In the words of Amy Whinehouse, sometimes you’ve got to “rock your f*&# me pumps.” While wedges and pumps might look jaw-dropping, ever wonder what damage they are doing? Slipping into heels everyday, over time, causes untold damage to our feet and backs. That small pinch of pain in your low back or slowly developing bunion might not bother you now, but a few years down the road you’ll be wishing you had switched to flats every once in a while.

The truth is you can have your cake and eat it too. You can click-clack down the street in your wooden wedges as long as you “do your homework” and take care of your body after you kick them off at the end of the day. With a few simple adjustments to your posture and what I like to call foot rehab you’ll be strutting your stuff without the negative side effects.

1.) Stretch Out: One of the reasons our legs and booty look so damn great when we wear heels is because the heel causes the calf and hamstring muscles on the back of the leg to work. The heel also jacks up the booty, causing more pressure on the low back. Overtime, tight hamstrings and an overextended low back can cause low back pain and tight hips putting undue stress on the spine. The simple solution is to stretch your hamstrings, low back, and calves with a fold over. Hold this stretch for at least 30 seconds and repeat every time you take off your heels.

2.) Swap For Flats: If you currently wear heels everyday, swap them for a cute pair of flats every other day. Or better yet, save the heels for going out at night only. If you have to wear them at work, slip on more comfortable and supportive shoes to and from the office.

3.) Strengthen Your Core: Part of healthy heel wearing has to do with how you hold your posture while they are on. The tendency is to sit or rest in the low back with hyperextended knees, a swayed back look. Combat this while you stand and walk in heels by pulling in the low abdominals. Stand as straight and tall as you can and watch what your belly does. Does it just hang out over you jeans or are you actively trying to stand up tall and support the low back with your core? Strengthen your abdominals with the plethora of ab exercises out there. To target the low abs try this one:

4.) Massage Out The Arches: Use an old tennis ball to roll out the arches of your feet. After a long day on your feet, stand on a tennis ball under your heel and slowly roll the ball under the middle and both sides of your arch. Lean on the ball with more weight to increase the intensity. Spread out the toes and get those bones moving around. Over working the muscles and fascia of the arches can lead to plantar fascitis and other foot ailments.

5.) Watch Your Alignment: When you are walking in your favorite pumps do your ankles wobble or roll in? Take note of how your ankle and foot are aligned. Ideally your ankle is not rolling in or out of the shoe. You want your knee cap to line up with your ankle, which should line up with the middle of your foot. Check out how you weight bare as well. Are you carrying all your weight on the ball of the foot? Weight bearing on the ball of the foot will cause the bones of the foot to move/grow to carry the weight (a bunion). Try to even out the weight distribution to both sides of the foot.

6.) Find Shoes That Fit: If you’ve got a wide foot there’s no way your going to squeeze your feet into those cute Chinese Laundry pumps. Be realistic and find brands that fit the width and shape of your foot. When shoe shopping make sure you can feel the whole foot pad, ball of the foot, middle and pinky side. Avoid super pointed or flat toed shoes since they cramp your toes and force the bones into really unnatural shapes. Overly cramped toes can lead to hammer toes, stress fractures and black nails. Ever looked at a models feet?

As a life long dancer and current Pilates professional, who has tortured her feet in point shoes and now bare foot, I have seen and felt the woes of foot related pain. Take care of your feet now so can walk, run and dance into your 90’s. For more facts and information about the effects of high heels, click here.

I recently took a Yamuna Body Rolling class that was fantastic to say the least. If you haven’t heard of the Yamuna Body Rolling system you’ve got to check it out. It’s fitness and massage rolled into one!

Yamuna Body Rolling™ is a revolutionary approach to health and fitness using balls designed exclusively for this practice. It consists of a series of routines using 6 to 10-inch balls. Unlike other ball exercises, YBR goes far beyond random movement and stretch. It allows you to work specific muscles in detail, to create suppleness in tight areas and optimize range of motion.

One of my favorite parts of the class was standing on what are called foot wakers and savers. These half spheres actually re-educate feet. They improve gait, alignment, and muscle tone, stimulate reflexology points, strengthen arches, increase range of motion, and stimulate and elongate the muscles of the calves, thighs, hips, and lower back. Working intensively with Foot Savers, you can rehabilitate foot problems and literally work your body all the way to your head.

The idea is to start with the Foot Wakers and work up to the high intensity Foot Savers. After working this ball up and down my feet I felt like a whole new person. I felt more stable on my feet and walked with more ease and that was only after a half hour working with them!

I plan on buying a pair so I can write at my desk while simultaneously getting an awesome foot massage. The Foot Saver Kit comes with a DVD to show you all the wonderful things you can do with these little guys for only $36 bucks.

In today’s technology age we find ourselves hunched over laptops, slouched on the couch playing videogames and carrying heavier bags and backpacks to tote it all. Now more than ever we need to pay attention to our posture to prevent major spinal injuries and alignment issues.

Not only is slouching or over arching your low back (lordosis) ultimately painful and horrible for spinal longevity, it looks bad and will ruin that six pack you’ve been working on so diligently. How people perceive you has a lot to do with body language, and lets face the fact that poor posture suggests a person is timid and has low self-esteem.

When the spine is vertical the forces of gravity weigh down and compress the vertebrae that make up the spinal column, unless we actively oppose that force. In order to keep a supple, strong spine for life we must strengthen the muscles that support it. This includes all the “core” muscles meaning the abdominals, and back muscles.

Here are some quick tips to help us all stand a little taller and maintain a pain free, flexible, and properly aligned spine. Read the rest of this entry »

As a dancer, stretching and strength training are vital parts of my day. While, I probably have to stretch and train a lot more than the average gym goer it’s still incredibly important to keep your muscles flexible and in control. Muscles will constrict and weaken unless they are used and stretched, especially as we age. Improving flexibility and control of your muscles will improve your performance and prevent injury no matter what type of movement or exercise you do. Even if that is just carrying a heavy load of laundry up the stairs or mowing the lawn.

With that said, here is a fabulous technique that I picked up from Eric Franklin’s book years ago. Simply touch the muscle you are trying to lengthen or work. Why does touch help? By touching the muscle you are drawing your focus to that area. This technique is similar to simply using intention when your working out, but with touch you can feel the correct muscles work or learn to initiate the proper muscle. A lot of times we try to copy an exercise that we have seen and end up working the wrong muscle groups because the form is off. Using touch to feel the right muscle contracting or stretching is a great way to get more out of the work with better alignment.

So how should I touch?
When stretching, for example, if I am in a forward fold where I am stretching my hamstrings I will put a few fingertips or my whole palm and hand on the muscle. This draws my attention to the area so when I breathe I can imagine lots of oxygenated blood rushing to those muscles to loosen them up.

When lifting weights, first make sure your form is correct, then in something like a lat pull down, cup your hand onto your lat under your arm pit and feel the exercise initiate from there.

I love this technique because it really gets you to hone in on the muscles you want working. How many times does a simple bicep curl turn into a shoulder exercise where the upper trapezius takes over? Or an abdominal crunch turns into hip flexor work? It’s really easy to let large muscle groups carry the entire load, but then you’re not really working the area you want to lengthen or strengthen.

By using touch and intention when working out you will get more out of each exercise or stretch and therefore spend less time and do less reps! Remember it’s quality vs. quantity.

Back specialist are speaking out on the ill effects of laptop use. According to experts in the field, the huge boom in laptop sales has led to millions developing skeletal and muscular problems from hunching over their computers.

Chiropractors are seeing girls as young as 12 with nerve damage from computer use. And back experts estimate that as many as four in five patients have chronic nerve damage caused by working on portable PCs. Doctors are asking for more research to be done on the subject, including London-based chiropractor Michael Durntall who says:

“I see many people in their twenties and thirties with a dowager’s hump - a rounding at the base of the neck - after only a few years of looking down at a small screen while sitting slumped on a chair for long periods.”

There is no doubt in my mind that ones posture is totally compromised when working on a laptop or any computer for that matter. It’s just too easy to slump forward, creating a “hump” in the upper back and pushing the head forward. The problem is that by sitting this way the muscles that support the spine start to adapt to the bad posture, ultimately changing the shape of the spine and alignment of the vertebrae. Plus, it’s painful!

Here are some quick tips to improve postural alignment at any computer:

1.) Sit in a supportive chair: Use a chair that supports your lumbar region (lower back) so the rest of the spine has a good base to stack on top of. Make sure to sit all the way back in the chair to support the spine and prevent you from leaning forward.

2.) Align the screen to your eye level: With a desk top computer just stack some books under the screen to bring it up to your eye level while sitting in your chair.

3.) Use a separate mouse and keyboard: For people that work long hours on their laptop place the computer on a solid surface with risers so that the screen is at eye level and attach a seperate keyboard and mouse. There is really no way to get around how ergonomically horrible the laptop was designed.

4.) Take breaks: Every 20-30 minutes get up and walk around to give your back a break.

5.) Remind yourself: To sit up straight and with your head aligned on top of the shoulders and the shoulders right over the hips. Sit with legs at a 90 degree angle with feet flat on the floor. Tip: Imagine you have a string attached to the top of your head that is helping you lengthen your spine.

For more tips on how to fix your desk setup so you can have great posture and work more effectively, click here.

Happy typing!