The Mysteries of Injuries

As a professional dancer for 10 years in New York City, I've had plenty of injuries. It's a long list. As a retired chiropractic orthopedist, having practiced for many years in New York City, I've treated lots of people with a very long list of exercise- and sports-related injuries.

As a life-long athlete, I'm well aware that a person with an injury has many questions.

When can I get back to my sport? is the most common and most immediate question. This is relatively easy to answer.
What can I do to prevent this from happening again? is another common question. Often, the answer is relatively straightforward. But for some, injuries continue to happen.

Which leads us to the key question -

Why did this happen to me?

This is the hardest to answer. Sometimes, stuff just happens. As a physician, you may need to look a person in the eye, shrug your shoulders, and say exactly that - sometimes stuff just happens. But it's very important to continue to attempt to discover likely causes.

I believe there are three main sources of training injuries -

Under-preparation
Over-training
Lack of focus OR not paying attention

Under-preparation means doing things you're not ready to do. In Manhattan, I often worked as an aide at the finish line of the New York City Marathon. After a while, I was no longer shocked by the numbers of people who were absolutely falling apart at the aide station. Once a person was able to speak coherently, I'd ask them about their marathon training - how did they prepare?

The ones who were in the worst shape were the ones who prepared the least. Obviously. Well, obvious to the docs, but not obvious to the person attached to the I.V.

People who have never done aerobic exercise go out and try to run five miles. People who have never done strength training go to the gym and try to use heavy weights. People who have never taken a yoga class go to one, like it, and then go every day for a week.

Oy.If you're 16, you can go crazy. Sometimes, even if you're 26. But if you're 36 or 46 or 56 - or 66, 76, or 86 - you've got to train on a trajectory. Start slow, start with the basics. Have rest days. Build up your strength and stamina. Get used to the new form of physical activity, and build on your base. Doing too much will send you straight to your doctor's office - or to the hospital.

Over-training means doing too much. Most of us are guilty of this. I know I am. Ego gets in the way, you think you're tough, invincible, and you exceed your physical limits of the moment. For example, you love to run, you build up your weekly mileage, and all of a sudden you've got a stress fracture in your fibula or tibia [or a bad strain of the posterior tibialis [which feels almost exactly the same as a stress fracture].

There is another side to this, and none of us wants to baby ourselves. I mean, how many runners haven't had lingering calf pain or a chronic stress reaction? Most of us have had this at some point.

What I want to emphasize here is to train SMART, and to look out for the possibility of over-training. It's always a temptation, and the result is never good. The short-term gratification is completely outweighed by the frustration and deconditioning resulting from injury-enforced down-time.

What about focus and paying attention? I'll propose that many injuries happen during normal training because your mind wandered off. People are paying more attention to the TV screen or to the music on their iPods than to their rep of the moment. What happened to present time consciousness? This powerful Zen concept offers tremendous value for people who exercise. Focus provides immeasurable value, forging powerful brain-muscle connections. And, focus - present time consciousness - causes you to be right in the moment and doing your exercise properly.

I'll make the bold statement that you're very unlikely to sustain an injury during normal training if you're completely focused. I can look back on so many of my own injuries and point to wandering attention as the immediate cause. Now, it's challenging to focus all the time, right? Yes, it is. Maintaining focus is part of the discipline of training. It's a Zen thing, packed with powerful rewards for a person.

But aren't there underlying issues that may predispose a person to injury even if they're doing all the right things? The easy answer is "yes". The hard part is to accurately assess and possibly diagnose such issues.

Underlying causes often involve complex biomechanical imbalances. Most often, these are not easy to correct. A person may spend vast amounts of precious time and money in trying to find effective therapy. She may visit chiropractors, physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, massage therapists, and assorted "natural healers", and still not achieve a permanent solution.

What to do? I believe knowledge is power. A magnificent book - really, the seminal work in the field of biomechanics - is The Thinking Body by Mabel Ellsworth Todd.

The Thinking Body was written in the 1930s. It's a slow read, but will definitely reward you by helping you get your head on straight [literally] about human biomechanics and physical performance.

More to come about biomechanical imbalances, how to begin to restore efficient form, how to regain performance levels, and how to prevent recurrence of injuries.

David Lemberg

25 years experience in fitness, exercise, health, wellness

Author, speaker, educator

total-lifetime-fitness.com total-lifetime-fitness.com/

Cheap Exercise - How to Exercise With What You Have at Home

Getting anything cheap or free for many people is great and exercise is usually no exception. So if you can't afford to get a personal trainer or equipment there are cheap ways to exercise. In my articles "exercise with no equipment" and " exercise with little equipment" it was a little different than cheap exercise because in cheap exercise its using things you use in your everyday life to simulate what you would be able to do with equipment but not sacrifice your ability to get a great workout. Below in this article I will go through several things that you have in your everyday life that you could use to workout.

· Chair- Although we all sit on one everyday, chairs are great pieces of workout equipment. If you have a pretty sturdy chair you can perform dips, incline pushups, step ups and chair squats.

· Cans, Candle holders or any thing that is weighted- As long as you can get your hands around it and its significantly weighted you can use it to exercise. Arm curls, shoulder exercises or any exercises that require more than your body weight are great to exercise with.

· Your Body- As stated in other articles, your body is great to use and there are almost limitless exercises that you can do. Pilates and Yoga are two forms of exercise where using your body in most cases is the major tool for resistance.

So with a little imagination you can see that whether you go to a gym or can't afford to pay for personal training when it comes to exercise there really is no excuse when there is cheap or no equipment exercise

[economyexercise.com]

How You Can Benefit With Yoga Fitness

Many people are trying various workout methods to try and get into shape. It can be hard to find something that you like. You could try the gym or perhaps you have some equipment at home, but just find it difficult to get motivated. That can happen when the exercise itself is just not exiting enough. To get into the routine of working out, you just have to find what program or method work for you. Often people turn to yoga fitness and give it a try.

It might sound intimidating to attempt this kind of workout. Sometimes it is associated with meditation and tricky poses. However, if you can learn the method behind the poses and deep breathing then you could have a better understanding and appreciation for the program

You can take a yoga class in many different locations. Sometimes gyms offer various forms of yoga classes, starting with beginner to advanced. You will even find some classes that are aimed at all levels. There are also many companies that are dedicated to providing yoga workouts and classes. These schools will have professionally trained instructors and charge you a steep fee for the service. If you want to give it a try without a price attached to it, you might rent a DVD or go and buy a yoga video.

When you try yoga for the first time, you will find it overwhelming. The positions that your body will have to stretch in, will be tiresome and hard. And it is hard to get used to the deep breathing and slow pace. However, giving it a few classes is the best way to see if you really like it or not. The second time that you go back, you might have the skills needed to complete most of the class.

As you take part in a regular routine of this type of fitness, your body will become more flexible and you will see a difference in your endurance and the way you handle stress. That is because this form of exercise does some amazing things to your mind and body.

If you can combine yoga with other forms of exercise, your body will be well on its way to becoming very fit. That is due to the combination of routines aimed to train your body to get fit and in shape.

This type of workout has been linked to weight loss, so if your plan is to loose a few inches around the waistline, you might find it quite possible with a few classes and lessons. Any kind of activity can only help the body feel better.

Fitting yoga fitness into your life might be pretty rewarding. Some people love it and can never see themselves stopping. It is a routine that can be followed at any age and by any fitness level. It can be done by pregnant people and the elderly. The low impact stretches and positions give people the chance to work out without hurting their knees and other joints.

Attending fitness clubs is an excellent way to maintain a healthy lifestyle and keep your body in shape. They offer personal training Toronto too. Alternatively, you may prefer extremefitness.ca/yoga yoga Toronto for a further enriching twitter.com/extremefitness1 extreme fitness experience.

The Best Yoga For Athletes - 3 Things You Didn't Know About Sports Yoga

The best yoga for athletes is very different from traditional forms of yoga. It isn't about being dressed head to toe in Lycra and entering pretzel-like positions! Yoga for athletes concentrates on optimizing postures to achieving your performance potential. It's not about holding postures for 5 minutes at a time, or feeling like you're falling asleep by the end! The very best yoga for athletes concentrates on improving both recovery time and sports performance. Here are 3 things you may not have known about sports yoga.

The sessions are dynamic! When you think of yoga, you may picture a person meditating, very quiet and not really doing much. Seems boring, huh? You're an athlete, you like to move! Yoga for athletes won't require you to sit still; you'll be flowing from posture to posture, constantly moving your body. There is nothing boring about this; athletes yoga will keep you working hard all the time.
No matter your flexibility, anyone can do yoga!It doesn't matter if you haven't been able to touch your toes in 20 years. Yoga is all about working within your body's limits. Postures have all sorts of variations that you can take so that you don't have to feel uncomfortable or like you're going to hurt yourself. Whether you can only touch your knees or you can completely fold over to your toes, you are still doing just as much good for your body.
Yoga is physically challenging!You think yoga is easy? Think again! Yoga poses challenge both your large muscle groups like your legs and core, but also target neglected body parts. Imagine going through a flow balancing on one foot, while moving your torso, arms, and other leg into different postures; from experience, I am telling you that this is quite challenging! Strengthening your ankles this way is a huge advantage when you play sports. So don't despair; yoga may be hard at first, but you'll strengthen up fast and see the results on the playing field!

It's very understandable that athletes would not want to do the quiet, meditating kind of yoga. Athletes want a hard training session, and this is what the best yoga for athletes offers. A superb training tool, yoga is the best thing an athlete can do for their game.

Did you know that Le Bron James and Maria Sharapova both practice yoga to enhance their athletic abilities? Don't you ever wish you could dramatically improve your performance? Join the revolution, and find out how the squidoo.com/bestyogaforathletes best yoga for athletes can skyrocket your playing to a new level: YogaforAthletes.info YogaforAthletes.info

Shaun T's Insanity Workout Vs Tony Horton's P90x Workout

First of all I would like to say I did 1 full round of P90x and Insanity and have gotten great results with both programs. Insanity and P90x are both from the company Beachbody. Beachbody programs always come with great customer support( 30 day money back return policy) and reliable and prompt shipping. Both arrive in nice boxes that contain fitness guides nutrition guides the DVD workouts and calenders to mark off your daily completion. But Insanity's fitness guide is a small pamphlet getting right to the basics( they say in the infomercial they want us working out not reading). The P90x fitness guide has a lot of pages.

P90x is a 90 day in house boot camp system that promises great results in 90 days it has 12 workout routines and is based on Muscle Confusion- Basically saying doing 6-7( day 7 is X-Stretch or Rest) different workouts during the week so you don't hit a plateau and stop seeing results.YOU MUS HAVE A PULL UP BAR OR SOME WAY OF DOING PULL UPS OR CHIN UPS.Perform the p90x fit test see if P90x is right for you.The P90x fit test is 8 routines measured by reps in a specific time( use modifications at will). 90x is broken down into 3 phases or months. The first 3 weeks of these phases you will complete the same 6-7 exercises throughout the week but on the last week of the month is called the recovery phase where you are introduced to a new full week of exercises that allow your body to rest from the resistance training and have cardio and ab focuses workouts throughout this week. This week is no joke!! Here are the workouts for P90X:

# Chest & Back ( Weight/ Resistance Training)

# Plyometrics (Cardio)

# Shoulders & Arms (Weight /Resistance Training)

# Yoga X ( Flexibilty and Stability)

# Legs & Back ( Weight /Resistance Training)

# Kenpo X (Cardio) All works range from (45-60 minutes)

# Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (Weight/Resistance Training) Except Yoga X (96 minutes)

# Back & Biceps(Weight/Resistance Training Except Ab Ripper X (16 minutes)

# Core Synergistics ( Cardio and Core)

# X Stretch ( Flexibility)

# Cardio X ( Cardio and Core and Flexibilty)

# Ab Ripper X (Ab Routine)

In the second phase of P90x they introduce 2 new workouts into the 6-7 workouts and remove 2 so you still are doing 6-7 workouts weekly. This allows more muscle confusion to take place on the resistance training days due to the 2 new resistance workouts. They are awesome too. New moves and harder than phase one!! 3 weeks of this again then the same recovery week.

The last phase is the best this is when the true muscle confusion kicks in! Every weeks are swapped back and forth to continuously trick your body through different exercises. For instance: What you did for week 1 you will do for (Month 1) weeks 1 and week 3 and what you did for (Month 2) week 1 happens in the 2nd week then back to week 1 of the first month and son and so forth. (weeks 1,week 5 week 1 week 5 then the great recovery week).

Shaun T's Insanity is a home based Cardio) workout that promises and total body transformation in 63 day The Insanity Deluxe system has 12 Dvds also( base kit has 9).The Insanity system is based on Max Interval Training-Basically bringing your heart rate up high for long periods of time and having minimal rest periods(about 30-60 seconds). This is the hardest workout ever put on DVD! I can honestly say the infomercial was right!You also perform Fit tests throughout Insanity (5 times) to track your progress. It really is amazing to see where you are after 63 days! Insanity is broken down into 3 Segments.

1st segment or month you will rotate 5 workouts(working out 6 days a week there is no 7 day workout! You will be praying for the rest day, lol. About 35 minutes a day for month 1 workouts.

2nd Segment you have your recovery week basically they want you to use Core Cardio and Balance for 6 days. I just switched between Core Cardio and Balance and Max Interval Sports Training to get me ready for the Maxed out month 2 workouts.

3rd Segment month 2 Things really get tough for the last month at this point the workouts are about 25 (45-60 min for month 2 exercises) minutes longer so eat more healthy foods! New workouts and New moves you are gonna love it!

1: Dig Deeper & Fit Test: To start, Shaun T will put your body to the test and see what you're made of.

2: Plyometric Cardio Circuit: Burn fat with intervals of intense lower-body plyo and sweat-inducing cardio.

3: Cardio Power & Resistance: Build lean muscle and upper-body definition with strength-training and insanity workout power moves.

4: Cardio Recovery: Shaun T goes easier on you once a week so you're ready for the next Insanity Workout round.

5: Pure Cardio: Skip the intervals this nonstop cardio workout is all extreme.

6: Cardio Abs: Do explosive intervals of cardio and core moves for rock-hard abs.

7: Core Cardio & Balance: Take a break after month 1 of the Insanity workout and gear up for month 2 with this workout.

8: Max Interval Circuit: The interval circuit that's more intense than anything you've ever done before.

9: Max Interval Plyo: Push your legs until they beg for mercy with power and plyo, all at your MAX.

10: Max Cardio Conditioning Abs: Get pushed to your limit with this extreme cardio workout.

11: Insane Abs: is nothing but insane ab cutting movements that will really define your core!

12: Max Interval Sports Training: Is a Fun workout doing various sport drills like boxing, basketball, football, and gymnastics.

Upper Body Weight Training: not your regular weight lifting. This is a bonus DVD they say Shaun T likes to Lift weights once and in a while.

With all this said: P90x will get you in the best shape of your life with various workouts with Weight Training and Cardio and Flexibility in 90 days.( I lost 47 pounds with p90x).Tony Horton will keep you laughing and motivated through out the whole 90 days.

Shaun T's Insanity will get you in the best condition of your life with your own body weight and the will to survive. You will do lots of different pull ups and jump moves that will really tighten and enforce your entire body.Insanity also has Stretching that really works deep in the muscles. If you have any weak lower body parts like legs knees lower back Insanity might not be a good choice for you due to all the jumping.

Also You shouldn't jump right into trying Shaun T's Insanity build a strong fitness foundation before attempting Insanity. Use very good Running shoes with Insanity to protect your joints and joint support.

I lost 13 pounds with Insanity and 4 inches off my waist!! I started my fitness journey weighing 284 and t this day I weigh 224 thanks to both of these great and intense workouts!

Lastly, P90x and Insanity are totally different and extreme, but they both deliver great results. Just remember Nutrition is 75% of the battle!! Enjoy my friends!

See my P90X/ Insanity results and watch my video on what is needed before you purchase P90X. Visit

See my Insanity results and watch my Transformation video

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YOGA - Teachers Train to Teach More Than Technique

Yoga teachers, whether in a studio, on a DVD, or at the local gym, are guides.

Ideally, they guide us with finesse, awareness, skill and a light touch. Without proper technique we would get hurt. But, technique is only part of a bigger picture.

Here's what technique offers.

1. A framework for using poses to improve your body and mind. This is easy for people who want to do things 'right' and meet the challenge. Hold the shape, work on the edge, get a great workout, and feel better when you leave.

2. It can also serve as a hangar for insecurities and the inability to focus as well as a tool for turning inward so you can listen to yourself. Hangars and tools can be very useful items.

Here's what your practice offers.

1. The opportunity to let go of the insecurities, which will free your mind. We all have insecurities, about our bodies and about our life experiences. If you can't balance on one foot (or the other, seems we're all lopsided to some degree), then keep a hand on the floor or on the wall. Bones, joints, injuries, age. They make a difference.

2. A time and place to focus on yourself. There's no good or bad, right or wrong. Listen to the music or listen to your breath. Allow your attention to roam around inside yourself. Is your upper back tight? Have your shoulders moved towards your ears? Let them go. Does the lower back twinge? Relax it by taking in a deep long breath, let the back feel puffy, and then mentally send the twinge out with the breath.

Here's an intention.

Move at your own pace. If it's slower than the teacher, that's okay. You can flow into the next pose from where you are if you stay present instead of thinking about what happened yesterday or what you're going to do later. Acknowledge whatever you are feeling now. Frustration, irritability, disappointment. It's all okay. So what. This is the perfect time and place to go with the flow and keep moving. Your technique will keep you safe as you frame your own practice.

For more tips, essays, and resources to find peace and energy in an adventurous and eventful life, visit Lisa Holdren's blog at peaceandlaughter.blogspot.com peaceandlaughter.blogspot.com Lisa retired from episodic television and series development to guide her children toward contentment and successful careers. Now she helps readers in search of tranquility and purpose with humor and intuitiveness.

Yes, No, Yes, No - The Yamas & Niyamas

The Yamas & the Niyamas represent the first two limbs/branches of the eight-limbed body/tree of Ashtanga (ashta=eight, anga=limb) Yoga. Considered as foundations for the remaining six limbs, these "outer" branches of the Ashtanga system are attitudes & actions that have the power to align us with Inner Peace. Totaling ten in number ~ five Yamas or "don'ts, and five Niyamas or "do's" ~ they strike a resonant cord, for many who first come upon them, with the Christian Ten Commandments. There is, however, an important difference: the emphasis of the Yamas & Niyamas is not so much on what we will suffer if we fail to abide by them, but rather on what we will gain if we choose to practice them. In other words, they are not so much "commandments" as they are recommendations, invitations or just plain sensible advice from our friends in this Yoga lineage.

The Yamas & Niyamas are ~ at least initially ~ engaged with as a path, a practice, a direction of development. Once we've practiced for a while, and realize spiritual perfection (i.e. have traversed the remaining six limbs of Ashtanga Yoga), the Yamas & Niyamas manifest as specific siddhis/fruitions ... which take us beyond the "yes" and "no" of the path, and into the nondual territory of YesNo, a.k.a. Nirvana, Brahma, Unity Consciousness. They become what in Buddhism are called paramitas (nondual perfections). So while initially the Yamas & Niyamas are much like the proverbial finger pointing to the moon (a tool for guiding our vision), in their essence and final manifestation they are finger/moon indistinguishable.

The first of the Yamas is Ahimsa, or non-violence. It is the practice of doing no harm, and reveals benevolence as a natural quality of the heart. When we perfect the quality of non-violence, hostility ceases in our presence: even the fiercest of beasts ~ in meeting this perfected vibration of doing-no-harm ~ themselves become harmless. Complementing the Yama of Ahimsa is the Niyama of Saucha, or cleanliness, which ~ though it includes bodily cleanliness ~ refers principally to a purity of heart. In renouncing the desire to do harm in any way to others (the practice of Ahimsa), we develop a sweetness & innocence that is the sign of a heart inwardly pure and at peace. The consciousness of being separate from others (the root of all acts of violence) has at this point been transformed into the realization of the inherent Unity of Being ... giving rise to that absolute inner purity which is recommended by the Niyama of cleanliness.

The second of the Yamas is Satya, or truthfulness. This is the practice of harmlessness with respect to our speech: of speaking in a way that is both truthful and kind. This requires us, for one, to make a distinction between truth and fact: the truth (the Masters tell us) is always beneficial (given the particular context); a statement of fact can (within a particular context) be either beneficial or harmful. What is recommended, when faced with a situation in which speaking sincerely would likely inflict harm, is simply to remain silent. Perfection of Satya develops mental power to such an extent that one's mere word becomes binding on objective events: One has merely to declare a thing so for it actually to become so. Complementing the Yama of Satya is the Niyama of Ishvara Pranidhana, or Devotion to the Supreme Lord, for the ultimate act of truth-telling is to admit to there being only one reality in existence: God. And this is a God discovered not by scattering our devotion outwardly in religious ceremonies and rituals, but rather by turning it inward (becoming yogis!) ~ by realizing Brahma flowing through and as "ourselves." This fundamental self-honesty (Satya) unfolds quite naturally then as the Niyama of Devotion to the Supreme Lord (our own radiant Core). When we realize who we are, how can we not be in love and endlessly devoted to that?!

The third of the Yamas is Asteya, or non-avarice. What is to be renounced, here, is the desire for anything that is not acquired by merit. This involves a fundamental trust in the "law of attraction" by which what a person does indeed merit, will be (quite infallibly) attracted. (This is in alignment, also, with the tenets of Karma Yoga: of remaining relaxed with respect to outcome/resluts, even in the midst of fervent activity.) Developed to perfection, the quality of non-avarice generates a subtle magnetism that enables the yogi to attract things effortlessly: his or her needs, whatever they are, are always met ... giving rise then to a sense of ease and relaxation. Complementing the Yama of Asteya is the Niyama of Santosha, or contentment. Because we know that what we merit will always be forthcoming, we're able ~ in our work and in our play ~ to rest within an attitude of acceptance, regardless of the particular circumstances that are currently manifesting in/as our life.

The fourth of the Yamas is Aparigraha, or non-acceptance, and is a corollary to Asteya/non-avarice: Asteya signifies non-attachment to what is not our own; Aparigraha signifies non-attachment to what we would normally consider to be our own. The point is that nothing, truly, belongs to us (as small-self/ego). Everything ~ our bodies, our actions, our thoughts ~ belongs to the Lord (our Higher Self). The perfection of Aparigraha manifests as the capacity to remember our past incarnations (something that is possible only when we let go of our identification with our present body). Complementing the Yama of Aparigrapha is the Niyama of Swadhyaya, or introspection, which invites a movement from an understanding of what we are not (via the practice of non-acceptance) to an ever-deepening intuition of who we are.

The fifth of the Yamas is Brahmacharya, self-control or ~ more literally ~ "flowing with Brahma/the Supreme Spirit." This teaching is applied most specifically to the practice of celibacy/sexual abstinence. More generally, it refers to working skillfully with all of our natural human appetites. In its deepest sense, Brahmacharya signifies the practice of allowing our awareness always to be flowing in the Core of our Being, i.e. of being identified with Spirit, instead of with an ego centered in body-consciousness. As we train in this way, we begin to be master of our natural human "appetites" (their fulfillment becomes a clear expression of the energy of awakened mind), instead of being mastered by them (i.e. drawn into loops of distraction from the truth of who-we-are). The perfection of this Yama dawns as an arising of boundless energy, which causes us to shine like the sun itself, shedding radiance continuously. Complementing the Yama of Brahmacharya is the Niyama of Tapas, or austerity, which refers to the practice of taking energy that was formerly directed outwardly, and re-channeling it into the spiritual search, of offering (as food) to the fire of the Shushumna Nadi, all of those previously outwardly-directed desires/appetites.

Elizabeth Reninger, M.S. (Oriental Medicine) has been exploring Yoga/Qigong - in its Daoist, Buddhist and Hindu varieties - for upwards of twenty-five years. She maintains a private acupuncture practice in Boulder, Colorado, and is a published poet. For more of Elizabeth's writing, on related topics, please visit taoism.about.com taoism.about.com