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Balance and Canes and Walkers, Oh My!!!!
I feel unsure of my balance and need a walker or a cane for support right now. My friends tell me that I shuffle my feet. How can Original SANDDUNE™ help me?
Working out on Original SANDDUNE™ both strengthens and conditions the muscles and the joints of the lower body because it engages them more fully in the process of walking and movement. It connects the muscles of your abdominal core, hip chamber and psoas muscle which is weak in many people who have reduced or stopped their physical activity and lost the ability to lift their legs properly when walking, thus shuffling their feet.
Neuropathy, Toes and Original SANDDUNE™
Stretching and Walking on Original SANDDUNE™
If you are having this problem you may also have issues with your feet and experience neuropathy as a result. The unique surface and flexibility of the SANDDUNE™, allows you to exercise your toes, foot and ankle, individually and collectively. This means your foot is “relearning” how to work together as a unit. Your anchor system to the ground is stronger and has better circulation and range of movement. You “relearn” to look up and look “ahead” to what is coming instead of down in anticipation of falling.
The First Step of 1000 miles
The unique properties of Original SANDDUNE™ provide a cushioning, conforming platform ideal for use in the early segments of a rehabilitation plan. Its surface gently forces the foot’s muscles, tendons and ligaments to stretch as your weight shifts from one foot to the other. Simultaneously your whole body is adjusting to gain its Center of Gravity (COG).
“Toes Down” Stretch
“Toes Up” Stretch
Few balance devices allow the whole foot to sink down into their surface while offering the benefit of allowing your toes to stretch and work individually. Original SANDDUNE’s material and construction allow for these “Toe Cross Fit Workouts.”
Relearning to press each toe, individually, into the floor and then into the SANDDUNE™, is a job many pairs of feet have not done since they were running around barefoot as kids. Try it right now and see how challenging it is! Don’t look down at your feet while you try! Among the select few who use their whole foot besides kids and a select group of athletes are:
- Gymnasts
- Dancers
- Runners in ” nature’s socks” like Abebe Bikila or Zola Budd
- Yoga devotees to name a few (sans yoga socks!).
Peeling The Heel
“Peeling the Heel” is an exercise that promotes greater flexion in the ankle arch, and allows the Achilles to tendon to stretch and strengthen slowly. This means greater ankle strength, and can increase the leg stride. You are now “firing the glutes” and learning to walk from the hip. And getting gentle trigger point therapy for the foot at the same time.
Lao Tzu said, “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.“ Help your toes begin your journey today with Original SANDDUNE! Give them the “Boost of Balance” as your Holiday Season begins!
‘Prehabilitation’
Prehabilitation is becoming a more widely accepted process before hip and knee surgery. It is defined as exercise and strength training designed to strengthen the body before surgery so the body is better able to tolerate the stress of the procedure and its post operative effects.
The gentle, low impact/high resistance exercises that Original SANDDUNE offers with its capacity of developing the lower body’s “balance strength“, and core’s strength, lends itself to this type of therapy. We are Sharing a posting about the benefits of “Prehabilitation” before surgery.
‘Prehabilitation‘ prepares patients for hip and knee surgery
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-10-prehabilitation-patients-hip-knee-surgery.html
Labor Day 2014 – Original SANDDUNE Celebrates Caregivers
Rehabilitation
Caregivers need to keep their Fitness and Vitality in check!
As more and more Baby Boomer age, their adult children are shouldering caregiving for parents, children and grandchildren simultaneously. As a result many tend to forget to take care of themselves. This holds true for Boomers opting to stay at home preferring care from family, usually the spouse who juggles responsibilities with the adult children.
Fitness and healthy eating become a thing of the past. Oftentimes it is the caregiver that everyone depends on who turns into the patient, becoming incapacitated and unable to care for anyone.
Pad & Short Burst Cardio
Original SANDDUNE™ provides a viable answer for many caregivers who are “home bound” and or juggling time between “generational” needs/demands with little backup support more often than not. It creates discipline and provides that valuable time for focus on fitness at home in a time frame that works even if flexibility is part of the equation. Its there, ready for action.
Senior Citizens
With assistance, the gentle low impact exercise that SANDDUNE™ offers, makes it a Fall Prevention exercise alternative to discuss with the doctor or physical therapist for the parents who are frustrated with reduced physical activity and mobility due to weight gain, surgery, illness or injury inclusive of diabetic neuropathy, Parkinson’s, aching knees, or drop foot.
Fun on the SANDDUNE
The unique benefit of Original SANDDUNE™ is created by its ability to provide “mirror” muscle resistance by simulating walking through loose sand at the beach and the light weight, portability and “squishy” surface make it fun and easy for grandkids to use.
Fitness & Train Low Workout
Begin your simulated “beach workout at home” today. Start slow with padding for 15 minutes twice a day and build from there to maintain or begin building that healthy lifestyle of core balance, muscle strength, fitness, vitality, eating and a brighter outlook on Life with Original SANDDUNE™.
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.
This regimen is
a great alternative to letting the body rest after following the workout/fitness pattern of high intensity workout training without loosing the strength and stamina gained in the high intensity workouts.
Original SANDDUNE™ is also an alternative to beginning a regimen that can be part of addressing neuropathy, common in many with diabetes. It is easy on the feet facilitating and encouraging exercise.
Padding is simply walking but keeping your feet in continual 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 with the somatasensory body (whole body meaning bottom of foot to brain) – a new way of educating and retraining the foundation of your physical body (neuro pathways) using Original 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.
The Networking Maze Tendons and Ligament
In our effort to help get new innovations out to the public regarding replacement therapy for joint, Original SANDDUNE™ is sharing a blog article from Houston Methodist.
” A new TOTAL KNEE REPLACEMENT that saves all of the ligaments can make a person’s knee feel and move just like the original.
Learn how a new procedure shortens recovery time & preserves a better range of motion by saving those ligaments → http://bit.ly/1n7stvV. – Jason
Houston Methodist serves as the official health provider for the Houston Astros, Houston Dash, Houston Dynamo, Houston Texans, Rice Athletics, and RodeoHouston.
Get Low to Stay Low Workout
Demo and Brief Description of Low Assault Workout
As professionals whose livelihood weighs heavily on their ability to get into and out of buildings that are burning and collapsing, firefighters know that their job demands superior upper body strength and balance coupled with that same demand for their lower extremity strength and mobility. Their job requires them to work in a crouch position staying low to the ground so their profile is not in the midst of blinding, choking smoke. With job descriptions that include:
- Guiding and carrying people out of burning cars or collapsing buildings
- Tearing down walls to create escape routes
- Dragging 50 lb hoses
This equates to lower body strength being paramount. Fast reaction time, speed and strength are key. In the athletic world:
- defensive and offensive linemen in football
- sprinters coming out of the blocks
- jockeys
- ballet dancers
- martial artists
- skiers
- soccer players
are some examples of the athletes whose lower body strength, reaction time and speed are critical to their
performance. This same premise can be applied to military troops who must carry 75 lbs and upwards on their backs during training and on the battle field. The Low Assault – Get Low to Stay Low workout will help build sustained, explosive muscle strength and fluid lower body power.
Celebrate 4th of July with Appreciation
Independence Day is a day to reflect and show appreciation for Liberties we have accessible to us, collectively and individually in America.
This is the Land of Opportunity even in hard times.
Have a Safe and Sane Holiday from the Original SANDDUNE™!
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.
Original SANDDUNE™ 