Cheating is sometimes fun but in the long run it always has consequences.  For instance, planning for a wedding and packing up a house and transitioning your life from what you have known for so long to moving to a completely different location and way of being, can be an ultimately stressful experience.  You may be tempted and pulled into directions you would not normally go and cross lines that would otherwise seem like something you would never do.  It may even have some long term consequences that you would rather not have to experience.

Yes, I am talking about ME…  But I am not talking about what YOU may be thinking.  I am talking about food.  Sugary, Buttery, Salty, Greasy, Food that makes your mouth water and your organs shut down.  Last night I indulged in a movie and a sweet tasty yummy banana split.  Now mind you, I had coconut bliss ice cream instead of regular ice cream, and organic raw chocolate, but I did put a mound of whipped cream and cherries and wedding cake in the mix.  During the last week, I ate foods that I would not normally consume.  From Honeybaked ham sandwiches to pesto and tomato basil cheese on crackers, I CHEATED.  Not only did I cheat with food, but I cheated on my physical activity.  I had excuse after excuse about not taking enough time or energy because of planning the wedding and having so many things to do, but what is the truth?  Everyone has 15 minutes here and there to sweat and work out.  Even while I was moving, my excuse was that moving IS exercise.  Truth is that it is not the same as steady increased heart rate and sweat for a length of time.  So now you have it.  I am not perfect, I am a CHEATER.

It happens; we all do it.  We try to profess perfection or at least we strive and strive for it, and some of us actually attain a 99% discipline rate where what we do is in integrity with what we say, but there is always that 1% where we are not congruent, where we fall into the chaos of life, and where we neglect our own ideals, beliefs, and wishes for our health.  I fell into the cheater’s trap.  My body is expressing its remorse.  I know that I will be tempted more.  I also know how to avoid and say NO to that temptation.

As we come up on the holiday season, there will be so many opportunities to be challenged.  This season will be a great test for all of us.  Will we go into the New Year with Cheater’s Remorse, or will we reaffirm our beliefs throughout the season and maintain a healthy, well-balanced approach to our food and wellness lifestyle?   I for one am looking at this lapse as a re affirmation of my commitment to be healthy in body, mind, and soul.  Thanks to my cheater’s remorse, I can re affirm my own integrity and write this holiday season as a testament to the value of an occasional falling off of the wagon…

Will this holiday season be YOUR downfall?  In what ways will YOU avoid having Cheater’s Remorse?  Share your stories of a Cheater’s Remorse, and how you dealt with it so that your stories will act as stories of inspiration and recovery for the other closeted cheaters among us.

TIPS FOR BEING FREE FROM CHEATER’S REMORSE

• Use smaller plates during Thanksgiving
  • Studies have proven that smaller plates have a direct correlation to the amount of food consumed.  This is a great way to trick your mind into feeling that you have eaten enough.
  • Try air frying your turkey, instead of roasting it.  It maintains great juices without soaking in its own fat or from adding fat by oil frying.  It may not be traditional, but it is tasty and can be very flavorful if adding rosemary and other spices to the rub.
  • Try healthy recipes for things like your mashed potatoes and yams. Instead of using marshmallows for the top, simply use cinnamon and pineapple, thus avoiding pointless sugar highs, and for the potatoes use garlic and sour cream instead of heavy cream for a great whipped mashed potato.
  • Always try organic ingredients where you can.  They may be a little more money, but eating foods that have not been filled with pesticides, herbacides, insecticides, and other neuro and immune toxic chemicals will help your body in long run from the agony of Cheater’s Remorse.
  • Rather than loading up on the pies and desserts, make sure you load up on salad and veggies during the meal.

Taste buds will be satisfied without your body suffering the consequences of CHEATER’S REMORSE!!!

Have a Blessed Healthy Balanced Day!!!

Written by Ari Gronich…

Ari Gronich is highly trained and certified in many disciplines within the fields of bodywork, emotional release, energy work, nutrition, health, and kinesiology and sports therapy. For the last 17 years, he has helped transform his client’s bodies and lives through increased performance, enhancing physical, mental and emotional health.

Ari has led ergonomics and productivity seminars, as well as created corporate wellness programs for top companies all across America. He has been a successful business man within the health and fitness field utilizing his unique combination of expertise related to body posture, public speaking and facilitating trainings which gives him the capability of guiding people to create their most powerful presence and taking companies to the next level in productivity and employee benefits.

Ari is an “Outside of the Box” thinker and has a way of taking ANY situation and finding the holes that need to be filled thus creating WIN WIN relationships and powerful programs that serve to enhance everyone involved.

To work with Ari, or for a Consultation Appointment you can email performancetherapist@gmail.com or call 310-363-0FIT (0348) or visit him at:  http://www.performancetherapist.com

Most people associate the core with the look of your abdominals. They believe that having a strong core is associated with the look of a washboard stomach or Six Pack Abs. In reality, there are 27 muscles that make up the core of your body. From pelvis and hip muscles on up, the core is an entire system. Only a few of the muscles are visible to the naked eye.

Core Strength is the foundation of a strong body. It is a major player in balance and injury prevention. Real core strength though is more than just the musculature and bones, ligaments, tendons, and joints that make up the physical system. Building real Core Strength comes from deep within. It is a foundational power and resilience that can only be fully recognized at times of hardship where we dig deep into our core and draw forth the power and strength that is usually buried inside of us. Some people call this internal fortitude.  I just look at it as soul strength.

This article is simply to give you some practical ways of activating the physical while taking a look at the deeper sides of core strength.

Here are my Basic 4 Steps to Building your Powerful Core Strength.

1. Posture: Simply holding your body upright is one of the most difficult things for people to do. We are a forward society and, as such, we are always leaning forward. When we walk, when we are at the computer, and even when we exercise, we tend to hunch our backs. The results of this failure to maintain an upright posture become evident as we grow older and begin to see our feet and the sidewalk more and more. It is also apparent in the amount of low back pain reported in our society.

To start to engage the core muscles, hold your body upright. Whether you are standing, sitting, walking, or lying down, maintaining a proper postural position will work your core muscles while constantly creating a flex that helps to store that position in your muscle cell memory.

Make sure your toes and feet are parallel, knees are positioned over your ankles, and hips are square. There is no need to raise your shoulders up holding them tight in a military-esque stiff position; instead, let them loose and back while keeping your neck raised and away from your shoulders. Avoid the hunchback position at all opportunities.

Not only will this help with your Core Strength, it will also support your body from feet to low back and neck helping to alleviate most chronic body pains.

1. Breathing and Meditation: While sitting upright, holding that good posture we spoke about above, and intentionally breathing may sound basic and lack the pizzazz of a thousand sit ups, it is one of the best ways to build true inner and outer core strength. As you breathe deep into your diaphragm, you begin to challenge core muscles. Breathe in 4-7 seconds; hold 4-7 seconds; breathe out 7-9 seconds. How many can you do and for how long? Challenge yourself to at least 15 minutes of this daily. When you get more advanced, you can start to undulate your body from your pelvis through your lungs and all the way up to your shoulders and neck. You can do increased speed breaths as well as longer deeper breaths, that are always focused with intention, in order to work your core muscles lungs, lymphatic system and increase then decrease then increase then decrease your heart rate giving you an even better core and cardiovascular workout.  You may begin to feel tingling in your head and throughout your body; this is a result of increased oxygenation to your cells. This is one of the most difficult practices to maintain, but the benefits are incredible.

You will be firing all 27 muscles in the core system creating a seriously strong core. This will increase oxygen levels in your blood allowing for better all around performance in whatever activity you choose for exercise, burn calories, use two of the best detox orifices on the human body(nose and mouth), breathe out all kinds of toxins, focus your brain making you more mentally alert and aware of your surroundings, help to decrease the potential for accidents and injury, and increase the strength of your cardiovascular system creating the best all around performance enhancement inner and outer core workout you will ever experience.

1. Body Weight Workouts: These are a little simpler and need less explanation but are foundational exercises for building the strong inner and outer core strength. These workouts are all done with your body as the sole resistance. You are not lifting weights with these exercises although as you get more advanced you may want to include things like ankle weights or wrist weights or even a weight vest. The point in general is that you are not doing free weights or machine exercises.

Examples of these types of exercises include dips, pull-ups, chin-ups, pushups, triceps pushups, handstands, acrobatics, pole dancing, mountain climbing and rappelling, yoga, Pilates, and/or my favorite, Multi Directional Resistance Training which you can read about in my article, “Is It Such a Stretch to Become Flexible?”.  Share with everyone in the Comments section other exercises that YOU use to work your core using just your body weight. It is an exciting way to work out as the only restrictions are in your mind and the real push is to break your body’s limitations. This is where the INNER core workout meets the OUTER core workout!!!

1. Balance Challenging Exercises: Increase results and turn ANY ordinary exercise into extraordinary core strengthening workouts by challenging your balance. You can do this by balancing on one leg and then switching to the other. Working out in multiple planes or at multiple angles at the same time challenges the core system. When weightlifting, do so on an uneven surface doing fewer reps at a slow, slow, slow pace. Use balance discs, Bosu balls, stability balls, etc. to challenge all aspects of your equilibrium. When those exercises begin to get easy, you can increase the effectiveness by altering your gaze by looking away from the plane you are working out in or looking directly up at the ceiling while balancing on a balance disc and lifting weights or doing bands at the same time. Eventually closing your eyes will give you the deepest challenge to your equilibrium, and all the balancing and stabilizing muscles in your body working to bring you back to stability will give you the most intense core system strengthening workout you will experience.

The inner and outer cores will be challenged as you work through your body shaking and self correcting in micro movements while engaging in deep macro movements. If you are adding that meditative breathing to these exercises and then engage the high quality postural alignment, ALL of your workouts will deliver the foundation thus building the deep inner and outer core strength that we really desire. These kinds of difficult exercises that require patience in our own abilities build character and maintain a quality of your body, mind, and spirit that will be invaluable as you grow older.

Practice these Basic 4 Steps to Building your Powerful Core Strength daily and who knows, you may even develop those washboard six pack abs that everyone so desires as well.

Share your results with us. We would love to get some feedback on your experience with any or all of this Core Strength Protocol.

Have a Blessed Healthy Balanced Day!!!

Written by Ari Gronich… 

Ari Gronich is highly trained and certified in many disciplines within the fields of bodywork, emotional release, energy work, nutrition, health, and kinesiology and sports therapy. For the last 17 years, he has helped transform his client’s bodies and lives through increased performance, enhancing physical, mental and emotional health.

Ari has led ergonomics and productivity seminars, as well as created corporate wellness programs for top companies all across America. He has been a successful business man within the health and fitness field utilizing his unique combination of expertise related to body posture, public speaking and facilitating trainings which gives him the capability of guiding people to create their most powerful presence and taking companies to the next level in productivity and employee benefits. 

Ari is an “Outside of the Box” thinker and has a way of taking ANY situation and finding the holes that need to be filled thus creating WIN WIN relationships and powerful programs that serve to enhance everyone involved. 

To work with Ari, or for a Consultation Appointment you can email performancetherapist@gmail.com or call 310-363-0FIT (0348) or visit him at:  http://www.performancetherapist.com

The Fad Juices, Fruits, Supplements, Electromagnetic, Ionic, Energetic Therapies, & Alternative Healers & MLM Companies that promote them

I was at a party the other day and I noticed for the umpteenth time people wearing anti radio wave necklaces and bracelets, medallions with special powers to heal and ward off bad energy, and people eating some of the oddest concoctions of foods around.

I was drawn into a conversation about a particular berry and mostly the main MLM that provides the beverage. This person made a comment that I found not only offensive, but inaccurate and I associated it with the epidemic of the culture at large. People will believe anything they are told as long as it is only partially true, and they will not, for the most part, do further research to verify claims. This person claimed that his multi-level marketing company was the ONLY company to have done double blind research on its juice product and none of the other companies had done so – thereby verifying the efficacies of his brand and denying the quality of all other brands or companies. Oh, the other products and brands may be good, but his company is by far and away the best on the market today. I am not saying anything positive or negative about that particular product or any other product for that matter. What I am saying is that the conversation is not based in truth or fact but in folklore and hyperbole.

We are moving into an age where people are running away from modern medicine because of the side effects and costs associated with most forms of our modern health industry. People are starting to come back towards the folklore medicine and naturally derived products. Due to the massive movement toward these natural means of health and wellness, those of us in the field of “Alternative Medicine” have a responsibility to our customers and to our communities to offer products that have credibility and fact behind them. We have chosen to be the caretakers of our communities and as such must take that responsibility very seriously and with a heightened level of humility and honor if we wish to hold the rank of healer that our ancestors held in the highest respect.

Having been in the field of Alternative Health and Medicine for the entirety of my adult life, I have seen scams and fads come and go. I have seen companies and products rise from nothing and fall back down into the abyss – mostly because the products they were selling were over played, over marketed, and over promoted, and completely under researched and under scientifically studied and proven. When will the alternative health industry realize that in order to have ANY credibility in the marketplace and any legitimacy, they will have to begin doing clinical trials, advanced scientific research, and regulate at a pharmaceutical grade standard the production and manufacturing of products.

One of the biggest problems in the industry is the lack of standardization. Companies do not use the same potency, extracts, or parts of a product in each batch. They do not test the mix of synergistic products to validate that the mix is even and in exact proportion to what is on the bottle. They do not verify potency of the product for due to seasons, soil conditions, and any number of other variables including shipping, products will tend to lose potency. Most companies do not utilize the extracts of an herb, instead they use the whole herb; yet the extracts are the active potent ingredient in most cases that creates the action in your body that you are seeking. The extracts are also much more potent in smaller doses.

I have become both wary and skeptical regarding the vast levels of “Snake Oil” sold and touted within the industry.

Although I do not hold a view that Western Medicine or Western Thinking is the end all be all of medicine (in fact in another article I will expound on the lack of evidence and efficacy in most modern day treatments as well), those who do hold the view that the Western methods are deliberately not designed for cures but for money making treatments only have ignored some of the great benefits that modern day science has given us.  One of these great benefits is the ability to do studies that can give very accurate data about the efficacy of a given treatment or substance. In the case of an herbal- or plant-derived formula, there are studies that can be done to determine the benefit of the individual plants, and then one by one adding in other products to create synergy studies on how they work with each other. In the realm of electromagnetic therapies and energy therapies, there are double blind studies as well as sophisticated tracking equipment that can measure heat alterations, circulation alterations, and then take blood, urine, and saliva and even hair and DNA samples to judge before, during, and after treatments.

This amazing ability of Western science and modern technology when brought together in a synergistic way with alternative therapies can then lead to a heightened level of PROOF POSITIVE results that then gives each modality a greater story and even more so a faith that the claims are fact and that the stories are real.

In order to accomplish something like this however, both parties must work with each other rather than against each other. The goal must be a common one. The monetary gain of treatment should be secondary to the greater good of a cure. Fads are only fads because for the time they are unproven to be either correct or incorrect. As soon as fact falls, the fad fades or becomes main stream thereby losing its moniker FAD.

Imagine being a snake oil salesman back in the old west – having hundreds of testimonials by people who had true faith, yet having no backing of science as proof. You could make dollars upon dollars selling false hope and not be doing a bad thing necessarily, but also not quite doing the RIGHT thing. Now a family comes to you and the child has a disease that cannot be cured by your Snake Oil. Yet that false hope has caused the family to forego other forms of proven treatment for the claim of a cure. The child dies and the snake oil has failed. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of women and children and fathers and brothers dying due to claims that have no basis in science other than that of folklore.

See the difference between the snake oil salesman and the FAD SCIENCE salespeople is that FADs can now be studied and either proven or dis proven by modern methods of science. It takes a little extra money and a little ingenuity, but if we began systematically studying folklore and putting it to the test of science, we would not only have a greater acceptance for the true efficacy of a given treatment, but we would also have more people truly Healthy and living a lifestyle that is focused on maintaining that. If we take care of ourselves and feel good and healthy within our own bodies, the likelihood that we would spread that around to our neighbors is greater. We treat ourselves with that sort of respect and awe, and all of a sudden we begin to treat others well and we then treat our planet with respect and it multiplies on and on.

I implore the manufacturers of herbal supplements and some of the more modern electromagnetic and energy therapies to take the time and spend the money and study in a scientific way all of your products and treatments. Come back to us with PROVEN SCIENCE that is INDISPUTABLE. Your FACTS will outsell all of your claims and folklore and stories for years to come. I also implore those that give grants and invest in science and technology within the health field to do so with companies who would take the time to make sure what they are doing is accurate and factual. Lastly, once we get accurate factual information, utilizing procedures to standardize the products and treatments will set us above the rest. So many of our manufacturing companies do not use the latest testing and standardizing equipment thereby putting out an inferior product with an ingredient that is substandard to its tested efficacy.

Science is not the enemy of natural medicine; it is by every sense of the imagination the binder that will connect our modern medicine with ancient traditions, rituals, and folklore. It is only with science that we can prove our claims and provide our people with the best chance for survival in the upcoming generations and, most importantly, it is the only way for us to be selling real medicine rather than just being another snake oil salesman pushing the drugs of wishes vs. the reality that while hope is great medicine, we all like it to work whether we believe in it OR NOT.

Copyright Ari Gronich 2010

Owner of Achieve Health USA

www.achievehealthusa.com

info@achievehealthusa.com

Surgeons are some of the greatest snake-oil salesman around.  They don’t just sell you a tonic.  They convince you that only by cutting you open can they heal your ills.  Their solutions don’t just cost a few bucks…we’re talking thousands of dollars and then weeks of tedious and difficult rehab to rebuild, in many cases, the very tissue they cut into.  In some cases that may be necessary. But wouldn’t it make sense to try the less invasive approach first. Work with your body’s natural ability to rebuild and heal whenever possible. Use surgery only as a last resort…not the first thing you do.  Even when surgery is found to be the best solution, a more favorable outcome results if you are better conditioned going in.  Most anyone who’s been there would agree, the best surgery is no surgery. 

Injury prevention is about staying in the game and avoiding the knife, scope and rehab therapist.  It can be done with the right care of your musculoskeletal system.   

Let’s start with the most common injuries, connective tissue problems: 

Ankle strains, sprains, ligament tears, cartilage rips or crushes.

Cartilage does not wear out through use.  It wears out through misuse, poor joint mechanics, or poor nutrition.  For most issues if you fix the mechanics, you cure the cartilage.  Cartilage tears won’t necessarily heal themselves though and a loose piece of cartilage floating around will need to be removed.  But anymore, this can be a minimally invasive clean up.  With the right care afterward the joint can be better than it was before.  So why not do the work to improve the joint strength before the injury forces rehab.  Strengthen the joint materials, mechanics and ability to withstand a wider range of strains.  Injury prevention is similar to injury repair, you just don’t have to get hurt first. 

Left to their own will, tendons and ligaments shrink and tighten with age like old rubber bands.  Eventually even minor trauma loads can cause snaps and tears.   

Tight tendons and ligaments lead to bad joint mechanics and limited range of motion.  These are among the most common underlying causes for chronic pain and repetitive motion injuries.  When the intra-joint spacing tightens up, there is less opportunity for nutrients, oxygen and restorative fluid to surround the cartilage and bone-end wear surfaces.  It is essentially the poor fluid circulation in and around the cartilage that can lead to irritation, inflammation, swelling and chronic injury and wear.  Life processes, such as protein growth and maintenance, require nutrients and oxygen. If there is poor fluid circulation, the proteins deteriorate.  Unlike muscles, the connective tissues have no direct blood flow. They depend on  

Stretching is used throughout sport to warm up muscles and extend range of motion.  However, the low impact static stretching that most people use provides virtually no benefit toward maintaining and building ligament and tendon strength and resilience.  Only hands-on flexion of the connective tissues using dynamic loading provides the energy necessary to safely improve function, suppleness and strength.  Dynamic loading creates controlled strain on the connective tissue that stimulates natural strength and elasticity development.  Improved elasticity allows the intra-joint spaces to open up allowing better fluid circulation and range of motion.  These key elements work together to resist chronic and acute injuries from sports and repetitive motion work.

From the California Pacific Medical Center website:

“…Orthopedics is the medical specialty focusing on prevention and correction of disorders of the skeleton, joints, muscles, connective tissue and other supporting structures of our bodies (i.e., cartilage and ligaments). This complex system allows one to move, work and be active.

Seventy percent of all ailments in young active people involve the musculoskeletal system. As people age, their chance of developing the debilitating joint affliction known as arthritis increases.

The Department of Orthopedic Surgery at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) provides specialized services for treating conditions of the foot and ankle, knee, hip, shoulder, elbow and hand as well as spinal ailments. The orthopedic surgeons at CPMC also offer specialized care for nonunions and deformities of bones and bone infections (osteomyelitis).”

Performance enhancement and injury prevention therapy is a non-medical training and treatment practice developed by Ari Gronich over 15 years of study and practice. He employs a wide range of methods to custom fit a solution for each individual.   Therapy utilizes the movement and leverage practices of mixed martial arts, muscle and skeletal understanding derived from over a dozen certifications in various massage methods, injury prevention methods developed by the former Russian Sport Federation, and his experience working with professional athletes and sports teams, and as a leader of the international massage and physical therapy support group for the 2004 Para-Olympics in Greece.   

The problem with Orthopedics is right there in the definition…one cannot focus on prevention, when it’s the correction that pays the bills.  The truth is few people ever go to an orthopedic surgeon for prevention of problems.  These practitioners only see people with injuries, pain and existing deterioration.  Since all business relies strongly on repeat sales, prevention of injury is not in the surgeons’ best interest.   

The comprehensive musculoskeletal therapy developed by Mr. Gronich is specialized around preventing pain and injury rather than solely treating these conditions after the fact.  Even after an injury occurs, the same method can be used in most cases to prompt the natural healing power of the body to develop stronger, more injury resistant connective tissue.  Better performance in every type of physical activity is the natural result of improved joint mechanics, muscle power, balance and movement.

 

Written By Dean Hanley A long time Client and Friend

My Computer is Faster than your Computer!

You may have the fastest Computer in the world. But, mine is faster!

About now you will probably be saying this guy is out of his mind. Not Really, I am just talking about a different type of computer. One that is completely organic.Your brain!

Our computers run at fantastic speeds these days. We have the ability to gain tremendous amounts information in just a fraction of a second. And our brain ( WOW! What a device to have at our fingertips!) It can assimilate and transfer information much faster than the fastest computer.

But what restricts information flow coming from your computer and getting into your Brain? Well, most of us read, or maybe you have learned to speed-read. But these are still too restrictive for you to be effective.

What would you do if I told you that there is a way to open that restriction up, so that you heighten your information flow? Would you be interested in doing that? What if I told you that you would also gain memory, mental clarity, enhanced decision making powers, and more,… as added benefits that simply come along for the ride?

This training has only been available to the wealthy,… until now.

You too, can now have the FASTEST Computer…

Want to Know More?…

 

Unlock your Mental Abilities

    
I came across this technology back when I was 18 year old.  I was hanging out with a friend at Denny’s of all places.  It was about 3 o’ clock in the morning, and there was this man sitting at the table in front of me.  He had one of those really cool Tibetan bracelets; the kind that looks spiritual and mysterious.  Especially, to an 18 year old who was really interested in spiritual endevours and self improvement.

     I made a comment about his bracelet and we began talking.  Turns out, that he had just completed a course called Subliminal Dynamics, which was all about the effortless utilization of brain power…  I asked him to show me a demonstration of what he had learned, and what I saw was absolutely incredible.

     He asked me to borrow the book I was reading, and so I handed him the book.  It happened to be a book that was all about mastering Self Hypnosis.  He took the book and flipped pages one after another until he got to the very last page where he then flipped the book upside down and backwards and proceeded to flip the pages again all the way through to the end of the book.  He then handed me the book and asked me to pick a page and a paragraph.  I randomly opened the book and said to the man; “Page 73 Paragraph 2″…
He began quoting word for word the paragraph.  He did replace and A’ with a The’, but that was the only mistake.  He also then analyzed the paragraph explaining what it meant to show that he had not only photographed and recalled the book, but also had a high level of comprehension for it.

Years later, scrolling through the web, I came across a program that was designed by the same people that were offering this course so long ago.  I highly recommend you check it out and create your mind as place of high fitness just as you would your body…

Unlock your Mental Abilities

Flexibility and stretching seem to be one of the crosses to bear among athletes as well as the general population.

This became evident recently with the newest Los Angeles Galaxy sensation David Beckham. The reports were clear that Beckham twisted his ankle and was unsure if he would be able to play. “Galaxy waiting on Beckham fitness” was the headline from Reuters.

LBN-SPORTS INSIDER: David Beckham, struggling to recover from a left ankle injury, was left out of the Los Angeles Galaxy lineup here Tuesday in the US club’s 2-1 Superliga victory over Mexico’s Pachuca. Beckham made his debut for the Galaxy here last Saturday, playing 12 minutes as a substitute in a 1-0 friendly loss to English side Chelsea. The midfielder who signed a contract worth a potential 250 million dollars to leave Real Madrid is trying to boost football interest by Americans but he was only a spectator as he continues to have treatment upon his sore ankle.”

This is the extreme of what poor stretching, no stretching, and NORMAL stretching can cause. We have all seen the struggles of Kobe Bryant and others who have serious injuries that take them OUT OF THE GAME and could have been avoided if only they had the techniques and training to become powerfully flexible.

According to Dictionary.com, Stretch has several meanings. The one I am speaking about is this: “to stretch oneself by extending the limbs and lengthening the muscles to the utmost:”

There are many forms of stretching that can be utilized together. Some techniques have been found to be much more effective than others.

Some of the kinds of stretching are:
Passive stretching – an external force exerts upon the limb to move it into the new position.
Active stretching – eliminates force and its adverse effects from stretching procedures
Static stretching – used to stretch muscles while the body is at rest
Dynamic stretching – utilizing momentum from form, static-active stretching strength, and the momentum from static-active stretching strength
Ballistic stretching – NEVER DO THIS TECHNIQUE
Resistance Stretching – form of stretching in which a muscle simultaneously contracts and elongates

My definition of the way MOST people normally stretch looks like this:

a single directional movement that takes a joint or muscle to the extreme of its range of motion, opening the muscle fibers and creating space in your body

Normal Stretching: This kind of stretching is most common among the few who actually take time out to stretch. It is a basic set of techniques that open up space allowing for a greater range of motion and less likely chance for injury.

Poor Stretching: We have all seen people out on a field or in a class doing the “Ballistic Stretching.” The best literal illustration I can give for this is someone standing straight and trying to touch his/her toes, bouncing up and down. This uses bouncing motion to stretch muscles past their range of motion before they are ready to do so. This is not only poor stretching, but can cause injury and should not be utilized.

No Stretching: As seen by the couch potato (illustration of couch potato soon to follow). I play with an adult baseball league, and I watch maybe 90% of the players come out to the field and not stretch. They simply start throwing and warming up, but with no preliminary stretching. This lack of proper stretching is prevalent in most of our culture. It is a direct cause of almost all strain/sprain injuries as well as tears and dislocations.

There is a technique of stretching that to date in my field has been considered the MOST EFFECTIVE. That technique is called PNF, proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation, and is oftentimes a combination of passive stretching and isometrics contractions

So, as I began studying PNF and getting deeper into the nature of a body and the mechanisms of stretching, I began to get a really powerful feel as to the body’s true stretching capabilities and how much it was necessary for Injury Prevention.

There is another way!!!

Throughout my years as a gymnast and martial artist, as well as training with athletes and going through studies in performance, I have found a way to increase your flexibility as well as create more power in the extremes of that flexibility. This technique has proven to me and to my patients to be the crème de la crème of stretching modalities.

Utilizing many of the principles of PNF, I create resistance and contraction at the extremes of the Range of Motion. This is a very effective start to creating power. One of the additions I have made is a technique I call:

Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching©

Let’s say you are stretching someone’s shoulder. When you hit the extent of that person’s range of motion, you can start out with Direct Resistance which is resistance that is directly counter to the motion that got you in that stretch – basic Antagonist Agonist stretching. What I like to add into this is freeform resistance coming from different angles that the person being stretched may not know about. In this way the person getting stretched is holding a tight contraction at the extent of Range of Motion fatiguing muscle fibers and holding off my resistance at different angles causing those balancers to react quickly. This works a greater area of muscle fiber as well as multiple groups of muscles to allow for a simultaneous stretching as well as a powerful contraction within the muscle. What ends up happening is that a person not only becomes more flexible with a greater range of motion, but they also build power in the extremes of flexibility allowing for a highly advanced form of personal injury prevention.

This kind of Power Flexibility is seen perfectly in MMA (mixed martial arts). Someone is in a submission hold and is being flexed well beyond what would be considered most people’s Range of Motion, yet they not only can maneuver out of the hold, but have enough strength in that extreme position to withstand and resist the hold which can cause serious damage such as broken bones and dislocated joints.

Simply being flexible is helpful, but when you add power to that flexibility, you have the greatest likelihood for being injury free…

Let me give you an example of how the power of Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching© can aid in Injury Prevention…

About 4 years ago, I was riding my motorcycle in Oakland, CA. I came around a bend and was blinded by the sun. As I went through the red light, I was T-Boned by a car. I was traveling at approximately 45 MPH and came to a sudden stop. At the time, I was wearing sandals and shorts rather than protective ankle boots and long pants. I am not a small man and this kind of impact for someone my size, more so than most people that are of average size, could be a life altering severe injury. Upon impact, I was hurled over the car into a double flip. If only someone was videotaping this, it would have made for a tremendous stunt on Real TV. I landed on my feet with my left ankle turned out, rolled forward, and stopped directly on my butt facing the wrong direction. Due to the lack of proper clothing, I suffered a fairly bad road rash on my right leg from when I rolled forward. However, because I have spent so much of my focus with creating powerful flexibility, I had absolutely no torn or ripped ligaments in my ankles and absolutely no broken bones. I had a sprained ankle, a few cuts, and other than that was fine. It took me about 2-2 months for the road rash to heal up, but I was back on my feet walking around within 2 weeks.

This result was a testament to really one kind of powerful flexibility.

Multi-Directional Resistance Stretching©

written by Ari Gronich
Owner and Founder and Developer of
The Academy for Performance Therapy

Venus overcomes leg cramps to beat Hingis” was the headlines on MSNBC.com

After watching Venus Williams lying on the ground at Wimbledon screaming in agony from a severe muscle cramp in her leg, I decided that it would be a great topic to speak on here…

A friend and avid tennis enthusiast began asking me some questions about these cramps that were so obviously in effect with some top ranked sports stars.

His questions started with:

“What is a muscle cramp?”

The dictionary answer looks like this:

1. A sudden, involuntary, spasmodic muscular contraction causing severe pain,
often occurring in the leg or shoulder as the result of strain or chill.
2. A temporary partial paralysis of habitually or excessively used muscles.

The real question in my book is not so much what is a cramp, but WHY is a cramp? What is the cause underlying the symptoms, and what do the symptoms tell us about how to treat a cramp?

I have several answers to this type of question.

• Cramping is caused by several affects that come together. I will mention some of these as well as treatment options to help prevent cramping from occurring…
  Tight muscles that are not warmed up properly or stretched effectively is one of the primary causes for the symptom of cramping. Also muscles that have been overworked and are in the state of strain or are already inflamed due to doing too much prior to heavy extended exercise can cramp. 
• Pre-Event Sports Massage is one of the most effective methods for preventing cramping. This style of therapy increases circulation and activates acetylcholine in your body. (Biochemistry: The acetic acid ester of choline, C7H17NO3, released and hydrolyzed during nerve conduction and causing muscle action by transmitting nerve impulses across synapses. This is responsible for fast reaction time as well as keeping your muscles ready for POUNCING.) In other words, when you have plenty of this active in your muscle cells, your body is set for action – not for seizing. Pre-Event Sports Massage also aids in pushing built-up lactic acid out of muscle tissue, gradually warming the muscle fibers and creating an environment where cramping is less likely to occur. 
• Dehydration and loss of electrolytes due to excess exercise with minimal replenishment of proper fluids leads to a build up of lactic acid, an increase of inflammation, and a decrease in proper circulation. Upon a slight cooling of the muscles, there is so much build up that a seizing occurs causing cramping. 
• Lack of stretching and proper warm up can also contribute to the ease at which a cramp will come on. If you do a pre stretch routine along with some warm up exercises, you increase vasodilation as well as the space in between muscle fibers thereby increasing your muscles’ ability to flush lactic acid out of the muscles. Also, this pre event warm up brings the temperature of your muscles up gradually so that there is not such a great spike in temperature at “GAME TIME.” This allows for a decrease in inflammation and, upon cooling, less likely chance for cramping to occur. 
• A cooling down period is very important as well to decrease your chances of developing cramps. This allows your muscles to gradually come down in temperature eliminating much of the seize that happens when your muscles go from a state of inflammation to a direct state of cool. Along with this period, it would be a good idea to elevate your legs and arms above your heart so that your circulation can work with gravity to flush the excess blood flow and acid out of your extremities. 
• Always drink WATER especially some of the new electrolyte enhanced waters, while exercising and performing.

His next question was more of an immediate emergency question. He asked me:

“What do I do if I didn’t do any of those things and I am in the middle of a cramp RIGHT NOW?”

This is where my philosophy meets nature and more scientific principles.

At the heart of this question lies the “Go To” vs “Run From” philosophies. To answer this question, I come from a natural point of view.

The mechanism of a cramp is:

Overly acidic muscles contracting and spasming and seizing trying to do WHAT?

 

• The act of contraction, spasm, and seizing has three effects. (a) The contraction acts to squeeze muscles and take away space from them; (b) the more you can take space away, the less can fit in; and (c) the less that can fit in, the more you eliminate what does not belong; therefore, nature is telling you that there is something in your muscles that it does not want there. 
• Spasming is a mechanism that aids in vibrating the muscle cells to expand and contract very quickly creating a pump-like action, opening and closing, pushing acid out of the muscle when open and stopping that acid from coming back in when closing. This also aids in the elimination of our culprit. 
• The seizing or paralyzing of the muscle is designed to lock your muscle in place so that the other two mechanisms work more efficiently. 

We tend not to like nature very much, and we try very hard to push out of a cramp and eliminate the immediacy of the pain we are in. What happens when we do this is we open up the floodgates for the fluid and, almost like a sponge, we suck more acid into the muscle making the next cramp much more likely and sometimes even more severe. When we try to go away from our pain, we draw it in more and more.

If we were to follow nature, what would be the most effective method?

Enjoy your pain!!! What I mean by this is that to aid nature in its course is the most effective way to eliminate cramps in the moment as well as help prevent them from occurring in the future.

“How do you aid nature?”

Well, this is where my personal explorations came in. If I were to follow nature and look at the mechanisms of a cramp, my only response would be to help the cramp out.

This is done by squeezing into the cramp. Lock the muscle even more and squeeze as hard as you can for as long as you can stand it. You must breathe throughout this process. What will happen is you will feel your muscles vibrate and twitch at a much more accelerated speed. You will feel the muscle fibers begin to burn and then begin to fatigue. You will feel the cramping getting almost hard to sustain. As you tighten and tighten and tighten your muscles into the cramp, you will notice a very strange thing. As much as the pain got you when you started squeezing, that pain will begin to decrease and the twitching that was once very fast will start to get slower and more pronounced and your muscle will fatigue from being locked and begin to give way.

This is the point when you squeeze even tighter. It is crucial that at the point of relaxation, your muscles are so over fatigued that they simply drop into a limp jello-like state. When you get to this point, you have pushed a great majority of that lactic acid out of the muscles; you have stretched and fatigued your muscles enough that they can relax; and such a great level, and you have created an environment in your body where cramps become much less likely next time.

The more you can stand the pain and the more you can follow nature’s mechanisms, the greater your performance will be with the least likely chance of causing injury.

If you have any questions feel free to email me.

Thanks

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com

Meditation
Exercise
Nutrition
Stretching

Description of each:

Meditation: Just 15 to 20 minutes a day is all that is needed. Sit in a comfortable way, free of distractions. Close your eyes. Imagine being in a place that is most relaxing to you (beach, meadow, stream, etc.). Focus on your breathing. Notice body sensations (itches, stresses, etc.) but avoid moving to remove them. Allow thoughts to bubble up and then pass through. Observe all your many thoughts without acting on them. Do NOT try to stop your thinking; that is impossible. Just notice your thinking. If you judge your own thoughts or make decisions, that’s OK too; just observe that judgments and decisions are also thoughts, and let them pass through along with the rest of them.

Exercise: Just 20-30 minute a day, no more than an hour, of vigorous mixed resistance and cardio-vascular exercise (weights and biking for example). You can mix them in the same day or alternate. Vigorous does not mean muscle-tearing and exhausting. Make it simple and enjoyable. Pick a regular time each day. If you have health problems, see your physician before engaging in an exercise program.

Nutrition: 5 small meals a day, emphasizing fruits, vegetables, complex carbs, and lean meats, if any. Minimize sweets and white starches (bread, white rice, potatoes, cake, tortillas, etc.) and avoiding heavy animal fats such as cold-cuts, sausages, and whole milk (including whole milk cheeses and whole milk yogurt).

Stretching: Stretch all major muscle groups at least twice a day (morning and afternoon for example), and intermittently throughout the day (get out of your chair at least once an hour and stretch).

Main purpose for each

Meditation: Enables you to ride through stressful events and interactions; trains your mind to let unwanted thoughts pass through rather than cause emotional reactions. Physically, it can help reduce fat accumulation in the mid-body, which is known to be stress related.

Exercise: Evens out the temperament – reduces mood swings, particularly downward swings. Obviously, also, exercise will improve your appearance and overall physical health.

Nutrition: Levels out the mood swings. Physically, it will also help you lose weight and improve overall health.

Stretching: Helps emotions pass out of your system freely rather than accumulate, thus freeing you of reactive (past-history and emotional) responses to events. Also removes toxins from the system with myriad mental and physical benefits. Physically, stretching removes pain in joints and muscles and increases flexibility and agility.

Biochemical effects

Meditation: Reduces release of adrenaline and cortisol, the stress-related hormones. In cases of adrenal fatigue, the result of extended periods of stress, which can cause wild variations in many different hormones in the body, meditation can help return the adrenal glands to normal functioning.

Exercise: As described, exercise releases serotonin. It raises mood level. Exercise. as described. may in fact reduce or eliminate the need for chemical anti-depressants.

Nutrition: As described, levels out insulin levels throughout the day. This in turn reduces hunger pangs and emotional eating. Also, by eliminating hunger pangs, which is a stressor, reduces anxiety and the release of stress-related hormones (adrenaline and cortisol).

Stretching: Removes toxic bi-products of the hormone system, allowing the system to function smoothly.

suggested by Dr. Richard Recor, PhD. and Authored by Robert Kramarz

Traditionally if you wanted to create a strong core and rock hard abs, you had to do an endless amount of sit ups. You would either put your hands behind your head, torquing your neck and causing all sorts of low back pain, or you would put your arms across your chest and try to keep your head straight, looking at the ceiling, and all the while remembering to breathe properly.

Then crunches, which targeted only a small portion of your abs, came along, but they too created other issues with low back and neck. These injuries were much less than the sit up but did not give a well- rounded full abs workout.

So late at night you are sitting around on the couch or lying in bed and all of a sudden you see these infomercials. The people all have amazing abs and they are giving all the credit to the newest and greatest machine on the market. For only $99.95 you too can have the abs of a Greek statue. Some of these machines are great and others fall by the wayside.

In my business we see people all day long that have one major issue. If this issue was taken care of, then all of the other problems would be much easier to handle. This is the issue of CORE STRENGTH.

There are several ways to work the abs, but the greatest way that I have found WITHIN a workout that does not take any extra time and yet burns up your tummy like no body’s business, IS……………….

Systematically get yourself into an unbalanced position while at the same time doing other resistance training. Then do what is necessary to get balanced while continuing the resistance training.

In other words, creating an imbalance and attempting to find that balance while in the midst of doing your resistance training is the answer.

Suggestions for how to do this are:

1. Use a balance ball while lifting your free weights.
2. Balance on one leg at a time.
3. Use pulley machines that pull back on you creating a need to balance both
directions.
4. In order to get to your oblique’s, cross your body and create straight
movements.

Soon I will have pictures and the like up so that you can see how you can utilize these techniques to build a powerful, flexible core without ever doing sit ups again!!!

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com

Situation: You just pulled a muscle in your calf and need to know the correct protocol for a quick recovery.

The standard treatment is known as R.I.C.E. which stands for:

Rest
Ice
Compress
Elevate

I have a different method that produces much faster healing and recovery with the potential to come out of the injury with more flexibility and power than with the standard treatment.

The First Step is:

Ice and elevate your leg, preferably above your heart. This will allow for inflammation to go down and proper circulation back into the damaged area.

The difference comes in this Second Step:

While you are elevated, begin to flex your foot and calf muscles slowly. Hold the flex for 10-15 seconds or as long as you can. Push down into the ground; work the muscle tissue. Remember to do this slowly and with much care. What you will find is that through this working of the muscles you will end up pushing more of the fluid through the muscles thus decreasing inflammation and swelling and increasing your flexibility and mobility. The more intensely you can push through the pain, the more quickly you will recover.

The Third Step in this process is HEAT!!!

Heat is tricky and must be handled with care. It is with many years of seeing patients and working with dry heat and moist heat and all kinds of heat that I found what seems to work the most effectively: Steaming Heat from a Wet Hot Towel!!! It is truly that simple. Dry heat tends to add to inflammation and the seizing and cramping of muscles. Even moist heat, like from a hyrdrocolator, tends to increase muscle stiffness – especially when you take the heat away and the cool air closes in.

Take a towel and wet it with steamy hot water or put it in a plastic microwavable bag and heat it inside a microwave until it is steamy hot, then place that on the troubled area.

My experience is that because of the nature of steamy heat, it opens the pores of your skin and increases your body’s ability to draw out toxins while increasing circulation and decreasing inflammation.

Just a logical guess, but because the steam is PULLING up away from the skin, it is pulling more of the lactic acid to the surface and out of your skin bringing the damage closer to the surface and allowing for a more expedient recovery time.

In summary, for those of you who do not like 4 letter words, the new MUCH better method I recommend is:

Ice
Elevate
Flex with resistance
Steamy heat
Flex
Elevate
Ice
Rest
Repeat

I am off to the Infrared Sauna

’Till Next Time

Written By Ari Gronich
www.performancetherapist.com