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Not just for the hardcore exerciser, foam rolling is both self-care and self-repair.

Foam rolling is a form of self-massage that alleviates tightness and trigger points (aka muscle knots) by using your body’s weight against a foam roller. The benefits are many.

 

 

BENEFITS OF FOAM ROLLING:
  • Increases blood flow and elasticity of muscle tissue, joints, and fascia, the body’s connective tissue, which helps with mobility and overall well-being.
  • Reduces inflammation that occurs during the muscle repair process.
  • Helps injury prevention by maintaining muscle length and alleviating tension and tightness.
  • Releases tension promoting relaxation.
FOAM ROLLING PRO-TIP: 

Click to view the video. If you are new to the Aging Strong Pilates Facebook Community, you will have to join the group to see the video.

For all the moves, you’ll want to stop wherever it feels tight or tender. Breathe allowing the pressure and stillness to create a release. You’ll note the benefit immediately. When you experience that release, inhale, and then as you exhale, slowly roll your way to another tight spot and repeat.

DEMONSTRATIONS:

Want to see some demonstrations of key roller exercises? Watch the video on our Aging Strong Pilates private FB page where I demonstrate effective techniques to melt away your stress and your knots. You can also ask your questions there. I moderate daily.

 

HOW ELSE CAN YOU USE THE ROLLER?

The foam roller is not just for relieving knots and tension. It can also be used to increase the challenge to certain muscles and improve your postural stabilizers which are important for balance.

Imagine lying on your back with bent knees, the soles of your feet on a roller that’s perpendicular to your body.  Doing bridging this way increases the challenge to the muscles in the back of your legs because your feet are on an unstable surface that, without adequate hamstring firing, will roll away from you.

Here’s another scenario:

Lying vertically on the roller with your head to your buttocks supported by the roller- similar to the photo on top, knees bent, feet and fingertips on the floor.  Challenge your postural stabilizers by marching in place – lifting and lowering one bent knee. Notice how your balance systems kick into high gear to keep you from falling off the roller.

YOUTUBE FOR ROLLER AND MORE

My Youtube channel “BoneSmart Pilates” has many free videos that support your movement practice. Check out this one which includes 6 Great Foam Roller Exercises to Start Your Day!

 

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Single Leg Clock Balance Challenge

Studies show that just 5 minutes of daily balance training will significantly reduce your risk of falls. Practice this unique exercise designed by Teresa Maldonado Marchok, licensed physical therapist and certified Pilates instructor.  Improve your bones, balance, strength and mental acuity!

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Buff Arms (part 2)

Get rid of flabby upper arms with this toning exercise that also includes core strengthening, balance and a stretch for your pecs/front of shoulders! Presented by Teresa Maldonado Marchok, licensed physical therapist, PMA certified Pilates teacher and creator of the BoneSmart Pilates® method and DVD series. You can purchase the door anchor and resistance bands on our site www.BoneSmartPilates.com under the pull-down menu “Shop”, then select “PROPS”. Subscribe to our channel for more free videos and the latest updates!

 

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Do you have Dead Butt Syndrome? Yes, also known as Gluteal Amnesia, it’s a real thing.

This is when your butt muscles basically forget how to fire correctly.  How does this happen?

It’s actually a common problem today. People are spending inordinate amounts of time sitting behind their computers, driving their cars, sitting on couches etc.  Sedentary, lifestyles often driven by work environments, tend to be more the norm than the exception these days. 

With all this sitting, the muscles around the hip joint experience something called “reciprocal inhibition”. That’s when the muscles in front of the hip, your hip flexors, become short and tight from being in that shortened position of sitting and the opposite muscles, the butt muscles, are neurologically inhibited and become overstretched, weak and inactive.

Why does this matter to you?

Well besides developing a saggy weak butt that’s beginning to head south, there’s another concern.

Your Gluteus maximus, your largest butt muscle, is your strongest hip extensor and external rotator muscle. If it’s inhibited from doing it’s job, the Piriformis muscle-a smaller external rotator, may have to jump in to take up the slack.

If the Piriformis muscle does more than it’s designed to do and over fires you can get something called “Piriformis syndrome”. This is when the Piriformis muscle becomes irritated and inflamed and may press on the sciatic nerve. This can result in sciatica which is pain, numbness and tingling down your leg.

In general you want to avoid gluteal amnesia because you don’t want other muscles jumping in to take up the slack, as that can result in injuries.

How do you fix it?

First you need to stretch those muscles in front of the hip that are short, tight and inhibiting gluteal action. Then you want to strengthen those gluts!

Watch the video for the exercises that combat gluteal amnesia, normalize the relationship of the muscles in front of and behind the hips and get your glutes firing!  You can fast forward to the 2 min mark to see just the exercises or watch from the beginning and see the explanation with visuals.

 

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Restoring Upper Back Rotation

Upper back-or Thoracic rotation is necessary for life activities like twisting to back up your car, golf, tennis… This video demonstrates a rotation exercise to improve your mobility in this area and avoid taking up the slack in your neck or low back.

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Buff Arms (Home Workout)

Get rid of flabby upper arms with this fresh twist on a biceps exercise that also includes core strengthening, balance and a stretch for the pecs and the front of the shoulders!

 

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Ditch the Crunch! Why sit-ups and crunches are no longer in vogue

Just because you see people doing crunches and sit-ups at the gym doesn’t make it good for you or right to do.  Why not?

The research has been and continues to be clear.  Repetitive rounding of the spine, particularly in an action like a sit-up or crunch, creates disc pressure and strain to the spine.  This can, with time and repetition, create disc herniations and debilitating injury.

Pete McCall, a spokesman for the American Council on Exercise, told the Wall St Journal that sit-ups are “an antiquity of exercise best left in the dustbin of fitness history”.     As of 2015, The US army put 10,000 soldiers through a pilot of a revamped physical fitness test that excludes sit-ups.  And one study found that 56 percent of all soldiers’ injuries related to the old fitness test was because of sit-ups.  

Someone whose research I follow and whose opinion I value highly is Stuart McGill, a professor who’s been studying the biomechanics of the spine for more than 3 decades at the University of Waterloo in Canada. Using both spine specimens and real people, he’s conducted studies to understand the effects of repetitive motions like flexion (rounding of the spine) seen in sit-ups and crunches.

What he’s found is that crunches and traditional sit-ups place 3,300 newtons (the equivalent of 340 kg or 749 lbs!) of compressive force on the spine when bent in flexion. These forces can squeeze a bent disc’s nucleus to the point that it bulges – pressing on nerves and causing back pain, and potentially leading to a herniated disc. According to McGill, “There are only so many bends in your spine until the discs eventually herniate.”  Check out this enlightening interview with McGill, The man who wants to kill crunches.

Why do people still do them?
Because that’s what they were taught in school, on their teams, in boot camps etc.  Until everyone is up to date and on the same page with current science and research, people will continue down the same path of “no pain no gain” that they’re familiar with.  Your core — which includes your rectus abdominis, external and internal obliques, transverse abdominis, pelvic floor, etc. — is designed to help your body stabilize and brace against twisting and bending (not generate it). 

Sit-ups and crunches eliminate the bracing and can put your body into unhealthy positions like pulling your neck forward, rounding your shoulders and flexing the spine which can result in back pain.

So what specifically can we do to target our core and keep us safe? (videos below)  Don’t worry I’ve got your back!    These three exercises will target your core and keep you safe! 

  • BoneSmart Pilates Chest Lift
  • Bird Dog
  • Planks

1)  The BoneSmart Pilates Chest Lift

Performed with an inflatable mini ball behind the upper back, this exercise gives you the sensation of doing a crunch without the negative effects. Instead of taking your body from a flat, supine position, to a flexed rounded position, you begin in spine extension (slight back bending draped back over the ball, hands interlaced behind your head).

      • exhale as you begin with a chin nod to align your head and rise
      • lift your upper body, from your core, rising up only to a neutral straight diagonal spine position. Inhale here maintaining a still pelvis
      • on an exhale slowly drape back to the starting position

Doing it this way eliminates the flexion/compression component of your spine while maintaining the strengthening component.  View “Chest Lift” in action below!

 

2)   Bird Dog, the familiar exercise done on hands and knees, strengthens the core and muscles in the back of the spine by extending your arm and opposite leg parallel to the floor and holding it still for 10 sec or more. You get strong by bracing your core, breathing and isolating movement to occur only at the hip and shoulder, not in the spine. That combination of stabilization with isolation is the secret to the power of this exercise. Watch Bird Dog below!

3) Planks in various positions are perfect for strengthening and bracing your core. In my DVD’s I take you from standing planks in the Counter series to the more challenging straight arm, forearm and side plank series.  My BoneSmart Pilates Youtube channel has a Plank Challenge Playlist that offers you a variety of planks of varying difficulty to target all your key core muscles and get you strong while keeping you safe.

For 5 years now, I’ve been teaching active agers with a slant toward “neutral spine” training and avoiding flexion of the spine, particularly for those with back issues or bone density compromise like osteopenia and osteoporosis.  In 2013, the BoneSmart Pilates® DVD series was conceived. I began with Exercise to Prevent or Reverse Osteoporosis which targeted those with osteoporosis and avoided all flexion. 

Soon after, I realized that other active agers, not just those with increased bone loss, would benefit from this approach. The Aging Strong Series followed that first DVD and addresses a broader spectrum of the active aging population that also benefits from smart core training while focusing on additional areas important to aging. In all my DVD’s, we work on creating strength, flexibility and balance while honoring the integrity of our spine and discs.  There are no sit-ups, crunches or flexion (rounding of the spine) in any of my BoneSmart Pilates® DVD’s.  

To conclude, you don’t need to do crunches or sit-ups to get a strong core.  The science speaks for itself.   “Ditch the Crunch”!

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Buff Arms and Triceps!

Get rid of flabby upper arms with this toning exercise that also includes core work!  In addition to building strength to get your carry-on luggage in the overhead compartment of a plane, it also comes in handy if you should trip and fall. You’ll build the strength to catch yourself and decelerate your fall, preventing bruising or broken bones.

Follow along with my video below.

 

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