Review: High Heels to Hormones: A Woman’s Guide to Spine Care
I recently won a book about women’s back health from Healthbolt! I was really happy to win a copy of it because for the past couple of years I’ve started to have some back problems and would like to learn more about it.
The book is titled “High Heels to Hormones: A Woman’s Guide to Spine Care” and was written by Christina Lasich.
The book was divided up into roughly 5 sections - an introduction, the cervical spine, thoracic spine, lumbar spine and a concluding section.
In the introductory section of the book she made the point that many women did not learn how to lift, bend, twist or reach properly when younger and are therefore more “susceptible to spine pain because they entered the work force without any type of physical conditioning”.
I’d have to admit that I’m in that group - we never learned anything in school about exercising or in general, moving properly.
Additionally, she discussed the importance of eating healthy and avoiding smoking - both of which influence all aspects of health.
Concerning cervical spine health, she discussed issues of breasts and bras and gave some tips to making sure your bra fits and supports you properly. I stopped wearing bras years ago - and am damn happy I did! I’m small enough that I don’t really need one anyway and always hated wearing them.
She also explained the importance of proper posture in the part about the thoracic spine as well as osteoporosis prevention.
As far as I’ve been able to tell my back problems are all due to posture issues. At one point I started having problems with one of my arms getting numb which seems to be from having my shoulders rounded forward too much. Then I had problems with the back of my head and neck getting numb. That was solved by making sure my monitor was high enough. You should be looking straight forward when looking at your computer for long periods of time (like I have been). My laptop monitor was too low so my head was constantly bent down. Raising it made a huge difference! Lately I’ve had problems lower down on my back, I think because I still haven’t been sitting properly most of the time and need to start doing back and other strength training exercises again. Anyway - enough of me!
Lower back pain is very common and Christina goes over a number of exercises and other things you can do to help prevent it. She mentions also how high heels can cause back pain - a topic that I plan to discuss on my blog in a lot more detail in the future.
Over all I’d say its a good book and I recommend it especially if you are a busy person without a lot of time to read. The book is pretty short and straight to the point with tips and exercises to teach you how to keep your spine healthier.
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July 30, 2008
3 Exercises Every Woman Should Do
Staying healthy is so important if we want to be able to be good parents, progress in our careers or make any sort of difference in the world.
And it becomes even more important the older we get. Research has shown that people who live longer tend to be more active throughout their lives.
There are 3 general types of exercise that everyone should do regularly:
1) Cardiovascular Exercise - this type of exercise is also sometimes called aerobic exercise - and is a necessity to keep your heart healthy and strong.
Some easy ways to get this type of exercise are walking and running - activities that involve getting your large muscles moving more and your heart working harder. Personally, I like using a treadmill for this. I usually tape most shows on TV that I like and then watch them while walking on the treadmill. This way I’m not wasting time just watching TV and as I really don’t enjoy exercising, it distracts me from it enough that the time goes by faster.
By the way, cardiovascular exercise helps by strengthening your heart so that it contracts more strongly and can pump more blood with each heart beat. This way your heart doesn’t have to beat as many times per minute.
2) Strength Training - this type of exercise is important to help us build and maintain our strength, especially as we get older because muscle mass is lost as we age. It can also help keep our bones strong and reduce our chances of developing osteoporosis.
To do this type of exercise you can go to a gym, if you enjoy doing that. They will have many different types of equipment there for you to use. I don’t, so I exercise at home using free weights or exercise bands and tubes.
It works by making tiny, microscopic tears in your muscle fibers - which is why you feel sore sometimes after exercising. When these tears heal, they make your muscle stronger and bigger. (These tears shouldn’t be confused with big tears, which are injuries.)
3) Flexibility Exercise - and stretching helps to keep your muscles from getting injured and can increase your range of motion.
There are many different stretching exercises you can do - if you do a search on a search engine you will find many to choose from.
I’ve been wanting to learn tai chi for years but haven’t found anyone near by enough to teach it. It is good for flexibility and for developing better balance.
Honestly, I don’t enjoy exercising!
So do I do what I say everyone else should do? Not really. I don’t really like exercising very much. Some people seem to really enjoy it but I don’t. Overall my motivation to do it comes from wanting to be more healthy and to live longer. Sometimes that is not enough to get me to do it though. I do use our treadmill a few times a week, it’s easier for me to get myself to do it since like I said above - I can watch TV while I’m doing it! So I’m ok with cardiovascular exercise, but the rest I haven’t done for a while.
Do you enjoy exercising? Why or why not? How do you keep yourself motivated? Any tips to make it more enjoyable for people like me?
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Related Posts:
- Exercise for your heart with WOMAN Challenge
- The importance of strength training exercise for women’s health
- Want to be more fit this year?
