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Cutting-Edge Sportswear Improves Posture, Performance and Healing

By On · Add Comment · In Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel, low back pain, martial arts, muscular imbalances, posture, rotator cuff, sports bra, sports chiropractor, sports injuries, sportswear

I love this product: Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel is sportswear that improves posture and athletic performance by positioning your frame into the most biomechanically correct alignment. As a result, your body has a greater chance to heal from injuries, and it develops in proper accordance with your specific sport. Now that’s something to get excited about.

I’ve got the Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and have been wearing it during my martial arts training. Because I had tweaked my shoulder (subscapularis of the rotator cuff) about a month ago, and it really seemed to be responding slowly, I was merely going through the motions in class. But I finally got smart and donned my Intelliskin Foundation 2.0 shirt and…booyah!…I started seeing amazing results. Here’s how it works:

The shirt is made of 56% nylon and 46% Lycra and is a compression fabric, so it fits snugly, but also expands elastically. It has posture panels, which are strips of material perfectly positioned to pull your shoulders back and expand your chest. The panels are oriented in in specific patterns, similar to the sports taping techniques, developer and designer, Dr. Tim Brown, a sports chiropractor, specializes in.

The shirt design works because it places the body in the correct biomechanical posture–shoulders back, chest expanded, core tightened and compressed. Postural misalignments and muscular imbalances are what often cause overuse injuries–shoulder impingements, chronic neck pain and tightness, and even low back pain–so by helping the body structurally, and neurologically, the Intelliskin PostureCue Performance Apparel helps decrease injuries. But even better, by helping correct the dysfunctions, current injuries do not get exacerbated, and the body can go through an uninterrupted healing process.

Sports chiropractors like myself know how difficult it is to keep athletes from playing through injuries. As a weekend warrior myself, I am no different from your average jock–I’ll only sit for so long. That’s why the Intelliskin was great for me, because I am going to do something…anything…as it’s my way of life. The Foundation 2.0 shirt helps my mechanics when I throw punches or any other upper body movement.

Interestingly, when I first started wearing the shirt I noticed that I’d fatigue earlier, which means I was using muscles that had gotten lazy leading to muscular imbalance. The beauty is that the small stabilizer muscles needing to work during my sport were engaged, fatiguing earlier, yes, but developing along the way. This means the fatigue will not last long as the muscles become conditioned. The increased heat takes a little getting used to, but as the body is the great adapter, it will over time.

Like I said, I love this product. And I recommend it for athletes or anybody trying to heal an injury. Intelliskin has women’s products as well, including a sports bra; and it has its LC-1 Reactivator shorts for lower back and pelvic stability. Check out Intelliskin and get your shirts, shorts and sports bras today–you’ll play longer, and better, in Intelliskin.

Final Fitness Update…Ever

By On · Add Comment · In blood test, body fat, bodywork, chiropractic, cholesterol, energy, exercise, fitness, handstands, HDL, LDL, optimal health, posture, shoulders, sleep, stretching, triglycerides, weight loss, yoga
OK, this is it; my final fitness update. It couldn’t come at a more opportune time as I have just turned 40 today. Woohoo! As my brother told me, I have officially entered an age where each year will seem to pass in six month increments. Woosh…

I made my proclamation to become Fit in 90 Days on September 5th, so officially, my run should have ended December 5th. I was vacationing in Palm Beach at that time, so I actually needed another 14 days; which is probably the amount of time throughout the whole endeavor that I did nothing. No worries, 90 days, 100 days, it’s all the same.

As I’ve been reporting, I tried to exercise (gym) three times a week. I did several private yoga sessions with an instructor, and fined tuned my practice, which I carried out faithfully every day (OK, nearly every day). That was huge. I resolved some fairly irritating muscular imbalances that were causing low back discomfort, and I also did quite a bit of work on my shoulders. My new yoga routine improved my posture. I feel the difference.

I kept a regular chiropractic regimen–very important with all the moving and stretching and lifting and hiking. A combination of yoga and chiropractic is powerful, indeed.

I followed a pretty solid nutritional program–ate more fresh fruits and vegetables, drank lots of water, and took my daily vitamins. As usual, I was diligent about taking my essential fatty acids and alpha lipoic acid, the powerful anti-oxidant.

I think the most profound health habit I adopted through all of this, though, was seriously minimizing my consumption of refined sugar (started November 8th). As I described in an earlier post, I had a brief roller coaster ride with regard to my energy levels, but that evened out. Once I got over that withdrawal stage, my energy skyrocketed. And I lost weight as a result. Before “no sugar,” I lost four pounds (to 163 lbs.); afterward, eight pounds (to 155 lbs.). Nice. So in total, I’ve lost twelve pounds. Twelve pounds in twelve weeks. Very healthy.

Let’s review my goals: I wanted to lower my weight by seven pounds–I beat that. I wanted to lower my body fat. Oops, forgot to check it for this update. Sorry. I wanted to do unassisted handstands–didn’t do it (remember what the Yogi said?) Wanted to run Runyon Canyon. Nope, didn’t do that either.

So, you might wonder, what did I accomplish then? In my mind, I just made my routine a regular habit; I really am happy with that. It’s not a cop out. What I want from a health regimen is improved or maintained health. What I really want is optimal health. Without a doubt, I’ve accomplished that. I know with complete certainty that by putting this kind of consistent and careful attention into my body, there is no other possible outcome to be had. But as serendipity has it, I happened to take a blood test as a part of a life insurance policy I was pursuing, and they were kind enough to send me the results. I normally don’t put too much stock into these tests, because, as I’ve said, I know that if I do the right things, I’ll have a good functioning and healthy body. But hey, I was happy to check it out; I mean, it is my physiology. Here are the results:

  • Cholesterol–217 mg/dl. Between 200-239 is considered borderline high.
  • Triglycerides–58 mg/dl. Anything under 150 is normal. Hmmm.
  • HDLs–68 mg/dl. Anything above 40 is desirable, above 60, very good.
  • LDLs–137 mg/dl. Should be under 160 if have only zero or one risk factors.
  • Chol/HDL ratio–3.20. A desirable ratio is under 5; optimum under 3.5. Booyah.

Remember, the amount of cholesterol is not nearly as important as the amount of HDLs in your blood, and even less important than the cholesterol/HDL ratio (read the post, here). So, as to not bore you, all the other test were good to optimal too. Yes, I love tests, especially when they work in my favor.

So what did I accomplish? I motivated myself to exercise, eat well, get regular bodywork, sleep, and focus on my health in a proactive manner. I feel better, have more energy, feel more rested, look better, and have less physical discomfort all around. And, hopefully, I’ve shown you that with a little planning, and a large commitment, you can create a better place for yourself physically. You can achieve optimal health if you want it.

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