Personal Training Program Video 3
If you have a fitness goal you need a holistic fitness program, not the latest cookie-cutter fad workouts. Here is the third of three videos to educate you a little bit more.
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it’s not just working out. It's building a foundation for a better life.
Everyone has positive intentions when it comes to their health and wellness.
You set some great exciting goals and on an exercise program. You buy some new workout gear or new membership. You block the time on your calendar. You have great expectations.
And then… That little voice pops up. Usually not in the first day or two, usually after something a little bit more emotional or one of those longer days that just makes you a bit more tired. And it whispers tiny snippets of negativity. “You don’t really need to do that today you can do it tomorrow.” Or “One little bite won’t hurt.” Or “Go ahead and sleep in you can get to your workout later today.”
You all know what I’m talking about.
It’s that devilish little voice that encourages you to stray from your goals. It sets up excuses and rationalizations. In fact, she’s the queen of rationalization. She’s the one that helps you talk yourself out of doing everything that you totally intended to do.
How do you quiet her when she does pop up? Or how do you keep her from popping up at all?
I think there’s a series of things you can do to prevent that little voice from talking you out of your exercise program routine.
The first is to get super crystal clear on not only your goals, but why they are important to you. Why do you deserve this? Why is it important now? What will that mean to achieve this goal? With a Big WHY, it’s a lot easier to talk that little negative voice down.
Also, you have to be realistic that she’s still going to pick up her little head after you had a long day or challenging circumstance. So the other best way I know to shut her up, is to start each morning with some kind of an affirmation about how you want your day to go.
What will you do that day to move towards your goals? Keep reminding yourself of your big WHY the whole time. That way you’ve already started a dialogue of success, and if she does pop up you’re in a stronger position to remind her and yourself of what it was you were going to do.
I also recommend a little journal at the end of the day to recap all the positive things you did do, and possibly even lay out the plan for the next day.
I think the best way to keep that little voice quiet is to take things one day at a time. It’s great to see the big picture goal but if you know that small daily actions are what it will take to achieve it, you’re much more likely to hold yourself to those small daily actions.
So don’t lose sight of the little things, even though that little voice will try to talk you out of doing what you planned. She’ll try to tell you they don’t affect the big picture, but you know better. You know that true change is the result of taking small consistent actions.
Sometimes we’ll have slip ups and let ourselves listen to what that troublesome voice says, but if we can focus daily on the little actions, the little steps, the little moves that push us closer towards our goals then we can counteract that negative voice. And once she sees that you’re actually serious about reaching your goals, she’s going to stop popping up quite so often.
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By Jo Van Cutsem
When you think of the causes of back pain, things like sports injuries and heavy lifting probably quickly pop into your head. What you may not know, however, is that there is a less obvious, everyday culprit that can cause that pain: footwear. Your feet are the foundation for all of your movement, and any disruption at that source can put a lot of stress on the rest of your body. Because of this, making healthy decisions about your footwear can greatly reduce your risk for back pain.
Anyone with a job that entails standing for long periods of time, or who regularly has to carry considerable weight at work or at home is particularly vulnerable to the effects of poor footwear.
Connecting backache, and even neck ache to your shoes might not be quite so obvious, however, but the wrong kind of shoe can increase stress on the vertebrae, destabilize the spine and cause fatigue and wear in the muscles and ligaments supporting the spinal column.
It’s not just excessively high heels that can cause back problems; totally flat shoes providing no arch support and the new fitness trend for shoes that separate out the toes can also trigger a cascade of problems in the spine. Some shoes can cause immediate back pain, trigger old injuries to begin hurting again or cause chronic symptoms over time. Shoes affect the way we walk, the way we stand and how much stress is put on the spine as we go about our everyday activities.
A natural gait involves the heel touching the ground first as we step, with the foot’s arch then rolling inwards (referred to as ‘pronation’), then the ball of the foot and the toe make contact and these then provide the momentum to push off the ground again. Those wearing shoes that affect the gait may have either under pronation or over pronation, causing excess shock to the spine or the lower body to rotate inward. Both of these result in excess strain on the back.
Just as ballet flats are terrible for the feet and the spine, so are flip-flops. The peculiar gait necessary to keep flip-flops on the feet causes problems with the back, knees, hips and the feet themselves and such footwear should be avoided for anything other than incidental use at the pool.
When you think of your feet as the foundation for all body movement, it’s easy to understand why worn shoes are a bad idea. They simply don’t offer the support that you need to make sure that your body is moving efficiently and comfortably. Over time, worn shoes offer less shock absorption and arch support, and this can result in back pain as well as a permanent alteration to your gait. Because of this, it’s important to replace your shoes when you notice that they are starting to show wear.
No round-up of shoes bad for the back is complete without the mention of the dreaded stiletto. These narrow-heeled shoes are highly likely to cause a raft of health complications, including leg strain, hip strain, and back pain. High heeled shoes put all the stress on a single point of the foot and every step shoots that stress right up the spine. The body has to work incredibly hard to absorb this stress and balance the body and this can lead to fatigue, wear and tear and premature degeneration of the discs, ligaments, muscles and bones in the spine. Anything over a two inch heel is advised against and even lower heels should only be worn very occasionally as these too can destabilize the spine.
Athletic shoes, on the other hand, have quality cushioning and shock absorption since they are designed for physical activity. Because of this, they are some of the most comfortable, back-friendly footwear options.
Your choice of footwear, together with Eldoa-exercises, offers a daily opportunity to do right by your spine. So, next time you have back ache after a long day standing at work consider whether your shoes are to blame for your lower back pain.
Now, that you have read all the above information, you might understand why we prefer to go barefoot during the workout sessions at SolCore Fitness.
Thanks,
Jo Van Cutsem
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