posture

May 25 2016

Personal Training Success In Santa Fe

Personal Training Success- Julia Gelbart

When I do these interviews, I am usually trying to dig a little deeper to find out more about the member of the month. I want to find out what makes them tick to be so successful. I generally know this person through being around them all the time, but I always find out more through sitting down with them and talking. This month’s member of the month is much more simple than that. And in her simplicity you discover an admiration as to who she is.

Julia Gelbart is not very complicated in her desire to improve herself. To her, it is just common sense. As she grows older, she doesn’t want her body to fail her so she does something about it. And of course she wants to commit to herself and work hard, because anything worth getting involves work.

It is this absoluteness about why she is doing what she is doing and an incredible positive attitude that have made Julia Gelbart our personal training success May Member of the Month.

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

I was swimming with a friend of mine Vikkie, who was in your program and she raved to me that I had to do it. I am not in this to being tall and beautiful, I knew that I needed to wake up my muscles and strengthen my body especially in the upper body.

2) What did you do before?

I do a once a week yoga class, I walk and I swim.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of?

I wanted a preventive program to help me age gracefully and improve my strength and balance. I have a great story to demonstrate the different benefits I have achieved.

It was the end of the day out at a house that I was getting ready to show and was walking up these long flights of stairs. Well on one of the times I was walking up them, my foot caught in my dress and started to fall face first toward the stairs. Well I was able to quickly react and put my hands out in front of me and slow myself down and then push myself back up! I avoided really getting hurt.

So first off, I wasn’t tired at all. Just normally in a regular day, I would be a little tired like most people. But I wasn’t even winded from walking up and down those long flights of stairs! And of course I was able to react fast enough and then have the strength to push myself back up! I had noticed a lot of great improvements over the year or so, like better posture and better movement, but after that incident I knew and felt what great progress I had made.

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them.

Frogs! Even though I know they are good for me, they are so difficult.

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

I will always be working on gaining and keeping my strength.

6) What do you like best about our program/ having a trainer?

Three things:

1) Being in the group environment is really inspiring. When I first started I wanted to quit, but I didn’t because I am competitive and because nobody else in the group was quitting.

2) The corrections that we are given in class are great. They help me make sure that I am doing the exercises correctly.

3) The accountability. You guys notice when people are not in class and you track them down!

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

Don’t quit!

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

If you are looking for a program that will empower you, as you grow older by keeping your body strong and balanced, this is it. If you truly want to commit to yourself and your health and fitness, this program works!

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Jul 28 2014

What is a corrective exercise?

Just because it is called a corrective exercises does not mean that it is doing you any good!

Corrective exercise has turned into a term that many people use to describe movements that they think are beneficial to them but in actuality, they are not. Corrective exercise is right up there with “functional training,” “yoga therapy,” and “restorative yoga.” It is not what you call something that produces you the results that you desire, it is how they affect the tensegrity (balance) and bio-mechanical (movements) motions of your body.

A real corrective exercise will normalize (correct) an area of your body that is in essence “not doing its job!”

Lets take for example, the exercise: the “prone cobra” also called the Mckenzie press. It has been used for years, and in the case of yoga A LOT of years, to mobilize and strengthen the spine. For those of you who are not familiar with this stretch, it is when you lay down, on your stomach (prone) and you come up to either your forearms or your hands pushing your upper body up leaving your lower body on the ground. There are some slight differences depending of those who you talk to as whether or not the hips stay on the ground. For this example, it’s not important. The idea is that when you push yourself up, it will open the anterior (front) of your spinal joints and the disc will slide forward. And if you have enough space in your spine, then this is true…

Now, let’s look at how the body reacts to a motion like this. In the prone cobra, when you push yourself up your spine goes into extension (like if you were standing up and you arched your back) and now based on spinal mechanics the posterior (back) part of the spine pinches together.

So how is this a corrective exercise?

In short, this is NOT a corrective exercise! Most people who are performing this exercise have back pain, and are thinking that this will help. Now there a lot of reason why one could have back pain but for this example, let’s stick to just one. Gravity is constantly compressing us, and combined with too much sitting and not enough proper movements, causes improper loading and our spine takes the brunt of it. Many individuals have disc compression and they may not have any symptoms….yet, and for those individuals over the age of 50- they can almost guarantee that they too have disk compression, some degree of bulge/herniation/prolapse.

Now while have some disc compression and doing the prone cobra exercise, your spine is forced into extension and the posterior (back) part of the vertabrae is going to pinch the posterior (back) part of your disc even more. This will lead to further bulging/herniation/prolapse and cause a lot more back issues and pain.

So what is actually a corrective exercise for this?

As I stated at the beginning, a corrective exercise will correct and normalize a problem. When it comes to back pain and spinal compression….The #1….hands down…. best corrective exercise are ELDOA‘s. They are “stretch exercises” that pull one vertebrata away from another, providing much needed space. This space now allows your body to start to function better within that area. This means that your discs will now be able to start to rehydrate and regain their form and volume. Without compression, you will have SIGNIFICANTLY less pain. This means that you can start to live you life with more confidence in your body and be able to do the activities that you want to do.