Pilates - an introduction

If you were to play 20 questions with this one, you should know that "pilates" can be both a person and a thing.

The exercise program Pilates is derived from the name of one man, a German, Joseph Pilates.  By all accounts he was a sickly child who turned to exercise, sport and competition.  No video games a hundred years ago! 

One thing there was about a hundred years ago was a World War, the first World War in fact.  And  Mr. Pilates found himself in England at a time when Germans were not particularly popular.  Why was he in England?  He ran away and joined the circus.  No, I'm not joking,  He really did run away and join the circus!

So there he is in an English internment camp, along with other 'enemy aliens', many of whom were suffering from war injuries.  And depressed as all get out.  Well, wouldn't you be?  So our man Pilates starts to develop a series of exercises that can be done on the floor, or on a bed, or in a chair - using straps and ropes and bed frames and anything he can find to isolate and develop muscles that will not only speed the healing process, but make the body stronger, and through doing so develop a more positive attitude. 

After the war Joseph Pilates returned to Germany, where his method had became famous. When 'invited' to join the German army, he wisely whipped off across the Atlantic and settled in New York.

And lived happily ever after.

Well maybe.  Maybe not.  I never met the man myself.  I can only hope good things came his way because he left us with a program of exercise that might just be a scoliosis sufferer's best friend.

With scoliosis, the spine is rotated and tilted and curved, so standing straight becomes like the holy grail, impossible to find. And if the body has problems standing upright as originally designed to do, then the muscles must try to do what the vertebrae can't.  Enter Pilates.

My next post will illustrate how Pilates does what it does, and why I will never live without it!

Staying Positive

I spent 3 months travelling around Turkey and southern Africa, bouncing around in a bus or truck, and having a fantastic time.  But there was not a huge amount of walking or hiking, very little swimming, and no time! Too much sketching Seljic architecture and looking at exotic animals and hanging out with my traveling companions.

So when I returned to earth (or my little piece of it) I found that the only big change over the last few months was to my brain. Which  is great - I have no problem with that at all! But my body is still achy and crooked and weak.  Weaker than when I left on my travels!

Sigh.  It's so easy to just crawl into bed with a large bar of chocolate and a good book and plan to stay there for the rest of my life.  But I know that is the worst thing I could do!

Move, move, move!  Back to pilates class with the lovely Shauna.  She assures me that muscles have memory and my strength will come back, and they will come back even better with my new-found knowledge.

Back to yoga class with the lovely Nancy.  She suggests modifications without any judgement and praises me when I remember to move my right knee out or activate my lats.

Back to the gym at the lovely Sunset Community Centre.  Besides the elliptical machine I can now do the bike.  I even tried out the Stairmaaster for 5 minutes on level 1, just to start waking up my glute muscles.

Back to the roads with the lovely Raquets and Runners group, Nadine and the gang, or with Silvia, or with myself.  Fast walking for an hour or so, no matter what the weather, chatting about our weeks or whatever comes up.

Back to Stretch for Scoliosis class with the lovely Martha.  The elements of dance she adds to her classes always makes me feel free and willowy, and I leave with less pain and I'm sure a couple of inches taller!

Back to dancing with the lovely Ceroc team.  It will take awhile but I will get to the point where I can dance all evening again.  And who doesn't love dancing with 20+ partners a night?

Back to singing with the lovely Allison.  I can feel my voice is already a bit stronger than it used to be.

Back to eating vegetables and fruits and fish and all the things I missed while away. 

Back to work with the wonderful Martin, now conscious of how I sit and when I need to take a stretch break.  Back to working on projects that interest me and that, if successful, will impact a lot of people in many different and postive ways.  I love my work.

Back to creative writing with lovely broadband, providing an outlet for my thoughts and feelings and imagination.

Back to French conversations with the lovely Gillian.  We meet once a fortnight to practice our language.  Use it or lose it!

Back to weekly coffee visits with the lovely parental units.  Regular check-ins assures us all that we are well and happy and passionately curious about the world and everything in and around it.

Back to all the lunches and dinners and teas and conversations with my friends and family. 

Being active and engaged has saved me from myself.  It all contributes to a general feeling of optimism.  I want to strive just a bit harder, work a bit better, listen more, question more.  People are supportive and have good suggestions and empathize.  Staying positive is a choice, I've realized.  But a choice that must be made consciously many times before it becomes more habitual.  There's always a positive angle to anything, and finding it will be the making of me I truly believe

Pole Dancing

The Scoliosis SOS clinic has us all doing several exercises in compromising positions with one or more long poles added to the act. I would have loved to have been a fly on the ceiling, watching us get practically every piece of equipment that was possible. Straps, beanbags, blocks, cylinders, large stools, small stools - we would look like ants near a nest, all moving here and there not hitting each other (often) busy with our tasks.

And then another 5 minutes or so trying to get set up.  this strap goes up to the thrid rung but this strape stays on the bottom rung, this pole goes here theis bean bag gets shoved there, etc. etc.

In the end of our contortions we would track and tension against the pole or poles rammed against the wall, providing the elongation.  Some derotation was added as a gift with purchase, depending on the exercise.  As usual we could grunt it out for 6 long counts each repetition and after 12 repetitions we'd release the poles and lie gasping in child's pose. 

The strap that tethered us to the bars would often get so tight that we would have to rub our lower back while kneeling up and down, just to get the blood flowing. Once we'd rested off we'd go again, straining against the strap, pushing against the poles: kneeling, lying on our backs, lying on our sides, whatever the position.

In the end, one of these exercises made it on to my weekly schedule to do every other day, with the other pole exercises slotted in once every couple of weeks.  No surprise that the exercise I have to do more frequently is the one most devoted to derotation!

Supine with Poles

Kneeling with Poles

Side-lying with a Pole

Workshopping with Elise Miller - Part 2

While yoga for scoliosis expert Elise Miller was in town conducting workshops for teachers and patients, I decided to pay for a private lesson with her too.

She was familiar with my curve being a 'left lumber' herself, and she candidly told me a few experiences she has tried and suggested for future consideration.  But what she really spent time on was a thorough instruction of several key exercises.  Most of these she had already taught in the workshop, but it was great to get a bit more hands-on instruction, as well as modifications targeted specifically for me. 

She made notes, and took a few photos on my camera so that I could see that part of my body that requires the most attention but which I cannot see myself.  She also allowed me to photograph her and video her too, so that I could hear her instructions.  She knew I was writing a blog and I thought it very generous of a "brand" to allow me what amounted to an all access pass (which I shall not abuse!).  She showed me how to adapt various movements wherever I am, which will be helpful the next time I am away from home, (as long as I have a wall and a doorway).


In the end I have to say I learned more about my body and the way it works.  And I now have a few more exercises to add to the Scoliosis SOS list.  I am now recorded as one of her 'clients' and encouraged to email questions whenever they come up.  She spent a little more than one hour with me and although she was business-like and miindful of the time, as I was, she made sure I had what I needed before the session ended formally. 

Well not so formally really because I was given a hug.  People with scoliosis always appreciate getting a hug from someone who knows what they are going through, which is really no different for those who suffer any other issue affecting their physical health.  Hugs are free medicine and very effective!

Workshopping with Elise Miller - Part 1

I have heard Elise Miller described as a sort of North American yoga guru for scoliosis.  More than one yoga and pilates practitioners have referred to her as such here in Vancouver, although no one I met in Europe has heard of her. She is American, and operates from her base in Palo Alto, California. She also conducts worksops on the road, and in February of this year I heard that she was to come to Vancouver for a 3 day workshop ini September and so I signed myself up. 

I did not know at the time that I would spend 4 weeks in London UK at a private clinic dedicated to scoliosis patients.  But I had made 2013 the year to explore options to treat my back as it continues its slide inward with ago, so it's good to find out what another professional recommends. So September 6-8 I spent in a large room at the Dance Centre along with about 30 others. 

Elise is petite, well-practiced, with a back straight as a rod. She got into this gig due to having scoliosis herself and discovering yoga at just the right time in her life. Since then she has received her Iyengar yoga certification, was a founding director of the California Yoga Centre (in Mountain View, CA) and is a faculty member at the Iyengar Yoga Institute of San Fransisco. Having modified traditional yoga poses to help her own scoliosis, she has also come up with a few new and adapted positions for the body that look like sado-masochist bondage tortures but feel devine. 

"Traction and extension" seem to be the key. It may sound different from the London clinic's "elongation and derotation", but they actually are pretty much the same thing.  It all seems to be making space in the spine and the ribs and all the spaces within, and keeping yourself in a new posture that supports the back.  This means working muscled that haven't been pulling their share and relaxing those that are overstretched.  Lots of yoga props get used in Elise's selection of poses, but she also used a wall bar (an entire ladder of bars is prescribed by the Scoliosis SOS team in London). Straps were wrapped around ribcages and pelvises so that they can be pulled, either by oneself, a partner or by using the wall or a bar or doorknob as the point of traction.

Half of our number were yoga teachers, who are ten a penny in Vancouver so having a specialtyis a good idea and these teachers are obviously one step ahead.  Lots of iphones came out to photograph or record an exercise that is not on her DVD (many were), or to follow the physical gyrations someone uses to get in or out of a position.  Along the way Elise talked about the different types of scoliosis (we placed our mats in the room according to our classification - I joined the other "lumbar lefts" on the left side of the room) and what adjustments and exercises are best for each. 

She does schill her book and DVD a lot throughout the workshop, and the cynic in me rebelled against paying almost $50 for a slim 18 page ring-bound booklet and accompanying DVD.  But by the end of the third day I knew it would be hard for my pea-brain to remember everything we did, and some of the positions certainly did feel good so I thought what-the-hay and slapped down my money.  I think of it as a business development tool.

3 month Assessment

The Scoliosis SOS clinic wants to assess 'graduates' every 6 months, to measure and monitor progress.  I live almost 8,000km away so getting a check up every 6 months is not going to happen on my bank account.

But the end of my travels through Turkey and Africa (blogs: http://www.turkishdelightful.blogspot.com  and http://www.safarisogoodafrica.blogspot.com ) had me back in London a neat 3 months later, so in I went, with husband in tow this time.

The clinic has a newfangled tool that measures and highlights the 3D image of my back, and it is a lot better for reading bumps and dips.  Height, weight, lung capacity all checked.

In the 3 hour assessment time, I was put through my paces on all exercises. A new one was addedand an old one dropped as deemed unnecessary with the work I'd done.  Husband was shown how to help stretch my compressed side when side lying on a ball. 

The good news is I was told I had excellent rechnique and had rememberd all my exercieses extremely well.  My lung capacity had impressed too, surprisingly. The bad news is my body had pretty well reverted to its bad old self.  I had lost the 1cm I had gained in height, I had gained 2kg weight, and the pain level had increased.  However, the scoliomenter did indicate that my upper thoracic and lumbar measurements were not quite as bad as when I started the clinic.

So, not very good news.  But I was undaunted because I had just spent 3 months traveling around in buses and trucks and 4 wheel drives, bumping along bad roads, camping under the stars, and not able to do 90% of my prescribed exercise program. There just was no opportunity to exercise the way I needed to: too much of the wrong food, nowhere to pull from or lean from, and little time available.  But I had known that from before I started on this journey.  I did what I could: I was able to stretch a bit as opportunity allowed, hang if I could find something the right height and strength, and use my core as much as possible. 

One bright spot was my kyphosis.  I worked on an exercise called "flat back" which wasn't high on the priority list; it wasn't even on my exercises schedule. But it was one I could do while travelling and I did it every second day or so.  My 3 month lateral projection measurement showed a definite improvement, so it was heartening to see that regular exercise targeting a specific muscle can pay off.  That make me confident that once I get home and get my ladder contraption made, I will reverse my reversed results and hopefully make progress by the next time I am assessed.

On The Road And In The Bush

One of my tests was to see how easy or hard it is to exercise while travelling.

During a month-long architectural tour of Turkey it was more a question of time, as I was rarely in my hotel room except to sleep.  It was impossible to exercise during the day as we were driven here and there, then walking here and there, then sketching ehre and there.  I did a bit of stretching when I could, but it was difficult.  I had worked out a routine before I left witih advice from the Scoliosis SOS physios as to how to adapt several of the exercises, but few ended up being practical or possible.  No doors, tiny curved hallways and aisles, a wide double bed, and no surfaces at the right height (or strength) for pressing or hanging.

So I lost a bit of ground there.  But then I journeyed to Southern Africa for 2 months,and that was a real test, because I was camping in the bush under the stars, so no bed, no doors, no walls, and no room.

nothing to push or pull against here!

I tried to get creative while on safari and was delighted to find our truck had two (extremely uncomfortable) handles from which I could hang for the odd moments when the door was open and no one was entering or exiting the truck. 

I did find sympathetic landscapes, particularly in the harshest of locales, the Namib desert.  There's a spot there that seems bereft of life and hope, but I was able to connect my inner goddess to the petrified trees and salt ground and actually had perhaps the best workout of the entire trip!

Nutrition

For some reason I had thought we would be having a chat at the Socliosis SOS clinic regarding Nutrition.  I have no idea how I got that into my head - I am in England with the infamously unhealthy diet after all!

As soon as my back started to collapse, I was told that nutrition is of vital importance.  I always knew that good nutrition is of importance anyway, especially when you reach a certain age and your body starts to change its shape.  But now I was getting an even more urgent message.  Of what does good nutrition exist then?

Weight management seems to be a big part of it.  Extra weight puts more strain on the body and can add even more imbalance to an already asymmetrical back.  Of course that's a matter of exercise as well as nutrition. 

Good nutrition also helps keep the system working too.  Eating the sorts of foods that fuel your body and work through your ingestion system efficiently is the goal.  I have recently read a great book by Mary Roach entitled "Gulp".  It investigates what happened to food as it enters and exits our body.  I imagine a few of you going "Eww" at this point but that is exactly why there has been so little knowledge and research into this topic.  People feel that such a thing isn't very nice or tasteful and so it gets avoided.  And yet can there be a more important system in our entire body?  Besides, Mary Roach's writing is so good and funny and informative and entertaining. And did I mention funny?  I laughed out loud at times and that does not happen often when I read. I also found out how Elvis Presley actually died.  Really. Read it.
http://www.amazon.ca/dp/0393081575

So then, nutrition.  There are all sorts of  diets and advice out there, but here are some of the things that I have learned and that work for me.

1) Balanced diet. Everything in moderation is another way of putting it. More vegetables than fruits and more fruits than complex carbs and more complec carbs than fats.

2) Drink Water. I am one of those people who never get thirsty which is all very fine when you are travelling rough in a third world country and not wanting to use the toilet often if at all, but not really that good any other time.  I have to make myself drink about 6 glasses a day.  Most sources recommend 8, but unless I am working up a sweat drinking that much just makes me feel sick.  But I have to do it, because when I do, my skin looks better, I lose weight, and my system works tickety-boo.
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2) Eat real food, and that includes real fat. Every body needs fat, and sugar and salt, but I don't want to waste my allotment with bad stuff that doesn't satisfy me and makes me gain weight and feel sluggish.  I want real butter, and real cheese, and real salad dressing and real chocolate. I find when I eat the real stuff I need less of it to satisfy me.  So I get unsalted butter, avoid processed cheeses and meats, choose high cocoa chocolate and find olive oil not more than 18 months old.

2a) Salt (and MSG and soy sauce and other like substances) makes food taste good, no question about that.  But I have found food can taste just as good if not better when flavoured with herbs, spices and other things.  I have cut down so much on salt over the years that even a little bit now is often too much. Of course every once in awhile I have a craving for potato chips or salted nuts or bacon and I indulge, statiating my salt craving until I have no need for salty things again (for a longer and longer time).

2b) Fats. Did you think I had forgotten why I mentioned young oilive oil?  I thought you might.

Let me back up a bit.  We need to eat fat as well.  There are three kinds of fats: unsaturated (monounsaturated and polyunsaturated), saturated and trans fats.  Monounsaturated fats are good for you.  Polyunsaturated fats are good for you. Saturated fats are not very good for you.  Trans fats are terrible for you.  If you want more depth, you can much more detailed information on websites like this one:
http://www.heartandstroke.on.ca/site/c.pvI3IeNWJwE/b.3581947/k.D7AE/HealthyLivingDietaryfatsoilsandcholesterol.htm

I know that  olive oil is a monunsaturated oil that is good for you, but I now know that there's a lot more to olive oil than I realized. 

A few years ago I went to an olive oil tasting.  An Italian chef brought over with him about 6 different olive oils.  They were green and yellow and rust in colour, but it was their diverse flavours that surpirsed me.  Some tasted green like the smell of freshly mown grass, others tasted as buttery as an avocado, and others were peppery.  It was quite extraordinary to me to learn that the colour means nothing and that there are so many different flavours available.  But what really hit me on teh side of the head was our last taste, which was the highest end olive oil available in my city's best quiality food store.  It tasted rancid.  Really quite disgusting!

Why?  It's all about the vintage baby! Olives are harvested in December and January, then are pressed into oil pretty immediately. The fresher the oil the fresher the taste.  It's that simple.  Olice oil goes off just like other fresh foods, and by 18 months or so, it's lost most of its flavour. Sounds simpleuntil you go to the store and try to buy olive oil that was produced this year or last year.  And that's because every single company that I'veseen in my city omits that information. My guess it's so they can continue to sell old stock instead of throwing it away.

After a bit of research I was lucky enough to find a woman who had spent time working in an Italian olive orchard and became a fan of fresh virgin oil. Back home, she imports the oil from that very farm and sells it in large or small metal tins, metal to keep light out, which is another thing that spoils oil.  So those decorative glass bottles of oil?  Only making your oil decay faster.  I now order my annual oil as soon as the oil is shipped, usually in late February or May.

I also have a bottle of sunflower or canola or bran oil on hand as olive oil is not good to use when cooking due to its low heating point - it can smoke and cause foods to burn.  These other oilsare all good for cooking and they are also good for the body as they are high un

I must admit that I am a carnivore. There's nothing quite like a thick steak or roast lamb.  But I have decided to cut down on eating red meat, as it really is not great for us.  It often carries a lot of fat and salt, and costs the body a lot of energy to break it down. Now I limit eating it to social situations and buying it from a good quality butcher. If I only have beef  once every two weeks for example, I want to make damn sure that it is the best beef I can buy and that my little taste buds are happy, happy, happy.

2c) Sugar is the hardest one for me as I have quite a sweet tooth.  I also have very little will power to avoid eating it.  Pastries, chocolates, pies, cookies, they call to me like sirens singing on a rock in the middle of the ocean entreating me to crash and sink.  So I try to have as little of it in the house as possible.  And if I do have it, such as left over Hallowe'en candy or Christmas treats or Easter chocolate or entertaining backing, I try to put it away enough that I can take a small bit without eating the entire thing.  The freezer is a good place.  And then I have a specific time that I allow myself something so that it becomes more or less a habit and I don't get used to having it all the time.  My morning coffee break at 11am or so works well, as I have the rest of the day to work it off.

3) Supplements. Try to get all your nourishment from food, but if you need supplements get the right supplements.  Those of us who livein northern climates must seriously consider vitamin D.  It's true that 15 minutes in the sun provides all the vitamin D you need each day, so southern climates can afford to be smug.  There doesn't seem to be a downside to having too much, so that's part of my breakfast.

Another breakfast tidbit is Calcium.  Calcium is a bone booster, and particularly valuable to older women who are near or past menopause to try to prevent osteoporosis.  Calcium does not work alone in your body however. It requires vitamin D, parathyroid hormone and healthy saturated fat in order to be utilized for strong bones, teeth and muscles.  I eat my daily allotment of dairy and quite a lot of leafy greens, as well as seeds, hebs and beans, all good sources of calcium, but given my gender and age I take a pill that includes magnesium because it aids in energy production.  Magnesium needs calcium to maintain its metabolic functions, but they don't always play happily together so best to check it out for yourself.

Omega 3.  Enough said.  Fatty fish like sardines, makeral and also flaxseed (only make yo you get ground flaxseed or oil and not the seeds as I used to becuause they don't have much benefit if they slip right through your system unbroken.)

I was advised once to take Omega 3-6-9 pills, but I later found out that I already get quite a bit of omega 6 (salmon and almonds particularly) and omega 9 (avocado, olive oil, cashews in particular) and too much of either is not that good a thing.

I was also advised to take Probiotics, which are good bacteria.  Our digestive tract needs a healthy balance between good and bad bacteria, and poor food choices, stress, lack of sleep, overusing antibiotics and other drugs, and environmental influences can tip the balance towards bad bacteria so the rationale is to boost the good bacteria.  There are many different probiotics (lots of things that end in "coccus" it seems to me), and not everyone needs all of them.  But probiotics are winning the Miss Popularity contest these days and can seemingly do no wrong.  There seem to be a huge number of foods currently claiming to have them: yogurt, cereals, juice, even candy bars and cookies!  I suppose it is possible that some might actually contain some form of a probiotic, but there is no guarantee that they are there or that they are even in the right form to obtain any sort of healthy benefits. And my own experience is to treat them with indifference. 

Within two weeks of taking probiotics, I started to bloat up like a balloon.  There was a time when I would have liked looking 8 months pregnant but that time is not now.  Some bacteria critter has made a home for itself in my gut, and particularly likes it when I eat eggs and tea, which make me angry as I like both of these.  So I am now trying to starve it out by omitting both eggs and tea for a few months, so I willlet you know how that goes.

However, I do take a multivitamin that is geared toward women over 50. My iron count can always do with a boost, especailly if I am cutting back from red meat, and there are other minerals and vitamins that I want to make sure are in my system. My doctor concurs, and that's the key thing.  Make sure you discuss nutrition with your doctor, your naturopath, your nutritionist, your pharmacist, or anyone else who can give you a thoughtful answer based on your particular body.

third pelvis

I knew I was born with one pelvis, but I have no idea how I have suddenly made the leap to three.  What happened to two?  Where am I going to put another one?  I don't have enough chairs!

This exercise with the mystifyng name also makes use of the most mystifying of equipment.  The first is a rectangular piece with two bits of wood attached to the back so it will hang on the ladder thingy.  Then there is a second piece of wood that is smaller and does the same thing, except it also has another piece of wood sticking out the top (or side, depending on how you are looking at it). 

These conversation-starting pieces of wood are placed on whichever bars will hit you at hip height, in my case on the left as my lumbar collapse is on the right.

The idea is that you stand in your corrected pose with the hip touching the sticky-outy bit of wood.  Then you shift your pelvis to the left without shifting the weight on your feet or moving anoy other part of your body.

But the kids here at Scoliosis SOS have an added bonus of hanging a piece of wood dowling at stretched arm height.When you shift your pelvis to the left you activate your lat muscles and pull the bar down to eye height.  Hold everything for 6 long seconds and relax.  Repeat for 12 reps, with a stretching break in between, for a total of 3 reps.

This one takes a bit of ingenuity while traveelling I found.  No ladder, no weird pieces of wood to press against and no dowl to hang on to and pull.

You can't really press against the edge of a wall very well because your upper torso gets in the way.  And it is hard to find a desk or bureau at just the right height.

However, when I am sitting on a bus or a train for any length of time, I can sit in my corrected pose and shift my pelvis to the left, trying not to shift anything else including the weight on my feet.  If I concentrate I can get it to work reasonably well.

And that's despite only having 1 pelvis.

Maybe he knows where I can get another?

What people are wearing in London these days

At the Scoiliosis SOS clinic our wardrobe was pretty well the same: leggings of some sort and bra top for women and bare skin on topfor men. On the surface, the wardrobe worn by most Londoners in the City was pretty well the same too: dark suit, plain coloured shirt or blouse, black shoes, with the only ornamentation a tie or earrings depending on the sex of the wearer.  But if you looked in the windows of the clothing stores, or spent time in the evenings or the weekend in the West End, you start to see trends and fads that make 2013 feel a bit different than, say 1983.

So for those of you who might be interested in knowing what people are wearing these days, here is my take on it based on what I have seen.

Women
Leggings and jeggings (leggings made to look like jeans, usually made of very stretchy denim) are still popluar, but there has been a large increase in the number of prints and patterns and in their scale.  I have seen lots of animal prints, plaids, florals and stripes.  They are not subtle attire at all!

These are worn mostly with ballet flats, as are long cotton tank dresses which are accompanied by short jackets.  Skirts are generally slim like the trousers, with jackets that are not suit jackets (i.e., not matching)  Dresses are quite retro, and pretty: sleeveless with a high waist and a full but quite short skirt.

There are lots of horizontal stries, especially black or navy on white or off-white.  Trench coats are very popular, but are very short, and often full skirted.  Lots of kinky boots and shoes with thick stacked heels.  Jewellery trends seem to be a huge ring on the index or second finger, and blingy chockers worn outside buttoned collars.

Everyone wears opaque black tights no matter what the season. Hair is generally long and straight, and a bit tousled.

Men
Slim trousers are the big trend for men too, and there is quite a lot of colour although (thankfully)  not much pattern. Maybe it's because it was spring, but I saw a lot of sun-washed blue, coral, green and yellow, particularly those hues that harken back to the 1960s. 

Shirts have different coloured collars and cuffs, and there are a lot of checkered shirts, with both long sleeves and short, again in crisp, cheerful colours.  Hair is generally either very short or quite floppy.

Everyone...
...walks around wired to the hilt - talking to unseen people through wires and clicking messages to friends or playing games. There's a glazed look to everyone's eyes as they walk not completely clued in to their surroundings, and zoned out to everything while on the tube or bus. It's like aliens have beamed down to act like humans but just miss doing it authentically.

Iliopsoas on a ball

Who was the creative (not) genius who came up with these names?   Well, as the name suggests, you like on a ball and exercise your iliopsoas muscle.

Preparation Pose

Action Pose

It looks a bit ridiculous I agree, but after only two weeks I could actually feel this one working. Or at least feel some muscle that I haven't felt before working pretty darn hard.

The purpose of this one (as with many others) is derotation of the lumbar.  So obviously those with thorasic curvatures are relieved of duty with this exercise, but I know they get another one. 

You must lie with your torso on a large yoga ball.  Holding on to the rungs of a ladder helps keep you in place as your knee bends in with as much pressure as it can for each attempt.  Arms need to be bent at 90 degrees and at shoulder height, with elbows also at shoulder height and with lats engaged, so the whole upper torso gets a bit of a work out too. No slacking off you lats!

In my case, my spine collapse is on the right, so I work my right knee.  My left foot must rest off the ground, on a small stool. 

To prepare, the right leg stretches back as far as possible, then the right knee bends and presses against the ball as hard as it can for 6 long seconds.  Repeat 12 times, with a stretch break in between the 3 sets of 12 in total.

Lying on a ball is good, not only because it forms agains your body and lets your head face down, but you can feel your breathing against the ball on each inhale.  It's also an unstable surface so some of the small stabilising muscles have to work. 

I couldn't see it of course, but I was told that it was very obvious to note that the pacqet, or hump caused by the rotation of the rib cage on my left side, gets soft when I perform each knee bend.  It is normally hard, as the ribs stretch around in a form not intended.  Someone said it was even noticable by just looking at it, which was preferable to everyone poking my back. 

But I didn't really mind the poking.  I promised myself I would open myself up to the entire experience in case it was of use to anyone else, mind, body and soul - and that means letting everyone poke me and telling me what they see and what they feel.  So just in case they were right and it is possible to see it working, I present two photos:


Before

During

 Can you see the difference?  My body shape is definitely better during the exercise.  And you can see all the lovely bruises the physios. make when they poke their fingers in my right side to try to open it up.  Don't be alarmed - I bruise very easily, and I know they do it with love.

This is surprisingly not that hard to duplicate on the road.  The best is if I am staying somewhere with a single bed, but is can work okay with a double bed too.  I drape myself over the bed and hang on to one side or one corner, while my right knee presses against the bed side. I can usually find a small stool or my suitcase to rest my left foot off the floor and at the right angle.

*note that this exercise was prescribed to me for my particular scoliosis, and it might not be appropriate for others. 

If you are flat, do a cat

Not only do I have flat feet (which I knew about) I also have a flat back (which I did not know about).  Apparently it is good to have a bit of "kyphosis", which means roundback. I thought having a rounded upper back was a result of slouching (which it can be) and I have always tried to keep decent posture given the fact that I am a writer, because I wanted to avoid the old age 'dowager's hump', yet another hideous name that references the female. 

This extreme rounding over is called hyperkyphosis and, just like hyperlordosis (or a swayback), is to be avoided.  But some kypohosis is good.

I wasn't alone.  There were three of us in the clinic with 'flatback', and we were all meant to build up the appropriate muscle, which, we were told, will take several months of work.  The exercise we were given was to take a fabric-covered foam wedge and place it between our shoulder blades, then use a very heavy-duty band to push out the wedge as hard as possible.

Wedge placed snugly between blades

Pulling on the band as tightly as possible

Side view - brought to you by the letter "S"
(only it's backwards on my body)

It didn't take me more than 4 seconds to realize that placing anything between your own shoulder blades is pretty well impossible, although I'm sure it was amusing to watch the three of us try.  So I had to work out a travel-friendly version.  Thankfully, there is a yoga pose that works the same muscle.  It's called the "Cat". 

To do the cat, one must go onto their hands and knees.  Knees are shoulder width apart, as are the hands with fingers spread wide.  The back should be as neutral as possible - not slumped at all.

Press up from the middle of your shoulder blades, as if there is a string pulling upwards, as high as possible and without moving any other part of the body escept the head, which bends down.  Hold for 6 full seconds, come back to the neutral position and repeat for 12 in all.  Take a break, then do 2 more sets for a total of 3 sets.

*note that this exercise was prescribed to me for my particular scoliosis, and it might not be appropriate for others.

A perfect cat poseur

Going off the Wagon

I had a 10 day break between my time in England and my trip to Turkey, so tried to cram in as many vistis as possible, and try out my exercise program on the road.

I can now report that it was a dismal failure.  The second part that is - the visiting part was a smashing success.

First was a lovely day in Egham with A&A, visiting Virginia Water and finding elephants and dragons

looks like an elephant in the tree

shh....don't scare the baby dragon resting in the tree

Then a quick overnight with my old singing teachers in Stirling Scotland with champagne and warm remembrances, then another quick ovrnight with Ln in and around Lock Lomond.

A teeny bit of stretching went on, but nothing very notweorthy as I was either visiting, eating, transporting or sleeping.

A teeny bit of stretching went on, but nothing very notweorthy as I was either visiting, eating, transporting or sleeping.

4 days in Morecambe, Lancashire with my third cousin.  Ah, surely here I would be able to relax and get some exercising done.  A day in Skipton in the Yorkshire Dales with more lovely cousins to explore the castle and walk the moat,

quite the nicest moat and canal walk

between the pub lunch and the tea



pretty castle courtyard and centuries old yew tree

the grounds of Skipton Castle

bracing walks along the seafront and Morecambe's outstanding beach,

visiting Heysham's St. Patrick's church and nearby ruined chapel, both originally built in the 8th century or so (although the church fared better with additions made in the 14th and 16th centuries) and its fascinating (and sometimes amusing) graves, particularly the ancient ones carved into stone and that are now open to the elements.





Result: Relax - 1  Exercise - 0

Not completely 0 but not 1 either.  Not enough to counteract the excellent pub lunches.


 Sigh. But then, after first seeing it 30 (!!!) years ago, one of my favourite English places has finally been taken over and updated to its well deserved place in art deco history and I could hardly pass up a full on afternoonn tea, English style could I?  Could I?







So, back to the south.  A lovely day in Richmond and a river-side pub with an inspirational couple about to celebrate their 60th wedding annivsersay (and they did not marry young!),
then another lovely day in Greenwich with Debs and a couple of photographers.

Two days in London got me at least thinking about it, but I had laundry to do, packing to do, paperwork to do, socialising to do and suddenly I am on a flight to Turkey with 2 bags that need carrying and my body is not best pleased!