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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.
Sharing a Post – Weighted Medicine Balls are back!
https://www.yahoo.com/health/medicine-balls-are-ancient-fitness-tools-that-keep-99321740852.html
Challenge your Balance, Build Flexibility and Stamina
with Cardio Pumping “Weighted” Workouts
on Original SANDDUNE™!
Weighted Medicine Ball Workout on Original SANDDUNE
Weighted Belt Workout on Original SANDDUNE
‘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
Retweet From @ Super Fit Senior
Can regular exercise really cut the risk of degenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s?
http://nyti.ms/1z6AtGZ
Roll Down Stretch with Small Hand Held Exercise Ball
Lunge SANDDUNE style
Elbow Plank
Standing Big Toe Hold
Seated Big Toe Hold
Pilates Single Leg Stretch on Original SANDDUNE
Step Up Rear Lunge
Kettlebell workout on Original SANDDUNE
Dancing on the SAND
Robert Contreras of Inspire Dance Company of Las Vegas and his dancers show their moves on Original SANDDUNE. Solid building tool for dancers from youth to adult. Challenges and strengthens!
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!
Peeling The Heel on the Original SANDDUNE™
“PEELING THE HEEL” ON THE ORIGINAL SANDDUNE™
As we age, our bodies change and we must learn ways to continue to function independently by learning how to work with change. This includes how to listen to the body, sense change and noting where you are in space. By preparing for change and understanding where the center of gravity is through balance and alignment training and by strengthening the body’s core, daily function becomes a much easier part of life. Being able to find and sense the feet/ankles without always looking down when they are in an unfamiliar surrounding will increase your ability to balance more readily.
Learning to ground is sensing the entire foot working on the floor and being able to sense the body’s center. We call this mindfulness on the SANDDUNE. Learning to “Peel the Heel” is the ability to incorporate the whole foot in exercise thus strengthening it. One is able to learn to lift the knee and foot, higher, together facilitating easy of walking without stumbling or shuffling.
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!
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.
Original SANDDUNE™ 