Marie* started working with me back in December 2020. She was dealing with constant knee and hip pain due to osteoarthritis. Her favourite physical activity was square dancing but due to COVID19 restrictions she was no longer able to gather with her dance group nor complete the complex moves on her own.

We met over the phone and discussed possible alternatives. She was hesitant to try walking due to pain but recognized that since stopping square dancing her pain had increased.

As the conversation continued, I shared with her the influence moving has on joint lubrication. Whereby, when the muscles contract around her knees and hips, they signal the body to produce more fluid to allow the joints to move more smoothly. This fluid, synovial fluid, acts like WD-40 for the joints. Particularly with people who have osteoarthritis, this fluid is essential for the gliding and sliding when the cartilage (connective tissue on the ends of the bones) has been partly or fully deteriorated.

And on top of that, this synovial fluid is the prime way cartilage receives nourishment in the joint. There is no blood or nerve supply to cartilage

10 point for moving! 🙌🏻

At the end of our visit, we devised a plan of starting to walk in her home with a route around her house.

Remember, it is December in Alberta. She wasn't keen to walk outside!

Marie thought it might also be possible to turn on some square dancing music while walking and possibly try some of the steps on her own as well.

We followed up in the new year a couple times and Marie had been consistently walking most days of the week for at least 10 minutes. Marie slowly began to transition her walking outdoors as the sidewalks became less icy. Her goal was to be ready for the gardening season!

Over our multiple phone calls, Marie complained of some muscle tightness and I prescribed specific flexibility exercises to target her lower body muscles.
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This past week I met with Marie again. She has committed to her walking routine and is now walking for 30 minutes outside six days per week! She faithfully does her stretching exercises and has decreased her lower body pain and tightness.

She now plans to get her bike in tip top shape to start riding her bike through the Spring and Summer!
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I am fortunate to say that Marie's story is like many. I'm very fortunate to help people align their values and what is most important to them in the attempt to find an exercise plan that works.

Marie was very grateful and thanked me multiple times over the call. I take no credit for her success. She set a plan that was feasible and realistic for HER and did all the work to achieve it.

As another former patient said,

It does take work. But once you find out where you are starting from and what is possible, you too can build physical activity into your lifestyle!

Practice in Action:
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What is one action you can do today to start or grow your exercise plan?

• Maybe take time to assess your values.​
• Maybe speak to your spouse/partner about ways you can move together.​
• Maybe make a list of 10 benefits you could get by adding physical activity into your week.​
• Maybe look at your calendar and book an appointment with yourself to move your body.​

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It only takes one step to begin. Marie did it and so can you!

Stay well and happy moving,
Lisa

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P.S., I'm off to some professional training this weekend. I can't wait to share more with you about what I learn! Stay tuned!

Recently I shared with you the idea of a Spring reset.

Today, I'd like to share a quick and easy win to reset your posture.

Another video in the series, Real Moves for Real Life.

In this video, I share one key take away from a conference I am attending this week. The American College of Sports Medicine conferences have been some of my favourite events to attend. This year it is all virtual but is no different, with the quality of information and the great speakers!

Plus, I don’t have to travel to attend!

This posture tip is adapted from one of the creators/founders of the suspension training system - TRX, Fraser Quelch. Now posture is essential when using the TRX but equally important for real life!

Now what? 

Practice in Action:

Can you make this postural strategy show up in not only your exercise but also in activities of daily living?

Can you hit reset on your posture each and every time you focus on your breath?

Here's to finding space and ease in our bodies!


Stay well and happy moving, 
Lisa


P.S. If you have missed my other Real Moves for Real Life videos, here is a link to the playlist.

Lisa, do you know how much physical activity you participate in over a week? 

If you've been here on my email list for a while, you probably have an idea…

But wait, what does the rest of your day look like beyond your structured workout?

Are you actually NOT that physically active over the duration of the day?

Measuring incidental physical activity or how active your daily life is can be a surprising snapshot of truly how physically active you are. Current research supports not only structured workouts but also just moving more throughout the day. This is essential now more than ever!

If all you do is 30 minutes on the treadmill and sit the rest of the day, you are actually not as physically active as you can be. Your body benefits from continuous daily movement for even 5-10 minutes at a time and it can be as simple as getting up to walk. 

But how do you know how physically active your day really is?

Daily physical activity can be monitored in various ways. The most simplistic way is to log your daily activities and determine the duration of time that is active and passive (e.g., walking to the bus stop versus sitting at your desk). In truth, though, who has time to really put the pen to paper. 

More realistically, a pedometer might be just the answer to this laborious task!

Pedometers, first invented by Leonardo Di Vinci in the 16th century to accurately measure the number of steps taken by human or horse, are small devices that measure your daily steps. Pedometers are motion sensors that detect vertical movements such as acceleration and deceleration of the body. 

Pedometer technology has advanced significantly over the past 10 years and the flimsy ones of the past are no longer the only option. Many pedometers are still mechanical that use a lever arm with a pendulum (e.g., YAMAX digiwalker) . This pendulum is displaced with each vertical acceleration of the body. The output is a quantitative value, which is equal to the number of movements of the pendulum and thus, the number of steps taken.

Newer technology, such as electronic pedometers (e.g., Omron) use accelerometer technology where electrical sensors interact with one another when a step is detected. Dual-axis sensors only react when a movement is accelerated to a certain level. For example, shaking a mechanical pedometer often registers a step as opposed to an electronic pedometer would recognize the shaking is not a true step. Many smart wearable technologies and apps found on your phone are accelerometers, which arguably are more accurate than a basic pedometer.

So what do I do with all these daily step values?

Consider tracking your steps for a week and calculating a daily average. If you are between 3,000-5,000 steps per day, you are close to the Canadian average. Research suggests that more than 10,000 steps per day will provide health benefits over the long term. But even increasing daily step counts by as little as 2,000 steps is showing positive health changes.

Interested in more?

Here are some recent research findings about tracking your steps:

​Smartphone fitness apps and wearable activity trackers boost physical activity levels​

​Association of Daily Step Count and Step Intensity With Mortality Among US Adults​

Physically active individuals are those who move over the course of the day. Pedometers and accelerometers are useful tools to help monitor how physically active you are day to day. Consider downloading an app for your phone, purchasing a reliable pedometer or even splurge and buy yourself a fancier wearable fitness tracker accelerometer!

Stay well and happy stepping,
Lisa

Welcome to Spring!
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We may look at January 1st as a good place to set intentions and make changes in our lives. But what about hitting the reset button for Spring?

Research evidence points to highlighting specific calendar events like Springtime as a way to increase your likelihood for wanting to make change. 

Make sense, doesn't it?

New beginnings. New life about to sprout. Washing away the dirt and grime of winter (I’m talking about my dirty street!) and making a clean start.

Why not start anew with your physical activity routine now?

​So why not now?

And when thinking of change, it can be helpful to give yourself a framework. It isn't an all or nothing process!

Connecting to the Stages of Change, we can set ourselves up for success. There are five different levels that we can be bouncing around in with any behaviour - from flossing your teeth to having your plate half full of a variety of fruits and veggies to making a daily walking routine.

Here is a quick infographic to help you decide what Stage of Change you are currently in for your physical activity.

We normally fluctuate through these stages (hence the arrow moving up and down on the left hand side) and sometimes we make the behaviour stick and it become a habit (maintenance). Think about your life and what behaviour is now in the maintenance stage. 

My most recent behaviour change has been with using mouth wash. Something I never use to do but now I can say, "I have been rinsing with a mouth wash twice a day, although not loving the after taste, for the past 6 months."  

Now thinking of a Spring reset, why not do a physical activity check in? Maybe your stretching routine is in the maintenance stage but your walking routine is in the precontemplation stage. Are you ready to make a change from one "step" to another?  😂

Let me know how I can help! Reply to this email with your physical activity of choice, what stage you are in and where you want to take it!

Stay well and happy moving, 
Lisa


P.S., If you want help formulating your walking routine this Spring, sign up for my FREE online course! Mandy says, "Wow Lisa! What a comprehensive walking resource. It is very informative and well explained. A resource like this was long overdue.”


P.S., If you want to learn more about resets, check out the latest Freakonomics podcast, that I enjoyed listening to this week. Although not solely about physical activity, it is a timely listen for us as we see many changes ahead.

Today is a special day. It is my grandma's 100th birthday!
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This powerhouse of a woman has taught me many lessons and I am here today to share one of those lessons with you.

Although she is no longer in this world, she is a constant in my life.

Let me give you some background…
My grandma was the oldest of six children in a rural farming family in Saskatchewan. The majority of her life was spent on a farm with many or all the farm responsibilities you can imagine. From picking eggs out of the henhouse to caring for calves who's mother died in delivery, to feeding all the men on the farm (almost right up to her final years).

She would chase cattle back into the right pasture and close barbwire fences regularly. She supported my grandpa and later my uncle during the entire harvest. She cared for a massive garden, flowerbeds and coming into the Fall could be found busy in her kitchen making various recipes from canning to baking and everything in between.

Did she ever sit down?

I assure you she did enjoy an over-steeped tea most days and a sit down to read and keep up with current affairs with the paper.

Don't get me wrong, she lived and breathed the farm but she was also a school grade teacher too!

I come by the busy-bodied lifestyle naturally.

My grandma was physically active but did not exercise a day in her life.
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You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.


I distinctly recall trying to teach my grandma how to do some stretching exercises. I can remember being in her living room, down on her plush rugged floor trying to help her with some exercises for her back pain. This was likely when I was an undergraduate student eager to get people to exercise. She point blank said to me, "I don't exercise." At the time, I thought, 'oh come on Grandma, you can exercise.' But I didn't have the insight I have today.


You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.


She never learned how to ride a bike nor did she ever try a yoga class. Yet the amount of occupational and domestic physical activity she did her entire life is what I believe kept her in her farm house up until her 90s.

She passed away a month shy of 95 years old.

She is an example of how including physical activity (any bodily movement that requires muscle contraction and oxygen consumption) not exercise (planned, structured, repetitive physical activity) can add years to your life.

With this past week having the International Women's Day, I look to my grandma as an inspiration of a hard working woman who did what she needed to do to keep herself moving without ever stepping foot in a gym.


You can be a physically active person and not exercise a day in your life.

​
Who is your inspirational wonder woman this week?

If this physical activity philosophy speaks to you, please consider signing up for my free mini online course, ASSESS. It dives into this concept by allowing you to be curious about what physical activity you are currently doing and just maybe you too are not exercising either! And that is okay.
Stay well and happy moving,
Lisa

Working over virtual platforms have been technologically challenging at times yet I've really liked working through Zoom. It has been a great option to keep physically distanced and has helped me with my exercise verbal cues.

Words have greater meaning particularly when someone is trying to move their body at home and not particularly looking at me on the screen.

With that said, my #1 tool for Zoom isn't my voice. It is the non-verbal cues that can have the greatest impact. I have to be more of a body language detective and at time I don't know how someone is doing until I ask.

And what I ask is "give me a thumbs up, a so-so sideways thumb or thumbs down depending how you are feeling."

The thumbs tell me lots!

Keeping our thumbs moving well is "crucial" for Zoom success!

As I have shared this recent video on finger movements and exercises, it is now time to target our focus to the thumbs. Real Moves for Real Life thumbs edition.

​Be sure to give this video a virtual thumbs up if you learned something new or simply appreciate the amazingness of your thumbs. 👍🏻 Click the thumbs up symbol on YouTube!

Stay well and happy moving, 
Lisa

​This week I wanted to share with you some of the work I do with people dealing with arthritis in their hands. Although not "huge" physical activity movements, keeping your fingers moving is important for bigger movements (think holding a hand weight or paddling through the water as we swim).

We can forget how much our fingers actually do for us day to day whether it be domestic physical activities or larger gestures like playing a piano, typing on a computer and even supporting us in a plank pose. 

Keeping ALL the joints in our bodies in tip top shape will allows us to move for decades to come.

So grab your popcorn. I've got lots to share in my Real Moves for Real Life video about the fingers!

 In all honesty, no time for popcorn. You will be too busying with your fingers throughout the video that you won't have time to use them for anything else! 🖐🏻

​Stay well and happy moving, 
Lisa

Happy Valentine's Day! 💕

Keeping it short and sweet today. Just like those tiny red cinnamon hearts!

Simply asking you to ponder how your physical activity is a gateway to self-love. Valentine's Day can be about all forms of love, not just romantic love.

How do you love to move your body?

Is it possible to give yourself just 10 minutes to show yourself some self-love?

Physical activity is the ultimate form of self-love as no one else can do it for you.

And with that, get up, get moving and spread some love to yourself and others.

Stay well and happy moving,
Lisa

Back about four months ago, I attended the Alberta Pain Conference and heard Dr. Norman Doidge speak. I was able to secure his book, The Brain's Way of Healing from the public library. 

It is a hefty 360 page book outlining various ways the brain can be challenge and potentially changed over time through a variety of different modalities and techniques.

One of the techniques he describes is one I've personally done for years.

It is free to do.

It doesn't take any special equipment or location.

It takes as little or as much time as you want.

Well, get on with it Lisa - what is it?!

Visualization.

Let me explain.

When we picture ourselves doing something, the brain is activated and it believes you are actually doing said thing. 

Rewind to 1994, I am at the National Synchronized Swimming Championship in Winnipeg, Manitoba. My coach, Joan encouraged my teammates and I to take time at bed to visualize our figures (individual components of  synchro performed before a panel of judges) and "watch" ourselves perform at the pool.

You may wonder, how do you do that?

My strategy was to see the pool (we had practiced at the competition pool earlier that day) in my mind and imagine where in the pool I would be competing. I would try to hear the sounds of the pool (what does it sound like under water? Will there be a whistle blowing? Who will be chatting quietly around me? Will the water be still or lapping at the side of the pool?) and tap into any smells of the pool (chlorine anyone?) I might also try and feel the pool (what is the temperature? Am I in the deep end or the shallow end?)

Even as I describe this to you, I can take myself back to that weekend in May.

So the night before the start of the competition, I was prepping my mind but also my body.

My body thought that I was actually doing what I was telling my senses to see, feel, smell and hear. With the entire goal of translating this to my performance. Essentially, another practice run before the actual competition. 

Guess what?

I still do this technique today. The content is different but anytime I do a speaking engagement, I do many mental run throughs and visualizations to prepare. If I can, I take time ahead to find out what the space looks like, where I will be situated in the room and what the possible sensations that could come up as I am presenting.

I've gone as far as taken a virtual tour of a space online so I can situate myself in the space.

So what does all this visualization stuff mean to you???

I don't think that only athletes can use visualization for their benefit. I have encouraged and taught many patients over the years how to "see" themselves being physically active.

Heck, I've even verbally guided someone through arriving at a facility, stepping out on the pool deck and having them tell me what they see. 

The process of just seeing ourselves GET TO THE PLACE of where we will be physically active is important. So we've told our brains that we've "been there" before and it becomes less scary to actually be there to participate in some physical activity.

Now it is your turn to take ACTION, from the comfort of home.

#1 - Find a comfortable position where you can remain alert with your eyes closed.

#2 - Set a destination or location and imagine yourself there (either in first person through your eyes or third person watching yourself).

#3 - Initiate your senses. What do you see, hear, feel and smell?

#4 - Watch yourself put your body into motion. Whatever way you want to.

#5 - Repeat. Each time you visualize yourself teaches your brain more. Maybe the second or third time around you see something a little different with the goal to always be positive and perform whatever you are doing well.


How did it go? Reply to this email and let me know how your visualization practice went. 

It is a practice. So do it as often as you can to reap the benefits!

Stay well and happy moving, 
Lisa

What to know more? Here is some extra reading if you are intrigued:

Improving Physical Movement With Visualization

Debunking Visualization: Does Mental Imagery Have an Effect on Sport Performance?

How to Grow Stronger Without Lifting Weights

How many times can you get up and down out of a chair?

I have asked this many times at work over the years and again this week when testing patients for the osteoarthritis group, GLA:D. It is a supervised exercise and education class to help reduce pain and improve quality of life in people with hip and/or knee osteoarthritis.

This week I have also been put to the task to share my knowledge and expertise on specific measurements of physical fitness. This consultation role is for a local non-profit science organization. I can't tell you what it is yet but it is slated to launch this June if COVID19 allows. Stay tuned!

All this work on assessment got me to thinking specifically about the value and ease of testing the 30 second sit to stand test at home. Although designed for older adults, I see more and more younger people who benefit from using this tool to assess their leg strength.

The normative (comparison) tables typically show males and females starting at age 60 but as this standardize test becomes more prevalent, values for younger populations will soon to follow.

So I task you this week to take an objective view of your leg strength and test yourself doing the sit to stand test.

What do your results tell you? The sit to stand test is a measurement of leg strength. Do you need to work more on your leg strength?
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Reply to this email and let me know how you do! I'm here to support you in your physical activity journey!

Stay well and happy moving,
Lisa