Holistic Exercise And Fitness

Feb 12 2015

This warmed the cockles of my heart…

I was doing my perpetual task of checking on and deleting emails today and I came across an email that made me smile. When I was training back in L.A. personal training and working at the big box gyms, I met a lot of really great people. This was probably the single greatest thing about working in those factories. Getting to know all these interesting people over the past 20 years is one of the perks of having this career and being a personal training.

And there are always some people who stick it out more than others. One of these people was Geri. I met her when I first moved back to L.A. (I know…move back…you were out!) and was working at a box gym in West L.A. She was always smiling, working hard and super friendly. We had some good conversations, but when I decided to leave that gym we lost touch.

Then about two years later I was personal training for another gym in Santa Monica, and as I was doing my walk around the gym, lo and behold, who do I run into but Geri. We struck it off as if no time had passed and she asked me if I would be interested in training her. Well, as most of you who know me would guess, I said, “Let’s have a consult first to see if we are a good fit.”

During our consult I found out what her goals were and what she was doing for her workouts. I also learned about her lifestyle and dietary habits. This is the holistic part of my personal training practice. It’s not just what you do in the gym during your workout; it’s how the whole picture fits together.

I found out that Geri had some big challenges. She had pushed herself so hard, in her workouts and in life, that she ended up with a couple of autoimmune diseases in her thyroid and adrenals. This made her goals significantly harder to achieve. She also had some physiological issues in her pelvis and spine (like most of us). Digging further I discovered that her workouts were in direct opposition to her limitations and goals. She had fallen prey to the obsessive high-intensity workouts plaguing our nation. The last thing you want to do is to overwork yourself on a structure that is compromised both inside and out. She was also stuck in a 90s diet in which fat intake is minimal and all grains are good.

I always try to explain to everybody I do a consult with what exactly it is that I see and realistically how long it’s going to take and what training will be involved. In a nutshell, for Geri it was a huge scale-down of her training ( with an emphasis on Myofascial stretching, ELDOA, and basic proper movements), plus getting more sleep and starting to eat good fats and meats (grass-fed organic, of course).

She resisted a bit—not because she didn’t believe me, but because what she had been doing was so ingrained into who she was, even though it wasn’t working. The good thing though was that she was obviously open or she wouldn’t have signed up!

And to her amazement (not mine) she started to make progress. She made progress because she was following one of our core principles of SolCore Fitness Personal Training: consistent, steady improvement. You don’t have to be perfect, you just gotta try your best to the level you can do that day, and then be happy for that and make improvements where possible.

Hi Ekemba,

Just wanted to say thank you for truly helping me improve my overall health over the past year and a half. When people say how great it is that I’m more flexible with my eating and how impressed they are when I say I’m taking a rest day, I know I really owe that to you. I am definitely a changed person and will not go back to my old ways. I’ll gladly be a reference for you as you work to build your business in New Mexico. You are a one-of-a-kind trainer and I’m glad I bumped into you and changed my equifit that day to work with you!

Safe travels. Wishing you and your family all the best!!! hugs, geri

This is the number one reason I chose this career: to see “regular” people achieve a level of well-being they never thought possible.
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Jul 28 2014

What is a corrective exercise?

Just because it is called a corrective exercises does not mean that it is doing you any good!

Corrective exercise has turned into a term that many people use to describe movements that they think are beneficial to them but in actuality, they are not. Corrective exercise is right up there with “functional training,” “yoga therapy,” and “restorative yoga.” It is not what you call something that produces you the results that you desire, it is how they affect the tensegrity (balance) and bio-mechanical (movements) motions of your body.

A real corrective exercise will normalize (correct) an area of your body that is in essence “not doing its job!”

Lets take for example, the exercise: the “prone cobra” also called the Mckenzie press. It has been used for years, and in the case of yoga A LOT of years, to mobilize and strengthen the spine. For those of you who are not familiar with this stretch, it is when you lay down, on your stomach (prone) and you come up to either your forearms or your hands pushing your upper body up leaving your lower body on the ground. There are some slight differences depending of those who you talk to as whether or not the hips stay on the ground. For this example, it’s not important. The idea is that when you push yourself up, it will open the anterior (front) of your spinal joints and the disc will slide forward. And if you have enough space in your spine, then this is true…

Now, let’s look at how the body reacts to a motion like this. In the prone cobra, when you push yourself up your spine goes into extension (like if you were standing up and you arched your back) and now based on spinal mechanics the posterior (back) part of the spine pinches together.

So how is this a corrective exercise?

In short, this is NOT a corrective exercise! Most people who are performing this exercise have back pain, and are thinking that this will help. Now there a lot of reason why one could have back pain but for this example, let’s stick to just one. Gravity is constantly compressing us, and combined with too much sitting and not enough proper movements, causes improper loading and our spine takes the brunt of it. Many individuals have disc compression and they may not have any symptoms….yet, and for those individuals over the age of 50- they can almost guarantee that they too have disk compression, some degree of bulge/herniation/prolapse.

Now while have some disc compression and doing the prone cobra exercise, your spine is forced into extension and the posterior (back) part of the vertabrae is going to pinch the posterior (back) part of your disc even more. This will lead to further bulging/herniation/prolapse and cause a lot more back issues and pain.

So what is actually a corrective exercise for this?

As I stated at the beginning, a corrective exercise will correct and normalize a problem. When it comes to back pain and spinal compression….The #1….hands down…. best corrective exercise are ELDOA‘s. They are “stretch exercises” that pull one vertebrata away from another, providing much needed space. This space now allows your body to start to function better within that area. This means that your discs will now be able to start to rehydrate and regain their form and volume. Without compression, you will have SIGNIFICANTLY less pain. This means that you can start to live you life with more confidence in your body and be able to do the activities that you want to do.