Do you remember the Sesame Street song: “One of these things is not like the others…. One of these things just doesn’t belong!” 

We are applying that to abs here. 

Did you notice Jake Perry’s abs? He’s lower right hand corner in the collage. 

They are super asymmetrical! 

The Australian Firefighters Calendar came across my Instagram feed, and I was (somewhat) surprised to see these uber fit men also asymmetrical. 

Our upper left hand corner firefighter has symmetrical abs….but what does that really mean? 

Did he just magically have symmetrical abs?

Is it genetics? 

Is it his training program? 

I don’t think those things are the major player here: What Mr. Upper Left Hand Corner has, that the other young men don’t is….

Drumroll please…

Level hips. 

Hips that are strong, and level, and in the same horizontal plane. 

You can see Jake Perry’s right hip is higher than the left….and look what happens. 

Is it permanent? 

No.

Is it fixable? 

Yes! 

Does it happen to lots of people everywhere? 

Yes. 

These young men are just doing a great job of illustrating what happens when you have a muscle and/or strength imbalance. 

In this case, it’s an aesthetic problem, but in my world, it becomes a pain and stiffness and soreness problem. 

Let’s talk about how to level those hip out next time I see you! 

Here’s to balance, strength, and level hips with resulting fabulous abs happiness,

🙂 Laura

Here is a screenshot of Jack Perry- the son of Luke Perry and Rachel Sharp. 

At first glance, arguably a hot potato. 

However, something jumps out at me right away when I look at this photo and many others of shirtless men. 

Can you see it? 

Reply to this post with what you think the problem might be. 

We will discuss the photo next time I see you! 

Here’s to balance, strength, and happiness,

🙂 Laura 

How many lux of light do you need a day to help your sleep? (That’s my cat Smokey (yes with his head on the pillow!) and my sweet husband snuggling) 

I heard a podcast recently interviewing Dr. Catherine Darley who talks about light in terms of “lux” – a lux is used as a measure of the intensity, as perceived by the human eye, of light that hits or passes through a surface.

She says that with the invention of electricity, people naturally moved inside and didn’t use firelight or candlelight nearly as much, plus got away from the natural dark/light Circadian cycles. 

That in turn messed with our sleep. 

One of her big tips is to get outside in the first hour or two that you wake up in order to properly set up your Circadian system to help your sleep. 

Even if you live in an overcast place, the difference of being outside is 10,000 lux versus 160 lux being inside with the lights on and in front of two computers. 

A pretty big difference, I would say. 🙂 

1 lux= 1 candle flame, and we need at least 250 lux of light during the day when sun is up. 

You’re not getting that in office buildings and homes, even with the lights on and your screens.  You need to get outside! 

Interesting!  

What exactly happens when you get sunlight in the morning? 

It signals to your body that it is time to be awake, to be active, alert, and productive. 

That light signal additionally tells the rest of the melatonin still left over from sleep to go away. 

Without that signal we can feel fatigued….That I thought was SUPER interesting!

Imagine not feeling fatigued just by going outside as part of your morning routine. 

(How powerful is Mother Nature!)

At least 20 minutes of the first two hours of the day is the official recommendation, and sitting by the window or hoping the light will come though the windshield on your commute is not enough as there are coatings on the windows that can block or filter the light. 

I have nearly always gotten up to run in the morning, and I have said for years that it isn’t just the cardio that I am benefiting from. 

Without it I feel cold, can’t think clearly, I am fidgety, and distracted. 
Now I know I am also accidentally getting my lux accomplished even in our cloudy rainy chilly Pacific Northwest winters, as well as setting my Circadian Rhythms up for success. 

Fascinating. 

Here is the link to this podcast as there is more to listen to & learn if you’d like…

Happy Carpe Diem Day: Seize the Day! OR: Seize the sleep! 

Here’s to balance, strength, and deep sleeping happiness,

 🙂 Laura 

https://inspiredliving.show/127

“Why didn’t anyone tell me I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame?” 

One day this past Christmas season, I was sitting next to a friend of mine’s son, who had been complaining for the last four or five months of rib pain and chest pain.

His parents were really worried about him. 

He had been given two inhalers by two different doctors, thinking that his lungs were creating the rib pain. 

That didn’t seem to make a difference. 

He likes to ride his bike, and is currently studying abroad.  

As I sat next to him, he leaned forward, and I poked him in the middle of his back and said, “Is this tight?”

He about jumped up off the couch!

He turned to me and said, “Yes, that’s really sore and really tight.” 

I sneakily took a picture of him candidly while he was grabbing a snack, and I also took a picture of his dad talking with my husband. 

Then I did another thing I like to do: quickly whipped together a little collage (pictured above) and showed it to him. 

That is when he said, “Why didn’t anyone tell me I looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame?” 

He and I did one little workout session before he left to go back to school.

This is what he wrote me 2 weeks later:

“I just wanted to update you that I’ve been doing a lot better. The exercises have made a huge difference. I also have a posture corrector that I’m going to start wearing semi-regularly. :)” 

If you’re curious about one of the things I had him do, here’s a link to me doing the exercise at home. It’s a bit of an advanced exercise.

Here’s to balance strength and happiness, and yay for not being a Hunchback! 

Happy FriYAY!

🙂 Laura 

Happy Ground Hog Day and Spunky Old Broads Day! 

Here is another person I want to be when I grow up. 

Meet Juanita. 

She would be 91 tomorrow, and she and I worked out every other week for easily 15 years. 

She called it “old car maintenance” and on alternate weeks would get a massage with the fabulous Kim Dewey (heartsongmassage.com if you’re in the Portland area). 

She volunteered at the zoo in the horticulture department, gardened up a storm and volunteered on her homeowners board for the green spaces, and taught me the art of diplomacy via her homemade biscotti. 

She rarely went to a meeting, had anyone work on a task, trim a tree, or anything else without first offering up her homemade biscotti with a very, very infectious smile. 

In four different flavors no less.

Guess what?

She always got whatever she wanted accomplished. 😊

She was a trooper, even when her gigantic heart started to give out on her from loving the world via biscotti so much.

She even worked out with her oxygen tubes in her nose as long as she possibly could.

She loved the foam roller on the floor, and rolled out her quads and armpits whenever I asked her.

Her shoulders were back and level and she exuded confidence because she insisted on moving and taking care of herself right up until the end.

A live worth living, and she did it with grace and generosity and so beautifully.

I hope you value yourself as much as my wonderful friend Juanita did!

Take care of yourself this lovely Groundhog Day, and happy Spunky Old Broads Day like my friend Juanita!

Here’s to balance, strength, and happiness,

😊 Laura

I have done some research on foot pain as I have been dealing with plantar fasciitis for a little while now. 

I knew that if I caved in to comfort, and put on cushy shoes, that it would be even more detrimental to my feet.

I now have this fantastic podcast interview to help explain my convictions. 

I started following our favorite nutritionist’s ultra running coach Zach Bitter and recently he interviewed a foot specialist by the name of Dr. Courtney Conley. 

Her company is called “Gait Happens” and is devoted to helping strengthening the feet of the world. She heraelf had wrecked feet from dancing and lived in orthotics for many years.

Here is a key takeaway from the interview (remember the transcript is conversational):

“I mean, that’s the trade off with cushioned footwear. When you have cushion or a lot of stuff underneath the foot, it’s protection on a manmade surface, right? But you compromise sensory acuity.

You compromise sensory perception. You will not feel what you are designed to feel when you have a bunch of stuff underneath your foot. So when you start running, if you were to take your shoes off and go running on grass, it will be an extremely different experience.

There was a cool study that came out, and the cohort was small. It was only about 20 people, I think. But they looked at runners, recreational runners with chronic heel pain.

And we know that our treatment for plantar heel pain, which is the correct term now, as it’s no longer called fasciitis or fasciopathy, has been to offload {into a} orthotic, real cushion shoe. And what they did in this study was they had everybody take their shoes off, and they were to run barefoot for 15 minutes twice a week for six weeks. And I think it was like 19 out of 20 of them reported with less pain.”

Less heel pain with running for 15 minutes of barefoot running twice a week? For six weeks?

That is really interesting….

More on this next time!

(here’s the link if you’d like to listen to the whole thing, but I will highlight more!) https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/human-performance-outliers-podcast/id1363389413?i=1000677675250

 

Here’s to balance, strength, and foot happiness,

😊 Laura

 

Dr. Tabatha Barber writes in her book Fast to Faith, “Back surgery is like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t have just one.”

The national media has reported that the alleged murderer of the UnitedHealthcare CEO had incredible back pain.

The upper lefthand picture in the collage is of his back fusion that he published on his X account.

It reminded me of other fusions I have seen over the years.

If you look at the gap between the second screw from the top and the third screw you can see exactly why: there is a big gap between those vertebrae that the screws are attempting to stabilize.

Also, look at the huge amount of curve his spine has overall. Compare it to the x-ray below it which also shows vertebrae that the screws are attempting to realign (also unsuccessfully unfortunately).

Of other interest are the front views of the other two fusions on the right: what they both have in common is that the hips are NOT LEVEL in either instance, indicated by the red arrows.

The bottom right picture in the collage is a procedure called Herrington Rods. Yes, rods are inserted and multiple fusions performed. I had a client once who had this very extensive surgery only to have the Rods break.

You read that right: they broke. ☹

All to say, if you have scoliosis for instance, you most likely have hips that are not level. It is extremely difficult for the spine to then be straight up and down wedged in between unlevel hips…something has to give, and the vertebrae are usually the ones that end up moving to compensate for the hips.

Please start with your hips when you are looking at back problems.

When I attended my client’s 1 year post op appointment (he was the one with the 4 screws bottom left), he reported to his surgeon that his back still hurt.

The surgeon said that when the fusion locks down that portion of the spine, then more movement takes place above and below the surgery site.

That can make the above and below vertebrae mad with all of that extra movement, and guess what? Those other vertebrae might just need surgery, too.

That wasn’t mentioned to anyone when the first surgery was recommended.

Lay’s potato chips, here we come. ☹

Remember that when you hang out with surgeons, they like to talk about what they are good at: surgery!

Take care of those hips, and let’s give that spine a stable base of support to work with.

Here’s to balance, strength, and back happiness,

😊 Laura

“I just know I’m not going to do this on my own,” said my track friend Sarah, “Can I hire you?”

I smiled.

I love it when people aren’t afraid to ask for help.

I am a big fan of outsourcing, too!

She had been trying to get some knee pain under control, and just wasn’t having any luck.

I could see her knee roll in, and I wasn’t convinced that she had totally exhausted her muscle options.

So we decided to get together virtually twice a week (and now just once a week) to see what we could accomplish in a half hour.

Also, I wasn’t allowed to get her sweaty.

She’s super busy getting her business off the ground and that is what she could squeeze in.

No problem! Got it!

We worked on finding a few key exercises that nailed the muscles that helped straighten out the knee, and then it took a little time to build some strength and endurance.

So pleased to see that she’s back to running 5 miles at a time, and working on increasing that distance.

Congratulations, Sarah! You did it!

The first step was reaching out.

I get it: lots of people have decision fatigue when it comes to their exercise, and sometimes just skip it as a result.

No judgement here.

Just want you to feel better, move happily along, and not get left behind or left out.

Knee (back, neck, shoulder, etc)  pain doesn’t stop for the holidays, so if you need help, I am but an email or text away!

Here’s to balance, strength, and happy holidays happiness,

😊 Laura

In case you were wrapped up in getting ready for Turkey Day last week, here’s the total 2024 Holiday Gift Guide…all tried and true (by me!) fantastic additions to your home gym, or just proof that you’re on the ball if you have everything on the list.

In that case, take a deep happy breath, get moving, and let’s USE that stuff!

1. Little red hard plastic roller that keep on the floor next to my bed that I use for my feet and plantar facisitis:  https://vitagem.com/product/small-relax-a-roller/
2. Hyperice Normatec 3 Boots … if your legs get tight at all, these are fantastic to complement your  massages and will pay for themselves many times over. The first week these were at my house they were used by all 4 occupants daily for 4 days straight. Worth their weight in gold.
3. Fun, whimsical, and wildly effective sporty person sunglasses from Goodr.com …use this code for $10 off your first purchase: http://rwrd.io/npjj9ec?c
4. When it comes to weights, I love kettlebells: https://www.performbetter.com/First-Place-Neoprene-Kettlebell?custcol24=3
5. You need a foam roller. Period. They are so ubiquitous: you can use them like a rolling pin to massage your muscles, lie longways on to open up your shoulders, and to lift weights on. Get a three foot long one to start with, and then later I will add in my favorite one foot version. https://www.performbetter.com/PB-Elite-6-Firm-Round-Molded-Foam-Roller?custcol19=48
6. These little mini bands are super handy for traveling, for a little extra resistance (but not too much!) when you need it. https://www.performbetter.com/First-Place-Mini-Band?color=7&resistance=3&custcol18=54&custcol29=2
7. Bullet proof your knees with hamstrings. How do you get them? With this: https://thenordstick.com/products/the-nordstick-pro
8. Also grab the band that lops over your door to work those hammies in their full range: https://thenordstick.com/products/nordspotter-now-omnibands
9. Dig into small areas and break through cellulite and promote collagen:https://www.ashleyblackguru.com/collections/tools/products/mini-2
10. Here’s that easy to travel with one foot hollow foam roller I referenced above: https://www.tptherapy.com/grid-1-0-foam-roller-11354

**Stocking stuffer to give your ladies some protection while out for a walk, run, or hike:https://goguarded.com/product/go-guarded-ring/

Some of the above links are affiliate links and some are not; I use every single thing on the list and wholeheartedly endorse them.

You can also get along just fine with pretty much nothing but the floor and a rolling pin from your baking drawer! Your choice!😊

Happiest holiday shopping, and here’s to balance, strength, and happiness,

😊 Laura

Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa and Boxing Day from all of us at Just Muscles!