Call Today! 860-748-7574|maggie@personaleuphoria.com
FacebookTwitterInstagramYouTube

National Disability Independence Day

July 26th commemorates the day the American Disabilities Act was signed. It reminds us of actions put in place to help create independence for people with disabilities. According to the CDC 1 in 4 US adults has a disability while 1 in 7 has a physical disability that impairs mobility.

Those are the statistics, but people are more that data. We are all in need of regular movement for optical health and independence. The general guidelines for exercise (30-minutes of moderate movement a day) is the same for everyone. But exercise can be much more daunting when you live with a physical disability.

What are the options when movement can pose additional challenges?

Water

Get in a pool or a body of water. Water is a great place for many different types of disabilities or pain. My father-in-law had a type of muscular dystrophy (Charcot-Marie-Tooth) and he was a different person in the pool. Not only can the water enable the body to feel great, but it also creates resistance so we can get good strength work and even cardiovascular work.

Walk

I’m not sure we all think of waking as counting as exercise. Often people think if they aren’t working at […]

National Disability Independence Day2022-08-09T10:23:57-04:00

Walking Outside

Walking outside is so good for us it seems too good to be true. It turns out walking isn’t just incredibly beneficial for our health, we were made to walk. Walking improves every single system in our body. Name a system of the body or a body part and walking improves how it works.

Systems of the Body

Consider your heart. It’s a lot of work for your heart to pump blood all the way down to your feet and back. When we walk our muscles act as a pump and help move fluid through the body. This helps our circulatory system and other systems like our lymph system (which basically pumps waste among other jobs).

When we walk every part of the body has to work less hard to do it’s job. This reduces our rick of cardiovascular disease of all kinds, reduces stress, reduces our chance of developing type 2 Diabetes or becoming obese, and reduces erectile dysfunction (since that ties in with heart health). On the flip side walking boosts brain health, immunity, and mood. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. But if that’s not enough to convince you to […]

Walking Outside2021-06-07T16:27:12-04:00

Shed Light on COVID Positives

Each New Year Matt and I take a long walk where we review the prior year and pin expectations, hopes, and dreams on the coming one.  What struck me as I ended 2020 feeling exhausted and a bit deflated was how much joy filled our year was we started reminiscing.  That joy lingered well into the COVID months. It was good to shed light on the COVID positives.

Canada Shed Light

We opened the year on an adventure in Canada to freeze our hair.  The weather worked against us. Canada had a random warm spell bringing the temps hovering around freezing, but not the negative temps required to freeze our hair until we looked like abominable snow people. Instead the weather provided one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.  The Aurora Borealis danced green and slightly purple in the sky.  I was in awe and wonder of the world—a state I often find myself.

Birthday in COVID

My birthday came first in my family in COVID-land.  Since Broadway was shuttered and I couldn’t see Hamilton my family acted out a duel in my front yard.  I was grateful for every Broadway show I’d […]

Shed Light on COVID Positives2021-01-11T13:25:13-05:00

Live Longer

My Grandma inside the igloo for her 89th birthday!

My Grandma will be 92 tomorrow.  She lives on her own, cooks for herself, loves the movies, and is interesting to talk to.  She has moments of forgetfulness and relays a lot of stories from the past and her youth.  Now and then my mom will call me to tell me she is worried my Grandma might be losing it a little.  Sometimes my mom seems right and other times I say, “I do the same thing.  If Grandma has dementia then I must too.”

A week after Christmas my Grandma called me to thank me for the beautiful amaryllis I’d given her for Christmas.  She left a message and as I listened, I grew a little sad.  I had not given her an amaryllis.  Perhaps my mom was more right than I realized.  Someone else deserved this thank you.  Not me.  It signaled that my Grandma seemed to be losing it.

Later that night when Matt arrived home, I told him about my Grandma’s message and how my mom might be onto something.  “I didn’t get her an amaryllis,” I told him.  “Yes, […]

Live Longer2018-02-14T15:54:22-05:00

Finding Neutral

When talking about fitness and posture, you’ll often hear people refer to a neutral spine, but finding neutral can be harder than it seems for a natural position our body is supposedly supposed to have.  Most often in fitness when instructors say neutral they are referring to the low back and pelvis, but all our joints have a neutral position.  Experimenting with where your neutral is in the low back and pelvis is usually the easiest place to start.  So let’s experiment with finding neutral in different positions.

Neutral Lying Down

The easiest way to find neutral is to lie down on the floor with knees bent, feet on the floor.  This is the easiest position to find neutral because you can actually feel the floor (or not feel it).  When you press the lower back toward the floor, known as imprinting, you can usually feel the floor touching your lower back.  Conversely, or neutral you should have a slight arch in the lower back.  There should be some space between your spine and the floor.  There doesn’t have to be a lot of space and everyone’s neutral can be different.  Generally, the rule is that you should be able to […]

Finding Neutral2018-02-14T16:23:08-05:00
Go to Top