Save a fall with strength and balance

We take our balance for granted—until we have an embarrassing fall.

For youngsters, they typically shake off a fall. A young person has no problem slipping a sock on standing up. That’s a demonstration of balance and strength. Those past a certain age, however, usually sit down to pull on socks or sneakers. The fear of falling is a real concern. One of three older adults suffer a fall each year. Falls claimed 60,000 lives in 2012 and 2013. Falls are a serious health concern for older adults, alongside the cascade of other debilitating factors and a loss of independence.

Balance training is the mainstay of a fall prevention program, as well as strength and coordination. Lower body weakness increases the odds of falling fourfold. Unfortunately, there are other risk factors that contribute to falls. This includes foot problems, improper footwear like sneakers or slippers without traction and tight ankles. A limited range of motion in your ankles can affect balance and the simple ability to step up. Vision and environmental hazards in the house, like loose rugs or clutter, can contribute to falls as well.

One of the best things you can do as an adult is to make sure your gluteal medius and gluteal maximus muscles are strong. These posterior muscles are prime movers and important for stability. Making sure your glutes are working well, in conjunction with ankle mobility and stability, will help you move around with grace and confidence, and not fall.

Try to the following exercises every day.

Heel rise rocker

• Rise upward onto your toes and immediately rock back onto your heels as you lift your toes up towards your shins. Aim for 10-15 reps daily. Use a wall for support if needed.

Alphabet

• Stand on your right leg with your opposite foot off the ground close to your right foot.

• Push your hips back slightly, into a quarter squat. Keep your torso engaged, and the weight balanced on the whole foot.

• With your foot in the air, write the letters of the alphabet with your foot using small movements.

• Repeat on the left leg.

Bridging—single leg

• Lie face-up with your arms by your side, knees bent and feet flat on the ground.

• Squeeze your glutes and lift your hips off the ground until your knees, hips and shoulders are in a straight line.

• Extend one leg, foot flexed, and keep it extended.

• Lower and lift your hips 12 times. Repeat on the other side.

Clam Shell

• In a side-lying position, hips slightly flexed and the knees bent, raise your top knee off the bottom knee by contracting the hip muscles. This exercise mimics the opening of a clamshell.

• Avoid rolling or rotating your torso as you lift your knee.

Tree Pose

Tree pose develops balance, stability  and poise. It strengthens the muscles of the supporting leg and foot.

• Stand firm on the right leg. Use a wall for support if needed.

• Bend the left leg out to the side, hold the foot and press the sole of your right foot into the top of your right inner thigh.

• Straighten the right knee and press the left knee back, in line with the left hip.

• Try to balance for 20 seconds before repeating on the left leg.


Published in the Idaho Mountain Express June 16, 2023

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-save-a-fall-with-balance-and-strength/article_dfa2b6ea-0afa-11ee-a111-974c9f3b63a9.html

4 stretches to stay ahead of aging

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We all want to enjoy a healthy work-life balance and have more energy throughout the day. Regardless of your age, the habits of daily living become more important, whether you are in your 40s or 60s. The body, however, has an agenda of its own, and presents unforeseen challenges. You start to notice signs of arthritis; joint stiffness first thing in the morning, knee buckling, or clicking or popping sounds in your joints.

Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis; it often emerges slowly and affects everyone differently. Stiffness for a short period of time after a long road trip, too much sitting, or limited reach are indicators of the condition. Women are more likely to develop it, and there is a genetic component to the disease. Osteoporosis used to be thought of as simple wear and tear of tissue. The Arthritis Foundation opines that it is now known as a degenerative disease of the entire joint, including bone, cartilage, ligaments, and the synovial fluid that lubricates the joint.

Though it is more common in individuals over 50, much younger people can also develop osteoarthritis (OA), usually the result of a joint injury, like a torn ACL, cartilage or bone fracture. After such an injury, it can develop within just a few years. Other factors that can contribute to osteoarthritis are overuse, using the same joint over and over in a sport or job, or excess weight. But the good news is that osteoarthritis isn’t a normal process of aging, and some people never even develop it. If you are willing to include daily habits, like getting plenty of exercise, and stretching, you can stay ahead of arthritis and pain.

There is no cure for osteoarthritis, and anti-inflammatory and pain medications can help manage pain. A nondrug therapy, like moving and regular exercise is an imperative part of your treatment plan.

One of the best ways to manage OA is through moving more and regular stretching. Stretching not only feels good, but it will help increase limited range of motion. Here are four essential stretches to energize the entire body and increase your mobility, no matter your age.

Spine Extension

Spine Extension

Photo courtesy Connie Aronson

• Place your hands firmly on your lower back, fingers pointed downward.

• Gently arch the upper back by lifting your ribs. 8 repetitions

Figure 4 Stretch on wall

Figure 4 Stretch on wall.

Photo courtesy Connie Aronson

Benefits: Releases tension in the hips and groin

• Place one foot on a wall, head resting on the floor or a pillow

• Cross one ankle over the opposite leg

• Feel the stretch in your outer hip and inner thigh

• Hold for 1 minute each side

Side-lying quad stretch

Side-lying quad stretch.

Photo Courtesy Connie Aronson

Benefits: Stretches the hip flexors and quadriceps

• Start on your side

• Using your hand or a strap, pull your heel up toward the buttocks

• As you bring the knee back, gently rotate the pelvis under

• Hold for 1 minute each side

Reclining Twist

Reclining Twist

Photo courtesy Connie Aronson

Benefits: Stretches, rotates and relieves tension around the belly, chest, shoulders, hips and spine.

• Start on your back with your legs bent, feet together

• Bring the knees towards your chest. Flatten your sacrum, and lower back, and settle the shoulder blades under so your back is comfortable

• As you exhale, take your legs to the right

• Let them descend toward the floor

• Experiment with moving the knee closer to your head, or your feet, or turn your head to gaze toward the left hand.

• Repeat on the other side. 3-4 repetitions

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-4-stretches-to-stay-ahead-of-aging/article_9c5617ba-f4e8-11ed-ba58-a351f6d58462.html

Break old habits to fix an achy back

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Healing a sore back requires breaking some old habits and forming some new ones, says Dr. Stuart McGill. If you’re living with an achy back, getting your swagger back, as McGill, the most recognized spine researcher in the world, states, is different from a knee or shoulder problem. The knee and shoulder, particularly in the early stages of rehab, both do well with full range of motion exercises—think of arm circles. Fixing your low back pain is different and more nuanced, as your spine needs stability, not excess motion. This means that you don’t want excess curves in the spine. A goal for a healthy back is to maintain a neutral spine position during your prescribed program, as well as in daily activities.

The emphasis throughout the day and during workouts is to focus on proper spine stability, rather than more movement in the lower back. Do you slouch when you sit or have too much curve in your lower back while standing? Do you bend over to lift a large object, which is problematic for the posterior back disks? Poor movement habits, repeated throughout the day, can result in a sore back. Stretching and strengthening are important, but not the whole answer. A key to a healthy back is retraining how you position your back during activities, lessening excess spine curves.

Move mindfully with the abdominal brace

McGill likens the abdominal brace as a mild contraction of the abdominals as though you are preparing to get punched in the belly. But it’s not in extremes, like “sucking them in.” Like a dimmer switch gradually adjusts light levels in a room, the abdominal stiffness during your activities isn’t an on/off switch, but works in relationship to what you are doing. You would use less ab bracing during walking and more for lifting a heavy object, for example.

Wall test for excess low back curve

Photo by Connie Aronson
Try the wall test to check for excessive lumbar curve

The abdominal muscles connect your ribs to hips along the front and sides. When you use your abs, they pull the ribs and hips closer. When you stand up, for example, and don’t use your abs, you allow your ribs and hips to be too far apart, creating back sway. Over time, this can contribute to movement flaws, soft tissue stress, or disc problems.

If you can’t stand back with your back against a wall with your heels, hips, upper back and the back of your head lightly touching, without arching your back, you probably have weak abdominal muscles. Remember, our goal is to reduce the excess curves of the spine. Try this test at home.

• Stand with your back to a wall, with heels, butt, shoulders, and head comfortably touching the wall.

• Keep your feet in a neutral position and legs straight.

• Have a friend place a hand behind your low back, or use your hand.

Results: If you can put your whole hand behind the space in the lower back, you have too much back sway.

Ideally, if you know how to brace your core, you wouldn’t be able to put your hand behind lower back !

If you can only get the first knuckle in your hand behind the lower back, congratulations, you have excellent abdominal bracing skills!

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-break-old-habits-to-fix-your-achy-back/article_b0a8b022-b336-11ed-9db5-5b0e14ef4dc1.html: Break old habits to fix an achy back

Benefits of stretching and flexibility

Stretching goals could be biological, psychological or philosophical, such as a yoga practice.

Along with regular physical activity and resistance training, adults whose goal is to improve fitness and health shouldn’t overlook stretching. No matter how stiff or old you are, you can improve your flexibility by starting a stretching program. The American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans all recommend including a flexibility program to your week. A deliberate, planned regular program of stretching practiced 2-3 times per week can increase range of motion in approximately 3-4 weeks. Your flexibility may improve in as few as ten sessions with an intensive program.

The benefits of flexibility are vast and determined by your goals. Your objectives may be biological, psychological or philosophical, such as a yoga practice. Stretching feels good, whatever your objective is. 

When you stretch, you take soft tissue structures beyond their available length to increase range of motion. Flexibility isn’t a general characteristic, but is specific to a particular joint and joint action. For example, you might have full range of motion in the hip, but not in the foot or ankle.

Here are a few things to consider when embarking on a stretching program.

1.Which types of stretching improve flexibility?

Several types of flexibility exercises can improve your range of motion.

When performed properly, ballistic flexibility—like the “bouncing” or rebounding typically seen in basketball—increases flexibility similar to static stretching.

Dynamic, or functional, flexibility is akin to a ballet dancer slowly raising and holding her leg at a 60-degree angle, and progressively increasing her range of motion as the movement is repeated several times.

Active static stretching involves holding the stretched position using the strength of the agonist muscle, as in yoga.

Also consider PNF and static stretching. Both elicit greater gains in joint range of motion than dynamic or slow-movement stretching.

2. Rolling is time well-spent

Self-myofascial release is another stretching technique that focuses on the muscles and the fascia that surrounds them. It is a massage technique of applying sustained pressure to a knot, adhesion or area that is tight or stiff. Muscle fibers are altered from a bundled position into straighter alignment within the fascia. The goal is to find a tender spot and , with a tennis ball or foam roller, and sustain pressure on that spot for 20-30 seconds.

4. Muscular relaxation of stress and tension

One of the most important benefits of a stretching program is that it can alleviate stress and promote relaxation. A contracted muscle requires more energy than a relaxed one. Tight muscles tend to cut off their own circulation, creating reduced blood supply and waste products accumulating in the cells, potentially causing aches and pains. Stretching helps maintain the normal functional length of all muscles.

5. Poise and posture

Inflexibility in some muscle groups contributes to poor posture. Posture is the position of body parts in relation to each other where minimum stress is applied to each other. Rounded shoulders, for example, can weaken and shorten the pectoral muscles. Stretching the pecs, as well as strengthening the scapular girdle, will improve posture.

6. How long should a stretch be held?

Hold a stretch for 10-30 seconds at the point of tightness or slight discomfort to enhance joint range of motion. Research shows there is little benefit resulting from longer durations. Instead, repeat the stretch three to four times, resulting in 60 seconds of total stretching time per flexibility exercise. Older people will achieve greater improvements with longer holds, between 30-60 seconds.

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-benefits-of-stretching-and-flexibility/article_41d1c102-5aee-11ed-ab9f-dbde24fcb2e8.html

Fitness Guru: The best way to get rid of neck pain

The ability to turn your head, or easily look up should be a movement you take for granted. Yet as we age, neck pain is common. Like the rest of the body, bones in the neck change, as surfaces of them become rougher, and discs that cushion the cervical spine deflate.

Your neck may feel stiff and sore as a result of arthritis and stiffness. A pair of facet joints run down the back of your cervical spine, each lined with cartilage, and surrounded by a capsule filled with synovial fluid. However, as cartilage thins and wears away, there is less fluid. The result is bone-on-bone friction occurring in your facet joints. As well, the discs that cushion the bones of the neck and head lose their plumpness and the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissues are compromised.

The multiple muscles of the neck make for a very mobile structure, yet neck pain limits functional range of motion. The neck pain you feel is all too common, being that the neck muscles are hyper-alert to the many pain receptors in this area of the body. Take care of your neck with the following 5 stretches that you can do just about anywhere. 

 Child’s Pose with extended arms 

Child’s Pose -This move stretches the neck extensors and upper back

Kneeling, stretch your hands as far away from you as possible. Slowly lift your head to look up towards your hands. Hold for 20 seconds, 2-3 times. This move stretches the neck extensors located on the back of the neck and upper back: semispinalis capitis, semispinalis cervicis, and splenius capitis. Interestingly, the later muscle acts as a glue that holds the head firmly to the neck. The name comes from the Latin words spleniummeaning “plaster” and capitis meaning “ of the head.”

Neck Extensors Stretch   ( no photo, but don’t miss this one ! )

This stretch helps release tightness in the neck extensors. Place your hands on the crown of your head, keeping the elbows together.  Pull your shoulders down. Gently pull your chin to your chest to feel the stretch in the back of the neck and shoulders. Hold for 15-20 seconds; 2-3 cycles at least once a day.

Trapezius Stretch 

 

Trapezius stretch

1.Using a chair: Sit tall on a chair and firmly grip the seat. Slowly bend your neck away from your hand grasping the chair. Engage your lower traps and rhomboids (middle back ) to help pull the shoulder into correct alignment. 

Trapezius stretch using a band

2. Standing, drape a band across the top the shoulder, keeping tension on the band. Slowly bend your neck away from the banded shoulder, Hold for 15-20 seconds at least 1x day, preferably 2-3 a day.

Neck Turn 

  

Neck turn- this will help maintain neck rotation

Place your first 2 fingers horizontally along your jaw. Using your hand to assist, turn your head to one side. Hold 15-20 seconds. Repeat 2-3 cycles. Repeat the stretch going the opposite direction. 

Check out my column in Idaho Mountain Express !

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-the-best-way-to-get-rid-of-neck-pain/article_467c245a-ed2e-11ec-ae97-b3b068199910.html

Power breathing

When you breathe deeply, you refresh your mind and improve your lung function.

Think of a time when you felt anxious and stressed. Stress is impossible to avoid; bills, job demands or challenging relationships all contribute to taxing your nervous system. But the easiest and quickest way to calm your mind is to simply breathe in and out.

When you breathe deeply, you refresh your mind and improve your lung function. The simple act of inhaling and exhaling decreases the sympathetic nervous system response and leaves you feeling more relaxed.

Worry and stressful situations can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that make the heart pound and muscles tense, known as “fight or flight.” The National Cancer Institute describes it as a group of changes that occur in the body to help a person fight or take flight in stressful or dangerous situations. This is the body’s way of helping to protect itself from possible harm. During fight or flight, certain hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, are released into the blood. This causes an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing. Other changes include an increase in blood sugar, alertness, muscle tension and sweating.

Fight or flight served us well on the savannah, but on a daily basis we can’t be continually running from tigers. The simple act of breathing with focused intent can help you relax and feel better.

At rest we only use about 20% of our lung capacity and barely utilize the muscles of our breathe. The American Lung Association indicates that when the diaphragm is not working at full capacity, the body starts to use other muscles in the back, neck and chest for breathing. This means that there is less reserve for exercise and activity, and lower available oxygen levels.

So, how do you take a deep breath?

Although many people feel a deep breath comes solely from expansion of the chest, chest breathing (in of itself) is not the best way to take a deep breath. To get a full deep breath, learn how to breathe from the diaphragm while simultaneously expanding the chest.

Yoga teaches that by breathing this way: a vertical extension, a horizontal expansion and a circumferential extension of the rib cage, chest and lungs shows that the lungs are being filed to their maximum capacity.

Breath is life. Yoga teaches that breathing is a prayer of gratitude we offer to life itself. B.K.S Iyengar, one of the most influential yoga teachers in America, compares leaves moving in the wind to how our mind moves with our breath. When your breath is regulated, there is a neutralizing effect on the mind. Activating the deep breath will decrease your parasympathetic nervous system and leave you feeling more relaxed and in control of your emotions.

It’s not only yogis who know the benefits of remaining calm and focused by practicing breathing. Navy SEALS use controlled breathing techniques in their military training programs as a valuable tool for their soldiers. Facing crisis, high pressure and uncertain circumstances, one of techniques the SEALS use is easy to learn and powerful, called box breathing.

Box Breathing

Sometimes referred to as square breathing, box breathing is a practical technique to start with. You can practice it anywhere and at any time; however, it’s best to sit in a comfortable chair with your feet on the floor, or lying down, to learn. Try to tune out extraneous sounds, as you close your eyes and listen to your breath. Notice the natural rhythm of your breathing for a few cycles. Now you are ready to begin your box breathing.

  1. Breathe out slowly, releasing all the air from your lungs.
  2. Breathe in through your nose as you slowly count to four in your head. Be conscious of how the air fills your lungs and stomach.
  3. Hold your breath for a count of four.
  4. Exhale for another count of four.
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for three to four rounds.

For visualization, while you are box breathing, imagine as though the box is being traced by a colored crayon or imaginary marker. For each of the four lines you draw, switch colors of the box’s outline. For meditation, you can add an affirmation, such as “I am relaxed,” as you breath by syncing it with your breath, rather than counting.

Continue practicing your breathing technique whenever you think of it. Your breath is always with you, as is life itself. 

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-power-breathing/article_936765b2-d77c-11ec-bc26-ff6932a5d3ee.html

Fitness Guru: Stretch your hips like a pro

Warrior 1 involves leg strength and mobility.

By CONNIE ARONSON

Skiing, snowshoeing, yoga or walking requires strength and mobility. Consider the yoga pose Warrior 1, where you stand in a lunge position with your arms stretched straight up overhead, neck extended with the head back and eyes looking up. Doing this pose involves leg strength as you stretch your leg and hip muscles. Your spine extends, the chest opens, and the arms, shoulders, upper back and neck stretch! All in all, Warrior 1 strengthens and stretches you.

You need flexibility as much as cardio, as it enhances optimal movement and just plain old feels good.

If you feel stiff and tight lately, you might want to work on your flexibility for the health of your body. However, if you’re not quite ready for Warrior 1, let’s start with an essential hip flexor stretch.

Hips don’t lie

The hip flexors are a muscle group that can get chronically shortened from prolonged sitting at a computer.

If your hips are stiff and tight, it can lead to poor hip mobility and is associated with poor core and hip stability.

Tight hips also affect the health of the whole back, as they cause the pelvis to anteriorly tilt. If you picture your pelvis being a bowel of water, the water would spill out the front. When you stand in perfect alignment, the pelvis is naturally rotated about 10 degrees, meaning that the front of the pelvis is slightly lower than the back of the pelvis.

A & B: Tennis ball and hip flexor stretch

While it may sound technical, the technique referred to as self-myofascial release is easy to do, and is like self-massage. Self-myofascial release techniques are used to release and rejuvenate tight muscles and other soft tissues to prepare for later stretching and strengthening exercises.

There are 2 parts to this stretch:

Tennis ball roll on the hip flexor

Tennis ball roll on the hip flexor

Lie facedown, and place a tennis ball beside your belly button. This targets the psoas major muscle, which lies under the abdominals. Turn your foot in slightly, and scoot your body to move the ball to any sore spot all the way down to the top of the hip.

Try to relax on any tight areas for 20-30 seconds, for a total of 2-3 minutes on both sides.

Right after rolling, go into the hip flexor stretch as follows:

Kneeling hip flexor stretch.

Kneel down on one knee, and tuck the pelvis under using the glutes and abdominals. Raise your arm over your head on the same side as the kneeling leg, and reach over your head, toward the opposite side of the body.

Hold the stretch for 15-20 seconds, and repeat 2-3 cycles on each side once a day.

Kneeling hip flexor stretch with arm reach

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-stretch-your-hip-flexors-like-a-pro/article_674f0d2e-7f28-11ec-9b9d-639bf6f49d52.html

To sleep better, add Yoga Nidre to your nighttime routine

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Yoga Nidre, a meditation technique, is a proven antidote to help with anxiety and sleep

We need sleep and it’s best in moderation, like most things in life. According to studies recently published in the journal Brain, there is a middle range to keep the brain sharp over time, and most adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night. The study shows that too little or too much sleep is associated with worse cognitive performance. Good sleep improves your brain function, immune system, mood, and health. Sleep is so important for our overall health that having just one night of sleep loss can significantly impair your daily functioning. More than one-third of U.S. adults sleep fewer than six hours per night. So what really keeps you up at night, and how can you make sleep a priority?

Sleep can be so elusive some nights. Worrying, tension, cluttered thoughts, family concerns, and work-life balance dilemmas can keep us up, although we crave sleep.

Caffeine, bright lights, and room temperature

• For most people, the sleep signal happens after 12-16 hours of being awake. A chemical called adenosine accumulates in the brain during the day. Caffeine, however, blocks and inactivates adenosine receptors, and tricks you into feeling alert. Coffee in foods such as dark chocolate and ice cream, as well as some medications, are also sources of caffeine.

• A laptop screen, smartphone or tablet has a very real impact on your melatonin release, interfering with your natural ability to wind down from a busy day.

• Try turning off half of the lights in your home in the last two hours before bed, and keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet.

  • A colder bedroom helps the body’s core temperature drop by 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit, ensuring a better nights’ sleep.

Let tension go with Yoga Nidre

When you’re trying to sleep, our bodies can be holding tension that we are not even aware of. Yoga Nidre, a meditation technique, is a proven antidote to help with anxiety and sleep. The roots of Yoga Nidre go back thousands of years, but many of today’s yoga leaders have adapted the teachings to make them more accessible to Westerners.

Seated meditation isn’t for everybody, as it is difficult to try to clear your mind and bring your focus back to your breath. Because Yoga Nidre is always guided, it promotes deep rest and relaxation. It can be as short as 10 minutes, or as long as an hour. The focus is to cultivate multiple levels of well-being.

Use a meditation app such as Insight Timer or Calm. Once you find a sleep meditation that appeals to you, and because it is guided, you’ll need headphones. ( Be sure you don’t start scrolling ! ) Lie and rest comfortably in your bed. You are encouraged to move around and get as comfortable as you can as you begin.

While you practice Yoga Nidre, you’re often asked to choose a samskara. Yoga teaches that samskara is the sum total of all our actions that conditions us to believe in a certain way, a habit or thought that is ingrained in us. It can be something positive that you’d like to work on. Through your meditation, you can create this belief to help you live less out of habit and more out of a desire to grow as a person. Ultimately you’ll drift off to sleep.

Sleep, you deserve it.

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru/article_e605884e-3ccc-11ec-93f0-5f914f01f24d.html

The bicycle twist is a core move for the morning

Clients often tell me about their morning sequence to start their days, and I’m always proud that they take care of themselves. A morning core program can help maintain low back health, improve neuromuscular control, spinal stability, movement pattern efficiency, and injury prevention. But any ab or core exercise you choose needs to be effective, and not potentially lead to lower back pain.

A morning program is ideal for two reasons. First it’s typically the time in which your body is stiff, cold and most prone to injury. Having a routine prior to your busy day is like doing a pre-workout warm-up: It helps to increase soft-tissue blood-flow, warmth and pliability, facilitates neurological awareness and helps develop a psychological readiness for the day ahead. Second, a morning routine gives us another chance to make our habits stick, and if you miss doing it, you have another opportunity to do it later in the day.

The Bicycle Twist is a big external oblique winner.  

If you need a little help in choosing where to start, add Bicycle Twist to your routine, one of the best core exercises. Compared to a crunch, electromyography ( EMG ) shows that this exercise is 9 % more effective at targeting the rectus abdominis and 310 % more effective at targeting the external obliques.

It’s an ab exercise that many people know, also known in Pilates as Criss-Cross, and a go-to in yoga class.

Let’s include a brief anatomical overview of the ab muscles that this exercise targets. Four abdominal muscles hold the contents of the abdomen in place; the rectus abdominis, aka “six-pack”, which stabilize the pelvis and rib cage with respect to each other, transverse abdonimis, a deeper muscle that maintains intra-abdominal pressure, and is not involved in movements of the trunk, and the external and internal obliques that work together to help decelerate the spine as it arches backwards, rotates, and side bends. The external and internal obliques store potential energy, as in a follow-through in a golf swing.

The Most Common Mistake 

The Bicycle Twist targets the abs, yet most people do it wrong, and use the hip flexors. Stop using your hip flexors! They are typically stronger than the abs in trunk flexing movements; hip flexors bring the legs and trunk toward each other. Beyond 30 degrees, in the Bicycle Twist, crunches, or sit-ups, the powerful hip flexors begin to take charge of the movement. In real life, they are more likely to be strong, as you use them to create energy to help swing your leg forward in walking and running.  

Pilates mat exercise studies using EMG found that the hip flexors in Criss- Cross work at an intensity of 41 %. In other words, when you bring your knee towards your torso, the Criss-Cross, or Bicycle Twist becomes an ineffective exercise for the abdominals. The goal of ab training is to maximize the involvement of the abdominals, and minimize the hip flexors. 

Getting it right 

Keep your knees at 90 degrees, instead of flexing the hip to pull your knee in toward your elbow. This will give the back extra support and help target the obliques. 

Connie Aronson is an ACSM Exercise Physiologist and Corrective Exercise Specialist (TBBM-CES )  Visit her at www.conniearonson.com and  Instagram@conniearon

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru/article_a62eb6d4-61a6-11eb-bcfb-3f5fb75e1f4c.html

Sore neck? 2 quick fixes for forward head

If it’s your habit that your head juts forward and is ahead of your shoulders, you can learn how to fix this common musculoskeletal imbalance.


  • by CONNIE ARONSON

If you feel like you have the weight of the world on your head right now, it could be time to change that situation. If it’s your habit that your head juts forward and is ahead of your shoulders, muscular neck and head pain could be the culprit. It’s very possible that headaches, jaw pain or grinding noises in the jaw could be the result of your forward head. When you have a forward head position, your body’s center of gravity shifts forward and increases the weight of your head in relation to the body. Your head effectively weighs almost as much as two bowling bowls, if it is only 2 inches forward and out of alignment with your upper back.

Imagine the head as round as a ball perched on top of the spine. In real life, the head rests on the most mobile part of the spine, the neck. Because of the small base it sits on, the head becomes more like a large ball sitting precariously on a seal’s nose. The numerous neck muscles that hold your head up all work together to keep your head sitting correctly on top of your shoulders, whether you’re riding a bike, doing crunches, walking or running. However, if you are constantly looking down at your phone, or watching a lot of television, the front neck muscles become weak from being continually stretched forward. When you align the head in an optimal anatomical position, you align the entire upper back, shoulder girdle and ribcage.

There are two common muscle imbalances in the head and neck. One is your head being too far forward, (forward head) and the second one is excessive cervical lordosis, when the muscles in the back of the neck are chronically shortened. For example, suppose you are watching a great movie on a big screen, and you sit slouching, looking up. Sitting like this causes the position of your neck to arch backward to keep your eyes on the show. This position of holding your head up, with your eyes looking up, is a deviation. You’re slumped. When you later try to correct your posture by tucking your chin, those very muscles and fascia on the back of your neck can feel painful or irritated.

Quick fix: How to tell if your head is too far forward

Here is a quick and easy assessment to see if you have forward head. You can also do this alignment check at any time during the day to see if you are practicing good head carriage and posture.

  • Sit on the edge of a chair. With your index finger, find the part of your cheekbone that protrudes outward most, just below your eye. Gently place your index finger there.
  • With an imaginary line, place your other index finger directly below your top finger, on your collarbone. They should be vertically aligned.
  • If the end of the finger on your cheekbone is ahead, your head is too far forward

Tennis ball rejuvenation

A tennis ball is a great inexpensive tool to help you loosen up tight sore muscles. Lying down, place a tennis ball on one side of your neck, and move around a little to find a sore spot. Once there, try to breath and relax on that particular spot. Do for one minute, every day, on each side of the neck. Click on video to see the exercises: vimeo.com/manage/427520367/general.


Connie Aronson is an ACSM-certified exercise physiologist at the YMCA in Ketchum. Learn more at www.conniearonson.com.

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru/article_2a3367a6-ac2e-11ea-b3ee-d73273a6435f.html