Rami's Blog

Like the Yin-Yang, Eastern Martial Arts and Western medicine are two halves of a whole. My mission is to preserve the ancient mind-body tools and pass them on to you.

 

The Long and Short of Weight Loss Motivation

People are notoriously bad at keeping their eye on the longterm goal. When it comes to motivation, if we don't get results soon, we feel like giving up.

Sometimes, we get good results soon, and then they taper off. And when the going gets tough, our desire for results isn't met, and our ability to commit tapers off as well.

While health and fitness are about perseverance, there are ways of thinking about your goals that make them easier to reach.

If your ultimate goal is weight loss, you can't feel closer to that goal every day. Our bodies simply cannot burn pounds of fat that quickly, so if you are measuring your daily achievements with a scale, you are going to be disappointed.

However, with a little mindfulness, we can measure how we feel after we workout. We can pay attention to how our body feels, and how our energy level is, and how well we sleep. Those things all happen within hours of our workout. If those feelings are your goal, and you pay attention to your progress toward them, then you will feel rewarded every day that your exercise.

Focus on the immediate rewards that come with working out. If you value those results more and more, you will be motivated enough each day to stick to your routine. And when you stick to your routine, you lose weight. It just takes a while.

Happy stretching!

Mind-over-Matter Weight Loss: Walk Like A Warrior

This will be the first installment in our new Weight Loss Workout Series! We will be releasing the exercises every Tuesday, and at the end of the first half (the Yang half) we will release a detailed routine. The Yang half of the workout is focused on burning calories and building strength. The Yin half will be focused on stretching and relaxation. When combined, these two halves of a workout form my Mind-over-Matter approach to weight loss. I believe that weight loss is equal parts exercise and will power. This workout series is aimed at helping you develop both your body, and your mind.

The first exercise is called Walk Like a Warrior. It's a great warm-up that will saturate your muscles with blood and oxygen so that you can perform the rest of the exercises more effectively.

Mind-Body Workout #7: Workout with the Kids

The kids are home from school, and you can't keep them at summer camp forever. That means, sooner or later, the family needs to find some activities to do together to release all that extra energy. So today, we're giving you a mind-body workout for the whole family (or just the kids) that is designed to be fun and keep everyone moving and involved.

Good Luck!

Mind-Body Workout #7: Workout with the Kids

Move like an octopus: This movement is good for a few reasons. First, the kids will have fun pretending their arms are little octopi, and the more they get into it, the better it will be for them. Second, I suggest you do this in the water, like at the beach or a pool. The water resistance keeps you from straining your muscles and moving too fast, and it makes the octopus game even more fun!

Legs like a windmill: This exercise is pretty intense, which is probably why the kids will love it. Just make sure they stand far enough apart so they don't accidentally kick each other. The parents may have trouble keeping up, but that's okay, let the kids get that energy out while the parents grab a cold drink.

Moving Meditation: This meditation (kind of like patty-cake) requires that the kids focus on their fine motor movements. It doesn't leave a lot of room for talking or watching TV or texting. Most young children are too active and excited to appreciate meditation that is quiet and motionless. Instead, give them this little clapping pattern to repeat, and watch as they slowly calm down. 

Funny Noises: Lastly, after the kids have sat down for the moving meditation, go ahead and do a vocal meditation. Have the kids focus on the sensations in the top of their head, their throat, and their chest as they change pitch and find their own sounds. This is an opportunity for kids to be a little loud without being disruptive. Have them take a big breath in before each round of noise making, and don't hold the notes too long: kids have smaller lungs than adults do, so they will run out of air more quickly.

Happy Stretching!

Dealing with Sciatica

Pain that shoots up or down the leg and into the lower back can be caused by a few different things, and the first step in treating this kind of pain is understanding where it's coming from.

One possible cause of this leg and back pain is an issue with your Sacroiliac Joint. SI joint issues are often mistaken for lower back injuries or sciatica. They can occur due to age, posture, lifestyle, and are more common in women.

Another cause of this pain is sciatica. Instead of being caused by improper functioning of a joint, sciatica is usually the result of a herniated disc, or other spinal issue. The disc or soft tissues pinch the nerve roots in the lower back , which send pain singles down the sciatic nerve and into the legs.

The pain from sciatica can range from hardly noticeable to incapacitating. When it gets bad, doctors will often suggest cortisone injections. But this fix is only temporary.

If you want to prevent sciatica, or treat your current sciatic pain and prevent reoccurrence, follow this mind-body exercise routine, similar to the one for SI Joint pain:

  1. Calf Stretch: Remember to utilize 60% effort, less is often more with joint and nerve issues
  2. Vitamin H: Do whichever hamstring stretch works best for you. The video shows a few ways to safely stretch your hamstrings if you back is giving you problems.
  3. Chair Twist: Again, go only to between 60% and 80% effort. 
  4. Outer Hip Stretch: Can be done on a chair, or on the ground. (Video coming Tuesday!)
  5. Groin Stretch: You can use a chair or a machine, like I show in the video.

Remember, meditation is a huge part of healing and relaxation. Pairing your physical exercises with breathing patterns and Tai Chi forms will only improve your results. Consider combining this exercise with my Sunrise Tai Chi form, visualizing the energy from the sun flowing through your body, into the SI Joint or Sciatic Nerve, and then down into the Earth, dissolves the pain like a river eroding a stone.