(Post # 58) How Many Muscles and Joints are Being Activated and/or Mobilized?

(Post # 57) Knowledge vs Wisdom

What is the difference between knowledge and wisdom?

Knowledge is information which can be relatively correct or incorrect.

Wisdom in the other hand is the integration of information, experience and logic.

(Post # 55) Knee vs Ankle Dysfunctions

See if you can answer these questions...

Why is it that knee surgeries are so much more common than ankle surgeries?

Doesn't the ankle hold more body weight than the knee?

Isn't the ankle joint smaller than the knee joint?

Isn't the ankle one of the first joints to get the stress that comes from gravity and ground forces?

How often have you heard people getting ankle replacements?


I need everyone to participate and send me your answers at backtofunction@gmail.com

(Post # 54) Back Pain

Guidelines for treating your back pain:

1. Exercise daily.
2. Exercise should not increase back pain.
3. Walk every day for at least 20 minutes.
4. Reduce the amount of sitting a much as possible.
5. When sitting change posture every 20 minutes.
6. Avoid full spine bending for the first hour after rising from bed.
7. More repetition of less demanding exercises will enhance endurance and strength.
8. No method of exercises fits all individuals.
9. Be patient and stick with the program.
10. Remember to lift properly, by bending hips and knee and not the back.

(Post # 51) On Your Bones... Ready?... Go!

Traditionalists will tell you to:

• Take Calcium, Tums will do.
• Do exercise, any will do.
• Take hormones. Horse urine? or wild yam? any will do.
• When all fails take Fosamax.

...and you may ask...

What about tums and indigestion?

What about hormones and cancer and heart disease?

What about Fosamax and osteonecrosis (bones that are dying and rotting) ?

...and they say...

• only a small percent get those side effects.
• if they happen we will deal with that later.

So I am going to ask you...

1. Are you walking at least 20 minutes every day?
2. Are you doing three dimensional, multi-directional, against gravity, free from any artificial stability exercises?
3. Are you eating a balanced diet of healthy proteins, whole grains, organic vegetables and fruits?
4. Are you avoiding refined foods, sugars and sodas?

If yes, great!

If not, let's get started!!!!

(Post # 50) The Last Straw That Broke His Back

(Post # 49) Protect Your Discs

(Post # 48) Just a Thought

It is Important to know what you are doing

but it is more important to do what you know.

(Post # 47) Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

Pelvic floor dysfunction is a very common problem affecting 1 in 4 women.

Between pregnancy, childbirth, hormones, inactivity, and too much uninterrupted sitting (at the desk, computer, driving, reading, etc.) I predict this already high percentage of women getting the dysfunction is going to get much higher in the coming years.

Symptoms vary but the most common are:

• Bladder incontinence
• Bowel incontinence
• Sexual dysfunction (lack of feeling or sensation)
• Pelvic floor pain

The traditional way tells us to Squeeze!...Squeeze!...Squeeze!

I believe this approach is very limited at best.

What can you do to treat or prevent this problem?

In order to stimulate, strengthen and give endurance to the pelvic floor muscles you need to:

1. Lunge in every direction (front, back, sideways, front diagonal and back diagonal) x 20 every day
   
2. Squat with different foot position (feet together, feet 1 foot apart, 2 feet apart) x 20 every day
   
3. Walk 20 minutes every day
   
4. Only then will Kegel exercises (contract the pelvic floor muscles and hold 4 seconds x 20) will be effective.

(Post # 46) More on Exercise and Breast Health

Physiological Effects of Exercise on Breast Cancer Risk

• Decreased Lifetime Exposure to Endogenous Estrogen
• Decreased Number of Menstruations/Ovulations
• Decreased Level of Ovarian Estrogen Production
• Decreased Levels of Endogenous Estrogen in Blood
• Less Conversion of Androgen to Estrogen in Fat Cells
• Decreased Breast Density
• Risk Four Times Lower with Less Breast Density
• Increased Immune Function
• Increased Natural Killer Cells Fight Tumor Initiation

--American College of Sports Medicine

(Post # 45) Alcohol and Breast Health

Breast Cancer Risk
(1 drink = 5 oz. wine, 1.5 oz. hard liquor, 12 oz. beer)
• 1 drink per day = 11 percent increased risk
• 2 drinks per day = 24 percent increased risk
• 3 drinks per day = 40 percent increased risk

Effect of Alcohol on Breast Cancer Risk
• Increases blood triglyceride levels
• Increases estrogen levels in blood circulation
• Increases liver detoxification of toxins in alcohol
• Decreases liver’s processing of excess estrogen in blood
• Causes long-term liver damage Prevents liver from
removing excess estrogen from blood
• Decreases immune function
• Increases blood levels of carcinogen acetaldehyde
• Decreases absorption of cancer-fighting nutrients
• Decreases antioxidant activity in the blood
• Can increase weight gain through excess calories
• Higher body fat increases breast cancer risk

--American College of Sports Medicine, Certify News

(Post # 43) Just a Thought

Don't ever let a miserable moment go to waste!

We can always learn from it.

(Post # 42) Myths and the Problems they Cause # 3

Myth #3: Stretching before exercising will prevent sports injuries.

After studying the work of Dr Siff and Dr McGill, both professors of biomechanics , I realized I was not alone in believing how wrong this common misconception is.

If you were a sculptor trying to give shape to a piece of clay, metal or glass, you would first warm it up or melt it, otherwise it could crack and brake when you tried to bend it. Well, the body is no different.

These are steps I recommend for a safe and effective work out:

1. Before playing sports or doing exercises, you need to warm up for 5 minutes with any of the following: Gentle progressive fast walks, mini squats, short lunge matrix or any exercises that would increase you heart rate and circulation.
2. After the warm-up you are now ready to do your sport or exercise routine.
3. After you finish, you need to slow down with a gentle 5 minutes walk, run, or lunge matrix.
4. Only after you have finish your slow down, should you stretch or mobilize your body as a cool down.

(Post # 41) 13,000 Yoga Related Injuries

According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission there were over 13,000 Americans treated in an emergency room or doctor's office for yoga-related injuries in the last three years.

All these injuries are thought to be caused by specific yoga poses, lack of preparation, age, and/or unqualified instructors.

I believe that some of these factors may contribute to these injuries, but I also believe that the problem is caused by not asking the right questions:

Why am I stretching?

How do I know I need flexibility rather than stability?

If I have loose or unstable joints, would yoga help me or hurt me?

Can too much yoga create so much flexibility that it becomes instability?

I am posing these questions because I believe yoga can be very beneficial for the right person, for the right reason, when combined with the right amount of stability training and with the right the instructor.

(Post # 40) Wisdom from Pooh Bear

Pooh: Oh bother! Why am I sitting on this tree stump trying to make my leg go straight with Piglet hanging onto my ankle?

Owl: So Rabbit and I can calculate how strong your leg is.

Rabbit: Extending a Piglet twenty times means you have a strong leg for a bear.

Piglet: It is hard to hang on. I hope I don't fall off when you make your leg go fast.

Eeyore: This all looks very boring to me.

Pooh: But this is not what the leg of a Pooh Bear does.

Owl: And what, may I ask, do you mean by that?

Pooh: Well, the leg of a Pooh Bear likes to balance while reaching for a jar of honey, likes to squat down to play sticks with Piglet, likes to lunge back during tug-a-war with Eeyore, likes to climb the three steps to visit with Owl, likes to jump over logs in the forest with Tigger and likes to play hop games with Rabbit.

Tigger: Oh, thank you, Pooh. I like jumping with you, too...that's what Tiggers do best, you know.

Owl: May be if Piglet lets go of your ankle and you get up off the slump we can see what the leg of a Pooh Bear can do.

Rabbit: But there will be nothing to calculate, nothing to count, nothing to time, nothing to measure.

Pooh: It seems if you let my leg do what it likes, you could measure it while it likes what it does.

Tigger: You mean like jumping with me, hopping with Rabbit, tugging on Eeyore and squatting with Piglet?

Eeyore: Everyone is always tugging on my tail.

Pooh: and specially balancing while reaching for a jar of honey...just the thought of all this makes me very hungry, indeed.

Owl: Maybe there is a way to measure all the things your leg likes to do. I really enjoy it when you climb up the steps into the tree to visit me...maybe next time we can count the steps.

Rabbit: I would like to see how far and how fast we can jump together...that's what we do best, you know.

Eeyore: I'll bet you will want to lunge as far as you can to see how far back you can pull me by my tail.

Pooh: I wonder how long I can balance and how far I can reach for a jar of honey?

Rabbit: It seems like there is going to be a lot of things to measure if we are going to measure all the things the leg of a Pooh Bear likes to do.

Piglet: But what am I going to do now that I am not hanging onto the ankle of a Pooh Bear?

Pooh: Oh, Piglet, now you can hang onto the hand of a Pooh Bear and the rest of your friends and join in on all the fun.

--Gary Gray.