FILEX 2015 and The Importance of Postural Balance

Happy Monday!

I hope you enjoyed my last blog and that you are taking advantage of the Aires Tech EMF shield products!

As you read this, Penny and I are probably in route to the Macquarie Lake Resort outside of Sydney, Australia to begin teaching HLC3 Thursday.

Angie Lustrick who just finished teaching HLC1 in Perth will be joining us at the Resort to teach HLC2 at the same time.

I’m excited to share some quality time with my students and help the better live their dreams, and help others live theirs too.

Penny and I had a smooth  but a long flight from California to Melbourne, Australia.

When we were going through customs in Melbourne, the customs agent (a lady) looked at my passport and said, “Are you the guy who wrote the book I have on my shelf at home?”

I said, “Is the book titled “How To Eat, Move and Be Healthy!“?

She said, “Yes, that’s it”. I said, “Yes, that’s me”.

It was cool that my book is getting out there so widely. This is the third time a customs agent has recognized me from either my books or published articles.

Penny put us in a nice flat on the 16th floor where we can see the ocean in the distance, which is nice. It’s a bit cooler than I am accustomed to, but its a nice change.

FILEX 2015

Well, we finished the FILEX convention and it all went pretty well. Penny felt it was worth it and I think we stimulated awareness of “presence.”

Many of our CHEK Exercise Coach, CHEK Practitioner, and HLC students from Australia came by to visit me over the weekend at the FILEX trade show.

It was great to connect with Tanya Carroll HLC3 at Livestrong Primal Fitness.

There were a lot of people that came by who also had a lot of emotional moments meeting me in person for the first time after having had life changing experiences through my work via my materials directly, or by way of their trainers or CHEK Practitioners.

It was pretty fun to see how moved they were telling me about their life changing experiences.

Several of them brought clients to meet me whose lives have been beautifully transformed by living the CHEK approach under the guidance of their CHEK Trained Professional Coaches.

CHEK HLC Instructor, Joanna Rushton joined Penny and I at FILEX. We met lots of new and older students, signed books and in general had a great time talking up the CHEK platform.

This is always amazing for me to see and it puts wind in my sails when feeling tired from all the years of travel and constant output. Owning and running a private Institute is no walk in the park, but seeing the amazing results my students get with their clients makes it all worth it for Penny and I.

Alex Ribeiro is one of our CHEK Exercise Coaches and a professional dancer. He came and helped us in the booth with several other amazing Chek Professionals.

Alex was so kind as to bring one of his lovely clients, Erika Guajardo, whose life has been changed most beautifully by the application of my teachings at Alex’s studio, Ultimate Performance Fitness in Melbourne.

It was lovely to spend time with both of you and thanks for doing such a great job Alex!

As good fortune would have it, less than two blocks away is a very cool gym called “Ultimate You Fitness” owned by the very cool Andy Anderson you see me with in the photo above.

It’s a big cross-fit type gym with lots of great equipment; IR sauna (thank God for that!), a lovely little espresso bar (a taste now and then never hurt), and Penny and I had had a great time there.

The staff is friendly, and some of them have done Mark Buckley’s FMA training, so they all knew who I was.

Andy had me sign his copy of my book “HTEM&BH!”, and I was happy to do that. Thanks for sharing your lovely gym with Penny and I Andy!

I also had the great pleasure of meeting Andrea, Andy’s lovely wife. She’s a very fit, beautiful woman and she’s clearly a big inspiration to the members of they gym.

It is lovely to see a husband-wife team so committed to “being the change and leading others.” Keep being, “The Ultimate You!” Andrea.

Great to see such a beautiful, big, functional gym right in the city of Melbourne where it is surely needed by people. If you would like to visit Andy’s lovely gym, visit: www.ultimateyou.com.au

Former World Figure Champion, author, and writer for Oxygen magazine, Australia’s Lesley Maxwell came by to meet me and have me sign a copy of my book for her.

She shared that she’s been enjoying my articles for many years and shares a parallel philosophy. She was kind enough to give me a copy of her book and wrote me a nice inscription too.

Lesley is older than I am (I’m 53) and goodness gracious is she beautiful! This woman is a true testament to what good food, proper exercise, and healthy thinking can do for a woman and I’m glad she’s out there leading the way for women of all ages.

Believe me, even the young men would find her sexy and beautiful standing in a crowd of ladies half her age! A true bombshell.

Thanks for sharing some time, hugs, and conversation with me Lesley! You certainly inspired me 🙂

One of the highlights of my time at the FILEX trade show was meeting Jen Richards, a school teacher that has done a lot of work to create healthy foods and education for children.

Jen makes a variety healthy foods for kids that you can see at: www.rumblespaleo.com 

Above, you can see me holding her cool book, “Bumi and the Wokabug”, which is a book for kids based on the principles of Taoism.

We had a great time talking about the Tao and I turned her onto my favorite version of the Tao Te Ching, which is translated by Richard Wilhelm.

Jen likes using puppets to educate kids (and adults like me) and this is “Bumi.” She interviewed me on my thoughts about feeding and exercising children for a video project she’s working on, and we had a great time together. I’m really excited about what she’s doing!

If you want to see more of her fun stuff for kids, you can also visit www.bumiandfriends.com

Thanks for all the love you share with kids, their parents, and the world Jen!

The Importance of Postural Balance

Today, I hope you are excited to explore other unique ways to enhance you body, your posture, and your athletic performance, not to mention avoiding unnecessary back pain.

Let’s get started:

Today’s blog material is an extract from my highly practical Scientific Back Training Correspondence Course.

In my vlog today, I explain the importance of keeping functional balance between the two primary muscle systems of the body:

1. The Tonic System: The tonic system encapsulates the muscles in our body that are the primary muscles used for postural support, and joint stability, particularly in situations where positions must be held longer than 30-60 seconds.

The tonic muscle system is very important because it essential creates the foundation for phasic (intermittent) movement.

As Feldenkrais defined, ideal posture is the position in which the musculoskeletal system functions most efficiently.

To better grasp the importance of the tonic or postural system, consider that you can’t fire a cannon (big muscles moving loads) from a canoe (an unstable platform or base).

Your postural system provides the functional basis for dynamic movement.

2. The Phasic System: The phasic system represents the muscles in our body that are more ideally suited to short term, faster, and potentially more intense movements, such as lifting a weight, or throwing a ball.

The phasic system should not be thought of as a system that doesn’t have any postural functions, as some therapists often think.

The truth is, all muscles in the body have some postural function.

Larger muscles, such as the rectus abdomens, rectus femora’s, quads, hamstrings, etc., all serve as gross stabilizers.

Since many phasic muscles cross multiple joints, they provide “global or gross” support, while the tonic system tends to work more effectively at the segmental level (usually 1-3 spinal joints, or specific joints such as the rotator cuff).

The Sorensen Test / Exercise for Improved Posture

In my vlog, I share common postural imbalances, and how even small increases in muscle recruitment in postural (or other) muscles can cause significant decreases in blood flow.

I explain how these seemingly minor chronic muscle contractions can lead to a whole host of muscle and joint problems that are often labeled with the word “chronic” before the diagnosis, such as chronic back pain, or chronic neck pain.

The Sorensen test is a good orthopedic assessment technique that allows us to gauge the general condition of our postural/tonic support system.

In my video, I explain how to run the test, how to interpret the results, and how to use the test as a corrective exercise.

References/Resources:

1. Scientific Back Training Correspondence Course

CHEK Course Completions

Exercise Coach In New Jersey with Tomi Toles

Tomi is a fantastic teacher and his students really love is laid back, but detailed approach. Here you can see Tomi directing some healing for a student in the group that needed some love.

Tomi told me that after the student got all this healing love, there was a noticeable change in spinal alignment.

Though many would doubt or deny the possibility that healing work like this could change the structure objectively, I’ve measured, and seen it many times among my own clients and in classes where I’ve conducted healing with students.

It’s always amazing for students to see, feel, and experience the power of love and I’m glad Tomi could share that experience with them. To see more pics of the students learning at the course, visit Tomi’s FB page.

Thanks for dong a great job Tomi, and thanks to all you new CHEK Exercise Coaches!

HLC1 Perth AU with Angie Lustrick

Angie completed another amazing HLC1 in Perth, Australia.

A testament to Angie’s mastery of CHEK HLC principles is well demonstrated in her ability to make the very long trip to Perth by first driving to LA X (2 hours), fly 15 hours to Sydney, go through customs and then fly another five hours all the way across Australia to get to Perth.

With only one day of rest, she was right on it. I spoke to her by Face Time, and even after all that, she looked and sounded great.

Angie always amazes me with her vibrant energy and passion for what she teaches. She’s truly a master Holistic Lifestyle Coach instructor.

Angie was really happy with her HLC1 course and said her students were awesome. She told me they are excited to move forward to HLC2, so it’s exciting to see our tribe growing in Perth.

I personally would like to thank Rob McPherson for his support with Angie. Rob helped Angie with food, the course, and for referring students into the class too.

Thanks to Sarah Hopkins for supporting Angie with food and company while in Perth as well. Angie felt very loved and supported on her first LONG journey to Perth and I’m grateful to Rob and Sarah for making the trip easier for her.

Its lovely to have another batch of great HLC 1 Practitioners in Perth. Great job Angie and CHEK team!

I hope you have a lovely week. I’ve got a couple of days off before teaching and am looking forward to some reading and unhurried movement at the resort.

Love and chi!

Paul Chek