Copyright
Cover Design:
Stiebner Verlag
Photos:
Stefan Wengert; FLEXI-SPORTS
Translation:
Lisa Buckmiller
Illustrations:
Anneli Nau; Frank Geisler
FLEXI-BAR and the FLEXI-BAR logo are registered trademarks of the FLEXI-SPORTS GmbH. The use in this book takes place with friendly approval of the FLEXI-SPORTS GmbH.
Source of Supply, Links, Community:
www.flexi-sports.com
www.flexi-bar.co.uk
www.fit-projects.de
www.mach-aktiv-pause.de
www.xco-trainer.de
www.fit-xco.de
www.agr-ev.de
Note about the AGR-seal of quality:
Checked and recommended through the Forum: Gesunder Rücken – besser leben e. V. and the Bundesverband der deutschen Rückenschulen (BdR) e. V.
Further information at:
AGR e.V., Pf. 103, 27443 Selsingen,
Tel. 04284/92 69 990, www.agr-ev.de
The advices in this work are carefully considered and checked by the author. For correctness in the details, however, the author or rather the publishing house and its representatives cannot incur liability.
© 2011 Copress Verlag
in the Stiebner Verlag GmbH, München
All rights reserved.
Reproduction, also in form of exerpts,
only with explicit approval of the publishing house.
Total production:
Stiebner, München
Printed in Germany
ISBN 978-3-7679-1125-3
www.copress.de
Frank Thömmes, born in 1968, is a graduate PE teacher, soccer and back training teacher, as well as head in coronary sports exercises. He has numerous trainer and advanced vocational qualifications at his disposal in the field of some sport disciplines, as well as additional therapeutic qualifications.
As an author, he wrote several publications about the exercise with the FLEXI-BAR and the »XCO-Trainer,« as well as articles about workplace health promotion.
His agency, www.fit-projects.de, organises health and exercise projects for health insurances and other clients throughout Germany.
A healthy person has no clue how much wealth that is.
About this Book
The Development of Vibration Exercise
The History of Dynamic Bars
Starting Point Vibration Exercise and Physical Therapy
Different Frequencies of Base Plates and Dynamic Bars
The Beginning of Dynamic Bars
Effects of Vibration Exercise with Dynamic Bars
Simple Principle – Brilliant Effect
It All Swings
Training the Lower Back Muscles – Working with Reflexes
Segmental Muscles – Tension Inside the Spine
Quality Instead of Quantity
Core-Training – Stability of the Torso with the Dynamic Bar
Reduction of Weight with the FLEXI-BAR?
Biomechanical Foundations
Mode of Operation of Muscles During Swinging Exercise
The FLEXI-BAR-Concept
The Problem of Increasing Inactivity Due to Jobs in Front of Computers
Shortage of Time and Missing Stability
About the Product Development
Which FLEXI-BAR Is Suitable for Me?
The Best Exercises with the FLEXI-BAR
Risk of Injury?
Correct Warm-Up
To Bring the FLEXI-BAR to a Swinging
The Basic Position While Standing
Holding the FLEXI-BAR
Breathing and Concentration
Coordination and Redundancy
Intensity and Amplitude of Swinging
Combination with Other Devices
Music
Training with two FLEXI-BARS?
Indications and Contra-Indications
Dizziness During Swinging
Choice of Exercises and Determination of Intensity
Exercises for the Back
Basic
Advanced
Professional
Exercises for the Shoulders
Basic
Advanced
Professional
Osteoporosis-Training
Basic
Advanced
Professional
Exercises for the Pelvic Floor
Basic
Advanced
Professional
Exercises for Children
Basic
Exercises for Generation 60+
Basic
Advanced
Athletic Training
Basic
Advanced
Professional
Exercise at the Desk
Basic
Advanced
Professional
For more than 15 years, I have been working within the scope of by now over 1000 prevention classes with patients who seek professional help dealing with back problems. During my sports studies, I already got to know the complexity and the individual fates connected to it. In the course of my education in becoming one of Germany’s first teachers for back training and later as an instructor for the Forum Gesunder Rücken – besser leben e.V., I also became aware of the discrepancy between modern and seemingly out-of-date ways of therapy approaches for back problems.
Considering exercise as a measurement of all things when it comes to prevention and therapy of back pain, still has not been put into practice. After such a long time, it very well should be permitted to ask what the problem seems to be: even today I am still confronted over and over again with patients whose doctors only know about the therapy order of injection, pills and rest. Exercise is rarely recommended, and often it simply seems to be too late or too expensive to take deconditioning steps against the pain cycle through exercise therapy.
In search of practical assistance for affected persons and of feasible programs to pursue oneself, the FLEXI-BAR came to my attention years ago already, and I have ever since regularly used it in every group. The simplicity of the operation, the complexity in its effect, the positive results in strength, reflex control, and coordination, as well as the applicability in self-training at home combined with short duration of exercise, proved to be a logical concept with a widespread impact on back problems.
For these reasons, I have tried to take a closer look at the whole topic of »training with dynamic bars and vibration« in the current book. However, the more closely I did my research and reinforced the topic, the more I reached the convictions that the topic is perfectly depicted through the FLEXI-BAR and the accompanying concept. Thus, the book came to its title.
Shortly before the printing of this book, a large grocery discount store included a low-priced model of a dynamic bar in their product line – a further indicator for the increasing interest in this concept of training.
Every reader is welcome to try reaching the described effects with any model of a dynamic bar or rather to perform the introduced exercises. Mind you that I do not recommend this, but it would be possible. In my experience, most users will end up with the FLEXI-BAR, which I still use in all classes, from competitive sport over sport for seniors, all the way to therapy.
Have fun with swinging!
Frank Thömmes, autumn 2011