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 enthusiastic about, you realize, how usually we simply soar right into a exercise after which after we’re finished we race on to the following factor on our checklist. <snicker>, on this tremendous busy world with infinite to-do lists, it’s very easy to overlook that the vessel that carries us by means of 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 look after our our bodies truly units us as much as have higher outcomes from our exercises, to reside longer and to expertise lots much less accidents and setbacks, and likewise to come back 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 monitor to health, however I guarantee you it’s a vital part, particularly as soon as we hit perimenopause and key hormones, notably estrogen begin to decline.

(01:18)
We simply don’t bounce again as rapidly from our exercises at that time. We wanna, you realize, actually begin listening to not over coaching as we had been speaking about in one other current 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 efficient time to be proactive with preserving your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for ladies in peri and submit menopause. Chances are you’ll want somewhat extra of a warmup even earlier than your exercises than you used to. And when you’re coaching at a better quantity as in resistance coaching with heavier weights or doing loads of excessive depth interval coaching, you undoubtedly wanna be warming up going into your exercise as this may actually assist stimulate that synovial fluid that lubricates your joints and warms up the encompassing tissue in an effort to simply transfer higher.

(02:10)
And generally, 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 straightforward technique to have a warmup. However you probably 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 in your coaching or do some dynamic warmup strikes that stimulate the muscular tissues you’re getting ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints somewhat bit. So when you’re resistance coaching, as an example, it’s all the time advisable to do a lighter set if you’re simply beginning out. And when you’re unsure what to do for a warmup, take a cue from the exercise itself and easily carry out a number of 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 undoubtedly don’t recommend loads of static stretching earlier than a exercise. You wanna save that for after your exercise when your muscular tissues are already heat. And talking of post-workout, that may be a nice time to do this. Calm down stretch, your muscular tissues are heat out of your exercise so you’ll be able to maintain your stretches longer and simply breathe into them extra. And this can be a actually wholesome technique to transition from an intense exercise session and convey your coronary heart price 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 muscular tissues since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and adaptability are actually intimately linked and we wish to tackle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges affect the stretch capability of our ligaments and tendons and our capacity to strengthen our muscle tissue.

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

(04:44)
I additionally wanna point out that you realize, staying hydrated is absolutely vital in your muscle and joint well being as nicely. So preserve ingesting water all through the day and drink extra if you’re exercising. And I’m positive you realize the significance of standard motion all through the day, however it’s value mentioning that we wanna be conscious 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 type of verify in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you might be listening to me. Possibly you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you’ll be able to undoubtedly 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, many of the issues we do in our day-to-day life occur in entrance of us.

(05:32)
So we have now this type of ahead movement tendency from driving to shoveling the snow and raking the leaves to gardening, utilizing our laptop, consuming, sitting on the sofa, ingesting tea. We’re all the time in these ahead going through positions with our arms in entrance of ourselves. So when you sit at a desk or a pc for work, you wanna take into consideration the posture you’re in there. And when you regularly are trying down at your cellphone, you wanna actually take into consideration the posture that your head and neck and your shoulders get into as a result of the muscular tissues which are working when you do all of these issues in entrance of you might be your chest muscular tissues and the opposite muscular tissues within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply fantastic. 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 muscular tissues on the other facet of our physique as a lot, is we begin to get a bit stronger within the muscular tissues that work on a regular basis and a bit weaker within the muscular tissues that don’t do very a lot work.

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

(07:23)
And a number of the muscular tissues 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 energy of those muscular tissues to one another that impacts the steadiness of this joint. So again to our instance, if we’re all the time utilizing the entrance physique muscular tissues as a result of we see in entrance of us and infrequently utilizing the again physique muscular tissues, the shoulder joint slowly turns into imbalanced as a result of we’re inadvertently strengthening these entrance physique muscular tissues always and the issues we do with out utilizing the again muscular tissues as a lot. And that’s the place that relative energy begins to develop into unstable. You’ll be able to in all probability 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 path. 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. Possibly 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 following breath that you simply do with me as you breathe out, simply maintain your physique in that place that you simply felt as you breathed in and also you expanded your chest. So go forward and do 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’re taking that good deep breath. And keep in mind that respiratory extra totally and deeply is absolutely useful for our physique and, and our mind and our pondering capability. So we actually wanna watch out of not being in that persistent rounded head ahead, persistent rounded, shoulder ahead collapsed chest, which impacts our breath and our capacity 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 muscular tissues. And, and also you won’t really feel like they’re working tremendous exhausting due to course you’re, you’re simply at your desk otherwise you’re taking a look at your cellphone or all the issues that you simply’re doing together with your fingers in entrance of you, they aren’t particularly train, however these repetitive motions over time do name on these muscular tissues greater than the opposite muscular tissues that encompass the shoulder joint.

(09:59)
So going past that, we wanna simply begin extra mindfully coaching and strengthening these again physique muscular tissues in our train routines. And being conscious we’re not over coaching our entrance physique muscular tissues in those self same train routines as a result of what I see occur generally are issues like pushup challenges or plank challenges, and all of the sudden we pile on prime of our every day posture of ahead movement and train that additionally targets those self same muscular tissues for like the following 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 pondering of how we’re utilizing our our bodies every day exterior of the fitness center or exterior of our exercises, we find yourself growing extra energy within the entrance facet of our physique and the bottom by no means catches up. We’d have an imbalance from taking part in a sport after we had been youthful or an outdated damage that by no means fairly obtained higher.

(10:51)
Typically folks will even really feel ache of their shoulder after they’re figuring out and ignore it, pondering that that’s the nice ache you’re speculated to get from train. However truly we’re simply concentrating on the identical muscular tissues which have continued to be overworked from our every day actions and even our job and the again physique muscular tissues can’t sustain and so they stay unable to structurally steadiness 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 proper place, say it’s ahead, we’re additionally now weight bearing down by means of the elbow joint and into the wrist joint in a compromised place. This isn’t inevitable after all, 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 widespread. And I believe 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 example. I imply, take into consideration legs and your hips and pelvis and the motions that you simply use daily. Possibly you’ve even had a previous damage and have scar tissue buildup that restricts your motion patterns or a automobile 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 methods are interconnected because the muscular tissues connect with our bones. So if muscle develops in an imbalanced approach throughout a joint and never solely pulls that joint within the path of the stronger facet, it could possibly additionally create these compensating motion patterns all through different components of your physique in addition to ache.

(12:37)
And this is the reason we simply actually wanna tune in and be extra conscious of our every 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 suggestions that we had been speaking about. Now in case the shoulder occurs to be a joint that you simply personally wanna carry extra stability to, you could possibly tune into strikes that I train lots like cactus arms. That’s the place you both lie in your again or stand in opposition to 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 muscular tissues. You may as well begin including in additional rows of all kinds, like broad grip rows, excessive pull rows, slim grip rows, single arm rows and strikes like reverse flies, superwoman lifts, swimmers, all of these strikes that concentrate on and strengthen your again muscular tissues.

(13:40)
And also you’ll see these in all of my completely different exercise packages. There are primary 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 muscular tissues between your shoulder blades as nicely and open and stretch your chest. You may as well do that very same place holding a stretchy band to provide your self somewhat extra resistance to tug in opposition to and even additional interact these again muscular tissues. So all of these sorts of workout routines can actually enable you to to activate the opposing muscular tissues in your shoulder joint that act in the other way of that ahead motion. And that may actually enable you to begin to carry steadiness into the shoulder, uh, and the rotator cuff. You may as well tone down the depth of chest workout routines in your coaching program when you’re working in direction of balancing out that again physique energy.

(14:34)
If that is one thing that you simply suppose impacts you, you’ll be able to simply extra mindfully stretch your chest muscular tissues, particularly when you sit for lengthy durations. Like when you’re working together with your arms in entrance of you at a pc and you realize, simply begin to actually be extra conscious of, of the, of how intensely you’re, you’re doing chest workout routines together with again strengthening workout routines in your total exercise plan. You may 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 had been speaking about rotator cuff and, and that’s one thing that’s actually widespread for lots of people. Keep in mind, in case you are 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 when you’re type of rounding or dropping it ahead. Take a look at your place of your laptop when you’re taking a look at a pc lots and ensure that it’s at eye degree 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 an enormous a part of this dialog, that routine ahead head posture is usually a large downside for those that causes complications and neck ache. So actually work in your physique consciousness and your exercises of preserving your head and neck aligned together with your backbone and convey that into your every day life as nicely. All the muscular tissues in our our bodies that act on joints have an agonist and antagonist or muscular tissues 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 affect the best way you’re utilizing these muscular tissues, which is likely 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 when you sit lots, 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 may contemplate the place your toes are in all through the day. How is the footwear you’ve got on and the way is that impacting your foot and ankle alignment and the way is that translating up by means of your knee and into your pelvis?

(17:03)
If you happen to’ve come to any of my courses, you in all probability have seen me coaching barefoot. And one of many causes I do it is because I simply discover it simpler to steadiness and convey energy into my toes and ankles after they’re shifting freely all through my exercises. With out the interference of like a typical sneaker, I generally 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 capable of separate, say you’re leaping, it’s the muscular tissues in between your toes that had been made to really soak up shock from weight bearing strikes. Now after all, the physique wasn’t actually made to leap on actually exhausting 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 sorts of surfaces lots.

(17:50)
However you realize, when you aren’t leaping on a tough floor, you won’t want that very same quantity of absorption. And when you can start to strengthen your toes and also you do attempt, determine to do some barefoot coaching, I I simply actually recommend easing into it. And don’t, don’t simply begin all, suddenly as a result of your toes will want somewhat time to develop the energy. And also you’ll additionally wanna tune into your foot alignment, identical to we’re speaking about with any of those different joints. And we simply wanna ensure that we might have some, some patterns in our toes and underdeveloped muscular tissues that make it tougher to be steady as we’re beginning out. In order that’s simply an space to experiment with and take gradual. However the backside line is your toes and their alignment, whether or not you’re barefoot or in a shoe, goes to affect the best way that your knee joint strains up and the best way that your pelvis strains up.

(18:36)
The pelvis might look like a hard and fast type of tilted bowl, however truly it’s separate bones which are linked by actually robust ligaments and it could possibly transfer and shift. For example, when you’ve had children, there’s a particular hormone launch to chill out the muscular tissues and joints and ligaments throughout being pregnant and assist your physique stretch and accommodate the delivery. Nevertheless, after you’ve had children, the pelvis might not have merely gone proper again to its unique place and it may be barely rotated or a bit off kilter. One thing related can occur to the pelvic bones when you’ve been in a automobile accident or had an damage. And until you’ve acquired care to realign these buildings, it could find yourself staying that approach or type of coming again to hang-out you. That’s truly my scenario. I nonetheless go to bodily remedy to assist me overcome a number of the patterns that occur in my pelvis from outdated automobile 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 contemplate addressing underlying considerations that you’ll have. Getting some fingers on care might be such a recreation changer. Each, you realize the stuff you find out about your motion patterns and the best way it helps you get extra aligned. The difficult factor about getting fingers on care might be that each state and nation too has various kinds of coaching and necessities for various sorts of practitioners and on what sorts of therapeutic practices they will use in your care. So the kind of practitioner who can assist you probably the most can differ relying in your wants and the place you reside. And naturally your medical insurance if it covers it or if you realize you’re in search of protection. Many practitioners go actually do go above and past getting persevering with training and have multiple instrument of their toolkit or they’re working with complimentary practitioners out of their workplace.

(20:16)
For example, a chiropractor is, goes to regulate your bones, but when your muscular tissues connect to your bones and they’re patterned a sure approach or you might be chronically overtrained in a single path, these muscular tissues will proceed to tug the bones out of alignment and exert their pulling stress. If you happen to’re solely seeing a chiropractor who solely works in your bone alignment, you’ll in all probability must preserve seeing them. You understand, some chiropractors supply complimentary therapies to deal with mushy tissue considerations or have that sort of care out there proper of their workplace. And you may additionally see a therapeutic massage therapist for enjoyable functions or for them to work in your muscle tissue. There are lots of various kinds of specialties throughout the therapeutic massage area as nicely. If you happen to’re in search of particular structural work that addresses muscular imbalances, I, I like to recommend in search of medical therapeutic massage, myofascial launch set off level or sports activities therapeutic massage and mushy tissue manipulation that particularly addresses your situation.

(21:11)
Bodily remedy additionally does have loads of specialties inside it, that’s why I carry it up lots. You may consider it primarily as rehab for an damage and that’s definitely one of many methods it could possibly serve you and that’s how lots of people get launched to it. However it’s also possible to search it out as a proactive hands-on strategy to supporting you as an lively girl to verify in your motion patterns, tackle any imbalances that you simply’re coping with, which might come from having a dominant facet and overusing these muscular tissues or every day motion patterns like we talked about earlier than. Or, you realize, checking in on outdated damage patterns that you simply’ve corrected however can type of come again to hang-out you later in life when you aren’t diligent in maintaining together with your steadiness and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and we have now much less, you realize, reserves to, to deal with the pressures and forces in our our bodies.

(21:57)
Usually a a bodily therapist is considerably interdisciplinary of their strategy and so they can check your motion patterns and prescribe corrective workout routines that will help you reset your patterns and do hands-on work to launch caught bones and muscle tissue and tackle imbalances round your joints. Different sorts of defend practitioners may do loads of these items. So it simply actually will depend on 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 nicely as a result of I, my proper facet is my dominant facet, so I are inclined to have somewhat bit extra of a rotation on that facet.

(22:45)
That’s why I’m usually educating you mobility drills and learn how to open up and check your rotator cuff and, and open up your shoulder joint. These are actually vital issues to follow usually your self and be proactive about in order that when you do go see any person, I imply, any nice practitioner goes to provide you homework and ask you to do issues by yourself. Any nice physician is gonna be asking you in regards to the life-style selections that you simply’re making round their care as a result of that’s solely going to make what they provide you more practical. So get probably the most bang in your buck in case you are 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’ll be able to in an effort to actually get that, that profit out of, out of the work that you simply’re, that you simply’re doing within the time you’re spending.

(23:31)
It’s simply a good suggestion to have somebody like that when 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, when you select to work with any sort of hands-on skilled, keep in mind that it ought to really feel supportive and that you could change practitioners if it’s not an excellent match, you’re in management. Whilst you might not must see anyone in any respect, I do need you to pay attention to your physique and the common posture and motion patterns you might be in. So after you end listening to this present right now, ensure 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 packages otherwise you’re in Rock Your Life, we’ll proceed to give you actually particular type cues and enable you to keep current in your physique by means of all the exercises that we do collectively.

(24:18)
However bear in mind to make use of these suggestions exterior of your exercises as nicely in your every 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 Purposeful Health Workshop collection. It’s free it, it’s a collection of movies you’ll be able to comply with 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 a good way to actually immerse your self within the type you wanna be tuning into if you prepare in an effort to keep protected and wholesome over time at all ages. Yow will discover that over@thebettyrocker.com 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 every day as an e mail with a video you’ll be able to comply with. And naturally, when you’re in Rock your Life, this whole course is constructed proper in together with all the opposite bonus programs and supplies so you’ll be able to 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 sit up for 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.