Page 14 - 2020 Spring CMTA Report

ADAPTING TO CHANGE:

From Weight Training to Yoga

BY JEFF SEITZER
eople say that the one CMTX, which tends
constant in life is change. to be more severe in
For me, the one constant is males, but I am for-
and always has been cycling. tunate to have very
P My love of the sport never mild symptoms and
wanes. But when a major muscle decent muscle mass
imbalance caused by overtraining and tone in my
left me not just in pain, but calves, feet and
almost unable to stand, I knew ankles. I am highly
Jeff Seitzer, 61, teaches I would have to adapt. motivated to keep
at Roosevelt University I use a sturdy older bike for those muscles as
in Chicago and is strong and flexible as
author of a memoir, errands and for getting around my
The Fun Master Chicago neighborhood. When I possible.
(forthcoming), among ride longer distances, down the I made a painful
many other works. lakefront trail or across town, I discovery when a
am pedaling a newer, sleeker freak Halloween bliz-
hybrid bike. I even have a nifty zard finally forced me Jeff Seitzer practices yoga at home.
foldable bike I throw in the trunk off my bike. Walking
and use on trips, for example, to the train and form—against a wall, on a
while visiting the CMT Clinic in around the neighborhood made it machine, in a bridge position, or
hilly Iowa City. clear that I had a major muscle even with a Pilates ring—always
This is good, right, all this imbalance. Walking uses a wider produce muscle strain. This time
exercise? The adverse health conse- range of muscles than biking. around was worse, though. I also
quences of a sedentary lifestyle are Besides the calf muscles, walking hyperextended the fascia on my
well-established. For a CMT suf- also works the muscles of the but- insteps, making it hard to stand
ferer like me, though, it comes tocks and stomach, as well as the without shoes, a startling change
with a big asterisk. Cycling pri- pelvic stabilizer muscles, such as for me.
marily uses the large muscles of the adductors and the muscles of In despair, I thought of just
the upper thighs—the quadriceps the abdomen and the back. giving up. Since this problem
and hamstrings—while CMT Finally, and here is the kicker for came on rather suddenly, however,
works its dark magic on the mus- CMT sufferers, it uses the sym- I thought it must be correctible. I
cles of my feet and ankles. I have metrical tibialis anterior muscles in experimented with two changes in
the front of the my conditioning program. First, I
calves essential for tried a new approach to calf exer-
lifting the feet. cises. I use two yoga blocks, one
I resumed my cork and one foam. The cork
troubled relation- block is very firm and a bit smaller
ship with weight than the foam one (Photo A).
training to correct With the balls of my feet on the
the imbalance. cork block, I rest my heels on the
Very quickly I was foam one positioned just behind it
reminded why (Photo B). I raise my heels a little
lower body weight (Photo C) and lower them very
work is the one slowly onto the foam block, which
form of exercise I gives a little as the heels come to
don’t do regularly. rest on it. Coming down onto the
For me, calf exer- foam block corrects the big flaw in
cises in any calf exercises for me—the lack of

14 THE CMTA REPORT SPRING 2020