If any of you are like me, you have different aches and pains that crop up. With having 6 kids and especially with having a 1 year-old to hold and carry during my day, I've been finding quite a few aches and pains cropping up in the last year. I now have plantar fascitis (pain on the bottom of my heel). I also have had low back pain off and on, shoulder pain off and on, a hip that sometimes pops out of socket for a second and other assorted odd pains here and there. I also haven't been as good at exercising in the last year+ with the busyness of 6 kids. I've had the thought at times that maybe I should do a better job at exercising to help me out. On the momys e-mail list I'm on, I had seen someone recommend a book called: "The Core Program: 15 Minutes a Day That Can Change Your Life" by Peggy Brill. I put it on my wish list on paperback swap (see my link in the sidebar) and a little bit ago, the book came up as available so I ordered it with my swap points I had.
I just got the book a few days ago and started reading it right away. The basic idea of the book is that in order to have healthy, pain-free bodies we need to keep our body's core muscles (from the top of the backbone down to the bottom of the backbone) etc. strong and with doing this our bodies will stay in proper alignment and we will have less discomforts popping up. The author is a renowned physical therapist who has had pre-med classes and has a practice treating women. The book is written for women addressing their different needs. I have read many testimonials on amazon.com about what her book has done for people with different pain issues.
I really was helped by her test she had where you stand and look at yourself in the mirror to see how you measure up in posture. She had you look to see if your head was straight, shoulders level, distance from your arm to your body the same on both sides, hands with palms facing your body instead of facing back, hips the same height, knees the same direction, feet even etc. When I did this I was amazed to see that my right shoulder (the weaker side that I don't hold the baby on) was definitely lower than my left shoulder showing a muscle imbalance there. There was definitely a difference in the space between my arms and my body. My palms were turned the wrong way. I definitely show an imbalance in my muscle groups and can see how these things could be affecting some of my pain problems.
I've only done one day of the exercises so far but really enjoyed it. It doesn't take just 15 min. at first as you learn the exercises, but I can see that it will go much faster once I'm good at them. They really are different, but really good exercises. They're almost all done lying down. She uses many isometric exercises (where you're pushing or flexing muscles without physically moving a lot) which are very good. Her abdominal exercises are really good as well. She says that doing crunches or exercise like that for abs can be bad in that they can contribute to urinary incontinence. She has better exercises of abs that isolate different abdominal muscles. All in all I think I'm going to get a lot out of this book and hopefully be feeling better soon!
One little note, there are a few references to things you may not want unmarried girls reading - benefits of the program that would be a bit graphic for an unmarried girl to read.
If you need some work on your body, check this out at the library if you can and see if it might help you out!
• Fri 26 Oct 2007 - Untitled Comment
Thanks, Elisabeth
p.s. I hope you get relief from all your aches and pains.