Can Mindfulness and Internal Martial Arts Cure Obesity?

My team and I have a lot of exciting new things in the works, and there will be more information forthcoming.

Today's post is something I have been working on recently. Is America going about the fight against obesity all wrong? The First Lady has done extensive work to get the weight of America's children to a healthy average. Her "Let's Move" program focuses on eating healthy and getting physical exercise, which are valiant goals. All health professionals agree that children need to eat right and exercise.

But are exercise routines and removing sugary snacks from schools really treating the problem? Or are these initiatives just alleviating the symptoms?

Maybe it's us, the parents, who force "professionally optimized living" on our children. Our children need a good job to make it on their own, and to get one, they'll need a great degree. To get one of those, they need to out-shine the competition when applying to college by having straight A's and a veritable laundry list of extracurricular activities. Most of these "check points" start by the time children are in middle school, ten, eleven, or twelve years old. Do kids have time to be mindful of health when we are already asking them to focus on grades, extracurricular activities, internships, saxophone lessons, and more?

This may seem counter-intuitive, but maybe parents need to slow down, and let their kids slow down too. If kids had time to look for really fulfilling physical activities, and healthy food choices, they probably would. But when they only have 5 minutes of free time, two or three times a day, what is there for a kid to do but watch a quick Youtube video and grab a candy bar?

No one can take care of themselves if they don't have the time or the energy, whether they are a child or an adult. What are you teaching your children to focus on? Health, or wealth?

Hey Rami! What is the Tightest Muscle in the Body?

This week on my vlog, I answer a question about our tightest muscle, and show you three different ways to stretch and relax it. (And I'm much easier to hear this week!)

Thank you for the question, Cliff!

Send in your burning questions in a comment on this page, on my Facebook page, or on Twitter. I'll be sure to answer them in a short video in the next couple weeks. 

(The links to my Facebook and Twitter pages are on the navigation bar near the top of the page, and at the bottom of the page on the left). 

What is Affordable Care?

As America transitions into the policies put in place by the Affordable Care Act, the future of American health care is on everyone's mind. There is anxiety on both sides, all centered around affordability. Costs are too high, there is no doubt. Is this legislation a move in the right direction? Only time will tell.

In my 30 years of training, I have learned that $100 of prevention is worth $100,000 of treatment.

Think about it this way: $100 running shoes, well used, are a good investment if they prevent the need for a $100,000 heart surgery 30 years down the road.

A $100 yoga class is well worth the money if it prevents $100,000 in joint-pain medication later.

Spending $100 more on groceries to get high-quality, nutrient rich food is smart spending if it saves you $100,000 in cancer treatments when you're 70.

Preventative care is always cheaper in the long run, but it looks expensive up-front because we're feeling good. If we're healthy, why should we spend money on health? That is the "crisis" or "treatment" healthcare mindset. Investing in our health is desirable only when the immediate alternative is death or serious lack of function. This leads to late diagnoses, earlier and earlier onset of diseases like arthritis, diabetes, and cancer, and an unsustainable reliance on pharmaceuticals.

What are the benefits of putting health off until it is bad? Time. It takes time to attend yoga twice a week. It takes time to look over the nutrition labels in the supermarket. It takes time to notice subtle mood changes or drops in our energy level. And if there is anything that always seems in short supply, it's time.

But even time is not a real benefit of today's style of healthcare. Healthier people live longer and experience a higher quality of life, so whatever time you save now by skipping your morning workout is time on loan, and older you is going to be the one who pays the balance.

Changing our healthcare system is not something that can be done overnight, even by the President. But if we can take an hour every day and practice a little mindfulness centered around our health, we can change.

Not long ago, avoiding a disease wasn't within an individual's control. Our grandparents didn't have access to nutrition facts, scientifically studied exercise routines, etc.. Now, in the age of information, we have no excuses for treating our health like a game of chance.

Your health is the most valuable thing you will ever own. Be mindful of that wisdom the next time you are making a purchase, and ask yourself, "Is this money better spent on preventative healthcare? Am I doing enough to ensure my health in later years?"

Hey Rami! Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, and Head/Neck Tension

Here is the first official installment in my new "Hey, Rami!" vlog, where I answer your questions in a short video. This week, a stretch that may help alleviate Eustachian tube dysfunction, migraines, and other head and neck soft tissue problems.

The gardens had a much louder echo than we expected! I promise our next video will be easier to hear! Here is the video transcript:

"That is a great question, Matthew. You're talking about issues between the ear and the neck. But in Chinese medicine, Qi Gong and Tai Chi, we treat any issues from here up with an array of different stretches, breathing techniques, and meditations. So, I will just show a quick one for people that have any issues form here [the sternum] up, especially with the soft tissues elements, or soft tissue that is compressing against any nerves, or blood-flow elements. So, any of those soft tissue problems can be first addressed with what I call the 'Emergency Posture' for the neck and migraines.

"The emergency posture is very simple: you sit on a chair and you lean your head on a table, with your elbows folded this way. You distance the chair as much as you can from the table, and over time you try to create more distance between the chair and the table, and more distance between your forehead and your pubic bone.

"I'll show it right now. Try it at home. Hold it for 2-3 minutes, and really allow the whole weight of your trunk to drop into your forearms. You ready to do it? Let's do it!

[Example]

"So the stretch is the physical method, or one of the many stretches, that helps with any problems from the sternum up. But there is also mental exercise, or meditation, tapping into the power of the mind to dissolve and melt any impurities, or stagnation, or tension from the top of the head to the sternum. That is done through the face meditation which you have some availability to read a little bit about [here] or you can find it in my Sunset Tai Chi book."

That's it for this week's vlog, but please, leave any question you want me to vlog about in the comments! I'm happy to answer as many as I can. And if you want to get my vlog updates through email, you can sign up with your email address on the right.

The Soft Tissue Tension You Don't Know You Have

I've been posting a lot of exercises, stretches, and tips for upper back and neck problems recently. If you've found them helpful, be on the look-out for my upcoming course on upper back pain relief. I'm finishing up this upper body series next week with the first installment in a new video segment called "Hey Rami!" where I answer questions from clients, patients, and customers.

This week, we're talking about a group of muscles that everyone uses everyday, but few people ever stretch and relax: facial muscles. There is a lot of technique and mental preparation involved in the face meditation that I detail in my Sunset Tai Chi book. For people who want a quick taste of what is it like to relax your facial muscles, try this mini meditation:

• First, open your mouth wide, like you were yawning, but keep your eyes wide open. Hold this for a few seconds. (I know, it looks weird!) This is to balance the usual, scrunched state that our faces take on during the day while we pour over emails and textbooks.
• Now, start doing deep breathing like I've posted about here. Make sure you are in a comfortable sitting or standing position. You will be maintaining the meditation for about 5 minutes, and the goal is to be as still as possible.
• Relax the muscles in your face as much as you can. This is 20% body control and 80% mind control. When I do it, I picture my face in layers, like an onion. Each layer of my face has its own tension, and I visualize peeling away that tension layer by layer.

And that's it! You won't believe how much tension you can hold in your face. Consider the reasons you hold tension in certain muscles in your face while doing the meditation. Are your cheeks tense because your job requires you to smile all day? Do you work in the sun a lot? That may lead to a constant furrow in your brow. Do this meditation in a dark room. It will help the muscles in and around the eyes relax.

Healing and Improvement: Being Mindful of Your Body's Limits

Competition is a big theme in Western health and fitness culture. You might not believe it, but even with exercises like stretching, Qi Gong, and Tai Chi, many Americans bring a competitive attitude. In sports, this mindset is good. It tells us to leave it all out on the field. When training in something like Tai Chi, this same urge tells us to be just as good as everyone around us. It pushes us beyond reasonable limits to fit in and avoid embarrassment.

Believe it or not, fitness professionals are told by their employers to forgo teaching beginner clients certain exercises for fear of injury. This goes doubly for elderly clients. The Surgeon General has even put out warnings regarding the safety of exercises like toe-touches and squats.

The exercises themselves are not dangerous. In fact, they are the foundation for a healthy exercise routine. The real danger is not knowing and accepting your limits.

Does this mean that you shouldn't push yourself in the gym, or during your morning stretches? No, of course not. But it does mean putting your goals into perspective. If you can't touch your toes today, don't force yourself to. That is a recipe for throwing out your back. But if you bend over as low as you can comfortably go every day, stretching and strengthening the muscles that support your back, you'll reach that goal of touching your toes, in time. I always tell my students to use the rule of 80% when we train Tai Chi or do stretching.

80% effort will give you the perfect balance between improvement and injury prevention.

Most important, don't be embarrassed about not being as flexible or as strong as you would like. You can get there, but it takes time, patience, and discipline. There are no shortcuts to health. Listen to your health and fitness professionals, and even more importantly, listen to your body. Not being able to touch your toes is not embarrassing. Throwing out your back in a yoga class because you pushed yourself too hard... now that's embarrassing!