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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!
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.
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™!
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.
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.
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.
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™ 