E375: 리즈 조이스 & 켈리 다니엘(Liz Joyce & Kelly Daniel) - 리드줄 양쪽 모두를 위한 코어 피트니스

It's so cool hearing your explanation, Kelly, because all I'm picturing is like a sling, like, you know, like a harness kind of, like that sort of. Yeah. Super cool. Yeah. So obviously I'm going to be working on the human aspect of core and I want to explain a little bit what's unique about what we're going to be doing because I think a lot of core workouts that people will just find have a lot of crunching or planking without a lot of intentional strengthening of the inner layers of the abdominal muscle. So I'm going to just explain that super quick. But if you could picture like a soup can, how you have the structural metal aspect of it and the bottom part, and then the pretty paper on the outside, your abdomen is kind of the same where the metal structure of the can and the bottom is the bottom of the can be a pelvic floor. And the metal structure would be your transverse abdominus. And then the pretty paper, those six pack abs that we see in magazines. We're going to be doing a lot of preliminary pelvic floor work. We're also going to be working on building strength and recruitment patterns with your transverse abdominus and then bringing it into movement, which I'm really excited about. We're also going to be talking a lot about how the pelvis sits and how that affects your abdominal engagement. We're also going to be talking about breathing and pairing breathing with muscle engagement. So you can really optimize your movements. So I'm looking forward to working with the students that are going to be in our class. It's going to be fun. I think that's quite an important note, Liz. Like for you, for the humans, the fact that the core musculature extends with that pelvis musculature, because that's probably the main point of difference with humans compared to dogs, because we're upright and all that pelvis musculature is like supporting the abdominal organs. And I know that's been studying. So that's probably quite an important note in terms of core muscle for humans. I think that is important. And last year, well, actually this year, I had a very major surgery and had about a four inch incision through my entire pelvic floor right at the bottom. So I learned and worked a ton on building that back this year. So it's been really cool. And I'm really excited to learn all the stuff that I went through. Obviously, it's not going to directly apply to everybody, but the concept. So it's going to be cool. Fantastic. So why the core? Why are we looking at that? Why is it important for dog sports teams? How does, you know, having a strong core enable better actual competition performance?

For the dogs, I think sometimes we forget that muscles do more than just move dogs. And the core musculature in particular is responsible for a range of body functions, not just movement. A lot of the core musculature, particularly in the thorax or the area around the chest in your dog, it controls breathing. And if your dog doesn't breathe, then they can't do exercise. If they can't control their breathing rates, then the cardiovascular fitness will be impacted. So that's kind of the first function to think about with the core musculature is that it's what controls your dog's breathing. The second one is the core musculature is involved in movements, but it's also involved in posture. So that's the ability to hold a position for a period of time. And all dogs need that in life, but especially in sports as well. They need to control their body and how it is still as well as how it's moving. That's super important. And those muscles that hold the body still in postural positions are usually the first to fatigue. So that's going to impact hugely, especially sports with obedience that have like changes as positions and distance control and more prolonged positional exercises. And then of course, the third reason is, is that that core musculature also relates to every single movement that your dog does. It controls weight shift forwards and backwards, which is primarily how the movements start, but it also links into all of the limbs that move to enable your dog to move in different directions. So basically the core musculature is essential for like everything that your dog does. So all the things. All the things. Yeah. When we're thinking about people, I think this is an important thing because almost every time I start with somebody core is like the first thing that we look at, how, how are you able to control your pelvis when you're strengthening your body? And that's so important for dog sports teams, because when you are stronger, you, everything that you do takes less effort. So you can also read that into you having more stamina throughout the day. You could also think about that as having more stamina during a specific agility run. Handlers use it a lot too. When leash handling, if you're into bite work or tugging, it's, I think about cores being protective and, and also controlling movement too. So in agility, when you're running really fast and need to slow down or change directions, your core is going to kick in to make sure that you have control of your body. And that will help you make those adjustments faster and safer.

I also think a lot about it as being a protector for your mid, your mid back, low back, neck, hips, knees, all of that stuff. So I think about it from those two lenses. Also having a strong core will allow you to stand up taller, longer, which will affect your ability to hold your body in the posture and communicate more clearly to your dog what it is that you're looking for. Sweet. Great. Definitely. Lots of key pieces there for, for our dog sports folks. Liz sort of kind of started this one on us, but, but I was going to ask you about specifically injury prevention, right? So core strength is definitely partially about performance. Can you guys talk a little bit more about the injury prevention piece of it? For dogs in particular, because that core musculature controls both posture and movement. And also because the fact that the postural muscles, particularly the ones in sort of the upper back of the first to fatigue, if those muscles aren't holding correct posture and controlling movement correctly, that's going to lead to incorrect form and incorrect movements, which will lead to compensations in the muscles. So soreness, but also potentially injuries. So that's why the core being strong and not only being strong, but having endurance and being able to have a longer period of time before those muscles fatigue is really, really important. And then in terms of like, if something does occur, the first thing that any rehab person is going to do is ensure that your dog can hold postural positions, which is all core engagement. So not only is having a strong core potentially going to help reduce the chance of injury, but if injury occurs, having a strong core to start with is going to make that rehab process heaps easier and faster for your dog. So which we don't want to think about because we don't want to think about our dogs being injured. But in dog sports, it happens sometimes, unfortunately. Yeah. What about on the human end? Yeah. Um, well, so when people have poor posture, when I think about that as like weak abdominal muscles and also holding yourself out of alignment, uh, and other things that can contribute to having a weak abdominal, like having babies or abdominal surgery or injuries that those things will contribute to your postural core muscles being less effective and create a lot of imbalances in your body. So if your core is not able to do the work, opposing muscle groups will tighten up to make sure that you're as stable as you can be, which is a great strategy. And also there's a lot of follow-up that comes with that.

So from an injury standpoint, injury prevention standpoint, having a really strong core and being able to hold yourself in good alignment is so helpful for the overall function of your body and reducing injuries, literally head to toe. So when I think about abdominal, when I think about having a strong core specific, like to agility, for example, maybe let me just back up for a sec. Cause people get injured a lot of the time when they ask the ask is too much. And a lot of that can happen by asking for range of motion without having control or strengthen that range of motion. And so having a strong abdominal, having strong abdominals will help you explore longer ranges of motion and give you a better movement library to pull from so that you're prepared for whatever comes your way. Okay. So what about when we're talking about a deficit here, right? Like what signs or symptoms might exist? Um, if somebody or a dog has a weak core, right? Can you talk a bit about how handlers maybe can assess both their own and their dog's current core strength? Yeah. Um, in dogs, it's primarily looking first of all at posture and then looking at movement patterns. So in a weak core will generally result as hard with dogs because structure. So the bones does relate to how a dog can stand and what they look like, but the muscles have to hold those bones in positions. So primarily we're going to assess their ability to hold themselves in good form. So their posture in terms of that isometric contraction. So that core engagement to hold posture. And then secondarily, we can also look at the way that they move and how long they can move for in terms of assessing their core strength. There's a huge, it's not a one sort of a one thing to test core strength. There's a lot of different things that you can do and it does depend on your goals for your dog. So like if mobility, like Liz was talking about, the ability to move and engage those muscles is important, then we can test that in a different way to if it's just postural strength that you're primarily aiming for, um, or if it's that endurance and moving type core engagement. So, but primarily the way that we're going to check your dog's posture is if we ask them to stand, can they hold a stand and do it in good form? If we ask them to sit, can they hold a sit? Can they do it in good form? Or do they relax and slop their body and get like a sloppy sit with their butt moving out sideways? So yeah, which happens a lot. So yeah, primarily with dogs, we're going to look at, um, ability to hold positions in terms of an assessment of core strength.

Um, just to follow up there for you, Kelly, not to put you on the spot, but like, what is a healthy amount of time to be, obviously we all fatigue eventually, right? So like what, what's a healthy period of time that we're talking about here? So I'm always aiming for two minutes. So can my dog hold when they're asked to, with help, I can reinforce them. I can do a chin rest. I can do a nose target. Can they hold a position without fatiguing for two minutes? That's always my goal. It's a little bit hard sometimes with sports dogs because we often do a lot of movement and fun and like, woohoo and offer some behaviors and throw yourselves around. So sometimes the ability to stand still for two minutes can be behavioral and a learning exercise as well as a strength and a postural exercise. And that's why dogs are so fun because we can't just look at one thing. We have to assess all the different aspects of a certain behavior. Is it primarily strength or is it behavior and an understanding as well? But that's my goal in the sand is can they hold a good position for two minutes? Two minutes. Got it. All right, Liz, what about the human half? I think the primary symptom of poor core strength that I get when people come to work with me is pain, lower back pain specifically. So I would say that is a pretty good sign. Your core is also involved in balance. So it is a huge balance driver in your body. So I would say if your balance, if you've noticed it getting progressively harder to do or you're finding yourself tripping more or falling more, that can be another indication of having poor core strength. And testing it, like Kelly's saying too, it really depends on your goals. But I think a very simple test that anyone can do is to just hold a front plank from your elbows and from your toes. And I do have some times for you, Melissa. Go for it. I'm on here. So you would consider someone who's able to hold a plank from their elbows and their toes for less than 15 seconds to be in a very poor core strength category. 15 to 30, we would say, I feel so bad using these words. It's like, you know, it's not quite there. It's not what we want. 30 to 60 is a little below average. One to two minutes is average. Two to four minutes is above average. And like very, very good is four, six minutes. And listen, y'all, if you're wanting to plank longer than six minutes, we add some variety to those movements. That is a really long time to sit still. Just do it the whole time the commercials are playing. The whole time. Yeah, just like trying another hobby. There's other things you can do to make this hard. Plaking so hard.

So I've been doing classes with Liz for her last couple of classes, like in her terms. And the reason I started was because I had a baby and my poor core strength got even poorer. But I, when I have time, I'm doing little bits and pieces of the workouts from her classes and I can still only hold my plank for like 20 seconds. So it's, it's freaking hard. The core, the, the, doing the planking for the core strength. It's not an easy thing. So if you're getting past a minute, then bravo. Cause that's impressive. Super bravo. I know. Yeah, no, it's true. It's very true. You've been kicking a lot of butt at those workouts, by the way. When I can fit them in. If only I could get more in, then I'd probably have more improvement. But you know, life is crazy. Hey, I'm sure, I'm sure nobody listening can empathize with that guys. All right. So let's talk a little more about the class itself. So can you guys each talk a little more about kind of what you're covering in the class specifically and maybe a little bit about how the class will work, right? Cause you've got both handler and dog elements here and two different instructors and you guys could talk to that. That'd be great. Yep. Well, obviously like we're still figuring it out. So we will go with the flow and see how it works. But at the moment, the plan is we're following the same sort of topics through the weeks. And then we're going to have some discussions that are sort of linked together on similar concepts. But the basic structure will be, we're going to, in the first week, talk about what core strength is and how we're going to assess it. So you're going to have a baseline assessment for both your dog and the handler. And then each week we've got a different focus on a different aspect of core strength. And I'm going to provide a range of different canine specific fitness exercises to choose from. And then as we go through, so each week I'll be providing specific canine exercises. And obviously if the working students are submitting videos of their dogs, then I will give them feedback on that. And then as we do in most of my classes towards the end, we're going to talk about the sort of big picture and how core is a big part of the larger picture of fitness and workouts. And then hopefully do another assessment so you can see the awesome progress that your dogs have made. So that's kind of, and I'm also going to try really hard as well to give what I like to do, some functional examples of core strength for your dogs as we go through those different aspects of core strength.

Because for me, that really helps my brain link the importance of the exercises that we're doing. So hopefully it helps other people sort of see the relevance and then also watch categories of those are the most important for their dog's needs and sports. Liz, what about the other half? I love this question so much. Um, okay. So I'm super excited, but like Kelly said, every week, we're going to have a different topic that we're working on. And from the handler side, we're going to be working on like all of like from the bottom up, how breathing impacts core function, how to improve your pelvic floor strength and function, how to engage your transverse abdominus, how to find both of those engagements and hold them when you're doing other core work. I love that we are going to be bringing in examples that are specific to handling. So I think it's really important for handlers also to be able to visualize how they're going to use that movement in practice. It makes the movement more relevant and also builds better recruitment patterns and they're actually doing the thing. Um, in addition to that stuff, each week, I'm going to have beginner and intermediate level follow along core workouts that they are able to progress through. They're going to start with baseline. How long can you hold that awful dreaded plank for with an option to like do it from your knees also, right? So every week we're going to have, how long can you hold your front and your side planks on each side? And then we'll be able to track progress that way. Um, yeah. Does that answer your question? I think so. I think that tells me all about kind of what you guys are going to cover. And I just want to make sure I had a couple of pieces to that question. I want to make sure you cover it all. So what was in the class, um, and a bit about kind of how the class will work, right? So you'll both kind of be judging little handle the people and Kelly will handle the dog end. Is that? Yeah, totally. And we, we both do it the same way in that like at the start of the week, all the lectures will be released so that handlers can pick and choose. Cause it's going to be a lot of content with having canine specific and handler specific exercises. So for that week, um, class participants can really pick and choose what's the most important for them and their dogs over that week. Fantastic. All right. Who should consider joining you? So, um, are there prerequisites? Is there like an ideal level of fitness either on the dog side or the human side? Um, are there, you know, other things that should be considered about age or ability or any of that? Um, yeah.

Who should join you? Um, so for dogs, everyone should join us. Um, cause core strength is the most important thing. And the thing we're starting with is really helping handlers understand form and get really good form in their dogs. So this is the perfect class for people that haven't done fitness before that are starting out with their dogs. Perfect class for young dogs that are starting. We can easily modify for young dogs that haven't finished growing yet. These exercises will be perfect ones to start with as being appropriate and safe. Um, the, the one thing to consider with the dogs in particular is if your dog has had a surgery or an illness or an injury relatively recently, then you'd need to talk to your main healthcare provider for your dog to make sure that doing fitness exercises is, isn't okay. Um, I have that on all of my classes that just making sure if you, and if you're not sure if it's appropriate for your class, you can just flick me a message and I'll let you know. Awesome. Liz? I think from the handler perspective, the class can be appropriate for people that would consider themselves to be at like an intermediate or lower level of core fitness. And you've got that nifty little guide to use as a benchmark, the mean guide. Um, so that would be that, that is the demographic age. No, I, anybody can join. I think people too, that are wanting to dial in and optimize their body function will get a lot out of this course too. So if you're starting to lift weights or maybe you're in group class situations, or maybe you're learning from someone doing online workouts, something like that, where maybe you're not getting the full picture, this is going to be like top down in and out full, full on info. So that's who I'm picturing joining me. Um, and the only thing like Kelly's saying too, is like, if you have a, maybe like a back injury or a frozen shoulder and you can't support weight, if you're unsure about any of those things also do just send me a message and I'll let you know if it's appropriate for you or not. If you have any questions, you know, ask your doctor about that. If you have genuine concerns about those things and yeah, that's, that's who I'm picturing joining us. So not the person you can do the six minute plank already. No, no, no, not that person. Well, unless, unless that person's never done fitness with their dogs and then maybe that person should join the class. Um, but I, we're not only going to be planking. Okay. There's just one of the things that is not, there's really going to be like a small portion of the workouts.

Um, I think another point that might be of interest to Fensie people is because I know how busy we all are and I know that we all do lots of different sports. So this might be a really nice class if, um, you're a little bit time poor, cause you can do a little bit of work on you and a little bit of work on your dog that will apply across to all of the sports and activities that you do. So it would be a really nice class if you're like, I just want to do some, something this term, but I don't have a huge amount of time because I know in particular the canine fitness workouts and I know what Liz's workouts are like, like you can have a really big impact with, with the canine workouts with just doing two or three workouts a week, um, in like more longer than 15 minutes. So I think it'd be a great class for a time poor person who just wants to do a little bit and feel like they're doing stuff for them and their dogs. Can I add to that? Cause I totally agree with you. I think my workouts, I'm planning on keeping them like seven minutes or less. And I can't even begin to tell you, like if I had a dime for every time someone asked me for a workout they can do with their dog, like we'd be in Greece girls. So I love that this class is something, cause I think one thing that happens a lot with handlers is that they work so much with their dogs. It's hard to find time for themselves. So it's really cool that they're going to be able to do the two things at once. Like it's just awesome. Well, just especially as well, because they can do it like physically in the same space and like, like, like I do my fitness workouts on my setup that I do my K9 workouts cause I have the mat and I have everything down. So yeah, it's, it should work, work quite well. And like, I've been doing some of Liz's, like all I do is Liz's core strength stuff when I don't have time and it's definitely going to work well for time poor people. So it should be good fun. Fantastic. Just all of us. I feel like that's all of us. Any final thoughts that anybody wants to kind of add to what we were talking about or about the class or about equipment or any of that you guys want to talk about? I guess just if you're worried about the K9 specific equipment, it's going to be, I'm super flexible. I can always suggest alternative suggestions, but generally we start with pretty basic equipment. So a couple of cones, a long platform and two smaller stable platforms. We will do some Cavaletti work as well. Um, but don't let equipment, um, hold you back from class cause we can use books. We can use blocks. We can use off cuts of wood.

Um, I literally have got a really cool example of making Cavaletti poles from some cans of fizzy drink and some like bamboo stakes for your garden. So that's a bit of equipment. It's not going to be super fancy. And for people, you know, I, I'm doing no equipment at all. So if you've got a mat, you're good to go. Or carpet or whatever. So just like bring your, bring yourself, bring some water. It's going to be fun time. Awesome. All right. Thank you both so much for doing this. Thanks so much for having us. Good to see you girls. Likewise. And thanks to all of our listeners for tuning in. We'll be back next week with Erit Bloom to talk about building confidence and calm for anxious dogs. If you haven't already subscribed to the podcast in iTunes or the podcast app of your choice. So our next episode automatically downloaded to your phone as soon as it becomes available. Today's show is brought to you by the Fenty Dog Sports Academy. Special thanks to Denise Fenty for supporting this podcast. Music provided royalty free by bensound.com. The track featured here is called Buddy. Audio editing provided by Chris Lang. Thanks again for tuning in. Happy training. Bye.