5 Important Self Care Ideas for Higher Muscle and Joint Well being

The Betty Rocker (00:16):

What’s up, rockstar Coach Betty Rocker right here. Thanks a lot for becoming a member of me. It’s nice to get to spend a while with you right now. I used to be simply fascinated about, you realize, how usually we simply leap right into a exercise after which after we’re accomplished we race on to the subsequent factor on our checklist. <snort>, on this tremendous busy world with limitless to-do lists, it’s very easy to neglect that the vessel that carries us by all of it actually does want some tending. Typically the one time we spend in our our bodies is the time we spend exercising, however actually taking the time to take care of our our bodies really units us as much as have higher outcomes from our exercises, to stay longer and to expertise quite a bit much less accidents and setbacks, and in addition to return again stronger after we’ve possibly had an damage or a setback. So, you realize, growing extra proactive self-care practices might not sound just like the quick observe to health, however I guarantee you it’s a vital part, particularly as soon as we hit perimenopause and key hormones, significantly estrogen begin to decline.

(01:18)
We simply don’t bounce again as shortly from our exercises at that time. We wanna, you realize, actually begin taking note of not over coaching as we have been speaking about in one other latest podcast. And we additionally wanna begin simply paying extra consideration to the well being of our joints as we’re making much less collagen and elastin than we used to. Any stage in life is an effective time to be proactive with holding your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for girls in peri and put up menopause. You could want somewhat extra of a warmup even earlier than your exercises than you used to. And in case you’re coaching at a better quantity as in resistance coaching with heavier weights or doing a variety of excessive depth interval coaching, you positively wanna be warming up going into your exercise as it will actually assist stimulate that synovial fluid that lubricates your joints and warms up the encompassing tissue so that you could simply transfer higher.

(02:10)
And typically, you realize, you should utilize the start of a exercise to heat up by easing into it at a low depth. That’s a very nice and simple strategy to have a warmup. However if in case you have the time, you realize, attempt getting on a foam curler and spending a couple of minutes warming up the fascial connective tissue and getting ready to your coaching or do some dynamic warmup strikes that stimulate the muscle groups you’re getting ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints somewhat bit. So in case you’re resistance coaching, as an example, it’s at all times advisable to do a lighter set while you’re simply beginning out. And in case you’re undecided what to do for a warmup, take a cue from the exercise itself and easily carry out among the strikes of the exercise with your individual physique weight and, and stretch and bend and transfer round dynamically or at a decrease depth than plan to coach at.

(03:00)
I positively don’t counsel a variety of static stretching earlier than a exercise. You wanna save that for after your exercise when your muscle groups are already heat. And talking of post-workout, that could be a nice time to do this. Quiet down stretch, your muscle groups are heat out of your exercise so you may maintain your stretches longer and simply breathe into them extra. And this can be a actually wholesome strategy to transition from an intense exercise session and convey your coronary heart charge down. And it additionally helps your joint well being and your mobility. And mobility simply means the vary of movement a joint can undergo. Flexibility is the quantity we are able to stretch our muscle groups since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and adaptability are actually intimately linked and we wish to handle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges impression the stretch capability of our ligaments and tendons and our capability to strengthen our muscle tissue.

(03:51)
In order these ranges begin to decline, together with the declining ranges of collagen that assist help the cartilage and bone tissue, we wanna be fascinated about our common practices that help our muscle and joint well being. That’s why including issues like mobility drills or yoga classes on relaxation days is de facto nice too as a result of you realize, bettering your flexibility helps your muscle tissue keep supple and aware of resistance coaching and retains your joints wholesome too. If you happen to’re following one in all my Rock Your Life Problem applications, not solely do you could have customized tracks for each program based mostly on which stage of life you might be in, you could have devoted practices for self-care, like yoga and mobility constructed proper into your coaching applications. Plus you even have entry to all the class library that features tons of stretching movies, mobility drill courses, and yoga practices. So you may at all times simply add that in as a bonus.

(04:44)
I additionally wanna point out that you realize, staying hydrated is de facto necessary to your muscle and joint well being as effectively. So hold consuming water all through the day and drink extra while you’re exercising. And I’m positive you realize the significance of normal motion all through the day, but it surely’s value mentioning that we wanna be aware of our posture in our day-to-day life. Because you’re right here with me proper now, let’s take a second and simply sort of examine in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you might be listening to me. Perhaps you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you may positively simply tune into your posture and see how are you holding your head and neck and what posture are your shoulders in? How are your hips proper now? Since our eyes are in entrance of our heads, a lot of the issues we do in our day-to-day life occur in entrance of us.

(05:32)
So now we have this form of ahead movement tendency from driving to shoveling the snow and raking the leaves to gardening, utilizing our laptop, consuming, sitting on the sofa, consuming tea. We’re at all times in these ahead dealing with positions with our arms in entrance of ourselves. So in case you sit at a desk or a pc for work, you wanna take into consideration the posture you’re in there. And in case you regularly are wanting down at your telephone, you wanna actually take into consideration the posture that your head and neck and your shoulders get into as a result of the muscle groups which might be working when you do all of these issues in entrance of you might be your chest muscle groups and the opposite muscle groups within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply advantageous. They’re meant to do all of these actions. However what occurs after we’re in these postures for lengthy durations of time and we don’t use the muscle groups on the alternative aspect of our physique as a lot, is we begin to get a bit stronger within the muscle groups that work on a regular basis and a bit weaker within the muscle groups that don’t do very a lot work.

(06:32)
And we additionally begin to tackle these form of routine postures of these positions in our actions outdoors of our work or outdoors of the occasions we’re habitually in them. And we begin to create these patterns in our our bodies and the muscle groups which might be somewhat extra used begin to pull extra on the bones that they connect to. So we’ll, we’ll hold speaking in regards to the shoulders for instance. That shoulder joint or your rotator cuff is a really shallow ball and socket joint. So you may image the pinnacle of the humerus because the ball head and it sits on this very shallow dish of your shoulder and, and now we have this good big selection of movement that’s out there at that joint because of this, proper, that that joint can transfer very freely in a pleasant large circle. And the soundness of this joint depends on the muscle groups that come and encompass that joint from all of those completely different angles.

(07:23)
And among the muscle groups that connect to your shoulder come out of your chest, some come out of your again and a few come from beneath your arm in your armpit space. And it’s the relative power of those muscle groups to one another that impacts the soundness of this joint. So again to our instance, if we’re at all times utilizing the entrance physique muscle groups as a result of we see in entrance of us and infrequently utilizing the again physique muscle groups, the shoulder joint slowly turns into imbalanced as a result of we’re inadvertently strengthening these entrance physique muscle groups continually and the issues we do with out utilizing the again muscle groups as a lot. And that’s the place that relative power begins to turn out to be unstable. You may most likely image an aged particular person, somebody who walks with their head tilted ahead and their shoulders rounded ahead. And that is an instance of what can occur to us over time after we’re in postures of ahead movement. So chronically with little or no to no motion within the opposing course. So you realize, what’s the answer? Nicely, first we are able to simply tune in after we’re sitting for lengthy durations of time and easily reset our posture by bringing these shoulders again and down opening our chest. Perhaps you wanna take a pleasant deep breath in proper now with me,

(08:37)
Take one other good deep breath in. And on this subsequent breath discover as you breathe, how that buoys your chest opens you up, naturally brings your shoulders again and down. Try this once more.

(08:52)
And the subsequent breath that you just do with me as you breathe out, simply maintain your physique in that place that you just felt as you breathed in and also you expanded your chest. So go forward and do yet another good deep breath. After which simply as you exhale, discover the place of alignment that your physique can come into as you breathe, as you are taking that good deep breath. And keep in mind that respiratory extra totally and deeply is de facto useful for our physique and, and our mind and our considering capability. So we actually wanna watch out of not being in that continual rounded head ahead, continual rounded, shoulder ahead collapsed chest, which impacts our breath and our capability to get sufficient oxygen and, and we are able to stand up and we are able to stretch our chest open extra, which helps relieve and chill out these hardworking muscle groups. And, and also you won’t really feel like they’re working tremendous laborious due to course you’re, you’re simply at your desk otherwise you’re taking a look at your telephone or all the issues that you just’re doing together with your arms in entrance of you, they aren’t particularly train, however these repetitive motions over time do name on these muscle groups greater than the opposite muscle groups that encompass the shoulder joint.

(09:59)
So going past that, we wanna simply begin extra mindfully coaching and strengthening these again physique muscle groups in our train routines. And being aware we’re not over coaching our entrance physique muscle groups in those self same train routines as a result of what I see occur typically are issues like pushup challenges or plank challenges, and abruptly we pile on high of our each day posture of ahead movement and train that additionally targets those self same muscle groups for like the subsequent 30 days contributing to additional imbalance. Or, you realize, say we begin a brand new exercise program, even a balanced one, however as a result of we’re not considering of how we’re utilizing our our bodies each day outdoors of the fitness center or outdoors of our exercises, we find yourself growing extra power within the entrance aspect of our physique and the bottom by no means catches up. We would have an imbalance from taking part in a sport after we have been youthful or an outdated damage that by no means fairly bought higher.

(10:51)
Typically folks will even really feel ache of their shoulder once they’re understanding and ignore it, considering that that’s the nice ache you’re alleged to get from train. However really we’re simply concentrating on the identical muscle groups which have continued to be overworked from our each day actions and even our job and the again physique muscle groups can’t sustain they usually stay unable to structurally stability out the shoulder joint. So we find yourself with an much more compromised joint and that misalignment begins within the shoulder after which it begins to translate down into the elbow and even the wrist as a result of after we do these pushups as an example, and our shoulder isn’t in the precise place, say it’s ahead, we’re additionally now weight bearing down by the elbow joint and into the wrist joint in a compromised place. This isn’t inevitable in fact, and it’s not occurring to each single particular person.

(11:35)
I simply share this particular instance with the shoulder joint as a result of rotator cuff accidents are so frequent. And I feel it actually helps to listen to how issues can develop as a result of it’s not simply the shoulder joint the place this collection of occasions can play out. I’m simply utilizing it for instance. I imply, take into consideration legs and your hips and pelvis and the motions that you just use everyday. Perhaps you’ve even had a previous damage and have scar tissue buildup that restricts your motion patterns or a automotive accident that impacted your vary of movement. The underside line is that what we wanna do is bear weight on a aligned joints, whether or not we’re simply strolling round bearing our personal physique weight or we’re loading ourselves up with dumbbells or barbells as a result of our muscle and skeletal techniques are interconnected because the muscle groups connect with our bones. So if muscle develops in an imbalanced approach throughout a joint and never solely pulls that joint within the course of the stronger aspect, it may possibly additionally create these compensating motion patterns all through different components of your physique in addition to ache.

(12:37)
And that is why we simply actually wanna tune in and be extra conscious of our each day posture and alignment in addition to the alignment we’re in with our exercises and our common proactive self-care practices like stretching and our mobility drills and all of those useful ideas that we have been speaking about. Now in case the shoulder occurs to be a joint that you just personally wanna carry extra stability to, you may tune into strikes that I educate quite a bit like cactus arms. That’s the place you both lie in your again or stand towards a wall together with your arms again in a cactus place or goalpost place, and you then slowly increase them up and down whereas your elbows, wrists, and shoulders are touching that floor. And also you discover how this opens and stretches your chest whereas additionally activating your again muscle groups. You may as well begin including in additional rows of every type, like extensive grip rows, excessive pull rows, slender grip rows, single arm rows and strikes like reverse flies, superwoman lifts, swimmers, all of these strikes that concentrate on and strengthen your again muscle groups.

(13:40)
And also you’ll see these in all of my completely different exercise applications. There are fundamental strikes that I actually like to do regularly the place you stand simply together with your arms out at your sides at shoulder peak and also you level your thumbs behind you and pulse them again. That is gonna interact the muscle groups between your shoulder blades as effectively and open and stretch your chest. You may as well do that very same place holding a stretchy band to offer your self somewhat extra resistance to tug towards and even additional interact these again muscle groups. So all of these varieties of workouts can actually assist you to to activate the opposing muscle groups in your shoulder joint that act in the other way of that ahead motion. And that may actually assist you to begin to carry stability into the shoulder, uh, and the rotator cuff. You may as well tone down the depth of chest workouts in your coaching program in case you’re working in direction of balancing out that again physique power.

(14:34)
If that is one thing that you just assume impacts you, you may simply extra mindfully stretch your chest muscle groups, particularly in case you sit for lengthy durations. Like in case you’re working together with your arms in entrance of you at a pc and you realize, simply begin to actually be extra aware of, of the, of how intensely you’re, you’re doing chest workouts together with again strengthening workouts in your total exercise plan. You would possibly wanna tone it down on the chest stuff and possibly tone it up with the the again stuff that may be actually useful. So this this, if this is applicable to you, I simply needed to share this since we have been speaking about rotator cuff and, and that’s one thing that’s actually frequent for lots of people. Bear in mind, if you’re sitting and dealing for lengthy durations of time, you actually wish to tune into your shoulder alignment, carry your shoulders again and down, try this respiratory exercise that we simply did collectively a couple of minutes in the past.

(15:26)
Reset your head and convey it upright in case you’re form of rounding or dropping it ahead. Have a look at your place of your laptop in case you’re taking a look at a pc quite a bit and guarantee that it’s at eye stage and also you’re not having to look down. You wanna stand up and stretch and transfer round somewhat bit extra. And you realize, your head and neck are a giant a part of this dialog, that routine ahead head posture generally is a enormous drawback for those that causes complications and neck ache. So actually work in your physique consciousness and your exercises of holding your head and neck aligned together with your backbone and convey that into your each day life as effectively. All the muscle groups in our our bodies that act on joints have an agonist and antagonist or muscle groups with opposing actions like flexion and extension. This helps create stability round your joints, your biceps and your triceps are one instance that’s straightforward to image.

(16:14)
Your quads and hamstrings are one other one. And each of these examples cross two joints so the biceps and triceps connect throughout your shoulder and elbow joint, as an example. So imbalances within the shoulder joint can impression the way in which you’re utilizing these muscle groups, which is without doubt one of the causes I say instability within the shoulder can translate down into your elbow and even your wrist. Your quads and hamstrings cross each the hip and the knee joint. So in case you sit quite a bit, your hamstring is in a shortened place and your quads are in a lengthened place. And over time that shortened hamstring can pull your pelvis out of alignment, inflicting again ache and restriction of your vary of movement. So that you would possibly think about the place your ft are in all through the day. How is the footwear you could have on and the way is that impacting your foot and ankle alignment and the way is that translating up by your knee and into your pelvis?

(17:03)
If you happen to’ve come to any of my courses, you most likely have seen me coaching barefoot. And one of many causes I do it’s because I simply discover it simpler to stability and convey power into my ft and ankles once they’re transferring freely all through my exercises. With out the interference of like a typical sneaker, I typically will put on a barefoot shoe, which additionally permits my toes to separate as a result of that’s one other a part of foot stability and ankle stability. And when your toes are in a position to separate, say you’re leaping, it’s the muscle groups in between your toes that have been made to truly take up shock from weight bearing strikes. Now in fact, the physique wasn’t actually made to leap on actually laborious non-GI surfaces like concrete or asphalt and a sneaker can actually assist present a few of that shock absorption that we want if we’re on these varieties of surfaces quite a bit.

(17:50)
However you realize, in case you aren’t leaping on a tough floor, you won’t want that very same quantity of absorption. And in case you can start to strengthen your ft and also you do attempt, resolve to do some barefoot coaching, I I simply actually counsel easing into it. And don’t, don’t simply begin all, abruptly as a result of your ft will want somewhat time to develop the power. And also you’ll additionally wanna tune into your foot alignment, similar to we’re speaking about with any of those different joints. And we simply wanna guarantee that we might have some, some patterns in our ft and underdeveloped muscle groups that make it more durable to be secure as we’re beginning out. In order that’s simply an space to experiment with and take gradual. However the backside line is your ft and their alignment, whether or not you’re barefoot or in a shoe, goes to affect the way in which that your knee joint strains up and the way in which that your pelvis strains up.

(18:36)
The pelvis might appear to be a hard and fast form of tilted bowl, however really it’s separate bones which might be linked by actually sturdy ligaments and it may possibly transfer and shift. As an example, in case you’ve had children, there’s a particular hormone launch to chill out the muscle groups and joints and ligaments throughout being pregnant and assist your physique stretch and accommodate the delivery. Nonetheless, after you’ve had children, the pelvis might not have merely gone proper again to its authentic place and it may be barely rotated or a bit off kilter. One thing comparable can occur to the pelvic bones in case you’ve been in a automotive accident or had an damage. And until you’ve obtained care to realign these buildings, it might find yourself staying that approach or sort of coming again to hang-out you. That’s really my scenario. I nonetheless go to bodily remedy to assist me overcome among the patterns that occur in my pelvis from outdated automotive accidents and bike crashes I had in my teenagers and twenties.

(19:28)
And talking of bodily remedy, that’s simply one of many methods that you could be wanna think about addressing underlying considerations that you’ll have. Getting some arms on care could be such a sport changer. Each, you realize the stuff you find out about your motion patterns and the way in which it helps you get extra aligned. The tough factor about getting arms on care could be that each state and nation too has several types of coaching and necessities for various sorts of practitioners and on what varieties of therapeutic practices they will use in your care. So the kind of practitioner who will help you essentially the most can fluctuate relying in your wants and the place you reside. And naturally your medical health insurance if it covers it or if you realize you’re searching for protection. Many practitioners go actually do go above and past getting persevering with schooling and have multiple software of their toolkit or they’re working with complimentary practitioners out of their workplace.

(20:16)
As an example, a chiropractor is, goes to regulate your bones, but when your muscle groups connect to your bones and they’re patterned a sure approach or you might be chronically overtrained in a single course, these muscle groups will proceed to tug the bones out of alignment and exert their pulling strain. If you happen to’re solely seeing a chiropractor who solely works in your bone alignment, you’ll most likely must hold seeing them. You realize, some chiropractors provide complimentary therapies to handle gentle tissue considerations or have that kind of care out there proper of their workplace. And you might also see a therapeutic massage therapist for enjoyable functions or for them to work in your muscle tissue. There are various several types of specialties inside the therapeutic massage discipline as effectively. If you happen to’re searching for particular structural work that addresses muscular imbalances, I, I like to recommend searching for medical therapeutic massage, myofascial launch set off level or sports activities therapeutic massage and gentle tissue manipulation that particularly addresses your situation.

(21:11)
Bodily remedy additionally does have a variety of specialties inside it, that’s why I carry it up quite a bit. You would possibly consider it primarily as rehab for an damage and that’s actually one of many methods it may possibly serve you and that’s how lots of people get launched to it. However you too can search it out as a proactive hands-on strategy to supporting you as an energetic lady to examine in your motion patterns, handle any imbalances that you just’re coping with, which might come from having a dominant aspect and overusing these muscle groups or each day motion patterns like we talked about earlier than. Or, you realize, checking in on outdated damage patterns that you just’ve corrected however can sort of come again to hang-out you later in life in case you aren’t diligent in maintaining together with your stability and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and now we have much less, you realize, reserves to, to deal with the pressures and forces in our our bodies.

(21:57)
Typically a a bodily therapist is considerably interdisciplinary of their strategy they usually can take a look at your motion patterns and prescribe corrective workouts that will help you reset your patterns and do hands-on work to launch caught bones and muscle tissue and handle imbalances round your joints. Different varieties of shield practitioners may also do a variety of this stuff. So it simply actually is determined by the practitioner. I see my PT each couple of months and I’m usually reviewing my motion patterns and issues that I do usually for coaching, like squats and deadlifts simply to make sure that any of my outdated patterns, particularly my pelvis aren’t pulling me out of alignment or placing me in a compromised place. I’m usually checking in with my shoulder alignment as effectively as a result of I, my proper aspect is my dominant aspect, so I are likely to have somewhat bit extra of a rotation on that aspect.

(22:45)
That’s why I’m usually instructing you mobility drills and the right way to open up and take a look at your rotator cuff and, and open up your shoulder joint. These are actually necessary issues to observe usually your self and be proactive about in order that in case you do go see any person, I imply, any nice practitioner goes to offer you homework and ask you to do issues by yourself. Any nice physician is gonna be asking you in regards to the way of life decisions that you just’re making round their care as a result of that’s solely going to make what they offer you simpler. So get essentially the most bang to your buck if you’re spending the cash and going to see anybody to take the steps to be proactive in your individual self-care as a lot as you may so that you could actually get that, that profit out of, out of the work that you just’re, that you just’re doing within the time you’re spending.

(23:31)
It’s simply a good suggestion to have somebody like that in case you’re getting back from an damage to just be sure you get stronger safely and also you aren’t going too quick or compromising that therapeutic tissue. And actually, in case you select to work with any kind of hands-on skilled, keep in mind that it ought to really feel supportive and you can change practitioners if it’s not a great match, you’re in management. Whilst you might not must see anyone in any respect, I do need you to concentrate on your physique and the common posture and motion patterns you might be in. So after you end listening to this present right now, make sure you retain bringing your consciousness to how you progress and the alignment of your physique and your exercises. If you happen to’re coaching with me and my coaches in one in all my applications otherwise you’re in Rock Your Life, we’ll proceed to give you actually particular type cues and assist you to keep current in your physique by all the exercises that we do collectively.

(24:18)
However bear in mind to make use of these ideas outdoors of your exercises as effectively in your each day life as you’re sitting and bending and standing and carrying issues. Use good type and simply keep proactive together with your self-care stretch and do your yoga days and your mobility days and keep hydrated. I extremely advocate utilizing my Foundations of Practical Health Workshop collection. It’s free it, it’s a collection of movies you may observe over 14 days the place every day we break down for you completely different key actions like deadlifts, squats, pushing, pulling, barefoot coaching, yoga basis’s, core and again activation, and a lot extra. It’s an effective way to actually immerse your self within the type you wanna be tuning into while you practice so that you could keep protected and wholesome over time at all ages. You could find that [email protected] slash ff or simply go to my web site and scroll down in direction of the underside of the web page.

(25:09)
You’ll see the spot to enroll proper there, and also you’ll get it despatched to you each day as an electronic mail with a video you may observe. And naturally, in case you’re in Rock your Life, this complete course is constructed proper in together with all the opposite bonus programs and supplies so you may reference at any time. And hey, thanks a lot for spending this time with me right now. Rockstar. I hope this gave you some good insights and causes to be extra proactive together with your self-care and I, I actually look ahead to connecting with you once more very quickly. So till subsequent time, I’m Betty Rocker and you might be so superior blossom and wonderful. Bye for now.