HEALTHY BACK AND POSTURE

Posture at the ankle, knee, pelvis, spine and shoulder girdle has a huge influence on back pain and other pain caused by movement dysfunction. Learning about your own posture deviations can help you improve your success and comfort in your workouts and your day- to-day activities. In the Healthy Back and Posture series, we will identify your weaknesses in form, alignment and posture, and then introduce exercises and specific corrections you can make to relieve pain and increase exercise effectiveness and functional strength and flexibility. Deviations such as foot and ankle pronation can cause foot, shin and knee pain. The tracking of the patella or “knee-cap” is affected by the side to side alignment of the lower leg bone and upper leg bone. The positioning of the knee then affects the hip joint. Pelvis tilt can affect the spine and back strain. As you can see, the whole body’s kinetic chain can be affected by a single posture deviation. Over time this creates pain and/or dysfunction in one or more locations. During this workshop we will address some of the proper and improper ways to perform common exercises in the gym. The focus will be on including exercises that will improve your own postural alignment while contributing to your fitness goals.

Workshop with Kari A. Hall, BS, HFS, CLM

Sept 15 – 24 tu/ thur 11 am

(OR) Oct 2-23 Friday 11 am

Postural Assessment and Exercise

Gold's Gym Wenatchee

12 N Worthen

Wenatchee, WA 98801

509 663 4965

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What You Forgot to Ask Your Personal Trainer

Here's a great article on questions you should ask your personal trainer from Sparkpeople.com.  Would love to hear everyone's comments! You already know how personal trainers help you reach your goals and push you to the next level, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned exerciser. You probably also know a little about how to choose the right trainer with the proper qualifications. However, how do you find the absolute best trainer for you and your goals? Click here to read more, http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=1369

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Family Meal Times Make the Difference!

Life gets busy! Between late meetings and fast-approaching deadlines, after-school clubs and team practices, it can be tough to get some face time with your family. Parents leave take-out menus on the dining room table and kids get accustomed to grab n’ go meals. With so many commitments, it’s no small wonder that family meal times have fallen by the wayside. So what’s the big deal? Is it really worth all the effort of rearranging schedules, rescheduling meetings, and even canceling certain appointments just to get everyone around the dinner table? According to research conducted by CASA, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, it could make all the difference in the lives of your children. Did you know that the more often children and teens eat dinner with their families, the less likely they are to smoke, drink, and use drugs? And that’s not all! Children and teens who have frequent family dinners (5-7 dinners per week): • Are at half the risk for substance abuse compared to teens who dine with their families infrequently. • Are less likely to have friends or classmates who use illicit drugs or abuse prescription drugs. • Have lower levels of tension and stress at home. • Are more likely to say their parents are proud of them. • Are likelier to say they can confide in their parents. • Are likelier to get better grades in school. • Are more likely to be emotionally content and have positive peer relationships. • Have healthier eating habits. • Are at lower risk for thoughts of suicide. • Are less likely to try marijuana or have friends who use marijuana. With statistics like this, it’s hard to deny the staggering impact family meals have upon our children. And believe it or not, 24% of teens desire more frequent family dinners! And this number increases to 52% amongst teens who have fewer than three dinners with their families in a typical week. So what’s stopping you? Though rearranging full schedules can seem a daunting task, your family will reap the benefits both in the short and long term! By Maureen Boswell, RD, CSO, CD, CDE, ASCM HFS “Parents make up a child’s entire universe.” –Mister Rogers Data taken from The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse “The Importance of Family Dinners II”, September 2005

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How to Choose a Personal Trainer

Here's another great article from our friends at Sparkpeople.com!  Please feel free to leave us your comments! Things to Consider Before Making the Investment in Personal Training.  Personal trainers can help people reach their health and fitness goals, or they could be big wastes of money. It's tough to know whether or not you need a trainer's expertise. And if you do, it's even more difficult to pick the right one. Many gyms offer personal training services for their members (at additional fees that can be pretty expensive), and their high-pressure salespeople might try to convince you to buy a package. But before you sign on the dotted line, it's important that you're making the right decision with the right person to help you reach your goals. Click here to read the rest of the article, http://www.sparkpeople.com/resource/fitness_articles.asp?id=895

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