Whole Body Revolution

Rewire yourself for greater health, happiness and success.

Sukie Baxter

Pain Relief

What Every Plantar Fasciitis Sufferer Must Know

What is Plantar Fasciitis?

Plantar fasciitis is a painful foot condition where the plantar fascia – a thick band of connective tissue extending from the heel to the ball of the foot – becomes inflamed due to overuse or too much tension. Plantar fasciitis causes a lot of pain to those who suffer from it, and it makes it difficult to perform normal daily activities like grocery shopping, walking and carrying purses or briefcases. Athletes who suffer from plantar fasciitis have to limit their workouts, making it difficult to stick to an effective training schedule.

You know you have plantar fasciitis if you have a sharp pain in your heel or just in front of the heel that is usually worse first thing in the morning but gradually lessens as your foot warms up throughout the day. Stretching the plantar fascia along the bottom of your foot will be painful, and increased activity may make the foot pain worse.

But what causes this painful foot condition?

There are a number of potential causes of plantar fasciitis, but in general, the inflammation and degeneration of the tissue is caused by excessive strain on the bottom of your foot. Of course, “excessive strain” can be anything from being overweight to pregnancy, high level athletics (especially running) or poor body mechanics due to old injuries or surgeries.

Those who stand and walk for long periods of time, especially on concrete, are more likely to develop pain in the bottoms of their feet. Tight calf muscles, illiotibial band tension and imbalances in the hips can all contribute to imbalanced body mechanics that place excess strain on the plantar fascia over time.

People who pronate (roll their feet inward) chronically overstretch the plantar fascia and may develop plantar fasciitis, especially if they are active in dancing, running, or other sports that put a lot of strain on the feet.

Plantar Fasciitis Treatment

While most practitioners recommend supportive shoes to eliminate symptoms of plantar fasciitis, I disagree. While arch supports and rigid shoes can be helpful when the symptoms are acute, the human foot is a marvel of engineering that is brilliantly designed to support the weight of your body and facilitate walking and running.

With the advent of athletic shoes, we’ve become addicted to cushion and support, believing that our feet cannot function properly without a lot of extraneous material holding us up; however, the world-record for a 26 mile marathon was set by Ethiopian Abebe Bikila who ran the entire race BAREFOOT.

When you add too much support to your feet, you inhibit their natural function, causing them to be lazy and flaccid. Here are a couple of exercises you can start to perform now to eliminate the symptoms of plantar fasciitis and prevent future foot pain:

  1. Practice picking up objects, such as pens or marbles, with your toes.
  2. Lay a towel on a hard surface, like a hardwood floor. With your bare foot, scrunch the towel up using your toes, then spread it out and repeat.
  3. Roll the bottom of your foot on a tennis ball to alleviate tension in the plantar fascia.

No matter how long you’ve suffered with plantar fasciitis, you can get relief. Do these simple exercises daily and you’ll be back on your feet in no time.

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Stop Wasting Time in the Gym! Part II: What you should be doing instead

If you missed last week’s article on how to stop wasting time in the gym, you can read it here.

Now you’ve gotten on the bandwagon and stopped doing really inefficient exercises in the gym.  Hurray!  Really, when you can get the same amount of stuff done in fifteen minutes as you can in an hour, why in the world would you take the longer path?!

Part of the reason that we’re conditioned to believe we need about an hour of time in the gym to get results is that “leading health experts” have told us so.  And yes, if you’re doing time-wasting exercises that are little more than physical busy-work, you will need to spend more time pumping iron to get anything done.

But there’s a much faster way to blast fat and develop slim, sexy muscles…

Introducing the powerhouse of physical conditioning, High Intensity Interval Training, or HIIT!  Interval training is not to be confused with circuit training where you move from station to station performing different exercises.  HIIT is absolutely the fastest way to burn through fat, improve cardiovascular capacity and boost athletic performance.

Whereas most exercise programs – cardiovascular conditioning in particular – choose a target heart rate or heart rate zone that is about 65% of your max, take you up to that zone and keep you there for 30 minutes or more, HIIT pushes your heart rate sky high and then gives you a resting or recovery period.

Why is high intensity interval training so effective?  Well, in short, it causes you to burn more calories, flat out.  When you perform low intensity exercise, such as 30 minutes on an elliptical machine or exercise bike, you only burn calories while you’re actually exercising.  When you do HIIT, you boost your metabolism for up to 24 hours post-workout!

Additionally, interval training is highly beneficial to heart health.  During steady state cardio training, such as prolonged periods of running, your heart will become lighter and more efficient.  You’re effectively burning away heart muscle!  HIIT training causes your heart muscle – actually, all of your muscles – to become larger and stronger.  This is important for two reasons: One, a stronger heart is a healthier heart, leaving you less prone to heart disease such as myocardial infarction or atherosclerosis; and Two, larger, stronger muscles boost your metabolism and burn more fat.

The author of the book The Doctor’s Heart Cure, Dr. Al Sears, M.D., who has cured heart disease in over 15,000 patients writes, “When you exercise for more than about 10 minutes, your heart adapts by becoming more efficient. It achieves this efficiency through downsizing. Long-duration exercise makes the heart, lungs and muscles smaller so that they can go longer with less energy, but there’s a trade-off. The cardiovascular system becomes very good at handling a 60-minute jog, but it gives up the ability to provide you with big bursts of energy for short periods. Far from protecting your heart, this loss makes you more vulnerable to a heart attack.”

Basically, heart attacks don’t happen because of a lack of cardiovascular endurance.  They happen because of a sudden spike in heart rate due to increased load.

Even more interesting, steady state training doesn’t really translate into real life.  I mean, part of the reason we all go to the gym is to make ourselves more able to deal with day to day challenges, right?  But when in the real world do you keep a steady heart rate for a prolonged period of time?  Say you’re helping a friend move into her house.  You’ll likely pick up a piece of furniture, carry it up the stairs, put it down and walk back to the truck.  This is exactly like interval training…periods of intensity alternated with periods of rest.

So…how much time does this interval training take?  I already mentioned it’s less than you’re used to, but would you believe you can get full-body conditioning in less than 5 minutes?  I see you out there raising your eyebrows and shaking your head, but it’s TRUE!

Dr. Izumi Tabata completed a study at the National Institute of Fitness and Sports in Tokyo, Japan, demonstrating that just 8 sets (and that’s 8 sets maximum, not minimum) of 20 seconds of intense exercise spaced with 10 seconds of rest in between is all you need to boost your fat burning ability while also improving aerobic and anaerobic capabilities.  That’s a total of 3.8 minutes!  No more excuses about not having time to exercise!

Here’s how you make this work for you:

1.  Pick an exercise, any exercise. The beauty of the tabata set is you don’t even need equipment to get it done.  Body weight squats, sprinting, jumping rope, kettlebell swings, cycling, running stairs, or virtually any other kind of exercise where you can modify intensity.  The most portable option is, of course, outdoor sprinting.

(Note for you kettlebell sport athletes out there….I find that super efficient GS style snatches, cleans, jerks, etc., are far too efficient to fully challenge you for this kind of exercise, so either go hard style – I know, but it works – or pick something non-kettlebell for tabata sets).

2.  Warm up your body and joints appropriately. Your warm up will look different depending on your age and condition, but ideally will contain full body movements and dynamic joint mobility drills to warm up your synovial fluid and tune up your proprioception.

3.  Get a great interval timer, like a GymBoss, or just stand in front of a clock with a second hand (best when doing an exercise that allows you to stay in one place, like squats).  I often use the timer feature on my iPhone.

4.  Perform 20 seconds of your chosen exercise FULL OUT. You should feel like your lungs will explode and your legs will fall off if you have to do just one more squat, take one more set, jump one more loop of that rope.  Give 100%.  Interval training, like all things in life, gives back as much as you put into it.  Put all you have into it.  Note: If you have enough breath left to complain about how hard it is, you’re not working hard enough.  I know this is tough love, but it is the truth.

5.  Rest for 10 seconds.

6.  Repeat steps 4 and 5 a total of eight times, for just under four minutes of exercise time.

7.  Cool down. You’ll most likely be shaky and out of breath.  Keep your body moving, just shuffle your feet, walk in circles or do whatever you can manage until your heart rate normalizes.

8.  Stretch, hydrate, and move on with your day!

This is a very simple way to condition your body, but it is not easy!  It’s haaaaaard.  Yes, its’ only four minutes of exercise, but those four minutes aren’t so pleasant.  But isn’t it worth it to shave 56 minutes off your workout time?

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Stop Wasting Time in The Gym! Part I

It never fails to amaze me.  People complain, complain, complain about not having enough time to work out, and then I see them in the gym spending hours and hours on exercises that are absolutely useless!

**Warning: If you’re highly committed to your workout routine, this might ruffle your feathers.  If you don’t want your feathers ruffled, stop reading now.**

So, most people go to the gym for two basic reasons: to burn fat and to build or tone muscle.  These are both great reasons to get your booty in gear and get going on a workout routine.  However, I do have a newsflash for you…if you want to shred through fat and get toned, beautiful muscles, PUT DOWN THE 2 POUND DUMBBELLS!

There, I said it.  I’ve been wanting to say this for five whole years.  I have sat by in frustration as I watched gym-goers, especially women, perform useless exercise after useless exercise.  Frankly, I don’t know why women are so weight-lifting adverse.  Give a woman a toddler, two bags of groceries, a diaper bag, a purse and a ring of house keys and she’ll drag that load up three flights of stairs no problem.  Give her a 20 pound weight and she’ll tell you she can’t lift that and even if she could, she’d have “man arms.”

I’m here to call bull and put an end to all the time wasting going on in gyms across America!  And possibly across the world!

Whenever I am at the gym – which isn’t often, because I frequently get to swinging my kettlebell in my living room these days instead of trekking out in the rain (yes, I’m that adverse to water falling from the sky) – I see women agonizingly doing ridiculous exercises that won’t build strength for anything in the real world, and, even worse, are often dangerous.  Perhaps worst of all, these women think that the hours they put in at the gym are giving them some benefit.  The real truth?  You can get a fat blasting workout in 10 minutes or less that will also build strength and cardiovascular endurance.  The rest is just icing on the cake.

So, to help you eliminate the useless time wasters from your gym routine, I present to you…

5 things you should never do in the gym:

1.  Straight arm raises in front of you with dumbbells – Seriously?  What are we building here, folks?  The ability to lift buckets of water straight out and put them under a cow’s nose?  WHEN will you EVER use this in real life?  Not to mention, these little buggers have a nasty habit of causing tension in the trapezius muscles, which makes you come into my office to fix your neck pain.  Don’t do this.

2.  Any kind of weight lifting while standing on a bosu ball – Next time you stand on one of those half-moon bosu balls, take a look at your ankles in the mirror.  Are they horizontal at the ankle joint?  No?  Well then, you’re in for some serious injuries in your future if you load an unstable ankle joint with weight.  Bosu balls are for balance, not weight training.  Stay on terra firma for the heavy lifting.

3.  Bicep Curls – As my friend and strength coach, strongman, and kettlebell lifter extraordinaire Andrew Durniat says, “Nice biceps, what are you going to use those for?”  Biceps can be pretty, sure.  But doing bicep curls won’t make you stronger.  Why?  Well, we never contract one muscle in isolation, especially in our arms.  When you lift things in real life, you use your whole body.  If you want functional strength – the kind that will translate to carrying 30 pound purses and laptop cases without causing neck strain or low back pain – train across joints.  That means, choose exercises that involve bending more than one joint at a time, like the classic overhead military press with either dumbbells or a bar.  Bonus: Engaging more muscles means you burn more calories and get a total body workout for better overall muscle tone.

4.  Read a book – If you can read while you’re doing it, it’s not super effective.  Exercise is for more than your body.  Movement keeps your mind young and improves body-mind coordination as well.  If you want to read a book while riding a bike, that’s recreation.  To get a workout, keep your focus straight.  Hint: One of the most underused and overlooked pieces of equipment that almost every gym has is the rowing machine.  No book reading possible there, just some serious full body conditioning (but make sure you get someone who knows what they’re doing to show you proper form so you get the maximum benefit without injury).

5.  Anything with less than 10 pound dumbbells unless you’re seriously de-conditioned, a senior, or in rehab. If you’re going to the gym to burn fat and tone muscle, you need to add a lot more resistance than the weight of the purse you keep slung over your shoulder all day long.  Raise the intensity and do fewer repetitions.  You’ll be amazed at the results (and I promise, you won’t turn into the incredible hulk).

Just in case you’re still suspicious and think I’m lying about that last bit, let me share this picture with you from when I was in peak athletic condition for kettlebell training.  That red bell over my head?  That’s 32 kilograms or about 70 pounds.  And yes, I got it up there with ONE ARM.  Does it look like I have a lot of muscle bulk?  Nope.  The trick is training for function – the ability to generate force – instead of isolating each muscle and training it individually.  The results are much different.

More on this next week in Stop Wasting Time In the Gym Part II: What You Should Do Instead

Pain Relief

Arnica: The Pain Reliever No Household Should Be Without

Aches and pains happen, especially when you’re training at the gym or exerting yourself in any heavy lifting activity, like moving. And as we age, we’re prone to other painful conditions like osteoarthritis.

But you don’t have to suffer with muscle soreness and stiffness. You can get relief without risking some of the frightening side effects of NSAIDs (non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs) such as nausea, upset stomach, shortness of breath, heartburn or skin rashes.

There is a natural solution that I highly recommend instead: Arnica Montana. Arnica is a plant native to mountainous regions of Europe and North America that has been used for centuries as a topical pain relieving agent.

A controlled randomized study from 2007 found that daily applications of arnica gel were just as effective as ibuprofen for relieving pain from osteoarthritis.

There is a slight risk of allergic reaction to a compound called hellanin found in arnica, so test on a small bit of skin before rubbing it all over. If you do experience a slight rash, simply stop using the gel.

While arnica gels abound in health food and supplement stores, the brand that I most recommend is Traumeel. It’s widely available and extremely effective with a synergistic blend of arnica and other anti inflammatory homeopathic agents.

So, the next time you find yourself stiff, sore and achy, get yourself some arnica gel, rub it on, and breathe a sigh of relief as the pain melts away!

Pain Relief

The Best Sciatica Stretch to Get Fast Relief for Sciatic Nerve Pain

Sciatic nerve pain is a common problem for many people. Sciatic nerve pain can be defined as pain deep in the posterior hip and running down the back of the leg.  This is caused by an impingement on the sciatic nerve which runs through a group of small but very powerful muscles called the lateral rotators, specifically the piriformis muscle.  Doctors may call it sciatic pain, sciatic nerve pain, sciatica or piriformis syndrome.

The sciatic nerve can be impinged or irritated in two places.  Either it is compressed in the spine due to a bulging disc or other imbalance in the vertebral column or it can be directly restricted by the piriformis, under which the sciatic nerve runs.  In some people, the sciatic nerve innervates (runs through the middle of) the piriformis; you can imagine the impact a tight piriformis muscle would have on that nerve!

In my experience, 9 times out of 10 the pain is coming from tight muscles deep in the posterior hip and can be relieved with some bodywork and gentle stretching.  Use the stretch in this video daily to ease muscle tension and give your sciatic nerve room to breathe.

Also, it’s important to remember to move around a lot during the day, especially if you have the kind of job that keeps you sitting for long periods.  Sitting creates tension in the hips and can cause sciatic nerve pain.  If you must sit for long periods, take frequent breaks.  Even getting up to walk around the office for five minutes every two hours makes an enormous difference and can be just the ticket to avoiding future sciatic nerve pain.