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So, what do I hear from my Trainer?
Etruscan Art 520-510 B.C Terracotta and Pigment by Epiktetos – The Athletic Trainer
The forked stick held by this man identifies him as an athletic trainer. 
The ancient author Epictetus (A.D. 55-135) vividly describes the role of a trainer in an athlete’s path to victory:
[Athlete:] I wish to win an Olympic victory.
[Trainer:] (If so), you have to submit to discipline, follow a strict diet, give up sweet-cakes, train under compulsion at a fixed hour, in heat or in cold; you must not drink cold water, nor wine just whenever you feel like it; you must have turned yourself over to your trainer precisely as you would to a physician. Then when the contest comes on you, you have to dig in beside your opponent, sometimes dislocate your wrist, sprain your ankle, swallow quantities of sand, take a scrourging; yes, and then sometimes get beaten along with all that.
Common knowledge to the Spartan Running Girl, Marathon Man, Phidippides of yesteryears and today. (Courtesy of Wall Panel with an Athletic Trainer housed at the Getty Villa Malibu)
This is certainly no new fad, certainly to not to the athlete. Trainers have been telling us to “be quiet and get to work or you would not be in my gym”, for a very long time. (520-510 B.C)
This phenomenon is new, however, to 21st century people who:
- Sit in cars for what seems to be an eternity to go sit at computers all day.
- Sit in the same cars to go home and sit at another computer, or be entranced with television and video games..
- Inactivity is further compounded by the choice to eat mindlessly while doing these “activities.”
Take a break. Move, Sweat!
- “Champion” your effort to return to better health with no complaints. The consequences of inactivity are not pleasant.
- Dealing with physical challenges? Move to the best of your ability!
- Work best by engaging family, friends or joining a group of people who are facing the same physical challenge? Do that! There is power in numbers.
- Do what’s right for you. Talk to your doctor or physical therapist.
Submit to discipline, healthy diet, new hours, unfavorable weather, tepid water and lack of sweet-cakes or “donies” as they are called in our house! Train for the Good Life of Health to the best of your ability.
How does the SANDDUNE help with balance and strength?
Eagle’s Lost Focal Point!
The Original SANDDUNE™ simulates walking in loose sand at the beach. It challenges your body to find its center of gravity. The natural phenomenon of neuropaths being re-activated after lack of activity caused by injury, illness or sedentary lifestyle, causes your muscles to react to signals from your brain, which begins a process of strengthening those muscles which are necessary to restore and maintain good balance.
For example, people with strong balance can try this Spine Stretch exercise described below on the SANDDUNE to really build and challenge their balance. From there progress to positions like the Eagle pose in Yoga. Make sure you have someone present with you to spot if this is new for you. If not, have a barre or something sturdy and stable to assist you should you loose your balance – wall or sturdy chair for example. Make sure there are no sharp object around you.
- Center yourself on the SANDDUNE with a small ball if you like, weighted or not, in your hands, with arms bent so that the ball is at your neck just below your chin.
- Stand straight, tailbone tucked with bellybutton pulled back toward your spine so your core is engaged and active. Remember as you increase your flexibility you are increasing your core strength on this apparatus.
- Before you begin your roll down, pick a focal point on the floor to maintain your balance once your eyes meet the floor.
- Now, imagine peeling an orange, trying to keep the peel in one piece as you prepare to begin a roll down (similar to what is done when doing a spinal stretch forward on the floor). If you are not an orange lover, then think Slinky toy and their fluid motion.
- Tuck your chin close to your chest resting it on top of the ball in your hands as you begin to slowly drop your head onto the ball in your hands and start to descend into your stretch. SLOWLY is the key word here. Your eyes focal point should follow the movement of your head. Draw an arc with your eyes or close your eyes and watch your body’s movement in a mindful visual manner.
- As you roll down, your head, hands and the ball will come into line with your waist. This is when you begin to uncurl your arms, keeping them close to your body and drop the ball slowly as you stretch the ball toward your feet. As Martha Graham, the great American Dancer said, “When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers.”
- When you reach your feet, mindfully relax for a count of what is comfortable for you if this is your first time so that you can understand your body’s adjustments to being on a moving surface. A count said out loud of 1001, 1002, 1003 is a great way to gauge what your body’s balance can handle. Another quote from Martha Graham put this into perspective. “First we have to believe, then we believe.” “The body never lies.”
- At the end of your count, roll back up to standing in the same slow, fluid manner that you descended to your feet.
- I like to do this 10 to 20 times unless I want a deep stretch and trying to tuck my fingers under the SANDDUNE™ to increase my stretch.
Eagle Focus Found on The SANDDUNE!
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!
Cross Training on The Original SANDDUNE
CROSS TRAINING ON THE SANDDUNE™ by Miriam Tait – Balance Instructor
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;
Bounding Segment of Running Workout
Similar to aqua-jogging, or plyometrics in the water, it offers therapeutic options easy on the joints.
Perfect for:
- Senior Fitness in Fall Prevention,
- general athletic conditioning among women, men and children and
- professionals who fitness and reflexes are key components for successful execution of duties .
Used by for all levels of warm-up, interval training and cool down by:
- therapists in clinical or personal settings,
- golf pros, athletes from a variety of sports, professional dancers, and
- seniors across the country at home or in group balance classes
Fall Prevention *Call to Action*
Granny @ 86 yrs Young!
Our goal is to provide people who are “at risk” for falling, a unique device that WILL adds a valuable new dimension in your desire to help others or yourself, achieve greater balance, coordination and strength as a greater confidence to participate in life with less fear of falling is realized.
With more nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities reporting increases of people being admitted who have fallen, this fact is creating a “call to action” nationwide, to develop Fall Prevention and fitness programs that are effective and enjoyable while creating a community of support for those who need to embark on a renewal of fitness and vitality.
Letting physical vigor and productivity drop because you have retired, and ignoring the signs of loss of balance and strength can lead to falls and the chances escalate that you will continue to fall without some sort of intervention in the form of a fitness program to strengthen balance, gait and flexibility. Look for signs of everyday activities that require sitting and standing as a normal part of day, becoming more challenging. 
With over 8,000 people per day turning 65, it is alarming that one-third of this demographic are injured due to falls. Make it a personal “call to action” to start a fitness program or keep your fitness on a level that is compatible with your capabilities, age and health.
Create a list questions for discussion with your doctor to develop an exercise regimen and review diet. Join a club or a group to help motivate and energize you as you begin your new path of better fitness and vitality. Get Moving Again Get Back Into Living Life with Zest and Zeal!
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.
How does the SANDDUNE help with balance and strength?
Eagle’s Lost Focal Point!
The SANDDUNE™ simulates walking in loose sand at the beach. It challenges your body to find its center of gravity. The natural phenomenon of neuropaths being re-activated after lack of activity caused by injury, illness or sedentary lifestyle, causes your muscles to react to signals from your brain, which begins a process of strengthening those muscles which are necessary to restore and maintain good balance.
For example, people with strong balance can try this Spine Stretch exercise described below on the SANDDUNE to really build and challenge their balance. From there progress to positions like the Eagle pose in Yoga. Make sure you have someone present with you to spot if this is new for you. If not, have a barre or something sturdy and stable to assist you should you loose your balance – wall or sturdy chair for example. Make sure there are no sharp object around you.
- Center yourself on the SANDDUNE with a small ball if you like, weighted or not, in your hands, with arms bent so that the ball is at your neck just below your chin.
- Stand straight, tailbone tucked with bellybutton pulled back toward your spine so your core is engaged and active. Remember as you increase your flexibility you are increasing your core strength on this apparatus.
- Before you begin your roll down, pick a focal point on the floor to maintain your balance once your eyes meet the floor.
- Now, imagine peeling an orange, trying to keep the peel in one piece as you prepare to begin a roll down similar to what is done when doing a seated spine stretch. If you are not an orange lover, then think Slinky toy and their fluid motion.
- Tuck your chin close to your chest resting it on top of the ball in your hands as you begin to slowly drop your head onto the ball in your hands and start to descend into your stretch. SLOWLY is the key word here. Your eyes focal point should follow the movement of your head.
- As you roll down, your head, hands and the ball will come into line with your waist. This is when you begin to uncurl your arms, keeping them close to your body and drop the ball slowly as you stretch the ball toward your feet. As Martha Graham, the great American Dancer said, “When you extend your arm, it doesn’t stop at the end of your fingers.”
- When you reach your feet, mindfully relax for a count of what is comfortable for you if this is your first time so that you can understand your body’s adjustments to being on a moving surface. A count said out loud of 1001, 1002, 1003 is a great way to gauge what your body’s balance can handle. Another quote from Martha Graham put this into perspective. “First we have to believe, then we believe.” “The body never lies.”
- At the end of your count, roll back up to standing in the same slow, fluid manner that you descended to your feet.
- I like to do this 10 to 20 times unless I want a deep stretch and am trying to tuck my fingers under the SANDDUNE to increase stretch.
Eagle Focus Found on The SANDDUNE!
Fall Prevention “Call to Action”
With more nursing homes and rehabilitation facilities reporting increases of people being admitted who have fallen, this fact is creating a “call to action” nationwide, to develop Fall Prevention and fitness programs that are effective and enjoyable while creating a community of support for those who need to embark on a renewal of fitness and vitality. People like Jack LaLane, Lilias, 
Billy Blanks, Jane Fonda, Joseph Pilates, and Rodney Yee have created fitness communities that can be embraced at all fitness levels with proper guidance – from kids to grandparents. Letting physical vigor and productivity drop because you have retired, or have reached that “age” that the “norm” says you can let it all hang out, creates the chances of becoming a candidate at risk for falls. Many people hit age 50 and decide I have had enough of sweatin’ to the oldies and runnin’ on empty. My feet hurt and now I can sit back relax and gather some moss on the stone that has stopped rollin’. But, hey look at the Rolling Stones – no moss is gathering there! Ignoring the signs of loss of balance and strength can lead to falls. The chances escalate that you will continue to fall without some sort of intervention in the form of a fitness program to strengthen balance, gait and flexibility. The increasing difficulties of getting out of the car or your favorite chair are a couple of signs to be aware of.
Since the Baby Boomer population began hitting age 65 in 2011 at a rate of 8,000 per day, it is alarming that one-third of people over 65 are injured due to falls. Make it a personal “call to action” to start a fitness program or keep your fitness on a level that is compatible with your capabilities, age and health. Some will have greater capabilities than others and that’s fine. It’s all about taking care of your health and fitness. Start really enjoying your grand-kids or kids in some cases. Take the time to talk to your doctor about exercise and diet. Join a club or a group around the corner at a recreation center. 
Knee Pain Prevention
Martina Navratilova, AARP’s Fitness Ambassador, gives tips and suggestions about conditions and treatments for prevention of knee pain.
Scroll to the bottom of the page to follow her mini-workout to help you burn some calories, learn proper posture and work on your core.
Original SANDDUNE™ 