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Ever since I wrote about my torn labrum on my hip, I have been getting a few emails from readers asking about what type of hip exercises I do at home.  From my interactions with readers, I come to the conclusion that my torn labrum is not as severe as others and that my pain is a small pittance compare to what others are going through.

This post is a discussion of the type of hip exercises (including hip stretches) I do at home for my torn hip labrum to manage the pain.  Please note that I am not a doctor or a personal trainer.  I have no idea what is the severity of your hip injury.  These are examples of hip exercises that worked for me.

Hip exercises are going to hurt

When you injure your hip or back, you want to continue to move that injured muscle group as soon as possible.  The last thing I want to do when I was recovering from my car accident was move.  Staying on the sofa with a bag of cookies and watching TV was all I want to do between doses of pain killers.  But that is the worst thing I can do for myself.  The longer your body stays still, the longer the recovery time and the more painful it is to rehabilitate that injured muscles because of muscle atrophy.

That is not to say that you spring from the sofa with a cheerful song in your head and do leg kicks like a Rockette.  You might not be able to do any leg kicks for a while, but you must keep that idea in the back of your mind.  The goal is not to just stop the pain, but to someday do a few leg kicks because you feel like it.

If you ever have a cast on a body part, you will notice that when you take the cast off, the injured arm or leg is weaker than your other uninjured arm or leg.  This is muscle atrophy.  You either use it or you lose it.

So when you injured your hip, the worst thing you can do is sit still or lay down in your bed all day.  Because you avoid using your injured muscles, they hurt even more when you do use them.  So you continue to limit your range of motion, which cause your injured hip muscles to get even weaker, which cause you more pain the next time you use them.  Are you following this vicious cycle I am trying to paint?

You must start doing rehabilitation exercises as soon as you are able to in order to speed up your recovery.

Ice/heat therapy for your hip muscles

After the onset of the initial cause of the injury, the pain and swelling you feel are caused by inflammation in your injured hip muscles.  Inflammation is your body’s trumpet call before the cavalry (white blood cells) charge to heal the injured site.  This is a good thing because without inflammation, there is no healing.  But the problem is that sometimes your body does not know when to turn that dang inflammation off!  So practice RICE while you are rehabbing your hip muscles with hip exercises.

I find that a combination of icing and heating my hip muscles works best.  Icing for 20 minutes brings down the swelling cause by inflammation, then applying a heat pad for about 20 minutes to loosen the muscles after doing hip exercises.  But when my hip muscles do not hurt, I do not even bother with the icing.

Please note that you should not apply heat to an injured area (this only makes the swelling worst) for the first 24-48 hours after a hip injury.  Icing should be used exclusive for the first 24 to 48 hours.  Afterwards, you can do a combination of ice and heat.  If icing is too intense (your skin tends to get thinner as you age), try wrapping a towel around it.

I like using frozen peas because it is malleable.  By using a couple of bath robe belts, I am able to tie the peas around my hip and move about even when I am icing.  When the peas start to get a soft then it is time put them back in the freezer.  I do not eat the peas I use exclusively for icing.  I find that the freezing and thawing cycle changes the taste of the peas for me.

I was doing this every few hours (when the frozen peas harden up again) for weeks after my car accident.  Of course, at the time, I also injured my back.  So imagine a short Chinese woman with a bag of peas tied around her left hip and a bag of peas tied around her back with multi-colored bath robe belts, shuffling around her apartment with bad hair.  Yeah, that was me four years ago.  It wasn’t funny then, but I can see it having the potential of being a sitcom episode now.

Hip stretches

I never do my stretches without a small warm-up (I used to be able to, but not anymore).  Remember how I mentioned that your heart rate from computer work is almost equivalent to sleeping?  When you get up from any sitting position, your muscles are not primed for stretching.  When you are warmed up, your body actually recovers faster and you are less likely to injury your muscles.  So before you do any stretching, get up and walk around a bit to warm up.  Here is a list of hip stretches I do on a regular basis:

Back of leg muscle

Warrior pose (pay attention to the feet placement)

triangle pose (pay attention to the feet placement)

Sun salutation (only arch your back if you can)

Groin stretch (try this stretch moving your toes closer and further from your body.  You can hit different parts of your hip muscles)

Hip cradle

Strengthening your hip muscles

Ditto on the warm-up discussion on the hip stretches section.

Hip abductor (clam)

Hip abduction (outer thigh)

Hip Adduction

Leg Extension

Exercise dvds for your hips

I prefer to follow an exercise dvd for my hip stretches and hip exercises.  The reason why I like exercise dvds for hip rehabilitation exercises is that I do not have to think about it.  I just follow what what is on the screen.  I recommend the following exercise dvds for hip rehabilitation:

Rehab Your Body At Home (approximately 20-25 minutes if you do both Part A (easy) and Part B (harder))

Pick Your Spot Pilates (the “spot” you want to pick is your thighs.  approximately 15-20 minutes)

Sara Ivanhoe”’’s 20 Min Yoga Makeover – Sculpted Buns & Thighs (approximately 20 minutes, more advance)

Final thoughts about hip exercises

I have been living with a torn hip labrum for the last four years.  It took four years, 3 chiropractors, 2 rounds of physical therapy, and 2 orthopedic surgeons to finally diagnosis the pain on my hip.  The tear is small enough that my doctor does not consider surgery an option right now (who knows if this will change after my first pregnancy), but the torn hip labrum is painful enough for me to need hip exercises and a combination of icing and heating on a regular basis.  I cannot say that I am pain free, but considering where I was 4 years ago, I am just thankful that I am able to live as I did prior to my car accident with only a few modifications to my lifestyle.

My hip joint itself is in good condition.  It is the tear on the labrum that is causing me pain.  It sometimes makes a crunching sound when I do the clam exercise where you are lying on your side, opening and closing your bended leg.  Because my hip joint is in good condition, my doctor feels that I should continue with my hip exercises since it is helping, but you should check with your doctor in case your torn hip labrum is more severe or there are problems with your hip joint.

If you want further ideas on how to treat your hip injury at home, you might want to consider reading Heal Your Hips.  Reading this book a few years ago gave me the idea of doing hip exercises on a regular basis to manage my hip pain.  All the above exercises can be done with modifications in a pool.  Pool exercises are actually the first step to rehabilitating your hip muscles after hip surgery before doing them on the ground.  Heal Your Hip will give you photos and a list of pool exercises you can do if you are not yet ready for rehabilitating your hip on the ground.

One final thing, you will get better.  Your body is a wonderful machine designed to heal itself, but it is also a slow clunky machine.  Understand that even though you might be causing yourself some pain from doing hip exercises, but in the years ahead you will feel better.  Sometimes it is discouraging when you are doing everything you can and the pain does not stop.  But you will get better.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

Photo by:  cobblucas.

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Dearest Netflix,

I am writing to let you know that I am breaking up with you at the end of the month.  No – it is not you, it is me.  Initially I thought our relationship will be compatible with my goal of a healthy lifestyle.  The thought of having access to hundreds of exercise dvds lured me in, but your constant recommendations to try this movie or that show has sour this budding romance.

Instead of sweating to the oldies, I find myself obsessing over The Tudors and Robin Hood.  Every day I have an excuse for logging on and watch mindless episodes of TV shows that I would never known about if not for your recommendations.  I trusted you!  But you are not to blame for this.  You are only doing your job.

I blame myself and my weakness for relaxing over TV shows.  I know I should be exercising, blogging, or reading.  And yet, I just want to spend time with you.  This is an unhealthy relationship.  I will not allow it to continue any longer.  I am sorry, but I am sending you packing at the end of the month.  Don””t call me.  I will call you.  I love you, but I don””t have room in my life for you.

Love,

Asithi

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

Photo by:  Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar.

Welcome to Small Steps to Health where we do not take orders from a cookie!

I want to spend some time on this post talking about serotonin and its impact on your hunger before starting with the Serotonin Power Diet book review. 

Your body is an amazing machine.  There are so many checks and balances regulating your hunger from hormones like leptin to brain chemicals like serotonin.  But it is also a slow bloated bureaucratic machine that takes months, if not years, to bring itself back into balance.

What is Serotonin?

Serotonin is a brain chemical that suppresses your appetite and makes you happy (it is your body’s natural Prozac).  There is a reason why happy people tend to have fewer problems with addiction.  In a previous post about sugar addiction, I mentioned that children or grandchildren of alcoholics tend to have lower levels of serotonin.  People on anti –depressants tend to have extreme low serotonin levels.

Serotonin Power Diet

This diet is based upon the idea that if you eat more serotonin boosting foods, then you can naturally increase your serotonin level.  Unlike the Atkins diet (which I absolutely hate!), this diet tells us to bring carbs back.

What does carbs have to do with serotonin?  I notice that when I eat a potato or a muffin, I tend to feel a little happier than if I have eaten a steak.  I always thought this correlation is because of my Asian decent (I love rice!).  According to the Serotonin Power Diet book, eating carbs allow more tryptophan (an amino acid) to pass through the membrane of your brain.  And tryptophan is a key building block of serotonin.

Not to say that tryptophan is not available when you eat protein.  Protein has much more amino acids than carbs.  Imagine a door way.  When you eat protein, there are approximately 20 amino acids shoving each other trying to squeeze through the doorway at the same time to get to the brain.  With this kind of crowd, less tryptophan gets through when you eat a protein.  But when you eat a carbohydrate, there are less amino acids available so it is easier for tryptophan to stroll through the doorway to increase your serotonin.

Chapters in the Serotonin Power Diet

Here is a quick summary of the chapters in the book.  I did not comment on the chapters that have self explanatory titles.

Chapter 1:  Solving the carbohydrate riddle

A more detailed explanation of the serotonin and carbohydrate connection that what I mentioned above.

Chapter 2:  Appetite, Hunger, and Eating Triggers

3 short quizzes to see if you are eating due to hunger or due to low serotonin

Chapter 3:  If you want to change your weight, you have to change your mind, too

Some strategies to help with overeating and the importance of changing your mindset about weight loss. 

Chapter 4:  Before you begin

Some planning tips to make sure you succeed with the serotonin diet.  Ideas include lining up your cheerleading squad and getting rid of temptations in the home.

Chapter 5:  Snack your way to serotonin power

A whole chapter on types of snacks, when to eat the snacks, and the amount of snacking you do in each phase of the serotonin diet.  In phase 1, you get to eat 3 carb snacks per day.  In phase 2, you get to eat 2 carb snacks per day.  In phase 3, you get to eat 1 carb snack per day.

Chapter 6:  The Serotonin Power Diet

The serotonin diet consists of 3 phases.  Phase 1 (Serotonin Surge) is 2 weeks long.  The goal is to load your body with more carbs than you have been eating to get you off the low serotonin wagon.  Phase 2 (Serotonin Balance) is 6 weeks long.  Phase 3 (Serotonin Control) starts on the 9^th week.

You eat the same breakfast for all 3 phases.  Here is a quick summary of the diet plan:

Phase 1:  3 snack/day.  Lunch is the main protein meal.  Dinner is a mix of complex carbs and vegetables.

Phase 2:  2 snack/day.  Lunch is the same as Phase 1.  Add some protein for dinner, no more than 80-100 calories (about 2 ounces for women).

Phase 3:  1 snack/day.  Lunch and dinner are the same.  Add 2 cups of vegetables to lunch and dinner.

If you are lifting weights, I think you might need more protein than the amount the diet is telling you to eat.

Chapter 7:  Change your body

This chapter discusses the importance of exercise and the different types you would need (strength, aerobic, and flexibility).

Chapter 8:  Now what do I do?

This chapter offers some guidelines on how to follow the serotonin diet while eating out at restaurants (includes some suggestions for eating ethnic food that I think are good).

Chapter 9:  The 12-week guide

Chapter 10:  Troubleshooting

Chapter 11:  Maintaining your weight loss

Chapter12:  The kitchen list for a meal in minutes

Chapter 13:  Basic meals and quick kitchen tricks

Chapter 14:  Recipes

Is the Serotonin Power Diet worth reading?

I think this book might be worth reading, especially if you are a fan of Atkins.  One of my bowling teammate has been on and off Atkins for the last two years.  He keeps gaining and losing the same 12 pounds (probably from his low serotonin level from eating mostly protein).  In his mind, he thinks Atkins is the solution.  I don’t think eliminating an entire food group is a solution to permanent weight loss. 

The eating plan is not too outrageous; it is not advocating that you eat only carbs and eliminate protein.  I am not sure I agree with the idea of eating most of your protein for breakfast and lunch and going more carb heavy for dinner.  And the idea of picking snacks that have less than 4 grams of protein to boost your serotonin level contradicts the idea of eating a snack with protein to stay satisfied longer.  But the Serotonin Power Diet does provide some interesting arguments on why carbs are an important component of a balanced diet.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

Welcome to Small Steps to Health where we do not take orders from a cookie!

A fellow blogger asked the question of how much activity do you get outside of a gym.  Like Sagan, it has been a while since I was last in a gym.  I know it was before my car accident, maybe 4 years?

All the junk in my trunk

I own large collection of exercise dvds, 2 aerobic steps (I always had this idea of hosting a step class in my living room with one of my younger sisters),4 sets of dumbbells, 3 sets of gym-in-box exercise bands (don’t ask me why I keep buying them when I rarely use them), a ball, a yoga mat, a Pilates ring, an elliptical machine, a weighted body bar, and my collection of Wii exercise games.  Then you got to throw in the gadgets like my pedometer and heart rate monitors (that’s a plural) and the health books.  There is a reason why my husband asked me to include “not cluttering our house with too many books or exercise equipment” in our vows.

Activities I do regularly

I would feel bad about spending my money on all this exercise stuff if I do not use them.  But that is just 0.5-1 hour of focus exercise each day.  But activity that Sagan is asking is the little every day things that adds up to a healthy lifestyle.  The following is a list of things I always do:

I always park a couple rows further in the parking lot even when there are plenty of spots up front.

Dates with my husband always involve a walk around a park or bowling.

I always take the stairs (my limit is three stories).

I always take walks at work, logging in 2 miles per day on average.  When it rains, I find an excuse to wander around the building.

Because I usually do these little things (where I do not even break a sweat) it is easy for me to log 10,000 steps on pedometer.  Do all these things make me super fit?  Nope, but at least I am not wheezing after 2 flights of stairs.  It is these little things that will keep me bowling at 85 years old like one of my bowling partners.

Until next time and thanks for stopping.

Photo by:  jonboy mitchell.

Welcome to Small Steps to Health where we do not take orders from a cookie!

During my last post about why exercise dvds are a cheap way to experiment with exercise, I mentioned that there are many types of workout dvds out there that can match up with whatever fitness fetish you might have.  This post is a discussion of the advantage of an exercise program with a pre-designed eating plan and workout sessions.

Exercise dvds are not for people with discipline problems or need to be in a group environment when exercising.  If you always need someone in your face to motivate you, then working out at home with dvds are not you.

The advantage of an exercise program

There are all kinds of exercise programs in the market — like P90X, Turbo Jam, Gilad Quick Fit System, and ChaLean Extreme.  Their advertising is attractive and shows normal people in a tighter and smaller package after following their exercise program for the prescribed time period.

When I first started with exercise dvds, I was confused by the selection and how to put together a well rounded rotation for my weight loss goals.

An exercise program takes the thinking out of exercising.  It is Tuesday, in this dvd package I brought, I am suppose to lift weights for 60 minutes and eat 1800 calories.  Follow the program and I bound to see a change in my body (of course the reason why I cannot follow an exercise program religiously is a whole other story).

Why are most exercise programs either 30, 60, or 90 days long?

Most exercise programs are either 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days long.  According to Franklin Covey, it takes 27 days to change a habit, so a 30 day program is just about enough time to change your sedentary lifestyle to something a little more active. 

You will notice an immediate feeling of euphoria from exercising (it might take a few days if you have been sedentary all your adult life), but after 30 days of exercise, you will notice that your body start to crave movement when you stop working out.  In terms of body transformation, you might see some weight loss if you are also following the exercise program’s diet, but you will not see the swell of beautiful biceps and flat abs in the commercials unless you are within 5 pounds of your vanity weight.

However, 60 and 90 days are when you will see results.  This is why I think the really good exercise programs are usually more than 30 days long.  Most of the time, you will see a steady decrease in your weight when following an exercise program (sometimes there is an initial weight gain in a strength intensive program due to muscle gain).  But in an exercise program there is always a point when you wake up one day realizing that you shrunk several sizes overnight — your face looks puffy, your waistline is more defined, and you look like you have more muscle tone.

Remember how I talked about the advantage men have over women when it comes to weight loss in a previous post?  Most men will see a difference in their body shape at the 1-1.5 month mark when following an exercise program.  Their quicker body transformation is due to their larger muscle mass.  It might take some women closer to 2.5-3 months to transform their bodies when following an exercise program.  I know it is unfair, but that is just the way we are made.

An exercise program targets a specific training philosophy

If you spend any time reading fitness magazines or blogs, you will notice terms like aerobic weight training, HITT, heavy weights with low reps, etc.  Whatever your training philosophy, there is an exercise program designed around it in a nicely packaged dvd set. 

I believe that your body shape determines how well your body responds to an exercise program.  For weight loss, I find that my body response very well to aerobic weight training (low weights with high reps).  With the little extra padding I gained since my car accident, you cannot easily tell that my natural body shape is a ruler.  Most of my excess weight ends up in my waistline.  Being female, of course some excess weight end up in my hips and thighs too, but I am still a ruler because I still maintain the overall the ratio of approximately 2-3 inches differences between my hips and waist no matter how much weight I gain or lose.

I can do squats and lunges holding heavy weights and still not have a noticeable difference in my lower body (even though I joke about my bulking thighs).  My sister, on the other hand, who has a more pear shape, does bulk up visibly on her thighs area when she uses heavy weights in her lower body exercises. 

Can you design an exercise program on your own with individual dvds instead of paying for a pricey dvd set?

Of course you can.  Because of my inability to religiously follow an exercise program, I have never been able to finish any program that I brought.  I usually get close, up until the last two weeks, before starting a new routine or program.  If I really want to over analyze my behavior, I will have to say it is my unconscious desire not to fail.  If I don’t finish, I can never fail.  Blah, blah, blah.  Over analyzing anything is the path to destruction, let’s leave it that.

Here is an article from the Mayo Clinic about starting an exercise program.  You can always read my post on how to starting exercising in your 50s and 60s for ideas on how to start an exercise program on your own. 

Next time I will spend some time talking about some basic equipment everyone should have for home workouts.

Until next time and thanks for stopping by.

Photo by:  dicktay2000.