Tip #2 Yoga Cobra

Strengthens And Stretches The Back  

Lay on your stomach down on the floor then lift up with hands to a straight arms bringing chest up and wide as you can, keep thighs on the floor if possible. Hold as long as you can then go all the way down flat. Repeat two or three time holding for 20 to 30 seconds. Try to keep the front of the feet down. It takes practice to get better do this everyday to straighten your lower back and stretch the abdominals. 

Tip #3 Yoga Child Pose

 

This is a stretch you can do for your back right after the Cobra. On hands and knee push hips back towards your heels then reach out in front as far as you can. Reach with your finger tips and you will feel a fantastic stretch through your back. while you do that keep pushing your hip back towards you heels. If you are new at this it takes practice, your not going to get all the way down the first time. Do the child's pose right after doing your first cobra and alternate cobra and child's to get the strength and stretch effect for the back. 

 Stretches for Your Aching Back

Tip #1

If you are concerned about your back, stiffness, soreness, pain and it has been bothering you for some time, you do need to be concerned. But, this could be an easy fit with a little pampering on your part. I recommend 10 minutes a day of stretching. Here is one stretch you can do for the back called cat and dog in yoga.

Cat-Dog stretch

The cat-cow stretch is a useful exercise to help increase flexibility and ease tension in your lower back and core muscles.

To perform the cat-dog stretch:

1. Get onto your Knees and hands with your knees hip-width apart. This is the starting position.

2. Take a deep breath while arching your back by pulling your belly button up toward your spine, letting your head drop forward. This is the cat portion of the stretch.

3. Hold for 10 seconds. You should feel a gentle stretch in your lower back.

4. Exhale slowly and return to the starting position.

5. Inhale and raise your head up and let your pelvis fall forward, curving your back down toward the floor. This is the cow portion of the stretch.

6. Hold for 10 seconds, exhale while returning to the starting position.

7. Repeat the cat-dog stretch 10 times.

Helps Keep The Alzheimer's Disease Away

This weekend will be the first time I’m going to an event where there will be several

people crowded together. I believe we will be wearing masks but not really sure until I

get there. It's a good thing I had the covid vaccine and I’m sure the others have too or

probably wouldn't have participated. This event is my second hobby that I just love,

Line-dancing. Yes, it is not much of an aerobic like running, biking or high altitude hiking

but it is fun if you like to dance. This is not just a beginner class this is a mini Jam

(not as many attending like a state Line Dancing Jam) but

it’s a test event where you go

in and they show the dance once just to refresh your memory 

and then they turn on the

music. We will dance 40 songs like this and if you know the 

routines you’ll be doing all

40 dances, so you’ll be on your feet for four hours which is a lot 

of exercise on the legs.

It is so much Fun!!! It will be good to see everyone in person  

especially the Instructor

Patty, she is the super Instructor that taught us for a whole year dedicated to doing it by

herself, well anyway it sure is lonely when you're online 

compared to a room full of

people. We really appreciate her!  

As my Instructor would say Line Dancing helps keep Alzheimer's Disease away. You

need to keep your focus and remember the moves, tags, restart counts and stay on beat.

When I first started Line Dancing I remember I used to think 

about what I was going to

do that evening or what I was going to have for dinner, wrong

it’s not like running, you got to keep thinking of what you're doing while you're dancing or you’ll

miss a beat. Yes, now I can see that this helps with your fo-cus, concentration and memory. It was a challenge for

a while but finally after three to four classes a week and six months 

of beginner classes I made it to the intermediate class. Now being a part of Line dancing for five years I’m on

my way to tackling the advanced class, this is a whole other story 

so that was delayed because of the closures caused by the Covid. The Classes have been closed now for one year and one month. I GPS the class and we danced 2.25 miles 6,003 steps and burned 340 calories. Not bad for an hour and half class. What a great way to exercise!

 

Knee Injury Is Holding Me Back From Running

• For years I have been running long distance since the age of eleven years old. I remember our Elementary Coach would have these long distance runs probably close to a 3/4 of a mile or more. I loved those days to go out and participate in all kinds of physical activities. Even in those days without training I would do well, third over all behind two boys. Over the past 30 years or more I never had an operation on knees, Achilles, or leg related running  injuries. Don't know what's going on with my knee but it is stopping me from running. At one of the track practice where I was showing the athletes drills (doing butt kicker) my knee did this pop sound. It hurt a little but I believe that was the beginning of my right knee problem. I was not running on it for a couple of week icing, elevating,  and sometimes putting heat on it. After two weeks I tried to jog again and I think I got about 3/4 of a mile in and it started to hurt again so I took more time off. Within the next few months I think I got in maybe 20 to 30 minutes in slow jogging but it was still weak and hurting. I was running maybe twice a week. So it was time to get my knee x-rayed and was diagnosed as having osteoarthritis in the knee at the age of 62. My doctor said that I shouldn't run anymore or I'll probably just make it worst and I wouldn't be able to do other exercises. The impact of running was just to jarring on the knee so I listened and started walking. Believe me I was very disappointed because I was training for another Nationals in the 5K and 10K for out doors that year and the 1500 meters and 3000 meters indoor Nationals. It was all over just like that. But I am grateful that I had the opportunity to reach the goal of National the year before so it made it a little better. Now that I look back I am glad that I quit running because I am still doing Personal Training with my clients and Line dancing online.