Archive for February, 2010

I’m going to admit it.  While I wasn’t a cynic when it came to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver,  I was cynical.  It seemed the last thing we needed, in the midst of challenging times, was an opulent, elitist production.  I even felt a chord of resonance when I saw the bumper sticker reading  “Health Care Before Olympics.”   But that was before…

That was before my daughter - the same girl who tells her fitness-professional-mother that she hates exercise – started attempting double axels in the living room.  Completely inspired by the unbelievable guts and grace of Joannie Rochette, she wants me to enroll her in figure skating lessons.  This is not so unlike me, who after watching Nadia Commenci in 1976, spent the remainder of the summer vaulting over a sawhorse in the back field.

That was before Clara Hughes , won yet another Olympic medal, and proceeded to donate her $10,000.00 Bronze Medal bonus to the Take a Hike Foundation for troubled youth in Vancouver.

That was before discovering how Canada’s Five Female Biathletes decided to take control and positively impact their own success through the creation of the Bold Beautiful Biathlon Calendar.

Our goal is to empower and inspire women and girls by expressing the beauty of a healthy, athletic body. The net proceeds will go directly towards funding our expenses leading up to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games

That was before Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir floated across the ice to win Olympic Gold in Ice Dance.  And as amazing as their performance was, the victory ceremony was even better.  Unlike the typical lip syncing of the Canadian anthem, complete with inevitable flub up, these two, Moir in particular, belted out every word perfectly, enthusiasm visibly oozing out of every pore.

That was before sitting on the edge of my seat, which happens to be a 55cm exercise ball, desperately hoping Canada would score in period four of the Gold Medal Hockey Game.   Thank God for Sidney Crosby from Cape Breton. 

That was before singing Oh Canada at the top of my lungs, with pretty much the entire country, during the Hockey Victory Ceremony.  My childhood memories huddled around a black and white TV with poor reception watching Hockey Night In Canada with my brothers, flooding through me.  I know its corny, and its cliche, but I have never been so proud to be Canadian.

These are the role models and inspiration for my daughter’s generation, and I couldn’t be happier about it.  I don’t support how much it costs to stage these grandiose events, but I do think they are a shining example of preventative health care through inspiring us to be more active and challenge ourselves.   And while I don’t like the name “Own the Podium”, I am amazed at the impact of investment in Canadian Sport, and sincerely hope it continues.

I’m curious.   Have the Olympics inspired you?  In what way?

There are so many reasons why I am such a fan of this exercise, the Dead Bug.  It works every layer of your abdominal musculature in a way that helps protect and support your back, and doesn’t strain your neck.  It’s forms the foundation of many Pilates movements, so mastering the Dead Bug is the key to great abs.

You need to start in neutral spine and then one at a time lift your legs, maintaining a 90 degree angle at your knee, so you’re feet don’t drop, as shown above.

Sounds easy, right?  The tricky part is maintaining your spine in the neutral position without flattening your back. You must contract the deepest layer of your abdominals inward, a sort of sucking the belly button in and up feeling. You can make the exercise less challenging by bringing the knees closer to your chest, and significantly more difficult by taking your knees further way, BUT if, as you move your knees away, you feel your belly button lifting, you have gone too far. The key is to find the position where you have to work to hold, but you can maintain for a minute or more.

Its harder than it looks.  You can test your ability to hold neutral by placing a partially filled blood pressure cuff under the small of your back and then watching to see if the arrow moves.  This gives you great immediate feedback about your ability to hold the position using your abs, and is a really great way to increase your motivation.  It’s surprising how tough this really is.

Once you’ve mastered the basic movement, you can add variations, which include lowering one leg, or taking both arms over your shoulder and then slowly lowering one or both overhead without letting your rib cage move.   And if you’re looking for a myriad of ways to increase the challenge, you’re ready for Pilates.  Just ask…

There are many variations and levels of the Dead Bug.  This one begins with both feet flat on the floor, abs in neutral. Maintain the 90 degree angle at the knee and lift one leg, then the other. One at a time return legs to the starting position, and continue cycling this movement while maintaining neutral spine.

If you don’t have a blood pressure cuff, you can check your ability to hold your abs by using your hands.  Take the fingertips of both hands, push them into your belly button so the back of both hands are touching and then move them 3 – 4 inches out from your midline.  Ensure you truly use the tips of the fingers, and maintain enough pressure you can feel tension in your ab muscles.

The key is to try and keep the tension symmetrical and even throughout the cycling leg movements, again easier said than done.  This version is a little easier than the pure dead bug, and is a great way to build strength for the upcoming more challenging variations.

A blood pressure cuff can be an excellent way to test your abdominal strength as it provides excellent feedback on your ability to keep your abdominals engaged.  If you’d like to know how,  just ask.

Maintaing a neutral spine is truly the foundation of every other strength training exercise. The basic premise is to maintain your natural neutral lower back curve, while contracting the abdominals inwards, as this is the safest and strongest position for your low back.

To find neutral begin by lying on your back with knees bent. Roll your belly button up towards the ceiling and feel your low back curve get larger, then contract your tummy muscles and flatten your low back into the floor. Now rock back and forth a few times until you can find a comfortable place somewhere in between.

From here contract your abdominals inward toward your spine without flattening your back, sort of like the sensation of sucking in your stomach, but be sure not to hold your breath.  You are now engaging the deepest layer of your abdominal wall, which acts like a built in support belt for your spine. Its from this position with abdominal muscles pulling in, that you should initiate all other exercises.

Performing this inward contraction will build your muscles functionally to assist in the activities of daily life.  When, you’re lifting groceries, kids, or participating in your favourite work out, think abs in and up – neutral spine. 

More on how to challenge your abs in this position coming up.

Positioning the spine and neck correctly is an essential foundation for Pilates, as well as most weight training exercises, and can be a great way to avoid neck pain through improving posture.

The idea is to glide (rather than tuck) your chin in, while at the same time lengthening the back of your neck.   Sometimes it helps to place your thumbs on the base of your skull and gently pull up. You will feel your neck lengthen and your chin move in slightly, but be careful it is somewhat subtle, not as extreme as I show here.

Also avoid the chin jutting up syndrome demonstrated above.  While this looks a bit silly lying down, people often do sits-up with their neck in this position, craning to lift themselves up, eyes on the ceiling. Take the time to position your head and neck into neutral first, and then hold throughout the exercise.

To improve posture practice the chin glide, back of the neck lengthen movement while lying down and standing up, and even more challenging, several times a day – like while sitting in front of the computer right now. 

Here, to complete the standing lower body stretch series, is a stretch for the hip rotators.

Take one ankle and cross it over the supporting supporting leg, making a sort of figure 4 shape.  Have the actual ankle bone rest on the supporting thigh, thus avoiding overstretching the outer part of the ankle. Once in position, sit back and into the stretch. You can hang on to something in front to stabilize as well, although practicing balance is always a good idea.   More on that to come….

The standing Hamstring, Quadricep, Calf, Illiotibial Band and Hip Rotator stretches are a perfect post workout stretch routine and shouldn’t take more than 5 minutes to complete.  Done on a regular basis, this can help keep you injury free, and possibly even improve your performance; plus it just plain feels good.

Happy running, walking, cycling or swimming.

No post running stretch routine would be complete without a stretch for the IT band and hip abductors. The stretch is difficult to explain verbally, but you can see below the idea is to cross one leg over the other, and then lean in the opposite direction.

There is often concern about which leg to put in front and consequently what direction to lean, so it might help to think about the hip remaining fixed and moving the foot and arm toward the opposite side.  Once in position, reach the upper body and arm up, whilst pushing the hips to the other side. Try keeping the hip and shoulders reasonably in line, but you can play with this a little to target the stretch a little differently.

To complement the post cardio hamstring and calf stretches, here is a standing Quadricep stretch.  It tends to work better lying on your stomach, but this isn’t always practical when outdoors, especially when you live in the rain forest like I did.

The top picture attempts to illustrate the idea that both legs should be parallel and lined up. Often, particularly if the quad and hipflexor are tight, the knee will wander forward as shown directly above.  Work on tilting the hip forward rather then pulling hard on the foot.  Anytime you do this stretch, think about tilting your pelvis just a little, pressing your hip forward slightl.  By squeezing your glute, and you will find you feel it “even more”.

It goes from a 10 to an 11.

Hamstrings are always in need of a good stretch, and the following accompanies the preceding standing calf stretches which can, and should, be done after any walk/run or ride.

The stretch should performed with a flat back or neutral spine (more to follow on that with subsequent posts), one heel in front and back leg bent.  Often when performing this stretch the pelvis tends to shift so that one hip lowers……

To target the stretch where its needed be sure to level out your hips as shown.

Also watch to avoid locking the knee and/or rounding the back.  I do realize there is something a bit funny about the “view” but wasn’t sure how to truly explain the hip tilt issue without giving the full complete picture, and for those of you who really do the stretch, you’ll see how integral this piece of info really is.  Trust me, if it weren’t, I wouldn’t have ventured to expose this view so publically.

Here is a great static post exercise standing calf stretch that can be done anywhere, and perfectly follows a run, walk or ride.

Press your back heel towards the ground, or floor, as you shift your weight forward, being careful not to let your front knee come forward of your ankle.  Watch the angle of the back foot, as often people tend to cheat a little by rotating the foot outward as shown below.

Keep the toe and heel pointed directly ahead, and back heel on the floor or ground.

Another great standing calf stretch can be performed when you have something you can incline your foot on, and as you can see in the photo even a car tire works well.

Keeping the heel on the ground, place the ball of the foot a little higher, while trying to keep the majority of your weight on the supporting leg. Lean your hips and body forward until you feel a little stretch in the calf area. This stretch also works well on the side of a pool after swimming, pool running or an aquafit class.