by Lonnie Kasow, Personal Trainer/Pilates and CoreAlign Instructor – Eugene Studio

You’ve committed to taking classes at Carpe Diem twice a week, working with one of our personal trainers, or a combination of both. You understand that true fitness is not a quick fix.  It’s a process of organizing your body and your mind – learning what the weak links are in your body, so that you can make them stronger. This is the approach we take at Carpe Diem.  We don’t just give you a great workout (although you get that too!). We give you the tools you need to make lasting changes that enable you to lead a fun and productive life.

In everything we do at Carpe Diem, we focus on the core because a strong core is one of the most necessary components in having a strong body. The core is your center that you use for everything… stability, transfer of force between the upper and lower body (upper force and lower force junctions) and balance. A strong core helps keep your internal organs healthy, helps prepare you for unexpected events like tripping or slipping, helps your weak links remain as strong as they can, and helps you to keep your height and your posture.

We want you to take what you learn from us and use it in your daily life because this is how meaningful and lasting change really happens. As with any habit you are trying to establish in your life, repetition and practice help you to adopt unconscious and harmonious movement- to organize new healthy patterns. You can equate this to flossing and brushing your teeth in between dentist appointments to keep your teeth healthy.  It’s not just the actual dentist appt. that is important, but what you do to take care of your teeth when you are not at the dentist’s office.

Here are some things that you can do on your own that will help solidify all your hard work at Carpe Diem and keep your core strong for the long run:

ZIP IT WHILE YOU BRUSH

You have to brush our teeth twice a day, so what better time to multi task?! While squeezing your toothpaste onto your toothbrush, do pelvic “squeezes” also. Practice your three-diamond zip; this is basically the activation and drawing in and up of the muscles between your pelvic bone/ tailbone/ sit bones, and the muscles in the front (from the xyphoid process to the pubic bone) and in the back (from the bottom of your ribs to the tailbone). This zip activates your core and helps with alignment stability.

Use these few minutes in the morning to stand tall, lengthen up and out of your spine, from your pelvic floor up to your head. As you bend over the sink, draw your belly button to your backbone; don’t let your shoulders come into your ears!  And when you’re done with your teeth, take a moment to remind yourself to stand tall with a neutral spine. Set the tone for the day.

PICK A PLACE

I’ve been doing this for about six months now, and encouraging my students in my classes to do this also: Every time I’m in the grocery store I remind myself to stand in neutral spine, engage my abdominals, and not slump over my cart. It almost feels weird walking through the store so tall, because it’s a place where I often don’t think about my posture and I slump just a little (most people do… look and see). Pick a place that you go to frequently and let this place be “your place” – your reminder to stack your rings and keep them stacked (rib over hip).   It might be the store, the bank, your child’s school- any place that you go on a semi regular basis.

ADD IT UP

A workout does not only consist of an hour in the gym, a class, or a session with your trainer.   You can add a couple of things up at home to equal a very nice and effective workout which involves the core.

I’ve been doing this for a long time because I don’t always want to work out in the gym.    I like to get my cardio first, and then work my core muscles when they’re nice and warm. You only need a half hour to an hour – weekends are nice for this.

Try some of these combos:

1.  A fifteen min. to sixty min. walk  (include some hills or mix in some light jogging).   Stop at a park and do tricep dips or step-ups on a park bench. Return home and add some squats or lunges. Then get on the floor and do some abdominal exercises, bridging, stretching, etc.
2. After cleaning your house or doing yard work (to the point of being warm) add in some of the above exercises.   I love the idea of multi tasking.  You can nicely mix house or yard with some other activity and have it add up to a thorough workout- and you feel like you’ve been very productive when you’re done.

REMEMBER THAT A PICTURE SAYS A THOUSAND WORDS

In both Pilates and Core Align, we use the image of the picture frame. This is the four corners framing both the front and back of your torso. Throughout your day, practice keeping your picture frame rectangular. Don’t let any of the corners collapse in or rotate. The three diamond zip helps to keep your frame square.

Can you keep the frame square while driving or at your comptuer? You  might spend a lot of time in your vehicle and online, and these are places where  you can easily lose your frame. Maybe you’ll need to evaluate the kind of chair you have in your office. Try sitting on a stability ball instead of a regular chair (the stability ball engages your core and makes it hard to slump). It might help to use a lumbar pillow behind your low back in the car.  If you can start to adopt a more “square” posture while sitting (at least some of the time) your core will be stronger and happier.

In addition, when you carry yourself with a strong picture frame, you look good. Think about it… it’s a completely free way to add some extra flair to your appearance. People who walk tall attract attention because really, and sadly, it is so out of the norm. So take up that extra bit of height and claim what is yours – an attractive posture that non-verbally says that you try to take the very best care of yourself.

Back pain has physical, mental, and emotional factors. The wide variety of potential causes for back pain can present this pain and discomfort in several different ways, all of which effect your quality of life by limiting your activity or taking away the pleasure when pain accompanies the things you enjoy doing.

A general back problem or a spinal condition can include many different symptoms: Throbbing, aching, shooting, stabbing, dull, or sharp pain; pain down one or both legs with very little pain in the lower back; numbness or weakness in the legs, pain down in the lower back and legs in certain positions such as standing or walking; sleep problems, decreased energy, depression and anxiety; or pain that stress and emotional issues causes or makes worse.

Your primary care physician should be the first person you will consult with for back pain. They may or may not be comfortable and confident in treating some forms of back pain, like those that appear to be stress induced. By asking some key questions, you and your doctor can decide if he or she is the best person to treat you, or whether a specialist might be appropriate.

In general, the goal of treatment for back pain is simple: To improve the pain symptoms, prevent further injury, and get you back into your life and the activities you enjoy. While specific circumstances will dictate treatment, following an examination, it is generally recommended that those experiencing back pain modify their activity for a given period of time. Medication may also be recommend to decrease pain and inflammation. However, complete inactivity such as bed rest is not advised.

Once the pain is eased, your physician may recommend some form of rehabilitative exercise program with the goals of increasing your muscle strength, endurance, flexibility, and aerobic fitness to improve your spinal health and limit future episodes of back pain.

There are several factors that put an individual at a higher risk of experiencing back pain:

• Jobs requiring frequent bending or lifting
• Twisting your body when you are lifting or carrying an object
• Lifting and carrying when you are in a hurry
• Being overweight
• Those who do not exercise regularly and are not involved in recreational physical activity have a higher chance of suffering from back pain.
• Researchers consistently find a connection between smoking and back pain, although it is unclear precisely what the nature of that connection is.

Improper lifting is a leading cause of back pain. Back pain caused by lifting can be prevented with proper technique and regular exercise. Simple things like always bending your knees and lifting with your legs, avoiding lifting over your head, planning ahead to avoid hurrying, spreading your feet shoulder distance apart, and getting help if something is too heavy for you to lift alone can make a tremendous difference in keeping your back healthy and pain free.

None of us can avoid the normal effects of aging, but regular exercise is one of the best defenses we have against back pain, as well as a host of other health concerns. Exercise lubricates spinal discs and helps overcome low back pain. In addition, strong back muscles improve posture and help support the bones and tendons in the back and torso.

Total body fitness should be a key component of your back pain rehabilitation program because overall physical health will also help your back. For example, strong abdominal muscles, gluteal muscles, and leg muscles can help support your back and prevent injury.

From American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons www.aaos.org

Back pain can create so many problems – from minor annoyances and stiffness to debilitating pain that makes it difficult to accomplish day-to-day tasks. If you’ve suffered from back pain, you’re not alone.

In fact, according to MedLine Plus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health, low back pain is the #2 reason that Americans see their doctor — second only to colds and flus.

At Carpe Diem, we focus a great deal on ensuring that the movements and positions we use in our classes or sessions work to strengthen your core, support your spine and avoid or alleviate back problems. It helps to have a better idea of how the spine functions and why problems might arise.

To start, think of your spine as a string of bones, like a string of beads. In fact, between each bone is a “joint” that is designed to move at several points. Your spine has 24 of these “joints” (just counting in-between each vertebrae), but most people have a tendency to move at one or two places in their spine primarily, often the neck (cervical) and the low back (lumbar).  Injuries usually happen in the mobile parts of the spine that are better able to move because they overcompensate for the sections that don’t move enough or at all. Ideally, however, each of those joints would have movement ability to distribute force equally at each joint.

Habitual movements, such as work postures or repetitive activities, often reinforce this common tendency for the neck and low back to overcompensate. Our goal is to help you become more aware of how your body tends to move in order to gain movement in the less-mobile parts of the spine – all those little joints that don’t often get attention. When you’re able to equally distribute the forces of movement between the joints in your spine, your back is stronger, your posture better and your movements more intentional.

Low back pain can also occur if the hip joint does not work correctly. Due to typical patterns in our daily lives, especially sitting for long periods of time, it is common to have an imbalance at the hip socket. That can manifest as either a front-to-back imbalance of the hamstrings and hip flexors and/or a side-to-side imbalance of the external and internal rotators. These imbalances directly affect the position of the pelvis and therefore the low back and sometimes even further up the spine. Learning to move the thigh bone in the hip socket without moving the pelvic girdle in different combinations and patterns of movement helps create more balance at the hip socket, and therefore can take some of the extra work out of the low back. We frequently use the term “hip disassociation” in our classes or sessions to describe this concept.

Spinal movement should always be balanced, whether is it a front/back motion, a side/side motion, or combination of both. Weak or inefficient abdominals can make the back do more work or bear more pressure than it should during movement. It takes coordination and work to find this balance, and if we don’t use our abdominals correctly or effectively- you guessed it- the back will have to compensate! So you can see how easy it is to develop back issues and how important it is to work on improving the balance of our bodies.

While back pain is common, take comfort knowing that through careful and mindful exercise, you can retrain your body and correct habits, even those you’ve built over a lifetime. The key is to become aware of your movements to reach your body’s potential. And of course the team at Carpe Diem is here to help!

Drew has been a Carpe Diem client for 3 1/2 years and is participating in this year’s Mr. Irish Pagent at Sheldon High School. There currently is a jar at the front desk of our Eugene location to help him in his fundraising efforts. We hope you will read his information below and consider helping him meet his fundraising goal. 

My name is Drew Haugen and I am a senior at Sheldon High School in Eugene, Oregon.  I have been nominated to participate in the 2012 Mr. Irish Pageant at my school. This yearly competition consists of ten senior boys who work alongside coordinators and staff members to raise money for the Children’s Miracle Network. My coordinator is Sally Stender. We are very excited to be a part of such an amazing event!

The pageant, which will be held on March 3^rd at 7 p.m. in the Sheldon Auditorium, is a fun and unique way to help give back to the community. Each senior boy will be judged in four categories including a talent preformed on stage, a video, dancing, and most importantly fundraising. All of the money we raise goes directly to C.M.N. and provides local hospitals with the medical care and equipment necessary to treat infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. As a baby, I spent 2 ½ months in the N.I.C.U. and having the opportunity to help other children in need is a rewarding experience.

The idea to fundraise for the Children’s Miracle Network began in 1990 with Sheldon student C.J. Martin and the original Mr. Irish Pageant. Today, almost every high school in town has their own version of this great event. Since its creation, Kids Helping Kids has raised over 2.5 million dollars for C.M.N.

The Grand Opening Celebration for Bend’s Carpe Diem Pilates and CoreAlign Training Center was held Friday, 11/11/11.

Shawn and Hayley Healey have joined forces with Nancy Ludeman and the former In-Joy Pilates Studio to bring Carpe Diem Pilates and CoreAlign training systems to Bend. We are excited to introduce this new studio to the Bend area. It’s a perfect fit with such avid outdoor enthusiasts and a highly health-conscious community.

Hayley and Nancy, doing what they do best!

Wine and light hors d’oeuvres were on hand (of course!) to celebrate this great new movement space, and two lucky winners won 10-class Phase 1 series.

Next time you’re in the area please come and say hi!

Carpe Diem Pilates and CoreAlignTrainingCenter
532 SW 13th Street, Suite 103
Bend, OR 97702
541.550.7887

Editor’s Note: Caitlin’s Great Pilates Adventure will take you through the Reformer Series from Level 1 through 3. We hope you enjoy Caitlin’s perspective as she learns the ropes. Share your own experience with us in the comments! 

Going in to Carpe Diem for the first time I wasn’t completely sure what to expect. I’d taken pilates classes in the past, but after looking at Carpe Diem’s website I could tell it wouldn’t be laying on the floor with resistance bands on my legs.

I felt welcomed immediately. The atmosphere is very laid back and the women who work at CD love what they do and would probably share it with the whole world if they could. After a couple of minutes of introductions and a brief explanation of what we would be doing (brief, because there is a lot of explaining along the way!), we jumped right into… breathing.

In this style of Pilates, we use a Reformer that has springs which allow different amounts of resistance – so that’s where the bands went! We started on our backs for much of the time the first few classes. Because we are laying down, and because of the types of workouts we are doing, it is important for our torsos to remain level, and therefore we must breath into our “back space”.  This was a really weird concept for me, and I don’t think I really started doing it right until my third week when something clicked.

Carpe Diem trainer, Brandi, works with Caitlin

After practicing breathing sitting up, we laid down and began doing leg presses. We added different foot formations to our leg presses which targeted different muscles, and after one week – although this wasn’t my typical semi-intense workout – I was very intrigued by what this class would bring. Doing these seemingly basic movement, I’d felt muscles that running or squats never even hinted at.

To be continued…