Like a Bridge...

Bridging is one of my favorite exercises.  It occurs in both Pilates and yoga in a lot of different variations, but all of them help with spine flexibility and mobility.  More importantly, bridging feels good.

 

First, the disclaimers:  people with osteoporosis can still do bridging, but they should not do the versions in which the spine peels up or down one vertebra at a time.  In their cases, they should keep the spine moving as a unit.  It is also worthwhile for people with high blood pressure, glaucoma, any spinal injuries, or difficulty with weight bearing on feet or shoulders to check with their doctors about the advisability of doing this movement.  ALWAYS prioritize safety and STOP if a movement feels wrong.

 

Now that that is out of the way:  how do we do it?  Good news!  We get to lie down!  Find a firm but comfortable surface to lie on.  A bed will work, but a carpeted floor or a yoga or squishy mat on a hard floor is better.  Face the ceiling and bend knees so that feet are flat on the floor.  Take a couple of breaths.  Gently encourage the shoulders away from the ears and towards the hips.  Feel better yet?

 

Then we start to move.  I am going to describe the articulated bridge first; if you have osteoporosis, don’t do this kind.  Inhale.  When it is time to exhale, pull the belly button down toward the floor.  This will tilt the pelvis so that the tailbone comes a little away from the floor.  Continue to tilt the pelvis until it lifts the spine, vertebra by vertebra, into the air.  This means that the feet are supporting more weight.  The knees may want to splay out or knock together, but work to keep them in line with the hips and ankles.  As we reach the end of our range of motion, our hamstrings may cramp a little (or a lot).  While this is painful, it is not actually harmful; hamstrings are really good at whining.  To reduce the suffering, press the knees away from the head to give the hamstrings a little more space.  Eventually, we will find ourselves with our pelvises in the air, our feet pressing firmly into the ground, and our head, neck, and shoulders supporting the other end of our bodies.  Ideally, we are a fairly straight line from our shoulders to our knees; in real life, many of us have very tight hip flexors, so we may not be able to lift our hips that high.

 

Take another breath in.  Now we reverse the process to come back down.  Exhale and lower the body back to the ground, focusing on the vertebra closest to the head first and then continue on down the chain until the pelvis is back on the ground.  I particularly like to focus on pulling the hips away from the head during the lowering process because it adds some length to the parts of the spine that get compressed with all the sitting we do.  (If we have a friend with us, we can help each other by gently pulling the hips toward the heels during the lowering phase.)

 

Ta da!  We did it!  Do a couple more just for fun.  Your spine will thank you.

 

Now for the variations:

 

“Lunar lift.”  This is the osteoporosis-friendly version.  Instead of peeling the spine up and down a vertebra at a time, the pelvis “blasts off” straight up, keeping the spine moving as a unit.

 

“Chip and dip.”  Peel up to the top of the motion as usual.  On the way down, imagine there is a tortilla chip on each hip bone.  Scoop up imaginary salsa and guacamole with each hip as the spine lowers down one vertebra at a time.

 

“With block.”  This is my new favorite version.  At the top of the motion, take a yoga block and slide it under the hips so that the pelvis can rest on it.  This gives a bit of traction to the spine and really allows the compression to relax out.  Stay for a few breaths before taking the block out and peeling down as usual.  Note:  the orientation of the yoga block under the hips will depend on the flexibility and size of the human doing the motion; don’t overdo!

 

Go try it out!

Repeat

As I’ve been talking about over the last few weeks, I’ve been moving.  Moving definitely counts as workout.  I can’t even describe how many times I’ve gone up or down stairs, how many boxes I have lifted.  Then there is the stretching—I’m short and shelves are often not—and the bending, because boxes to be unloaded hang out on the floor when I get tired of lifting them.

 

Which brings me to today’s topic:  repetitive stress.  I am a fitness professional, but this does not give me immunity from injury or stress, sadly enough.  Due to my dissolute previous life in office management, I have threatening carpal tunnel in my wrists.  Add in some years of long-distance biking and the result is:  forearm tendonitis.  I’m not here to whine (well, maybe a little…), but to talk about what to do when we have to do stuff that is not entirely good for us.  I am just an example in this case.

 

So.  The first thing to do with repetitive stress stuff is to figure out what support structures we can use.  In my case, I wear wrist wraps and elbow wraps (what they advertise as support for tennis elbow) whenever I am going to do a bunch of lifting or I need to bear weight on my arms (like in yoga) or I have to do grip things (like biking or carrying boxes).  This is not unlike a person with a complicated knee wearing a brace.

 

The second thing to do is to treat the body with respect.  I kind of fail at this, until I am forced to concede.  Do not follow my example in this.  Sometimes respecting the body means getting help.  Sometimes it means setting limits:  I can lift that lighter box, but not that heavier one.  Sometimes it is about knowing when to call it a day.

 

The third thing is to know what to do if we happen to overdo it.  This might include ibuprofen, ice, heat, massage, foam rolling, and screaming loudly.  We want to rest sometimes.  We should pay a little bit of attention to hydration and eating decent food.

 

When the big event is over, it is important to thank the body for what it managed to do.  And then it needs a real rest.

Monday Workout: Kettlebells!

Some weeks I have to think really hard about what I want to put in the workout.  This week, for some reason, I just knew it was time for a kettlebell workout.  For this workout, we want several different weights because we can swing a much heavier kettlebell than we can use for overyets.  (If no kettlebells are available, dumbbells will also work.)

 

Do three rounds.

 

kb swings	30
kb twists	20
kb 8s	10
kb one arm clean/press	30
kb goblet squat	20
kb overyets	10
kb overhead high knees	30
kb overhead triceps	20
kb pushups	10

Choose your favorite!

I’m in the mood to have fun.  So here are four things that are just plain fun but also count as workouts:

 

1.     Dancing.  Find the best beat, or the silliest pop song, or the most inspiring ballet music and get moving!  What else are we going to do while we wait for dinner to be ready?

2.     Biking.  Whether we break out the bike shorts and spiffy jersey or just put on our red tennies and grab our tasseled handlebars, biking is fun.  We can get a bell or a unicorn helmet or a really cushy seat or whatever accessories we need to put us over the top.

3.     Kid’s games.  Play foursquare or handball.  If you live with enough people in your circle, play some tag.  Draw your own chalk obstacle course on the sidewalk.

4.     Walking the dog.  (If you don’t have one, see if you can borrow one.)  Dogs are in the moment.  Walk with a dog and greet all the happinesses in your path.

 

Don’t like my list?  Make your own!

Not even good for nachos...

Doing workouts is not like shopping at warehouse stores.  Or at least not in this way:  we don’t always get the best value from the ginormous pack.  Professional athletes need to work out a lot.  Regular humans don’t need quite so much.  Remember that enormous bag of tortilla chips that seemed like such a good deal?  The one that was the size of a ten-year-old?  And the first few inches of chips were great, but then everyone was sick of chips and by the time the semester ended there was this looming rock of stale corn products that everyone was afraid to approach?  Yeah, not such a good choice after all, right?

 

The metaphor got maybe a little out of control there, but there is a point in there somewhere.  And it is:  we need to work out the right amount for our goals.  If our goal is basic health, we want to commit to about 30 minutes of moderate cardio (it’s moderate if we have enough breath to chat, but not enough to sing) at least five days a week, one or two sessions of weight training on non-consecutive days, and some daily stretching/balance/core work.  That may sound like a lot if we’ve just been holding down the couch, but it averages out to less than an hour a day.  (Also, if we have been truly holding down the couch for weeks or months, we want to work up to that 30 minutes of cardio over a month or so…)

 

If we want to lose weight, it gets slightly more onerous, but only slightly.  We need to make the cardio a little harder and a little longer.  We want to commit to two or three weight training sessions a week.  And yes, we still have to do the stretching/balance/core stuff.  We also need to keep track of what we’re eating so we don’t undo all our good work at the gym.

 

And when we’re done with our workouts, we get to stop and rest.  We don’t need to do another hour on the treadmill or elliptical trainer or four hours of weight lifting.  Remember the chips:  more is not always better.

Somebunny better get hopping...

When things get stressful, my first instinct is to crawl under the covers.  There are certainly times when that is a useful response—many of us don’t get nearly enough sleep.  However, I am learning that it is often better to push back on the stress by doing some cardio.

 

On one level, this might just be caving in to some kind of instinctual pressure.  A bad thing is happening; I should run away (or bike or swim or whatever.  Hmm… anybody know if I can Zumba away from predators?).  Sure, my stressors don’t happen to look like wolves or bears, but how different can they be?  Fine.  Really different.  Still, if it makes my primordial brain feel better to run away, who am I to argue?

 

Or maybe cardio works because instead of lying there suffering, I am Taking Action.  The action might not have anything to do with what is stressing me out, but I am doing it so vigorously that I am clearly accomplishing something and so I am capable of accomplishing other things, too.

 

Yes, of course I am making things up here.  As far as I know, the science hasn’t gotten around to saying WHY cardio tends to make people feel better; the studies so far just indicate that it does improve mood and brain function.

 

So, if stress, then cardio.

Monday Workout: Two

So this week’s workout has two exercises in it.  That’s all.  It’s inspired by my moving process.  We’re going to do squats and farmer’s carries.

 

First, we are going to pick a pair of weights.  (If you don’t happen to have weights around, grab a couple of gallon jugs of water or a couple really big books or, for overachievers, a cooperative pair of kids or pets.)  Ideally, the weight is light enough to deadlift off the floor pretty easily, but not super easy to carry around for a long time.

 

Then we are going to pick a location that is six to ten strides long.  It can be out in the yard.  It can be along the hall.  It doesn’t even have to be a straight line.

 

Now we work.  We pick up the weights, hold them with our arms straight down at our sides, and walk to one end of our space.  Then we keep holding them and do ten squats.  We turn around and walk back and do ten more squats.  Repeat until you are tired or your grip fails.

 

The farmer’s carry works the grip, forearms, shoulders, and back.  The squat works everything, but particularly the lower body.  Abs should be working the whole time.

 

Simple!