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Do you know the quickest way to improve your flexibility?  

In part one of this series, we looked at posture. In part two, we shared the concept of working smarter, not harder. While both are essential for improving your flexibility, this one is the quickest way to become more flexible at the moment.

Let's test my theory.

Stand up.

• Bring your feet comfortably together. Place your hands on your hips. And slowly turn your whole body as far as you can to the right.  
• Return and stop at center.
• Turn your whole body comfortably to the left.  
• Return and stop at center.
• Repeat the above two more times. Always stop at center.

Which side do you feel resistance as you turn? Or does it not feel as easy to move?

• Place your arms by your sides.
• Raise both straight arms overhead.
• Compare side to side as you repeat this two more times?

Is one side more challenging or uncomfortable to move overhead?

Standing with arms at your side and feet hip-width...

One of the most common reasons clients see us is to improve flexibility, or as one client put it the other day, "I would like to move more fluidly". 

Injuries like falls, car accidents, sprain, strains, etc., and surgery can directly and immediately affect your flexibility. We will look at these in the future and their effects on walking, balancing, exercising, breathing, and flexibility.

There are some key elements we must include in our everyday life to maintain flexibility if we have had a history of injury or not.

• Mind our posture. (This may be different from what elders told you.) 
• Breathe well. (Yes, we know you breathe all day.)
• Use the right muscles for the task we are performing. (Yep, work smarter, not harder) 
• Check and reset as needed. (Like any machine, you have to check-in and sometimes reset if things are working efficiently.)

Today, we will look more closely at our posture. From the time we were small, we may have heard, 'sit up...

You have heard it before - "work smarter, not harder".

Unfortunately, you do not often hear this same sentiment in the fitness/workout world.  

Instead, one of the most common phrases we hear is 'No pain, no gain'. Why?

If you look up the history of this quote, a version of it dates back as early as 1577 by British poet Nicholas Breton.   It has also been rumored to be coined by Benjamin Franklin. However, in the fitness world, we have Jane Fonda apparently to thank for making this the theme of working out in the present day.

Well, Ms. Fonda, we have moved beyond leotards and tights, so we will move beyond thinking pain will cause us any optimal gain when it comes to working out and the health of our bodies.  

Instead, let's borrow the phrase from Fred DeVito, "If it doesn't challenge you, it won't change you." Working out should challenge you but not to the point of pain.

For many of us, working smarter and not harder is...

As summer is just around the corner, maybe you are gearing up to get in the garden, do your lawn work, get out onto the fairway or return to your favorite activities.

Too often, clients will tell us that discomfort begins after returning or restarting an activity they love to do. Then that discomfort either leads to more pain or they stop their favorite activity altogether because they can no longer do it without discomfort taking away the joy they receive from it. They blame their age, lack of physical ability, and other reasons they can no longer do the activity.

Has that ever happened to you? What if you didn't have to stop? What if it has nothing to do with your age or any reason you thought?
What if the WAY you were doing the activity was causing the problem and not the activity itself?

Here is an example of Lisa, an IMS client that went from not being able to walk more than three blocks without pain to walking three miles.
Lisa is a 55-year-old woman who had knee...

Is your back pain taking away from your swing or keeping you out of the game altogether?

You are not alone.

A study from 2014 stated, "studies have shown that lower back pain (LBP) from golf accounts for between 18% and 54% of all documented ailments, leading researchers to consider the condition the most common golf injury."

It also went on to say, 

"Some factors include swing flaws leading to excessive side-bend and over-rotation of the spine, abnormal muscle recruitment, poor trunk endurance, restricted lead hip internal rotation, and unnecessarily stressful club transportation methods."

A 2016 study of tennis players with and without low back pain found, 

"Symptomatic players show lower activation of extensor muscles, less co-contraction patterns, and less abdominal endurance."

Often, when folks read or hear less endurance or less contraction, they immediately think I must make those muscles stronger. While this is partly true, it is not the...

Hello!

We’re helping you address your habits.

Why is it so important to address your habits?

Because nothing significantly changes in your life until you address your current habits and adopt a set of new habits.

While you need motivation to get you started, you will not sustain any changes until you change something you do every single day.

Every significant change you’ve ever made in your life – around your weight, business, finances, and/or your relationships – only happened because you changed your habits.

You either stopped doing something that was holding you back or you adopted a positive habit that helped you accelerate forward.

Changing habits are hard…

…because we like the comfort and familiarity of our current habits.

Our current habits make up a large portion of our daily routines. Our daily routine is what makes our life easier…

…and is also what holds us back from achieving our health and fitness goals.

You see, our...