Posts Tagged ‘Alicia Weber’

Exercising has nothing to do with time or money. What you want is to look for opportunities to use movement during the day as part of your normal routine. Simple movements will help you energize.

It is essential to provide your circulatory, lymphatic, and muscles with nutrients and oxygen, while eliminating waste. Exercise is like giving your body an immune shot. In studies moderate exercise helped ward off the flu.

You need to provide your body with the ingredients for it to meet the challenges and to get the most out of every day. Sustainable energy is needed so you don’t crash half way through the day.

Start slowly at the beginning and gradually increase activity by a few minutes each week.

No Caffeine or Sugar Needed

Beating the bulge and shaping up is not just for weight loss. It is mood enhancer, and insulin modulator. It’s a partner in health. The only side effect of mild to moderate activity is a renewed more vibrant life. There has never been a better way to quit caffeine or/and sugar than by working out.

Exercise is a strategic alliance that offers you the opportunity of supporting cardiovascular health while looking and feeling better.

New Year New You

Nobody ever questions that exercise will strengthen your muscles when done correctly. With all the health clubs, exercise programs, books and articles out there you would think that we would be a fit nation.

Are you looking for extra variety, low costs, and time efficient ways to exercise?

We want to offer is a more convenient option, without the usual pitfalls. We created a greener option, without much cost in both time and money.

This is a new year and we want to supply a happy compromise between working out and activity. Cells are challenged with any kind of consistent movement. We have Alicia Weber who is going to go though some slick easy movement that you can do even if you are glued to the couch. She will be giving instructions in our newsletter “The Healing Zone.”

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As an aquatic therapist, I find my clients enjoying exercise more if they begin with aquatic training. We can do the same land exercises in the water and so much more without any effort, yet we can get the heart rate in the appropriate zone for weight loss and overall fitness results.

One female client started an exercise program with me 12 weeks ago and it began with water training. She exclaims,”Water is an excellent introduction for anyone starting an exercise program for the 1st time or returning to exercise after a long break. Water training isn’t as difficult as land-based training. It prepares you for the gym. The combination of both gives the best results.”

This client is currently in a land-based only program as she has graduated into a new fitness level. She remembers her first weeks and recalls doing a series of arm flap exercises first in the water. She moved her arms effortlessly at high speeds and later noticed arm toning effects. A few weeks later she did the same arm flap exercise routine on land and found it be grueling, difficult, and exhausting. However, through her 3 month conditioning process the same routine done on land is still challenging, but not exhausting. She is now in great condition and continues to excel at challenging exercises on land where at one time, she was only able to perform them in the water.

Below is a short intro to the Arm Flap Leg Endurance routine. FIRST try in the water and after a few weeks try on land and see the difference as your strength and endurance builds!

One may ask, what is balance training and what are the benefits?

It can benefit a person in so many ways and it starts with the spinal cord.

The spinal cord is involved with voluntary and involuntary movement where information is carried up and down the spine by bundles of fibers in the central nervous system (CNS) where sensory and motor information signal a movement. The goal would be to build a faster reaction with technical movements. First, try dribbling a basketball and notice how little concentration is involved. Now, try dribbling a Reaction Ball -- WOW, what a difference! Concentration and level of difficulty is 10 fold and one can feel the impulses to react!

This is just the beginning of the effects of balance training…

Proprioception is the ongoing awareness of body position or joint position and it is regulated by sensory organs (i.e. eyes, ears, and specialized receptors in tendons, joints, and muscles). Proprioception gets challenged in balance training too! The visual sense gives pertinent data about external stimuli and are extremely important in skilled performances. Try a simple “eyes shut” exercise, while standing on one foot to see how your proprioception is challenged in balance training. Sometimes you may feel like you want to wave your hands around to maintain equilibrium. This signals coordination involvement in balance.

Coordination involves an involuntary response that results in specific motor response with that response being dependent on the type and duration of the stimulus received. So in everyday activities coordination is rarely challenged. However, try to balance on 1 foot -- turn one arm clockwise, the other arm counter-clockwise, and the other leg clockwise then counter clockwise. Now, we are talking about coordination! The results of working on that exercise over time will be building stronger somatic reflexes (reflexes involving skeletal muscle contraction).

Balance training is challenging body equilibrium and teaching nervous and sensory receptor systems to perform highly skilled movement patterns.

How can balance training help the elderly?

As I trained patients with high-level neuromuscular and neurological conditions, the best results came from combining “eyes shut” exercises with coordination exercises all while doing a light aerobic activity. Results and graduation to a new fitness level were achieved in 4-weeks. Aerobic activity alone produced no results and coordination drills with eyes open only produced minor results. So to get the most out of balance try an array of activities such as the examples above.

How can balance help kids and adults?

When in good health, a person wouldn’t even recognize their nervous system and muscles executing a simple movement, but when there is a problem their nerves and muscles can become impaired. People can easily begin reaping rewards from balance training and apply them to sports like tennis and basketball. Balance training also strengthens muscle stabilizers, so if you are apt to get ankle sprains -- then regular balance training can fix that problem!

Watch my client master a very difficult balance exercise that also works the core and quads!