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Do you LOVE Yourself? Do you LOVE your body?
Are you doing healthy things on a regular basis to treat you with love, affection, and kindness?
I am well aware that I’ve got my own challenges with body image, and have spent my entire life struggling to overcome them. (Some days I’m completely happy with me, and other days I feel like I’ll never have the body of my dreams… which causes me to feel bad that I’m not a lean, wispy, 5′6″ and 110 pounds. But instead a mere 5′4″, compact & muscular, and a fluctuating 150-155–Funny, 20 years ago when I was only 118-125, I had the same poor attitude and thought I was fat!) And unfortunately, I know that I’m not alone. With the hype and peer pressure from the media, and magazines–too many of us always point a negative, critical eye to our own body and we end up focusing on our flaws instead of our features!
So let’s take a moment to celebrate how much we LOVE our features!
I love sharing this exercise, and hope that you’ll drop me a line and tell me about your experience.
Here’s What To Do:
- Find a photo of yourself that you LOVE!
- Blow it up to an 8×10 glossy and print a copy.
- Get out a sharpie or your favorite magic marker.
- Around your body, write as many positive words as you can think of that express who you are and the things you love about yourself.
- Strive to fill the page with words. (if it doesn’t happen when you first sit down to write–don’t worry… keep your pen handy and as things pop into your head, you can continue to add them.)
- Frame your photo & put it somewhere where you will see and reflect on it daily!
There is great power in positive words. The messages that we send and surround ourselves with (our mental self-chatter) really does affect our attitude and our health. Negative chatter = negative attitude, and positive chatter = positive attitude!
Tell yourself daily how much you love YOU, and use this exercise to keep all the great things you love about yourself front and center so you’ll confidently be sending yourself daily doses of positive energy to stay focused on your great features instead of your flaws!
Self-love is a key to wellness success!
Tags: Body Image, Positive Mental Attitude, Wellness
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Health, Mind-Body Health by Aliesa George on February 27th, 2010.
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It seems like stretching is sometimes a low priority when time is limited and you want to get a great workout. Is your goal to warm-up for your more vigorous activities? Do you want to increase your flexibility? Are you aware that WHAT you stretch, HOW you stretch, and WHEN you stretch really does make a difference?
Here’s a great health article that was recently in The San Diego Union-Tribune about dangerous stretching techniques and the benefits of dynamic stretching before exercise. It also includes some great tips on how to stretch safely, and a few examples of good stretching exercises for your post-exercise cool down stretching routine.
Are you on track with your flexibility training exercises to stretch safely for your fitness workouts and sports performance goals?
Tags: benefits of stretching, cool-down stretching, dynamic stretching, flexibility, Stretching, Stretching Exercises, stretching techniques, Stretching tips, warm-up stretching
Posted in All Posts, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Flexibility & Stretching, Links to Interesting Articles by Aliesa George on February 17th, 2010.
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It’s great to see that even Dr. Oz is helping to educate people about the benefits of wearing the right shoes to keep your feet healthy. Check out this Dr. Oz show video to see what he has to say about determining your arch type – normal, flat, or high, and what the wear patterns on your shoes can tell you about your feet, so you can be sure when you’re shopping for shoes that you find the best shoe for you.
And from my perspective as a foot-fitness expert… good shoes can help support your feet, but keeping your foot, ankle, and leg muscles strong, fit, and flexible is even better. Even if it’s only for 2-3 minutes a couple of times a week. Taking time to exercise your feet can help improve your arches, retrain gait habits, and help you enjoy pain-free feet! Check out the book Fantastic Feet! And lots of other great foot-care goodies here.
Tags: Best Shoes, Dr. Oz, Feet, Flat Arches, Foot Health, High Arches, Normal Arches, Picking Shoes, Shoe shopping
Posted in Articles, Foot Care Tips, Links to Interesting Articles, Videos by Aliesa George on February 5th, 2010.
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It’s amazing what technology is able to do and humans are able to create to help improve the lives of others! The iWalk prosthetics company has created the worlds’ first actively powered foot and ankle! Their PowerFoot One is designed to give amputees an ease of movement that is natural. This prosthetic limb makes approximately 500 adjustments every second! It’s computer processors have a library of known human foot movement patterns to help anticipate what the foot and ankle need to do. Incredible!!! It’s great to know that the opportunity to restore a more normal quality of life with this technological advancement might be possible after the loss of a limb. Our feet are so important. I hope that in time, these prosthetic devices will become affordable for the people who really need them.
Click Here to read more about the iWalk PowerFoot One.
Tags: amputees, ankle, Feet, foot, iWalk prosthetics company, PowerFoot One, prosthetic foot, prosthetic limb, prosthetics
Posted in All Posts, Foot Care Tips, Health, Links to Interesting Articles by Aliesa George on January 28th, 2010.
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Are you interested in staying healthy and injury-free? Foot and Ankle strength, flexibility, and alignment is critical! Our ankles assist with balance, help us run faster, and jump higher. One missed step off a curb, or quick turn on the basketball court, soccer field, or during any other sports activity and if your ankle turns… you’ve got pain, swelling, and are sidelined from the activities that you love to do!
You don’t have to be plagued by chronic ankle pain and problems. There are lots of great ankle strengthening exercises that can help you get fit, and enjoy all the sports and fitness activities you enjoy participating in.
Here are 4 of my favorite ways to help be sure your ankles are in top training condition!
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Pilates Reformer Exercises
Toes, Arches, Heels, Lift & Lower…The first four footwork exercises on the Reformer are excellent for strengthening the feet and ankles. Add in the five exercises in the Stomach Massage series, (Round, Hands Back, Reach, Twist, and Stretch) and running and you’ve done ten great ankle strengthening as well as some great whole-body, core conditioning in your Pilates Reformer workout program. |
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Standing Footwork Exercises
The standing footwork exercises are a wonderful way to work your ankles and improve your balance all at the same time!
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- Rise on your tippy-toes and then lower your heels 8-10 times.
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- Bend your knees, lift your heels, straighten your knees (staying high on your toes) then lower the heels 8-10 times.
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- Reverse this action of rolling through the feet (Rise on your toes, bend your knees staying on the toes, lower the heels, straighten the legs) 8-10 times.
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To add variety to your Standing Footwork exercise program, these exercises can be done in a V-Position, Parallel, or One Leg at a time.
Bonus Tip: Watch your legs and feet in a mirror to be sure that your alignment stays great – Knees over ankles, ankles over toes…no wobbles. |
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Theraband Ankle Exercises
Using a theraband is a great way to strengthen the foot and ankle with a little more resistance, but not have to work against your entire body weight. Line the band up lengthwise along the sole of your foot, and hang onto the ends with your hands. Practice pointing and flexing the foot, as well as doing ankle circles against the resistance of a theraband. Strive to work through a full range of motion in all directions for maximum benefits. |
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Centerworks® Super-Ankle Board
Turning an ankle is one of the most common sports injuries, and the Centerworks® Super Ankle Board is one of the easiest ways to stretch and strengthen the medial and lateral sides of the ankle joint and reduce your risk of injury. The strength and body awareness you’ll gain with the Centerworks® Super-Ankle Board is what’s required to pull your ankle back to a centered position if it starts to roll out! Standard wobble boards do not work this range of motion or provide the reference points needed to ensure that you’re using the right parts of the foot and ankle for correct lateral/medial action. Use this Super-Ankle Board regularly and chances are slim that you’ll never blow out another ankle again! |
For Pilates Reformer workouts, find a studio near you. Everything else you can practice on your own at home or add to your current workout!  It doesn’t take a lot of time to improve ankle strength, just a few minutes focused on your feet a couple of workouts a week, and you’re on your way to staying healthy, fit, and injury-free!
You can find all of these great foot and ankle care products at Centerworks.com. Get a copy of the book Fantastic Feet with the Standing Footwork and Theraband  exercises. Buy Therabands from super-easy to advanced strengths, and get a Super-Ankle Board all online in the Foot Care Products section at the Centerworks store.
Tags: Ankle Exercises, Ankle Flexibility, Ankle Strength, Ankles, chronic ankle pain, Foot Exercises, Foot Strength, Pilates Ankle and Foot Exercises, Sprained Ankles, Theraband Exercises, Twisted Ankle
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Foot Care Tips, Pilates, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on January 27th, 2010.
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Have you tried using Kettlebells for your workout program? According to the American Council on Exercise, Kettlebells are a fantastic way to build strength, balance, flexibility, and endurance quickly and effectively.
Enjoy a cardio and strength conditioning workout in a short 20 minutes instead of 30 minutes on a treadmill and another 30 minutes lifting weights. The time savings alone for those days when you’re wondering how you’re going to get a workout in is great inspiration to give Kettlebell training a try!
Plus, the calorie burn for working out with Kettlebells is huge! Approximately 20.2 calories a minute. Which is equivalent to running at a 6-minute a mile pace or cross-country skiing uphill at a speedy pace!
Read the ACE research study and checkout the exercises in this 6-week Kettlebell training program developed by ACE exercise physiologist Fabio Comana, and consider using Kettlebells to keep your body healthy and fit.
Tags: ACE research study, American Council on Exercise, benefits of Kettlebells, Kettle bell, Kettlebell, Kettlebell Exercise Program, Kettlebell research, Kettlebell training, Kettlebell training program, Kettlebells
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Links to Interesting Articles by Aliesa George on January 20th, 2010.
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By Aliesa George and Centerworks.com
It’s interesting the difference in perspective between traditional “Aerobic” class ab work and Pilates ab exercises. You know how everybody always complains that their neck hurts? Or they feel more work in their neck, chest, and shoulders than they do in their middle, which means it takes tons of reps of a variety of targeted exercises before you “feel” like you’ve really worked your abs?
While with Pilates Matwork, once you figure it out… you only do 3-5 of most exercises, and with good body mechanics your abs are well worked with this very low number of reps, and the variety of Pilates exercises you do are not only working your abdominals, but the rest of your body as well!
One of the differences between general fitness programs and Pilates training is in the focused concentration on working the body through a full range of motion, and developing good spine articulation from the head to the tailbone. Our back should easily and naturally bend forward, backwards, sideways, and twist at every single segment. The Pilates system puts the body through all of these different ranges of motion with every workout which is why it’s such a beneficial training method for whole-body health.
Tags: Abdominal Exericse, Core Training, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates Training Tips
Posted in All Posts, Articles, Exercise and Fitness, Fitness, Pilates, Pilates Exercise, Pilates-Teaching Tips by Aliesa George on December 21st, 2009.
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The American College of Sports Medicine recently published a forecast of fitness trends for 2010, and it’s wonderful to see that Pilates training is near the top of the list!
While Pilates was ranked #9 in the ACSM report, by my assessment of the top ten fitness trends it appears to me that many, if not all, are distinctly related to Pilates training. In fact I can see application of the Pilates system and Pilates principles for whole-body health to every single one of the top trends.
Continue reading ‘ACSM Fitness Trends – Pilates Ranks High for 2010′ »
Tags: 2010 trends, ACSM, American College of Sports Medicine, Fitness Forecast, Fitness Trends, Pilates, Pilates Training, Pilates-Pro
Posted in All Posts, Fitness, Health, Links to Interesting Articles, Pilates by Aliesa George on December 12th, 2009.
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Just tripped across a video news clip from WNBC on Tips for Avoiding High Heel Pain. Oh the things women do in the name of looking good and feeling sexy! So how many of you have experienced foot, ankle, knee, hip, or back pain and now are thinking your poor-fitting shoes might be part of the problem? Or perhaps you never realized that your stilettos might be a big part of the problem… Our feet (as well as the rest of our body) shouldn’t hurt. Pain is the red-flag that there is something we need to pay attention to and take care of. Ignoring things and hoping that it will just go away is never a great option.
Continue reading ‘Foot Care Tips for Avoiding High Heel Pain’ »
Tags: Feet, foot care, Foot Exercise, Foot Tips, Health, High Heel Pain
Posted in All Posts, Foot Care Tips, Health, Links to Interesting Articles by Aliesa George on December 11th, 2009.
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