Call or Text: 303-444-8707 | 2955 Baseline Road Boulder, Colorado 80303 | Email: info@altatherapies.com
My father, a physical therapist, father used to have me walk around with both arms behind my back – my left hand holding my right elbow – because he was tired of telling me to stand up straight. He learned during PT school way back in the early 50s, that bad posture caused pain and
Janet had to sit down when she read the report from her DEXA scan.
Impression: OSTEOPENIA in the right hip and lumbar spine.
Can’t be. She spent more time pounding the pavement than most women.
Good diet – check.
Calcium and vitamin D supplements – check.
Regular weight bearing exercise – check.
Janet had few risk factors: she didn’t take steroid medication; she didn’t smoke and despite all her dieting, she wasn’t underweight.
No wonder she was flabbergasted by the diagnosis.
Janet had been doing everything she could imagine to keep her bones strong, but clearly something was missing. More and more older people were turning to Pilates and yoga for exercise because they seemed gentle and safe. Why not?
Yoga made her sore, but it was a new kind of exercise, so maybe, she thought, she just needed to get used to it. She already had neck and back pain, so what the heck? If a little was good, more would be better. Resolute, she added a few more classes.
By the end of a fortnight, Janet couldn’t sleep – she could barely walk. The pain was relentless. Her doctor confirmed the really bad news: she had several compression fractures in her spine. Smart as she was, Janet did not know how to protect and strengthen her bones during yoga or Pilates. Don’t be like Janet. Though these exercise forms can be gentle, knowing how to modify them when you have bone loss is critical.
Problems while riding could be because of your bike, or your body. If you have tightness, weakness, or imbalances, you could fuss with your bike forever and still be in pain. That is where ALTA comes in. A Functional Movement Screen quickly identifies problems with your body. Finding and fixing those …it’s your ticket to a pain free ride!
Exercise is making headlines every day. And, living in Boulder, I witness and participate in a spectrum of strength and cardiovascular exercise. Some people exercise for hours and hours each week, or even hours and hours each day. Some of those folks like to compete, while others are happy to be outside just enjoying the day. So, what is the BEST way to exercise? What kind of exercise is BEST? How much exercise is BEST?
“I wonder why my knees feel so much better when I finish a bike ride than when I run?”
“Do you have arthritis?”
“Dunno – but my knees get stiff. I don’t really have pain, but I sure can feel creaky, especially when I stop running and sit for a while. I walk like an old lady when I first get 
up. Is that arthritis?”
What is arthritis and how do you manage it?
Every morning at 5:30 all through the winter, when my kids were small, I jumped on my stationary bike and pedaled like mad. I rode that Tunturi so much, the odometer actually turned over. But I finally had to give it up – my sciatica was unrelenting. I ran on the weekends, until my IT band got so tight, I was hobbled. Ouch. Oh, and then a stress fracture in my ankle made it tough to do anything but swim, and how could I fit that in with the kids still asleep?
16 years later…
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