Group Exercise Class Descriptions

ELDOA™ – the ELDOA™ are postural exercises (LOADS – Longitudinal Osteo-Articular Decoaptation Stretches) that you can do yourself with the primary goal being to increase the space within a chosen articulation. As the ELDOA™ “create” space, there is an improvement in joint mechanics, increased blood flow, reduced pressure on the discs, a reduction of pain, spinal disc rehydration, better muscle tone, improved posture, and a sense of well-being and awareness.

The ELDOA™ General Group Classes are designed to enhance a client’s home program, whether that be an ELDOA™ program or as part of their on-going training program at Legacy.  Each class is structured to include ELDOA™ for each segment of the spine – lumbar, thoracic, cervical – and the exercises are beneficial to anyone and everyone taking the class.  The General Group Classes are open to Legacy Center of Excellence Members and, if space permits, to non-Members wishing to drop-in for a class.

The ELDOA™ Specialized Group Classes are designed to focus on a specific area of the spine or a specific joint or set of  joints in the body.  They may also be formatted to enhance a specific sport, such as golf, tennis, hockey or rowing, by creating space in the areas of the body most affected by that sport.  This normalizes and reorganizes the tissue after the sport has unorganized the body.

Myo-fascial Stretching (MFS) – because a muscle is only one link in a global chain, everything is connected to everything by fasciae.  Fasciae is the connective tissue that encapsulates muscle, organs, bone, et cetera.

For a long time now, we believed we knew how to stretch muscles.  However, how do we stretch a muscle when it is sheathed in a leather casing?  Stretching a muscle is only effective once the “skin” that covers it is no longer dry and retracted.  Myofascial stretching respects the anatomy of the muscles, their aponeurosis as well as their own function.  At this point, the analytical study of the fascial chains allows for an incredibly effective stretch position.

General Conditioning – General conditioning training sessions benefit everyone.  This class combines a variety of exercises for strength, balance, and muscle tone.   Reps, sets, and the length of class varies, but all levels of clients who have a base level of training are welcome.  Length of class time can vary and all sessions finish with Myo-fascial Stretching and ELDOA.

Strengthening – Glutes and Abs – The gluteus muscles – glute maximus deep, glute medius, and glute minimus – act on the pelvis, hip, and knee.  They maintain the position of the pelvis, especially when standing on one foot, and play an important role as stabilizers of the hip and knee joints during standing and walking.

The abdominals muscles – transversus abdominis, internal and external oblique, and rectus abdominis – have no attachments to the spine, but move the spine.  They sidebend or ipsilaterally rotate the spine and ribcage, compress the abdomen and flex the trunk.

The muscles of the lower abdomen – obturator internus, levator ani, and coccygeus – comprise the muscles of the pelvic floor, supporting the weight of the pelvic organs.

Strengthening – Lower Limb – Whether the proximal psoas or distal tibialis anterior, there are hundreds of exercises which can solicit the proximal, distal, medial, lateral, middle, superficial or deep portions of each muscle in the lower extremities. Exercising all of these muscles strengthens and provides muscular re-enforcement of the Lower Limb.

Many muscles of the lower limb, act on the pelvic girdle and create movement of the femur.  It is necessary to create a strong, balanced set of muscles right and left in order to have good stability in the hip/pelvis region.

Strengthening – Upper Limb, Trunk & Spine – In training the Upper Limb, the goal is to move the hand.  The shoulder is the rest of the hand.  To manage the quality of the hand movement and the quality of shoulder, there must be renforcement with lots of specific exercises.  The pecs are included in the upper limb.

You strengthen the upper limb in order to avoid the following:  carpal tunnel • tennis elbow • golf elbow • frozen shoulder • rotator cuff tear(s) • biceps tendonitis.

In strengthening the Trunk, the large spinal muscles must be trained along with the movement and support of the muscles.  The abdominals (obliques, rectus abdominis, transverse and pyramidalis) also need to be trained.  These muscles are not only functional but also aesthetic.  That is why clients learn hundreds of different exercises.

Butterfly exercises for the rhomboids are grouped with the spine not the upper body.

Strengthening – Cervical Spine – The cervical spine connects the head to the thorax.  C1 (the atlas) and C2 (the axis) have special modifications for support and movements of the skull.  C3 through C7 are more typical vertebrae, but have different shapes than the rest of the spinal vertebrae so the vertebral artery and vein may pass through.

Concussions, car wrecks, and other types of injury can wreck havoc on this area of the spine.  It is vital to have strong muscles and the maximum amount of space possible for the arteries, veins, and discs.

The ELDOA for the cervical spine are exercises that create strength and space and alleviate pain.

Strengthening – 6 + 2 Shoulder – The shoulder involves more than one joint.  It is a complex structure with two important, but somewhat contradictory roles.  It must be very flexible to allow the hand and arm the big range of motion they require.  It must provide a strong and stable fixed point for tasks like lifting heavy objects or pushing against resistance, for example.  There are many bones and muscles involved in the shoulder and when the biomechanics are wrong or repetitive movement is present, injury may occur.

6 + 2 is a series of exercises to strengthen or rehab the shoulder complex.

Abdominal Training – Abdominals are worked in flexion, side bending, rotation and positive torsion in all three groups:  supra-umbilical, sub-umbilical and hinge.  With over 100 abdominal exercises, the typical “crunch” is only one way to work the abs.  There are modifications that are taught for those with hernias or diathesis.

9 Part Abs – Peristalsis is a rhythmic and symmetrical contraction and relaxation of the colon to move waste from the body.  Often, due to dehydration, over-use of laxatives, stress, or Colitis, Crohn’s or IBS, this movement doesn’t work in the way it should.

Learning the 9-Part Abdominal Exercises can restore this function resulting in regular bowel movements, release of gas and abdominal cramping, and relief from debilitating symptoms.

The colon has different segments:  the cecum, the ascending colon, the hepatic angle, the transverse colon, the splenic angle, the descending colon, and the sigmoid colon.  In the 9-Part Abs, one “massages” each segment separately in order to enable the parts to work seamlessly as a whole.

Squat –  There are over 100 factors of progression in the squat exercise making it one of the most neurologically challenging exercises to master. To squat properly is to manage all the axes of rotation in every joint of your body through movement. There is so much to the squat;  the different types of squat a client-sportsman should use or should avoid in their program. One squat that is universal for all people: master the gravity squat.

Sauna – Sweating in a sauna has many great health benefits, including expelling of toxins, improving blood circulation, killing disease-causing microbes, and improving mitochondrial function.

Research has even shown that regular sauna use correlates with a reduced risk of death from any cause, including lethal cardiovascular events, and may help stave off Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.  It is also beneficial in lowering high blood pressure.

Proprioception – to rehabilitate the precise faculties of each ligament of the body in a lesional situation.  Proprioception is not the same as awareness.

Global Postural Stretching (GPS) – which helps restore freedom of movement and comfort to a global part of the body, including bones, muscles, joints, veins, arteries, nerves, etc.

Cardiac – to improve aerobic and anaerobic capacity and power.

Pelvis & Pelvic Floor – The structural base of the spine contains three bones – sacrum, and two ilium – for a total of three joints.

The goal of pelvic floor exercises is to maintain the quality of these three joints.  The functional basement is the pelvic floor. Exercise programs for this area might include awareness of the pelvis and pelvic floor, reinforcement of the pelvis, sub-umbilical ABS and ELDOA™ of the Sacro-Iliac Joint (SIJ)