“I’m not sure I should come in for my training session today. I might have lifted something the wrong way when I was bending down to prune my roses. Now, I have some tightness and pain in my lower back and right side of my hip. What do you recommend?” read one of the emails …
Tag: exercise napa
Oct 23
Optimal Posture While Sitting
Imagine living without tables, desks, or work benches. Throw in the twist of removing an automobile that we sit down in to take us to our desired location in minutes. Just for fun, put yourself in a fantasy world where the revolution of cell phones never crossed the mind of the brilliant inventors who created …
Oct 09
Consistent Practice for Strong Knees
“Are the first few minutes of getting out of bed just absolute hell?” my friend Kaus asked me while we were enjoying one of Model Bakery’s finest English muffins, which had been toasted and smothered in strawberry jam. Kaus and I take leisurely walks every few weeks, discussing our hobbies, traveling adventures, and current events. …
Oct 04
Resistance Training Improves Knee Health
Walking, getting in and out of cars, going up and down stairs, or kneeling to pick up objects are common activities in our everyday lives that our lower extremities allow us to do. However, activities that seem simple enough that someone should be able to do it with their eyes closed can be cut short …
Aug 28
Exercise is the Natural High
“It doesn’t get much better than this,” I commented after sitting on a bench at Crane Park in St. Helena and peering out into the vineyard-laced countryside with a few of my pickleball companions. We concluded a three-hour session of playing pickleball matches, switching partners every game. For me, this was just what the doctor …
Aug 23
How to Fall
The risk of falling introduces itself in a multitude of ways including deconditioned fitness levels, harsh external environments, or, what most of us are concerned about as we tack on another decade to our lives, the advancement of age and deterioration of balance. A foot catching the end of an area rug, slipping off of …
Aug 09
Foundations in Movement-Ankle Strength
Enduring a full day of eight or more hours of physical activity including walking around the house after getting out of bed first thing in the morning, to performing a rigorous physical activity such as conducting manual labor at our jobs requires the ability to walk, step up, turn around, or kneel. These seemingly simple …
Aug 01
Utilizing Exercise to Reinforce Confidence in Balance
The ability to maintain our body’s balance throughout our everyday life activities is critically important to our productivity and functionality. Deconditioned fitness levels, recovering from a significant surgery, or the general advancement of age play a role in creating unbalanced environments. Standing up from seated or lying down positions, correcting our walking path if we …
Jun 18
Reducing Risk of Falling with a Strong Core
“I read some research that one of the biggest factors causing falls is related to having a weak core,” expressed Dutch during one of his weekly personal training sessions. Dutch expressed this as we performed an exercise involving balancing on one leg as I threw a la crosse ball, bouncing it off of the ground …
May 16
Postural Awareness Increases Productivity
The spinal cord is an elongation of our brain consisting of a series of hollow bones stacked on top of each other. These bony structures are our vertebrae. Spanning from the base of the skull down to the buttocks, each vertebra possesses a hollow cylinder-like interior meant to encase and protect the spinal cord. Consisting …