Ski Better, Ski Stronger!

Stand up.  Sit down.  With ski/snowboard season upon us, that remains a powerful mantra that can help you return to the most simple joys of moving your body.

Skiing/snowboarding is both simple and complex.  It's simple because it can be as easy as  "stand up, sit down."  It's complex because it requires a very active and aware presence of your core, as well as your continuous orientation to where you are on the mountain.

The "stand up, sit down" mantra (thanks to my friend, Tyler Gould for this) works like this: the muscles you engage when you move to "stand up" will force you to push into the mountain, and thus, you'll turn. The movements required to "sit down" will allow you to rest into a more aerodynamic position so that your body can enjoy your speed and fluidly absorb the shocks from moguls--until the next turn.

You can learn to turn more efficiently by practicing this simple exercise: From a bent knee position, try standing up by pushing into the balls of your feet.  Where do you feel tightness?  If you're like me, you'll feel it in your quadricep muscles and your low back.

Now try standing up by pushing into your heels (if you can do it without falling backwards).  Do you feel tightness in your hamstrings and low back?

Now try standing up from the center of your feet--what is sometimes called "the eye of the foot," or in Traditional Chinese Medicine, Bubbling Spring.  Do you still feel tightness in your quads or  hamstrings?  Or do you feel a lengthening of your quads, hamstrings, and low back simultaneously?  Pushing up from this strong diaphragm of the foot reduces strain on your leg and low back muscles, which in turn gives you more strength, stability, and flexibility.

Rolfers refer to this as a "palintonic" stretch: while your feet are pressing into the mountain, your head is being lifted against gravity. This lengthening is the sensation you feel as your body's  fascial network re-maps itself--awakening and strengthening your core, improving your stability and flexibility.

In a previous blog post, I talked about stretching the postural (or tonic) fibers of your hamstring muscles. This is also a good pre-skiing (and post-skiing) stretch that will assist your body/mind to feel your core, and help orient you to the space around you (on the mountain).

Another great series of exercises for both before and after skiing/snowboarding are the spinal flexes (video at link).  I don't agree with the video's suggestion to do the first part of the exercise faster:  Instead, I would recommend that you keep a speed that is comfortable to your body for all 3 parts.  You can either time yourself and do each exercises for 30 seconds to 3 minutes, or exercise for a count of 25, 54, or 108 inhalations--whatever is most comfortable for your body.

A daily regimen of these stretches, as well as other yoga exercises can keep your fascial network free and lubricated.  A Rolfing tune-up can also assist you with feeling that palintonic sense of lengthening throughout your body.  

Join Robert this Sunday, December 9th at 11am at the Healthy Living Market Learning Center in South Burlington, Vermont to explore these and more exercises...or you can make an appointment for a Rolfing session.

Do your diaphragms look like the roads of Vermont?

Most of us think of our breath when we think of the diaphragm, but in fact, your body has about seven (7) diaphragms—that help to regulate internal pressure.

A diaphragm is quite simply a membrane dividing two volumes of pressure.  Think of a crossbar on a kite.  When you pull that crossbar toward you, the long bar shortens, and the kite covering also becomes smaller in area.  This creates more wind (or drag) behind the kite so you can get more control over it.

Our bodies have diaphragms in several places to help us react to changes in pressure.  These diaphragms are like the East-West roads in Vermont, helping to regulate and redirect traffic flow along the central North-South axes (Route 100, Route 7, etc).

1)      The arches/ankles of our feet relative to the ground.  Think of Route 9 between
      Bennington and Brattleboro.

2)      Our knees relate our thighs and legs.  Think of Route 30

3)      Our pelvic floor relates our belly to our legs.  Think of  Route 4 between Rutland and Woodstock.

4)      Our respiratory diaphragm relates our lungs to our belly.  Think of Route 2 between Burlington, Montpelier, and eastern Vermont.

5)      Our thoracic inlet relates our thorax and our neck – a big pressure bottleneck (pun intended) where many syndromes like Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, and stiff necks get stuck.  Think of Route 15 connecting the Burlington, Cambridge, Jeffersonville, and points east…especially when Route 108  is closed in the winter.

6)      The floor of our mouth relates our cranium to our jaw and neck.  

7)      Our eyes are another diaphragm as there is an important bone inside our skull, called the sphenoid which can be responsible, or at least aid, in balance, and managing our vestibular system.                              

If one of these diaphragms get tugged out of alignment, it can shorten your central axis (spine) and also tug the other diaphragms out of alignment, causing scoliosis, low back pain, neck pain, etc.

Whether these tugs are caused from ankle sprains, surgical scar tissue, emotional scar tissue, our body’s internet – the connective tissue matrix called fascia – begins to change the rest of our system in order to adapt to the tugs.

Now think of Vermont, especially in the days immediately after Tropical Storm Irene.  Many of our East-West roads were damaged or washed out.  Not only did this disrupt traffic flow (pressure) along Vermont’s central axes (Route 100, Route 7), but it forced stranded communities to carve out new pathways (more pressure) to their closest central axis.

While these changes may be necessary in the short term, over time they can become cumbersome, and put increased strain on tissues that are not meant to handle such loads. 

Here’s a short exercise that can help you sense the alignment of your body’s diaphragms:

            1) Stand up with your feet on the ground

            2) Have a normal breath

            3) What do you notice in your feet:  are you standing more on your left or right    

                 foot, in your heels or toes, on the outside or inside of your feet.

            4) Now have a full breath (with easy shoulders), or a few full breaths

            5) What do you notice about your feet now? What has changed?

If you noticed your feet are balanced after your series of fuller breaths, it probably is a sign that one of your diaphragms has tugged out of alignment.  Stretching, yoga, Pilates, Rolfing^® Structural Integration and even the above breathing exercise can help re-orient, even re-align, your diaphragm.