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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.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
AS THE NEW YEAR DAWNS
THE ORIGINAL SANDDUNE™ WISHES YOU A
BALANCED, HAPPY, HEALTHY & PROSPEROUS
NEW YEAR IN 2014!
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.
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
Foot Pain or Metatarsalgia
Metatarsalgia is a common overuse injury described as pain in the forefoot
The Original SANDDUNE™ can be utilized in a rehabilitation regimen for the the plantar neuroma known as metatarsalgia, a common problem for many runners and dancers, which is characterized by pain and/or numbness in the forefoot.
People coping with this ailment have symptoms that are varied among individuals. Some people experience shooting pain affecting toes that are side by side (2nd & 3rd or 3rd & 4th toes).
Others describe a feeling similar to having a pebble in their shoe or walking on pins & needles, a prickly/tingly feeling known as paresthesia or PVD/PAD as doctors refer to it. Burning and numbness may also be another symptom experienced.
This ailment can also be the result of a poor diet, a vitamin deficiency, the metabolic disorder diabetes or inflammation like rheumatoid arthritis.
The comforting properties of the Original SANDDUNE™ provides a cushioning and malleable platform, rendering it an effective instrument to utilize in the early segments of a rehabilitation plan.
Sports-Neuromuscular Stimulation & Mirror Resistance
Neuromuscular stimulation provides your strength, coordination, reflexes, and balance. If this system is lacking you will not have these capabilities in daily living or athletics. The neuromuscular stimulation and feedback loops are highly responsive to high frequency contractions which occurs during the rapid compression movements performed during cardio burst workouts. These feedback loops are referred to as Mirror Resistance.
Squat Run beginning position. You may want to try dropping closer to your heels to increase the muscle activity. As you run or pad in and out of the squat, try touching the foot pads when in full squat. Give yourself that extra challenge building your cardio and strength.
The SANDDUNE’s Goal
Our goal at the Original SANDDUNE™ is to provide orthopaedic and neurological patients of all ages from kids to grandparents, as well as dancers, golfers, and athletes from other sports, the benefit of working out on this challenging and effective apparatus. It will add a valuable new dimension to the goal of helping reestablish greater balance, coordination and strength to those coping with the fear of falling due to injury, illness and recovering from surgery.
The distinctive properties of the SANDDUNE also lends itself to athletes striving to increase coordination, greater flexibility in their joints, core strength, a more responsive musculature, and balance components critical to sound fitness and successful athletic performance.
Jack’s 5 minute testimony
Mighty Dancer!
Cardio Burst Squat Run
Making Rehabilitation exercise made acceptable
When recuperating from knee/hip surgery or injury, the biggest obstacle that many patients face is keeping with the program! Many patients do not like the pain of beginning physical therapy after this type of surgery because of the pain experienced when walking on hard surfaces. Appointments are skipped to avoid the pain. I have seen family and friends do just this. They may say to their physical therapists “I am doing great, doing my exercises everyday” and then not follow through with their recommended regimen at home because, again, it is painful and there is no incentive. This is one case where no pain, no gain it not mantra of choice.
The patient goes to the office for their visit and the physical therapist notes that their progress is not correlating with the amount of time reported for following prescribed exercises for “home” work. Therefore this renders the physical therapy sessions ineffective for the patient. 
Your center becomes the foundation of building coordination and strength. The SANDDUNE™ helps restore the stability, mobility, and flexibility to the muscles recovering and rebuilding after an injury or a replacement of the knee or hip. When on the exercising on the SANDDUNE™ you are not centered on your physical challenge.
Providing a challenging yet comfortable apparatus to rehabilitate with is a key factor in the motivation to keep appointments and do the prescribed therapeutic exercises. The Original SANDDUNE™ gently forces you to focus and become more mindful of your body’s movement while finding and maintaining your balance on the apparatus.
Original SANDDUNE™ 