You're listening to the Human Kinetics Podcast, the leader in physical activity and sports publishing, providing authoritative coaching resources for over 50 years, featuring educational and engaging conversations on the most relevant topics in fitness, strength and conditioning, and sports performance. Enjoy the show. Hello and thank you to everyone joining today. Every episode, we do our best to bring you the most relevant information with the most trusted and experienced sources, and today is no different. Joining me is Leslie Bender, who is a 40-year veteran of the fitness industry and recipient of the 2020 Idea Personal Trainer of the Year Award, and if that name sounds familiar, you might recognize it from her book "I Am Ageless Now" or possibly her very own creation, the Bender Ball, which we are going to talk a little bit about today, too. So her most recent publication with Human Kinetics is Vital Core Training, and she is here to tell us all about the book and to talk to us about the importance of training in the course. So, again, thank you so much for jumping on here today, Leslie, I really appreciate it. Oh, I'm honored to be here, and this book has definitely been a work of passion and purpose for many, many years, and so it's finally come into fruition, and everyone that's bought it so far has just reached out to me and said, "Oh my gosh, I feel so different since I've been actually doing this form of core training versus, you know, traditional core training," which I'm sure we're going to discuss through. Right. No, definitely. We'll get into a lot of that. So I gave a brief introduction there to kind of introduce you to everyone listening, but I'm sure you can give it much more insight, and I guess in the introduction of the book, you explained that you have been in the fitness industry for a while. Why got you interested in the fitness industry, and if you can give us an idea of how you progress in your career to get to where you are today? Great question. Well, I'm going to go back to my 20s, and so I was actually studying in college, both business, and then I decided that I'd go to PT school, and what I didn't find passion in was my business education, even though I got a degree in it. And I found with PT that it wasn't, as to me, as impactful as, you know, back in the day of aerobics, and with that being said, true story, my first aerobic class was with none other than Jane Fonda, and yeah, I know, right? And I truly, I was like, yeah, this is what I want to do. And so starting like everyone else, it was all high intensity aerobics, and when we first started here, and there wasn't a thing called a certification, you know, and finally, you know, AFA and IDEA came out with certifications and, you know, lots of other organizations, but it was a free-for-all, and so a big lead-up to where this book is and where I am today is there wasn't science into practice, it was go hard to go home. I mean, it was a badge of honor to be sore the next day, which, you know, now that I'm in my 60s, I'm not the only one that is a recipient of a joint replacement. All of this could be prevented, but yet we still are kind of doing some of these dumb exercises I hate to say that I have no filter in the industry today. And you know, anyone that's watching this that's younger, like yourself, if you're not cognizant of the way that you're training, at some point in time, you're going to wind up with joint issues. And so a lot of that back when I first discovered Pilates in 1999, I found, because I studied in New York, that many of the Pilates exercises were, you know, not great for the back. And of course, you know, back then, most of the education and our exercises were very much designed for dancers, which is a different crowd and a whole different animal. And so long story short, I was teaching in Germany, and I discovered this small ball. And I thought, wow, that's it. This is this is this is the solution to doing a lot of Pilates exercises and core exercises. So I actually brought I was the first to bring a small ball back to the US and start. And I tell you what, Aaron, I couldn't keep them in stock. I mean, it was, I mean, once people, you know, felt the difference in their Pilates practice, they're like, wow, I can still embrace the principle of Pilates without compromising my back. So anyway, fast forward to about the year 2005, 2006, I had the Pilates coach, which was my training company. And we were progressive. We were very much ahead of our time and still are. And long story short, I was at the idea conference with my, my small ball and the owner of Xavier fitness, but very well known, big infomercial company, he, that Jeff came up and he said, so what do you do with that little ball? And I said, well, Mr. Teller, let me show you some exercises and he said, that's amazing because everyone is still embracing the Swiss ball or the large ball, which is great. But at the end of the day, most people have, you know, they have exercise equipment. And you know, it's a dust catcher or a place where you're laundry to hang. And so this is something that can be used anywhere, anytime. So needless to say, in 2007, we, when I got hard as the talent for this program, and then they used my name, long story short, it just, it was one of the top infomercials that that company had ever, ever seen in 2007. But prior to that, which to me was very exciting. If you make a claim, especially for a fitness infomercial or any kind of infomercial, it has to be legitimately tested. So we tested basically my ball before it became the bender ball at Loma Linda University and they did a very arduous test with it on the activation of a core being 408% higher than doing crunches on the floor or a large stability ball and I'll get into that later but it was really cool to see that there is scientific research behind this program that we're not just throwing things out. And then in 2010, I wanted to further my career as far as I'm not going into PT, but I wanted to really bridge the gap between science and practice and that's when I discovered Gary Gray and I'm a graduate of the Gray Institute of Applied Functional Science and for me, that was the most life changing program I've ever gone through. What I paid for it, I could have gone back to school, and I hear so many times when fitness professionals say, "Oh, I don't want to pay out to go for an education," and it's like it's our profession and it's our responsibility to truly understand why we're doing movement and Gary Gray enlightened over 100 of us in that program for the year of the importance of understanding where you reach, there's a reaction in the whole entire body. And just amazing. And then since then, I've had the opportunity of taking some courses with Thomas Myers and that was the Cadaver Lab, primarily focusing on Fasha and then Michelle Delport following up with movement. So for me, Erin, I think that we cannot emphasize enough the importance of our education and truly understanding what we're doing with people and the reason I say that is they see us more than they do see a medical professional. So we really have the opportunity to be part of the solution or part of the cause of people getting hurt. And I think a lot of core exercises, especially crunches, et cetera, et cetera, are causing more harm to people than good. I mean, we're sitting here and we're sitting in a chair right now, our posture is good, we're fitness pros, but a regular person watching this, this cast would be probably maybe a little bit hunched over and we don't realize that creating a conscious movement becomes a subconscious result. So if I live in flexion, why would I want to lay down on the ground and do more flexion? So there you go. That is a very long roundabout story of where I am today. No, I think it was great because it gives everyone perspective on your education where you've been, why you have the perspective that you do. So all of that's very great. One thing that I did want to ask about, and you kind of mentioned it, how is this, how is the bender ball different from a regular Swiss ball? Obviously, in the size, that is probably the most obvious there, but I think for a while, it seems like most gyms that I've been in will have the big Swiss balls. And to your point, I think they probably don't get used to a whole lot, maybe not as much as they could. Maybe people don't know how to use them, but also to a point that you made with a smaller ball, it can travel with you, it can, you can probably do so much more with it. So I guess it explains to our audience what the difference is and what the benefits of using a smaller ball like this would be. Well, let's just take, let's just take, for example, two different scenarios. So in other words, if you have an ergonomic office chair with a large ball sitting on it, that's awesome. You can't do it with a small ball for obvious reasons, although you can't put a big ball behind your low back ball, you said it, and you can put this small ball behind your back, which forces you into better posture, because when you lean back against it, you're actually activating the anterior part of the body. So that's one thing as far as those that are watching that, you know, do sit at a desk, I, you know, I like, I like the ergonomic chairs, I think they're brilliant. But when we talk about a gym scenario with a large ball, it takes balance. And a lot of times if you think about if you're trying to do movement, unless you're sitting on the big ball, and I use them, I think they're great. But if you're sitting on it, you know, your whole nervous system and your vestibular system are adjusting to the fact that you're on a very big unstable surface. Does that make sense, right? And so you might be thinking to yourself more about the aspect of losing balance as to where the small ball placing it behind the lumbar spine, because you want the lumbar spine to be stable, but you want your thoracic spine to be able to move, right? So when we look at mobility versus stability, we want mobility in the upper back. So the small ball placed behind the lumbar spine gives you stability while you can increase mobility in the thoracic spine, which is, is harder to do on a Swiss ball. And I think honestly, that's why I don't seem used as much in the gym. I don't, you know, in the place that I, that I'm employed, I hardly ever seem being used. And I think in that they're a great tool, but what gets used, you know, and of course puts a smile on my face, I see every class using the green ball and I'm like, yay. So it makes me very happy. Yeah, no, absolutely. So I mean, we are talking about the importance of core training, because I, so I think when I will say most, I'll say many people think about core training. They might think about the aesthetics of training the core. I can't even say everyone, but a lot of people, you know, want that six pack. They want their abs to show, but we know that there's so much more to core training, so many more benefits to core training. So I guess from your perspective and in what's in the book, what can you explain about the exact benefits of training the core are? Well, it's a big question. So let's talk about aesthetics, your abs are made in the kitchen, and your core is made by training functionally. And every time our, and this is a Gary Gray, is them every times the foot gets the ground, you have a chain reaction. So every time our foot enters into the ground, we're activating our core, because of the fact that everything is surrounded by fascia. And so for example, you're sitting there, so just grab like a corner of your shirt. You're going to notice that the fabric actually tightens on one side, right? So it's similar to that, if if we were to actually lean back or lean forward, we're going to feel like a tightness in the facial tissue and release in the facial tissue. If that makes sense, if I'm living in flexion over deaths, basically that whole posterior fascia line is becoming overstretched is where my anterior fascia line is becoming kind of short and tight. If that makes sense. So then if I'm going to lay down on the ground to do more crunches, or I'm doing kicking my legs out and only activating the transverse about 11%, then without being said, I'm perpetuating a poor postural habit, if I'm laying on the floor. And the big thing is, Erin, if you can show me how would you, how would you throw a ball? Like if you're going to throw a baseball at me, how would you do it? Even sitting in a chair, what would be even sitting in a chair, I'm going to get a little bit of rotation in through this way, and then I'm going to follow through, obviously, you got it. So if you were laying on the floor, would you have that rotation, or would you have a load to explode? No. You would not. So with the ball behind your back, you have load to explode. So you're completely winding up that whole fascia line in the front and the poster in lateral lines of the body. And this is what's so cool is you get that load to explode, which our body craves. So the more we like, and you know, and I hear this all the time in fitness professionals go squeeze, tighten, burn, pull it in. So if you're tightening down your body, you're going to restrict motion everywhere, because again, this thing called fascia. So the importance of core training is vital. It's how we do it, you know, and that can be balanced training. That can be lunges. All of this is in the book, which is cool. And we just simply incorporate the ball as, you know, as an aid for some of the core training. But for the kinesthetic learner, it also provides kinesthetic feedback, which otherwise you're not going to get. So again, whether we're doing vertical, you know, vertical core training, sideline core training, et cetera, et cetera, you want to be training your body in all positions with sort of a minimum being on your back, you know, planking and all those different positions that we can put our bodies in depending on the level of participant, are all ones that we need to consider, because that's life. That is absolutely life, you know, and I don't think a lot of times, especially like when I came out of having my knee replacement, it's like I refuse to use a walker. You know, it's like, oh, my God, that defines me as an old lady. And I called him around, but the main thing I forced myself to do was keep working, you know, on my, on my core. I also, you know, forced myself to get up and down off the floor because I thought to myself, if I get down, I got to get back up. So I look at training the body as functionally as we possibly can do it. And that can be as simple as doing reaches over your head, across your body, throwing a ball like you just demonstrated there. Our body craves the length and versus shortened. Yeah. So one thing that stands out when I hear you talking about all this is that some people might not be able to move in certain, because maybe they maybe they have limitations. Maybe they have back pain, maybe they, their hips don't work as well as they can. So they feel like they need to be on the ground or on the floor training. Is this an area where that might also help in kind of using that ball behind your back, you said, absolutely, yeah, absolutely. And actually we, um, we did a, uh, an analysis at Loma Linda University with the ball behind the low back. And this was a different program on healthy back. That's actually what it was called. And we actually utilized primarily young people with back problems and their back problems exponentially went down, and again, this was a test, test scenario with Dr. Petroski at Loma Linda University. Um, and so there are back problems exponentially went down, keeping in mind that a lot of our back problems come from incorrect core training that again, especially doing crunches, because if you think about the neck, I mean, in our head, depending on how much our head weighs, we bring our head forward, we're adding another 25 pounds to the cervical spine. So our body is really craving to be in this homeostasis of upright position, right? So again, when we're doing the core training with a ball behind the back, we're essentially in a neutral position. And then of course, we're adding rotation to that. So one of the things that I emphasize in the book is where is your range of motion? You know, what, what works for you rather than saying no pain, no gain, what range of motion is comfortable, but yet you still feel the movement in your body, right? Right. And as far as some of the supine exercises, we've got a couple at the end where we, uh, it's a non gravitational movement, uh, to lengthen the hip flexors because you're supine and gravity doesn't have an effect. And that one last stretch in the back of the book is amazing. And people feel the difference like immediately after they've done that stretch. And there, and there's no load on the body, um, unlike if you're doing a standing lunge and you're focusing on lengthening the hip flexors, which is vital, but, you know, like me, after I had my knee surgery, I couldn't do that. So the ball was my best friend for my rehab and it probably helped me really have quicker than otherwise. So I don't work. That's awesome and such a good testimonial. One of the things that comes to mind when I hear you talking about all of this is that I will have, um, I guess in my own career, I'll have, Andy, I do train a lot of athletes. So like you mentioned, people of all ages and they'll come in and say, um, hey, I have this back pain or, um, my, my hips feel weird, my hips feel off. And honestly, one of the first places I go is let's look at your core, we, we probably need to strengthen your core a little bit more. Is that something that you've seen across the board too? Oh, for sure. And so, um, the dude on the book, right, the cover of the book, um, here's a young guy, right? And so just even in the cover photo where we have him, he had never, he, this was his first time using the ball, right? Yeah. You can see he's lean, he's caught, he looks great. The minute we put the ball behind his low back and I said, all right, I need you to lean back a little bit. And he started shaking like crazy and he goes, what's wrong with me? And I said, you're weak your core, I said aesthetically, you've got amazing looking abs, abs, not core. So needless to say, um, he was so cute, he's like, I'm going to start doing these every day. And I said, yeah, get back to me on that. And you let me know how, how you improve. Um, so even though you're strongest looking athlete, like I used to train, uh, Prince Field or the baseball player. Yeah. Yeah. And then I trained Nick Collins who played for, uh, Green Bay and, um, both of these guys, I'd get the ball out and they'd be like, Oh, I hate you. Yes. They were so, and Prince came to me because of his back and literally, you know, I fixed him up in a couple of months and he's like, are we done? I'm like, yep, you're on your own now. You know what you need to do. You don't need me anymore, you know, and, but here's a high end athlete and so many times again, uh, you know, they get massages, right? They, they do bodywork and all these things, but your training regime is such a vital part of, um, longevity and performance. Does that make sense? Yeah. And a lot of time athletes, you know, they trained for their performance, but they may not necessarily add in some, something as simple as some of the core exercises in here that is going to take up, take up their performance exponentially. It isn't that amazing to, to watch and to listen to that. Um, we think, I mean, I'll include myself on this. We think that we are very strong in certain areas and people might look very fit and athletic and then you get them to do something that they're not used to doing or, uh, working, even, you know, getting very specific with the muscles that, that you want them to use and all of a sudden they feel weak and realize, hey, there are these other areas that I still need to train to get better at too. Oh, absolutely. And I mean, to go along with that is, I think, you know, those of you listening and you yourself is truly, we have, um, those individuals and, and I know one in particular that is just an absolute badass athlete at 70 years old. She's had two knee replacements, two hip replacements. And one of the strongest snow and water steers I've ever, ever met, however, I've trained her before and she's not in her body. So to me, this is an anomaly, she's fantastic at what she does, but to get her to actually feel something takes longer than maybe somebody who's not as fit. It's kind of interesting. Um, and without being said, the ball provides the kinesthetic feedback that they can't go fast. And if you slow them down to, to do some of these core exercises, they'll start to have a better mind, body connection, which otherwise, for whatever reason, for many people, you know, they're just, they live outside their body and they're not able to feel things. And I know we've all worked with people like that. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, this is all great information. I know that, um, a lot of people are visual learners though, um, and that's something that I think the book does very well. Um, there are a number of actually, I mean, there's a full section as you obviously know of, um, you know, full color pictures and exercise descriptions and specific cues to make sure that everyone's doing these exercises the right way. So, um, I get, I know that, uh, programming can be very specific to an individual's needs, but, um, what are some of the go to exercises that are included in this book that you would recommend for everyone to include in their, uh, training program? All of them. Right. Oh, there's only like 300 of them in here. Well, the book, the book is so brilliantly, really broken down into vertical, um, kneeling, um, seated, sidelines, supine stretches, et cetera, um, and warm ups and things of this nature. I would, if I were you is to, you know, go back and start doing some of these movements and look at these movements as a menu. The guidelines. So you're looking at this menu saying, okay, this is going to work for students A, this is going to work for students B. Like, if I work with tickleball players, which, you know, we've got people going from couch to court, they don't warm up and there's all kinds of injuries. There's a section in here actually for rotational exercises like golf, et cetera. And you know, the vertical exercises, they're so crucial, but so are the rotational exercises, because again, um, you want, you want that synergy of your entire core body to be able to say, okay, I'm going to do this, but it needs to translate to what my clients need. So if I can encourage trainers more than anything is, who's your audience? What do they want? What do they need? And I asked my students all the time, what, what do you feel like you need today? Even if I have 10 people, you know, and then I kind of pick and choose what I feel like I would be taking out of this, if that makes sense. Okay. No, absolutely. And just one more point to pull out of what you just said. You mentioned the rotational exercises, I think, um, as probably as humans, they get stuck in our own training plans. We forget about that transverse plane and forget that we do need even though, even if we're not a competitive athlete, we do need to continue training in that way. Oh, big time. Big time. Yeah. So, um, so I, I do want to, uh, thank you for your time. This has been an excellent conversation, um, uh, but I didn't want to take up too much every time I wanted to be respectful of that. So, uh, I just want to emphasize it. It was great meeting you. Um, I highly encourage everyone listening to, uh, get to know Leslie a little more and get to know her expertise by getting a copy of this book, look up all over other information. Um, you're going to find information that we talked about today. Uh, like I mentioned, full color photos, exercise descriptions, uh, you're going to get a ton of ideas. Um, even myself, just looking through this book, I found exercises that I probably need to incorporate my own training plan, that things that I probably haven't done in a little while. So, um, definitely take advantage of that. Um, you can, you can get a copy on our website, us@humanconnects.com. It's also on Amazon. I'm sure you can find it, uh, many other places as well. Um, so again, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Um, I'll give you the last word here to kind of wrap it up and, uh, definitely let everyone know where they can, uh, follow you, keep in touch with you. Sure. Sure, sure, sure. Well, um, you're, I'm, you know, I'm on Facebook. If you'd like to message me on Facebook or Instagram, I'm really good at getting back to you. Um, and then last but not least just to throw it out there. If you go to, um, the, uh, bendorball.com, cause I'm sure people are like, so where do I get a ball? So, you can go on to bendorball.com and in October, we are going to be doing, uh, the bendorball core. And of course this is, this is what we're using as our, um, our guidance and our manual, um, for that, uh, virtual training, which is going to be on the bendor ball website. You can see it there. But I think in my closing, in my closing words that, you know, I'm so passionate about what I do and I think for me, you know, having a knee replacement, having the typical, you know, aches and pains of throughout what we do in this industry, we're constantly giving to other people. I mean, it's a very selfless profession that we are in, but the number one person to take care of is yourself and it's just so vital that, you know, if you can do some of these exercises, feel them and embrace them in your own body. Then when you go to work with your clients, you'll have a real connection with, you know, what we're trying to emphasize here, it would be, think of it this way, is you would never invite a bunch of friends over for dinner and you had never made this dish before. You'd never tasted it before and you can experiment on them. They're going to try out amazing or it's going to be a complete disaster. So look at this, look at this core training as your recipes for some really outstanding modalities that you can protect your back, strengthen your core, knowing that a lot of again, purpose and passion went into this book of many, many years of my education and those that I've studied with and other authors like Kelly Roberts was part of this book as well. Erin, I want to thank you and again, I'm so honored that I got to spend some time with you and everyone else today and please look me up and if you have any questions, you know, Leslie Bender, shoot me a, shoot me a, you know, a message and I am happy to answer any questions that you might have and I wish you all an amazing afternoon. Thank you for listening to the Human Kinetics Podcast for more information on this and other topics. Visit our YouTube channel as well as Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X. For additional resources, visit our website, us.humankinetics.com. [Music] (upbeat music)
