By Request: Scoliosis

This month, I’m taking requests for things folks want to know about fitness (yes, please!  Ask me questions and I will blog the answers!).

I have scoliosis.  What kind of exercise can I do?

 

This is one of those questions that requires my usual disclaimer.  I am a personal trainer and Pilates instructor, not a doctor or physical therapist.  My scope of practice does not include diagnosis or treatment of any condition.  I do know how to modify exercises to keep my clients safe.

 

Scoliosis, as many of us know, is a curvature of the spine.  There are varying degrees of severity, so a lot depends on the individual.  That said, nearly everyone in our society has some functional scoliosis. 

 

Functional scoliosis means that we have muscle imbalances that result in faulty posture.  Think about the way right-handed people tend to reach for things with their right hands.  Think about the way we hold our children on a hip, or stabilize a bag of groceries.  We move in lopsided ways and our bodies learn lopsided patterns.

 

Structural scoliosis means that our actual bones exhibit some lateral curvature.  It also leads to muscle imbalances as our bodies compensate for the structural shift.

 

Whatever kind of scoliosis we happen to have, we want to address it with similar kinds of movement.  The side we are curved toward needs to be lengthened and the side we curve away from needs to be tightened up a bit.  If the scoliosis is not severe, bringing some mindfulness to our posture can go a long way toward evening things up.

 

My very favorite technique to help balance out scoliotic tendencies is also very simple and pleasant.  It uses two yoga tune-up balls or roughly tennis ball sized balls of whatever hardness works for us.  One is placed under the fleshy part of the glute on the side we curve toward as we lie on our backs on the floor.  The other one goes under the PSIS on the other side.  (The PSIS is our posterior superior iliac spine and the spot we want to hit is the place where we have the little dimple near our spine.)  Then we just lie there and breathe for a while, allowing the muscles to relax and balance themselves.

 

Try it and let me know how it feels!

By Request: My Piriformis Hurts

This month, I’m taking requests for things folks want to know about fitness (yes, please!  Ask me questions and I will blog the answers!).

My piriformis is tight.  What should I do?

 

I feel this.  Right in my behind, just like you do!  A tight piriformis is a natural consequence of our sedentary society.  Even when we’re not stuck sitting at our desks or hanging out on the couch, we’re jammed into the car commuting.

 

Our plan to deal with this pain in the butt starts with loosening things up and then putting some good alignment and movement habits in place to keep things functional and happy.

 

If budget allows, start with a massage.  Not only can a professional get the tension out, they can also alert us to contributing factors (looking at you, IT band!).

 

To maintain this lower degree of tension, we want to dive into some self-myofascial release techniques.  Using a roller or tiger tail on the behind and the outer side of the thigh is a good (if painful!) way to start.  (Don’t worry:  we are not doing damage.  As we get used to the sensation, it begins to feel better.  Making a habit of it helps.)  I also recommend getting yoga tune-up balls (or lacrosse balls or Pinkie balls or a tennis ball, depending on the hardness you desire; the harder the ball, the deeper the release and the more intense the sensation.)  Putting the ball of our choice under the fleshy part of our behind while sitting on the floor and wiggling around until we find the tender spot does the trick.  Breathing deeply while we wait for the tension to release is useful.

 

Now that our piriformis feels less like a rubber band about to snap, we can do some stretching.  The figure four stretch is a good choice.  To do it, we lie on our backs with one ankle crossed over the other knee.  Then we pull both knees in toward our chests to feel the stretch in our behinds.  It is important that this stretch not cause any pain.  If it hurts, we are pushing too far and we are not helping our flexibility.  When it comes to stretching, pain gets in the way of gain.

 

Next, we need to build a little mobility into our hip joints.  A very simple exercise to help with this is to lie on our backs with one leg in a tabletop position.  Using our hands, we circle our knee around, stirring our femur in the hip socket.  Five circles in each direction is a good idea.

 

We want good strong hips and glutes, so incorporating some squats into our workouts is a good idea.

 

Finally, we just need to make sure we get up and move more often.  A Wristy Overlord (a.k.a. Apple Watch or other fitness tracker) can help remind us to stand and move on an hourly basis.  Or, we can drink lots of water and let our need to use the bathroom take care of the problem for us.

 

It is always a good idea to check in with medical professionals for any pain that persists or worsens.  I am not a doctor.

 

Move it, baby!

Monday Workout: Core

Lots of core challenge today!  Three rounds.

 

 

1 arm clean and press	30
1 leg deadlift	20
squat heel lift	10
plank jacks	30
flies	20
kickbacks	10
leg kicks	30
rows	20
Russian twist	10

The Amazing Stickie and Crouch Jacks

Some days, the Amazing Stickie really wants a whole body challenge.  Those days, she chooses crouch jacks.  Some people call them star jumps.  Choose the name you like best.

She begins by crouching down on the floor, arms close to her body.  Then she jumps up, raising her arms in a Y position above her head and spreading her legs.  Her whole body looks like an X.  She lands back in the crouched position.

 

Coordinating the movement can be a little tricky at first.  This is also a compound exercise, so Stickie knows she is going to get out of breath doing it.  She worked her way up to sets of 30.

By Request: How do I get back into workout safely (part 2)?

This month, I’m taking requests for things folks want to know about fitness (yes, please!  Ask me questions and I will blog the answers!).

I haven’t been exercising lately.  How do I get back into workouts safely?

 

Yesterday we talked about cardio.  Today we’re discussing weight training.

 

Once we’ve established a cardio base and a daily practice of exercising, we can add in some weight training.

 

Just like with the cardio exercise, we want to start small and work up gradually, continually checking in with our bodies to see how we feel.

 

Hiring a trainer (like me!) takes a lot of the brain work out of the process.  It’s certainly not necessary, but it does make things easy.  If that’s not the path we want to pursue, we have some choices.

 

One choice is to do body weight exercises.  The advantages here are pretty obvious:  we all have a body, so we have what we need!  A good basic body weight routine would include a cardio warm-up (something like jumping jacks or running in place), followed by exercises like squats, pushups, pullups, crunches, and planks.  It’s also a good idea to throw in a few balance moves, like single leg squats or deadlifts.  Three rounds of ten reps each is a good place to start.

 

Another choice is to join a gym.  Every gym has some combination of weight machines and free weights.  People who have never worked out before or who have specific restrictions might do best on the machines, but I prefer the free weights because they compel us to stabilize our own bodies, they allow our muscles to cooperate rather than work in isolation from each other, and they’re less boring.  Choose a balance of upper and lower body exercises and aim to bend everything you extend and vice versa (for example, we want to pair exercises like bench press, which involves pushing, with rows, which involve pulling).

 

Our first goal is to gain some endurance.  That means working with weights light enough that we can complete 12 to 20 repetitions.  When doing 20 reps is easy, we increase the weight.  Some people want to stay in the endurance phase (totally acceptable!), while others want to work on building big muscles or maximizing strength.  The big muscle group wants to choose weights that allow for 8 to 10 reps, and the max strength group wants to work up to the heaviest weight possible for one beautiful rep.

 

Go play.

By Request: How do I get back to working out safely? (Part 1)

This month, I’m taking requests for things folks want to know about fitness (yes, please!  Ask me questions and I will blog the answers!).

I haven’t been exercising lately.  How do I get back into workouts safely?

 

I’m going to answer this one over two days, one covering cardio and the other weight training.

 

Good news:  bodies are made to move, so we don’t need to freak out about safety as long as we don’t abandon common sense.

 

(One way to answer this question is:  hire me.  My job is to help people reach their fitness goals safely and with as little yucky stuff as possible.)

 

Those of us who don’t want to rush out and join my client list can still get fit safely.  Here’s what I recommend:

 

Start small.  Maybe we’ve wasted six months watching cooking shows and eating DoorDash, but we’re not going to get back from that in one six-hour marathon session.  That is just not a thing.

 

I suggest starting with cardio in the form of a daily brisk walk.  It’s free, requires only decent shoes, and we all already know how to do it.  At first, I prefer seeing people be consistent rather than doing it for a long time:  every day for fifteen minutes is better than an hour twice a week.  We want to build a habit.  As far as intensity is concerned, we’ll know if we’re working hard enough if we can manage to carry on a conversation but singing would be out of the question.  If we feel like we didn’t do anything at all the next day, we probably need to go a little harder.  If we feel like we’d like to dive headfirst into the Advil, we might want to take it a little easier.

 

Each week, we can push a little harder.  The walk might get longer, or it might get faster, or it might incorporate a few hills.  Again, we want to monitor how we feel the next day and adjust as needed.  We also need to remember that some days just go better than others.  A poor night of sleep, some stress at work, an unfortunate breakfast can all affect our performance on any given day.  We need to have compassion for ourselves without totally letting ourselves off the hook.

 

Once we’ve got a cardio base, we can branch out into other forms of cardio if we like:  swimming, running, biking, ellipticalling (is that a word?  It is now.), dancing, roller-blading, whatever.  And we can turn our attention to the weight training side of the equation, which I will discuss tomorrow.

Monday Workout: Extension!

We’ve got some balance work and some work on spinal extension today.  Three rounds.

 

 

step ups	30
upright row	20
YTA	10
overhead curtsy	30
good morning/deadlift	20
1 leg squat	10
skier jumps	30
bench press	20
scissors	10