Achilles Tendon Maintenance

Men in their forties are at risk of rupturing their Achilles’ Tendons. If you have been inactive for some time and want to get back into sports, or if you want to make sure you’re not at risk of injury, follow our basic protocol.

 

Perform this program 4 times per week.

1. Warm Up

Go for a 5 minute walk or climb a flight of stairs 3 times

2. Calf Raises

Use stairs to get deep stretch at bottom of movement, then perform calf raise

3 sets of 16, 14, 12

3. Seated Toes-to-Nose Raises

– sit on edge of bed/chair, heels on floor

– raise toes towards your nose and then relax foot

1 set of 30

4. Jogger’s Stretch

– hands on wall, stretching leg back

– keep knee straight and lean forward until stretch felt in calf

2 sets of 30 seconds for each leg

5. Soleus Stretch

– hands on wall, one leg back

– knee of back leg drives forward until stretch is felt lower than calf (try and keep heel on ground)

2 sets of 30 seconds each leg

6. Pike Stretch for Hamstrings

1 set of 60 seconds

 

NEW YEAR: Improve your health in January with these 7 easy tips

As the new year approaches people often make the mistake of trying to make too many changes every January. The idea is to “make up for lost time.” But what ends up happening is no one can stick to drastic resolutions and burn out ends the whole attempted health revolution.

Another common mistake is to only focus on physical fitness. Why not try our holistic 7 health tips this January and see if they work better for you?

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Do Your Shoes Fit?

If you wear the wrong size shoes, expect foot, ankle, knee, hip and low back problems to eventually arise.

Most people purchase shoes that are the right LENGTH but pay no attention to the correct WIDTH.

The width is just as important because every time you step, your metatarsal bones absorb your body weight by spreading out like a fan.

This is how your body absorbs shock and takes pressure away from ankles, knees, hips and lumbar/pelvic joints.

If you ignore correct width you are overloading your back and leg joints with every step. And considering that most of us walk on unnaturally hard surfaces all day (cement, hardwood floors, etc), we cannot take away the body’s natural shock absorption and expect to be pain free.

 

OKAY! HOW CAN I MAKE SURE TO GET THE RIGHT SHOE SIZE?!!

Easy as pie.

STEP 1:
Stand up barefoot with a piece of paper under each foot & have someone trace each foot with a pencil:

STEP 2
Measure the LENGTH and the WIDTH (in inches) of each foot.
Take the BIGGEST of each.
For example, if your right foot is longer than the left, but the left is wider than the right, you will use the length of the longest foot AND the width of the widest foot for your final measurement.

**MAKE sure to use the widest part of the foot (see picture) to measure width

Step 3
Now that you have your number, use the following chart to determine:

A) your size according to the length measurement

B) your width according to your width measurement.

When you are buying shoes, you will declare your size and width measurement.

LENGTH for MEN

WIDTH for MEN

LENGTH for WOMEN

WIDTH for WOMEN

 

Deadlifting for the Low Back

One of my favourite back pain prevention exercises is the deadlift. It mimicks lifting from floor level and is an essential movement of the human body. Because so many joints are involved (e.g.: ankles, knees, hips, lumbar, shoulders) it is known as a compound movement.

But isn’t lifting the way people hurt their backs?

No. Bad lifting is how people hurt their backs. Just like bad eating is how people get unhealthy. We have to eat. We have to lift. The back is designed to do work. So instead of being afraid of lifting, simply learn to lift right. And now you can be confidently active.

Remember that throughout history we have been very physical, it is only recently that our societies have allowed us to sit all day and make a living. But just like that has been bad for our cardiovascular health, it has been bad for our physical health. Use it or lose it. The more our bodies are fit and ready to perform physical work, the stronger and healthier they will be. Continue reading

What Are My Core Muscles?

For about 40 years the term “core muscles” has been a part of our culture. But most people think only abs qualify. This is incorrect. Not only do core muscles include the 3 abdominal layers, but they refer to any muscle that attaches to the pelvis. Which includes back muscles, the glutes, the hamstrings, quads, inner and outer thigh muscles, etc. Even though “core muscles” is not an official anatomical term, it is a useful concept which describes the muscles that have the following functions:

1. control our center of gravity

2. connects our lower body to the upper limbs during physical tasks requiring full body motion

3. allow an anchor for leg muscles to perform their function Continue reading

Heavy Lifting for the Ladies

As they say, “strong is the new skinny.” Women are turning more and more to building muscles instead of simply dieting and losing weight.

And this is a good thing.

In the 1960’s, thin was in. And girls often made calorie restriction the beginning and end of their “fitness” plan. By the 1980’s, aerobics and running replaced starvation and we all took a healthy step in the right direction. But the endless cardio was often erroneously coupled with too little strength building and fat free diets. The idea was simple, don’t eat fats and perform tons of cardio and you’ll be skinny. The goal was still to get smaller. To weigh less.

Thankfully we’ve come a long way since then. Crossfit and fitness competitions drove more and more women into the gym with the boys. And the results of  lifting heavier weights than they had historically done was surprisingly healthy and attractive. Healthier and more attractive than the female fads of the past.

Aerobics and cardio of the 80’s and 90’s had “skinny” as the end result.

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Screen Time As A Disease

“We no longer think slowly and deeply, but quickly and superficially.”

Before every waking moment of our lives were dominated by screens or ear buds, we spent a vast majority of our non-social time pondering, thinking and letting life sink in. Just like the brain needs sleep to sort out your daily thoughts and emotions, it appears your non-stimulated moments are necessary too. An article from the Journal of the Academy of Management showed that a “bored” brain is actually looking to process past information and trying to stoke up creativity.

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Is It Time To End Weight Cuts in Combat Sports?

Weight cutting through dehydration may not only increase risk of concussions, it may lead to long term neurological deterioration affecting athletes in more areas than previously thought

(see article below for details)

In the realm of combat sports, athletes are paired off against opponents of the same size. This is obviously done for fighter safety. Having a 220 pound wrestler grabbing and throwing a 140 pound opponent would be dangerous for the smaller athlete. Hours before competition (in jiu jitsu and wrestling tournaments) or a day to a day and a half before competition (in kickboxing, boxing and MMA fights) athletes have to be weighed in order to make sure they are at their competition weight (or below, but never above). Theoretically this keeps fighters safe.

Unfortunately, this may not be true. As can be expected, athletes are doing anything they can to shrink their body weight as low as possible in hopes of fighting other athletes that are smaller than them. This is usually achieved by dehydrating the body severely in the days leading up to a weigh-in. Fluids can be replaced rather quickly and therefore, the athlete who can drop the most water in a short time will be the more muscular and heavier athlete in competition. In a real sense, there are two events happening: a weight cut competition and a fight.

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