Progressing Strength of the Legs and Resiliency of the Body

Strength is resiliency for the body! When you are strong, you can get pulled off balance and recover. If you are weak, chances are you will get injured. And as we age, we lose muscle mass and strength each passing year. Leg strength provides "shock-absorption" for the back and spine.

Strength training the big muscles of the legs also helps your brain by releasing brain-derived growth hormones. So it is not only good for your legs, but good for your mind too! You MUST prioritize strength in your exercise program.

In this video, I share 3 ways to progress your strength training program for the lower body. Each week we do this very exercise in my yoga class as a Tabata set, which is a high intensity interval set of 20 seconds effort and then 10 seconds of rest repeated 8 times. So we do 4 minutes of squats each week and I encourage my students to repeat the set at home in between classes.

Does STRESS affect your PAIN? Copy and Paste the link below to Take the Quiz and Find Out!

https://stephanie-kelley-1ef2.mykajabi.com/pl/116416

I created "Mind Your Spine" to help you learn to pay attention to what your body is telling you. As a Physical Therapist that uses Yoga as the primary treatment, I know that the body has great wisdom. But how can you tell what your body is telling you? Watch these videos and as you learn to listen carefully, you will unlock the potential, not only to live without pain, but to live the life you were meant to live.

Namaste,

Stephanie

#mindandbodystrength#bodyandmindstrength#exercisesforneckpain#relieveneckpain#therapyballexercises#chronicpainpivot#bodymindhealing#ourspinesweremeanttomove#flexiblespineflexiblemind#movementnotmedication#movenotmed#meditationnotmedication#tryeverythingbutopioidsforpainrelief#backpainrelief#neckpainrelief#hippainrelief#shoulderpainrelief#whydoihurt#yogaphysicaltherapist

Facebook @yogaphysicaltherapist

IG @sck.yogapt

website: stephaniecarterkelley.com

Mind You Spine with Backward Bending

Because many of you sit all day and have been doing so for many years, you have lost the ability to comfortably bend backward. Your mid- and upper back is rounded and stiff and your hips are stuck in flexion (the position of sitting). You also wear your rounded posture like a protective shell to protect our hearts from the barrage of negativity and hurt all around us. You stiffen in the hips because energetically, that is where you store suppressed emotions. Men are afraid to show emotions for fear of being labeled "weak". Women are afraid to show emotions for fear of being labeled "dramatic" or "bitchy". All of this posturing and suppressing is making you SICK! In this video you will learn how to physically open the front of the body to improve both your upright posture and backward bending of the spine. You can practice these exercises everyday. Your spine was meant to move this way. It's NATURAL! You can use this motion to also feel how it is to live your NATURAL emotional self. Slowly practice connecting to your emotions. Feel how your posture shifts when you are around negativity. Notice your discomfort when you stifle an emotional reaction. With practice and time, you will learn to posture yourself in situations and around others to open WHOLLY and with compassion.

Namaste,

Stephanie

P.S. Does stress affect your Pain? Take the Quiz and Find Out!

The Magic Pill for Shoulder Pain

This gentle exercise will support your shoulders so you can reach for the stars!

The weight of responsibility takes a toll on your shoulders each day. From taking care of your self, to taking care of others, our arms were meant to do the heavy lifting of life. In this video you will learn how to give your shoulders a little support before asking them to carry, lift and reach.

But has the heavy lifting become a burden? Do you lack support for all that you need to get done in a day?

Besides creating physical support for your arms and shoulders through exercise, maybe what you really need is emotional and social support. Shoulder and/or neck pain can be a symptom of overwhelm.

Who can you ask for help? How can you delegate some tasks? What trusted friend will listen as you lighten some of you emotional load? You might be surprised how addressing your emotional health can affect the physical pain that you experience each day.

Rather than continuing to push through the endless tasks each day, find some time to prioritize the list and then find ways to lighten your load. Create time to do more of what you love and less of what you consider to be a burden. Your shoulders will thank you.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Relieve Pain by Taking Time for YOU!

When you are not tuned into your own health, you can be of very little benefit to others. I have learned this lesson through the practice and community of yoga. It took me a while to understand all of the focus on “self care”. At first I thought that “self care” meant isolating myself from my family and taking time away from work. But I have come to realize that “self care” can happen daily through intentional small actions. When you realize the effect of even a small act of self kindness, then you begin to want more. The small bits of self care begin to accumulate into a way of living and knowing that:

“When I care for myself , I give everyone so much more”

The process of self care is different for each person and is reveled when you listen very closely. The way that I listen is by going inside my own head and body through a regular meditation practice. These are the self care acts that have been reveled to me and incorporated into my life over the last few years:

• Stop the negative self talk

  • When I make a mistake, instead of saying “You idiot!” in my head, I say: “You’re doing the best you can”.

• Celebrate moving more

  • When I leave my phone upstairs instead of saying “Oh Crap"!” in my head, I say: “Great! I get to challenge my legs and heart.”

• Stop being scared of activities that may have created pain in the past

  • Instead of being worried that gardening will exacerbate my back pain, enjoy working in the dirt and know that any back soreness will go away in 24 hours.

• Eat in a way that makes me feel good

  • I have played with my diet enough over the years to know that an anti-inflammatory diet feels best for my body and mind. So instead of focusing on what calories or “bad” food, I focus on what makes me feel good.

• Move (instead of exercise) in a way that my body craves

  • Trying to understand the benefits of the different types of exercise (like trying to understand what to eat) can be frustrating. Rather than focusing on my daily does of prescribed exercise, I try to move in a variety of ways throughout the week. Several times a week I breathe hard (aerobic exercise), I feel a challenge in my core, legs, and arms (strength training), and I feel tension across my muscles and joints (flexibility). I let the sensations of my body dictate what type of movement I do each day. I have found that it responds to what I did (or did not do) the day before. Too much sitting? I need to challenge my core and arms and do some backward bending. Too much focused concentration? I need to breathe hard, challenge my legs and do some forward bending.

• Creating time for a spiritual practice is mandatory

  • Yoga has helped me transition from a religious practice to a spiritual practice. As I listen to a guided meditation or sermon, I take time to reflect on how the lesson applies to my life. Spirituality has become woven into my thoughts and actions.

As you can see, my self care is as much about caring for my mind and spirit as it is about caring for my body. All 3 are important and affect each other. Over the past few years one or the other may take priority during any given time. And once I have created a “good” habit of self care, I look to create another one. It has become a practice of understanding life and health as a process rather than a “fixed point”. This understanding has given me so much more contentment each day.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Heal Your Low Back with STRENGTH!

This is another lesson that I give to patients on the very first day of Physical Therapy.  It is the focus of my class at Balancing Owl Yoga Thursdays at 2pm.  The body derives so many benefits from developing strength.  And as we age, we can lose up to .5 lbs of lean muscle mass each year.  Yikes!

 A regular practice of leg strengthening can help ease the sensations in the back  by taking tension and strain off of it.  Having a strong body overall gives you energy.  Energy which can translate to having more "will power".  That's right, strengthening your body can also strengthen your will.  A strong will can help you each and every day build, not only a pain free life, but a life of joy because you're doing the things You want to do.  

With this video you can learn to "stand up" with proper mechanics, but you can also gain the strength to "stand up for yourself".

Namaste,

Stephanie

P.S.  If you need the advice of an expert or need some motivation from a knowledgeable coach, that's what my private sessions are all about.  I will spend an hour with you and together we'll develop a plan to get you back on track to heal your back.  It usually only takes 1-2 sessions and as a bonus, you will get access to 1 or more of my yoga practice videos.  To schedule a session email me: 

info@stephaniecarterkelley.com

P.S.S.  You can also get my advice and coaching from my online course:  Yoga for a Better Back.  You get 10 total hours of education, rehabilitation, and 8 yoga videos to perform anywhere/anytime.

Support for Your Spine and for You

Clients that come to my yoga class or to see me privately always start by telling me about the injury or damage sustained to the body. It is usually a story of something broken with the assumption that it can’t be fixed. What I have learned is that very few people really understand the functional anatomy of their body and (it seems even less!) of the spine. He or she has only been exposed to reports or pictures of the damage or pathology of the body. The words and images have “stuck” so that now the client’s impression of the body or spine is one of being broken or “a mess”.

My goal is to improve your understanding of how amazing the body really is. It has the potential to heal, but when a tissue is damaged (like a ligament) the body has one or more “back up” systems to create support for injured the area. For example, the disc is not the only connective tissue that holds your vertebra together! You have many more ligaments, muscle, and fascia that create layers upon layers of support for your spine.

So if you like anatomy, you’ll like this video. And if you’ve ever seen an X-Ray or MRI of your spine, watch this video to put a new and maybe more positive image into your brain about your low back.

I also offer another way for you to think about support. Your spine may feel less supported when you talk to yourself in a negative way. The messages that you send to yourself have the ability to break you down or create support. Try telling yourself this:

• I’m doing the best that I can

• I am enough

• I am worthy of love

• I can learn from this failure

Once you start giving yourself internal support, you will start to notice that you also have external support. You have family, friends and colleagues that are ready to support you.

Because the practice of yoga integrates the body and mind, a physical practice focused on creating support of the low back can help you realize the other ways and people that are present to support you.

This month and next, I’m offering a few evening classes to increase the support that I can offer you. Check out my schedule and sign up at Balancing Owl Yoga.

Another way to get support is in my online class: Yoga for a Better Back. It offers 10 hours of content in lessons, meditations and gentle yoga. Each module provides a level of support that progresses as you learn and practice.

Namaste,

Stephanie

Find Comfort in the New Year

We all need some comfort each day. But you FIRST need to realize that you are uncomfortable and ask yourself WHY. So many of us disconnect from what we feel each day in order to just survive. You may unconsciously find ways to create the comfort you so dearly NEED. From the first cup of coffee in the morning to foraging in the pantry at the end of the day, these subconscious actions don’t deal with the true source of discomfort and don’t really give us long lasting comfort.

So we must first deal with the discomfort, not avoid or keep pushing through discomfort in order to create lasting change for the better. Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

• When do you feel discomfort?

• Where do you feel that discomfort in your body?

• Is the discomfort a physical experience or does it correspond to emotional or mental discomfort?

• What would directly affect the discomfort that you feel right now?

Because the primary goal of Yoga is to “yoke” our physical sensations with emotional and spiritual sensations, movement may help you find answers to the questions above. You can start on the floor with cat/cow creating gentle movement and exploring comfort vs discomfort. Most yoga classes progress to standing poses. So you’ll want to try those too.

In this video I will address 3 out of 4 of what I call the “Fundamental Four“ (here’s a handout for detailed cues). Fundamental because they are the standing poses performed in almost every yoga class. It is important that you are familiar and comfortable in these poses. My instruction will help you learn the poses and make them your own with both COMFORT and EASE.

Namaste,

Stephanie

P.S. Are ready to really find out the source of your low back pain? My 4 Module Online Course, Yoga for a Better Back, is a commitment to feeling better in the New Year. It takes 8-12 weeks to complete, but will give you a much better understanding of WHY your back hurts and HOW you can make lasting change.