Category: Senior Strength Classes

Testing, Practicing, and Training Your Balance

Humans function in dynamic environments and rely on the body’s automated responses to adjust to imbalances.  The body’s internal wiring is equipped with a vast network of neuromuscular connections,  granting the ability to immediately adapt to even the slightest indication of imbalance.  The human body’s infrastructure functions as a central processing unit, with hard-wired connections …

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Staying Active During the Less Sunny Months

As the Napa Valley enters October, we see a few leaves on the trees beginning to transition to shades of amber, brown, and yellow, and fall to the ground.  Sounds of leaf blowers and rakes start to fill the air.  The hills begin to morph into a darker green and brownish hue as the trees …

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Shoulder Health and the SITS Muscles

The body’s connective tissue has structurally significant properties, enabling humans to function effectively throughout their everyday lives.  Ligaments hold bones together.  Tendons attach muscles to bones.  Muscles act as motor units to move bones closer or further away from each other.  Bones act as the internal framework that allows our body to move through various …

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Sciatica and Low Back Injury Prevention Exercises

Lower back, knee, and shoulder pain rank among the top contributors to hindrances to functional movement and participating in physical activities we enjoy.  Sitting at desks all day or mustering through routines of manual labor can cause us to ignore our body’s pain points.    After logging off the work scene, physical pain from previous injuries …

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Progressions in Balance for Everyday Life Activities

Balance can be defined as the ability to stand on one leg, regain one’s center of gravity after losing it, or walk in a straight line.  Depending on specific circumstances, balance can significantly impact a person’s quality of life.  Sometimes, people in deconditioned states of fitness find the seemingly simple act of getting up from …

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Healthy Shoulders Make us Successful Humans

Reaching back to slide your arm into a zip-up hoodie, fixing a bun or ponytail in your hair, or simply lying on your side while sleeping in your bed shouldn’t be too challenging.  However, for those of us who have endured an injury to one or both of the shoulders, a seemingly simple everyday life …

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Simple Exercises to Improve Life as we Age

As humans circle the sun, adding another year to their lives, some things remain the same, while others change. Thanks to the discovery of our buddy Isaac Newton in the late 1600s, we know that the presence of gravity remains constant.  Until our sun goes into a supernova a few million years from now, we’re …

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Regaining Confidence after a Knee Injury

Our knees are one of the most critically important components of our bodies, allowing us to perform a vast number of human functions throughout the experiences we participate in while we exist on Earth.  Along with the ability to eat, breathe, see, and hear, humans are granted an ability that we depend on more than …

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Good Posture and Keeping the Shoulder Blades Down and Back

Standing upright doesn’t seem like a task we should have to consciously put effort toward.  The ability to keep the body vertical with the head, torso, and legs perpendicular to the ground can be commonly overlooked.  That is, until the muscles, bones, and joints bracketing the supporting structures meant to keep the body in the …

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Becoming Comfortable Getting Up From the Ground

Before the time chairs were invented and humans needed to get up and down from the ground, in the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I would assume that activities requiring a flat surface, sitting, and sleeping mainly happened on the ground.  I’m sure cavemen and cavewomen probably had the sense to use rocks to …

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