Elsie Wentzel Biokineticist

28/11/2025

26/11/2025

I'm baaaack on my business profile. Since I've not posted in years due to health etc. I'm going to post sometimes and just this week I had a video shoot. Not going to do a spoiler yet as soon as they post it, I will hehe I'm super excited about it.

30/11/2022

Hi everyone, Big moves and big changes ahead for the New Year. I am relocating as of 1 January. Finally integrating my 2 passions of sport specific training and Rehabilitation. Still same area. More info to follow. But I'm so excited 😊 I am working more and more with athletes and my job satisfaction is increasing so much more! Hope to see you all at the new place. Let's get cracking!

13/11/2022

I decided change is a good as a holiday and repainted my practice. Paul did an amazing job with this. He is ortholifestyle centre's superhero. He can do literally anything.

The darker color ensures a clean looking wall and it makes a huge difference in posture analysis. It highlights curves and angles a lot more than a white background. I absolutely love my job. I was offered to do my PhD multiple times and I kept turning it down as I love being part of the process and not just teach other people how to be part of it. Changing programs, adapting exercises and seeing result gives me such job satisfaction that I can't give that up!

Hearing grandmother's can play with their grandchildren again, or someone can sleep through the night, or someone's pain is gone that inhibited them to do their job just warms my heart so much. Enjoy your life people as it can change at any second. ❤️

10/07/2022

BIG CHANGES for my practice have been happening 🥳 Due to this I was a little quiet on my socials but now you now why! 🤩 as of 1 August I'll be the only Biokineticist at (formerly Newlands Corner) I have been running around getting new furniture and equipment and it's almost done. I'm excited and nervous as I've never practiced completely by myself and this is a fresh start and I believe I'll rise to the occasion to make a difference in people's lives. ❤️

02/07/2022

This Mental Health Awareness Month, please remember the following:
1. It’s OK to talk about mental illness.
2. There is no shame in seeking help.
3. There is hope after diagnosis.

Please visit the South African Federation For Mental Health at https://www.safmh.org/ to find out more. SAFMH is a mental health-focused, human rights organisation, with a 100-year track record of service delivery to South Africans from all walks of life.

A Biokineticist is a health professional who through health promotion and wellness, create a better quality of life for people they work with and actively promote and encourage physical activity for the general maintenance and improvement of physical and mental wellbeing.

Find a Biokineticist on www.biokineticssa.org.za and don’t forget to follow us on social media at .

14/05/2022

My video today is for example exercises to engage the Transverse Abdominus and Multifidus muscles. These muscles act as a natural brace for your lower back.

Tricky to grasp how to activate them, but once you do it clicks in your mind and works very well for support during any exercises to protect your spine. When you lie on your back, your lower back needs to be imprinted in the floor and pulling in your belly button. Then tighten lower abdomen. This is neccessary to understand as if you don't pull in your belly button you'll engage other muscles more. While doing this then you do your exercises which makes them harder but safe for your spine.

Then for Multifidus muscles lie on your side, activate transverse Abdominus and try tighten the back muscle right under your finger. Then try hold this tightness and lift your knee slowly to make it more prominent.

For a challenge to connect all the dots do the last exercises called the Dead bug (because you look like a dead bug 😅) while thinking of all the cues you just learned. Always consult a professional before doing exercises.

06/05/2022

Before I can dive into exercises for multifdus, I have to discuss the Transverse Abdominus. I refer to this muscle as the "magic muscle". Reason being if the patient start understanding how to activate it, it works with the Multifidus.

This creates a brace for the lower back. It keeps your spine supported and lends stability to the pelvis. The Transverse Abdominus is supposed to be activated at 15% of it's maximum voluntary contraction THE WHOLE DAY! This means it needs to be practiced often until it becomes a habit and part of your subconscious. It relieves lower back pain from lumbago etc. So the video coming up tomorrow will show a few ways to try activate these muscles.

02/05/2022

Next topic is the Mutifidus. It's a muscle that runs all along your spine. The multifdus is super important in the stabilization of the spine. Not many people can activate it by demand.

Many patients start laughing if you start showing them how to activate it because they lost the awareness of this musculature. And not sure how it feels once it is activated, so they can't distinguish the difference between activating the erector spinae or the multifidus 🤷🏻‍♀️ and are convinced they don't have one 😅
WE ALL have it it's part of our anatomy 😉

For proper posture this is a really important muscle. Next post will be few exercises that helps people understand how this muscle work 💪🏼 it's function is extension and rotation of spinal column. And it's not the exercises you think 🤔

26/04/2022

These are 3 exercises for the middle trapezius, lower trapezius and little bit of rotator cuff. As you can see 0 equipment neccessary. Most of the time people assume to better their posture or improve their life with exercise they need to go to the gym or have weights etc. This couldn't be further from the truth. There are millions of ways you can exercise with little or no equipment 😊 and improve your health and feel better and have less pain, the list goes on.

First exercise is scapular retraction. So you need to imagine you want to pinch a pencil between your shoulder blades and pull them towards the floor. This is the difficult part as most people with upper back weakness tend to want to pull up towards the neck instead. So it's of utmost importance to not pull up.

2nd one is scapular retraction with external rotation. This is to teach the shoulder blades to keep the posture stable with arm movement.
3rd exercise is scapular depression. So if you arms are above your head you pull the shoulder blades down as far as possible. This helps a lot. They look small but very valuable. (Don't try these if you have any injuries, and it's always advised to see a professional first before exercising 😉)