about how the soleus, muscle soleus and your gastroc, your calf muscles, are part of your Achilles tendon, which go down into your foot, which connect to those three layers of plantar fasciitis.

So when I give them these stretches, most people, just by these two stretches, get, I don’t know, 50, 67% relief just for these two stretches. But I don’t stop there because, again, I’m addressing the body holistically and because it was gastroc and soleus don’t stop at your knee, they attach the back of your thigh, to your hamstrings, namely your bicep femoris. So I give them a mild fascia stretch for the bicep femoris. Usually it’s pretty good, but because that chain goes up to the head and out to the arm, I maybe give them stretches for their glute max deep and superficial, for the latissimus dorsi, for the transverse spinalis. All that can be part of your chain for your plantar fasciitis.

As they’re doing that, because that’s the most important part is to always do homework, to retrain the body, I also give them therapy. Therapy includes, like I said at the beginning, working with those three layers of fascia in your feet. That’s the most important part. I want to unstick and increase the flow of those three layers of fascia. It feels really good when you get it done right. I work with those three layers and I can tell once it was released, boom, but now I work up the body. I want to work with that fascia of your lower leg, which is naming your fascia curies, up to your leg, your thigh fascia, maybe even your IT band, all the way up to your body.

By doing these general protocols, I get a lot of success, but there’s some things that derail that success, I want you to listen. So when somebody comes into me and they have plantar fasciitis, the first thing I say to them, and the pun is definitely intended here, is that you’re going to literally take two steps forward and one steps back in terms of your progress. Because, after I give you that treatment I just talked about and I give you the exercises, as soon as you step off the table or start to leave my studio, you’re ruining the progress, because you’re stepping on the ground and you’re decreasing all that flow and movement that I talked about.

You got to walk around, so it’s not that you can flow, but that’s going to set you back. Being overweight is literally going to, again, excuse the pun, crush the fascia, because now you have excess weight that’s pushing harder down on your feet, that even just standing or moving around, you’re putting more pressure, putting more, pushing the tissue more together, crushing the tubes more. The footwear people wear really screws up plantar fasciitis.

And the big shoes people wear now, these big Hoka-looking things, actually aren’t good for correcting plantar fasciitis. If you got to wear them, if you have to wear them because your feet hurt, then you got to wear them. But if the goal is to increase that movement and increase that flow, then putting a gigantic padding where nothing moves, it’s not going to help it. Again, if you’ve got to do it, because you have pain, do it. But, you need to find a way to let your feet move.

Your feet, all those joints and ligaments and muscle in your feet should move and have a job. The more I take myself away from being barefoot, the less my feet do their job. So you need to find some way to slowly let your feet move more, therapy and exercise help, but you also have to do some good movement patterns. Having bad movement patterns also, like I said, increases plantar fasciitis, because your body doesn’t move well, having bad posture, and having not a lot of muscle.

So I said before, to stretch a muscle, you need a muscle. And so, especially with an ectomorph or anybody who doesn’t have muscle tissue in these areas you need to work, you need to also do some strengthening. But don’t just jump in and start doing calf raises. Like I said, well, I don’t know if I said it, but your calf, I didn’t say it, your calf splits in two. So this is a big thing here. Your calf splits in two to go different direction. It bifurcates. So we see these calf stretching of keeping the foot in one position. That’s not correct. It needs to turn out toward the inside calf or turn in toward the outside calf.

The soleus is straight. So you can see you have three different directions you need to move your foot to work three different muscles. You need to work your upper body wherever you need muscle, your bicep femoris, your latissimus, it doesn’t matter. You need to have that muscle so you can properly stretch it. This is how you want to approach the body, not just with plantar fasciitis with anything, and not just for pathologies. Even if you’re just looking to strengthen your body better and get more mobile, you have to take this approach because the exercises and things you do for your body keep you functioning.

If it keeps you functioning, it means it keeps you away from dysfunction, which is pain and mobility. But it also can take you further into higher functioning, exact same exercises. So all those exercises I told you for plantar fasciitis will take you away from plantar fasciitis, but also towards a really functioning plantar fasciitis, calf, hamstring functioning. You get stronger, get more mobile as you keep doing the exact same exercises.

So, if you liked what you heard, if you want to hear more, and I got some options for you, I’ve got a free Facebook group. So in the description below, I put a link to my free Facebook group, and it’s a more interactive group to where I talk about master classes and I do interactive challenges where I show you things too. And I do mini trainings and just interaction with the group. So just click on a link, answer some questions, agree to the terms, you’re in.

If you don’t want to participate in that, then you can have a free ebook. It’s on how to get mobile, get less pain, and live a life of your dreams. It’s four steps. Again, in the description, click on it, put your name and information there, you get instant access. Or, if you’re ready to talk more about how this program can help you, then use the link in the description to schedule a time to book with me. We can talk about what you’re doing, what’s your sticking points, and how it can help. And I’ll only bring up my services if I feel you’re a good fit, no other time.

Please, if you like this video, please share with your friends. Please give it a thumbs up, that tells the algorithm, “Hey, this is good,” and then more people who like it will see it. Please don’t forget to subscribe and then I’ll see you next week. Take care.

MOVE BETTER, REDUCE PAIN, AND LIVE LIFE ON YOUR TERMS

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

Find out more @

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Youtube

Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Tips And Support

Jan 02 2024

Plan for a Strong Start in Janua…❌ Plan for Consistency and Learning. 👍🏽

Solcore Fitness therapy and training

Everybody puts so much emphasis on January 1, but if you really want to succeed in the new year, you should consider it in terms of lifestyle changes and learning. Not adding things to your to-do list.

Remember that nothing magic happened at the stroke of midnight that takes us into 2024.

The magic comes from within YOU.

And you might find it helpful to think about the whole year as a long story to enjoy, rather than just the first few days of the year, pinning all your hopes on them.

Over the course of the year, a few things will happen:

👉🏽 You’ll do well sometimes

👉🏽 You’ll struggle sometimes

👉🏽 You’ll realize that something you pursued really wasn’t what you wanted after all

👉🏽 And your consistent behavior over time will drive your results.

I promise! All those things will happen sure as spring follows winter. And the last one is the most important.

But like any good, long story, your 2024 needs a strong opening. Focus on developing the right mindset, on tapping into the power of your emotions, and crafting a variety of goals that will compel you forward, while also giving you room to adjust as you go.

✅ 𝙍𝙚𝙛𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩 𝙤𝙣 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙮𝙚𝙖𝙧. 𝙒𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙙𝙞𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙣? 𝙃𝙤𝙬 𝙙𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 12 𝙢𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙨?

✅ 𝙍𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙥𝙚𝙘𝙞𝙛𝙞𝙘, 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚, 𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚, 𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚-𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙, 𝙤𝙧 𝙎𝙈𝘼𝙍𝙏.

✅ 𝙁𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙪𝙚𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙙 𝙤𝙛 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙬𝙚𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙖𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘𝙨.

✅ 𝙏𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙜-𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙨, 𝙨𝙝𝙤𝙧𝙩-𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙢 𝙜𝙤𝙖𝙡𝙨, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙤𝙬 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨.

✅ 𝙁𝙤𝙘𝙪𝙨 𝙤𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙝𝙖𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙧 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨 – 𝙞𝙣 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙙𝙨, 𝙙𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙘𝙖𝙣, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙬𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙮 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙡𝙩𝙨!

✅ 𝙀𝙙𝙪𝙘𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛 𝙤𝙣 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙩𝙝, 𝙚𝙭𝙚𝙧𝙘𝙞𝙨𝙚, 𝙣𝙪𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙨.

✅ 𝙋𝙖𝙮 𝙖𝙩𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙙𝙤𝙣’𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙖 𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙢.

✅ 𝙎𝙚𝙚𝙠 𝙨𝙪𝙥𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩, 𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙣 𝙗𝙚𝙛𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙯𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙣𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙩.

Prepare mentally for the beginning of the year. Don’t try to solve every issue at the beginning. Your goal is to make slow improvements and LEARN along the way. Rely on your calendar, marked with those long- and short-term goals, to keep your perspective clear.

MOVE BETTER, REDUCE PAIN, AND LIVE LIFE ON YOUR TERMS

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

Find out more @

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Youtube

Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Tips And Support

Dec 30 2023

Choosing Your Best Life: Embracing Authenticity Over Fear

🌟 Are you tired of living a life dictated by fear and conditioned responses? It’s time to break free and embrace the incredible power of deciding who you want to be! Join us on this transformative journey as we explore the liberating concept of living authentically and crafting your best life on your own terms.

🚀 In this empowering video, we delve into the importance of self-discovery and making choices that align with your true self. Discover the pitfalls of living in a state of fear and how it can hinder personal growth, creativity, and happiness. Let’s dismantle the limiting beliefs that hold us back and replace them with a mindset focused on authenticity, purpose, and fulfillment.

Click the image to watch the video

Deciding who you want to be instead of reacting from fear and things you don’t want in your life or that you want in your life is a much better way of going about things. So right now, at the time of filming, it’s the end of the year 2023, and most people are taking stock and what has happened in the previous year or years and what they want to happen in the next year. But unfortunately, a lot of that comes from fear. And that fear leads to lack of appreciation or gratitude as to the journey they just went through. And then a knee-jerk reaction based on conditioned fears and responses into what they want in their life. So I’m Ekemba Sooh the owner of SolCore Fitness, and I use a holistic model here for training and therapy and holistic means. Part of it is mental, emotional.

You want to really connect to mentally, emotionally, what you want in your life so that you’re not just going out and doing a random exercise because of whatever you think is going to happen or going to do some random treatment or whatever, because you want somebody to fix you because you don’t want to feel the way you’re feeling. So I’m going to talk about deciding who you want to be today, and it’s much more effective than reacting from fear. Most people go about setting goals or intentions or resolutions, if you want to call ’em that from a place of conditioned fear. They think they’re operating from themselves, but they’re not. They’re being driven by a conditioned response. That conditioned response is an accumulation of thoughts and feelings that’s helping over your life that you now believe is you. And so they may think that, oh, I’m operating from instinct, but that’s generally not the case.

Most people think instinct is the same as reacting from the emotions, and they’re totally opposite because an emotion is a condition existence. It’s who you think you are, not who you truly are at your core. So when you go about making these resolutions, you’re going from one fear state to another. Oh, I don’t like my body because of this. So I when go over here and do this with no reason why or where it’s coming from and no examination, it’s going to leads you to this yo-yo existence and actually not moving forward very much at all. You haven’t learned your lesson to move forward, but by deciding who you want to be, you’ve taken that time to think about, okay, what is it I want in my life? And then when something comes up, you examine it. Okay, why do I want that? Why do I want to have X, Y, Z? Why do I want to do that? Where’s that coming from? Because now if you examine it, one, you can get to more of the true idea of what it is you’re feeling, and you can take steps to move towards an outcome that’s more holistic, not just a knee-jerk reaction by deciding who you want to be. You’re not being proactive. You’re being an active

Participant in your life. You’re not waiting around and stuck in a conditioned emotional mental response paradigm. We’re not going along life just reacting to things. By being proactive, in my humble opinion is more where you want to be in this life. We’re not here to just find some track that we think we should be on and then have people tell us what to do and just react as we go along. We’re here to open ourselves up to who we want to be, to what we want to do and to a space of learning. And as we continue along that journey, then those things that we want in our life will come about, not the reverse. You don’t look at, Hey, I want this in my life. And then they have no process of learning. You go, I want to be this person. And those things start to come about.

This is life. This is the process we’re on. I know that everybody has the potential to do this, and I know because you’re still watching, and if you feel any sort of pang of resonating to this that you can start doing this now. Take some time with this. Go out and journal, walk in nature, meditate, commuine with nature, all the above and more. And then really try to connect to who do I want to be and also why? And then write it down and don’t second guess yourself because it’s not a right or wrong answer. You’re not being tested. You’re just starting this process or continuing this process. I don’t know where you are, but now you’re writing these things down. Who would I want to be and why? And then you’re going to go forth now and you can try and find solutions from this place, not the other way around.

Not searching on any internet and just connecting to whatever marketing message or personality that you see on the internet and going, oh yeah, they’re going to save me and this is going to get me. No, no, no. You’re coming from a place of like, this is who I want to be. This is why. And then we go to search. You go, Hey, this looks like it might help me on my journey. This looks like it’s a good avenue. And again, it might not be right, but it’s right in the process of learning. So it’ll always be right in the process of learning. You may just have to adjust as you go. But again, that’s life. If you want to have a little more support on this and you’re not too afraid, write what you found down in the comments below. I have no judgment towards it, and don’t worry about other people. Think about it as me and you talking. Put it down there. I’ll be there to support you. I know you can do it, and I want to see you succeed. I want you to have a great new year or whenever you’re watching this, and I’ll talk to you next week. Take care.

Request A Free Consultation Here

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

Find out more @

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Youtube

Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Tips And Support

Dec 23 2023

Unlocking Vitality: The Power of Zone 2 Cardio for Optimal Health and Fitness

Have you heard how to unlock vitality that you can use the power of zone 2 cardio for optimal health and fitness? Well, what is this new craze of zone 2 cardio, and what are the benefits? And this “new craze” has been around for a long time, but its not just about Zone two; many other factors need to be implemented to efficiently use Zone 2 cardio. 

Zone two cardio is back in fashion. You may have heard about it through an article or some friends at the gym about zone two and all the great benefits you can get and it’s great. Zone two is a great place to be, but it’s not just about getting to zone two. There’s a lot of other complimentary information you need to know to maximize yourself while you get into zone two cardio. So stay tuned. We’re going to talk about all that. Greetings. I’m in Ekemba Sooh. So I’m the owner of SolCore Fitness and I’ve been in this field for about 30 years. So I’ve been in the field long enough to see things come in full cycle. I’ve probably seen ’em come full cycle two times around and all these popular things HIIT training, Olympic lifting, functional movement patterns, and now zone two have an aspect of being true.

But the problem here mainly in America is that we take these one aspect and we expand it to that’s what I need to do now. That’s what my body needs because they make it seem like that’s what you need to do. In essence, if you want to take all these popular activities and combine ’em through a good program, then that’s when you’d have a good program, not just with one of these different areas. So that’s why I talk about on this channel, it’s holistic fitness. Your body’s interconnected, interdependent, has a bunch of different ways it likes to move, so I want to talk about that stuff. So you want to hear more, subscribe to the channel. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up and don’t forget to share it with your friends. Zone two is the second in five basic stages of your cardiovascular system.

It goes from aerobic to anaerobic, from a nice gentle walk to high intensity sprints. These zones correlate with different energy systems in your body, how your body produces energy to do whatever activity you want. Again, from more aerobic to anaerobic, the different energy systems in basic are lipids and the kreb cycle, glycogen, creatine, and then a ATP. So that’s how your body uses it. Getting to zone two you can say enhances the potential of the others. So once you have your base down in zone one, you want to get a zone two because now it increases the potential of my heart and lungs. I make the potential energy output blood and oxygen more potent. I increase the capillaries in my body, so the ability to bring nutrients and remove waste from body, I increase and make more efficient. My mitochondria, the little energy systems inside the body.

So if I increase all those, I can now take my increased potential and take it to whatever I want. But it’s not just good for cardio, right? It’s good for anaerobic more lifting type activities. So if you lift weights in any way, not just gym, even body weight, it’s going to help increase that by increased healing and waste removal. This is the big step that people who just jumped into HIIT training or CrossFit type training missed among other things. They missed a lot of steps, but this is one of the steps they missed to prepare their body to go do hit training and CrossFit. Nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you’re getting into. So when you just jump into a high intensity train type that you’ve not increased the potential. So you’re working hard, but you’re working hard with let’s say 20% of your potential.

So if you took the time to prepare your cardiovascular system and the structure of your body, now maybe you’re working with 80, 90, a hundred percent of your potential. Now your output’s much greater, which means your results become more. So if you don’t receive results in these high intensity trainings, one of the reasons is you haven’t increased the potential of what you can do to work harder. You’ll see a lot of different charts out there for the different zones for cardio, and they’re all pretty much correct. I just put this one up right here so you can see, but zone two is about 60 to 70% of your max heart rate. Your max heart rate is found out by at a base level, do the equation of 220 minus your age. That’s not the most precise way to do it, but if you’re just beginning, who cares?

Just do that. If you’re a little more advanced into the cardio realm and you want to be more precise, this equation is better because when your heart pumps blood out, it doesn’t pump all the blood out. There’s some stays inside the ventricle, so a little more precise equation, but it doesn’t matter where you start. You want to make sure you get into this zone two and you want to hold this zone two for a minimum of 45 minutes, but it’s much nicer if you can go an hour, hour and a half, maybe two, because the more you can stay in the zone two, the more you keep reaping those benefits. So once you find your max heart rate, the only other thing you need is a heart rate monitor, apple watch, Garmin. There’s other forms of ’em. I don’t know to make sure you stay in that zone too, but actually it’s not just about that.

There’s an element of being aware of your body and what’s going on, so you don’t just blindly go, okay, I have this number, it’s in my watch, I’m going to keep myself at that level one, there’s a factor of perceived exertion. You can find it out with a talk test. A talk test is that when you’re doing cardio, if you can talk, have a conversation, you can take enough air in so you’re not going too hard. If you get to the point where you’re gasping and you can’t talk, well, then you’re going too hard for zone two. And then one thing I want to bring up too is I know there’s a difference between nose and mouth breathing, and just a quick side thing, if you’re in zone, if you’re in zone two, you probably can stay more nasal breathing, but if you’re going heavier, you’re going to be usually more of a mouth breather.

Neither one is bad in essence because the body can breathe both ways, but you want to try and keep it a little more in that nasal breathing when you’re in zone two. Are you using zone two as a cardio foundational base in your holistic program? Let me in the comments and then stay tuned for the complimentary factors you need with the rest of your program for as you get into zone two. Okay, so now the complementary factors you need for zone two, because just going out and doing cardio, you may get into zone two, but you’re not maximizing your time while you’re there. If you have the posture of most people today, which is shoulders forward chest, a little collapsed head a little forward, your heart and lungs are right there. Pretty sure your heart and lungs are very important for your cardiovascular routine. So first thing you want to do concurrently as you do your cardio is to make sure that your body is balanced as possible.

You have to specifically go through your body and make sure that it’s back in place. Everything’s doing its job. You have good flow of your liquids, your muscles are activated and coordinated together because when you go out and into the activities, you need your body to be effective with good posture. You also don’t want to just jump into zone two. As I said, zone two, it’s a second of five, which means there’s a step before. So if you’ve been doing cardio for a little bit like a decent cardio and you’re zone one and you’re effective, sure, start working on zone two. But if you’re just casually doing cardio without much knowing where you are, go zone one first. Go zone one and start to maximize zone one. Understand what zone one means to you in terms of the numbers, perceived exertion, and then get into zone two.

The second part of this complimentary information you need to be effective in zone two kind of goes along with the first. So if you’ve increased the structure of your body while you’re working on zone one and then you got yourself to a good place structurally and in zone one and then went to zone two, you can’t stop there because all the different activities you’re going to be doing for cardio, for zone two, lifting, cycling, swimming, walking, running, it doesn’t matter what you do to get in zone two, but all those are going to have a damaging effect on your body. Damaging effect on your body is not bad by itself. It’s just bad if you don’t do anything because it constantly gets damaged. That’s why during life and during activities, you always want to have a complimentary corrective exercise program, not just foam rolling, not just massage. You want to really get in there and work the different areas of your body that are difficult for you. As you stay in this zone too, you’re going to need to keep up with your body more than just what you would for regular life because there’s more load. An example of how your different cardio activities can damage your body can be found in this example. So let’s say you’re an average sized person with a really good balanced body and you’re going to go out and do your 10,000

Steps each time you step one foot down, you’re going to get those forces through one leg, and then of course when you step the other side forces through the other leg, if you’re doing 10,000 steps with average size, you’re getting several tons of force through your body, TONS tons. Those forces are going through your body nicely because you’re a balanced person, no problem. But you still need to do some corrective exercise because you’ve used in this example, a bunch of muscles with your lower leg, the back of your lower leg calf and soleus, the front of your lower leg anterior tibilias, your front of your thigh, the back of your thigh, outside hips, inside hips and in your spine. So you want to alleviate the wear and tear in your body by doing a corrective exercise program right after you do your cardiovascular program so you can stay balanced.

But let’s be honest, most people aren’t average sized and most people are definitely not balanced. Those 10,000 steps that I was talking about that go through your body are now not going through your body nice and they’re going through more. So you really, really make sure you’re always keeping up with your body so that your body can keep doing what you want to do. In this case, work out in zone two cardio. So to work yourself into zone two in a thought out scientific way first start with two things. Start with one, get your max heart rate, just general,220 my minus age and do zone 1. 45 minutes a minimum or work up to hour, hour and a half, maybe two. It’s basically a light walk. So just start tracking your walks or whatever you do for cardio, but at the exact same time, start to work on the structure of your body.

There’s not been one person I knew they didn’t have some area of their body that they needed love and intention. So you get into a program like we use here, a holistic program that specifically targets your body to make it stronger, more mobile, so the foundation of your body works better. So as you’re doing zone one and we’re going to structure your body at a certain point, you’ll get to a level, okay, now I can do zone two. Now you start at a level, whatever your number is at zone two, but you want to be flexible, right? So you go into zone two and you do the talk test. Oh no, I can’t talk, okay, minus whatever that number is by 10%, and I use that number as your level for zone two. Now, once you find your number, now go for it. Now you do zone two, like you do zone one right now you want to increase it to 45 minutes, hour, hour and a half, but you also want to give your body time to adapt and it’s a big thing.

I see people see a work that they want to do or some benefits they want and they go do it for like a week, two weeks, maybe a month. It takes your body time to adapt to different information. You give it, in this case, the different energy system you want to use. You want to use zone two. You have to let it adapt. You have to allow your body to increase the capillaries, the mitochondria to get more effective and more of ’em. You have to allow the waste removal system to become more effective. It doesn’t just happen a couple of sessions. So when you start this system of zone one and structural balance and then zone two and then corrective exercise. Now maybe you go back to zone one and you increase both zone one and structure. Now you go back to zone two, but you increase zone two.

Now you go back up to normal zone two or add 10% and then maybe after a while, then maybe try zone three. You want to move your body like this, not just one static way and try and push through called periodization and do different things at different times, at different intensities, but they all compliment and work together. If you want more help on this, I’d be glad to help. We have three ways right now we can help you. One, we have a private Facebook group. The link is in the description. All you got to do, click on the link, answer a few questions, agree to the rules, and you’re, it’s a very interactive way of finding information. I’ll do mini trainings, masterclasses interaction on a Facebook page. I’ll do challenges where we actually go through a topic and I talk about it, but we also do exercises, so it’s a great way to do that.

If you’re not in a Facebook or if interaction and you want to just read and digest more, then we’ve got an ebook. It’s how to move better, get out of pain, live your Life, something like that. It’s four steps. Again, in the description, there’s a link for that. You click the link, put your information, information, excuse me, instant access, or if you want to really get into this program now, but you want to find out more about what it is and how it works for you, then schedule a free consultation with the link in description as well. Hope this is helpful. Any questions you have, please put it in the comments. I’m more than willing to answer them. Have a great day and I’ll see you next week.

Request A Free Consultation Here

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

Find out more @

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Youtube

Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Tips And Support

Dec 21 2023

Embrace Change Like the Seasons

“𝑇𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛, 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛… 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑠 𝑎 𝑠𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑜𝑛, 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛, 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛, 𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑛… 𝐴𝑛𝑑 𝑎 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑝𝑢𝑟𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑒 𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟 ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑛.”

This advice has been around for centuries, making its way from the Bible to a folk song that helped a generation through the tumultuous 1960s.

The message is timeless, and one we should think about frequently when faced with the idea of change in our lives.

It can come at us surprisingly, even shockingly. Sometimes we see it coming. Sometimes we bring it on, ourselves.

But here’s the truth about change: It’s as certain as the sun rising. We can’t dodge it or duck it.

So, what if we flip the script? Instead of dreading or being shocked by change, let’s wrap our arms around it. Imagine it like the seasons or the weather – a natural force beyond our control. Just like we ride those seasons and plan picnics or ski trips, we can ride the waves of change for the best outcomes.

Throughout history and around the world, cultures have celebrated shifting seasons with rituals and holidays.

Spring brings renewal and blossoming life, while summer pumps us with energy. Fall can ask us to slow down, all while the trees show off their vibrant colors. And winter? Cozy snowscapes and quiet moments, or a chance to hibernate until spring returns.

Nature is all about motion. Motion is change. And change? Well, that’s life, the essence of it all.

This constant change is also at play with your body. Things are going to come up constantly, and if you aren’t mentally and emotionally in a good place with this, you’re going to fall for victimhood. But if you are in a good place then you’ll know how to react intelligently and work with the flow of life.

Embrace it all with love and gratitude. And use the power of the universe to fuel your journey toward success – the kind that’s uniquely yours.

MOVE BETTER, REDUCE PAIN, AND LIVE LIFE ON YOUR TERMS

it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

Find out more @

Facebook

Twitter

Pinterest

Instagram

Youtube

Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Tips And Support

  • « Go to Previous Page
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 4
  • Page 5
  • Page 6
  • Page 7
  • Page 8
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 41
  • Go to Next Page »

Footer

disc hydration ELDOA

Why Your Spine Isn’t Rehydrating Overnight — and What to Do About It

💡 Your spinal disc doesn’t just “recover” with hydration while you sleep. It responds to what you do … [Read More] about Why Your Spine Isn’t Rehydrating Overnight — and What to Do About It

Man meditating SOmatic Pride

Somatic Pride: Finding Strength in Feeling at Home in Your Body

We often talk about self-confidence or resilience like it’s just a mindset — but your body has to … [Read More] about Somatic Pride: Finding Strength in Feeling at Home in Your Body

Mens Health. Your Body is not a tool - tensegrity system body

Your Body Is Not a Tool: It’s a Tensegrity System

Your Body Is Not a Tool—It’s a Tensegrity System Most men treat their body like a tool.Use it. … [Read More] about Your Body Is Not a Tool: It’s a Tensegrity System

  • Bluesky
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Phone
  • Pinterest
  • Threads
  • YouTube

© 2025 · SolCore Fitness · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions