Body and Spirit Aerobics

A Woman's Weak Link

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Dick Nunez (Host), Cindy Hanson and Megan Frasier

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Series Code: BASA

Program Code: BASA000036


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.


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Revised 2014-12-17