SOLCORE FITNESS

it’s not just working out. It's building a foundation for a better life.

ELDOA

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe

Personal Training Success Story Santa Fe – Brian

Yipe! That is the sound Brian makes at the end of a class right before the wall stretch happens (L5/S1 ELDOA). This epitomizes what Brian is about. He is the ultimate dichotomy, a structured gypsy. He embraces both his mountaineering free spirit and team athlete mentality of making sure he puts in the work.

Brian graced Santa Fe with his presence about 4 years ago after growing up in Colorado, being a mountaineer for 20 some years, and working as contractor in Seattle. He has already lived a full life and wants to continue to do so, so when his back pain started up he started looking for answers.

You see after years of climbing up mountains and working with his hands Brian developed a lot of back pain to the point where he was in a lot of pain.  You wouldn’t know it from his super positive, engaging, and happy demeanor but there were times when he would be down for the count for 4-6 weeks with back pain.

He fortuitously came to us when we needed some men for an ELDOA class that we were doing a photo shoot for. He was friends with the photographer and heard it was a class for back pain and was down to try anything that would fix it.

During that first class he was in shock (like everybody) about how challenging these simple looking postures were. But after the class he (like everybody) felt fantastic. He felt that he had finally found what he had been looking for and joined our class.

It has been over two years that Brian has been with us and his results have been remarkable. I’ll let him tell you in his own words, but because of that free spirit, joy and the hard work he puts in, Brian is our January Member of the Month.

1) What made you decide you wanted/needed to start a program?

My back pain was so bad that I was being knocked out of my life for 4-6 week blocks. I couldn’t do anything. This started infrequently, but was getting more frequent.

2) What did you do before?

Well, at the start I just pushed through it because it wasn’t that bad, but as time went on, it was becoming unbearable. I tried everything. I went to Yoga classes, worked out, and did those 10-pack Rolfing sessions they recommend.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of? My back pain is pretty much nonexistent.  I feel so much more aware in my body and I feel much stronger.

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them? The Frogs are really challenging, but I know that they are good for me. The wall stretch is great. I feel really good right after I do it.

5) What are some challenges or goals you are currently working on?

I would like to continue to get stronger and have more freedom in my body.

6) What do you like best about our program/ having a trainer? I love the personal attention and the fact that this program really works!

7) What advice would you give to the other SolCore Fitness members?

Just keep coming and do what you can each day.

8) What would you say to someone on the fence about joining our program?

If you put in the work this program works.

 

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For People In Santa Fe: The Amazing Benefits of Keeping Fit!

For People In Santa Fe: The Amazing Benefits of Keeping Fit!

Ekemba Sooh | December 26, 2016

Eight trusted benefits of keeping fit, even at old age

Keeping fit is a great way to stay healthy. Exercising on a regular basis has countless positive effects on the body and the mind. A study done on 25,000 volunteers has shown that physical exercising is more important to health than just losing weight. Overweight people who are fit have lower chances of developing heart problems, diabetes, or osteoporosis. Who can practice fitness? Is fitness for you? The good news is that anybody, regardless of age, can benefit from fitness. Fitness exercises range from developing flexibility to building up strength and losing extra pounds.

  • Keep a healthier heart – Fitness makes the heart work faster and it helps increase and strengthen the muscle of the heart.
  • Develop stronger muscles and bones – Fitness exercises that work the muscles, such as weight lifting, develop the muscles and increase bone density. This translates into a body that is more resistant to fractures and injuries. People over 40, who have higher risks of developing osteoporosis and arthritis, can maintain a younger body for a longer time through fitness.
  • Helps in weight loss – Fitness burns calories and reduces body fat. If you exercise on a regular basis, you will not only burn calories while you’re at the gym, but you will also burn calories while you’re resting. If you join fitness with a healthy diet, you will have a fit and excellent looking body.
  • Helps in stress reduction – You have outnumbered stress factors in your life, stress is very dangerous to your health, and it can give you a general state of crankiness and anxiety. Exercising relieves stress and triggers the secretion of endorphins in the body. Endorphins, also called “the happiness hormone” create a state of relaxation. There is something called “a runner’s high”. This basically means that people feel happier after exercising.
  • A more restful sleep – Stress and health problems sometime cause insomnia and other sleep disturbances. Fitness will give you a deep and restful sleep, which is important for the body to be able to recover and function normally.
  • Increased ability to focus – Research shows that people who exercise think faster and clearer. Fitness does not only do wonders for the body, but it also benefits the mind, through improving circulation in the brain and taking away the stress that sometimes clouds our judgment.

Long-term benefits of fitness:

  • Reduced blood pressure – High blood pressure can lead to strokes and heart attacks. Heart problems are the leading cause of death in the world. Fitness means a stronger heart, which pumps blood more efficiently through the body and the force put on the arteries decreases. Regular exercising is one of the drug-free methods to treat hypertension.
  • Improved posture – Fitness helps maintain a strong backbone with a healthy posture. It helps with back problems and back pain that are often associated with a sedentary life.

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ELDOA In Santa Fe For Less Shoulder And Neck Pain

How ELDOA’s Increase Spinal Mobility And Get Rid Of Neck And Shoulder Pain

  • Do your shoulders slump and round when you walk, sit, or stand?

  • Do you have trouble keeping your chest up when squatting?

  • Does it hurt lifting heavy things  off the ground?

  • Do you get lower back or neck pain when doing twisting or rotational movements?

  • Have you resigned yourself to living with that nagging rotator cuff pain that flares up during workouts and in bed?

If you answered “yes” to any of those (and most people will answer yes to at least one), you may have poor thoracic spine mobility. Even if you don’t notice any of the symptoms leaping out at you, it never hurts to get more mobility, especially in the thoracic spine. And establishing good habits by actively maintaining and training mobility, as opposed to being content with what you have (even if it’s not optimum), is always a good move.

After the hips, thoracic spine mobility is probably the most crucial aspect of mobility. At least with the hips, though, people can identify them and grasp the concept of hip mobility just by reading text on the computer. Sticking your hips back is pretty self-explanatory. What about the thoracic spine? It’s a bit more nebulous.ELDOA For Less Shoulder And Neck Pain

Do you know how to use your thoracic spine? Are you even aware that it exists? It’s not that people ignore the thoracic spine willfully; it’s that they’re unaware of any distinctions between spinal and lumbar vertebrae. They know about the spine, and imagine it to be a uniform vertebral column, equally capable of bending, twisting, and rotating along its length. This is totally understandable. “Spine” is what we hear, not “thoracic spine” or “lumbar spine” or “cervical spine,” but it’s much more than that.

The human spinal column is composed of five segments: the cervical spine, which extends up the neck to the base of the skull; the thoracic spine, which encompasses the shoulder and chest area; the lumbar spine, also known as the lower back; the sacrum; and, finally, the coccyx, or tail bone. Each performs a different role. Each has different capabilities, different functions. Most importantly, each segment of the spine is designed for a certain range of motion.

The thoracic spine is built for rotation, flexion, and extension. It is highly mobile – or, rather, it has the potential for lots of mobility. Because of its mobility, the thoracic spine must be used, must be moved. But it has to be known. If people are unable to visualize and feel the movement of the thoracic spine, or if they’re unable to even grasp the concept of its existence, they’ll just attempt to twist, rotate, flex, and bend with something familiar to them: the lumbar spine. That’s bad news.

The lumbar spine is built for stability. It’s supposed to support the weight of the body (plus any added weights) and resist excessive rotation and twisting. It remains stable and acts as a conduit for power generated by the hips and fed to the mobile thoracic spine. It is not meant to twist and bend. It can move, obviously, but it’s not meant to be wildly mobile. It’s meant to be solid, reliable.

You’ll find that an immobile thoracic spine isn’t just bad for the vertebrae themselves. It’s bad for your lower back and your shoulders, too. In fact, you’ll rarely feel actual pain along the twelve vertebrae that comprise your thoracic spine. Instead, your lower back will take over work for which it’s really not designed, getting chronic pain for its troubles, and your scapula (shoulder blades) will compensate by moving away from the spine, making overhead shoulder work difficult, dangerous, and painful, and a rotator cuff injury nearly inevitable. Everything in the body is linked, remember, and you can’t remove a major player from the equation without seriously affecting the balance.

Benefits of improved thoracic mobility are: Lack of kyphosis, a less painful, more stable lower back, more lung volume, Healthier shoulders, Greater range of motion …

Do use thoracic mobility to:
a. Lengthen and straighten your thoracic spine with ELDOA’s
b. Breathe more deeply
c. Enable your shoulders to roll further back without swaying the low back

Don’t use thoracic mobility to:
a. Hunch your thoracic spine
b. Hyper-extend your thoracic ligaments creating laxity in the ligaments and hyper-mobility in the thoracic spine.

So, it is important to develop thoracic mobility in a precise way that allows healthy spinal architecture and movement and not in a way that threatens your skeletal integrity or scaffolding. Loosening up the thoracic spine and then using that extra mobility to round or distort the spine further while sitting or standing is in some ways worse than being inflexible. It is therefore crucial to be conscious of posture as well, so that your whole spine is well-aligned throughout your day, and any extra mobility you create in your thoracic spine works to your advantage and towards making you straighter and taller.

In sum … do your ELDOA’s !!!

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