I’m going to keep it real simple for you.
12 simple rules for eating.
Only eat when you’re hungry.
Stop eating when you’re full.
Eat your greens.
Eat organic.
Drink more (clean) water.
Drink more tea.
Restrict your alcohol.
Restrict your coffee.
Restrict your processed food.
Chew your food. Slowly.
Don’t talk and eat at the same time.
You can’t eat the menu.
No, not the kind bodybuilders look for in the gym but rather the fluid pumps within our own bodies.
Obviously the heart is one of the primary fluid pumps within us, driving blood around the body. And in that blood bound to haemoglobin is oxygen (among other things). The breath of life. But the heart only pumps blood out not in.
AND there are other fluid systems in the body including the lymphatic system which has no pump. But the lymphatic system is very important for your immunity. In simple terms, it helps stop you getting sick.
So how does this other fluid move around? If you read the title of this post, you probably guessed it. By bodily movement and the action of your muscles. When we use our muscles they squeeze and help pump these fluids around the body which is why there is increased blood flow during physical activity. And you may have worked out that pumps only work locally, so if you don’t use your foot muscles much (if you’re wearing heels) then not much pumping is happening there. So not much blood circulation gets through that area so waste buildup happens without much nourishment to counteract it.
So that is why gentle movements and activities like walking (barefoot preferably) are great for circulation. We use a lot of muscles to walk and this means a lot of circulation goes to a lot of places without too much pooling as happens when we sit or keep our hips flexed for long periods. The gentle to moderate nature of these activities also allows the blood to flow but not at too fast a speed that oxygen cannot be transferred properly at the cellular level (because the oxygen must still be taken up to be useful).
So that is why I recommend walking for at least 30-60minutes a day (broken up into shorter periods if need be), preferably outside and barefoot. Low impact, weight bearing, relaxing. But like anything you may need to start small, like not wearing shoes in and around the house (no socks either). And start with 3x10min of walking every day. Your children will love it!
The most important thing is to just start where you are and don’t compare your starting point to someone else’s middle point.
Walking. So simple and yet so powerful.
Cardiovascular benefits.
Improved blood flow.
Improved oxygenation.
Gentle on the joints (unlike running and jumping).
Stretches out and mobilises all the muscles in the body (including those in your feet and ankles if you go barefoot).
Weight bearing so increases bone mineral density.
Moderate intensity (doesn’t fatigue you or wear you out afterwards).
Coordinates and reinforces our cross body reflexes (opposite arm and leg movements).
Relaxing and restorative (you feel more alive afterwards).
Cannot be done in a sitting position (unlike half the cardio machines found in fitness facilities).
Does not cause injuries.
Is free.
Anything that good should be done more often right? In nature or at least grass, under the sun or moon.
How you should do it ideally:
In nature (fresh air, sunlight).
With good alignment.
With hip extension and toe off (imagine you are skating on ice and push off the back foot).
Breathing through your nose and not gasping for air (otherwise it is no longer relaxing and restorative but stressful).
Barefoot (to really stimulate the whole body including the receptors and muscles in the feet and ankles.
Well, what are you waiting for? Go get your dose today.
I posted a few weeks back about how walking on the treadmill encourages hip flexion. I didn’t mention that people on treadmills tend to just bend their knees and fall forward on the knee. Then they would raise the other knee and fall forward onto that as the belt moves them backward.
Overworking and overloading the knee, while the hip is disengaged so forces cannot be absorbed higher up. No wonder knees hurt, and hips tighten.
So what’s the solution? Go walk outside and push off the ground to walk forwards. Walk tall and barefoot so no alignment compensations are required. And on soft, sensory rich surfaces like grass, sand, mud. Health shouldn’t be hard work. It should be play and offer more benefits than just fitness!
I often get asked by prospective clients how often they should come and see me.
Like any good answer, it depends.
What people do not understand is that a good coach/teacher is not just making you stronger by training your muscles but changing your patterns of movement. And as with any skill the learning curve is often steep. So what’s the best way to learn something quicker? Do more of it.
So the real answer is as much as you can. But we are all busy people and with my other commitments I do not have that much time to see clients. So I suggest at least once or twice a week is best. And I’m finding 45minute sessions to be that sweet spot for session duration. 30minutes is not quite enough and we have to end before we really get stuck in but by 60minutes most (but not all) people are too drained to take anything new in. Of course this depends on the individual but 1-2×45-60minutes is ideal.
This doesn’t mean that’s your training for the week. Far from it. That means you come and see me 1-2times per week. Which means you’re probably practicing at least 1-2times by yourself. It depends on how quickly you want to progress.
I see my primary teacher at least twice a week and I practice all the time to make the most of that contact time.
It’s amusing when people come to me and tell me how important their health and/or training goals are but can only find time to practice once or twice a week. Did you not just tell me it was important? Maybe you need to rethink your priorities. And then there are those who believe that since they don’t make time to practice that they should come see me less frequently. Really? If coming to see me means you get extra practice in and you’re not doing it by yourself shouldn’t those sessions become your first priority to develop a good habit?
I’ll repeat what I just wrote.
I see my primary teacher at least twice a week and I practice all the time to make the most of that contact time.
Even if I’m busy and miss a day or two, I will still go and see my teacher. That time is valuable to me and limits the development of bad habits creeping into my training.
So to recap, see your teacher as often as you can, depending on the availability of both parties. At least once or twice a week is ideal, every other day even better. And practice, practice, practice by yourself. Practice sessions don’t have to be long but frequent.
Most people are tight and locked up where we are supposed to be the most mobile. The shoulders and hips.
And I got to thinking why today. Why the shoulders and hips?
Well, I think it’s a language issue as well as how we think about them.
You may not know this but anatomically there is no ‘shoulder bone’ and no ‘hip bone’. They are joints, ie where two or more bones connect and interact. The hip is where the femur (thigh bone) and pelvis (what is colloquially but inaccurately known as the ‘hip bone’) connects. The shoulder (at least the glenohumeral joint) is where the scapula (shoulder blade) and humerus (arm bone) connect and interact. So most people could not even tell you where their true shoulders and hips are. Because they are so muscle focussed they are likely to think it is more superficial (on the skin/surface) than the joints really are (hint, they’re on the inside so you can’t see them) so end up moving from the wrong place.
This leads to knee, elbow, neck, back and even foot and hand issues. Hence, why some people refer to them as the Four Knots.
So try this. Locate your shoulder and hip joints.
First your hips. Imagine you are Superman and wore your underwear on the outside. Now that diagonal line from outside thigh to inside thigh is your hip crease. Find the middle of that roughly and put your fingers there. You should feel that articulate when you move your leg.
Now do the same with your shoulder. Feel into your armpit, where you would tickle someone. Now move your arm up and down.
Now you know where your shoulders and hips are. Try to feel into the body and sense their location without the aid of your fingers. Good. We’ll leave today’s lesson here for now.
What is the most common position we humans adopt outside of sleeping now? If you said sitting, you would be right.
So what does sitting involve? Hip flexion and often in poorly designed chairs, even so called ergonomic chairs. So what do we not need more of when we eventually break up this sedentary behaviour with some physical activity? More hip flexion. Yet, this is what we get on a treadmill. How, you may ask? Well, the belt on the treadmill is moving you backwards so all the user need do is lift the leg up and fall forward without actually bringing their bodies forward to the same degree as needed in the real world. Restricted hip extension. Rinse and repeat. Hip flexion after hip flexion after hip flexion moment. Exactly what we don’t need as our hips get tighter and tighter and tighter already. And don’t even get me started on people holding on with their hands and leaning back while walking at an ‘incline’.
That’s why people like to walk on the treadmill. Because it’s easier and more sterilised than the real thing. Walk into any gym and you’ll see this. You may also see this in people running outside if they’re so used to sitting that they’ve already lost their hip extension.
So what is the solution then? You guessed it, normal walking in real life. But what is different in normal walking then? Well, there is such a thing as ground reaction force. We push into the ground and the ground pushes back and this propels us forward when we push back and down. We activate our posterior chain, our hamstrings, calves and glutes. Especially if we go barefoot. Hip extension or the opposite of hip flexion, as we drive our hips forward. This is not required with the treadmill as there is already a force moving us backward so all we have to do is counter it by bringing our knees up. You’ll find you can’t just bring your knee up in the real world as there is no force driving you forward. You need to push off the ground. Hip extension.
And when most people simply raise their legs up they tend to overstride and rely too much on the quads to lift the knee. The femur gets jammed into the pelvis and the hip muscles shorten. Tighter and tighter hips. Just like with sitting. There are ways to walk naturally that actually open the hips but that’s too much for this post.
So what are the alternatives then? Walking outside is the obvious one. Barefoot, grass, in the sun and fresh air. Number one with a star. This is what we are designed to do.
But what else if you must get some ‘cardio’, it’s dark or wet outside and you insist on some variety? Well, the bikes are out as they involve more sitting and they are not natural movements. Elliptical trainer is again unnatural so that leaves the rower but again more sitting and most people don’t do that properly and so are likely to get into shoulder issues. Why do people who sit all day want to sit down to exercise? Counterintuitive isn’t it? Especially if they first have to sit in the car to drive there…
So if I don’t propose machines then what?
Here are my top two suggestions and guess what, they both involve hip extension. You probably won’t be surprised by kettlebell swings given my background but the other one would be jumping rope. Very hard to perform either of these activities for decent time and reps without some solid hip extension. And you can’t tell me they aren’t cardio and a lot of hard work. The rope may be a very good entry into the swing as many people will try to do a combination squat/front raise to get the bell up, but it’s very hard to jump rope well without extension at the hips, knees and maintaining a decent posture. The rope can teach you the top position of the kettlebell swing. The kettlebell swing also teaches force generation and absorption. A great exercise.
Then there are always burpees. Hip extension, check. Force absorption, check. Plus some healthy power generation. Notice a theme yet?
Shorter duration but more intense cardio. Great in today’s world when we are all pressed for time. You don’t get fitter by covering the same ground in more time but by doing it in shorter and shorter times! The third option would be sprints but yes, you have to learn to walk before you can run. Sprints are fantastic but only once you have your mobility restored.
But if this is all too intense for you? My favourite restorative cardio would have to be crawling. Try doing that for 10 minutes or more and tell me which muscles you didn’t use and which joints you didn’t open up. It will ground and restore you.
Seems the lift weights, walk in nature approach is catching on. Here’s the rundown:
Shorter, harder sessions (no more than 30-60minutes at a time) followed by some walking or other relaxing activity. Breathwork, crawling, sound familiar?
More walking and preferably outdoors too. Are you nodding along yet?
And get more sleep.
Simple, right?
Align Breathe Connect 