Feel Better With Exercise

Hello! Today, I’d like to discuss something that my beautiful wife Kristi suggested. Most of the time when someone thinks of exercise they think about losing weight or something like that. What I want to discuss is how exercise can help get over pain and injuries.


In today’s sedentary society the problems I usually see are tight shoulders and hips. These issues can lead directly to achy backs and knees. How? Well, you’ve got to understand that the body is an incredible thing, and one thing it does amazingly well is compensate. What that means is when a part of our body can’t move well, another part must take up the slack. Of course, we usually don’t realize this is happening and we all have compensations that can range from “not a big deal” to “if you don’t take care of that, you’ll soon be in a wheelchair”. As far as shoulders and backs go, our shoulders are one of the most mobile joints in our body, but sitting hunched at a computer all day can shorten the muscles around the joint. So, what happens when we move our arm to grab something? Instead of our arm being able to move freely it can’t, so our lower back has to move to let us do what we’re trying to do. Our lumbar spine is NOT meant to move very much so when it’s forced to, what happens? Pain.

Our body is so good at compensating that most of the time we have joint pain, the cause isn’t that joint at all, but rather the joint either above or below it. Many times, special exercises can be used to strengthen or loosen areas, or correct compensating movement patterns.

Here are a couple of moves that I use with my clients to loosen up some of those trouble spots. To see demonstrations of these and a few more helpful exercises go to my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com.

Hips - Overhead Lunge Stretch: Get into a lunge position with one knee on the floor behind you and the other leg out in front of you with your knee bent at about a 90 degree angle. Reach for the ceiling and bring your hips forward. Be careful that you don’t just lean back. Squeeze your glutes to enhance the stretch. You should NOT feel this in your back!



Overhead Lunge Stretch



Shoulders - Wall Slide: Stand with your butt and head against a wall. Bring your arms back so that your elbows and hands touch the wall and simply move them up and down keeping contact with the wall.

These are only two of many different exercises to help you get over joint pain. Go to my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com to see more and feel free to call me with any questions. Lastly, don’t forget to see a doctor before beginning any exercise routine.

Mitchell Rothbardt, CPT ACE

Mitch Rothbardt Fitness

510-754-7113

http://MitchRothbardtFitness.com/

MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
Discover Your Strength!

Video Blog - Feel Better Through Exercise

Mitch Rothbardt, CPT
510-754-7113
http://www.MitchRothbardtFitness.com/
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
Discover Your Strength!

Love Is Just A Foam Roller Away

Hello, everyone! My goal for today is to make everyone feel better. I like a challenge, though, so all I’m going to use is a foam tube. How am I going to do that? I’ll tell you about how wonderful you’ll feel after using one of these things! I didn’t say I wouldn’t need your help a little.

First, lets talk about what this thing is. It’s called a foam roller and it’s exactly how I described it: a tube made of foam. What do you do with it? Well, that’s where the fun begins! To put it simply, you lay on it and roll. (To see the full sequence I’ll be talking about, go to this week’s video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com.)

If you’ve never used one of these things this may sound strange, but give me a moment and let me tell you what this does. First, though, a quick anatomy lesson. As I’m sure you know, our top layer of tissue is skin and under that, we have muscle. In between is something called fascia. Fascia is a layer of connective tissue that surrounds our muscles and literally runs from the top of our head to the soles of our feet. When everything is working well, our skin, fascia and muscles slide easily against each other, but during the course of life we develop restrictions and knots that prevent that from happening. These are the spots that are sensitive to the touch and feel so good when someone massages them out for us.

That’s essentially what foam rolling does: massages those spots out. As this happens we begin to feel better, move better, and gain flexibility! Sounds great, huh? Of course there is a slight catch. The first few times you do this it might feel a bit uncomfortable. Maybe very uncomfortable. Trust me, though, it will get better. If you do this for even a week, you will notice a pretty big difference and in a few weeks the difference will be huge.

I show all my clients a basic sequence that covers the whole body and takes about 5-7 minutes. To see it, go to my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com. Rollers usually run about $25 and to buy one online, just go to my blog and click on the Perform Better banner on the right side of the page. They’re not too hard to find. They come in a few different styles. The white ones are the softest and the black ones are more solid. Initially, the white ones are probably fine, but they do tend to wear out quicker.

Remember to consult a doctor before starting any exercise program and if you have any questions about foam rolling or anything else, email me at MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com or call me at 510-754-7113.
Mitchell Rothbardt, CPT ACE
Mitch Rothbardt Fitness
510-754-7113
http://MitchRothbardtFitness.com/
MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com
Discover Your Strength!