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Sharing a post from Houston Methodist
The Brain’s job and Neuroplasticity
The brain’s job is to learn and when occupied in an inner awareness or mindful undertaking, like meditation, its capacities grow because you need to pay attention/focus for the brain to learn the activity.
- In yoga, for example, when you first begin, one must move slowly and mindfully to understand what is happening when learning a new motor skill.
- The focus on and practice of these new activities causes the brain to adapt, and to create new motor and sensory-motor maps for the task at hand.
- This is known as “neuroplasticity.”
Science has shown that this phenomenon of the brain called “neuroplasticity,” enables it to create its own re-organization and produce new neurons. Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, American neuroscientist and Moshe’ Feldenkrais, a Ukrainian born physicist/mechanical engineer, are responsible for coining the term and introducing this to the world of science.
The premise of the Original SANDDUNE™ addresses:
- neuromuscular disorders
- performance acceleration
- weight control
- balance issues
In the realm of sports, it has been used by dancers, professional, amateur, and “school based” teams, and medically by physical/occupational therapists for injury and post surgery rehabilitation.
Your Internal GPS
Experiencing weight bearing activity on a compliant surface such as the Original SANDDUNE, engages use of proprioception otherwise known as your internal GPS. Exercise on this apparatus safely recruits muscle fiber without the traditional tearing that occurs on hard surfaces. This is why we suggest padding for at least 2 weeks to become acquainted with the Original SANDDUNE™’s unconventional surface.
Padding is simply walking but keeping your feet in constant contact with the surface. This is suggested for EVERYONE, including high-functioning athletic types. Resist the temptation to jog. Why? Because you are retraining every muscle
and joint in your body including long and short muscles closest to the bone.
This is “mindful” centering of the somatosensory body (in this case determining the exact location of sensations on your body) – is a new way of educating and retraining the foundation of your physical body (neuropathways) using the SANDDUNE™.
Simply holding on to a bar and learning to stand on one leg with your other foot raised slightly above the pad after you have centered yourself or just standing and learning to create small dime size circles clock-wise and counter-clockwise under your foot, noticing how the sensation moves up your legs into the trunk and into the hip sockets, will help you begin to retrain your foundation.
Learning the subtleties of how the body aligns and connects through the resistance option of both uphill and downhill positions teaches postural integrity. The uphill slope is higher and simulates walking uphill. The downhill slope is lower and simulates walking downhill.
Beginning these exercises slowly and building speed and momentum may not feel like much to start, but the results will definitely make themselves known or felt in a relatively short time as the muscle activation becomes stronger and the movement easier.
Once you step off and resume walking on a normal surface, you will begin to notice subtle changes in your posture. This is your new way of educating and retraining the foundation of your core balance, strength, and coordination.
Heart Health
*******
Cross Train on the Original SANDDUNE and Increase Cardio
http://tinyurl.com/SDcrosstrain
Similar Shapes in Nature
Men ~ Sitting too much may be deadly.
Shared post from Kaiser Permanente courtesy of Houston Medical about the dangers of
sedentary lifestyle in men.
Sedentary Behavior and Low Physical Activity Linked to Heart Failure in Men
BEFORE YOU START, CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR
Walking is always a great way to start to get back into the habit of exercise or as some prefer calling it, “the swing of things.”
As one exercise regimen to consider, we suggest 15 minutes twice a day on the Original SANDDUNE™ for 30 days to help you get back on the path to building your healthy lifestyle.
What ever you choose, begin TODAY, on your path to health and wellness.
Call Cynthia more information @ 714-264-7896.
Why do I keep falling?
As we become more aware of fall prevention across the country and around the globe, it has become apparent that once someone has fallen, more specifically in the 50+ age group, the fear of falling increases and walking properly becomes an issue.
Sometimes the resulting fear of taking another spill can create what I call the “ground watch” posture. We have all seen or know someone with the stooped or slouched upper body, the gaze fixed on the ground, and their arms barely swinging if they are not using a cane or walker. It makes it tough to walk when the knees hardly bend enough to lift feet clear of the ground or thinking that shuffling feet anchored to the ground will prevent a fall. In short this means their mechanism for reacting to shifts in walking surfaces is not used and is now severely diminished.
One may not realize that they are not lifting their feet off the ground when walking nor properly using their upper body when turning around to look behind themselves or to the side for fear they might trip. Poor reaction time makes them at risk for falling.
All of these newly developed “habits” make falling more probable which may be why so many seniors begin to fall more often. This gradually acquired way of walking becomes the “norm” instead of the natural activity of an “active,” upright upper body with swing arms that engage the hips as they work to lift the knees giving us our wonderful mechanics of walking or running. Get to a balance class and learn to use your body again!
Exercise in the pool is a great way to begin, too, since you are building your body by doing resistance training with water! How many people do not pass driving tests because they depend on the rear view mirror to tell them what is behind or beside them and will not turn and look when changing lanes?
Exercise on the Original SANDDUNE™ will help you restore diminished leg and core strength whether due to chronic illness like diabetic neuropathy, Parkinson’s or MS, stroke recovery, surgery (ie…hip or knee replacement) or a sedentary lifestyle. It provides a comforting and enjoyable way to get back on the fitness bandwagon!
COG – Center of Gravity
When you begin to learn about the Center of Gravity or COG whether you are standing or sitting, you will learn how many small movements contribute to your COG and how they awaken the spine and your feet as the foundations for your COG.
You learn:
- how to sit properly on your sit bones vs. slouching and how this affects your posture both sitting and standing. If you slouch when you sit, you will most likely slouch when you stand. This
means learning to keep the belly button pulled in, shoulders square, a long spine and open chest (no slouched shoulders or shuffling when walking). - the importance of eye and head movement to sound balance. Most people do not “think” about how eye and head movement affect the body’s everyday functioning. This is especially critical as we age.
- the relevance of sensing your ankle, arch, heel pad, the ball of your foot, and be able to differentiate and move the five toes, which many people never think of doing.
Because the feet are the Foundation for the COG, weight shifting – both standing and dynamic (walking, running, cross training, etc), and learning to work your 
heels and toes together are paramount to healthy gait and balance. This applies whether one is aging, recovering from an injury/surgery or extended time off of the feet due to illness.
Understanding this leads to the comprehension of how these individual systems tie into “proprioception” or knowing where your body is in space. The sensors engaged by this proprioception are in each joint, the bottoms 
of the footpads, the visual and vestibular (inner ear) system as well as touch. For example, proprioception not only helps with daily direction-finding, but also is essential to becoming a beautifully expressive dancer or gymnast, successful professional golfer, or runner.
Together these sensors help to provide information about the environment that we see daily and that the muscles are engaging in judging the height of 
a step, the distance to the rail or ball, the depth of the curb, or the placement of the foot as a turn or a yoga stance is executed.
Learning to stretch and strengthen these muscles, their respective systems and their correlating movements on the non-compliant surface of an Original SANDDUNE™ makes it easier to do on solid ground. Why is it easier? You are not trying to balance your body on the ground as you do on the mirror resisting exercise produced by the Original SANDDUNE™. Referenced from Miriam Tate’s findings and class development.
Flow into your Fitness
The Original SANDDUNE™, a unique aerobic/anaerobic compliant device invented for interval training to keep performance level from losing momentum during off weather or injury downtime.
Being able to excel on off days or rehab muscles and joints when the impact of the ground is over exhausting, SANDDUNE™ Cross Training excels in keeping your current level of fitness.
Increase Cardio, while Reduce or Build
- Strengthen Muscular-skeletal, Body’s Core Muscles
- Build Stamina, Endurance and Agility
- Develops greater Dynamic Balance
- Aids in Rehabilitation practices
The device allows the body to train:
- up-hill, down-hill,
- sitting, standing, leaning,
- stretching, walking or running;
Similar to aqua-jogging, or plyometrics in the water, it offers therapeutic options easy on the joints.
“Flow” ~Artwork Courtesy of Kirk Wassell
Working on the SANDDUNE will allow one to learn how to:
- Stand at the Center of Gravity with the core engaged, knees soft, back erect, belly button back and gaze straightforward.
- Learn Feet and Foundation sense in the feet through learning to work the whole foot as weight shifts “around the clock.”
- Develop and understand proprioception (the ability to sense the position, location, orientation and movement of the body and its parts) on an uneven, moving surface as all of the parts of the body are taught to work together. IE…learning to “marry” the trunk and the lower body for greater flexibility in movement and walking.
Test jog @ Riverside Diabetes Walk, Nov 16, 2013.
Thank you Jenn!
Happy Thanksgiving
The staff of the
Original SANDDUNE™
wish you a
plentiful and joy filled
Thanksgiving Day.
“The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see.”
— Dr. Robert Holden
The Original SANDDUNE™ Honors US Veterans
We at the Original SANDDUNE™
honor our nation’s Veterans –
past, present, and future
for their commitment to safeguarding the freedom that this great country stands for.
BEAR IN MIND THAT THE MEASURE OF A MAN (WOMAN) IS THE WORTH OF THE THINGS HE (SHE) CARES ABOUT.
~ MARCUS AURELIUS ~
~ GOD BLESS THE USA ~
Original SANDDUNE™ 