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!

My Sadie

This post isn't going to be about training. I don't know if this is even the place to write this, but I felt I had to put it somewhere. I lost my kitty, Sadie, last night. She was 17, which is very old for a cat. Over the last few weeks she hadn't been doing very well. She didn't really move at all and I had to pick her up and bring her to her food and back to her favorite chair. Yesterday, after I got home from work she lay in my arms for at least half an hour and didn't even open her eyes for more than a second. Any one of my friends and family can tell you how much she meant to me.

Sadie was with me since she was a kitten. She came into my life in a roundabout way when a rommate's friend got her for another friend. It turned out that the friend was allergic to cats and so my roomate took her. That particular roomate moved out and passed her responsibility to another roomate who then passed her on to me as it was pretty obvious by that point that she was my cat, really. I was 24.

I am 41 now and Sadie was with me for so many of my life's events. I moved out of that place and into a small studio apartment where I stayed with her for about 9 years. Every time I left, she would jump onto my dresser and I would say goodbye to her. Every time I came home she would be waiting for me in the same spot by the door. Every night when I went to bed she would snuggle next to me and on colder nights she'd snuggle under the covers.  Every single time I was on my way home I would say to myself how happy I would be to see her when I got there. Every single time. I lost a job once and everyone asked me if I would be OK. I responded, "As long as I have my gym membership and my Sadie I'll be fine." I meant every word.

In April 2004 I met my future wife, Kristi. Sadie didn't mind her but didn't like my future step-son, Robert all that much. When they would come to my little one room apartment she would hide in the closet until they left.

About a year and a half after we met we decided to move in together. A few days after we moved in to our place we had the cable installed. I came downstairs where the cable guy was and he had the door to the outside wide open and I couldn't find Sadie anywhere. I looked in the house for hours and then walked up and down the street and every neighboring street looking for her. I was very upset and couldn't believe that as I was opening this great new chapter in my life she would be gone just like that. After hours of searching I went downstairs to find her just emerging from a new and very effective hiding spot. I think I cried for a good 15 minutes. She still slept by me every night.

We moved to a new place a few years after that. We got another cat and a puppy. Sadie didn't like them very much. They were both very young and at this point Sadie was not. They didn't understand that what they thought was playing was extremely irritating to her so she kept her distance as much as possible. As Puppy started making her way into our bed at night, Sadie starting sleeping downstairs. I don't think I'll ever stop feeling bad about this.

At one point after we moved she started "doing her business" in some inappropriate places around the house. The vet suggested that we keep her in a confined space with her litter box until she re-learned to use it. We kept her in a room with a window. As it was summer we kept the window slightly open and one night, she got out. She was never the sort of cat to leave the house, really. Every once in a while she'd poke her head outside and then run back in. Well, this night when I went in to see her she wasn't there. I ran outside and found her in our back yard.

Over the past few years as she became pretty old for a cat, she lost a lot of weight. She was never a big cat to begin with, but she was still pretty healthy. That changed a few weeks ago when she became noticably still. She didn't really move anywhere and she could no longer get to her food or up on her favorite chair. She even crawled behind our clothes drier which is something she never would have done.

Kristi took her to the vet on Thursday and found out that she had a heart murmur. I've known for a while that she was not a young cat and she lived several years longer then most cats do, and pretty healthy for almost all of that time. They wanted to run some tests but she became noticably worse over Friday and Saturday. I rubbed her belly and it felt hard, not right. When I got home on Saturday, Kristi was holding her wrapped in a blanket and she looked like she was sleeping. I took her and brought her upstairs with me for a little while and she didn't even open her eyes. Her breathing was labored and she seemed too weak to move. I made the decision to bring her to the vet. Before we left I tried to give her some food and she couldn't even stand up to eat it.

I've never been one to take a lot of pictures and I realized this morning that after 17 years I don't think I have one picture of me holding her. That makes me incredibly sad.

There are many people who know me that have lost someone very important to them in the last few months. I'm beyond sorry if writing this makes it seem to you that I'm trying to compare or makes you feel bad in any way, but it just hurts so much to lose such a big part of my life. I just loved her so much. I don't want to make anyone angry by writing this. I just wanted to say it.

Quite a while ago, when it was just her and me I went on a vacation and left her at my friend Ross's house for a week. When he brought her back she was covered in soot. He told me that she jumped into his fireplace and covered herself in the ashes. He cleaned her off the best he could but he didn't know if he should bathe her or not. That night I gave a her a bath in the tub for, I think, the first time in her life. If you know how much cats like water I'm sure you realize that this wasn't a pleasant experience for her. What I'll never forget, though, is that she just sat in the tub looking at me with complete trust. It was like she was saying, "As much as I don't like this, if you think it's the right thing to do, then OK."

I hope I didn't betray the trust she put in me. 

My Sadie. 1994-Feb. 26, 2011

Video Blog 3-Love is Just A Foam Roller Away

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

Squats 101

Hello! This week I want to talk about the squat. I know I already wrote an article about the squat in August 2009, but it’s time to expand and use new technologies! Like my video blog!
I want to talk about the squat because there may not be a more bastardized exercise. There are also some misconceptions, such as squatting being bad for your knees. (It’s not. In fact in can actually be good for them.)

Here’s the truth: There isn’t another exercise that uses the amount of muscle the squat uses while also involving such an important movement pattern.

A proper squat involves the calves, hamstrings, quadriceps, hips, glutes, core, spinal erectors, and upper back. In other words, nearly every muscle from the neck down in one way or another. A proper squat also involves something called a hip hinge. A hip hinge is a movement that involves moving the hips back and forth without changing the position of your upper body.This is important because the ability to move your hips like this takes pressure off our backs and knees. I’ve had clients experience immediate improvement with knee pain just by learning this movement.

OK, enough blathering. It’s time to tell you how to do it. First, stand up. Easy, huh? (You’ll find that the most effective exercises are usually done standing, for the simple reason that you use more muscles standing than sitting.) Stand with your feet slightly wider than shoulder width, your toes pointed slightly outward and most of your weight on your heels. Take a deep breath of air into your chest and, keeping your chest up, tighten your core. Find a spot just above eye level and without taking your eyes off of it, push your hips back as if you are sitting down. From here, continue to push your hips back and descend between your heels until the top of your thighs are parallel to the ground. Come back up by pushing through your heels. Make sure you keep a tight core and chest.

That’s it. You’ll find that this movement tests things that you might not have thought about. You also might find that you can’t go too far down at first. That’s fine. Go down as far as you can while maintaining the upper body position I described. Keep working on it and you’ll improve sooner than you think.

In my video blog at MitchRothbardtTraining.blogspot.com I’ll show you how to perform a good squat. I’ll also demonstrate some variations you can use to exercise around injuries and help you get back to good health. If you have any questions please email me at MitchRothbardtTraining@yahoo.com or give me a call at 510-754-7113.

 -from the Castro Valley Forum, Feb 9 2011

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

Video Blog 2 - Squats 101

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