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Show Your Feet Some Love

Our poor feet often experience cruel and unusual punishment. We stuff our feet in stylish shoes that fit us poorly for the sake of looking good; we run around all day on our feet and forget about them until they start to hurt. All of a sudden, one day you notice a bump developing on the joint of your big toe. Then you realize that you have been feeling little aches and pains in your feet that have been coming and going for the last few months. You also realize that your other four toes are crammed into “shoe” position even when barefoot, while your ankles stabilize for dear life, even when you’re standing still.

What is going on? Beneath the skin many of the 26 bones in each foot are being wedged together, leaving the muscles cramped and the connective tissue locked tight. You have not been giving your feet enough love! By love, we mean attention. Feet need quality attention throughout a lifetime to keep them balanced, flexible, and strong.

Here are five tips on how to give your feet some love and create a solid foundation for your body:

1. Wear shoes that fit well and give you the support you need. When trying on shoes take some time to feel how your new shoe translates energy from your foot, to your knees, and even to your pelvis. If they don’t feel great in movement and standing then continue on with your search…

2. Walk around bare foot or with clogs whenever you get the chance. This will give your feet, and especially your toes, the opportunity to spread out and root into the ground, the way nature intended.

3. Get a foot massage, reflexology treatment, or just use a tennis ball to loosen up the fascia on the bottom of your feet. If you do it yourself remember to go slow and allow the ball to sink into your tissue.

4. Exercise! Working out a couple times a week with an organized exercise program will keep you feeling strong and prepared for the brutal postural battle of the work week. Full body balance will translate into happier feet, and vice versa.

5. Pay attention to your posture. Having your body aligned over your feet in a structurally balanced manner will spread your body’s weight through the entire foot and allow it to do what it’s designed to do, whether standing or walking.

Raise your awareness to how your feet feel! Your whole body will benefit.

How To Lengthen Your Arm Line With A Reverse Plank.

This video by Nimble’s Kristin Porter demonstrates a great stretch to lengthen the front arm lines and increase range of motion in the shoulders. You’ll begin with one leg bent and work your way up to a full Reverse Plank. Take notice of the hand placement (fingers pointing towards feet) and how the shoulders are maintained down the back. The chin should also be slightly tucked to reach your full stretch potential.

 

Hydration

“Water is a critical element of the body, and keeping the body adequately hydrated is a must to allow the body to function.” – Melissa Stöppler, MD, on MedecineNet

As most of us know from junior-high school biology, our bodies are made up of mostly water. So, knowing how much water we need to drink to stay properly hydrated can seem confusing. If we have so much water in our bodies, then why do we have to keep replenishing it?

The answer, in part, lies in the fact that our bodies use water on a cellular level. That means that every ounce of tissue, every muscle, every organ—basically almost everything in us—is composed on the most basic level by water. As our bodies are always changing and evolving (or the opposite), our hydration levels can vary greatly.  Here are some of the key ways we are constantly losing water :

• Breath! Humidified air leaves your body every time you exhale.

• Sweat—especially when you exercise.

• Eliminating waste.

So, if we’re losing water all the time from basic body functions, common sense tells us we have to constantly replenish. Here are some basic daily water requirement levels. Since most adults weigh between 100 and 250 pounds, these standards from MedecineNet should give you a good general idea on how much water to drink daily:

• If you weigh 100 pounds – 50 ounces minimum, a quart and a half a day

• If you weigh 150 pounds – 65 ounces minimum,  2 quarts daily

• If you weigh 200 pounds – 70 ounces minimum, over half a gallon a day

• If you weigh 250 pounds – 75+ ounces minimum

And so on. Keep in mind these are minimum daily requirements. And if you add in other factors like exercise, sickness, dehydration from diuretics such as coffee and tea, we all definitely have some hydrating to do. On more factor: winter air is dryer air, so it probably makes sense to kick up your hydration this winter. If you have additional questions, email us at info@nimblefitness.com, or find us on Facebook.

Intro to MELT Workshop @ Nimble Fitness

What is MELT?

The MELT Method® is a breakthrough self- treatment system that restores the supportiveness of the body’s connective tissue to eliminate chronic pain, improve performance, and decrease the accumulated stress caused by repetitive postures and movements of everyday living. This patent- pending, pro-active self-treatment technique is backed by science and acclaimed by thousands of devoted MELTers.

New research has revealed the missing link to pain-free living: a balanced nervous system and healthy connective tissue. These two components work together to provide whole- body support, protection, and mind-body communication. Manual therapist Sue Hitzmann has transformed groundbreaking neurofascial science and hands-on therapies into a one-of- a-kind treatment method called MELT.

What benefits does MELT offer?

MELT creates a strong, flexible body that maintains its upright posture for life. And you will see and feel results after just one session!

MELT improves:

· flexibility & mobility
· posture
· the results of exercise
· range of motion
· sleep & digestion
· overall well-being

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Sunday, February 17, 2013 … 11:00am- 12:30pm

Cost: $35 (First 10 people to register receive a free gift.)

GREAT TRX-press class with Suzie on Monday January 21, 2013

If you missed it, we had a full house for our new Monday afternoon TRX-Press class.  Don’t fret!  Suzie will be teaching again this coming Monday (and every Monday thereafter).  Get your friends and co-workers to join you.  This is a 35 minutes total body workout that’s fun and full of energy.  We know you are going to love it!   – Mondays at 12:30pm -

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REGISTER HERE or CONTACT US

Leg Strength / Part II

By Daniel Lucas …

Last month we gave you three exercises to help strengthen your legs. This month we’ll progress from those exercises into three new movements to specifically help you prepare your legs for the challenges of winter sports—such as skiing, snowboarding or climbing. These exercises move through a different plane of motion than last month’s. Changing the plane, speed and load of your leg exercises will help you make your legs truly strong and ready to handle all the different challenges of moving on snow and ice. Here are this month’s exercises:

•Exercise #1.  The Clam
•Exercise #2.  Plié lunge
•Exercise #3.  Lateral lunge

The video below demonstrates the exercises in Part II of my leg strength series. Perform 2-3 sets for 15-20 repetitions. You can hold a kettlebell, dumbbell or medicine ball to increase the load. If the load you’ve added is challenging, you can drop the number of repetitions. Remember, this is not meant to be a full workout, but rather a series within a workout. That being said, if you only have time for these exercises today, then take it!

Proper form is important, so work on becoming aware of where your body is in space, and how you can improve. These exercises can also reveal your current level of strength. Also, assess the difference between your left leg and right leg. Pay extra attention to your body if you see a noticeable weakness on one side.

Change…

by Antonio Sini …

It can only happen if you ask yourself the honest questions. What do I mean by that? Well, as a fitness professional working with people on their personal health, one of my challenges is to help each client find out what they really want to achieve, and then implement effective ways to bring out the changes they desire. Creating a safe and effective exercise program is actually relatively “easy.” The harder part is actually identifying everyone’s underlying motives for positive change. If those motives are not uncovered, then the exercise program is often ineffective. This leads to frustration, temporary failure, and often a regression back to poor health habits.

What if we all took a look at what we value at the start of an exercise program, rather than simply looking at what specific exercises you want to do. Discovering the value that you place on your health, and how your entire being will benefit, has a far more lasting impact than just going through the motions of exercise.

Here is an example of what I mean: Let’s say you’ve just purchased a gym membership. How would you take advantage of it? Some typical answers are: “I would start exercising with a trainer”; “I’d take classes to get in shape” and so on. However, what would your answer be if we turn that question around: How does it feel to have a gym membership and exercise regularly? The answers here would be very different: “Happy”; “Less stressed after I work out”; “I feel so much more energetic.”

The first answer tells me what actions you would take with the gym membership. The second reveals more of what you value in your life – a stress free environment, happiness, feeling less fatigued. So in finding out what you value, your actions which follow have a far more significant impact on the changes that you wish to make. That’s really how you really stay motivated to succeed and how you truly change.

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