It’s that time of the year when educators are celebrating that the school year is over and/or summer break is here. I have many wonderful and passionate educators as close friends and they take pride in their craft, including my wife. At this time, teachers reflect on the year to see where the breakdowns went or what can be done better. I love this habit as many successors in any industry do this on a routine basis.
As educators take this time for self improvement and recharge their emotional and spiritual side, many all too often ignore their physical side. Prolong standing can have a negative effects on your muscles, joints, and anything that needs to work against gravity. The constant need to fight gravity and the daily grind results in an overuse syndrome due to fatigue. Cornell University has calculated that “standing requires ~20% more energy than sitting”. Many of the complications come from prolonged standing (more than 60% of a work day) that is repeated several times a week. The key to countering this phenomenon is to stay moving combined with a fitness routine that matches with your work requirements. The key word is “routine that matches” what your body needs to go through to reduce your chances of having lower limb swelling, varicose veins, back and leg pain. Coronary heart disease and arthritis can also be worsened by standing for long periods. (more…)
As I research essential oils that are good for pain relief, Marjoram oil kept showing up. If you google Marjoram, there is this idea that Marjoram and Oregano are the same. This is confusing as to why they are labeled as two different herbs but are the same? Sally Bernstein blog article titled “
Running is great for the body and easy to incorporate anytime you choose. The biggest issue is running with this mindset sets up our body to fail. It results in runner’s knee, shin splint, ITB syndrome, stress fractures, and other orthopedic issues that I treat throughout the year. The motto “you have to be fit to run and not run to stay fit” holds true 100% if you want to last long in this individual sport. In a perfect world, without bills to pay and no responsibilities, the motto will be easy to follow. In reality, what should you do? How do I reach my fitness goal and stay away from the doctor’s office?
An ankle sprain is one of the most undermanaged injuries that can potentially result in other aches and pains down the road. There are multiple theories on the importance of ankle sprain care, which includes the potential loss of coordination, early arthritis, compensation, and changes in joint mechanics. The reasons may seem complicated with multi-syllabic words, but the treatment is too simple to ignore. If you read my article on “
Plantar fasciitis is described as an irritation to the plantar fascia. A bone spur is common to see in a x-ray with this condition. The origin or root of this plantar fascia at the heel is where you should feel the most pain upon poking to it. The collection of morning pain, pain with poking to the heel, and positive Windlass Test confirms this 
condition. The simplified description of the Windlass Test is pain upon pulling your big toe back in sitting or standing. The saying I tell my patient is that the easy part is diagnosing it, the hard part is managing it due to the complexity of our foot design.
Do you want to know a secret in regards to what people ignore when working out for better performance? I have said it before in past articles. Our body is a wonderful machine and there is one sub-system within the human body that allows us to protect ourselves, be nimble, absorb shock, and transfer force like a pole vaulter’s stick for explosiveness. This is our ankle/foot complex. Every bone and joint in our foot has a specific function and each component feeds off each other. There is a reason why there is not a good ankle joint replacement surgery because the joint is too intricate to capture all the details of what our feet can do.
Congratulations! Whether you are reading this article because you are interested in hoping on the fitness train or the title caught your attention, my plan is to expose the truth about the fitness industry. The human body is a marvelous machine and is designed to perform remarkable feats of movements. This makes the job of a performance specialist aka personal trainer duties difficult. One has to have a wide knowledge foundation in order to achieve what the client desires.