Cathy

Ask Coach Cathy- COVID-19 and massage

Dear friends,
I hope this note finds you well. By this time, I’m sure you are aware that COVID-19 (coronavirus) is beginning to widely circulate in the United States.
If you’re like me, you probably have concerns and are wondering what will come next. I would characterize my own feelings as cautious and concerned, but not panicked (no point in that, since that won’t help).
Here at OVOX our focus as always is to meet the needs of our members and perform our duties with excellence. And an important part of this is doing so with our entire team’s safety and health at the forefront. We haven’t had to make any great concessions yet—maybe not as many high fives and some extra diligence in washing our hands. Our thoughts are with all of you who earn your living through human touch. I have begun to receive questions about safety practices and guidance on giving massage. An issue like COVID-19 clearly represents a potential threat to our normal way of life, and for many clients that might mean questioning whether to receive massage or bodywork.
Unfortunately, there is no guidebook or directive to let us know the absolute correct answer, or even when that answer might change. The Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov) and World Health Organization (www.who.int) are our guiding authorities when it comes to health issues. At this point, they are encouraging good hygiene (something massage and bodywork professionals are steeped in already) and to avoid contact with others if you are sick (always good practice; critical in these times). Neither of those directives suggest not getting massage if you are in good health. I got my regular massage this week and intend to keep doing so.
We are doing our best to make sure we have helpful and pertinent up-to-date information. Should circumstances warrant, we’ll be back in touch.
I wanted to let you know that we are focused on providing you outstanding service and support and we wish you all good health.
Warm Regards,
Coach Cathy, LMT
OVOX Gym & Training Center

Ask Coach Cathy

(Member)
Hi Cathy,
I must ALWAYS warm up before I stretch, right?? -Mary K.
(Coach Cathy)
Hi Mary, 
Thanks for reaching out. To answer your question –That’s incorrect 🙂!
Stretching IS warming up. As you work your muscles, you are pumping blood to them and firing them, one at a time. As each set of stretches progresses, you gradually increase your range of motion with gentle assistance at the end of each stretch. Each subsequent stretch is a little more elongated, which means the muscle on top of the stretching muscle is firing a little harder. Everything is becoming more efficient and working more smoothly. This is why I recommend an Active-Isolated Stretch routine before you begin your workout. Following a workout, an identical routine can help flush metabolic wastes such as lactic acid, which accumulate in a stressed muscle. The gentle pumping action of the routine sends blood to parts of the body that have worked hard. Healing and recovery begin and are accelerated. Range of motion is restored in areas that have been tracked in very rigid and specific patterns- during running, for example. For these reasons, stretching is recommended as a “cool-down” routine.
Need extra help or interested in a new and better way to stretch? Set up your free movement assessment appointment today!!

Coach Cathy’s Notes: Let’s Talk About Active Isolated Stretching

–Coach Cathy’s Notes

Let’s Talk About Active Isolated Stretching

Active Isolated (AI) stretching can make a better athlete out of you. As we age, our muscles become increasingly inelastic. AI stretching can make substantial improvements in muscle elasticity, adding renewed life and spring to tired old muscles. AI stretching does what stretching was suppose to do. It reduces your work load in most sports by removing tightness so you can swing your limbs more freely. It transports oxygen to sore muscles and quickly removes toxins from muscles, so recovery is faster. AI stretching works as a deep massage technique because it activates muscle fibers during stretching. 

Here is how Active Isolated (AI) Stretching works:

1. Prepare to stretch one isolated muscle at a time.
2. Actively contract the muscle that is opposite the isolated muscle. The isolated muscle will relax in preparation for its stretch.
3. Stretch it gently and quickly- hold the stretch for no more than 2 seconds.
4. Release the stretch before the muscle reacts to being stretched (by going into protective contraction).
5. Do it again.
6. Go out and win!
Its that simple!
Active Isolated (AI) Stretching and BodyBuilding
 
Stretches to focus on:
                 Upper Legs, Hips, and Trunk
                 Shoulders
                 Arms, Elbows, Wrists, and Hands
                 Lower Legs, Ankles, and Feet

 To excel in any sport, your goal should be to put all the fitness pieces in place – health, strength, cardiovascular fitness ( endurance), and flexibility. The great irony of being a bodybuilder is that you may have only ONE of those components: strength. You look great, but you may be in lousy shape. Having all the components will ensure you’ll last longer, both in the gym and in your life.

In bodybuilding, flexibility is a vital element of both competition and training. More elastic muscles have more room to grow, and this means more mass, symmetry, and definition. Additionally, the more flexible a muscle, the shorter the recovery time after intense lifting. You’ll be able to  lift more weight for longer periods of time. When you lift, a muscle strains, sustaining a series of micro-tears. Its subsequent recovery from this trauma is what makes the muscle stronger, adapting it to the increasing weight loads you impose on it . When a muscle is flexible and elastic, it  is able to more quickly flush out the metabolic wastes resulting from the tears suffered during the lift. Quicker flushing means quicker recovery. And quicker recovery means accelerating the tear-down/build-up cycle that develops a muscle.
Sculpted, developed muscles are “what it’s all about” on the bodybuilding circuit. Muscles that are elongated from origin got insertion (or proximal to distal attachment) show off the muscle striations and “cuts”. You’ll look great in competition on a stage under the lights. And the benefits of flexibility don’t stop here. The more flexibility you have, the more varied, difficult, and exciting you can make the choreography in your routine.
Contact Cathy for your free movement assessment or schedule your stretch therapy session! 

The Power of Pain

The Power of Pain

Chronic conditions- which patients report as lasting more than three months, often manifest over an extended period and cause problems for several years.

For example, habits create posture, which over time becomes structure that ultimately affects function, movement, and performance.

I’ve seen this scenario before: A client, who has been working at a desk job for decades, comes to me with low-back pain. They think the pain is the result of their bending over the wrong way once. But in reality they have been setting themselves up for a lumbar disc herniation due to poor posture. Bending at their lumbar spine ended up being their body’s path of least resistance—and its weakest point—so it finally reached a breaking point.

Unfortunately, the client usually won’t seek professional help until the condition creates a severe level of pain. At that point, the brain and the body’s ability to function have diminished to a decompensated condition, and normal motor control can no longer be restored by conventional intervention.

When disease or trauma strikes, and recovery is delayed, chronic nociceptive stimuli, such as pain, stiffness, numbness and tingling, weakness, and other signs or symptoms can result in impaired cortical relay of motor output and reduced activity of painful muscles. Movement and function become limited because the sensory- motor interaction is inhibited.

Effective interventions

The clinical consequence of remedying such conditions is to stop trying to restore motor control in cases of patients with chronic conditions. Instead, consider interventions aimed at  kinesthetic guidance can be translated into behavior 30 times faster than visual guidance and several thousand times faster than audio guidance.

There are tools to help provide such kinesthetic guidance and address nociception-motor interaction. Applied appropriately, these can provide a novel somatosensory input to positively affect motor output. One can communicate with the somatosensory system through the skin and fascia, which is the richest sensory organ because it contains smooth muscle-like cells embedded within the fascia’s collagen fibers.

Kinesiology tape, which provides support while allowing full range of motion, is another tool that can be applied to the skin to provide kinesthetic guidance and normalize tone in the presence of movement dysfunction. Taping can decrease pain, unload tissue through decompression, and provide a novel stimulus to improve body awareness. Kinesiology tape can help key motor control centers of the body regain stability.

Foam rollers, stretch bands, and balls are ubiquitous mobility tools that can manipulate the myofascial system to normalize soft-tissue tone and remedy chronic conditions. These tools can address restrictions in motion that are seen at the joint and soft-tissue levels. Rolling, banding, and myofascial manipulation with balls can also help the body regain motion.

Look for our upcoming complimentary Kinesio-Taping and Movement sessions!!!

GET BACK TO DOING WHAT YOU LOVE- MOVE MORE, MOVE BETTER!!!!

Get Taped! 

Contact Cathy for your free movement assessment!

QUESTION; Can children start a strength training program?

 QUESTION;

Can children start a strength training program?

I’m often asked to give advice on the safety of strength training for children and adolescents.

Strength training, the use of resistance methods to increase a person’s ability to exert force, can include weights, resistance bands—or just one’s own body weight.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, strength training by kids 7 years and older has been shown to help improve cardiovascular fitness, bone density and mental health. Children as young as 7 can embark on a strength-training program, as long as they do all exercises with good form. Though this may sound young, strength training can consist of push-ups, sit-ups, handstands and squats—all of which a 6-year-old gymnast would think of as a normal part of the sport.

Studies have also shown that strength training by preadolescents and adolescents can result in an increase in strength, though children who haven’t gone through puberty aren’t likely to see much visible muscle gain.  

Puberty and the associated hormones allow muscle hypertrophy, which is when muscles get bigger. A 10-year-old won’t get bulky with resistance training, but at the microscopic level, the neurons will learn to ‘fire’ the muscle more quickly. By the time the child has gone through puberty, he or she could build muscle with as little as 8 weeks of strength training, though a lot of a person’s ability to get big muscles is genetic.

It is discouraged for young, skeletally immature children from participating in power lifting, body building or single-repetition lifts of very heavy weights. But  it’s great for a 7-year-old to build core strength: That is the No. 1 way to prevent injury for anyone, and core strengthening could be sit-ups or Pilates and not involve weight-lifting at all.

I would encourage children to learn the basics and good form before adding weights. I have seen coaches teach kids as young as 6 years to do overhead presses, deadlifting and bench-pressing with a broomstick to teach good form, They don’t need to add weight until around the age of 12 or after puberty, and then should have a coach or knowledgeable adult present. There are many cases where young patients who are still growing, try to deadlift heavy weight on their own at the gym. Now they have stress fractures in their backs because they were never taught to lift correctly.

Children under the age of 7 should focus on balance and posture control. If they do want to use weights, they should avoid adult-size machines and instead use free weights of 3 pounds or less, with supervision. Those 12 and older can build slowly to heavier weights as long as they are able to complete, with ease, 2 to 3 sets of exercises that include 8 to 10 repetitions during workouts of 20 to 30 minutes. Then they can increase the weight by 10% increments over weeks or months as those weights start to feel easier.

Injury can result from overuse, so adolescent athletes should use strength training to balance out their physiques. Once adolescents do start gaining muscle mass through a healthy form of strength training, they’ll need to stick with their regimen. You can decondition really easily, in as little as six weeks. Strength gains are not permanent. You use it or you lose it.”

Cathy- Licensed Sports Muscle Therapist

Can Walking Provide As Good A Workout As Running?

Can Walking Provide As Good A Workout As Running?

Running can keep your heart healthy, improve your mood, stave off sickness, and aid in weight loss.
Regular cardio (at any speed) is part of a healthy lifestyle. Lap for lap, running burns about 2.5 times more calories than walking.
Running may also help control appetite- this may have to do with runners’ increased levels of the hormone peptide YY, which may suppress appetite, so runners may lose more weight than walkers no matter how far the walkers go.

But running does have downsides: It puts more stress on the body and increases the risk for injuries like runner’s knee, hamstring strains, and shin splits (which plague even the most consistent runners).

So what’s the bottom line?

Move!!!!  I tell my clients you’re
wasting your time and my time coming to work out if you’re sedentary the rest of the time. We’re the most sedentary civilization in the history of humanity. As a result, we’re more unhealthy than we’ve ever been. It’s primarily tied to a lack of movement. And as we become more technologically savvy with every innovation, we move less and less.

So, how much do you really need to walk each day? Twelve thousand steps is the minimum for the average person, if you want to be in good shape and 14,000 if you want to get ripped (Twelve thousand steps is the equivalent of about 5.6 miles and 14,000 steps clocks in around 6.6 miles, FYI.)

So when running isn’t in the cards, walking with added weight might be your next best bet for an effective workout. Walking on the treadmill while wearing a weighted vest can increase the metabolic costs and relative exercise intensity. Similarly, increasing the incline on the treadmill makes for a more effective walking workout.

Ultimately, listening to your body and completing a proper warm-up and cool-down are all ways to prevent injuries. So in the long “run” you can spend more time running on the treadmill—and less time running to the doctor.

 
-Cathy

Healthy Living For The New Year!!! RECOVERY AND RESTORATION

Healthy Living For The New Year!!!

RECOVERY AND RESTORATION

You know you’re gonna be hitting the gym hard, spending hours lifting, day in and day out,,,, but do you know you might actually be stalling your progress??  Recovery and rest are essential parts of any strength and conditioning program. Recovery must occur before progress can be made. It’s important for staying injury free during your training.
In order to adapt to the stress placed on the body during intense workout sessions and competitions, it is recommended doing activities that help prevent and overcome injuries to the soft tissue. These include:

1)  Myofascial Release & Foam Rolling:
One of my favorite activities to release tight fascia is foam rolling. Foam rolling is a form of self-myofascial release that is commonly used by fitness and medical professionals. A myofascial release technique is intended to address localized tightness in the fascia. This localized tightness may be impairing proper movement by causing pain or limiting range of motion – or both.

2) Sports Massage:
To reduce muscle stiffness, promote circulation and induce a state of relaxation in the muscle It can be performed the night of a hard workout to remove scar tissue, adhesions in the muscle and restrictions in the fascia (a type of connective tissue that wraps around the whole body).

3) Corrective Exercise
Used to normalize human movement before increasing training or exercise demands.

4)  RockTape
A special kinesiology/sports tape that provides support while allowing full range of motion. Tape is used to decrease pain, unload tissue via decompression, and provide a novel stimulus that improves body awareness.

5)  HydrO2-infused Massage
SolaJet™ DRYWAVE™ Massage System delivers a full body, high pressure wave of water, intended to help flush and condition muscles while stimulating the lymphatic system, all while you remain clothed and dry. SolaJet is an effective form of massage due to its deep tissue penetration and soothing waves of warm water.
Recommendation :
10-15 minutes
1-2 times per week
Should be done 3-6 hours after the workout, if possible

*Studies have proven that 15 minutes on  a SolaJet™ DRYWAVE™ Massage System can provide physiological effects that would take 2 hours of rest to achieve. 

Don’t wait!!!
Book a Recovery and Restoration session- Contact Cathy by clicking here
Members receive a complimentary Movement Assessment & 15 minute SolaJet™ DRYWAVE™ Massage Session

 

Move or die, it’s that simple. by Cathy

Move or die, it’s that simple.

How important is movement? If you can’t move, you will die. 

Whether tending to crops or hunting our next meal, humans have lived most of our time on our feet. Unfortunately, as a society we are tending to move less and less, and as a result we are getting sicker and sicker.

With the advent of the desk job, smartphone, TV, and computer, we’re sitting down more than ever before. It is estimated that Americans sit 9.3 hours a day, which is even more time than we spend sleeping (7.7 hours). Our bodies weren’t built for that, and it’s starting to take a toll.

Sitting 6 or more hours per day makes you up-to 40% more likely to die within 15 years than someone who sits less than three.

Unfortunately, as we exercise we also tend to get injuries to the muscles, joints, and tendons. Normally when we see our health care provider while injured, the recommendation includes rest. Too much rest, in my opinion!!!

The abrupt cessation of physical training destroys any previous muscle strength gains in both older and younger individuals. In addition, studies have shown that 6–10 days of inactivity are associated with reduced glucose tolerance, insulin action, and GLUT-4 transporter levels. Others have reported reductions in total aerobic capacity, deltoid muscle respiratory capacity and muscle glycogen content compared with levels during peak season training.

Still others have reported significant increases in body weight and body fat after two months of detraining.

In order to avoid this detraining effect due to forced rest from injuries, It is suggested doing activities that help prevent and overcome injuries to the soft tissue.

Kinesiology tape – helps athletes of every level go stronger, longer.

I am a certified RockTape specialist and Functional Movement Therapist. I use RockTape kinesiology tape on my clients based on the obvious yet largely overlooked concept of muscles acting as a chain. RockTape is a special kinesiology/sports tape that provides support while allowing full range of motion. Tape is used to decrease pain, unload tissue via decompression, and provide a novel stimulus that improves body awareness. RockTape microscopically lifts the skin away from the muscle and fascia, which decompresses the area which reduces swelling. RockTape also signals the central nervous system through the skin’s nerves, which provides powerful feedback to minimize pain and cue form.

More functional movement is my goal. When you move better, you move more ! 

Book your functional movement assessment today with the RocDoc and start moving better with RockTape/Kinesiology sports taping.

-by Cathy

Question: “Hey, where can I box that’s not my boyfriend’s gym?” Answer: OVOX GYM AND TRAINING CENTER

If there is a key to getting in shape, it consists of finding a way to workout that doesn’t feel as if you are going to work. As a student of many self-defense disciplines since the age of 12, I trained in Boxing and Kickboxing several years starting in my early twenties. Though I never competed as a boxer, I was a sparring partner for those who did fight on the amateur circuit. It was the most intensely physical training I ever experienced.

After realizing the lack of places for women to go to learn Boxing and self defense while being emotionally empowered, I began teaching self defense/awareness classes. This led me to create “Defend “Til The End”- a women’s self defense and empowerment program created for women by a woman. I provided seminars covering women’s self defense and rape prevention/intervention programs because most self defense courses are created by men, and a lot of women are intimidated by the attitude that prevailed there-even in a place of learning. One of the most important things I’m most proud of about my training style which uses Boxing and Kickboxing fundamentals, is the comments I get from my clients about how much better they feel about themselves, how much more confident in their own skin they feel….THAT’S what it’s all about. Improving yourself and improving your skills. Never stop learning, never stop growing and you will stay strong in your heart and mind.

I currently train with professional fighters- there is no question about it-Boxing is a complete fitness program. It provides you with a holistic workout :strength, aerobic, conditioning, weight loss, and total body focus. It is no wonder why Boxers are the among the best conditioned athletes in the world!

There is no better time than now to start training!! Guaranteed to burn calories and fat, Sign up for an incredibly efficient workout-tone your ENTIRE body, learn valuable self defense moves, take out stress and aggression. Let’s face it, sometimes the best way to release stress after a hard day at work is some intense physical activity- “its an excellent release to beat up your boss on the pads-not you Stu- we love you!” 🙂

Speaking from experience, when you put yourself through a program that DOES really challenge you and you finish it that alone boosts confidence dramatically because you’ve accomplished something and that’s something to be proud of!

-Cathy

Cathy is available for one on one boxing and Cathy is one of the teachers of our OBOX classes

Flexibility is the key that unlocks fitness

“IF I HAD KNOWN I WAS GOING TO LIVE THIS LONG I WOULD HAVE TAKEN BETTER CARE OF MYSELF”.  This well-known bumper sticker is intended to make us laugh, but aging is no laughing matter. Doing it well takes hard work -a truth about all things in human performance.  “Creeping atrophy” happens slowly, starting as early as our twenties. The good news is that it is NEVER too late to to begin a fitness program.

A flexible body is more efficient, is more readily trained for strength and endurance, enjoys more range of motion, stays balanced more easily, is less prone to injury, recovers from workouts more quickly, and feels better. Fitness is defined as a combination of flexibility, strength, endurance and cardiovascular health. As we age, flexibility is the key that unlocks all the other components.

No matter what your goal is, you deserve to live, work, play, and love in a body that is performing at its maximum potential.   Whether you are a serious competitor or a weekend warrior, you know that proper stretching before and after your workout can improve your performance, increase your flexibility, help prevent injury, and make you feel better. But did you know that the traditional way of stretching -lock your knees, bounce, hurt, hold longer- actually makes muscles tighter and more prone to injury?? There is a new and better way to stretch- welcome to the next generation of stretching – Active Isolated Stretching (AI). AI stretching does what stretching is supposed to do. It reduces your work load in most sports by removing tightness so you can swing your limbs more freely. It transports oxygen to sore muscles and quickly removes toxins from muscle so recovery is faster. AI stretching works as a deep massage technique because it activates muscle fibers during stretching.

Even if you are a veteran stretcher, you’ll be struck by how specifically you stretch exactly where you need it the most. Isolated Stretching is just that, isolated. It’s critical to stretch one muscle at a time. That’s what’s wrong with the typical stretch on the gym floor where you see a person trying to touch his knee with his head. He’s trying to stretch his back and hamstrings at the same time. If you do that, you are literally pitting one muscle group against the other, making you more prone to injury.

Active Isolated Stretching is a groundbreaking technique used by personal trainers and coaches on professional, amateur and Olympic athletes. The routine is simple- First you prepare to stretch one isolated muscle at a time. Then you actively contract the muscle opposite the isolated muscle, which will then relax in preparation for is stretch. You stretch it gently and quickly, releasing it before it goes into protective contraction. Then you repeat. Simple, but the results are outstanding.

Active Isolated Stretching is an excellent tool you can use for your health. Begin with a Fitness Evaluation to check your flexibility range and then make a decision to put Active Isolated Stretching into your workout. Once you know your present flexibility range, you’ll know which muscles need the most work to get you to our maxim performance potential. Book your free fitness evaluation today!!