Osteo Pilates Blog

Should you exercise before having surgery?

August 31st, 2010 by Karena

We have been the #1 studio for helping clients/patients prepare for hip surgery this year.

Pre-surgery exercise: The Key to Quick Recovery

We’ve helped three women prep for the surgery and now we have a fourth prepping to go in in a few weeks. I am impressed that so many are thinking about getting fit before surgery. And I think you will be inspired by their results.

I had a client this morning, our third total hip replacement, who was back at Pilates for the first time today, post-surgery. Her surgery was 8 weeks ago and the stories she shared with me are almost verbatim what our other clients have told us about their speedy recoveries from a quite invasive surgery. I have listed quotes from their stories here for you. Be prepared to be amazed.

“My doctor said he has never seen anyone recover so quickly from a total hip replacement.”
“My physical therapist said she would show me how to get out of bed and I had already been back and forth to the bathroom just hours after surgery.”
“My physical therapist asked me to wait so she could tie the belt around my waist to keep me falling. When she saw me maneuver my way to the walker she threw the belt down, saying: Guess we don’t need that!”
“My friends are mad because it took them many more months, if not a full year, to get where I am now.”
“I can’t believe what exercising has done for me to prepare me for the surgery.”
“The pain from the incision is nothing compared to the pain my hip was in before surgery. And with all the work I did pre-surgery I just feel amazing.”
“My doctor wants me to use my cane if only to remind me not to do anything crazy.” (4 weeks post hip surgery)

Great stories, huh? Thought you’d like those. These are just notes on hip surgery. If you are looking at going in for any type of surgery, I highly recommend working with someone who is familiar with pre-surgery protocols so that you can get back to living as soon as possible. Surgery is traumatic enough; don’t allow the recovery to be anything but a breeze. Wishing you great health. K

Tags: karena thek lineback, Pain Relief
Posted in For Fitness Fanatics, For Professionals, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Exercise for Hip Bursitis Pain Relief

August 29th, 2010 by Karena

As I was lying on the couch, acutely aware of where my trochanter inserts into

Hip burisitis occurs when the cushion between the hip bone and thigh bone gets inflamed

my acetabulum, I thought: ‘I should write my little friends (you!) a note about bursitis’. I have had some flare ups with the ol’ ‘B’ word but I can generally keep the pain pretty short-lived because I know what to stay away from. And if you have bursitis, I think you should know, too!

Acute episodes of bursitis need never become chronic. Just stop pushing on the bursa! The bursa is a soft little pillow that cushions the connection between your thigh bone and your pelvis and if your thigh bone continues to squish the bursa, it becomes inflamed; hence the ‘-itis’ that gets suffixed onto the backside of bursa…

How do you squish the bursa? The bursa is squished when you externally rotate the thigh. External rotation crams the greater trochanter into the acetabulum squeezing the life out of the bursa. That’s fine when the bursa is happy but when it’s not happy you need to avoid squishing, smushing and otherwise irritating the bursa.

Here are some things you can do to avoid externally rotating the thigh.

Don’t cross your legs with one ankle dropped over the opposite knee.
Do sit with the legs together, knees touching. If you can cross the legs and smush the inner thighs together you will still be avoiding external rotation and you could be internally rotating which will pull the thigh bone away from the bursa–aaahhhh, sweet relief…. (think piriformis stretch for the professionals out there)
Walk with your feet pointed straight ahead: no duck feet. Duck feet externally rotate the hip and smush the bursa
Perform exercises that internally rotate the hip. Lie on your back, feet hip-width apart and push the knees towards each other. You can do an isometric push here.
Another exercise: Lie on your side, bottom leg bent, top leg straight. Now lift the top leg to just below hip height. Then bring the entire inside of the foot back down to touch the floor (heel to big toe knuckle)
Sleep on your back with your ankles crossed and knees rotated inward. Okay, so you might not last the entire night that way but it is a great way to get off that bursa!
Do not move the leg to the side of your body past the hip bone. (No hip abduction for the professionals…) You will have to adopt a demur lady-like position in everything you do until the pain subsides.
Do not sit cross-legged.

Does this make sense? Each and every time you externally rotate the thigh or carry the thigh to the outside of the body you ’smush’ the bursa. Since the bursa is inflamed that kind of motion is only going to tick it off further. So…you’ll get relief extremely quickly if you can just remember to STOP SMUSHING THE BURSA.

Good luck and let me know if you have any questions! K

Tags: exercise for pain relief, karena thek lineback, Pilates for Pain
Posted in Case Studies, For Fitness Fanatics, For Professionals | No Comments »

“So What If I Die Out of Shape?”

August 27th, 2010 by Karena

This quote-of-the-day comes from a long-time patient and retired doctor who calls

Our 'Five-Toe' is even Cuter than this Sloth!

himself ‘The Five-Toed Sloth”. He retired from doctoring due to back/hip pain and we’ve been working together for about 5 years. He is definitely a believer in the ability of movement to heal pain and is hugely grateful for that pain relief.

So ‘Five-Toe’ (what we call him for short) came in discouraged and out blurted a variation on the ‘death statement’. You’ve probably heard something along the lines of: “It doesn’t matter what I do; we are all going to die anyway”. Yes, but wouldn’t it be great if we could all live while we are still breathing?

Do you know anyone who has spent years of their lives hindered because of disease or pain? How much of this is preventable? Almost all heart disease, all Type II diabetes and approximately 50% of all cancers are preventable with healthier diet decisions. Colon cancer risk is reduced 30% with daily exercise, depression is reduced, energy is increased, pain is reduced… In fact, I’ve never seen a single study that said: “Just eat Twinkies and for heaven’s sake STOP exercising!”

But let’s get back to good ol’ “Five-Toe”. I don’t put him through a series of therapeutic exercises twice weekly in order to keep people from sadly shaking their heads at his funeral: “Too bad he died so out-of-shape.” No, we work together so he can live while he is still breathing. So that when he does pass away no one will say: “What a relief; he suffered for so long.” No, they’ll remember him for doing just what he wanted and just what he loved every day that he lived.

Tags: back pain relief, Exercise for Back Pain, exercises for pain relief, heal back pain, heal pain, karena thek lineback, live without pain, lower back pain, osteoporosis, Pain Relief, Pilates Exercise, range of motion exercise
Posted in Cancer, For Fitness Fanatics, Heal Your Back Pain | No Comments »

Big Changes Require, well, Big Changes

August 12th, 2010 by Karena

That retreat I went to two weeks ago? The leader gave everyone two things to do for 30 days: write and exercise outside daily. The writing is easy; the exercising daily, that’s easy too. It’s the exercising outside that is a big push for me.

I’m willing to put up with the discomfort because I’m ready for change even though I really don’t know what that change will look like. More like: ‘Surprise Me, Universe!’ And if I get up every morning and eat the same food, take the dogs on the same walk, do the same exercise, talk to the same people, then it just isn’t logical that things would change with so much same-ness.

Turns out that I wasn’t alone in my sentiment to ’stop the same-ness’. I have had three new clients come to me in the last week not to get fit but to catalyze change. Two clients want to come four times a week and one wants to come once a week.

The first is a professional woman who absolutely insists that we not ‘beat up on her’. She said: ‘I know being stronger, more toned will be a side-effect, but I’m coming everyday because I want to do things differently and I know that making the appointments will keep me committed to ‘doing things differently.’

The second client wants to be able to commit more time to his young family and to a profession in which he excels on a national level. He is curious to see how far he can take his profession if he has the stamina to pursue it.

The third client simply wants to be able to go through range of motion exercises so that he regains range of motion throughout his whole body and then never loses that ability again.

Not one of these three clients grabbed their guts and said: ‘I need you to get rid of this’. Not one said: ‘I need to lift my sagging derriere’ or ‘I want to look 10 years, 15 or 20 years younger’ or ‘I have a wedding in 6 weeks’. It was much more personal than that. Much broader than that. They were all looking for change, yes, but they were interested in using exercise as the catalyst not as ‘the change’ itself. Cool, huh?

Tags: karena thek lineback, pilates, Pilates Exercise
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

‘Natural Strawberry Flavoring’

August 4th, 2010 by Karena

Ever read a label and see ‘Natural Strawberry Flavoring’? It could be in your sodas,

'Natural' Strawberry Flavoring?

your pie fillings, your strawberry desserts. So here it is, the list of ingredients that make up ‘Natural Strawberry Flavoring’ (Source: Antonia Demas PhD; founder of the Food Studies Institute):

amyl acetate, amyl butyrate, amyl valerate, anethol, Anisyl formate, Benzyl acetate, Benzyl isobutyrate, butyric acid, cinnamyl isobutyrate, cinnamyl valerate, cognac essential oil, diacetyl, dipropyl ketone, ethyl acetate, aethyl amyl ketone, Ethyl butyrate, ethyl cinnamate, ethyl heptanoate, ethyl heptylate, ethyl lactate, ethyl methylphenyglycidate, ethyl nitrate, ethyl propionate, ethyl valerate, heliotropin, hydroxy-phenyl-2-butanone (10 percent solution in alcohol), a-ionone, isobutyl anthranilate, isobutyl butyrate, lemon essential oil, maltol, 4-methylacetophenone, methyl anthranilate, methyl benzoate, methyl cinnamate, methyl heptine carbonate, methyl maphthyl ketone, methyl salicylate, mint essential oil, neroli essential oil, nerolin, neryl isobutyrate, orris butter, phenethyl alcohol, rose, rum ether, g-undecalactone, vanillin and solvent.

Natural Flavoring? Even though it is made in a perfume factory the manufacturer can use the word ‘natural’ because it uses a few natural ingredients like lemon oil and mint oil.

Artificial Strawberry flavoring? It has 10 more ingredients and they are all chemicals

A generic pop-tart has natural and artificial strawberry flavoring in it. That’s 90 ingredients… holy toledo….

Tags: all natural strawberry flavoring, ingredients in strawberry flavoring, strawberry flavoring
Posted in For Fitness Fanatics, Nutrition | 12 Comments »

Calcium Supplements Raise Heart Attack Risk 31%

August 2nd, 2010 by Karena

According to the British Medical Journal (July 2010), calcium supplements may increase bone density but they do not reduce fracture risk. The supplements have also been found to increase your heart attack risk by 31%. So, I’d say it’s time to start looking at other options for obtaining your calcium and for reducing your fracture risk.

To reduce your fracture risk, I recommend this exercise: Weighted Spine Extension. The link below goes to a previous blog that describes a single exercise that can reduce your fracture risk 300%. That is not a typo. 300%! That’s huge. (Mayo Clinic 2002). See the exercise here: I want to reduce my fracture risk!

Now for the recipes. Many people taking calcium supplements are doing so because they get

Rhubarb is high in calcium! Who knew?

bloated or gassy or just experience pain from eating dairy products. You don’t have to eat dairy to get loads of calcium. And the really good news is that the dairy alternatives generally carry all kinds of amazing anti-oxidants that are going to do a lot more for you than just keep your bones safe, but more on anti-oxidants in a future post.

Kale and Plum Vinegar and Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce are the treats awaiting you. Both kale and rhubarb are high in calcium.

Kale and Plum Vinegar

2 bunches of Kale cut into one inch widths
1 t minced garlic
1 onion; halved and sliced into crescents
2 T of plum vinegar

Boil the kale for about 3-7 minutes until tender. While that is boiling, steam-fry your onion and garlic. When the kale is tender, drain it and add it to your onion and garlic. Add the plum vinegar and stir fry for about 2 minutes. I like to put the kale in a circle around the dinner plate with brown rice and beans and fresh tomatoes in the center. Enjoy!

Strawberry, Rhubarb, Rose Water Syrup

2 cups sliced rhubarb
2 T fresh squeezed orange juice
1 cup turbinado
1/2 cup water
1 T corn starch, dissolved in 2 T water
2 cups strawberries, sliced
1 tsp rosewater

Toss the rhubarb with the orange juice and turbinado. Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes or until the rhubarb is cooked through. Let cool at room temperature. In a saucepan, combine the water, 2 T turbinado and bring to a simmer. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry and cook for 2-3 minutes until the liquid becomes clear. Stir in the strawberries and the rhubarb and the rosewater. Refrigerate 2 hours or until well chilled.

Recipes: These recipes are from The Artful Vegan. The Artful Vegan is a cookbook created by The Millenium Restaurant in San Francisco. I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. Take your non-vegan friends and you’ll have some converts for sure. Here’s the link to Amazon if you’d like to check the book out: The Artful Vegan.

Tags: core muscles, karena thek lineback, osteoporosis, pilates
Posted in Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

A Truck Drove Through My Exercise Studio

July 30th, 2010 by Karena

Yep, that’s the trouble with exercising outside. I attended a women’s retreat last weekend

My Outdoor Exercise Studio

and part of the homework was to perform 5 exercises every morning: preferably outside.

Exercising outside is a bit of a challenge for me. It’s not the exercises, it’s just the embarrassment of drawing so much attention to myself. Yes, I know, with the television appearances and just my personality in general you’d think I’d be okay with spinning on my head and shouting positive affirmations in public, but, No. Definitely–NO.

Days 1: The Experiment Begins. Day One, I did the exercises at the park across the street from my home with my two dogs in tow. That was not going to work: too many people.

Days 2, 3, 4 and 5: Much better. I found a secluded little alcove behind the park up in the trails. I could do my exercises, look into the canopy of the trees, watch the sun cresting the hill next to me and the dog wrangling was minimal. The Old Dog wandered on her own. The Puppy stayed tied to my wrist and ate dirt.

Day 6: A Little Commotion. When someone walks by on the high path next to ‘My Alcove’ you can barely see their heads bobbing along. It wasn’t until This Day that The Puppy noticed the floating heads and he bayed, howled and hollered at those heads. So with my tushie in the air, belly in the dirt or bum full or prickers the heads were pretty steadily gawking down into My Alcove.

Day 7: The Truck. Time to trim Live Oak #1,987 and to accomplish that task a City Truck drove right through my outdoor studio. I saw it coming when I was on my knees attempting a backbend. The Puppy howled and The Old Dog stormed the truck. I picked the sand out of my knees, brushed the prickers out of my bum, scratched my head to get rid of the any ants and grabbed those dogs and my dignity and went for a walk.

Maybe tomorrow, I’ll just stream my workout on the web and get it over with.

Tags: exercise outside, exercising outdoors, exercising with dogs, outdoor exercise, pilates exercise outside
Posted in For Fitness Fanatics | 3 Comments »

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