Master Your Core Bohdanna Zazulak

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Welcome to the Mike Hartman Show. Mike is a performance coach and former Stanley Cup Champion with the New York Rangers. Topics on this show are focused around stories, mindset and champions. Mike will also go into details about helping you with your pain points and struggles and finding motivational solutions on how to have the mindset of a champion. Now, here's your host, Mike Hartman.

Welcome to another episode today. My guest is Dr. Zazuluk and Dr. Zazuluk and I go way back to my days when I was playing for the Buffalo Sabers. She's an expert around your core and how to master your core, so you're really going to enjoy this conversation. If anybody wants to go to Hartman Academy, I always say this no.com go to our resources there and our programs. We'd love to answer any of your questions on with the show I was.

Mountain biking on the majestic fjords of Norway during the time of the midnight sun. The midnight sun is an amazing phenomenon that occurs near the Earth's poles in the summertime, when a continuous sunset and sunrise illuminate heaven and earth in the middle of the night with vibrant colors. It was in this beauty that I sustained a high force injury. After presenting at the first World Congress for Injury Prevention in Oslo, I fell with my bicycle 50ft down a steep, rocky cliff. Ironically, I had just presented my research on core stability and its importance for injury prevention to the world's most brilliant sports medicine scientists, surgeons and clinicians. I left that conference center feeling on top of the world as we were finally starting to understand the important connection between core stability and its relevance as the control center and powerhouse of the body. Within a split second, I went from the top of the world, literally and figuratively, to laying bloody at the bottom of a narrow, deep inlet of the sea. Injuries happen fast. We know that most traumatic injuries occur within 40 milliseconds, or.04 seconds. That's eight times faster than the blink of an eye. We now also know that the lack of core stability is directly linked to injury and that dynamic training of your core is a key component of injury prevention as well as rehabilitation from injury. Fortunately, you can train your brain to nerves and muscles to react quickly enough to respond and prevent damage to your body. So why is it that I survived with minor injuries with such high forces acting on my body, whereas another person may sustain incapacitating lifelong injuries from a slip on a banana peel, a minor event with low destabilizing forces? Why is it that I pulled myself up, found my bike, and hopped back on to ride back to the conference center, got stitched up at a colleague's hospital, and made the best of our faculty dinner in the beautiful harbor that evening. My research shows that people activate their core musculature differently during dynamic activities with different movement strategies. Research also shows that mindset and psychological factors such as positive thinking, resilience, and the ability to overcome fear and negative emotions are equally important for predicting risk of injury as well as in recovery from injury and overall health and well being. I have devoted my career to figuring out why so many people get injured in sports and everyday life and finding the best strategies for rehabilitating people from injury. What I have discovered in my 30 years of clinical experience as a Doctor of Physical Therapy, orthopedic, certified Specialist and researcher at Yale New Haven Health and Yale University School of Medicine that properly training your core is the most important thing you can do to improve your health. Build strength, reduce your risk of injury, improve performance and optimize your physical, mental and emotional health. The term core stability has been overhyped and misconstrued, leading people astray with endless crunches and swinging kettlebells onto a fast track of injury and despair. As a physical therapist, it's heartbreaking to see all the injuries that could have been prevented with core understanding. So what exactly is the core? Here in the Western scientific world, we describe the core as the body's center of balance and strength. This includes 35 muscles abdominal, back, pelvic and glutes, plus the spine, pelvis and hip joints. Eastern Philosophies Dating back to the ancient Greeks, traditional Chinese and Indian yogi masters have looked beyond the physical aspect of the core for thousands of years, attributing to it certain spiritual properties. These traditions claim that mastering the spiritual components of your core through practices like deep breathing, meditation and moving your body into and out of different postures and can help you achieve inner power and enlightenment. New scientific evidence supports the benefits of these Eastern complementary practices such as meditation, yoga and martial arts and their abilities to improve your health and empower your core. This new research has created a paradigm shift in modern integrated health because it has forced us as scientists and medical professionals to recognize the importance of of the mind, body, spirit connection for optimal wellness and injury prevention. This new paradigm has created a symbiotic approach that draws from both Western or conventional and Eastern or alternative and complementary philosophies to understand each person's unique set of circumstances and address their full range of physical, psychological, social, environmental and spiritual influences. Science has shown us that merging some of the best practices from Western and Eastern healing modalities is the best way to improve core stability and overall health. Throughout my decades of clinical and investigative experience, I have learned that the foundation for injury prevention, recovery and overall wellness is based on four fundamental principles of a healthy core base Base Breathing, Awareness, Stability and empowerment that each person must learn and incorporate into their life to truly flourish. Breathing deeply with dynamic stretches to align, balance and awaken your inner core without deep diaphragmatic breathing habits, you will never maximize your inner core strength and stability Awareness Awareness of your mind Core connection through meditation, kinetic learning and nervous system training with scientifically based core exercises for activation, strength, coordination and control Stability Stability of your core is the control center of your body developed through a dynamic core stability arsenal of functional exercises for your core to expect the unexpected and protect you from injury. Empowerment Empowerment of your core Using principles of ancient wisdom and modern science to harness your full potential from within to feel more centered, positive and powerful. Use alternative philosophies and activities that will help you make core training part of your lifestyle. Use your own unique interests and skills to achieve core empowerment while having fun and enjoying new adventures and challenges such as Pilates, yoga, martial arts and outdoor adventures in the wonders of nature to explore and empower your core base so you can learn to live your life from your core and embrace your unlimited potential for strength, health and growth. When you train your core, you create engrams movement software programs in your nervous system for complex movements. These engrams dictate which muscles your core hardware will be used, in which order and to what degree. Then encode these neurological blueprints in the brain and peripheral nervous system. These blueprints allow automatic control processes to operate faster than conscious control of your body. Core training not only empowers your body to avoid injuries, but also has a positive effect on psychological factors such as depression, anxiety and fear of injury, which has been demonstrated even in the elderly, proving that your brain and body have the potential to grow and improve throughout your entire lifetime. It's never too late to start training your core for better mind, body and spirit health. Learn more about core empowering strategies in my book Master your Core and on my website doczaz.com to Unleash youh Core Power thank you.

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