Most of us are aware of the importance of regular exercise. We are surrounded by research and advice on how much to exercise, when to exercise, the best types of exercise. But how can you determine the best ways for you to exercise and how to stick to these exercises? To begin, here is an inescapable fact about exercise…the only exercises that work are the ones that you will actually do! So before looking at exercise research and medical advice, it may be helpful to try this exercise in discovering your personal definition of “the best exercise.”

Here is the exercise: investigate your relationship with exercise. Investigate your beliefs about exercise. Be honest with yourself. Many people have preconceived notions about what exercise should entail. It can be helpful to notice any thoughts with the word “should” and to put those thoughts aside. Just for now. Explore who you are with self-acceptance, without judgment. 

Here are the questions: 

Do you like to exercise? If the answer is yes, what type(s) of exercise do you like? If the answer is no, as is common for many people, can you identify what you dislike? Be as specific as possible. If you dislike exercise, what might make it more palatable?  

Where do you like to exercise? Do you like going to the gym? Hate going to the gym? Love swimming? Hate getting wet? Do you prefer taking a class or working privately with a trainer? What about following an exercise video at home in your living room? Would you rather be indoors or outdoors?  

What time of day works best for you? Before your day gets started? Or perhaps after getting home from work? 

How much time are you able to spend exercising? Note the wording. How much time are you able to spend, not how much time you think you should spend exercising. 

What do you hope to achieve by exercising? What are your goals? Perhaps weight loss, improved muscle strength, flexibility or tone? Increased well-being? Decreased stress? 

How will you know you have reached your goal? This is an important and often overlooked question. Try to make your goals specific. For example, being able to walk two miles. If your goal is to feel less stressed, how much is “less stressed”? What specifically does “less stressed” feel like? The Visual Analog Scale, also known as the pain scale or VAS, has been shown to be quite accurate; meaning that if you feel your pain is a 5 on the scale of 1 to 10, your “5” is quite consistent within yourself. You can use the same method to measure your stress. Even measuring stress as small, medium, or large can be helpful. 

At the end of this exercise on exercising, you should have some information about yourself that will help you to determine your next step toward developing a successful exercise habit. For example, you may discover you like exercise if it’s outdoors in the early morning; that you can realistically spend 20 minutes 3 times a week exercising; that your goals are to lose 20 pounds and to be able to walk 2 miles. Or you may have discovered that you don’t like exercising but are willing to endure it for 10 minutes every day as long as you can remain seated. Your goal is to decrease your blood pressure medication. 

Part 2 will discuss creating an exercise program based on what you learned about your relationship to exercise. Look for it in the Winter 2023 newsletter coming this December. I hope you enjoy your process of self-discovery!

In this 3-part series, I’ve been helping you to determine the optimal shoe features for your particular foot. Part 3 will look at what shoes may be best for a person with high arched feet. If you missed Parts 1 and 2 you can read them here. 

Let’s get started on Part 3!

As we learned in Part 1, the foot needs to be mobile early in the walking cycle, for shock absorption and adapting to the ground, and rigid later in the walking cycle, to propel the body forward. 

Your high-arched foot is rigid because of its interlocking bone structure. So you have what you need for the later part of the walking cycle, which is great! Your rigid foot is excellent for propelling the body forward and helping you to take a nice, long step. However, it may be at a disadvantage during the early stages of the walking cycle, when you need flexibility for shock absorption and to adapt to any unevenness underfoot. With insufficient shock absorption, ground reaction forces travel up your leg and can adversely affect your hip, pelvis and back. With insufficient flexibility in your foot on uneven ground, you have a higher risk of falling or spraining your ankle. 

The good news is that the right shoe can make up for the shock absorption and adaptability  your high-arched foot lacks. A soft and mobile shoe with added cushion can make a big difference!  

Here are 3 simple tests you can perform in the shoe store to find a soft and mobile shoe. Two of these tests are used by people with flatter feet. However, you will make different choices based on the results! 

Heel Counter Squeeze 

The Heel Counter is the back part of your shoe where your heel sits. 

Place your thumb and forefinger on either side of the heel counter. Pinch the sides together. 

For high-arched feet, a shoe where you can easily squeeze the sides together, like this black shoe, is a better shoe for you.  

If the heel counter remains firm, like this blue shoe, this is not a good shoe for you. It’s too stiff and rigid. 

Twist Test

Hold the back of the shoe with one hand and the toes of the shoe with the other hand. Try to twist the shoe. 

[Photo of back of twisted black shoe here] 

If it’s easy to twist, like the black shoe, it’s a good shoe for you. 

If it’s harder to twist, like the blue shoe, it is not a good shoe because it’s too rigid. 

Back of the Shoe Test

Look at the back of the shoe. The sole should flare slightly outward like the shoe above. This will add stability to the outside of your foot and decrease the risk of twisting your ankle. 

Avoid shoes where the sole slants inward, like the shoe above. This is a less stable shoe.

And to add shock absorption, be sure your shoes have plenty of cushioning! 

How much does wearing the right shoe matter? 

It depends. If you are not having any problems with your feet or back or spraining your ankle, it’s probably not important that all your shoes meet the criteria above. However, if you are walking for exercise or having problems, the right shoes may help! 

Thanks for reading!

This is a question I get asked all the time. Common questions are “Can Zero Balancing help my neck? My husband’s back? Anxiety? Writer’s block?” The answer depends on what’s causing the problem.

An easy way to understand this is to think about your car. If your car won’t start because the ignition is broken, installing a new battery is not likely to help! Your mechanic needs to find and then fix the cause of the problem, in this case the ignition. The same is true for the body, as well as the emotions, mind and spirit. Determining whether a particular treatment modality is likely to help requires at least some understanding of the cause of the problem.

Let’s use back pain as an example. Different healthcare professionals will likely look at your back from different perspectives. Western medicine is primarily concerned with the structure of the body. A western medical practitioner, like a doctor or Physical Therapist, may examine the muscles, joints, or nerves in your back to determine the cause of your pain. Eastern medicine, like acupuncture, is primarily concerned with energy or chi. An acupuncturist may evaluate the flow of chi through your body to determine the best treatment for pain. Zero Balancing bridges western and eastern medical thought. ZB practitioners see people as having two bodies; a structural body and an energy body and focus on the relationship between the two. So a ZB practitioner will evaluate the relationship between your structure and your energy to determine the cause of your back pain. 

Many years ago a colleague came in for a ZB session. She had never received ZB before and was curious. During the session I noticed an imbalance between the structure and energy in her low back area. It responded nicely to the ZB techniques. After the session, she expressed amazement that her back no longer hurt. It turned out that she had chronic back pain, information she had not shared with me prior to the session. She said that through the years, she had worked with “the best of the best” Physical Therapists in the city, but she still had the pain. She was pleasantly surprised when the session addressed both her curiosity about ZB and her chronic back pain!

While I was delighted the session had helped her back, my interpretation of her experience was simply that the pain must have been caused by an imbalance between her structure and energy, at least in part. And because the ZB directly addressed the imbalance, her symptom went away. The cause of the problem had been taken care of, like fixing the ignition would take care of that car that wouldn’t start. 

The same approach can be applied to all of the problems mentioned above. Zero Balancing can be very effective for troubles in your body, emotions, mind or spirit if those troubles are caused by an imbalance between your structure and energy. 

In my experience, some situations and problems are more likely to cause an imbalance between body structure and body energy. These situations often result from experiencing trauma of both a structural and energetic nature. One example would be trouble that started during a particularly stressful period in life, like a car accident after losing a loved one or going through a divorce. In general, trauma of any sort impacts both our structure and energy. 

Is it worth trying a ZB session or two to find out if it can help? The answer is usually yes, especially for problems that have been around for a long time. Give it a try!

Clients often tell me they struggle with how to talk to people about Zero Balancing (ZB). They love receiving the sessions and want to share with friends and family but don’t know what to say. A friend asks, “How does it work?” or “What does Linda do during the session?” and my clients say they don’t know how to respond. 

Here are some tips and ideas!

First, take yourself off the hook. You can’t be expected to know what I’m doing, unless you are a Zero Balancing practitioner. And even then, you’ll miss the fun if you spend your ZB  session figuring out what I’m doing instead of relaxing and enjoying yourself. So please don’t expect yourself to be able to speak to my experience giving a ZB. 

You are, however, an expert at your own experience. No one knows your experience better than you! So start there. Your authenticity is a powerful communication tool. 

You may wonder how sharing your own experience can answer your friend’s questions. 

Think about what your friend may actually be asking when they ask how ZB works. Most of us are interested in some basic information when considering bodywork sessions for the first time or with a new practitioner. It’s normal to want to know: Will it feel good? Will it help me? Will I be safe? 

These are universal human concerns and are, quite possibly, what you yourself wondered before you tried Zero Balancing. Often, we are not fully aware of these specific concerns. So we ask what it is or how it works. Or we ask if it’s similar to something we already know about. 

When a potential new client asks me what Zero Balancing is or how it works, I answer their spoken question and also the unspoken questions listed above. By talking about how ZB may help, how good it feels, how experienced I am, and how much care I bring to each session, I am hopefully answering both the spoken and unspoken questions. 

When you share your own experience, you may be answering the unspoken questions and possibly the most important questions. You are sharing that it feels good, that it’s helping you, that you feel safe. 

So what details might you share about your own experience? 

One possibility is to share how you feel during the session. You are lying on a soft and comfortable treatment table. How does my touch feel to you? Good? Safe? Gentle? Comforting? Calming? 

Another option is to think about how you feel when you first sit up after a ZB session. When you first stand up. After you’ve walked a bit. Now see if you can come up with a few words that describe how you feel. Here are some words clients have used to describe how they feel  after a ZB session: 

Grounded. Light. Less pain. No pain. Calm. Taller. Serene. Clear. Happy. Better. 

Do any of these words fit your experience? If not, perhaps there are other descriptions you can share about Zero Balancing. 

Are the sessions helping you? Without sharing personal details about why you are receiving Zero Balancing, you can describe ways you know the sessions are helping you. For example: “My pain is better.” “I’ve been able to get back to gardening.” “I’ve started writing again.” “I’m more relaxed.”

Lastly, you can refer your friend or family member to my website Lindawobeskya.com for descriptions of how I work and links to a podcast and articles on Zero Balancing click here. Another resource is the Zero Balancing website click here for more information. There are 2 excellent books on Zero Balancing. Inner Bridges by Dr. Fritz Smith, the developer of ZB, and Zero Balancing by John Hamwee.

In this 3-part series, I’ll help you to determine the optimal shoe features for your particular foot. Part 1 looked at how your foot is constructed and how the foot functions during walking. If you missed it, you can read Part 1 here. Part 2 will describe what shoes may be best for a person with flat feet. And Part 3, coming in the Autumn Newsletter, will look at what shoes may be best for a person with high arched feet. 

Let’s get started on Part 2!

Remember, during the normal walking cycle, the foot needs to be mobile early in the cycle and then become rigid later in the cycle. A flat foot is very mobile and flexible because of the interlocking bone structure in the foot.

When your foot lands on the ground and your body travels forward over your foot, your foot needs flexibility so it can absorb the ground reaction forces and protect your leg and back from these considerable forces. It also needs to adapt to any unevenness on the surface so you can keep your balance. Because a flatter foot is a more flexible foot, in this early part of the walking cycle, you have what you need! Your low-arched foot is extra mobile and can do a good job absorbing ground reaction forces and adapting to any unevenness on the ground. 

In the later part of the walking cycle, your foot needs to become rigid so you can propel yourself forward. Here is where having a flat foot can be a disadvantage. Your overly mobile flat foot may have a hard time becoming rigid enough for good propulsion. This difficulty is often the cause of problems like bunions and plantar fasciitis. 

What your foot lacks can often be balanced with the right shoe. If your foot lacks rigidity, a firmer shoe with more support can make a helpful difference!  

A shoe with more support in the right places can help your foot be more rigid when you need it. This type of shoe is sometimes called a “motion control” shoe. It’s controlling your foot’s extra mobility so it can function better. 

How can you tell whether a shoe is supportive in the right ways for your flat feet? Here are 2 simple tests you can perform in the shoe store.  

The Heel Counter Squeeze 

The Heel Counter is the back part of your shoe where your heel sits. 

Place your thumb and forefinger on either side of the heel counter. Pinch the sides together. 

If the heel counter remains firm, like this blue shoe, this is a good shoe for you.

If you can easily squeeze the sides together, like this black shoe, 

it’s not as good a shoe for you.

The Twist Test

Hold the back of the shoe with one hand and the toes of the shoe with the other hand. Try to twist the shoe. 

 

If it’s harder to twist, like the blue shoe,  it indicates more support for a flatter foot and is a better shoe for you. 

If it’s easy to twist, like the black shoe, it’s not as good a shoe for you. 

How much does wearing the right shoe for your feet matter? 

It depends. If you are not having any problems with your feet, it’s probably not important for every shoe you wear to help control the extra motion in your foot. However, if you are walking for exercise, it would be wise to find a more supportive shoe to help prevent problems. 

And of course, the shoe must feel comfortable! If it’s not comfortable, it’s not a good shoe for you!

Coming up in Part 3, we’ll talk about the shoe features that help a high arched foot. Thanks for reading!

How’s your life going these days? Does managing change feel like a balancing act? We might all recognize that feeling of being off balance initially when something changes in our lives. And given the numerous changes over the past year, feeling off balance has become a way of life for many of us. If we view changes in our lives through the lens of Zero Balancing, any occurrence that creates change is a fulcrum.  In a Zero Balancing session, each technique you experience is a fulcrum. What happens when you receive a fulcrum? As the practitioner, every technique I use is called a fulcrum. I create a fulcrum by applying traction to your legs or gentle pressure on your ribs. And then I stay still. Because the default of the body is motion, your body responds by changing and reorganizing around my stillness. You go into what is called a working state. The pattern that existed before the fulcrum has been affected and is shifting. You are in process, in movement. The process you are experiencing is inherently unstable because things are moving and changing. My job as a practitioner is to stay grounded, stable and present with you, while not attempting to influence or help your process. Your body knows just what to do and will, over the next several hours, naturally move to its highest state of health. The best course for each of us to follow is to witness what’s going on and to allow the process to naturally progress.  

Taking a broader view, any change can be seen as a fulcrum. Think about a time when things changed in your life. It might have been a change initiated by you, a change initiated by another that affects you, or a change initiated by a societal or external event. Perhaps you got a new job or started or ended a relationship. Or perhaps several things changed at once, such as the world entering a global pandemic. Think about how “in motion” things felt, how your life changed, evolved, and finally settled down into a new pattern. You went into a working state and perhaps are still in a working state, as so many of us are with regard to the pandemic. If you can identify this and can name it, the process can be easier to navigate. Expecting yourself to feel unaffected by big fulcrums is unrealistic. It’s natural to go into a working state, to feel in motion, to feel less stable, after a big fulcrum. 

Even though the experience of change and evolution during a working state is normal, it may still be a very challenging time!! How do we navigate the period of instability that naturally occurs after a fulcrum? Imagine standing waist-deep in the ocean. There’s a way that we can learn to ride out being in flux, responding to external forces, and keeping our balance on an unstable surface. 

If you find your life has gone into a working state, Zero Balancing sessions can help! Each ZB session helps to ground and center you. Multiple sessions over time help to build a deeper stability so when things get rocky, your world doesn’t get rocked so deeply. When faced with big life events, such as the pandemic, job changes, marriages and divorces, or other life transitions, recognizing you are in a working state can change your perspective. Zero Balancing sessions can help you with grounding, centering and stability so you can ride the wave until your life settles into its new pattern.  

The answer, like so many answers in healthcare, is “It depends.”

In this 3-part series, I’ll help you to determine the optimal features of shoes for your particular foot. Part 1 will look at how your foot is constructed and what’s needed from your foot when walking. Part 2 will talk about what shoes help a person with flat feet. And Part 3 will look at what shoes can help a person with high arches in their feet. 

Let’s get started with Part 1…

The foot is an absolute marvel of construction. With each step, the foot must adapt to the unique attributes of the surface and withstand large amounts of force. When your foot hits the ground, the ground hits back. We’ve all heard the phrase “for each action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” In the case of walking, this ‘opposite reaction” is known as ground reaction force and your foot and often your entire body is affected by this force with every step. Several attributes of the anatomy and function of the foot are designed to absorb and adapt to these forces.  

When it comes to determining the best shoes in which to invest, I suggest temporarily setting aside considerations of style and belief and looking instead at how your foot needs to function for optimal comfort, whether it is able to function that way based on your unique anatomy, and how your shoes can help or hinder those functions. 

Let’s take a quick look at the walking cycle. During one walking or gait cycle, your foot lands on the ground and remains there as your body travels forward over your foot. Then your heel comes up and you push off to propel yourself onto your other foot. 

So what does your foot need to be able to do while you are walking? 

As your foot lands on the ground and your body travels forward over your foot, your foot needs to be flexible so it can absorb the ground reaction forces and protect your leg and back from these forces. It also needs to adapt to any unevenness on the surface. If the ground is slanted, the sidewalk raised or there’s a rock or twig, your mobile foot helps you keep your balance and take this in stride. As your foot prepares to propel you forward onto the other foot, it needs to become rigid. It’s more effective to push off something rigid than something flexible. So with each step you take, your foot needs to be flexible at times and rigid at times. 

Now look at your feet while you are standing…

Do you tend toward flat feet? Or do you have a high arched foot? Because of the interlocking bone structure in the foot, a flat foot is more mobile and flexible and a high arched foot is more rigid. 

If you tend toward flat feet, you are in good shape when the foot needs to be mobile as in the early part of the gait cycle. Your foot will absorb ground reaction forces and adapt to the uneven surfaces. However, toward the end of the cycle, when your foot needs to become rigid, your foot may still be too mobile and you may run into trouble. If you are having trouble with bunions, plantar fasciitis, or your knees, changing the type of shoes you wear may be helpful. 

If you tend toward high arched feet, you are in good shape when the foot needs to be rigid as in the later part of the gait cycle. You’ll be able to push off and propel yourself forward onto the other foot very well. However, when you need flexibility, like in the early part of the gait cycle, your foot may be too rigid to effectively absorb ground reaction forces and adapt to uneven surfaces. If you’re having trouble with spraining your ankles with back pain, a different type of shoe may help.

If everything is going great, that’s wonderful! You can file this information away for use at another time. 

Coming up in Part 2, we’ll talk about the shoe features that help a flatter foot. Thanks for reading!

Remember when you were a child and you fell down and skinned your knee? After your knee was cleaned up and the bandaid applied, the thing that helped the most was Mommy or Daddy kissing it and making it better. That tender, loving care, the TLC, felt like the magic potion that healed the pain. 

As we grow into adults and experience a skinned knee or worse, we often forget about the magic potion, the TLC. But it hasn’t lost its power. 

In my many years of practice as a Physical Therapist and Zero Balancing practitioner, I’ve worked with hundreds of people who are in pain. Some for a few months and some for several years. And I’ve observed, without exception, that when clients consciously choose self-care and pain management, a healing event has occurred. The trajectory of their healing path changes and moves upward towards well-being. This self-administered TLC has the same curative power as the kiss your knee received as a child. 

What’s the explanation for this phenomenon? This is my hypothesis: the TLC, the attention and care in response to pain, changes the energetics of the situation. Let me explain. As a Zero Balancing practitioner, I see people as consisting of both structure and energy. The structure is everything in the body that can be seen, like bones and muscles and blood. The energy is everything in the body that is unseen, like thoughts and memories and vitality. Structural issues are usually the focus of western medicine and energetic issues are usually the focus of eastern medicine. Zero Balancing bridges western and eastern medical thought by addressing the relationship between your structure and your energy, by seeing people as both structure and energy. From this perspective, when you skinned your knee as a child, your structure was injured. Your skin was abraded, you bled, your nerve endings signaled injury and pain to your brain. The kiss, the TLC, was an energetic exchange. The love conveyed by the kiss was as necessary to your healing process as cleaning and covering the wound. 

It’s been my observation that as adults, we often forget about the TLC, this energetic aspect of healing. Or we think to offer it to others but not to ourselves. Some introspection may reveal why the value of self-TLC has fallen through the cracks. I suspect the reasons are as individual as each of us. And if you’re in miserable pain, the “whys” are less important than the alleviation of your suffering. What’s important is adding the TLC component to the treatment approach.  

This is one reason I work closely with my clients to help them create a Pain Control toolbox.  The toolbox we are most familiar with is the one in the garage or utility closet. It may contain a hammer and a screwdriver and a variety of other tools. Often the garage toolbox gets filled as the needs arise. You want to hang a picture so you buy a hammer.

A Pain Control toolbox is analogous to the toolbox in your garage to some extent. When pain occurs, most of us have not bought the tools ahead of time. It’s human nature. Many of us do nothing, hoping the pain will just go away. That’s human nature too. 

And sometimes the pain does just go away. That’s great! If it doesn’t, we may search the Internet or ask a doctor or PT what the best medication would be, or whether heat or ice is better. We are looking for tools. From my perspective, even this act of seeking tools to help the pain is TLC. So you have already started the magic. 

Another aspect of the TLC is filling your Pain Control toolbox with tools you like. While simple, this is a powerful statement. Think about the last time you felt cared for by someone. It’s likely they said or did something you liked. If you put a heating pad on a sore back muscle, on a structural level, the heat may help the muscle to relax. If you really like heat and feel comfy and warm in a comfortable chair with the heating pad, it seems to work even better. That, along with the fact that you thought to use a heating pad, and gave yourself the time, is the TLC part. You helped both your structure and your energy. You helped all the parts of yourself. 

The next article will contain ideas and strategies for creating your own Pain Control toolbox. In the meantime, you don’t have to wait to get started. Look around your home and identify the tools you tend to use most often when you’re in pain. These are already in your toolbox. If this article has made you realize you don’t do much for yourself when in pain, you are not alone! And it’s never too late. Search the internet or ask a healthcare professional for some suggestions and try a few things out. Remember, the act of seeking pain remedies is self-TLC. When you find something you like, even if it helps just a little, you’ve started your toolbox.