Surgery-Specific Exercise Routines: Part 2

This week, we continue our surgery-specific exercises with two more techniques. As we go over these exercises, you'll notice that they accomplish two things.

1. They slowly stretch the soft tissue. This is so important for recovering from AND preparing for surgery. Particularly recovery. If you pull your soft tissue too hard after surgery, you can end up doing a lot of harm. So the gentle static techniques and movements are designed to create more flexibility and improved circulation gradually, not all at once.
    
2. They incorporate the whole trunk when done correctly. This is also key, particularly for surgery preparation. After surgery, certain areas of your body (muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues) will not be as strong. In order to compensate for that, other areas of your body will do more work. So if you have surgery on your chest, your shoulders, abs, and arms will need to do more work while your chest is weak. Only preparing the exact area you are getting surgery on is not really preparing at all. Your whole upper-body needs to prepare for the experience and recovery process.

With that being said, let's check out this week's two exercises:

Push the Tablets is a great exercise for stretching the shoulders, upper-back, chest, and neck muscles. All the time you are breathing and stretching the small rib muscles, as well as rotating through the trunk which nourishes the organs and improves flexibility in the spine.

Another important part of preparing for surgery is getting maximum oxygen intake in the days leading up to the operation, and the days following. The Alphabet Stretches (M & T) are a great way to do this. These are the first two of four total stretches. We'll do the next two next week.

See you next week! Happy Stretching!

Surgery-Specific Exercise Routines: Part 1

Welcome back mind-body students! Over the next few weeks I'll be revisiting the various videos I have done for surgery preparation and recovery, and collecting them into one central post. This week, we look back at my "Four Stretches for Surgery" and the "Xena the Warrior" movements.

The basis for these exercises is this: healthy, open soft tissue heals faster and more completely than stiff, clenched soft tissue does. When your soft tissue is cut so that surgeons can access your internal organs, bones, muscles, etc., it is being damaged. Obviously, invasive surgery like this is necessary for many reasons, but it is important to remember that you must also recover from the surgery techniques, not just the problem the surgery was meant to address.

The Four Stretches for Surgery are used to lengthen the muscles and soft tissue around the shoulder joints, and can be assisted with a belt or rope to maintain the stretch when you can't grasp your hands together. Do deep breathing into the areas of your lungs that are opened up by each stretch. 

Then, the Xena the Warrior movements. Dynamic, moving stretches are also crucial for preparing for surgery (and recovering, too). Moving while you stretch and meditate pushes blood and nutrients into the cells of your body. Many people sit in a hunched-forward position, so their chest muscles and upper back muscles are stiff and unhealthy. These techniques address those very issues and can improve upper-body surgery recovery time.

And that's it for this week! Two more videos coming your way next week!

Happy Stretching!

Tai Chi to Solve Tension in Your Shoulders

In the East, pain in the head is not only addressed through the neck and skull, but also the shoulders, chest, and upper back. It is understood that there are thick, complex, and intertwined layers of soft tissue from the solar plexus area all the way up to the face.

The shoulders are a focal point for all of these muscles, tendons, and soft tissues. Getting rid of tension in the shoulders can relieve a lot of pain spread around the body, and also drastically improve your physical performance and day-to-day life.

Throughout the day, we often allow our head to hang, which compresses the neck. We also have a tendency to allow our shoulders to "float" up and forward, meaning the tension in our shoulder, upper back, chest, and neck muscles is gradually increasing as the day goes by. Many people sleep with one or both shoulders tucked up tightly under their jaw, compressing these muscles even more.

How to Fix Tight Shoulders

First and foremost, learning to sleep on your back is of key importance. Get a comfy pillow that isn't too fluffy for your head, and use another pillow or two to slightly elevate the legs behind the knees. Your goal is to have your spine aligned and under no tension. If you get cold when you sleep and like to curl into a fetal position, add warm blankets to your bed so you will be less likely to get cold in the first place.

To actively release tension from your shoulders, you can do a few exercises. First, grab a broom stick and hold it in front of you as though you were doing a chin-up with it (palms facing away from you). You can lower and raise your arms like you were actually doing chin ups to get used to the feeling. Once your hands are a comfortable distance apart, bring the stick down to shoulder height and pull it toward your body until it is about an inch away from the your chest, parallel to your collar bones, just like you have completed a chin-up.

When you are in this position, your shoulders are in their neutral alignment. Totally relax them shoulders down if you are holding them up. Let them sink and allow the stick to slide down without it moving forward or your elbows unbending. Get used to this feeling and your shoulders being aligned. When you do the other exercises, you will want to experience this same feeling of alignment.

You can do this stretch (I call it the emergency neck posture) in your office, putting your head on your folded arms against your desk. The goal is to sink down into the space made between the desk and your shoulders. This is an excellent way to release tension in the back of the neck and between the back of your shoulders (the trapezius muscle). 

Next, do one of my go-to stretches, Iron on the Wall. This stretch is one of the best ways to help your shoulders sink back down to their neutral position and stop them from "floating" up during the day. Because you do it against the wall, your head is pushes back into proper alignment above your spine too. As with all of these stretches, BREATHE deeply in and out. Image the tension melting like ice into water.

Lastly, do this dynamic movement called Stretch the Bows. If you remember to keep your shoulders from floating up, this movement can help you release tension in your chest and back, preventing the shoulders from rolling forward or backward. Keep the head suspended straight up, and practice the feeling of having the head sit directly above the body, instead of pushed forward like many people do. 

And that's it! Happy Stretching!

Begin Stretching Now to Prepare for Spring Sports

Hey mind-body students!

Before jumping into your spring sports seasons (literally), you should begin a stretching routine to prepare your body for the hustle. In the first few weeks of 2017, we showed you some stretches and strengthening exercises to help you prepare. Now, we're giving you a more in-depth stretching routine to cover your whole body and loosen your muscles up even more.

Pre-Season Stretching Routine for 2017

Begin with the body's core and the spine by doing the Stretch and Release the Bows motion. This is a dynamic stretch, which is even better for your flexibility and stability. It also warms up your body and prepares you for further stretching.

Next we'll move onto the legs with Tiger Stance from Side to Side. This movement stretches the groin, hips, and the muscles of the legs and feet, getting blood moving and putting some good stress on your lungs. You'll need to develop your lung capacity a little bit before you can get into the sports season.

Next we'll focus on stretching the feet and calves, because those two small pieces of your body are perhaps the most important in all of sports. If your feet aren't working right, you just can't play. And even if your feet don't hurt, weak ankles and instability in the tendons and muscles of the feet can lead to serious joint injuries in not only the feet, but the knees, hips, and even spine and neck. Stretch those feet!

Moving up the body, let's stretch the hips both on the floor, and standing against the wall. Correctly aligned hips with good flexibility prevent many lower back injuries, and improve physical performance more than almost any other body area. The hips are where you direct your explosive speed and power.

Next, we'll do the Rainbow Stretch for the spine. (You can just stay right against the wall from the last hip stretch.) While you are doing this stretch, breath into the side areas of your lungs that open up. That way, you'll be able to develop spine flexibility and rib flexibility at the same time that you gain lung strength.

Lastly, we'll do a quick stretch for the neck called Eagle Drinks the Water. The neck doesn't usually get hurt during regular sports activity. Mostly, neck injuries are due to accidents instead of tight muscles. However, a hurt neck can put an athlete our for an entire season. Protect your performance by keeping the neck stable and flexible.

That's it for this week. Happy Stretching!

Breathe Easier: Tai Chi Inspired Techniques

This week, I have a very short blog post here on the website because I did some guest content on a website called www.wellforce.org, an online resource put together by a community of hospitals and medical centers to provide better health care to people in Massachusetts.

I encourage all of you to check out the Wellforce website and read about them. And while you are at it, you can read the special content about breathing easier that I provided for them, including Counting Breath meditations and "progressive relaxing" practice.

I hope you enjoy! And Happy Stretching!

Evening Meditation: Cleanse the Body & Mind

Filling the body up with positive, nourishing energy is only half of a whole meditation practice. The other half is the cleansing of negative energy and impurities. That is what meditating with the setting sun is all about.

For the best results, you should be facing west when you do your evening meditation. If you can do it outside in the cool air, and hear the crickets and tree frogs begin to chirp, that is even better.

Unlike morning meditation, when our minds are rested from a night of good sleep (hopefully), evening meditation begins with our minds running around and busy. We are still experiencing our higher brainwave patterns that help us be productive at work and school, but which make it hard for us to relax. Many people don't know how to wind-down after work, bringing these active brainwaves into a calmer state. This evening meditation is meant to give you the skills to reduce your stress levels at the end of the day, which will lead to more restful sleep, and thus better morning meditation.

Then, better morning meditation gives us plenty of energy for the day, so we return home feeling less stressed, and we can wind-down more easily. It's one big healthy cycle!

Mediation Practice During Sunset

Find a spot where the sun will shine about 30 minutes before sunset, standing or sitting down on a firm chair. Lengthen the spine, and open the arms and palms to face the horizon. It is the same stance you would take to feel a nice cool breeze. 

Begin to scan the body for the aches, pains, stiffness, and other impurities. Become conscious of them and imagine them dissolving. Like I always say: ice to water, water to gas. Melt the impurities and negative energy with the breath.

Breath deeply through the nose, and when you breath out, visualize the negative energy being pulled out of the body by the force of the setting sun.

Where the sunrise meditation is about pulling energy in, the sunset meditation is about surrendering energy. It is about letting go, which is why it is such a great practice for after work and relieving stress. 

At first, the impurities and negative energy will leave slowly, but over time, as you learn to fully surrender to the force of the setting sun, you will find that the negative energy leaves much more quickly. Begin practicing for 5-10 minutes, and work your way up to 20 or 30 minute sessions.

Happy Stretching!