Participants: Dick Nunez (Host), Cindy Hanson and Megan Frasier
Series Code: BASA
Program Code: BASA000036
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00:02 The following program is designed
00:03 to demonstrate simple workouts 00:04 that you can use to improve your health. 00:08 Be sure to consult your physician 00:10 before beginning any exercise program. 00:14 If you ask a group of people what the weak link of a man is, 00:18 the woman will inevitably point at the head. 00:20 Unfortunately, if you ask what a woman's weak link is, 00:23 the men will also point at their head. 00:25 Well, today, we're gonna talk about 00:26 a woman's weak link. What is it? 00:29 Stay tuned and find out next on Body & Spirit aerobics. 00:59 Dick Nunez, Wellness Director 01:01 of Black Hills Health and Education Center. 01:03 Welcome to Body & Spirit aerobics. 01:06 Today, we're gonna talk about a topic 01:08 that might surprise you. 01:09 We're talking about a woman's weak link. 01:11 What is it? Well, really it focuses in 01:13 on the upper thoracic vertebral column. 01:15 Women notoriously will have bad posture. 01:18 They have a lot of forward head tilt problems. 01:20 And if you look at some of our more famous actresses, 01:23 you'll see that their posture has much to be desired. 01:26 So we're gonna talk more about that along with going over 01:28 some exercises to help improve that. 01:30 So I believe we're ready to get started. 01:32 Helping me out today will be Cindy and Megan. 01:35 I figured if we're gonna do a program on women, 01:37 we might as well get a couple of women out here. 01:39 And we've got Cindy who's been helping us at the Black Hills 01:43 and she's a little bit more mature than Megan is, 01:46 who is still a teenager 01:47 and so I have a nice variety here. 01:49 One who wants to prevent the problems 01:52 and one who needs to think ahead. 01:54 So we're gonna start out by warming up 01:56 and so we're gonna do some arm circles just to loosen up. 02:00 We'll be working that thoracic area. 02:03 The upper thoracic area is made up of a lot of muscles. 02:07 In fact, what we're gonna be focusing on 02:08 is the scapular area and you know it more 02:11 as your shoulder blade area. 02:13 There are 16 muscles attached each side of the scapula. 02:15 So makes it a very complex 02:17 network of muscles that do a lot of work. 02:19 And so right now, as we're just doing these rotation exercises, 02:23 even though it seems really simple, 02:24 we're actually warming up the muscles 02:26 of that upper thoracic area. 02:30 Okay, let's come around the other way. 02:35 Many of you have heard of the rotator cuff 02:38 and the rotator cuff is made up of the supraspinatus, 02:41 infraspinatus, teres minor and subscapularis 02:44 and all four of those muscles 02:45 are attached into the scapula area 02:48 and a part of that upper thoracic area 02:49 that I'm talking about. 02:52 Okay, we're gonna go about five more here. 02:55 Make sure we're good and loose 02:57 because we're gonna have some fun today, ladies. 03:01 Okay, now the first thing 03:04 we're gonna do is some pushups. 03:05 Now, women often times get little skittish 03:08 when you start talking about pushups so do men. 03:10 Often times I ask people to do pushups they say, 03:12 "I haven't done this since I was in high school," 03:14 and so forth. Well, for Megan, that's not a problem 03:16 because she's stillin that age category. 03:18 For Cindy it might be two or three years ago. 03:20 So we have to be a lot more 03:22 concerned about the pushups here. 03:24 But I remember one time at the center, 03:26 some 50-year-old women were having a pushup contest 03:29 and this old 86-year-old woman said, "Can I try too?" 03:32 And she climbed down there, after the girls did about 10, 03:34 she did 20 or 18 of them actually. Wow. 03:37 And they asked her how she did. 03:38 And she goes I started with Body & Spirit 03:40 doing pushups against the wall 03:41 and then went down and did them off my knees. 03:43 Then I got so I could do regular pushups. 03:45 It really shocked the 50-year-old women 03:47 but she said I actually had a bad day. 03:49 Usually, I do 20 of them. 03:50 So we're gonna see what we can do. 03:52 We're gonna do a modified pushup. 03:53 We're gonna do them off your knees. 03:54 So go ahead and get down on the floor, ladies. 03:58 Now straighten your body out 04:00 but you're gonna be on your knees. 04:02 So get your hips down a little bit, Cindy. 04:04 Down, down, go the other way with your knees, there you go. 04:06 Now lower yourself down and push back up, 04:10 very good, down and up. 04:12 We wanna try and keep the back straight 04:16 and focus on pressing from the chest and push. 04:22 Now as they come down, 04:24 it is making their shoulder blades come together. 04:27 As we isolate on Megan over here as she--every time 04:29 she comes down, the scapular bones are coming together, 04:33 those muscles are being contracted 04:35 and extended every time she comes up. 04:38 Cindy is starting to quiver just a little bit. 04:41 Let's go three more. 04:44 And up, now come all the way up. 04:47 Now go down part way and hold it for ten seconds, 04:50 one, two three, four, five, 04:54 six, seven, eight, nine and ten, good. Come on up. 05:02 That felt good, didn't it? Yeah. It feels great. 05:04 All right, let's stretch out now. 05:06 Put your hands behind your head 05:07 and push your elbows back as far as you can. 05:11 When we work a muscle, then we like to stretch it as well. 05:17 And so now let's give ourselves a nice big hug. 05:19 The way you do that is reach as far over as you can. 05:22 And try and pull your shoulder blades apart. 05:26 Everything we're doing is focusing on 05:27 that scapular region, okay. 05:31 Now let's come up again 05:34 and push the elbows back as far as you can. 05:40 And now give yourself a hug again. 05:46 All right and relax. 05:49 Now before we continue on, 05:51 we're gonna do a real quick anatomy lesson. 05:53 So I'm gonna have Megan turned round. 05:55 And if we can get the camera over here on her back, 05:59 the network of the muscles 06:02 we're talking about is right in through here. 06:03 So we have the scapula here. 06:04 We have rhomboids that are on each side here like this. 06:07 Then the muscles of the rotator cuff, 06:09 the supraspinatus, infraspinatus, 06:11 teres minor are down here. 06:13 Subscapularis is underneath. 06:15 Then you have the levator scapulae that run like this 06:17 from the superior angle of the scapula up to T-- 06:21 or C1 through 4 on both sides 06:23 and then the trapezius covers the whole thing. 06:25 Trapezius goes from the occipital protuberance 06:28 all the way down to T12. 06:29 So it's a very large muscle, very complex network. 06:32 But that's where we're focusing in on, okay. 06:34 Megan, could you get the towels for us please? 06:39 On Body & Spirit, we use very complicated exercise equipment. 06:43 And so here it is, it's our towel. 06:45 Now what I've told people for years 06:47 and we've been doing this show for eight years now, 06:49 that if you could tear the towel in two, 06:53 you can have it, okay? It'll be your souvenir. 06:55 But what we're gonna do is we're gonna take our towel, 06:57 and we're gonna keep it down here at arms straight 07:00 and act like you wanna pull it part. 07:02 So you've got tension on there, 07:03 then we're gonna come up like this, 07:07 then you'll come back down, okay. 07:09 And then up and then back down. 07:13 Keep pulling the towel apart the whole time, 07:16 pull and when you come back, 07:19 I want you to stretch back and then pull it over, 07:22 keep your arms straight. 07:24 Come up, stretch back, 07:27 keep pulling it apart the whole time and come down. 07:33 Now if you're wondering about the aerobics part, 07:35 we'll still get to that too. 07:37 We just want to focus on the first part of the program 07:40 on working the upper thoracic vertebral column. 07:45 And up and down. 07:49 When you see women as they get older, often times 07:51 they develop upper rounding of the thoracic vertebrae 07:55 called the dowager's hump. 07:56 And it's not something that women want. 07:59 Have you ever seen that before, Megan? Yes, I have. 08:01 Okay, you want them-- one of those one day? No. 08:03 No. Okay, so it's best to prevent that. 08:06 And the best way of doing that is keeping the muscles strong. 08:09 Now the reality is people if they have bad posture, 08:13 they think all I have to do is stand up straighter. 08:15 Well, it doesn't' work that way. 08:16 You've got to do some work in the muscle area. 08:19 And if you do that, then the body will automatically 08:21 start to hold you up right. 08:23 But without muscles-- tensioning 08:25 and the muscle strength, it's not gonna happen. 08:28 You're not just gonna will yourself to stand up straight. 08:31 'Cause inevitably you'll forget about it 08:33 and you'll start to slouch again. 08:36 Okay, now we're gonna take our towel, step out 08:40 and you're gonna reach and grab it here. 08:42 And you're gonna pull back and then go back out again. 08:47 Okay, you want to draw it straight back there, Cindy. 08:51 Okay, reach out, reach out. 08:53 Get this hand closer. There you go. 08:56 Okay, now, now pull and way up. 08:59 There you go. Very good. 09:04 Okay, good. 09:08 Act like you're sawing a log there. 09:11 And I don't mean lay down and fall asleep. 09:15 Okay, keep it in tight to you, glide in here, 09:18 and back out, glide in here and back out. 09:24 Okay, let's switch the other way now. 09:27 Okay, keep it fairly close 09:30 like soak so that way you can get a good reach on it. 09:34 Get this hand closer. 09:36 There you go. 09:39 Closer still. 09:41 Okay now reach all the way out and pull, straight back. 09:44 There you go, very good. 09:46 Let's see how we're doing here. 09:47 Okay, let's get down a little tighter. 09:50 Okay right in here, good. 09:53 Okay, give yourself some resistance 09:57 or I'm gonna grab the other end there. 10:01 Okay, keep going. 10:07 All right, let's go about three more. 10:12 And last one, good. 10:15 Okay, Megan, go ahead and take them off for us, please. 10:18 Okay, now we're gonna focus on the shoulder region. 10:21 So I want you to put your arms out straight 10:24 and we're gonna make small circles. 10:27 This is a lot of fun guaranteed 10:30 that you'll feel your shoulders. 10:32 And of course as we're doing the rotation, 10:34 you're working the muscles of the scapular area. 10:38 Okay, now let's make bigger circles. 10:41 Keep the palms pointed to the ground, 10:43 keep the arms straight. 10:45 For those at home, if you need to put 10:47 your arms down, go ahead and do so. 10:50 Hopefully, our ladies will be able to hang in there with me. 10:53 Just remember, my arms weigh more than yours do. 10:55 So if I can keep up, you can keep up. 10:57 All right, now let's go back the other way. 11:02 Okay, make bigger circles, 11:08 biggerstill, okay now make small circles. 11:14 Are you starting to feel it yet? Yeah. 11:16 Okay, now go back to the front again. 11:21 Okay, big circles 11:24 keep the arms nice and straight, good solid posture. 11:27 Okay, now we're gonna hold it just like that. 11:31 And we're gonna try and hold it for one minute. 11:34 Okay, just stay there nice and steady. 11:36 Don't start playing airplane and things like that. 11:38 Just hold yourself nice and steady. 11:40 Keep the palms down, the arms straight. 11:44 We've done 15 seconds 11:47 and it's gonna create a little bit of burning again. 11:49 You need to put your arms down at home 11:51 go ahead and do so as I know this can get difficult. 11:55 Our ladies are hanging in there. Okay. 11:57 Cindy is starting to shake again. 11:58 Megan still looks like a rock. 11:59 Maybe I need to go push on her arms a little bit, okay. 12:04 Now if you wanna do this with weights, 12:06 very light weights, you can do that too. 12:07 Certainly, it makes a lot harder 12:10 and we're down to our last 15 seconds. 12:14 Okay, up, up, up there you go. 12:17 All right almost there, nine more seconds. 12:25 Okay, and two, one relax. 12:29 Oh, that felt good, didn't it? Yeah, it did. 12:31 It's good. Okay, now we're gonna 12:33 shrug the shoulders up and come down, 12:36 shrug up and down, and up and down, and up and down. 12:43 This motion is working on the trapezius area, 12:46 lift those shoulders as high as you can. 12:49 Put yourself in ears, okay. 12:53 Way up, way down, way up, way down, 12:58 we men are very good at this motion. 13:01 I don't know, I don't know shrug the shoulders. 13:06 Okay, way up, way up, way up, 13:12 two more times, up and up. 13:15 Okay, let's stretch that area the first where 13:17 we're going do it is go over the head. 13:19 Okay, good. 13:24 Hold it for about 10 seconds, 13:26 feel that stretch in through the side. 13:31 You're both nice and flexible. Good. 13:33 Switch to the other side. 13:36 Keeping your body flexible is another good way 13:38 of keeping that upper thoracic region healthy. 13:42 If you lose that ability, you're always gonna regret it. 13:45 And one thing--okay go and relax a second, ladies, 13:48 I always correct women on whenever they come 13:51 to our Wellness Program is when they stand like this. 13:55 This is horrible posture for women 'cause it encourages them 13:59 to have the rounding of the upper thoracic hump. 14:01 So I don't want to see you standing like this. 14:03 It's not correct. You're real quick. 14:05 Now, if you wanna put your hands on your hips, 14:06 you can do it like that. 14:07 But don't go like that, because automatically 14:10 it just puts you in a bad position. 14:12 This is okay. This is not. 14:15 All right? That clear enough? 14:17 Good. Okay, now let's do another stretch. 14:19 We're gonna bring the arm across the body and pull. 14:27 And you should feel that in your shoulder region 14:29 and also should be pulling the muscles 14:31 of that upper scapular area again. 14:34 Okay, let's go the other way 14:38 and hold and relax. 14:43 Okay. Well, we need to on the aerobics part. 14:45 So let's start by stepping 14:47 real gradual walk in place, walk in place. 14:50 Get the arms swinging, 14:55 little more arm swing, little more arm swing, 15:00 okay then we're gonna start speeding it up. 15:04 Lift the legs a little higher, 15:07 swing the arms a little more, 15:12 little more still. 15:15 People will sometimes ask if it'll be wise for them 15:18 to put ankle weights on and my response is always no, 15:22 because when you do that, 15:23 as you can see they're picking their feet up, 15:25 the ankle weight will be pulling on the knee joint. 15:28 And we don't want that because that could 15:29 start causing some problems. 15:31 Now if you wanna put weights in your hands 15:33 while you do this, you can do that. 15:35 That will make it more difficult 15:36 and you can get a good work. 15:38 Okay, let's pick it up some more, shift gears. 15:42 We're now into third gear. 15:50 Very good, good posture 15:53 focus on keeping the head up, chest up. 15:58 Lot of women lose their posture because of the fact 16:01 they spend a lot of time on computers and so forth 16:03 and typing and they're constantly rolling forward. 16:06 Okay little faster still. 16:15 Good, keep stepping higher, get those feet up. 16:18 The other thing of course is with women's under garments 16:21 with the straps going across the shoulders, 16:23 that can make it hard too because that brachial plexus 16:25 network of nerves goes right through that back area 16:28 and it's cutting right into it. 16:33 All right, slow it down. 16:39 We're gonna transition over to another movement now. 16:41 We're gonna on to a lunge, okay? 16:43 Step out with your left leg and then back. 16:46 Now right and back, and left and back and right. 16:52 Let's put the hands on the hips. 16:55 And right and back and left and back and right and back. 17:01 Keep going, ladies. 17:06 When you're doing lunges, focus on 17:07 not allowing your knee to go past your foot, very important. 17:13 It's a good exercise for the hips and thighs, 17:16 which often times is an area that women consider 17:18 the weak link, but the weak link in all our cases 17:21 which are in most structural weakness 17:23 not a body fat weakness. 17:24 I know women often times are concerned about that 17:26 but understand something fat does not contract. 17:30 Fat is just hanging on. 17:31 It doesn't not cross the joint. 17:32 It's just there. So even if you work an area like that, 17:36 it's not going to magically make fat go away. 17:38 You've got to burnt fat all over 17:40 the body not just in one spot. 17:43 Okay, let's go a little bit deeper now, good. 17:49 If you can touch that back knee to the floor now. 17:55 Very good. 17:58 Okay, we're gonna go five more there. 18:03 And here is two, 18:07 and three, 18:11 and four one more time, 18:15 five and left leg there we go. 18:20 Okay, now walk in place. 18:22 We don't want you leaving here unbalanced. 18:27 All right, little bit more. You're warmed up know. 18:30 You can step up a little bit harder, 18:34 very good, speed it up a little bit. 18:37 And when we speed it up, 18:38 let's get the arms swinging more. 18:41 There we go. Pick those knees up. 18:47 I feel like a drill sergeant for women. 18:48 This is fun. I like this. 18:52 One of these days, I need to get my wife out here, 18:54 so I can tell her what to do. That'll be fun. 18:57 Pick those knee up, swing those arms, 18:59 come on, there we go. 19:08 Okay, start slowing it down. 19:12 We're gonna transition into another move now. 19:15 We're gonna do a side lunge back, 19:17 over to the side, okay. 19:20 And then step and then step, back in, and step, 19:25 back in and step, and step, 19:30 and step, and step, and step. 19:36 Okay we're gonna pickup the speed a little bit. 19:43 I won't be able to talk quite so much while I'm doing this 19:45 so bear with me for a few moments. 19:49 Okay, little faster still. 19:53 See if I can still get this whole body moving quick. 20:02 Keep it going quickly, quickly, 20:05 step, step, step, step, step, step, 20:11 step, step, step, step, step, step. 20:20 We're starting to breathe a little harder, keep going. 20:27 Okay, slow it down. 20:38 Okay, step back into place again. 20:42 That was fun, wasn't it? yeah. 20:45 Arms swinging. 20:47 Keep those arms moving nice and free. 20:54 Okay, pick it up. 21:02 Little faster still, get into third gear. 21:10 Okay, back down to second, 21:17 back down to first. 21:21 Interval training while you speed up, slow down 21:24 has also been found to be beneficial for burning fat. 21:27 Okay, we're gonna transition to another movement now, 21:30 hands on the hips, step back, come forward, 21:34 step back and forward. 21:36 So we're doing like a reverse lunge 21:39 and back and forward, and back and back, 21:45 and back, and back, and back, step back, 21:52 like with the left, now right, now left and right 21:59 and left and right 22:03 and left and right, speed it up. 22:12 And left and right and left and right 22:17 speed it little more, good. 22:25 Little faster still, 22:33 reminds me of taking my old 22:34 folk dance stage back in college. 22:42 Okay, step in place 22:47 almost done with the aerobic part. 22:52 When you do aerobic exercise, 22:54 we're looking to keep rhythmic activity 22:56 of our major muscle group. 22:57 In this case, it's our legs. 23:01 Okay, second gear, step it up. 23:08 Getting warm yet, Cindy? Yeah. 23:10 How about you, Megan? I'm warm. 23:11 Okay. Good. 23:17 Okay, third gear. 23:22 Now we're gonna go with that for one minute 23:26 and then what we wanna do anytime we train aerobically, 23:28 is we wanna cool down, because if you stop automatically, 23:31 just boom you're gonna put a lot of stress on your heart. 23:34 So we wanna taper down our aerobic exercise 23:37 to allow our legs to help the circulatory response 23:40 of bringing the venous blood back up to the heart. 23:43 Ah, nobody said to slow down. 23:44 Come on, come on, come on. 23:46 I'm talking, you are exercising. 23:48 Get those arms going, come on, arms going, 23:51 third gear, third gear come on. 23:57 Keep it up, pick it up, pick it up. Good. 24:01 Down to your last 25 seconds 24:07 and then we'll go through the cooling down process. 24:10 Keep that third gear going. 24:16 Now at home if you need to stop, go head and do so. 24:22 Okay down to our last five, four, three, 24:26 slow it down, slow it down, slow it down. 24:30 Nice and slow, 24:32 good, just step in casually not quite that casual, 24:45 very good. Okay, now slow it down a little more. 24:49 There we go. All right, very nice, nice and gentle. 25:02 Okay, good. Let's do little stretching of this neck now. 25:07 We're gonna put our head over to the side. 25:10 We're gonna come the other way. 25:13 Now tip to the other way and over again and stretch, 25:23 and stretch, and stretch, 25:29 and stretch, and stretch, 25:34 and stretch, and stretch, and stretch. 25:41 Okay now, let's look to the side 25:44 and turn in and look the other way. 25:47 And turn, and turn, 25:52 and turn, and turn, and turn, 25:59 and to the right back to left, back to the right. 26:05 Now let's hold our turn, hold, go the other way. 26:09 Hold, now let's look up and down 26:16 and up, and down and up, 26:22 and down and up and down 26:28 and up and down five more times. 26:34 There is one, look up, look down. 26:39 There is three and down. 26:42 Two more, up, and down, last one, up and down. 26:48 Okay, ladies, thanks a lot, we're all done. 26:53 Ladies, I would encourage you to get involved 26:55 in a good exercise program. 26:56 And of course upper thoracic region 26:58 isn't just for women only. 27:00 It's also men. Men have to be focused on that as well. 27:02 In fact, if you ask most men 27:04 where their rhomboids are, they're not gonna have a clue 27:07 nor are they gonna be thinking about training them. 27:09 Men are mainly interested in training their chest 27:11 and their arms and don't think about their upper back 27:13 and I've seen a lot of injuries caused 27:15 because of muscular imbalance 27:16 because the upper thoracic muscles weren't developed 27:19 as much as the pectoralis major are the way 27:22 which would be the chest. 27:23 So for women, very important, get those muscle strong 27:26 and don't be afraid to lift some weights 27:28 'cause weights are not gonna turn you into a bulky man 27:31 'cause it's hard to build muscle. 27:33 It's hard for men to build muscle. 27:34 For--so for you women, 27:36 the muscle you build will be more streamline. 27:38 You'll have a higher metabolism, 27:40 but also you wanna think about doing it for the right reason. 27:42 Don't do it for Don't do it for vain glory. 27:44 We wanna train for the glory of God 27:45 that's why we claim the promise here on Body & Spirit aerobics 27:48 that I can do all things through Christ 27:50 which strengthens me. 27:51 God bless you. Keep exercising 27:53 and we look forward to seeing you next time. |
Revised 2014-12-17