Our physios instructing the safest exercise around for you and baby

Getting back in shape is usually at the top of a new Mum’s wish list, but time off to exercise without baby is hard to come by! That’s why The Fix Program runs Mums & Bubs postnatal Pilates classes. 

Classes will be led by our wonderful physios specialised in pregnancy and post natal care. Designed to safely help your body back to full strength after pregnancy and childbirth.

Benefits include:

• regaining your pelvic floor strength and recovery in a safe, appropriate and functional way
• reducing any abdominal separation
• building deep abdominal and back strength
• lifting your mood and getting to know other mums
• improving your fitness and muscle tone while having fun with your baby!

1 hour classes run weekly over 6 consecutive weeks

$39 per class (with nearly all health funds honouring a rebate per class)

Tuesdays or Wednesday mornings

Free 2 hour parking within the Broadway Shopping Centre

Please get in touch to secure your spot!

Call 9264 0077 or email us at broadway@fixprogram.com

Tabitha discusses nerves and their desire to move

Nerve Glides and Pain

We’re all used to exercises designed to strengthen and stretch muscles, and it’s easy to see why – they improve balance and cardiovascular fitness while reducing the chance of injury. But have you ever wondered why your physiotherapist or Pilates instructor gives you exercises to “glide and slide your nerves”? Nerves are involved in pain and movement dysfunction, and ‘exercising’ them can have benefits such as less pain, reduced nerve sensitivity and better movement.

What do nerves do?

When it comes to pain, your nerves are a vital danger alarm system that communicates with the brain about various differences that arise in our body’s tissues. They communicate the type, location and amount of threat to the body. They are very clever and can tell a scratch from a cut, a touch from a push, a hot from a cold. This allows us to recognise, locate and weight the severity of the danger and act accordingly to protect ourselves. The brain receives and coordinates all of this information from the nerves with what your other senses are perceiving and even your mental state, and then decides on the level of pain or discomfort that you should feel.

What do nerves look like?

Nerves are cord-like structures, similar to electrical cords in your home or office. They are surrounded by a sheath through which the nerve glides and slides as your move. Inside the sheath, the nerve is made up of multiple long and thin fibres called neurons that spread throughout your entire body. The neurons have sensors at one end that pick up changes in the tissues in the small area around the end and communicate those changes back up through the body for processing.

It might be tempting to think that our pain is housed in the tissues ( skin, muscles, joints) themselves and that the nerves detect it, but that’s not the case – these neurons just register changes in pressure, temperature, and chemical balance in the tissues and relay those changes back up to your brain for processing.

What is nerve pain?

Sometimes part of your body that interacts with the nerves, or the nerves themselves, can malfunction, and this can result in nerve pain. Nerve pain can include tingling, numbness, sharp shooting pain, small regions of more sensitive tissue commonly called “trigger points”, itchiness, a feeling of wetness, pulling and tension.These symptoms can often be worsened by stress, holding the same posture for a long time, or with movements that compress or overstretch the nerve.

The nerves themselves can be damaged or made more sensitive by being cut, compressed, overstretched, aggravated by altered tissue chemistry, or if denied blood flow for an extended period.

Your nerves need to be able to slide through your body unfettered as you move, through any tissues that may be tight or that otherwise restrict their movement. Maintaining the normal ability of the nerves to glide and slide smoothly reduces their sensitivity and encourages renewal of the receptors to happen more rapidly.

How can I help my nerves to move freely, refresh their sensors more regularly and become less sensitive?

One of the ways we can do this is with a nerve sliding exercise, where the nerves or neurones and encouraged to slide within their surrounding sheath and through surrounding tissues. Movement of the nerves in this manner can increase blood flow to the nerve tissues, encourage healing and decreased sensitivity. Happy nerves, less pain. 

Many everyday movements and regular muscular stretches will also be stretching your nerves, but there are more specific nerve stretches also.  Why not try these common nerve slides for healthier nerves?  

Sliding the sciatic nerve of the leg

Repeat 5 x each side. You might feel pulling, tingling, numbness, heat, cold, wetness, itchiness anywhere along the back, neck and the back of the outstretched leg into the foot. Do not hold the nerve on stretch, but rather continue to slide it up and down throughout, keeping it moving.

Sliding the upper limb nerves

Here is another example of a nerve slider exercise for the nerves of the neck and arm. Gently flex and relax the wrist 5 x each side, continuously and gently moving, and you might feel pulling, tingling or any of the aforementioned nerve sensations between the neck down the arm into the hand.

 It’s clear that the nerves in your body can cause problems, and we have some ways to identify when this is occurring and then treat them to prevent and relieve symptoms.

Sliding your nerves is a great and easy way to start. Add these stretches to your usual stretch or exercise routine.

A great read about the brain’s ability to behave with plasticity, to learn and attempt new things and make these entrenched as a new habits.

How many times have you sworn to eat perfectly healthy this week or finally make the career leap you’ve been dreaming of, only to get distracted by Netflix and a junk food binge?

Before you write yourself off as hopeless, it’s worth considering the fact that there are some interesting biological factors at play, designed to keep us in our comfort zone and avoid “out there” new behaviours. But with some clever strategies and persistence, you can override your brain’s penchant for comfort zone living and start to craft your ideal life.

Why we hate change

Ever stuck with the same old boring schedule, despite knowing there might be more exciting avenues to pursue? Well you’ve got your own biology there to blame. Basically, our brain favours us cruising along in a safe way. If we’ve got access to food and shelter, our brain kicks back thinking things are going swimmingly.

But when our prefrontal cortex (the part of the brain responsible for conscious thought and goal-setting) has a lightbulb moment, the other parts of the brain can go into damage control. This is to try preventing the potentially dangerous interference with everyday life.

“Often the brain detects things that are different from what it’s used to as a potential threat,” says Nikki Rickard, Director of Psychology, Swinburne Online. “If something is out of whack, it registers fear and will trigger what we call the flight-fight response, which is preparing your body to avoid or go and attack the source of the fear.”

One part of the brain that’s always quick to fire up about change is the amygdala, which detects threats.

Pushing out of the comfort zone

You’ve probably noticed that the more often you do something like a 6am gym class, the easier it becomes to do.

“When a behaviour has been repeated over a long time, the brain economises and works out a quicker way of doing things that requires less effort and tires us less,” Rickard explains.”It becomes a well-worn pathway so the brain can almost do it automatically and free up higher parts of the brain to handle more complex things we need to think about. The neural pathways become more solid.”

While it was once widely believed that our brains had limited capacity for change after adolescence, continued research, and Dr Norman Doidge’s seminal book The Brain That Changes Itself has revealed that we can open up new pathways in our brains to change behaviour — with commitment and persistence. Meaning that while opting to wake up earlier, study harder or work later may seem impossible at first, dedication will reward you by making the task easier over time.

“You’ve got to commit to the intention and believe you’ve got control over it,” says Rickard. “How much effort, time, patience and focused attention you can put into that new behaviour will determine how quickly you can unlearn the old behaviour and learn a new one.”

Helping new habits stick

If you can override that fear response and push through with your new routine, whether it’s 5am workouts or online study, then the basal ganglia part of the brain will start to take over and make the new behaviour a habit.

“When it becomes automatic, like riding a bike or driving a car, that’s when the basal ganglia and other more primitive parts of the brain take over,” Rickard explains.

You might have heard that it takes 21 days to form a habit, but research shows that it varies drastically between individuals and depends on the habit they’re trying to form. In fact, some researchers found it takes people anywhere between 18 days and 254 to cement a new habit.

But regardless of how long it takes, Rickard says that the more frequently you change your routine or life, the easier your brain will cope with change.

“People who are flexible and have tried a few times to break a bad habit and have been successful get rewarded for that,” Rickard says.”[Habits] are quite hard to learn but once they’re in [the brain], you slip into them almost without being aware — it becomes an automatic thing that happens.”

Trying different ways of doing things — changing the routine, with different people, or in different places — can often remove some of the cues that trigger old habits, and help you begin the rewiring that builds a new healthier behaviour.