This period of enforced confinement due to the coronavirus pandemic is a good time to start ELDOA—or to restart the ELDOA routine you may have dropped.
Anyone who knows me knows that I believe that just about everyone should incorporate ELDOA into their fitness regimen, whether it’s simple or strenuous. So what makes it so special during this difficult time? Let me explain.
Most of us are forced to stay home, and our normal recreational outlets are closed off, but you want to be active. In fact, you probably need to be active more than ever, just for your own emotional well-being. Most of all, you want to be fit and ready to take on your usual activities once this ordeal is over and we are all free to live our normal lives again.
Staying fit is a challenge when we’re confined.
Many of us are challenged to stay fit if we can’t leave the confines of our house or apartment. People with a home gym, a swimming pool or other facility have been the lucky ones, but most of us have had to make major changes in the way we work out. There can be no trips to the gym, no working out with our usual group, no tennis matches, no golf foursomes, and no basketball or softball games. It’s up to us and our own commitment and creativity.
Challenges are often just opportunities wearing a cunning disguise, and if we are wise, we can find genuine opportunities in this period of social distancing and self-isolation. Many people are using this time to do things they have been putting off, from getting rid of stuff they no longer need to acquiring new skills and knowledge through online learning, working on hobbies, or doing research on Ancestry. Others might just put Netflix into overdrive, do a lot of eating and get fat and depressed. Please don’t.
What is ELDOA?
ELDOA is simply the number-one tool in my therapist’s toolbox for all my patients and clients, whether they come to me for fitness or for rehabilitation. It consists of a series of one-minute posture exercises that target specific joints. I use it for professional athletes and grandmothers alike because of its unique ability to end and prevent back pain, encourage better posture and keep the spine and hips flexible. It is the only technique I know of that actually increases the space in the joints to allow for better movement and less pain.
It is a fact that our spine and pelvis suffer from compression as we challenge our bodies through athletics or just go through life. Gravity is the enemy of any biped who wants to stand straight through life—as we all do. It compresses our vertebrae over time, creating stiffness and eventually pain. And by the way, you don’t have to be active to suffer back problems due to compression. A sedentary lifestyle takes its toll just as surely, maybe even worse, so if you are not getting any other exercise these days, then at least do ELDOA to keep your back aligned and flexible.
ELDOA counteracts compression.
ELDOA counteracts that compression, and once you learn the different ELDOA exercises, you can perform them by yourself in your bedroom or living room. Do them after a workout or in the morning after a shower, and you will notice that your body feels better and stronger. You may be confined, but your body won’t feel confined.
Then when you can get back to the golf course, tennis court or playing field, your back and pelvis will be fully conditioned and ready for the stresses of rotation, stretching, rapid bending or rolling. No one wants to injure themselves on the first weekend out after weeks of confinement.
ELDOA is available online.
The Titleist Performance Institute, “the world’s leading educational organization dedicated to the study of how the human body functions in relation to the golf swing,” offers a course called ELDOA for Golf. I can tell you without reservation that, while it was certainly developed to help golfers manage the stresses that golf puts on the body, it is not just for golfers. Anyone will benefit from this course. And I can say that without reservation because I am one of the presenters of this course. If you are looking for a way to keep fit now that you can use well into your old age, check it out.
Schedule your fitness routine.
Whatever you choose to do to be physically and emotionally healthy while we endure this Covid-19 pandemic, please make physical exercise an essential part of your day. Adopt a routine. Set aside a specific time each day to do your workout. If your local conditions allow you to get outside to run or cycle, if you’re lucky enough to have a home gym or swimming pool, or if you can shoot some hoops in your driveway, put that activity on your calendar and treat it like an appointment.
Then finish with ELDOA. When you are through, those one-minute ELDOA movements will make your workout complete.
Better Body. Better Life.
Dan Hellman, MSPT, ELDOA Instructor
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