The Program

The Secret Health Program

What I’ve done is created a 6-week, total health intervention. The Secret Health Program focuses on 4 major areas:

1)   Breathing Retraining

2)   Corrective Exercise

3)   Nutrition

4)   Knowledge

The Control Pause (CP) Test

This is a test to measure the current amount of oxygen your body stores within your tissues, a great measure for how healthy your cells are at any given time, and how efficiently you expel your metabolic waste. It’s a very easy test to complete and here’s how it is done:

1.     Sit down and rest for a few minutes (5-7 should be enough). Completely relax your muscles.

2.   Have a device nearby that you can observe seconds on easily (Digital timer, Stopwatch, Phone Timer, etc.). I prefer to use the stopwatch on my phone.

3.     At the end of a normal exhalation, pinch your nose and start your count. Continue holding your breath until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, "Enough!").

4.     If you release your nose at that point you should be able to continue breathing in the same pattern as you were before the test began. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth after releasing your nose.

5.     Record the amount of seconds you were able to hold your breath and compare to the numbers on the chart below:

So how do you measure up compared to those with Chronic Illnesses?

When I first took this test, MY CP WAS an 8! I had an incredibly low body oxygenation level which was a major reason I was feeling so miserable and had so many symptoms (both physical and mental)

Here’s a series of observations that Dr. Buteyko and his medical colleagues made during his years of research. They tested more than a hundred thousand patients and found that the following relationships generally hold true for the body oxygen test (or Buteyko CP test) levels:

·        1-10 s - severely sick, critically and terminally ill patients, usually hospitalized.

·        10-20 s - sick patients with numerous complaints and, often, on daily medication.

·        20-30 s - people with average health and usually without serious chronic health problems.

·        40-60 s - very good health.

·        Over 60 s - ideal health, when many modern diseases are virtually impossible.

Neck Flexion Test

This is a test to determine the strength of your deep neck flexors (Longus Capitis and Longus Colli). It may sound surprising, but weakness of these two little muscles can lead to a ridiculously long list of issues. Neck Pain, TMJ Pain, Poor Posture, Low Back Pain, etc. can all be caused by weakness here. This weakness allows the head, which can weigh a whopping 8 to 12 lbs, to drift forward off the center of gravity which forces your other neck muscles (upper trapezius, splenius capitis, sternocleidomastoid) to bust their butts just to keep your head from falling like a brick to the floor 18 hours a day!

Here's how to perform the test:

1. Lie on the floor on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Raise your arms over your head and let them relax flat on the floor above your head. (If you feel pain in your shoulder you can let your arms relax straight out to your side)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              
   
2. Relax your entire body and tuck your chin slowly toward your chest. Continue to tuck toward your chest until the back of your head is about 1 inch off of the floor and hold that position.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        
   
3. Stop the test when you can no longer hold your neck in the tucked position or you feel your neck shaking or it becomes painful.
   Record your time in seconds.

How'd you do?!

A person with healthy Neck Flexors should easily be able to hold that position comfortably for at least 30 seconds with no sign of fatigue (i.e. shaking, quivering, pain, etc). If you couldn't easily hold that position for the full 30 seconds, your Neck Flexors are very weak and it means you probably have multiple muscle imbalances throughout your body that are or will be causing you physical and mental issues. Another indicator of weak neck flexor muscles is an overactive Sternocleidomastoid muscle (if you feel this muscle become tight and solid when performing the test it means it has assumed the function of the weak flexors, which indicates weakness.)

Don't worry if your Neck Flexors are VERY weak, it happens! Most people nowadays have extreme weakness here but with my program you will correct your muscle imbalances and re-energize your body without having to spend hours at the gym! This will lead to a crazy amount of health benefits other than making you look younger and slimmer in the face and neck!




Program Exercise Example: Lower Back Stability

Below I have an example of one of the exercises I teach for my Lower Back Pain Clients. This is the format all of my clients will receive their exercises in and here's what's so great about it:

1. All exercises have an easy to see picture of starting and finishing positions.
2. Every client will have a different number of sets and repetitions that are determined with your specific needs in mind.
3. The instructions are easy to understand, making sure you never have that "I feel LOST without my trainer!" feeling when you're doing them on your own.
4. And finally, I explain exactly what the exercise is accomplishing, so you LEARN about your body and how the exercise is helping you!

Supine Marching





Repetitions: 20     Sets: 3     Rest Between Sets: 60 seconds

Muscle(s) Worked: Transverse Abdominis

Goal: To strengthen the Transverse Abdominis to stabilize the spine and pelvis.

Instructions

1. Lie on the floor on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat. Make sure your feet are hip-width apart, toes are pointed straight, and your ankles-knees-hips are all aligned. Your arms should be out to your side and your chin tucked slightly.
2. Once properly aligned rotate your pelvis backward pressing your lower back firmly into the mat/floor. Hold this position until the entire set is complete.
3. Slowly lift your left foot off of the ground 3-6 inches and hold for 2 seconds while keeping your abdominals braced, then lower back to the floor very slowly. This is 1 repetition.
4. Repeat with the other leg, alternating back and forth until the set is complete.

Note: It is absolutely necessary to not move side to side when lifting and lowering your leg. Lifting your lower back off the floor, allowing the hips to move, or not maintaining braced core abdominals will make the exercise useless/counterproductive.





Program Exercise Example: Pelvic Stability

This next exercise actually doubles as a pelvic stability test. If you cannot complete all 3 sets of 12 repetitions you have lower than normal hip/pelvic stability and weak glutes (butt muscles). Weak glutes allow your pelvis to rotate forward which throws your center of gravity forward also, causing common postural distortion and injury patterns.

The most common injury related to a forward tilted pelvis (a.k.a. Anterior Pelvic Tilt) is Chronic Low Back Pain. If you have lower back pain, it will be difficult to perform the following exercise correctly.

Luckily you have me! This exercise should help relieve your lower back pain a little, and it can be eliminated by continuing on with the full Secret Health Program where you'll receive all the tools and information necessary to eliminate your pain and fatigue for good!


Side-lying Hip Abduction






Repetitions: 12     Sets: 3     Rest Between Sets: 60 seconds

Muscle(s) Worked: Gluteus Medius, Gluteus Minimus, Tensor Fascia Latae (TFL)

Goal: To increase pelvic stability by strengthening the major hip abductors.

Instructions

1. Prepare by lying on your right side in a straight line, your head should be supported by your right hand. Bend your right knee and bring it forward so that your left knee is just above your ankle. Your left shoulder, hip, knee, and ankle should be in a straight line.
2. Begin by engaging your core, then lift  your left leg toward the ceiling slowly.. Hold at the top briefly, then slowly lower back to the starting position and repeat as specified.
3. Perform all sets on one side then complete exercise with your right leg.

Note: It's VERY important to perform exercise slowly, shift your body out of alignment, or to allow your moving leg to cheat forward during execution. The leg should also stay STRAIGHT at all times with no bend during the exercise. If any of these examples occur, the proper muscles will not be isolated and the exercise will become counter productive.




The Phone Book Exercise


This is a great exercise to do when you're feeling stressed out and need to relax. It's also a very important part of my Secret Health Program because it strengthens the diaphragm and helps revive your natural breathing mechanics, leading to decreased stress and anxiety levels and a multitude of health benefits (including weight loss!). You'll need a large phone book or something of equivalent weight and size. Let's begin!