March 2004 Newsletter

Look Your Best in One Hour or Less

One of the main reasons clients hire Total Fitness is to look their best.

You may dread that it could take months, if not years, of strict dieting and humorless exercise, or maybe that you could never achieve a better-looking body.

In just one hour at Total Fitness, we can change the way you look.

How? By improving your posture.

Sure, you may remember your mother telling you to stand up straight. But trust me, even if your mother was right, she did not know 1) how to assess your exact posture 2) just exactly how to help you be strong in the places where you are weak and more flexible where you are tight so that you CAN stand up straighter for longer than 30 seconds.

Most trainers give everybody pretty much the same stretching and strengthening program. What sets Total Fitness apart is the level to which we assess every new client.

Every new fitness client has their spine measured. Every new fitness client has their flexibility assessed. Then, and only then, you are given an individualized program unique for your body. You are taught how to stretch exactly where you are tight and how to be strong where you are weak.

Did you know you can look 10 pounds lighter just by correcting your posture? More confident? Not to mention that you'll probably also play golf better, perform any sport more efficiently and spend less money at your chiropractor.

Forward head posture: Small fortunes are made by chiropractors on this problem alone. Ask Ellie Richards, 57, an avid cyclist. Despite 15 years of yoga and working out the conventional way, she still had back and neck pain. For the past year, she had visited her chiropractor and received regular massage. Within two weeks of starting her Total Fitness program, her neck pain was gone. "That was the quickest relief," she said.

Rounded upper back: Alas, we all spend too much time slouched in our cars and in front of computer terminals. Craig Zeff saw a difference in the way he looked his first hour at Total Fitness. Even though he had worked out for years, he had still dislocated his right shoulder four times. When the upper back is tight, rotation is more difficult, putting more stress in the shoulder socket. "My shoulder is feeling a lot better too," he said.

Flat lower back: If your lower back is flat, you are at risk for herniating disks--something you definitely do not want to do! Just ask the 80-year-old I saw recently who had turned down back surgery after a close relative ended up in a wheelchair when her back operation failed.

Excessive curvative of the lower spine: If you have been wondering why your bottom looks so big, there may be more than one reason! If your lower back curvature is excessive, your rear end looms larger. You may even add inches to your height by straightening your spine with corrective exercise.

Defy Your Own Expectations - Improve Your Eyesight Naturally

One of the many reasons I love my job is that I get to help people do things they never thought they could do.

Such was the case March 13-14 when we held our class in Natural Vision Improvement.

Here is what a few of the students had to say two weeks afterwards:

"I can't believe the difference," said Lee Townsend, 61, who has worn glasses since age 5. "Everything is much clearer, especially at a distance. I also have better balance since I worked on my eyes."

Curt Bush was dismayed to find himself needing glasses in his 40s. He works in front of computers all day. "My eyes are definitely more relaxed and I can see smaller objects or words for longer periods of time without having to resort to my glasses. This also seems to be helping me sleep better."

Margaret Price, 62, had far vision before the class but still needed glasses to read. "Since I've done the class, my far vision is crisp and I've been using my reading glasses much less," she said. "If I am in good sunlight, I can read without my glasses. I also have more energy since taking the class."

Charlenne Carl, a retired marketing executive, had this to say: "I have been wearing glasses to correct nearsightedness since the third grade and contacts since my teens. As my eyes changed further in my forties that required bifocals, I began wearing one contact for distant vision and one contact for close up --letting my brain do the compensation for varying focal lengths. But in the last couple of years I began having trouble focusing when reading, so I added the 'drugstore' reading glasses.

"In the last year or so the right eye sight worsened. The optometrist called it 'the lazy eye.' The right eye is my dominant eye, the one with the contact for near vision. Butthe optometrist could no longer correct it to 20/20. We tried a new lens on it correcting for astigmatism, but I still couldn't read without those little reading glasses.

"After having taken the Brain Gym classes from Catherine Carrigan at Total Fitness, I asked if she would determine my brain profile-determining which hemisphere, eye, ear, etc. were dominant. During this process which confirmed that my right eye (the 'lazy' one) was, in fact, the dominant one, she said; 'Oh, your right eye is turned off. Would you like me to turn it on?' "I responded affirmatively. So through the application of specialized kinesiology she 'turned on' my right eye. Meaning an energy flow to the eye was now reinstated. I didn't notice a thing. Oh well.

"That night at home I mindless picked up the Newsweek magazine that had arrived that day and thumbed through it…finding some article that looked interesting and began to read. Half way through the article I stopped cold: Oh my gosh, I'm not wearing any reading glasses!

"Now I've gone to Catherine's Natural Vision Improvement classes, learning many exercises to strengthen and relax eye muscles, which continues to help my eyes. On a recent flight, I laid my head back, closed my eyes and did a Feldenkrais eye exercise that so relaxed me that the next thing I knew I was being awakened by the stewardess's bustling drink cart. Hummm, relaxed eyes do relax the body!

New Qi Gong Class

Qi Gong classes will resume Wednesdays in April. Join us to practice Qi Gong outdoors in the fresh air - you get to soak up lots of fresh air! $60 per month or $15 per class.

For more information about natural vision improvement, personal fitness training, yoga and Qi Gong classes and life coaching, please visit www.totalfitness.net.

Yoga Classes: Every Tuesday and Thursday, 7:30-9 p.m., Holy Spirit Catholic Church. $15 per class or $65 per calendar month.