Mummy, mummy can I have some tape?

Our new tag line on our website and business cards is “fine-tuning your body using exercise, bodywork and tape.”. Most people know about exercise and bodywork is a catch all term for our various massage services but TAPE? The question that we get asked most is what is tape? So here we go…

We use tape to reduce pain and increase range of motion. 

Traditional taping methods, that we still practice when necessary, rely on using the properties of the tape to restrict movement and prevent injury or reduce further injury. The taping methods that we prefer to use and use daily use the properties of the tape to change the way in which the connective tissue works, giving the results of reduced pain and increased range of motion.

We use two main taping methods, Functional Fascial Taping (FFT) and Kinesio Taping. The main difference between the two taping methods is the type of tape that is used, FFT uses regular athletic tape and Kinesio uses tape specially designed for the Kinesio Taping Method.

Functional Facial Taping

This method was developed by a massage therapist in Australia. It uses normal athletic tape applied in a special way to change the tension of the fascia in the body which can improve flexibility of tissue, increase range of motion and reduce pain. It is effective on a whole range of muscular and fascial injuries, as well as being able to help with nerve tension. The single most amazing thing we have found with this tape is how good it is at treating Plantar Fasciitis. Anyone who has had this foot condition knows how difficult it can be to treat. We have had such great success treating it with Functional Fascial Taping that many clients get full resolution in just a single treatment! 

Kinesio Tape

Kinesio Tape was developed in Japan to initially treat swelling or edema. The tape has special elastic properties that allow it to be applied in a variety of ways to help with swelling, bruising, muscle tightness and pain, muscle weakness, fascial tension, joint problems and scar tissue. Due to the wide variety of uses you need a qualified practitioner to apply the tape to ensure it is in the right place, in the right direction and at the right tension to give the desired effect. The original tape comes in four colors: black, blue, pink and beige. They are all the same, it is simply a matter of preference which one the client likes. The tape is stretchy, making it comfortable to wear, and waterproof enough to wear in the shower and even for surfing or swimming. More recently many new brands of tape have appeared on the market, some better than others. We like to also use Rock Tape for more athletic applications, and this has opened up a new world of colors too, including fun designs like “biohazard” and “cow”. 

The advantages of both the taping method we practice is that they can help to support an injury, reduce pain and allow you to go back to your chosen activity sooner, sometimes the same day, whilst they continue to help the healing. Because the tape is not medicated it does not mask pain. If you don’t feel the pain any more then the pain is gone. This makes the tape safe to use for everyone.

If you have an injury or an ache that is holding you back, come and speak to us to find out if taping can help you recover faster.

What does it do for you? - Corina's Marathon Blog

A week later and a grand total of 4 weeks since the first injury and my foot still hurts. I’ve had quite a few conversations with my trainer/therapist/coach/sounding board/husband Alan about how I feel about my foot, i.e. answering the question “What does it do for you?” It has caused me to do a lot of soul searching and be honest with myself.

When I first hurt my foot it was annoying, but I thought I would just take a few days off (over the 4th July weekend) and be back to normal so it was not a bad thing at all. Then the foot didn’t improve and I started to get itchy to get back to running. Plus I was getting worried about losing fitness and being set back in my marathon training.

After this, when we started to consider that it may be a stress fracture, I just wanted to know either way whether I was going to be hurt for the long haul or not. I was starting to consider whether I needed to start riding my bike again to maintain my fitness until I could start running again, or whether I should forget about running, spend more time swimming and maybe hit the gym again. I didn’t get an answer on the foot prognosis and this was extremely frustrating. Hence last week’s no-mans land post.

At the beginning of this week I still hand’t run. My foot was not hurting me any more most of the time but I was still scared to run again. Sometimes I think way too much so I needed to release all my random conflicting thoughts to someone else who might be able to make sense of them. Alan asked me that question, “What does your sore foot do for you?”. I had to answer honestly that I was a little scared of the training for my first marathon, especially now that the long runs had got longer than I had ever done before. The injury gave me an exit strategy without having to say that I was dropping out because I was scared. So in a way I am happy that I am injured because I don’t need to face those scary runs and don’t run the risk of finding out that I’m not up to the job.

Now I had figured out what I was thinking the question came “how can I make a rational decision on whether my foot is better if it’s not hurting me right now?”. Again Alan helped me get my head straight and we came up with a plan to help me make an informed decision. I would go for a short run the following day (wednesday) and see how it feels. If all is OK I go a little longer on Friday and then ramp up my mileage to hopefully hit around 10 miles by the end of the following week.

As planned I headed out for my 15 minute run the following morning. My foot started aching after about a quarter mile, but it wasn’t too bad so I carried on. During those 15 minutes I managed to find just about every ache in my body in turn, achilles, knees, hips, even my shoulders! But they all went away again. After the run I didn’t get that sharp pain that I had previously when taking my shoes off either. So far so good.

But over the next 2 days it went downhill again, without doing any more exercise on it. Now on Friday my foot is aching just sitting still and I have pain on walking again. I guess I wasn’t ready for a whole 15 minutes of running.

So, I am going to take it easy for a while and let my foot heal. I don’t know how long “a while” is, so when it feels ready I’m going to try more short test runs. I don’t know whether that will be in time for me to train for and run a marathon, I’ll need to decide that when it feels good again. I am disappointed that I may not be able to follow through on a big goal that I had set myself and a little embarrassed that I’ve had to do it in public. But hopefully my struggles will be something someone reading this can identify with. We all go through this at some point.

I’m going to take a break from marathon blogging as well until I have something more to report on. I will instead channel my efforts into other topics as I see fit.

Keep on running, I’m thinking of you!

Get Real! - Randi's Blog

After reading Alan’s thoughts on the need to train smarter AND harder, and reflecting on the overwhelming prevalence of fitness marketing ploys that promise “something for nothing” (i.e., footwear, diet pills, beverages, cleanses, etc), I began to think about the dangers of the other side - programs that advocate hard work, but often promise unrealistic results - “Get absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed!” or “Lose up to 20 pounds in 30 days!” 

You’ve seen the advertisements. You may have even been impressed or intrigued; and rightfully so, these claims are mind-blowing. But are unrealistic expectations setting the average client up for failure, straight from the beginning?

Now, I’m not saying these programs don’t work. Gym memberships and personal training sessions can be expensive, so “home fitness” DVDs and the like can have their place, if used properly and approached with a level head. The danger starts, however, when exercise beginners fall for photo-shopped BEFORE/AFTER shots and jump head-first into exercise programs designed way out of their range of physical capabilities. These programs make outrageous claims because they themselves ARE outrageous and designed for/by the extremely fit. Absolutely ripped in 90 days, guaranteed? It takes six to eight weeks of consistent overload to build muscle, so if you’ve been sedentary for the past couple years, or you’re new to the world of exercise, this is just not going to happen.

The REAL guarantee is this - one of two things will happen with the average “client” following these programs: he/she will struggle with the routines for a few days, but will experience debilitating soreness and muscle fatigue that forces them to taper off, and he/she will soon forget exercise altogether, OR he/she will push through the program but become frustrated, and eventually give up, when the results they see do not match those they were promised.

If you’re new to exercise, have been out of practice for a few years, or are just unsure of your current fitness level, stay away from infomercials promising huge gains (or losses) in unrealistic time frames, and come visit The Wolf Studio for an exercise program designed especially for you (not you and the rest of the masses). When you have specific, realistic goals and a specific, realistic, expertly designed program, you WILL see results. But, you will also be expected to do the work. Ambitious fitness goals are great, but remember to consider the sacrifices you are willing to make and the time you are willing to commit.

More to come,
Randi

Training smarter AND harder!

There is a big move the the US footwear market towards footwear that gives you something for nothing. This sparked a conversation I had with a footwear designer that really got me thinking about the nature of training and a spin on a subject I have been talking about for may years. Like most people in the health and fitness world I talk about exercising smarter NOT harder, I like to think that I am one of the few that actually practices this because I am one of the few that has the skill to measure and evaluate the body before prescribing either strength or endurance exercise, everyone else is just guessing… But my realization was that what I actually want is for my clients to train smarter AND harder, let me elaborate:

By taking an extensive evaluation in terms of interview, postural and biomechanical testing and, if appropriate, blood lactate testing I can help the client avoid many pitfalls. I can help my clients do exercises that are the right exercises for their body, exercises that won’t injure them, exercises that will yield results. This evaluation takes time, and has taken many years of study all around the world. My years of study and years of experience working with the widest range of clients is that doing an evaluation is not enough. To get the results that most clients want the client usually needs to be working harder, that means more hours training usually at a higher intensity, and for endurance athletes many more hours training a lower intensity (trust me this is harder for the client).

To get real results clients need to be doing something nearly every day! I spoke to a noted triathlon coach who believes that doing 20 hours of training per week for an age-group Ironman athlete is a compromise and will only give mediocre results, he expects his athletes to work in the 40 hours per week arena (these are not full-time athletes, and most have normal jobs!). The combination of us doing the blood lactate testing for these athletes and the coaches training program ensure that we are definitely working smarter. The results that this particular coach gets are amazing, it is a matter of training both smarter AND harder.

The best way to improve running form is to run, if you want to get fitter and stronger you need to train hard. If it was as easy as putting on a slimming belt or wearing special weight loss shoes or weight loss clothing then we would all be slim and fit! Buying the latest bare foot running shoes is no substitute for hard work, you still need to put the hours of training in.

Until we find a magic pill, or running shoe, that gives you more willpower then those that train hardest and make the most sacrifices will see the best results. Yes you need to train smart but that alone is not enough, you need to train smarter AND harder.

Alan

No-mans land - Corina's Marathon Blog

Well, the jury is still out on my foot. I went to see Dr Chad on Monday and unfortunately didn’t get the definite diagnosis I was hoping for. I should know better really, I know how tough it is to diagnose anything even with the multi-million dollar scanners that we don’t have.

So, biomechnically my foot is moving well. But there is more pain than there should be over the area where I have hurt it. Movement has been getting better in the last week as I have managed not to aggravate it for a whole week, but it hurts more than it should when pressing on it. I’m afraid to run, or even jump up and down in case I hurt it again. The prognosis is that if I rest it and it heals up in the next week or so it was injury to the muscles. If it doesn’t and takes longer then I probably have a stress fracture in it. So, I am left in “wait and see” mode.

I don’t know where this leaves me for the marathon. I have already missed almost a month of training so I am way behind where I should be, plus I can’t jump back in to where I left off when I have healed, I need to start slowly and build up my fitness and the pounding on my foot. That puts me even further behind, and it is all assuming I can start training again in a week or so.

It has made me evaluate why I am wanting to do this marathon. If it was in order to receive that Tiffany’s finishers medal then I can walk the course. I know I could finish the 26.2 miles if I walk it. But that’s not why I want to do a marathon. I want to prove to myself that I am up to the challenge, that I can achieve it if I work hard and put the training in. To do that I actually need to run the race, not walk it, and I need to finish close to the 4 hours I had set my sights on. That goal is looking unlikely at the moment.

I’m having to ask myself some hard questions right now. Do I hold on to the goal of running my first marathon in October, knowing that I may set myself up for a bigger disappointment in a few weeks, or even in a few months if I don’t make it? Or do I draw a line under it now and move on to whatever my next goal will be. It’s a tough choice and it is not one I can make alone as it will affect Alan as much as it will me. For now, until I make a decision on my marathon future, I am wandering around in no-mans land.

My first week - by Randi Cantrell

It started a few weeks ago with a short e-mail forward from a friend.

“This couple came to my office and put on a seminar. They mentioned wanting an intern,” she said, “It is at least worth checking out their website!”
So I did. What I found was something worth much more than a passing glance, something strikingly different than the usual gyms, “bootcamps”, and “personal trainer” studios selling sweat and exercise to the masses.

A student at UCSD and currently studying for a personal trainer certification of my own, I’ve spent the last five or six weeks swimming in a flood of hand-written 3x5 flash cards and ambiguous charts and diagrams, reading about anatomy and exercise physiology, and attempting to magically pull a three-dimensional knowledge of the human body out of a two-dimensional explanation. To put it mildly, this wasn’t working. I could read all day long about the muscular system and which muscle was where and what it was responsible for, but that didn’t give me any understanding of how the body really works. Something was missing.

After Day One of my internship with The Wolf Studio, I knew I found that missing “something”.

Alan and Corina started me off with a full postural and biomechanical assessment so I could better understand the type of work that happens in the Studio. I’ve been working out in the big-name gym corporations since I was 11 or so, and I’ve worked with a number of different trainers over the past couple of years, but I have never experienced such a thorough assessment or received such detailed feedback. Simply put, among other things, Alan found that I have rounded shoulders (which explains a recent on-set of intermittent numbness/tingling in my right hand) and that I need to work on reactivating the muscles of my abdominal wall. I was then asked to design an exercise program for myself based on the results of my assessment. Alan wrote one as well, and the next day we compared the two. (I’m sure you can imagine how that went). Overall, I found that I need to be clear and confident about what I want out of myself and my body. “If your workouts are vague,” he said, “So are your results.” I realized that it doesn’t matter how many days I work out or how long my work outs are, if they don’t consist of the right exercises at the right intensity, and they lack a clear purpose, I’m just doing a whole lot of moving around without actually getting anywhere.

As a future personal trainer, this week came with an invaluable lesson for me. The human body is not “one size fits all” and as such, neither is its movement; every client I’ll someday encounter will come with his/her unique bodily quirks and idiosyncrasies brought on by muscle imbalances, injuries, and the like - my job will be to know how best to address, correct, and strengthen these “quirks” - how best to match the exercises that the client needs with the goals that they want to achieve. I couldn’t be more excited to keep learning.

More to come,
Randi

Ouch, my foot - Corina's Marathon Blog

I ended last week hopeful that I was healing up well and would be back on my feet (literally) in no time. I took the rest of the weekend off and went for my first run in a week and a half on Monday. My foot was aching a bit and the 5 miles felt a lot longer than they should have done, but it was OK.

The not OK came after the run when I took my shoes off. When I put my foot down I got sharp stabbing pains on every step. Not good!

I hobbled my way through the rest of the day, resting it as much as I could and still do my job. I had hoped it would be enough and after a night’s rest I would be OK again. Wrong again.

I tried running again the following morning. I could feel my foot hurting on every step and abandoned after just half a mile. Damn. When Alan got home he taped my foot for me and it felt better. That lasted all of a few hours. 

That evening we went to visit San Diego Lions AFL team at their training session. They are awesome. The sport is so dynamic and fantastic to watch. And the players, who were all of different standards, ages and fitness levels, were all working hard throughout the session. It was great to see.

At one point I ran across the pitch to help one of the players with some stretching. Half way across I felt my foot give way. The sharp pains were back and this time they didn’t go away.

Since then I have not managed to recover. The pain is there all the time. It is slightly better in shoes than barefoot, but walking is about the limit of what I can do.

I have an appointment on Monday with Dr Chad Wells, who is a chiropractor specializing in lower limb and running injuries. Hopefully he will be able to work his magic on me and I’ll be back to training in time to still be on track for the Marathon. Dr Chad will be working from our studio soon too, so we are very excited.

For now I am doing more resting and I’ll let you know how I am healing up next week. The long runs are already looking really daunting, having taken 2 weeks off, so I really hope that I will be back running soon before they get downright scary.

Not your usual weight lifting…

Over the last few weeks I have been talking to a lot of clients about the strength of their pelvic floors. The pelvic floor muscles are those that form the base of the pelvis and those muscles that are responsible for continence, sexual function and which keep your insides from dropping down through your pelvis.

I am most interested in the pelvic floor muscles for a few reasons. Firstly many clients suffer from some sort of incontinence at some time, whether it is peeing a little when they laugh or sneeze. Secondly the muscles of the pelvic floor are associated with the muscles of the deep abdominal wall and therefore are involved in core stability. Lastly nearly everyone would like to improve their sexual function. 

Breathing is always the first part of getting both the pelvic floor and the deep abdominal wall to function correctly. When you breathe out you should naturally contract your deep abdominal wall and pelvic floor, most people have this in reverse which is why they pee when they sneeze… we can reeducate this quite easily.

So how do you know that you are doing the exercises correctly? The old advice was to stop the flow of urine when peeing, this is ok once but more than that is a quick way to develop bad habits and urinary tract problems.

We use two devices within the studio to help ladies with their pelvic floor issues. The first is a pelvic floor educator that will help make sure that you are activating the right muscles, the second is weighted cones. Weighted cones are egg shaped cones containing weights that are held in place while you perform daily activity. You must contract the pelvic floor muscles to hold the cones in place and these are particularly useful for those ladies who have had multiple pregnancies.

Over the years we have successfully worked with numerous ladies overcome pelvic floor issues. Let us know if your would like to have a chat about incorporating some pelvic floor exercises into your current exercise regime.

Alan

Your body knows best! - Corina's Marathon Blog

I had my blog topic for this week all picked out. That was probably a mistake because nothing went according to plan after that.

At the end of last week I had the opportunity to pick up a tennis racquet and hit a few balls with my friend and Alan’s photo-buddy Ken. By hit a few balls I mean spend an hour on the court in the blazing sun and progress from missing every ball altogether to being able to hit most of them over the net. Making then go where I want will need to be reserved for next time… Not bad going considering I haven’t picked up a racquet in 23 years (and that makes me sound way older than I am!).

Anyway, later that day my foot started to ache and then hurt. One of the bones in it was sitting out of place. We got it mobilized but now it was a bit too mobile. It would be fine one minute, the next I’d get a sharp pain when walking. No problem, I had a long weekend to let it settle down. And in a way it was great timing because my little injury meant I could enjoy the 4th of July festivities without having to tire myself out with running.

By Wednesday I thought it was better, just a dull ache. So time to go and run again. I got dressed and headed out the door. Except I decided to help Alan load the car and carried a big box down the steps from our apartment. I made it most of the way down before I tripped and went sprawling, taking the skin off both knees. Guess my body decided I wasn’t ready to start running again.

I tried again on Thursday but got less than a mile in before having to admit that my tumble set off my aches again, it wasn’t just sore knees.

So, for the rest of the week I am going to ignore my training plan and putting my faith in the wisdom of my body to tell me when it is ready to start again. Should I listen to it as well when it’s telling me to put my feet up and eat ice cream?

Want to lose weight? Are you sure?

Have you ever tried to get into the bathroom before a weight loss class? Many clients admit to deliberately going to the bathroom just before their weigh-in, they jump up and down after they have lost a half pound, knowing that they are dehydrated or have taken a laxative.

Weight is not what people want to lose, they want to change shape. If you could hit your target weight but you looked the same would you be happy? Losing body fat is the key, if you can do this at the same time as putting on some muscle and toning up all the better. But that may mean that your weight does not change, would you be happy if your jeans fitted better, you lost the muffin-top but weighed the same?

We measure body composition using a little black box that is attached to a couple of pads on your hands and a couple of pads on your foot. The machine is programed with a lot of data, weight, height, gender, exercise level, even ethnicity and then it gives us a wide range of data about what you are composed of. Our machine gives us data on body fat%, hydration, BMI, basal metabolic rate and a whole bunch of other things. We measure how much fat you actually have to lose! 

Our machine is much more accurate than the body fat scales and the hand-to-hand measurements that many facilities use. When I was an instructor in the Fire Department I carried out many hundreds of tests using skin-fold-calipers, I took the body fat of the fire-fighters for their entry tests and for their 3monthly fitness tests, so I can say that I have some experience and skill level. What I have found is that using our machine gives us much better results than the skin-fold-caliper because of the variables that we can program into the machine, plus the hydration measurement is incredibly useful.

After only a few minutes we can tell you much how much body fat you have and what you need to lose. We can then design an exercise program to get you to where you need to be. We will tell you about your hydration status and if you could benefit from drinking more water.

For a short while we are offering body composition analysis for $20 (usually $49). The test is painless, does not require any clothing removal other than a sock and shoe. No appointment necessary just pop by when we are open!

Run... Yawn... Run - Corina's Marathon Blog

Back into another recovery week. That means I am now 2 months into my training. This week I have entered a phase of my training I have come to know as “sleepy time”. This happens every time I train hard and consistently and usually lasts about 4 weeks. In the past it has happened much earlier in my training plan, but maybe I haven’t been training consistently enough until now for it to kick in.

Basically during my “sleepy time” I get very tired. I want to sleep all the time and given a spare half hour I’ll happily take a nap rather than do anything else. For once I spend more time thinking about sleeping than about food, and that’s saying something. Alan knows that when I get that look in my eyes it is best just to send me into a quiet room for half an hour and I’ll come back functioning better after a bit of shut-eye.

After a few weeks I get used to the new level of training and then I’m fine and can operate happily on normal sleep levels. During all this my body feels fine. I’m not achy, I don’t come down with any injuries, I just want to sleep all the time.

It is especially annoying when I come down with this during a recovery week. Because my runs are shorter I think that I should be feeling better. Instead my body almost relishes the chance to slow down and I tend to feel more tired than usual until late in recovery week. I’ve done this long enough that I know that is how my body reacts, so I just need to look after it and wait for the next phase to kick in. When it does I’ll feel stronger, faster, run better and manage to stay awake all day.

But until then … good night!

The best things in life aren’t things; All the fun of the fair

Yesterday we went to the San Diego County Fair with our friends. When Corina and I first came over to the States it was one of our first exposures to Americana, a year on it was still pretty overwhelming. 

When we go out with Ken and Connie the boys are allowed to play with their cameras, explore our shared passion for photography and we all had a great time. We started off our fair experience by heading straight for the photography exhibition. There were some amazing shots on display, some unusual shots and some that may be described as an acquired taste… The best thing about wandering round a photography display with an accomplished photographer is getting a different perspective, and that is what photography is all about, how you view the world. I got lots of inspiration from the exhibition and I now know some really cool places I want (need) to photograph. 

Fair food is interesting… the latest big thing was chocolate covered bacon… a balanced meal? Well it is carbohydrate, protein and fat… maybe not… 

When we talk about training with our clients we often say that in exercise there is a holy trinity; the right exercise, the right diet and the right rest/recovery. I didn’t see many athletic bodies at the fair, but it would have been a great place for them to blow off some steam. Recovery takes many forms, physical rest, massage, hot/cold but our brains also need recovery. Time with friends and family is crucial to anyone’s success both in business and in exercise. 

You can improve your happiness so much more by adding experiences to your life rather than experiencing life through reality TV or on an iPad...

Alan