Memory tricks

Posted on November 12, 2023 by mariolam

Remembering all the exercises taught can be challenging for some. This article explores effective strategies to enhance recall.

Reduce / simplify – The less you have to remember, the easier it is. Even when we are are young, most of us have trouble memorizing 20 random words. If we reduce it to only less words, like only three, you know it will be a lot easier. Furthermore, if you group related concepts together, it further simplify memorization. A cohesive set of ideas is more manageable and memorable.

Relate and group – For our exercises, there are different ways to link them together. For example, if you remember the acronym CSSN (Circulation, Stretching, Strengthening and Neural and the memorization trick for it), that is a good way to see if you covered the different needs of your body.

Another way to remember seemingly unrelated exercises is to drive it by needs. 1) To be prepared for falling, you have to protect yourself when you fall forward. This means that you have to protect your hand and face When you fall backward, you have to protect your head and tailbone. This gives you a thread to your stored memory. 2) For chronic pains, most likely it is either the shoulder and neck or the lower back.

Repeat via triggers – You know that repetitions help you remember things, it also help rewire your responses so that you act differently without even needing to think about it. For example, if your goal is to solve a chronic pain, do exercises related to that specific issue right away. Do not wait for a specific allocated time. A simplified version of the exercise is better than deferring it. In this case, the pain becomes the event trigger. To be prepared for falling forward, you know that the hand is your default landing gear and it has to absorb the impact. Do the “hand-sequencing” drill whenever you press your hand on any surface. For example, when you push a door, when you press yourself up from a chair, when you place your hand on the bed to help lower yourself slowly, etc..

Remember one thing at a time – Instead of overwhelming yourself by trying to remember everything at once, focus on one new exercise each week. After 10 weeks, you will have 10 exercises most relevant to you under your belt. Avoid that hopelessness feeling. Allow yourself to improve gradually.

In conclusion, here are the 4 Rs to help with memorizing all the exercises:

  • Reduce /simplify
  • Relate and group
  • Repeat via triggers
  • Remember one thing at a time. Build success stories that help you realize that you can.
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Focus – Strengthening

Posted on October 17, 2023 by mariolam

When people hear about strengthening, they often think of the traditional weight room and building muscle. However, it’s important to note that even within weight training, there are at least two distinct styles/approaches, each addressing different needs of the body.

  • Isolation exercises target a single muscle group. The key here is to perform them slowly and with control. In these exercises, you aim to place the maximum workload on the targeted muscle group without assistance from other body parts. The movements are deliberately designed to require the maximum effort for a given task.
  • Functional exercises aim to mimic specific real-life tasks and enhance neural control during those activities. The primary objective is to enhance task performance by improving the coordination of various muscle groups and sequencing movements effectively.

We favor the use of your own body weight as the payload. Ultimately, we have to be able to function with our own body weight. When you hit the ground falling, you have to feel comfortable handling your own body weight.

Muscle loss becomes a natural part of the aging process. If you are physically active, the aging process start later and at a much slower rate.

We use the wall to work the triceps in isolation. We also have a functional drill where we simulate falling forward towards the wall where the participant need to have fast hands, absorb the impact and not panic.

Expanded view of Strength

While muscles and nerves are always involved, functional strength is much more than how much weight you can lift. We identify for following five areas to for the purpose of “readiness for falling”.

  • Big Muscles: These refer to the prominent, visible muscles that many people focus on, such as the six-pack abs, biceps, chest muscles, and quadriceps.
  • Little Muscles: In recent years, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of strengthening less obvious muscle groups or muscle-related areas. This includes core training beyond just the abs, the significance of fascia training, and different types of muscle fibers. For simplicity, we refer to them as “little” muscles because they are often overlooked and tend to be weaker.
  • Mechanics – Muscles work in conjunction with our bone structure. By applying efficient mechanics (or principles of physics), tasks like lifting heavy objects become easier, and you become effectively stronger using muscles you have already.
  • Mental: Mental factors, including determination, focus, and the willingness to push one’s limits, play a significant role. Seniors often prefer staying within their comfort zones. However, for muscle improvement, it’s crucial to challenge these limits. In most exercises, we don’t emphasize a specific count. Instead, we encourage you to perform repetitions (or maintain a position) until you start feeling the muscles burn and shake. This is when the true workout begins, and you need to push yourself a bit further.
  • Coordination: Coordination becomes essential when multiple body parts need to work together to accomplish a particular task. Sometimes, they must work simultaneously, while at other times, they must move in a smooth sequence. For example, the difference between a well-trained team of soldiers and a random group of individuals is that the trained team can execute orders promptly and efficiently. In contrast, the random group may question authority, suggest alternative approaches, leading to inefficiencies.

Note: Phrase to help with memorization: Big Larry Moved My Car or Betty Lou made me chuckle.

Body groups that needs to be strong

  • Hands: They are your primary landing gear especially for frontal falls. Your arms need to be strong enough to avoid your face hitting the ground. Furthermore, your elbow need to bend and to absorb the impact. A bench press style of exertion on impact means that not only are you taking the full impact, you are making it worse by “hitting” the ground.
  • Tummy, neck and hip: When you fall backward, the most vulnerable body parts are your head as well as your tailbone. You need to have the muscles to protect them from hitting the ground. The butt and hip is a big part of the repositioning to re-balance.
  • Thigh/Quads: The capacity to easily squat closer to the ground is of paramount importance. Many individuals tend to bend at the hips and lean forward when reaching down, which significantly heightens the risk of a head-first fall. I refer to this squat posture as the ‘home’ position, as you must pass through it when transitioning down to the ground or rising from it. Additionally, having strong quadriceps and hips reduce strain on the knees.
  • Calf, foot and toes: When the calf and foot muscles weaken, seniors often develop a flat-footed walking gait. Some may even begin altering their posture, leaning forward. In our training regimen, we incorporate not only calf raises but also practice standing on our toes to train the balancing reflex through the foot and ankle.

Note: Phrase to help with memorization: He Tried Talking Chinese. An alternative is to touch all above named body parts.

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Focus – Stretching

Posted on October 16, 2023 by mariolam

We have many body parts. Our stretching exercises are not intended to be exhaustive. We pick areas that are most important for our primary purposes – “fall preparation” and “solving chronic pains”. We stretch to provide pain relieve. Furthermore, we want to improve mobility and flexibility so that our body can respond appropriately during imbalances and falls.

Do understand that finding pain relieve is not the same as finding the cause. For example, common causes like posture, over-use, job hazard, mis-alignment, scar tissues from past injuries can all be root causes. In the ideal world, you should address both at the same time. However, a lot of the external constraints like money, time, availability, etc. are all harsh realities.

What: you have know what you are stretching and understand also why it is important. During the stretch, really try to feel through the stretch to make sure it is stretching the right part of the body. For example, if we are working on the groin area, you should feel the stretch on your knee or your back.

Lock: When you try to wring a wet towel, if you hold it at the end, the twisting action is spread throughout the entire towel. However, if you “lock” your hands around a specific target, you will be able the localize it much better and therefore enhances the wringing motion.

Perfect 10: The number “10” consist of two digits, the “1” and the “0”. We use the digit “1” to represent the pose itself. We use the “0” to denote the movements or angle changes that we should do to complete stretch an area. For example, all the twists and wipes.

Last inch: Most people stop right when they feel the stretch and then bounces in and out. We do it slightly differently. We stop and hold it and allow the brain’s alarm signal to settle down (usually a few seconds). Then we breath out and we find that we have yet another inch to go. This 2nd position is your physical limit. The 1st position is only your psychological limit.

Stretching the fingers is different from stretching the wrist and therefore you have to learn how to localize the stretch to the right body part

Do remember that stretching and strengthening goes hand-in-hand. You need both flexibility and strength for the body to function properly.

Memorization trick: Use this phrase to remember the first letter of each of the above keywords “We Love Pizza – Lots of cheese”

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Focus – Circulation

Posted on October 3, 2023 by mariolam

Most people call this “the warmup”. To them, warmups are just some casual stretching and movements we are told to do to avoid injures – the “real” exercises comes right after. For us, “Circulation” is actually one of the development goals. Warm ups are just a subset of “Circulation” in our context.

For seniors, it is probably not an exaggeration to say that at least half the ailments are caused by deteriorated of blood/air circulation. This deterioration is frequently caused by small chronic pain that in turn triggers reduced physical activities which then causes muscles to weaken.

When we talk about circulation, we aim at the removal of toxic waste within the blood stream and tissues, retain suppleness within the cartilages and inter-joint gaps, facilitate blood flows to organs and lower body, and believe or not, help with the healing process. We also try to improve air flow by stretching and expanding the thoracic section of the spine, the rib cage, experimenting with more than one style of breathing, alternating rhythm and much more. The intent here is to improve blood and air circulation that will in turn improve your general well being. Hmm, doesn’t that sound the “Qi Gong” without the marketing wraps?

In general, our “warmups” goes in the following general sequence:

  1. Wake the body and mind by stimulating the nerve endings
  2. Move the spine especially the thoracic portion to address the spinal mobility and massage the vital organs
  3. Open up the shoulders, armpits and hips and emphasize on the postural muscles
  4. Alternate fast and slow movements to enhance blood flow and to stimulate the “command” system.

To improve the quality of any exercises you do, make sure you understand the purpose of each exercise. Each exercise have some very important key-points. Make sure you remember and apply those extra little things. Do alternate the speed as is applicable for each move. Ultimately, do it mindfully!

Questions and Answers

Q. Why does it matter what exercise we start with?

A. We recommend starting with the spine for two reasons: 1) It is the most important conduit for blood and air. 2) Because the spine is so neglected and yet so important, we start with it so that we will spend sufficient time on it.

Q. Why do we do some things slow, some things fast and slow?

A. We do things slow to learn and train a new movement pattern so that we fully understand how to do it properly. Furthermore, if you do it slow, you are training with a sustained command and be able to feel through all the changes. If you do it fast, the neural impulse come and disappear within split of a second.

Muscles are like sponges, it pumps blood through the body through alternating contraction and relaxation. When you wash a dirty sponge, you need to squeeze hard to drain the dirt out but then you have to pause and relax to let fresh water soak back in. In our circulation exercises, this alternation of the squeeze and relax help cleanse our body.

Q. In the winter, when I go out, I find myself shivering, is there anything that can help?

A. We usually tuck ourselves into a “ball -like” shape when we shiver. However, we tend to stay in that shape until we feel warmer. Staying in a tight ball shape does not help with blood circulation. You need blood flow to warm yourself up. So it is okay to start from that, but now squeeze the muscles tight from head to toe. Then breath out strong and relax. Pause for a couple of seconds to allow the blood to travel and then tuck in and tighten the muscles again. Hold and then relax again and after a few counts, you will feel much warmer.

Q. Should we do the “warmups” before we do the regular exercises?

A. It’s of paramount importance to shift your perspective regarding these exercises. Rather than viewing them as mere warm-ups, consider them as integral steps towards achieving the ultimate goal of “Circulation”. This shift in mindset will make you more attuned to even the subtlest changes within your body, fostering mindfulness instead of treating these exercises as something to rush through.

To seamlessly incorporate these exercises into your daily routine, consider the following:

1. Wake-Up Ritual: Begin your day in bed by opening your chest and strengthening your postural muscles, while also gently loosening your hips and lower back. This sets a positive tone for your morning.

2. Breakfast Preparations: As you get ready for your morning coffee or breakfast, integrate exercises like gentle limb flicks to invigorate your body and start your day off right.

3. Midday Breaks: After sitting for extended periods, take a moment to stretch your lower back and engage in body twists to rejuvenate your posture and energy levels.

4. Evening Wind-Down: Before wrapping up your day and heading to bed, practice falling into your bed with a tucked chin and a coiled body. This helps drain the blood flow from the head back down into your body for a more restful sleep.

By seamlessly blending these exercises into your daily activities, you not only save time but also ensure that you remember them more effectively through frequent repetition. This repetition ingrains the ideas and effects deep into your subconscious, making them second nature, even in emergencies.

Ultimately, your overall well-being will significantly improve thanks to enhanced circulation. You’ll become more in tune with your body, equipped with exercises that can be your allies even on challenging days. Embrace this holistic approach to better health, and watch how it transforms your daily life.

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