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Oct 26 2016

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe- Rosanna Dill

We have a running joke in the midday class. At about 12:32 Rosanna is going to come screeching in with her workout gear and high heels. She’ll start warming up and be told what the class is that day (no matter what it is) and genially say with a huge smile on her face, “Great, let’s do it!”

Rosanna has one of those minds that likes to figure things out. She is very inquisitive and will generally figure things out on her own. This shows up at home as she is the “handyman” of her family and is pretty successful at it. So she applied the same gusto to her fitness program and got ok results. The problem was that she noticed that her “problem areas” weren’t getting better and in fact getting a little worse. She has what 90% of people have in a thoracic kyphosis. This is a tight upper back that is more rounded than it should be.

Her main goal now was to not be the “hunched back little old woman” so she decided to stop “being a cheap bastard” (her words 😉 ) and sought help. Rosanna saw us on Facebook and read a little on what we do and it really peaked her interest. She decided to commit and work on fixing her upper back by joining our group class.

She jumped in with two feet and worked her tail off. She did all the homework that was given to her and some that wasn’t. Because of this she has drastically improved her posture and is learning tools so to never become the hunched back little old woman. This is also why Rosanna is October’s Member of the Month.

1) What made you decide you wanted/needed to start a program?

I did not want to become that little old woman with the hunched back.

2) What did you do before?

I took Pilates at a gym for a bit until a dog bit me (long story). I am active and do outdoor activities. Most recently, I was doing an at home DVD workout program that has me doing different stuff every day.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of?

I have so much more awareness in my body. I have much more freedom in my body and I can see my tight upper back slowly going away.

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them?

I like all the exercises. I know that they are all helping me and I can feel it. I really enjoy how all the exercises work together in the program. The wall stretch helps me sleep at night and the handful of upper back exercises are really starting to strengthen me.

5) What are some challenges or goals you are currently working on?

Just continuing to open up my upper back. It’s like you said, I am working on the past imbalances in my body and what I am doing to myself now.

6) What do you like best about our program/having a trainer?

I love the fact that the classes are varied, fun and effective.

7) What advice would you give to the other SolCore Fitness members?

Take your time. It is a process to getting results. You are not going to get major results in three months and definitely not in 6 weeks like other programs promise. Stick with it because it is totally worth it.

8) What would you say to someone on the fence about joining our program?

This program is a subtle yet effective practice that realigns your body.

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Sep 17 2016

ELDOA In Santa Fe For Less Shoulder And Neck Pain

How ELDOA’s Increase Spinal Mobility And Get Rid Of Neck And Shoulder Pain

Do your shoulders slump and round when you walk, sit, or stand?
Do you have trouble keeping your chest up when squatting?
Do you get lower back or neck pain when doing twisting or rotational movements?
Does it hurt lifting heavy things off the ground?
Have you resigned yourself to living with that nagging rotator cuff pain that flares up during workouts and in bed?

If you answered “yes” to any of those (and most people will answer yes to at least one), you may have poor thoracic spine mobility. Even if you don’t notice any of the symptoms leaping out at you, it never hurts to get more mobility, especially in the thoracic spine. And establishing good habits by actively maintaining and training mobility, as opposed to being content with what you have (even if it’s not optimum), is always a good move.

After the hips, thoracic spine mobility is probably the most crucial aspect of mobility. At least with the hips, though, people can identify them and grasp the concept of hip mobility just by reading text on the computer. Sticking your hips back is pretty self-explanatory. What about the thoracic spine? It’s a bit more nebulous.

Do you know how to use your thoracic spine? Are you even aware that it exists? It’s not that people ignore the thoracic spine willfully; it’s that they’re unaware of any distinctions between spinal and lumbar vertebrae. They know about the spine, and imagine it to be a uniform vertebral column, equally capable of bending, twisting, and rotating along its length. This is totally understandable. “Spine” is what we hear, not “thoracic spine” or “lumbar spine” or “cervical spine,” but it’s much more than that.

The human spinal column is composed of five segments: the cervical spine, which extends up the neck to the base of the skull; the thoracic spine, which encompasses the shoulder and chest area; the lumbar spine, also known as the lower back; the sacrum; and, finally, the coccyx, or tail bone. Each performs a different role. Each has different capabilities, different functions. Most importantly, each segment of the spine is designed for a certain range of motion.

The thoracic spine is built for rotation, flexion, and extension. It is highly mobile – or, rather, it has the potential for lots of mobility. Because of its mobility, the thoracic spine must be used, must be moved. But it has to be known. If people are unable to visualize and feel the movement of the thoracic spine, or if they’re unable to even grasp the concept of its existence, they’ll just attempt to twist, rotate, flex, and bend with something familiar to them: the lumbar spine. That’s bad news.

The lumbar spine is built for stability. It’s supposed to support the weight of the body (plus any added weights) and resist excessive rotation and twisting. It remains stable and acts as a conduit for power generated by the hips and fed to the mobile thoracic spine. It is not meant to twist and bend. It can move, obviously, but it’s not meant to be wildly mobile. It’s meant to be solid, reliable.

You’ll find that an immobile thoracic spine isn’t just bad for the vertebrae themselves. It’s bad for your lower back and your shoulders, too. In fact, you’ll rarely feel actual pain along the twelve vertebrae that comprise your thoracic spine. Instead, your lower back will take over work for which it’s really not designed, getting chronic pain for its troubles, and your scapula (shoulder blades) will compensate by moving away from the spine, making overhead shoulder work difficult, dangerous, and painful, and a rotator cuff injury nearly inevitable. Everything in the body is linked, remember, and you can’t remove a major player from the equation without seriously affecting the balance.

Benefits of improved thoracic mobility are: Lack of kyphosis, a less painful, more stable lower back, more lung volume, Healthier shoulders, Greater range of motion …

Do use thoracic mobility to:
a. Lengthen and straighten your thoracic spine with ELDOA’s
b. Breathe more deeply
c. Enable your shoulders to roll further back without swaying the low back

Don’t use thoracic mobility to:
a. Hunch your thoracic spine
b. Hyper-extend your thoracic ligaments creating laxity in the ligaments and hyper-mobility in the thoracic spine.

So, it is important to develop thoracic mobility in a precise way that allows healthy spinal architecture and movement and not in a way that threatens your skeletal integrity or scaffolding. Loosening up the thoracic spine and then using that extra mobility to round or distort the spine further while sitting or standing is in some ways worse than being inflexible. It is therefore crucial to be conscious of posture as well, so that your whole spine is well-aligned throughout your day, and any extra mobility you create in your thoracic spine works to your advantage and towards making you straighter and taller.

In sum … do your ELDOAs!!!

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Sep 14 2016

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe – Pat Murphy

Pat is one of the happiest people I have ever met. Just look at that smiling shot for goodness sake! She seems to not have a care in the world. But on the flip side Pat is a very hard worker and has really proven herself over this past year of being with us.

Pat came to Santa Fe after a whole other life in South Beach Miami. She was in Miami before it even started to become the international metropolis that it is now. She was a social worker there working with clientele that had severe head wounds and/or was about to die. All day long that was the majority of her days, until finally she had enough. If she had to fill out one more report she was going to lose it. So she packed up her stuff and Lou (her husband) and moved to Santa Fe.

She had been coming here for 25 years and it seemed like the perfect fit for her new life. She also completely switched gears on what she wanted to contribute in this life. Instead of dealing with death and destruction (literally) she focused on the new joyous beginnings and became a wedding officiate.

I met Pat while networking and right after my “60 second commercial” she said, “You’re talking about me,” with a big ol’ smile on her face. Well I never know if somebody is really serious or not but sure enough she contacted me about a week later.

When she first started it was difficult! We were doing a myofascial stretching hip flexor routine and it was hard because it was new and hard because she needed it. And at the end of the session I said to myself like I say about everybody, “I hope she doesn’t quit.”

Well as I already told you, she made it through that class and all of the others throughout the year. And along the way she has made some amazing progress, so it wasn’t even a question to have Pat be our September Member of the Month.

1) What made you decide you wanted/needed to start a program?

I started to notice that I was getting weaker and starting to have a lot more pain. I also saw that many of my friends were going down the road of surgeries and illness, and there was no way that I wanted to do that. When I heard you speak, it really resonated with me and I knew it was for me.

2) What did you do before?

I tried Pilates, Yoga and some regular group exercise classes, but I didn’t like any of them. They just didn’t know how to address what was going on with me and I was afraid I was going to get hurt.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of?

The pain I was constantly in is pretty much gone. I feel so much stronger and I am really proud of myself each time I finish a class.

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them?

I like the 90/90/90. My hips feel so good and balanced after we do them. I do not like the frogs. I know they are good for me, but they are hard.

5) What are some challenges or goals you are currently working on?

I just want to keep showing up. If I show up good things happen. If I were to stop I know I would go backward.

6) What do you like best about our program/ having a trainer?

I love being in a group where everybody is working hard! And the attention to detail and the knowledge that you guys provide us is wonderful.

7) What advice would you give to the other SolCore Fitness members?

Just keep coming!

8) What would you say to someone on the fence about joining our program?

Just try it and see what you are capable of!

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Aug 25 2016

Santa Fe Are Your Shoes to Blame for Lower Back Pain?

By Jo Van Cutsem

When you think of the causes of back pain, things like sports injuries and heavy lifting probably quickly pop into your head. What you may not know, however, is that there is a less obvious, everyday culprit that can cause that pain: footwear. Your feet are the foundation for all of your movement, and any disruption at that source can put a lot of stress on the rest of your body. Because of this, making healthy decisions about your footwear can greatly reduce your risk for back pain.

Anyone with a job that entails standing for long periods of time, or who regularly has to carry considerable weight at work or at home is particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor footwear.

Connecting backache, and even neck ache to your shoes might not be quite so obvious, however, but the wrong kind of shoe can increase stress on the vertebrae, destabilize the spine and cause fatigue and wear in the muscles and ligaments supporting the spinal column.

It’s not just excessively high heels that can cause back problems; totally flat shoes providing no arch support and the new fitness trend for shoes that separate out the toes can also trigger a cascade of problems in the spine. Some shoes can cause immediate back pain, trigger old injuries to begin hurting again or cause chronic symptoms over time. Shoes affect the way we walk, the way we stand and how much stress is put on the spine as we go about our everyday activities.

A natural gait involves the heel touching the ground first as we step, with the foot’s arch then rolling inwards (referred to as ‘pronation’), then the ball of the foot and the toe make contact and these then provide the momentum to push off the ground again. Those wearing shoes that affect the gait may have either under pronation or over pronation, causing excess shock to the spine or the lower body to rotate inward. Both of these result in excess strain on the back.

Just as ballet flats are terrible for the feet and the spine, so are flip-flops. The peculiar gait necessary to keep flip-flops on the feet causes problems with the back, knees, hips and the feet themselves and such footwear should be avoided for anything other than incidental use at the pool.

When you think of your feet as the foundation for all body movement, it’s easy to understand why worn shoes are a bad idea. They simply don’t offer the support that you need to make sure that your body is moving efficiently and comfortably. Over time, worn shoes offer less shock absorption and arch support, and this can result in back pain as well as a permanent alteration to your gait. Because of this, it’s important to replace your shoes when you notice that they are starting to show wear.

No round-up of shoes bad for the back is complete without the mention of the dreaded stiletto. These narrow-heeled shoes are highly likely to cause a raft of health complications, including leg strain, hip strain, and back pain. High heeled shoes put all the stress on a single point of the foot and every step shoots that stress right up the spine. The body has to work incredibly hard to absorb this stress and balance the body and this can lead to fatigue, wear and tear and premature degeneration of the discs, ligaments, muscles and bones in the spine. Anything over a two inch heel is advised against and even lower heels should only be worn very occasionally as these too can destabilize the spine.

Athletic shoes, on the other hand, have quality cushioning and shock absorption since they are designed for physical activity. Because of this, they are some of the most comfortable, back-friendly footwear options.

Your choice of footwear, together with Eldoa-exercises, offers a daily opportunity to do right by your spine. So, next time you have back ache after a long day standing at work consider whether your shoes are to blame for your lower back pain.

Now, that you have read all the above information, you might understand why we prefer to go barefoot during the workout sessions at SolCore Fitness.

Thanks,

Jo Van Cutsem

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