activelife USA Blog

August 22, 2018

Dr. Stephen Bui has made a successful career out of being a podiatric surgeon.

While the success is fulfilling, some of the greatest rewards he has achieved have come before sunrise. 

On a typical morning, Bui runs with a group of friends around the rural Pennsylvania town of Waynesboro. Many of those friends encounter the challenges of foot and calf problems associated with running on a hard surface.

At one point, Bui was one of those people hobbled by Plantar Fasciitis, a common condition that causes extreme foot pain.  

While his 18 years of podiatry experience travels with him everywhere and helped him quickly overcome his foot woes, Bui is aware that his friends and statistically 80 percent of the population are still searching for pain relief. 

So, Bui put his podiatry practice on hold to work on inventing the HighHealer.

A light weight, portable device, the HighHealer features multiple treatment components including a 5-in-1 treatment that eliminates the challenges and frustrations of performing separate exercises.

Instead of attempting routine stretches and at-home therapy that could take at least 30 minutes, the HighHealer saves time and leaves out the guess work. 

Five key areas which the HighHealer focuses on: 

1.  Reduce inflammation 

2. Stretch the Plantar Fascia ligament

3. Strengthen the smaller muscles that stabilize your feet

4. Loosen calf tightness

5. Massage foot

Understanding Muscle Pain

Trigger points or knots are spots in muscles where tense sensitive tissue causes discomfort, and if not treated, severe pain occurs. Often the affected area starts as a small sore area of muscle tightness, that when untreated, becomes increasingly painful including limiting range of motion. 

The cause of knots are not specific to one particular action or lack there of, but most often comes from over use or under use of a particular muscle group. In addition, poor posture from long periods of sitting or standing increase the chance of trigger points happening with more frequency. 

Myofascial Release: Trigger Point Therapy

Trigger points, or knots, are primarily found in the hips, neck, shoulders, legs and calves but can affect other areas of the body. There are many ways to address the discomforts of trigger points. Trigger point therapy consists of rubbing and pressing into the affected muscle.  One can start with a simple technique by passing down with a finger, primarily the thumbs, to locate and hold the affected area for 30-60 seconds.  Then repeating this action until the area feels relief. If the area is small, this technique is usually enough to become pain free.  If the area is tenacious, using ones fingers, then progressing into devices and foam rollers as the knot starts to soften is key.

Feel Better Methods

As active as most of the population is, especially in the middle of the current health and wellness boom, there has been a surplus of tools available to help in recovery.  The market has flooded us all with foam rollers, trigger point guns, and massage methods from both eastern and western medicine. 

Here at ActiveLife, it’s believed that recovery is not only the most important but absolutely necessary thing for the growth of any athlete or non-athlete to keep his or her health.  We focus on many different tools that release trigger points, have more than one function, are easy to use and affordable.  With this knowledge, it is our goal to provide as much information about our products so you can get the most out of your recovery process in your busy life.

Some of our personal favorites are: HighRoller, an adjustable elevation foam roller allowing you to roll hard to reach muscles i.e. adductors and IT Bands just to name a few (See image below). It’s larger to cover more surface area, compared to most other foam rollers on the market. Engineered for longevity and comfort,  the adjustable legs on the HighRoller keeps it stationary during trigger point release, so you can manipulate the intensity of the pressure you need as you roll. 

 HighRollers sister product is the HighBaller, a twin ball massager with adjustable, angled massage balls used for deep muscle myofascial release. The adjustable HighBaller system allows for use anywhere on the body. In addition to its unique features you are able to connect your HighBaller to a squat rack if you want to get deep into shoulder and back muscles without having to lay on your back. This allows you to control the pressure needed to release the adhesion in the muscle.  

 For a complete list on the many products ActiveLife provides, go to  click here to learn more.

Are you tired of carrying several bags packed with all your gear to get to the gym before or after work? Has planning your workouts become a hassle because of your concern to keep your work attire freshly ironed? Are you often negotiating between a workout or free time? I know I surly have. Searching for a bag that will make the experience of commuting easier, I was recommended to check out IAMRUNBOX. After a few months of giving IAMRUNBOX a run, no pun intended, I want to share my personal experience about how IAMRUNBOX has made my commute and packing experience ultimate. 

As a multi-career professional, often times commuting to and from teaching a class, seeing a days full of patients then back to personal training sessions, I was weary about how this bag was going to make it easier to get through my busy day.  

I learned that IAMRUNBOX is an ergonomically engineered backpack that allows you to carry a change of clothing ( i.e. dress shirt and/or trousers or skirt) neatly packed to keep from wrinkling. One of it’s many unique parts is the design that allows the bag to lay flush against the natural curvature of your back, making it one of the more ergonomically and safe bags to run or move with.

IAMRUNBOX offers two options, IAMRUNBOX Pro and IAMRUNBOX Lite. In addition, they provide several pieces as add ons- a shoe bag, extra garment carriers, and a folding assistant that you can take anywhere for a few extra dollars.

I went along with IAMRUNBOX PRO. I choose this bag because of the extra space and more bag for my buck. IAMRUNBOX PRO left me just enough room needed to carry my MacBook Air in addition to my clothing. On many days I have packed IAMRUNBOX Pro with my MacBook Air, a set of scrubs, a set of tights, a sports bra and comfortably gone for a run.

The shoe bag that attaches easily to the outside using strong spring ties allows for a quick switch from my cycling cleats to sneakers when needed. And since the bag itself isn't heavy, the overall weight was pleasant enough to run and not need to adjust much of anything. Not feeling things bounce around is life changing. All runners know exactly what I'm talking about. A few of my favorite features are the adjustable chest straps, making it easier to change where you want it to sit across your chest, even while on the move. The waist straps that have two large secret pockets easily allow you to access or hide keys, a few cards and even an iPhone 8 plus.

As mentioned earlier, I came across this bag from a friend who, well, felt sorry for me. He was concerned about my extra luggage as it was nicely put- that seems to never end and causing my back and shoulder to stiffen up over time. Okay, I’ll admit, I am a bit of an over packer, but who isn’t, especially when you live life on the run in a big city? He assured me if I had this bag, I would be much more deliberate about not overpacking and my shoulders would thank me. He was right! Hello IAMRUNBOX, my new commute and travel friend. 

Find out more about IAMRUNBOX and there other product by clicking here: https://activelifeusa.com/collections/travel-commuting

Ladies, don’t you remember being a little girl, watching princess movies? The beautiful dresses, crowns and endless shoes, heels to be specific, so many of the Princess’s wore? I raise two hands, because I sure do!

As a child there was nothing more exciting than pretending to be one of these Princess’s, stretching my tiny little feet into my mothers heels and walking around like I was the Princess Diana. Minus her grace. I admit, I still own many scars as a result of my not so graceful walks in over sized shoes. Also, not realizing how it would impact my future. Fast forward in life, when I am granted the opportunity to wear heels as high as my heart desires and nothing short of keeping up with the “Jones” I shopped for every shoe the season brought  along.  From wedges, knee high boots, pointed toe stilettos, flats and mules; that currently are making a KILLER come back.

The cross we women bare to be all the things that our imagination, magazines, social media, and television suggested we should be: some version of perfect all done in KILLER shoes.  And in the quest for perfect, we have greatly suffered. Well, our feet have greatly suffered.

THE FAIRYTALE THAT ENDS IN PAIN

Plantar Fasciitis, in other words - that awful foot pain you’ve been experiencing, usually more by runners and mostly women, is the inflammation of the thick band of tissue that runs across the  bottom of your foot and connects your heel bone to your toes.

It often starts as discomfort into stabbing pain, occurring within the first steps out of bed and decreasing as the day progresses.  With excessive movement and time on your feet, it is not uncommon for the pain to resurface.

The pain experienced is a result from your parents, giving you either flat feet or high arches. Also poor support from shoes, and that includes sneakers, flats heels and all that is in between, inhibiting proper functional anatomy to work optimally.  We are predecessor of giant apes, who spent a majority of their time barefoot. We weren’t born to wear shoes, especially with high heels.

THE HAPPILY EVER  AFTER - for your feet at least.

Ladies, our dreams have come true. Behold, HighHealer, your new and improved Prince Charming.  HighHealer is your personal foot care therapist.  Not only will HighHealer massage your feet after a long day, you can sneak it under your desk, for a quickie between meetings and phone calls. It’s small enough to stash in your bag gym and  keep in the closet so no one finds out.  You’ll love it so much, you’ll have a hard time sharing. 

HighHealer has several different functions in addition to stretching out the Plantar Fascia, including releasing tension from our calves, and with a quick flip, it strengthens the tiny little muscles that help us stand taller and move with a little more ease.

If you are looking to build strength in your feet, in addition to relieving pain and improve your overall health, HighHealers multiple functions maximizes those results most efficiently.

Let’s Talk About Feet

Have you ever thought about how your feet may be affecting your running, cycling, lifting-your everyday life? Nor did I.  Not until I was really in pain and it was getting in the way of my everyday activities. 

As a runner, cyclist, crossfitter and dental hygienist, I spend a lot of time on my feet.  When my hips started to give me pain and I couldn’t find relief through proper warm up, cool down and stretches, it started to raise questions for me. In a quest for pain free movement, I started to research what other areas of my body may be inhibiting my performance. What I learned was it starts from the bottom up, my feet. 

Here are a few facts about our feet:

1) 25% of the bones in our body are located in our feet. That is 26 bones!

2) The average human will take anywhere from 5 to 7 thousand steps a day and over 80 thousand in a lifetime. This is NOT including athletes or distant runner.

3) The food has over 200,000 nerve endings.  

Plantar Fascia is a flat band of tissue on the bottom of your foot that connects your heel bone to your toes and supports your arch.  Weakness, tightness, irritation and inflammation of this band of tissue leads to Plantar Fasciitis.  Commonly diagnosed and experienced by runners, but can affect all athletes. 

The questions you all must be asking is, “How do we all get here?”. “How do we lose the strength in our feet that over time we all end up having some form of foot pain?”.  “And how do we address it?”

Under healthy circumstances, your plantar fascia acts like a shock absorber, protecting your foot.  Overtime with the help of ill fitting shoes, primarily shoes without support to the arches, inflammation resulting in weakness from overuse will occur.  Shoes with poor arch support, along with a major lack of barefoot training and walking, takes away the foots sensory and protection mechanisms. This system allows the brain to protect the foot as well as the rest of the body. The sensory information delivered from the foots nerves ending helps the brain create a responses system that allows for better movements, better performance, in summary overall general health.  With the lack of proper information from the foot, the brain makes clumsy and inefficient choices on how to navigate through everyday life and sport.   

After learning about this I was left stumped but very excited for the possible solutions to my problem. I started with a run diagnosis done at a local run shop, in addition to having my foot scanned while barefoot.  I was put on a treadmill with a “neutral” sneaker, so that we could record my gait and foot strike most accurately.  I learned in addition to having flat feet, I have excessive pronation or over pronation (rolling of my subtalar joint inward).  This has been a major contributor to the misalignment and pain in my hips.

With all this new information, it was time to research and apply treatment.  I’ve found and incorporated a few different exercises, including mobility exercises for my ankles to help release my calf  muscles-allowing for better ankle movement. Starting with a flexed foot stretch to get into my calf muscle,  as well as knee to wall stretch to allow for better mobility.

As part of my warm ups, when I workout I practice single leg balance (10-15 reps per leg for 2 or 3 sets), and what I like to call tic-tac-toe hops barefoot to help build stability, strength and proprioception. 

RomWod (www.romwod.com) is an online platform geared to the Crossfit community, but don’t let that scare you.  With the large amount of wrist, shoulder, hip, knee and ankle movement used to preform a lot of our lifts, explosive movements (similar to runners) these guided stretches gets into all the nook and crannies.  Opening up spaces of your body you had no idea where tight. 

HighHealer is launching on Kickstarter August 14th, 2018. The ease that is created by using HighHealer is most in it’s ability get a lot done in a short period of time. Orthopedic surgeon and inventor Stephen Bui explains, four key areas which the HighHealer focuses on:

- A roller that can be frozen before being used for cold therapy to decrease foot inflammation.

- Stretch and massage the Plantar Fascia ligament

- Strengthen the smaller muscles that stabilize your feet.

- Loosen calf tightness.

In conclusion, I have found a vast amount of gains, not just lean muscle definition but gains in my overall relationship to movement, sport and foot health. If you’ve made it this far, I strongly suggest you take a little time to investigate the aches and pains, in your foot, knees and all the way up to your hips.  A little preventive care can significantly extend your lifetime in movement.