Many people during their life have had an accident of some sort that has resulted in their injuring their lower back. Usually they recover after a few weeks and are able to continue to enjoy whatever physical activities they were previously involved with.

However, such injuries can also mean that you become more susceptible to further lower back injuries and if you are not careful you can end up with chronic back pain which can have a dramatic impact on your life.
Thankfully, more often than not, by performing the right stretches and strength training exercises you can gradually relieve the chronic pain and lead a pretty much pain-free life, able to enjoy most activities and live a normal life.

However, you have to find out for yourself what the right stretches and strength training exercises are that provide the pain relief you are looking for.

If you have suffered from lower back pain, or sciatica, you need to be cautious about what stretches and exercises you choose to perform.

Many stretches in our exercise system (check out www.flexibilityplus.com) involve the stretching and strengthening of the hamstrings and lower back. This is because in our daily lives we are constantly putting stress on the lower back, whether from sitting, bending over to pick up something off the floor, carrying a baby in our arms, gardening, vacuuming the floor, or driving our car. So, to keep the back limber we need to lengthen our hamstrings, and we need to have supple and strong back muscles to adequately support our vertebrae.

Now, some of the stretches and exercises you may find cause you pain either during or after you have performed them. That is a very big clue that you need to listen to – if you find you are in pain during or after a particular exercise, then stop and don’t do it again!!!

On the other hand, if you find a certain stretch or a particular exercise provides relief from pain and actually results in your feeling more agile with the ability to move more freely, then keep doing it!!!

Look after your back and enjoy a long lifetime of quality living!

Jonathan

Below are the major points we need to follow for eating to achieve high energy and a healthy body:

•    Drink 4-6 pints (2-3 litres) of good quality water every day

•    Drink vegetable juices –fresh if you have an extractor and diluted fruit juices

•    Eat a variety of whole foods as close to their natural state as possible

•    Eat five to seven servings of fruit and vegetables a day. If possible organically grown, preferably fresh , though frozen is acceptable

•    Eat raw vegetables or lightly cooked (steamed) as certain vitamins are destroyed by heat

•    Eat nuts and seeds (e.g. almonds, pumpkin, flax, sunflower, sesame, walnuts), for their important omega 3 and omega 6 oils

•    Eat some garlic and onions each day. These may prevent respiratory, cardiovascular disease and even cancer. Eating parsley with garlic reduces the offensive odour on your breath. Deodorized garlic in tablet or capsule form is also available from most health food outlets.

•    Eat free range eggs, poached, as this is the best way to preserve their goodness

•    Eat yogurt containing live cultures, acidophilus and bifidus to support healthy bowel flora (not the sweetened fruit varieties).

•    Eat fish at least twice a week especially the fatty varieties such as salmon, mackerel, herring, and cod which contain the important omega 3 fatty acids. Broil, bake, grill or steam. Deep frying undoes the benefit.

•    Eat lean meat in moderation. Reducing consumption may prevent cancer. Think of meat not as a main, but as one of several ingredients in a main dish that incorporates vegetables, grains, and legumes

•    Avoid excessive salt, coffee, and processed anything

These are points are taken from our downloadable book, NutritionPowerPlus, available on www.flexibilityplus.com

Healthy eating!

Jonathan

I was talking to a friend the other day who said, “People don’t purposefully not exercise, they just don’t allow any time for training, so days, weeks, months, maybe years go by, and they still think that one day they will start to exercise…”

And then they get to 30, 40 or 50 and find they have developed some chronic health problem, and their quality of life just continues to decline as their body develops more and more aches and pains.

So, here are some steps you can take if you are one of those people who just can’t seem to find the time to exercise:

1.    STOP thinking of exercising in 15, 20, 30, or 40 or more minutes chunks of time.

2.    Instead think of exercising in 30 second increments – (you do have 30 seconds you can spare, or is life just sooooo full, you can’t spare 30 seconds?)

3.    Now think of an exercise you can enjoy doing for 30 seconds. (It can be anything – walking, running, dancing, skipping, etc).

4.    Do that exercise for only 30 seconds. No more! Because remember, for weeks and weeks you have been promising yourself to exercise and time deprivation has been your excuse, so prove that you can find extra time (but only 30 seconds).

5.    Now, buy or find a book with blank or lined pages, and write down the date you trained for 30 seconds and the exercise you did for that time. And write down below that first entry the next date and the time you plan to do this 30 seconds of exercise again.

6.    Stick to that entry date and time and train exactly for 30 seconds, then stop! Record the exercise and length of training and under that entry write down the next time and date you plan to train.

7.    Do this for one week. (Train no more than 5 of the 7 days in a week.)

8.    After one week, ask yourself, “Can I increase my training to 1 minute?”

9.    If, “Yes!” then train for 1 minute, no more than 1 minute! And follow the same system of entering in times and dates.

10.    After one week of 1 minute training, ask yourself, “Can I find time to train for 1 ½ minutes for 5 days of the coming week?”

11.    If, “Yes!” Then follow the same routine and pattern, and week after week continue adding 30 seconds to your training until you feel satisfied with the duration of your training, and stick to that and you will have broken through the barrier of exercise procrastination.

Note: As you increase your training you may be wanting to follow a varied and interesting exercise program.

If you want easy to follow information that will give great results check out our website www.flexibilityplus.com

All the best

Jonathan

Some years ago I had to take my mother who was in her eighties to the hospital because she had a blood nose that she found difficult to stop bleeding.
After taking her inside and making sure she was being properly looked after I had to go back to my car and make sure where I had parked was OK.
For about 5 minutes I was sitting in the car near the hospital main entrance and I was absolutely shocked at the numbers of people continually going through those hospital doors.
So many of them looked unwell, unfit and unhealthy (I guess that is what you’d expect). But it was the big numbers that got to me, that were going through those doors, in such a short period of time.
It got me thinking about what choices had these people made in their lifetime to end up at this place. Most were nowhere near as old as my mother, who had played golf well into her seventies and was still active in her early eighties.
I thought about how important it is to make good decisions throughout your life.

I see some young energetic people in their twenties regularly smoking, eating fast foods, and they so often get a cold, or some other illness.
Its as if their bodies are giving them early warning signs that they need to alter their life style, they need to drink way less (if any) alcohol, they need to stop smoking, and they need to eat wholesome food. But they don’t seem to take any notice and I wonder if in another twenty or thirty years they will be walking through a hospital door because they have a kidney complaint, or their heart isn’t quite working how it should, or they get dizzy often…
We all need to take stock of what we do now, because what we do now does matter!
Our system of exercise and nutritional advice is sound and solid with heaps of variety. There are over one hundred different exercises so there are different ones suitable for every level of fitness. The nutritional information is easy to follow and full of excellent advice plus recipes.
Check us out on www.flexibilityplus.com
Enjoy life!
Jonathan

Regularly eating health-giving food and drinking good quality water and health-producing beverages and drinks is not something that any of us should ignore. (If you do, expect to become a regular patient with your doctor as you age).

We all know there are tons of crackpot diets, and that every few months you can just about guarantee someone will be introducing the latest and greatest all-time cure-all, fat-loss, live-forever wonder diet.

But, if you ignore the hype and undertake a serious study of nutritional literature, you will discover there is a lot of excellent, sound, scientifically based information that when understood and, most importantly, put into practice, can and does provide tremendous benefits to those who choose to eat wisely. (It doesn’t have to be mind-numbingly boring!)

Our nutritional program on www.flexibilityplus.com   provides a great easy-to-read summary of very important nutritional information that when followed, offers the opportunity for the vast majority of those who read this information to greatly improve their energy levels, sense of well-being and potentially add quality years to their lives.

Check it out!

Cheers

Jonathan

Nancy and I have just spent the last 3 days at a National Baha’i Convention which meant we had little time to do any intense exercise as the meetings started early and finished quite late each day.

But we walked each morning for just over half an hour which was a refreshing way to start our day.

Now back home I am looking forward to 5 days of surfing with some mates next week, so starting tomorrow I will be getting in as much surfing and exercise as I can in preparation for the upcoming surf trip.

If I didn’t build up my paddling fitness for this surf trip, (which could mean around 4 to 6 hours surfing each day), I would not be able to fully enjoy myself due to a lack of surfing fitness.

Now I know I can get to the level of fitness I want to within the next 6 days because of my baseline paddling fitness.

If I didn’t have a sufficient level of paddling fitness there is no way I could achieve my fitness goal within such a short time frame.

However, if I wanted to run a marathon, I wouldn’t be able to achieve the necessary running fitness within 6 days, because that is not what I train for.

So, when you set fitness goals think about your current baseline fitness and set your goals accordingly. Don’t create goals that you cannot possibly achieve because chasing unrealistic dreams will only result in frustration and you will not be enthused by such failure.

Keep it real!

Until next time

Jonathan

www.flexibilityplus.com

In this post I am going to get into surfing. I have played many different sports and been very active in my life, but I have never found another sporting activity that comes close to the amazing high I get from surfing.
Now, an avid snow boarder, skier, ice skater could say the same thing – and that’s fine. This isn’t about claiming that one sporting activity is better than another, I just want to explore my passion for surfing and see where that leads.
Why do I find surfing so amazing – think about this – Strong winds way out in the ocean generate friction against the water’s surface. This action creates ripples on the water, these ripples, depending on the wind intensity, may become 1 foot high, or 50 feet high. The wind’s energy, transferred onto the ocean’s surface creates these waves, and these waves of energy as they move through the water, oscillate from the surface to the ocean floor.
So, even though it looks as if a particular body of water (a wave) is moving across the ocean it is actually a particular band of energy that is moving through the ocean which creates the ocean to rise as that wave of energy moves from its wind source towards a shoreline.
As an energy wave moves nearer land and the ocean depth becomes shallower the energy wave bounces harder off the ocean floor pushing the water above it higher and higher, until it reaches a shallow enough depth that it pushes the water so high to a point when the energy wave causes the water wave to tip over and break, which is where the surfer picks up that energy as he or she paddles into the wave and stands up.
Now, if you think about a person surfing, do this – in your mind, take away the board being ridden, and take away the water that the energy wave has created, and what have you got?
You have a person, standing on a band of energy, flowing up, over, down, around that energy, flowing over and through water in a beautiful oceanic experience.
When a surfer feels that sense of alignment with that energy, regardless of their level of expertise, they enter into a spiritual state of oneness. They experience a euphoria that is beyond explanation.
Would all surfers describe their surfing experience this way? Not at all. Just as if I was to describe how I view life, many would probably wonder if they were living on the same planet as me. We each have unique experiences.
I could get deeply philosophical right about now, so I will stop while I am ahead.
I’ll get back into more direct health and fitness posts, but I just wanted to explore briefly surfing in a manner that goes beyond contests, surf clothing and brands.
Enjoy life!
Jonathan
www.flexibilityplus.com

After writing a little about goal setting I thought I would get a little more personal and write about my two BIG goals that keep me pumped. Now, please don’t get me wrong – I am not suggesting that you should have these same or similar goals.  The idea is that I want you to see what pumps me, so in turn you can (hopefully) think deeply about what pumps you.
So…
My first big goal is to stay fit and healthy for me and my family. I have a wonderful wife and we have three great children – a 19 year old daughter, a 17 year old son and a 7 year old son.
My goal is to continue spending quality time with my wife and children for many years to come. I want to enjoy sharing in their lives as our children mature and in turn have their own children.
My second major goal is to stay very fit for surfing. Why? Because I just love surfing. The experience of riding an ocean wave is magical and I hope to be surfing when I am 70 and beyond.
That’s it.
No major list, not complex, but for me, very significant.
Find your BIG goals and go for it!
All the best
Jonathan
www.flexibilityplus.com

Yesterday I talked about being flexible in your training, allowing yourself to change your exercise program to suit your changing circumstances.
In my twenties and thirties I was focused on increasing my strength through lifting heavier weights on a progressive basis. Right now, my focus is far more on cardio fitness, flexibility and core strength, incorporating exercises to specifically improve my surfing performance.
This doesn’t mean that a person can’t keep the same focus with their training, as each of us needs to train in a manner that they enjoy, whether that means sticking to the same program year after year, or regularly changing their routine.
Whatever exercise system works for you, the main ingredient is to keep doing it!
Having said that, don’t fall into the trap of giving yourself too much to achieve. You need to create routines that are simple and easy to achieve. As you get fitter, stronger, more agile and flexible, then you can look at adding more to your program.
You are far better off to start a jogging program that has you running for 30 seconds for 5 days a week, then adding another 30 seconds so you jog for 1 minute for the next 5 days, then 1 minute and 30 seconds for the next 5 days, and so on; allowing you to comfortably build up to running for 20 minutes within about 9 months.
This beats going hard out for 10 minutes in your first run, feeling really exhausted, having very sore muscles for three or four days, and then giving up.
Set goals that build a strong foundation, that allow you to sustain exercise for year after year, because you are seeing great results and you are thoroughly enjoying yourself.
All the best
Jonathan
www.flexibilityplus.com

This is a big subject, but I am only going to touch on one aspect of it for now.
What I want to focus on is how your goals will change as you get older.
BUT you do need to have goals of some sort to stay motivated and to train regularly.
Over the previous two years I lost my motivation for surfing after getting hit by my surfboard across the side of my head which perforated my eardrum and took about six weeks to heal. Then I got a painful ear infection which kept me out of the surf for another few weeks, so all in all I was pretty fed up.
This led me to focus more on my martial arts and so I got more into stretching to increase my flexibility for higher kicks.
In an earlier post I talked about getting back into surfing this year, so I won’t go into that again, except to say that right now I am very focused on my surfing as I am really enjoying it.
So, I have developed a new exercise program that focuses a lot on cardio fitness, upper body strength, and core strength, with stretches to maintain my flexibility.
So you can see how my changed circumstances have resulted in my goals being changed.
My overall goal to be fit and healthy hasn’t changed, but how I train has altered to meet my micro goals. This flexible approach to exercising is really important, and is an aspect of training that is often taken for granted.
It is, however, the secret to longevity for your health and fitness, because as you grow older you will find that your circumstances do change, and these changes will affect what you can do.
So, go with the flow, train in a manner that achieves your goals and don’t be stuck in a groove.
Check out www.flexibilityplus.com which provides training methods that allow you to create your own unique personalised exercise program.
Enjoy your training
Jonathan