The Back - level one

Back Strengthening Exercises - first level Back Stretches Garrick starts with stretching the back. From what I've seen of most people my age, be they male or female, that's going to be essential. Quite a few people are hobbling around, even though they're not over sixty, with a curled spine and legs that don't move much. This is horrible. But then, I've also met twelve-year-olds who cannot touch their toes, and it makes me a little ill to think how life is going to be for them when they're sixty. Crippled, I daresay, and dependent on a walker or a wheel chair. Bonnie Prudden has an interesting story of her involvement with a wheelchair patient. I'll put it up some time soon, probably right after I get done with this introduction section. Lie on your back. Grasp the back of one thigh and gently pull your leg to your chest. If you can't do that, just pull it toward your chest till it stops. That's what the "gently" means. Hold this stretch for fifteen seconds. if it starts hurting before fifteen seconds you've pulled it too aggressively and let go of it. Next time ease up. This is a stretch, not a rip. Anyway, at fifteen seconds lower the leg to where it was and gently pull up the other one. Hold, put it back. Now do both together. You know what to do if it's difficult--just do the best you can. Everything will improve with time. Relax, put your legs back, and go on to curl-ups. After your curl-ups, finish with some nice, relaxing repeats of the back stretches. Curl-Ups Curl-ups are mostly to strengthen your abdominal muscles, but those are very important toward supporting your back. Also, they don't do a lot to stress your back unless you stop paying attention to what you're doing and allow your back to arch. So don't do that. I don't think these are enough level one exercises. I went to other books and found the following. Shoulder blade squeezes Stand up straight. (I sit in a certain chair because of the feedback I get from it as my shoulder blades press against the back.) Shoulders back. Suck in gut while doing this. Now use the shoulder muscles to press the shoulder blades toward each other. Hold this contraction for three seconds (eventually increasing to six or ten), then release. Relax for three seconds. Start out with four contractions, twice a day, increase to twenty contractions five or ten times a day. Do not work to the point of strain or pain. Daily Challenge gives us a few exercises: Alternating stretches Kneel on all fours on the floor. I can't do anything on the floor till I get a mat so I do it on the bed, which is ugly-hard. Make sure the hands and knees are directly below the shoulders and hips. Slowly raise the right arm and point straight ahead, hold three seconds, replace hand on the floor. Raise the opposite leg (the left one in this case) and extend it straight behind. Hold for three seconds, then replace. Switch and do left arm, then right leg. Over time, increase the number of reps per set and the number of sets per day, while lengthening the amount of time the limbs are held up. Eventually we'll be doing the arm and opposite leg together, but that's a level two thing. Gluteals squeeze Stand up straight, feet hip-width apart. Squeeze the glutes together while also contracting the backs of the thighs. Squeeze for three seconds, relax for three seconds. Repeat for four squeezes, twice a day. A must to avoid: Toe-touching Vigorous hamstring stretching Using excessive weights with any kind of lifting Sit-ups with your feet hooked

To reiterate, I'm not telling anyone to do anything. I'm not a doctor, I'm not a personal trainer. I'm just telling YOU what I'm doing and letting you know what worked and what didn't. I'm an older woman and I want to get fit. More than fit, really; it was my dream (though I never had the time and freedom and information to make it a goal) in college to get physically fit. To me that meant strong, thought not necessarily muscular; I wanted to have the stamina to run to run a fair distance (ten miles, perhaps, but I'd like to run a marathon now). Had I ever had a clue how to get to the point of being able to do one-armed pushups, I would have been in pig heaven. I have the time to do all this now. But at 59 years of age, this isn't exactly a refresher course for me; I'm pretty much starting from scratch with just a few advantages. Staring a fitness program from scratch at my age? I'm determined to make it so. I'm in very bad condition. I used to be fit, and was well able to play tennis like a fiend. That was when I was 19--forty years ago. In my twenties I taught sailing and raced my Hobie 14' catamaran. I won almost all the time. It takes a few muscles to do that kind of racing. I was fit for it. But, since college and through the last thirty years, I haven't had much opportunity to do much. I'm more of a reader and a watcher of movies than I am a gymnast or jogger. I've been sedentary

The Back

Doctors often prescribe fitness-enhancing exercises to treat or relieve back pain. You may be doing your back a favor by working your body into shape. So hurray! I've been working on my other areas to get rid of some pain I've had. Now it's time to add back exercises, because I can tell you, I've had a lot of back pain through my life. I'd like to get rid of it. Through my life, since I severely injured my back, I must have been favoring my back. I didn't know it till I started all this exercising and managed to drive away a lot of my pain through strengthening the joints. Now I will try to use what I've learned to do my back some favors--strengthening the back and strengthening my abdominal muscles together to make it possible for me to stand up straighter and quit stressing both my lower and upper back. Back Self-Examination Do you have pain radiating down either or both legs? Do you get back pain or radiating pain when you cough, sneeze, or strain, such as when moving your bowels? Do you have weakness in your legs, such as the inability to stand on your toes? Do you have any numbness or tingling in your legs or feet? Have you ever been diagnosed as having disk disease or a ruptured disk? Have you ever been told your back x-rays are abnormal? Have you had any episodes of significant back pain or other back problems within the last twelve months? If you answered "yes" to ANY of these questions, go to a doctor right away because you may be experiencing clues to serious back problems. If the answer to all of these questions is "no" then answer these questions: Is your back stiff when you get up in the morning? Does your back ache after you've been sitting or standing for more than thirty minutes? Does your back ache the day after any unaccustomed activity such as skiing or or tennis? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you should talk to your doctor about beginning a back exercise program before going on to a general fitness program. If the answer to all of these questions is "no", then most likely your back is in fair shape. But to be sure, go on to this next part of the examination. Sit on the floor with your legs extended in front of you. Now lean forward with your arms stretched toward your toes. Can you comfortably reach your fingertips beyond your kneecaps? Lie on your stomach. Are you able to arch your chest and legs upward at the same time painlessly? When standing, are you able to move your back in all six directions--front, back, left, right, twist to the left, and twist to the right? Can you do so comfortably? Are you able to do five curl-ups? How to do curl-ups: Lie on your back, knees bent, and your hands placed far up your chest. (I crossed my forearms and gripped my shoulders and unknowingly pulled my shoulders, causing strain on the sore shoulder, so beware of something like that.) Some manuals say not to roll your head and neck forward but they don't say why. I gave myself a headache till I read someone's advice to hold the head and neck out straight from the shoulders without curving them, so now I don't get neck aches from this and I'm sure I'm doing them right. Also, make darned sure you're not arching your back, which pulls the psoas into action and can give you a very sore lower back. Curl up slowly till the shoulders and then the upper back come up off the mat, then stop there. Hold that position for the count of three, then curl down slowly--again, without arching the back. Breathe normally as you can. Do five of these. I've already added twisted-curl-ups, and do four (left, center, right, center) with three seconds' breather after each curl-up, and do six of these to get twenty-four curl-ups. I doubt I'll have Stephen Amell's sixpacks >-) any time soon but it will be nice to be able to suck in my gut and have it stay sucked in.

Shoulder Strengthening Program - second level

Second Level -- Adding resistance. Bend over at the waist and with your arm pull back against the resistance without bending your elbos, as though you were sawing something you had placed on the floor straight below your shoulder. Ten pull per set, a couple of times per day. As you grow stronger, increase the resistance by stretching the tubing farther so that it's harder to pull. This exercise strengthens the rhomboids and middle trapezius, the muscles in your upper back that control the movement of your shoulder blades. To strengthen the deltoid muscle on top of the shoulder, stand with your arms at your sides, your left side aimed to the wall, your right side aimed away from the wall. Grasp the band with your right hand, hang your right hand straight down next to your side. Now lift slowly straight out from your side, as if you were about to do an arm swing, but go only as far as is comfortable and no higher. As you grow stronger you'll be able to lift higher. Then increase the resistance. Do two sets of ten reps every day. Exercises to avoid: Weight lifting utilizing the arms or shoulders Rowing machines Nordic track or Nordic trainer Push-ups Pull-ups or chin-ups Games that particularly utilize the shoulder, such as polo, tennis, softball, and golf

Shoulder Strengthening Program - first level

These exercises move your shoulder through its entire range of motion and exercise virtually all of the muscles in the shoulder. As Garrick recommends, I do them in the gentlest way--no weights, no resistance. A week of the exercises did my shoulder huge favors. After just ten days I could lift my bad arm through all directions, and only in a couple of them did I feel anything like pain. Now, after three weeks, it's almost completely without that pain. I do all these exercises still, and don't push anything. I do them through the range of motion that is comfortable. If I get a twinge, I cut down on the range and the effort. I started by doing 20 reps for each of them, twice a day. These were so successful for me that within a couple of days I increased both reps and sets, so I was doing thirty to fifty reps each, four to eight times away. Garrick reminds us to progress slowly and take it easy, that it's more important to progress well, and not to worry about progressing quickly. Circles Bend over at the waist and let the arm on your bad shoulder hang free in front of you. Move your torso so that the arm starts to swing in a circle in a clockwise direction. Use just enough muscle to kick the arm into motion and keep it swinging lazily. If it hurts to make a circle, make an egg shape or any other figure that feels comfortable. Do 20 circles in the clockwise direction, then twenty counterclockwise. Change arms and do the same. The more you do, the more your range of motion will increase. Shrugs Stand or sit up straight. Shrug your shoulders. Gently and slowly. When you've progressed enough that this motion doesn't hurt, vary the path of the shrug. That means do a forward circle, or a backward circle, or a figure eight if you think getting fancy is a fun and safe idea. Sawing Stand up straight, hands at sides. Reach forward as far as your comfortable range will allow, then pretend you are at one end of a two-handled saw, and draw your hand and elbow back as far as your range of comfort will allow, but in the beginning do it without tensing or pretending to pull heavy weight. I found this excellent just for loosening up that twenty-year hurt shoulder. I did it gently when the shoulder was sore and after about three weeks the soreness has almost completely left. I started with ten reps each arm, and did these several times a day. Obviously I wasn't as sore as you might be. Swings I hated this exercise because it demanded I do arm lifts right through the place where my arm shoulder hurt the most, so I modified it to place less streaa on my shoulder in the beginning. Stand up straight, arms down at your sides. Lift them straight out to the sides and up till they meet at the center over your head, then lower them. Do this slowly so you don't jerk your shoulder. These are called "Abduction Swings". Actually at the beginning you raise your arms to a comfortable level only. Even so, this hurt my right shoulder terribly. I figured out that the arm, extended out to its full length, hurt too much to do these so I decided to make my arm weigh less--I flexed the elbow and brought half the weight of my right arm in to my body. It was then pretty easy to raise my right "wing" to almost horizontal. From there I slowly progressed to horizontal, with my arm halfway open (that is, the right elbow bent to a ninety-degree angle) and slowly gained more height from there. I'll be working on opening my arm all the way out. I can do that much now, but it's uncomfortable and I'm not eager to push it. Slow but steady wins the race and doesn't send me back to an arm sling.

The Shoulder

This one was the area I eagerly jumped to, after the section on the knee. Twenty years ago I got a pain in my shoulder. I attributed it to excessive use of the mouse, which I was probably clutching wrong, or so I assumed. Also my desk was way too high, being a desk that was originally a table. In fact the desk I'm working on right now is a dining table and it's several inches too high. Now, the sharp pain that went over the top of my shoulder didn't keep me from doing whatever else I needed to do. The worst one, though, was hefting a forty-pound saddle onto the back of a medium-sized horse. That one hurt like heck. So for a long time I knew that I had at least a tired muscle that hurt a lot, and wondered if maybe I hadn't torn it somehow without knowing it. But I really thought it was just sore. Anyway, I worked around it, tried hard to give it a rest, tried not to over-use it, I even favored it, hoping that I could rest it enough for it to get well. No such luck. Now along comes this book, and its entry-level exercises. I start doing them and lo and behold, the sore shoulder is ten times better in just a week. Not perfect, but I can move my shoulders now without all that pain. Yes, it's not all done yet; I can still feel it in certain positions but it's very mild compared to the last 20 years. The shoulder is the most flexible joint in the body, allowing movement in a large range; but it's also not well supported by a tough joint arrangement, such as is found in the hip where a ball is held in a socket by strong tendons attached to strong muscles. Thus, a healthy shoulder is one with strong muscles and tendons. But I wasn't going to dig right in with some wonderfully strengthening exercises. I've been doing baby pushups for months and working through the pain. I even had some improvement, having gone from 10 pushups to 18 pushups (thanks to the Marine 3x Workout Manual) but since I had started with a bad shoulder, I continued making that shoulder worse. Shoulder Examination First take a quick medical history: Does your shoulder feel unstable, dislocate, or slip out of position? Does your shoulder catch or lock? Do you feel any numbness, tingling, or weakness in your arm or hand? If you said yes, to any of these, go to a doctor. If you said no to all of these, go on to the next level. Does your shoulder feel stiff or achy following unaccustomed or strenuous activities? Do you avoid using your shoulder for certain activities such as carrying suitcase? If you answered "yes" to either question then you need to work on strengthening your shoulder. If you answered "no" to both questions, you may be in pretty good shape, but before you begin any exercise program you should still probably strengthen your shoulders. You don't want to go ahead and assume that because it doesn't hurt, it's good to go, and end up doing to your shoulder what I did to my knees, which is possible. So next comes the diagnosis in the mirror: Stand facing a mirror with your arms hanging at your sides. Are your arms hanging at your side? Are your shoulders the same height? Do they appear about the same size? Looking in a mirror, raise your arms with your thumbs pointing upward. Bring them up to the horizontal and stop. Are the muscles in the front of the tops of your shoulders, the anterior deltoids, the same size? Looking in a mirror, raise your arms out from the sides of your body. Do the tops of your shoulders stay at an equal level as you raise your arms? Or does one shoulder elevate sooner than the other? While standing, raise your arms from your sides and attempt to touch your hands above your head. Are you able to raise both arms above your head to the same degree? Standing with your arms at your sides, bend your elbows and put your hands behind your back. Are you able to move both hands an equal distance up your back? Lie on your back with your arms straight out from your sides and your elbows bent at a right angle. Now allow your hands to droop down to the floor. Do the backs of both hands touch the floor? If not, do both hands come to within an equal distance of the floor? If you answered "no" to any of these questions, one of your shoulders is probably weaker and less flexible than the other. In that case, you should strengthen that bad shoulder before undertaking any general fitness or exercise program involving your shoulders.

Ankle Strengthening Program - second level

These are harder than the little stretchy band resistance exercises because these use your weight to build muscle. Make sure you're fine with the resistance exercises first. Ankle Balancing Without hanging on to anything for support, balance for as long as possible on the toes of your bad foot. Do this exercise frequently during hte day--while talking on the telephone, waiting for a bus, doing dishes, etc. See what I mean? I'll need to be pretty toned up just to do this baby step. Toe Raises This doesn't mean standing on your heels and raising your toes. It means planting your toes and lifting your heels off the ground, and thus raising your entire body. Tough job if you're eighty and have been using a walker for the last year. I'm doing okay with this one. Garrick offers us these two bits of information: 1. Do them with the knees straight and strengthen the muscles in the upper calf, and 2. Do them with the knees slightly bent and you strengthen the muscles in the lower calf. So I'm doing ten of each. He says to do them slowly, every day, and in sets of at least twenty repetitions, both together to get both legs the same strength. Exercises to avoid: Agility running drills Jumping exercises