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posture

Jan 29 2018

How to Sit Ergonomically and an Exercise to Help Your Shoulders

Sitting At Your Desk Like This Will Help Your Back and Neck Pain

How’s it going? It’s Ekemba from SolCore Fitness again, and I’ve gotten some questions about best posture for sitting. This could be in a desk or in a car. So there are some things you can do to have good posture. I start by saying that sitting, in general, is terrible, anything stagnant on your body is not good, it wants to move around, so that’s why this big shift towards standing desks has been okay, but now you have different problems. So instead of back problems, you have foot problems. Instead of hip problems, you have circulation problems.

Your body wants to move, so get up and move around a lot. Take a walk around the block, do some jumping jacks, move your body around a little bit, break up the time in between sitting down. When you are sitting, you have three main points. First and foremost, you want to look at the top third of the screen, that way then your neck doesn’t go to too much extension or flexion and throws your posture off and throws you spine off. The other two is you want your elbows and hips approximately 90 degrees, that way you don’t have too much compression at the hip and the elbow. And you can see this is a little bad for me, but again, I want to look at the top of the screen, so I’ll sacrifice that a little bit.

Use this Exercise to Open Up Your Shoulders

While you’re sitting there, you can move too. So in this posture, everything rounds, so I can open up my shoulder girdle with what’s called a five-part shoulder. It’s a movement to generally open up the whole shoulder girdle. You start by sitting forward in your chair, getting as tall as possible, reach your arms out to the side and try and push your arms away and try and touch either wall. Staying tall as you push your arms away from your body, you lift up to the ceiling and trying touch the ceiling. You push your arms forward in front of you allowing your shoulders to come down with you, and once they’re parallel, you do a row. You keep your upper arms by your side and you stay tall, you open the doors and close the doors, and you do one arm at a time, try to point towards your opposite shoulder blade, and then you go back out to the other side. So, here’s how it looks all together. Push lift, forward, down, row, open close, one arm at a time, reach and repeat.

Do it you know five to ten times provide periodically throughout the day, and you’ll notice, there are certain parts that are difficult, so opening up or bring your arm behind you, that says to you that you have specific areas you need to stretch. So the best thing I know is myofascial stretching ELDOA to open up different chains of muscles at different joints in your spine, so you sit with a little bit more with better posture. So try that five-part shoulder and good luck to you.

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Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Program, Semi Private Personal Training · Tagged: back pain, posture, stretch exercises for back pain

Jun 30 2016

Personal Training Success Story In Santa Fe

Personal Training Success Story – Barbara Radov

The desire to be the best! Striving to be a better you! Commitment to excellence! These are philosophies that we truly believe in and what our company is built upon.

In fact the “commitment to excellence” is one of our Core Values. It is always our desire to attract people who need our assistance and who are aligned with our core values. This makes the process smooth, because since we all “think alike” they have no problem following the directions and understanding the process.

Barbara fits this to a T. She is a person who really thinks things out first and likes to understand what is to come. But she is also very much an action taker and pretty competitive.

These two defining attributes have really propelled her to some amazing results. I am proud to announce Barbara Radov as our June member of the month.

 

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

I knew that I needed to do something besides cardio. I am really good getting my hikes in and walks, but I knew that to have good physical quality of life, as I got older I needed to improve my strength and posture.

2) What did you do before?

A lot of hiking! I had taken yoga and at one point joined a gym, but I never found what I was looking for.

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

I drink so much more water than I ever have. My posture has improved and I am much stronger. I now notice how much better my posture is on my hikes and how my legs aren’t tired or sore at the end of a long hike. And my balance and awareness is much better. I used to loose my balance and do things like run into the walls, but that is gone.

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

I have a love hate relationship with the roll up roll down abs.  I see and feel how good they are for me, for my core and spine… they are just so hard! My least favorite exercise is the frogs. That is a really tough series.

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

I want to keep improving my posture.

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

The expertise in class is wonderful. The other people in class really motivate me. And the fact that you guys are always bettering yourselves is really inspiring.

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

Isn’t this fun! Doesn’t it feel good to push yourself in such a positive way!

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

If you REALLY do it. It will change your life.

 

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Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Exercise Program, Group Exercise Class, Personal Trainer, Personal Training Success, Semi Private Personal Training · Tagged: posture

May 25 2016

Personal Training Success In Santa Fe

Personal Training Success- Julia Gelbart

When I do these interviews, I am usually trying to dig a little deeper to find out more about the member of the month. I want to find out what makes them tick to be so successful. I generally know this person through being around them all the time, but I always find out more through sitting down with them and talking. This month’s member of the month is much more simple than that. And in her simplicity you discover an admiration as to who she is.

Julia Gelbart is not very complicated in her desire to improve herself. To her, it is just common sense. As she grows older, she doesn’t want her body to fail her so she does something about it. And of course she wants to commit to herself and work hard, because anything worth getting involves work.

It is this absoluteness about why she is doing what she is doing and an incredible positive attitude that have made Julia Gelbart our personal training success May Member of the Month.

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

I was swimming with a friend of mine Vikkie, who was in your program and she raved to me that I had to do it. I am not in this to being tall and beautiful, I knew that I needed to wake up my muscles and strengthen my body especially in the upper body.

2) What did you do before?

I do a once a week yoga class, I walk and I swim.

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

I wanted a preventive program to help me  age gracefully and  improve my strength and balance. I have a great story to demonstrate the different benefits I have achieved.

It was the end of the day out at a house that I was getting ready to show and was walking up these long flights of stairs. Well on one of the times I was walking up them, my foot caught in my dress and started to fall face first toward the stairs. Well I was able to quickly react and put my hands out in front of me and slow myself down and then push myself back up! I avoided really getting hurt.

So first off, I wasn’t tired at all. Just normally in a regular day, I would be a little tired like most people. But I wasn’t even winded from walking up and down those long flights of stairs! And of course I was able to react fast enough and then have the strength to push myself back up! I had noticed a lot of great improvements over the year or so, like better posture and better movement, but after that incident I knew and felt what great progress I had made.

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

Frogs! Even though I know they are good for me, they are so difficult.

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

I will always be working on gaining and keeping my strength.

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

Three things:

1) Being in the group environment is really inspiring. When I first started I wanted to quit, but I didn’t because I am competitive and because nobody else in the group was quitting.

2) The corrections that we are given in class are great. They help me make sure that I am doing the exercises correctly.

3) The accountability. You guys notice when people are not in class and you track them down!

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

Don’t quit!

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

If you are looking for a program that will empower you, as you grow older by keeping your body strong and balanced, this is it. If you truly want to commit to yourself and your health and fitness, this program works!

 

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Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, Group Exercise Class, Personal Trainer, Personal Training Success, Semi Private Personal Training · Tagged: posture

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.

SolCore Fitness has been successfully using ELDOA’s to relieve back and neck pain when other methods have failed. Our group class members in Santa Fe have gotten amazing results and now see this as an integral part of their fitness routine. If you are in the Santa Fe area and are looking for a corrective exercise program that will lay the foundation for a stronger, healthier, pain free you ….. then please contact us for a free consultation.

 

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Written by SolCoreFitness · Categorized: Blog, ELDOA · Tagged: back pain, posture, stretch exercises for back pain

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