Happy New Year! Winter can be a tough time to keep your workout routine fresh. If you enjoy the outdoors it may be too cold to run or cycle and the temptation to take it easy when its dark and cold can lead to being more of a couch potato than you want to be. Winter is a great time to try something new, address issues you haven’t had time for and set your goals to be in great shape when spring appears. Brian and Nora provide inspiration and guidance to get you through the dark days of winter.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday season to all. Nora and Brian are taking a break this week and have decided to take a look back at our first episode...warts and all. It was our first foray into doing a podcast and it shows, but was a lot of fun. We hope you enjoy and we will see you next week.

One of the most important aspects of successful aging is staying active. There are as many ways to keep moving as there are active elders. Join Brian and Nora for a wide-ranging discussion on strategies, tactics and inspiration to stay strong and keep moving.

Spinal stenosis in either the cervical or the lumbar spine is fairly common with over 200,000 cases per year in the US. Brian and Nora discuss what it is and give you practical advice on ways to manage it to decrease pain and disability. Postural changes and core support can substantially reduce the pain and discomfort from this condition.

In part 2 of this two-part episode, we discuss the physiological mechanisms of both acute and chronic muscle spasms which all of these muscles are prone to along with the anatomy of the piriformis and its role in hip and low back stability. Rounding out the series is a discussion of techniques for training balanced, integrated movement patterns starting with the core and moving throughout the body to minimize pain and maximize functional capabilities.

The psoas major, quadratus lumborum and piriformis are common sources of pain when a client has low back, hip or sacroiliac joint conditions. In this episode, we discuss the anatomy of the psoas major and quadratus lumborum and dive into strategies for releasing and progressively strengthening these muscles to minimize pain and improve a person’s ability to move with ease.

Building on the anatomy and movement patterns of the shoulder we explored in part 1, Nora and Brian discuss common musculoskeletal imbalances and injuries in the shoulder and strategies for working with them.

We begin our exploration of the shoulder with an introduction to the basic anatomy of the joints, how they work together and how to coordinate the muscles to improve movement quality. This is the foundation of the work needed to improve outcomes for shoulder injuries such as rotator cuff tears and shoulder impingement.

Osteoporosis is a true public health emergency with 1 in 3 women and 1 in 5 men over the age of 50 living with the condition. Taking traditional advice, “do weight bearing exercise” as a starting point, we’ll dive deeper into what exactly that means, how to think about training a client with osteoporosis to manage functional activities and some thought provoking observations from our personal practice.

The concept of open and closed chain exercises was first introduced in the 1950’s. Movement training has come a long way since then. Taking open and closed chain concepts as a starting point, Brian and Nora explore stability, complexity, function and strength!