SolCore Fitness

Mar 08 2020

Heart Health and Body Structure

I am sure you have heard a lot about heart health. Everything from diet, hydration, stress management, and even sleep affects your heart. There a lot of excellent points to follow, but have you ever thought about heart health and the structure of your body.

The structure of the body is usually talked about or thought about posture, movement, or pain. And all this is true. The better your structure, the better your position, the better you move, and the less pain you will have. But the structure of your body is fundamental to the health of your organs too. Your organs (viscera) all have a place that they are supposed to be within the body. They all have “rooms” formed by fascia (connective tissue). If the structure of your body is out of balance and your fascia is unhealthy, then space (room) holding your organs is compromised, and they cannot function optimally. It’s as if I were to ask you to perform a task but then bind your arms and legs to limit your movement. It’s going to be difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish.

Now to use your heart as an example. For it to be healthy and function optimally, the heart should sit properly on your diaphragm, and the pericardium (heart skin) should provide enough room and be able to connect correctly to the neck and sternum.

In this image (above), the pericardium (green) connects to the sternum (breast bone), C6, C7 and T1 vertebrae (neck), and the diaphragm for support. If any of those connections are tight or “out of place,” then it will twist, compress, or pull the pericardium and cause the heart to not work well.

Take a typical posture that you can see everywhere now. It’s called forward head posture. And just as the name implies, your head is forward to your shoulders. This is usually seen with a rounded back (kyphosis) and a collapsed sternum. So take the picture of the heart above and place it in this poor chap. Let’s start at the top. When your head is forward, and you have kyphosis, it pulls your neck forward and causes those vertebrae to slide forward. It also creates those connections at the sternum to slack. And 9.99999999 times out of 10, this posture will also cause your diaphragm to be jumbled (technical name) and so the floor that the heart sits on is crooked and compressed.

So now, your poor little heart is all twisted and compressed and sitting in the wrong place, and you are asking it to work optimally. Also, your posture is now reducing your lung volume, which reduces the amount of oxygen your body (including your heart) is getting. And now extrapolate that strain and think about the effects when you are exerting yourself. Talk about putting your body (and heart) in a position NOT to succeed.

If this represents your condition, the good news is that your current situation is not a death sentence because most of what I am talking about is soft tissue. This means you can do something about it if you don’t wait too long. Some exercises can open your neck and pull those vertebrae back into it’s intended position, and correct your kyphosis.

If your goal is longevity and vitality, then get on a workout treatment program that works on your body from all different angles, including your posture and structure. The benefits to your entire being are numerous… because it’s not just working out, it’s building a foundation for a better life.

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Oct 22 2018

Personal Training Success in Santa Fe – Dexter

Personal Training Success Story

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Aug 31 2018

Drink Water For Your Success, Santa Fe

Water, Water Everywhere

Water is one of the most important staples toour health and fitness. If we are dehydrated, it can present a whole host of physical problems that will cost time and money to “cure,”when the remedy is as simple as “DRINK MORE WATER!”

Symptoms of Dehydration

Mild:

thirst
dizziness
anger
depression
confusion
light-headedness
dry mouth and nose
slowed urine production

Moderate:

sunken, dry eyes with few or no tears
poor skin elasticity
rapid and deep breathing
low blood pressure
fast, weak pulse

Severe:

fainting
severe muscle contractions in the arms, legs, stomach, andback
convulsions
heart failure
kidney problems
lack of urine
cool, moist extremities
low or undetectable blood pressure
peripheral cyanosis (bluish skin)
death

Water Facts

An interesting fact, “The earth is covered with almost 70% water,andhumans are composed of about 75% water- our blood containing roughly the same salinity as the ocean water”. There are roughly 10,000 actions within your body that are performed per second, which water is essential to. Water’s chief job is to maintain a stable environment inside and around our cells,so we can be able to take in nutrition and eliminate wastes. It is also essential that your muscles, tendons, ligaments and all the fascia in our body stay hydrated. You see, our body is meant to slide and move internally, and all this sliding and moving is done on water basedsubstance. So if you are dehydrated, just moving around will cause excessive tension and friction, which will cause inflammation, dysfunction, andpain.

So where do you start? First,find out how much you are currently drinking. Use a journal or the note function on your smartphone. If your total water intake is below ½ your body weight in ounces of water, you have to start increasing your intake. So, for example if you weigh 150lbs, you should be drinking 75 ounces of water every day. Also,note how much plain water you are having. Plain is water without ANYTHINGin it and two hours after eating.

Don’t try and increase it all at once though! Start slowly and let your body adapt. First,take the water you are currently drinking and divide it into thirds. Then also divide your day into thirds, say before 11am, 3pm, and7pm. Each third of waterwill go into those three sections. Now you are going to add a little bit of water in each third and make sure that it is all finished by the time you choose. Just keep increasing periodically every couple of weeks, andyou will be good to go in no time.

If you do enjoy lemon or lime in your water, just make sure half the water you drink is plain. This is the water that keeps your tissues hydrated.

As an added way to get more water in and start your day off awesomely, drink as much as you can first thing in the morning. Now you have started your day off hydrating yourself which get your body flowing and functioning correctly. It also gets you in the habit of drinking water in the day. And if you happen to forget to drink enough during your busy day, the water you drank in the morning “front loaded” your amount to help.

Water Hydration

So now that you are all geared up to stay hydrated- What do you do? Go to the nearest water fountain and take a swig…Not if you love your body! Almost all municipal sources of water are contaminated with commercial agricultural runoff (pesticides, herbicides, etc.) and have chlorine and fluoride added to it. The hierarchy of the best water sources are:

Artesian
Spring
Filtered

The point I’m trying to get across to you is-DRINK MORE WATER! For those of you who are already thinking that this will send you to the bathroom every two seconds, consider this: As you slowly increase your water intake, your body will become more efficient at processing/using the water, and your desire to go will decrease. You can also add a small pinch of Celtic sea salt (not every time) which will help your body assimilate the water and give you a bunch of fantastic trace minerals (electrolytes) that your body needs anyway.

On a closing note- Many people mistake the feeling of thirst for hunger, and studies show that adults who drink two, 8-ounce glasses of water before breakfast, lunch, and dinner consumed75-90 fewer calories during each meal.

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Aug 20 2018

Personal Training Success in Santa Fe – Arthur

PERSONAL TRAINING SUCCESS STORY

Hey, my name is Arthur and I have been in SolCore for a little more than three years now. Let me tell you, it’s been a lifesaver. Before I came here, I had chronic back pain due to not an injury, but just years of having the wrong posture and doing terrible things with my back, and not really even knowing it.

I went to physical therapy and I went to chiropractors. It helped, but it was more temporary. And coming here to this class, three times a week in the group class, it’s just been amazing.

All the different techniques and whether they are new or new to us, they have been so very helpful.

In the past three years, I’ve had two minor flare-ups, and it was all my own fault. I was sitting improperly again going back to my old ways, and coming back here at class, it’s just has been amazing.

I highly recommend SolCore. It has just changed my life dramatically. I know that’s so cliché, but it’s true.

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Jul 31 2018

Personal Training Success In Santa Fe – Emilah

Personal Training Success Story

My name is Emilah DeToro, and I started with Solcore Fitness about 16 months ago, and I chose to work with Ekemba at Solcore because I was hindering myself in my daily life and in my yoga practice. And I really wanted to not be doing that anymore, I wanted to feel strong. I was in quite a bit of pain in my shoulders and neck, and so I thought that the ELDOA program and the work that Ekemba does really support strengthen my core and reducing the pain in my neck and shoulders.

So, I attended classes for all that 16 months…. 8 o’clock in the morning, and from that, it worked. I stopped injuring myself, I had a lot more strength. I often told the story of going out and using lemming saw to trim my trees about 8 months in and how much stronger my body felt. And so I found that I was more sturdy as I wanted to walk my dog and lot more often. And I just have a lot more energy to be in the world and to be physically active. And so, those were really the benefits for me. It just really woke me up and my body and my spirit too.

Why would you recommend us? Why would you recommend me?

I’d recommend Ekemba just to kind of… just strengthen your core as well as get your posture more aligned so that your body has more fluidity. So, if you are in pain, I think for me that was the big piece. I kept injuring myself, so if you want a more stable frame and to have less pain in your daily movements, that’s what I would recommend. People I would recommend to come here.

Great! Thank you Emilah. I appreciate it.

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