Dry Bones

In the old song, the ankle bone’s connected to the knee bone and the knee bone’s connected to the thigh bone and so on.  The anatomy might be a little questionable, but the overarching theory is correct:  our bodies connect.

This is not just a bulletin from Captain Obvious, as much as I like those.  The fact that the different parts of our bodies connect has implications for how we move.  If, for example, we have an ankle that doesn’t have much range of motion, that changes how our knees work.  How our knees work, in turn, impacts how our hips work.  We may feel pain in our lower backs while the problem might be somewhere else in the body entirely.

 

As a result of this connection, I try to ensure that every workout involves as much of the body as possible.  When we work all the parts, they tend to work together more smoothly.

 

Go play.

Monday Workout: Hips

I’ve been thinking about hips and how they contribute to balance and posture.  Strong and mobile hips help all kinds of things, including lower back pain.  So we’re working on that this week.  Three rounds.

 

suitcase swings	30
rows	20
db thrust	10
1 arm clean and press	30
Arnold press	20
hip rotations	10
skater jump	30
kickbacks	20
side banana	10

Thursday List: 9

We all have times when things… do not go well.  While falling into the ice cream is a coping technique, it might not be the healthiest one.  Here are some other choices:

 

1.     Meditating

2.     Connecting with others

3.     Reaching out for support

4.     Journaling

5.     Reading

6.     Resting/napping

7.     Music

8.     Exercise

9.     Time outside in nature

 

I have my own personal list.  What’s on yours?

Mental & Emotional Wellbeing, Part 2

Emotional well-being comes from lots of places and practices.  We face a variety of challenges in our present lives and there are useful techniques we can use to deal, either as preparation or as recovery.

If, for example, we struggle with stress (who doesn’t?), we can prepare for stressful situations with a technique called conscious breath control.  This is exactly what it sounds like.  We pay attention to our breath and we choose to slow it down to stimulate our parasympathetic nervous system.  If we’ve been stressed, we can choose any of a variety of meditation techniques to chill ourselves back out.

 

When our emotions are all over the place, or if we think they’re going to be, we have other options.  To prepare, we can use positive affirmations.  Recovery from emotional chaos is helped by mindfulness, simply acknowledging our present state and letting it be what it is without glomming on to it.

 

When we face difficult decisions, we can prepare by brainstorming.  In the aftermath, we can recover by allowing ourselves to daydream about other possible outcomes we might want.

 

What works best for you?

Mental & Emotional Wellness, Part 1

The final wellness piece is mental and emotional health.  (This is where I put in the disclaimer:  I am not a doctor, psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist.  I can give general advice about mental and emotional well-being, but please seek professional help from those other folks as needed.  I’m here for support, not for diagnosis or treatment.)

Today I’m going to talk a bit about supporting cognitive function.  Tomorrow I’ll touch on some of the emotional stuff.

 

We tend to assume that cognitive decline is inevitable as we age.  Not so fast, y’all.  We have a bunch of tools we can use to keep our brains working.

 

A couple of the tools are kind of un-tools:  quitting smoking and preventing head injury.  If you smoke, I’m sure you already know it is not the best choice for health.  Maybe this one more reason will make the difference?  (Quitting smoking is hard.  No judgment if you haven’t got there yet.)  The head injury part may not be something we can control, but we can reduce our risk by doing smart stuff like wearing helmets when biking or skiing or the like and by working on our balance to avoid falls.

 

The positive tools all kind of work together.  We want to get regular exercise (Hey!  That works well with the balance work we want to do anyway to keep from falling!).  We want to get enough good sleep (a virtuous cycle with our exercise, which promotes good sleep, and good sleep helping us exercise again!).  We want to keep our brains active.  This can mean anything from doing puzzles to reading to learning a new sport (look!  There’s that exercise thing again!).  We also want to support our mental health.  There are, again, lots of ways to do that.  We can journal or hang with friends or take a walk with those same friends (dead horse beating:  exercise with friends!).

 

Essentially, when we live an engaged, healthy life, our brains thrive along with our bodies.

Monday Workout: Four

You know what happens when we have a shorter circuit:  four rounds!

 

1 min cardio
db to knee	30
bench press	20
shoulder tap pushups	10
squat to leg lift	30
row	20
V sit press	10

Thursday List: 5

Need a few more tips for sleeping?  I got you:

 

1.     Move every day.

2.     Don’t over-nap.

3.     Meditate or reduce worry some other way.

4.     Stick to a schedule.

5.     Avoid late night meals and snacks.