We've Got Your Back!

Circular Strength Training Repairs Joints in Los Gatos

For those of us who struggle with joint mobility issues, strength and coordination,  or are simply seeking a fun, cardio weight training regimen in their fitness routine, We've Got Your Back is excited to share the latest trend in the Los Gatos fitness community.  Circular Strength Training is a health and fitness training system that improves ones physical, mental, and emotional well being through a variety of rotating movement exercises using clubbells.   Coach Scott Sonnon is a professor of Physical Education at Penn State University, and began praciting Circular Strength Training as a young boy while struggling with Osteochondrosis Disease , Dyslexia, and Ptosis as a child. Although Scott Sonnon is currently a leading coach in this field, CST coach Angela Fisher notes that, " The use of clubbells has served as one of the oldest forms of fitness reaching back as far as medieval times and martial arts practices in Russia, Persia and India."  Circular Strength Training increases mobility, strength and coordination using such muscle groups as pecs, lats, and deltoids and does not compress the spine the way traditional weight lifting may. It is an excellent form of strength conditioning exercise to compliment yoga and pilates and is a fun and rewarding workout.   Chrome Fit in down town San Jose pleased to now be offering Circular Strength Training Classes by national certified personal trainer, Eric Douglass.

Until Next Time, Happy Clubbell Training! Geneva Holloman, We've Got Your Back; July 25th, 2012

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Bibliography

1)     
Angela Fisher; “Circular Strength Training, The
Health First Fitness Revolution” http://livingtherun.com/?p=2208

2)     
Chrome Fit ; Eric J. Douglass. Team Page http://chromefit.com/team/

3)     
http://physicalliving.com/resources/circular-strength-training/

4)     
http://www.clubbell.tv/

 

Pilates: The New Pain-Relief Pill

An IdeaFit article from May 2010 shows that Pilates may help with fibromyalgia pain! At one of our recent seminars, we learned from Dr. Blaine Kingsbury that fibromyalgia is chronic muscle pain, fatigue, and soreness. It can be caused by many metabolic and neurological factors, and treatment is difficult.

Luckily, Pilates can help alleviate much of the fibromyalgia pain!

A study conducted in Turkey showed that Pilates improved fibromyalgia pain much more effectively than an at-home stretching exercise. Although the pain relief didn’t last for weeks of no exercise, it has been shown to be great as part of a pain relief regimen.

So even if you do not suffer from fibromyalgia, Pilates is a great way to not only gain strength, but to alleviate your aches and pains!

To see if we have any other educational seminars coming up, check out our Events Page here! Or take a look at our fitness equipment to pursue Pilates!

For further information, read the full IdeaFit article here!

Stay tuned for more information from Ilona, Rita, and the We've Got Your Back team!

Lose Weight, Feel Better, Live Longer...Just By Standing Up!

What if we told you that standing up could burn hundreds of extra calories per day, strengthen your
back, increase your lifespan, and decrease your risk of developing cardiovascular and other diseases? Health.com's October article by Arianne Cohen, "Stand Up for Your Health," says just that. Standing up is an easy way to drastically improve your health! Here are the facts:

1. An enzyme in the blood vessels of your muscles isn't stimulated by sitting. When you stand, this enzyme is hard at work burning fat molecules. Just from sitting, this enzyme can decrease by 90% to 95% in fat-blasting activity. Worse yet, studies show that 60 to 90 minutes of exercise per day can't reverse the effects of spending all day in a chair. So stand up against fat!

2. Your body is programmed for your strong legs to support the weight of your body. When you sit, all that weight is transferred into your spine and pelvis, which aren't used to the pressure. Also, your spine is naturally in an S-shape (a strong shape), but sitting forces it into a C-shape (one that is weaker against pressure). Sitting pushes your body into unnatural spine positions, and can hurt your spine in the long run.

3. A large-scale, 14 year study following 70,000 women showed that women who spent 6 hours a day sitting had a 37% higher chance of death than those who spent 3 hours a day in a chair. And spending 6 hours a day led to 2.7 times higher chances of developing cardiovascular disease. Spending more time standing can put years onto your life!

Luckily, We've Got Your Back makes it easy to work standing into your busy schedule. With our great Sit-to-Stand work tables, you can do all of your typical sitting activities standing up! These desks are an excellent solution to balancing your busy life with the practice of standing up, which can lead to a longer, healthier life!

Stay tuned for more tips and news from Ilona and the We've Got Your Back team!

And don't forget to read the full article here!

Home Office Hazards....Your Kitchen Table

Our Home Office Hazards session with egonomist Lori Leeds, hit home for most of us. 

How many of us work using a laptop at the dining room table or kitchen counter top?  It is a popular spot in the home and a big source of neck, shoulder and wrist pain.    Lori has performed hundreds of ergonomic evaluations and has pretty much seen it all.  She was able to help each of us spot our bad habits and provide guidance on the best solution for a situation.  Here are a few hazards to avoid and guidelines for keeping your home office healthy.

 The surface of many kitchen or dining room tables is 29" to 32" inches from the floor.  A keyboard at that height is too high for most of us.  The best solution to raise the seat of the chair as high as necessary to achieve a neutral posture.  That is, elbows at around 90 degrees, wrists level with keyboard and shoulders down...Avoid hunching!  

Typically a kitchen table has a ridge or skirt around the bottom edge that may be 2 to 3 inches in  width.  This ridge either bumps into the chair arms and prevents getting close enough or high enough to achieve the above neutral posture.   This is tough to work around.  If you can't escape this comon home hazard and must work with these surfaces, try to achieve a neutral posture by adding an accessory keyboard, a seat cushion or foot rest.

• If you use a lap top, an accessory keyboard is a must as it may also be necessary to raise the laptop or move the laptop display forward or back to optimize the distance from the eyes.
• And probably of greatest importance, take frequent breaks to move around, gaze into a distance and stretch!

These tips only scratched the surface of the topics Lori covered.  Watch for additional blog updates. this month we are going to focus on the home office ergo tips.  If you would like to learn more or evaluate your options stop by We've Got Your Back to discuss.

Thank you Lori

 Rita

"Gliding to Better Posture" with Esther Gokhale

 We were pleased to see Esther Gokhale's profile in this most recent March issue of Eucalyptus Magazine.  We were fortunate to have Esther conduct a workshop at We've Got Your Back last year and hope to have her back again soon.

Esther Gokhale poses in front of one of her photographs taken in Africa, which depicts a woman walking with a natural posture—not the posture that Westerners have adopted.

Try to imagine “the feeling when you walk…smooth, with no harsh landing. It is relatively effortless but powerful, and feels like you are gliding through space. It takes people back to our natural way of walking.”

Her book has been a popular choice of shoppers in our store.  Stop by for your own copy. 

To learn more, try a free introductory class by visiting http://www.egwellness.com. 

Check out the entire article here at Eucalyptus Magazine!

Get Functional

I recently had the opportunity to attend a presentation by Sheri Covey on Functional Fitness.  She was awesome and inspired me to learn more.  I wanted to share some of the insights from her demonstration. Functional Fitness can not only improve athletic performance, it can reduce your risk of injury, so in my opinion it is essential.  "Getting Functional", however, requires some guidance and you need a professional for that.

 According to Sheri, functional strength training can be performed to improve normal daily life movements such as bending, lifting, twisting, turning, pushing, pulling, walking or changing positions.  Functional strength training can also aide in creating opportunity for expansion of daily life activities such as hiking, climbing and jogging.  Athletes use functional training to improve all components of performance such as power, speed, agility, balance and accuracy.   

TRAINER TALK

When trainers talk about functional training, they are typically referring to core-centric, full body, multi-articular <compound> movements that are performed with focus, control, stability, fluidity and often times, intensity.  Trainers often use equipment like kettlebells, medicine balls, clubbells and dumbbells; challenging the client to work movement patterns with resistance across all planes and pillars.  Other training tools such as gymnastic rings, paralettes and strap systems, like the TRX, allow for manipulation of body weight through unlimited movement patterns. 

 In the coming weeks Sheri will be conducting functional fitness evaluations at We've Got Your Back.   These evaluations are normally used by professional trainers to assess your fitness levels, before you begin a program to avoid injury.  They are also an excellent way to help you and your trainer monitor progress to your fitness goals.  I have found these assessments are also a great way to help you to recognize your strengths and weaknesses.   We will be announcing the program details soon.  In the meantime you can learn more about Sheri, Functional Fitness and Chromfit by calling 408-921-3517 or visiting  www.ChromeFit.com. 

Get Functional,

Sheri and the We've Got Your Back Team

Beginnings...

 

 

As we get ready to welcome the New Year, I can't help but reflect on our beginnings in 2010.  Our 1st year as a Los Gatos Retailer has been exciting and life changing.  Going from cozy corporate paycheck to "outside the box" and "out on a limb" has been an awakening, to say the least. 

Fortunately, we can say our first year was a great success and here are some of the  reasons why. 

 

We enjoyed the unwaivering support of our friends and family.  They were there for us with encouragement, advice, art for the walls, event management and day to day help.    My best and oldest friend Bess, was there for us from construction to grand opening event management to filling in on the sales floor.  As it turned out, Bess holds the record for our biggest sales day of the year. 

We had the pleasure of meeting and working with some of the finest health and fitness professionals in the area.  Their dedication to their work and  support of We've Got Your Back enabled us to fulfill our mission to deliver education and guidance on maintianing a healthy body and back.  This impressive group enabled us to host over 15 seminars in 2010.

We were able to team up with some of the best ergonomic professionals in the business.  With their help we could ensure our customers received individual, expert attention and the best fit office set up.

Our suppliers believed in our vision, community and capabilities and gave us the support we needed to credibly resell their products. A very big deal for a new business.   We were able to carry the best in class ergonomics, comfort, fitness and wellness products available.

And lastly, the new friends, business partners, musicians and customers who welcomed us to the community and remained supporters of We've Got Your Back throughout the year made the difference.   

A heart-felt Thank You to all from the We've Got Your Back team.  We wish you success and happiness in the New Year and a Toast to Beginnings.

Rita and the We've Got Your Back Team

 

October Happenings at We've Got Your Back.

Saturday, October 30th. Happy Halloween Weekend!

Dr. Koen Kallop and Ronnda Cadle were our distinguished guests this month.  Dr Kallop on Tuesday with a seminar, and Ronnda to relax us with music on Thursday. While very different in profession and style, both shared life style tips we can fit into our busy lives.

Dr. Kallop is a former athlete and could speak from experience as he described debilitating back pain and his journey back to health. He led an interactive discussion on back pain with a particular focus on issues common to cyclists as we discussed common root causes of lower back and sciatica pain. We discussed the pros and cons of the various treatment or relief options available such as inversion therapy, disk hydration strategies, and the comfort benefits of postures that allow a neutral spine.

The Human Touch Perfect chair is the ultimate  in comfort and style and a perfect way to achieve a neutral spine posture.  A simple push of the lever on the armrest and you are eased backwards into total aaaaaaaaaaah relaxation. It is no wonder it is also, and well known by, the name Zero Gravity Chair.  It allows you to feel weightless, lifting the burdens from your back and your mind.

The Yukon Inversion Rack, on display in our store, helps with disk hydration and can help you safely maintain a healthy back.  Dr. Kallop stressed the importance of using it correctly. Proper use requires an exact height setting adjustment before attempting inversion. [Don't worry, you're upright when this happens.] When all is correct, you should be able to oscillate between level and inverted by just moving your arms. Relax for thirty seconds to a minute in an inverted position, then raise your arms straight out in front of you to return to a parallel position.  Repeat until you can relax in an inverted posture, and enjoy a healthy and healing stretch.

Ronnda Cadle, who performed on Thursday  gave us a relaxing, easy listening experience. Her abiltiy to create poetry without words, only strings, moved everyone in the store into a happy lull of relaxation. It's easy to understand why she has performed with so many big name talents, like Will Ackerman.  She was friendly and engaging, and her "string work" was as good as it gets. We hope to continue having such great artists in our store!

Don't miss out on our future events, much like Dr. Kallop's and Ronnda's.  We will keep them coming to We've Got Your Back.

Feel free to check out Ronnda at her website, at ronndacadle.com.

Interested in Dr. Kallop's healing touch and self-help programs? He's doing a FREE Fitness Evaluation. [The regular cost is $130!] You can call HealthNOW Medical Center or send them an email to make an appointment.

Email them at lisa@healthnowmedical.com or call at (408)-733-0400 today. Located in Sunnyvale, CA.

Michelle and Rita

Sciatica Exercises.

Our Tuesday Session will cover a very common complaint among our customers. We found an article by Sciatic Nerve Relief that we have reproduced below that will give us a background.

HOWEVER, Come by We've Got Your Back and listen to Dr. Koen Kallop  explaining how Sciatica can be prevented or remedied.

But first, what is Sciatica pain?

The term sciatica describes leg pain with either tingling, numbness or weakness that originates in the lower back and travels through the buttock and down the large sciatic nerve in the back of the leg.

Sciatica is often characterized by the following symptoms:

• Pain on one side of the lower body or in one leg while sitting.

• Pain such as burning or tingling along the entire leg. 

• Weakness, numbness or having difficulty moving the leg.

• A constant pain on one side of the rear.

• Sharp pain that may make it difficult to stand up or to walk.

Sciatica Exercises

Sciatica exercises are extremely important to the long-term relief and management of disc-related sciatica. Although a number of different exercises for sciatica are recommended by various experts and non-experts alike, only a few are actually appropriate during an acute, severely painful sciatica episode, and some of the most commonly-suggested sciatica exercises may actually make things worse when used during times of acute pain.

 

 

 

During the acute phase of sciatica pain, McKenzie exercises provide one of the best and safest treatment approaches available. The underlying principle of the McKenzie technique is to test various positions and exercises to determine what will create the most "centralization" of the pain and other symptoms.

"Centralization" is a term used by McKenzie practitioners that means that symptoms move out of the areas furthest from the spine. For example, if sciatica symptoms started out going as far as the knee, centralization would be if the symptoms left the thigh and only went as far as the hip area.

The simplest of the McKenzie exercises for alleviating sciatica is done by simply lying on one’s stomach on the floor or a firm surface and propping one’s chest up on the elbows. This position puts the lumbar spine into an extended position, which may reduce sciatica by squeezing bulging disc material further forward and away from the spinal nerves that compose the sciatica nerve, thereby resulting in reduced compression and inflammation. Although you can maintain this position for relatively long periods of time, I recommend doing it for short periods of one or two minutes with a rest break of at least a few minutes in between.

Dynamic Stability Training.

This year’s IDEA World Fitness Conference had a strong emphasis on corrective exercise, functional conditioning and post-rehabilitation strategies.   One of the new products introduced at this year’s conference was KOREFIT, a Dynamic Stabilization Trainer offering a number of benefits for health and fitness professionals focused on these areas.

 
KOREFIT’s large surface area makes it a versatile trainer that creates a safe environment for rehabilitation or functional conditioning.  It weighs 28 lbs and is designed to be portable.  The surface ridges assist the user with foot, hand or body placement with proprioceptive feedback to encourage neutral posture.  The dynamic air transfer and exchange between the two chambers forces the body to work both sides equally.

The Korfit Designer, Shawn Babiarz,  is coming to Los Gatos to hold demos at We’ve Got Your Back on Tuesday and Wednesday October 4 & 5^th. 

We have reserved Wednesday 11AM to 2PM for demo’s at We’ve Got Your Back.  We also have booked several appointments to visit a number of fitness centers in the area.  If you can’t make it to We’ve Got Your Back , give me a call and we will come to you. (408-395-1122). We still have some appointment times available on Tuesday and Wednesday morning.

We look forward to seeing you!