SIMPLE STRENGTHENING

My goal is to help you get stronger and have better posture and less pain regardless of your current situation.  I have designed movements that you can do simply and easily in bed.  Almost everyone, regardless of age and ability can do these movements.

When you get beyond that point or if you want to get seriously stronger and really work your muscles, Eric from Ground Up Strength is the guy to go to.

Learn more about Eric and pick up his free reports about strength training at the following page:

http://www.simplestrengthening.com/strength-training/

You can get pain in your shoulders, arms and hands when the muscles around your shoulders are “out of balance.”  That means some areas of muscle are “tighter” than they should be and some areas are weaker. That is what causes pain.

This video will show you two simple movements that you can do to help re-balance your shoulder muscles.

Do these movements thoughtfully.  Take your time.  Try to make your circles perfectly.  Feel what is happening as you do these moves.

And pay attention to your arm, too.  These movements are like having a massage for your arms and shoulder muscles.

Pain relief from strengthening your muscles?  You bet!

A body that is strong and balanced has much less pain and functions better.

I get letters and emails from people all over the world who took action when they started to understand how their bodies work.  They started to understand that maybe they could become pain-free naturally.  The key is:  They took action.

They took steps to feel better rather than relying on their doctor to do “the push-ups” for them.  (You can’t hire someone to do your push-ups.)

Here’s a letter from Garry Allen.  Garry “got it” when he read some of my articles.  He understood.  He wrote previously to tell me he had found a massage therapist who helped a tremendous amount and had relieved a lot of his symptoms of muscle pain. Continue Reading »

If you have back pain, you’ve probably heard that you should do sit-ups.  While strong abdominal (stomach) muscles are good, sit-ups can be not so good.  Here’s why:

• Your abdomen is basically the “front of your back.”  Some of the muscles that attach to your spine are actually accessible through your soft abdomen by a trained massage or muscle therapist.  Sometimes the muscles in the “front of your back” are the ones that cause your lower back pain.
• When you do sit-ups, the movement removes the natural curve from your lower back; it makes it flatter.  The curve is good–it’s there for a reason.
• When you do sit-ups, it’s easy to strain your neck muscles.
• Sit-ups shorten your abdominal muscles.  Short muscles in front help flatten your lower back and take away your natural curve.  Short muscles in the front of your body make it harder to keep good posture.  Good posture helps prevent back pain.

What are some safer Continue Reading »

Wanna know why you feel like your systems are failing and you have pain?

Suppose your body is a rocket ship.  If your body doesn’t have all of the nutrients–the rocket fuel–that it needs, it can’t “blast off.”  It gets stuck.  All the systems are NOT “go.”

Sometimes your wonderful rocket ship of a body just kind of falls over and drops off the platform.

CLUNK.

Here’s the deal:  Your body needs certain things in order to function its’ best.  Those things include:

• stretching
• movement
• a strong back side
• plenty of clean water
• fresh air
• sunshine and
• all of the nutrients it was designed to use.

You just can’t fly if you don’t have the correct fuel.

We are so fortunate that we have so many choices of what to eat.  On the other hand, too many of our choices are not really food and not really good for us, either.  And, if we don’t give our bodies what they need to function well, we shortchange ourselves.

You can be overweight and still starving.  You can think you’re fit and strong yet still be malnourished.  But, if you’re reading this article, there’s a good chance that you don’t feel fit and strong.  Maybe you feel weak.  Puny.  Probably your back hurts.  Maybe you have a lot of aches and pains.

The good news is:  You are in the right place!

You CAN learn how to have a strong back side, simply and easily with equipment you already own:  your own bed.  You can learn that here at Simple Strengthening.  How cool is that?

You CAN learn how to give your body a healthy menu that includes lots of colorful foods (Sorry–Froot Loops don’t count.)  You CAN supply Continue Reading »

I’ll bet you think you’re stronger than a little child, don’t you?  I’m sure you used to be as strong, but are you still?

Let’s think about this for a moment.  When you were little, you were running, sliding, hopping, jumping, climbing.  You were skipping, swinging, squirming, wiggling, jiggling.  Hula-hooping and jump-roping.  You were up and down, up and down.

You even used the muscles in your face.  And when you cried, you cried with your whole body.  If you were like most healthy children, you were moving all the time.  Unless you were asleep.

You used ALL of your 600+ muscles every day!

And, now?  Or, like most of us, do you use only the same 60 or so muscles, just the bare minimum to get through the day?

You might be able to lift and carry that little child, so you think you’re stronger.  But, the reality is, that little child is strong ALL OVER while some of your muscles are strong and some are weak.  Some are used too much, some not enough.

If you were as strong as that little child you used to be, you wouldn’t have that achy back and neck or those headaches.  Your posture wouldn’t be collapsing forward.  You’d feel really good!

Well, good news!

You can feel a lot better than you do now.  All you have to do is make a few changes, do some things differently, and start using more of your muscles again.  Like you did.  Remember?  When you were little?

Right here at SimpleStrengthening.com you can discover simple, easy ways to start getting strong again and use of all of your muscles again.  You can get a strong back.  You can relearn how to hold your head over your body.  You can become as strong as you were when you were that little active kid.

There’s no time like the present!  You’re gonna start feeling better and feeling stronger.

Mini-trampolines can help you get stronger and straighter and there are a lot of ways to use them.  Why, you might even enjoy exercising again!

A mini-trampoline is also called a “rebounder” because you rebound when you jump on it:  It bounces you around.

They start at about $30 and go way up from there, but the $30 model seems sufficient to me.  If you feel real unsteady on your feet and think you would do better with a handle (hand rail), some come with a handle!

Once you get it set up (it has legs about 6″ long) just leave it up.  If you have to move it out of the way, you could push it under your bed or lean it up against a wall.

Kids think trampolines are fun and hey!  Why should they have all the fun?

So, once you have your mini-trampoline, what do you do with it?

First, get on it gingerly.  It’s going to feel strange beneath your feet and you’re going to do a little wobbling.  Get the feel of it.  Just feel it.

You can “jump” with bare feet or with tennis or athletic shoes.  Socks might cause slipping.  Bare-feet and shoes-feet don’t feel the same on the tramp.  You might feel more steady with your shoes on.

After you start to get the hang of it, try bare feet sometimes and shoes sometimes.  That way, you use different muscles.

It’s not necessary for your feet to ever leave the security of the trampoline.  You don’t have to jump into the air with space between your feet and the tramp.  All you have to do is…bounce.  Press down a little and let the rebounder move you up a little.  That’s called ‘contact bouncing.’  Down a little, up a little.  Try to get a little rhythm going.

If you need to hold onto a doorway, wall or chair for a while while “bouncing” or getting on and off, do it.   Safety first!

The simple act of moving slightly up and down will help your leg muscles grow stronger and improve your balance.  You can try Continue Reading »

Tai Chi (pronounced ti chee) can make you strong and improve your balance.  How?  And what is Tai Chi anyway?

Tai Chi is a movement program which is done standing up.  It uses all of the muscles in your lower body and legs (your leg muscles attach to your spine.)  The movements are slow and continuous.  You lean and sway and balance in a variety of positions.

All of this leaning and swaying causes you to use more of your muscles than you usually do.  When you were a small child, you used all of your muscles.  But, then you grew up.  And, now?  Most of us use only the same 60 or so (out of 600!) muscles everyday.  Only 10%.  Not so good.

But, Tai Chi causes you to use most of those lower body muscles again.

During the movement, your arms and upper body are also involved.  While your legs are doing one thing, your arms do another as part of the whole movement.  Your whole body becomes involved.  That creates whole body balance and strength.

Tai Chi is different from yoga.  Yoga does a lot of stretching and full range-of-movement and also uses floor and seated positions besides standing.  Yoga involves more of your body.

Tai Chi builds lower body strength as well as balance.  That’s why it’s so beneficial for older folks and those who have lost strength or are wobbly on their feet.

My only wish is that people would start practicing Tai Chi before they need it.  That would prevent a lot of “old age” complaints.  Old age complaints tend to be caused by poor or collapsing posture.

Yoga, and the movements here at Simple Strengthening, will help you correct your posture.  Tai Chi will help you keep or regain your balance and lower body strength.  That will help you prevent injuries from falling, make it easier to get up from chairs, and stay younger longer.

Yoga is a full-body movement program that can help you become strong, straight, long and flexible.  All of those are good things that will help you be pain-free.

If you watch yoga instructors very carefully, you may notice that some of them aren’t exactly symmetrical.  The reason they started doing yoga movements was because they had pain from their asymmetry.  (That means their body wasn’t balanced from side to side; one side was shorter than the other.  There are many reasons for this.)

When they were successful in reducing their own pain symptoms, some went on to become yoga instructors.  They continue to practice so they continue to feel well.  They are now also able to help others become pain-free.

The part of yoga that contains the movements is called Hatha Yoga.

The reason yoga helps is because you use ALL of your muscles and ALL of your body. We have 600+ muscles.

But, most of use only the same 60 or so muscles every day.  When we were children, we used ALL of our muscles.  We ran, jumped, climbed, crawled, slid, hopped.  And, now?

Well, you can see the problem.  We need to use ALL of our body in order to function and feel our best.

You can take a class in yoga.  The advantage of that is the support of your instructor.  He or she will guide you in doing the movements correctly.

Yoga videos are available at stores and libraries as well as online.  The advantage of a video is that you can do it in the comfort of your own home.  That may help you to practice more regularly.

Yoga can be adapted for everyone.  If you cannot do Continue Reading »

Did you know you bed makes a great exercise tool?

When we press against an immovable object, like a wall, we build strength.  That is called resistance training.  Your bed offers some softness and it also allows you to move and press into it while it presses back at you.  Here are a few things you can try when you lie on your back.

When you do the following movements, pay attention to your muscles.  Your goal is to be able to feel them as they contract (tighten up a bit.)  It doesn’t require much to make them “work.” Don’t work hard.

Gently and thoughtfully

• press the back of your head into your bed or pillow (feel your neck muscles in back.)
• press your shoulders backward into the bed (feel your upper back.)
• squeeze your shoulders toward your spine (feel the muscles between your spine and shoulder blades.)
• squeeze your belly toward your spine (feel the muscles around your hip bones, “stomach” and back.)
• press your heels into your bed (feel the muscles in the back of your thighs.)

It takes only a few minutes when you are in bed to start to get a stronger, straighter body.  When you were a child, you had a strong, straight posture.  You were moving all the time.  You used all of your muscles.  Help your body remember how it used to be.  Use all of your muscles, not just a few.

If you have lots of aches and pains, you can find more pain relief information at Simple Pain Relief.

“Because You Deserve to Feel Better!”