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 at this time. I used to be simply fascinated about, you realize, how usually we simply bounce right into a exercise after which once we’re achieved we race on to the following factor on our record. <chortle>, on this tremendous busy world with countless to-do lists, it’s very easy to neglect 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 really units us as much as have higher outcomes from our exercises, to reside longer and to expertise loads much less accidents and setbacks, and in addition to come back again stronger after we’ve perhaps had an damage or a setback. So, you realize, growing extra proactive self-care practices could not sound just like the quick observe to health, however I guarantee you it’s an integral 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 being attentive 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 effective time to be proactive with conserving your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for girls in peri and submit menopause. Chances are you’ll want just a little 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 can actually assist stimulate that synovial fluid that lubricates your joints and warms up the encircling tissue to be able to simply transfer higher.

(02:10)
And typically, you realize, you should use the start of a exercise to heat up by easing into it at a low depth. That’s a extremely nice and straightforward approach 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 making ready in your coaching or do some dynamic warmup strikes that stimulate the muscle tissues you’re making ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints just a little bit. So when you’re resistance coaching, for example, it’s at all times advisable to do a lighter set whenever you’re simply beginning out. And when 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 personal 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 muscle tissues are already heat. And talking of post-workout, that could be a nice time to try this. Calm down stretch, your muscle tissues are heat out of your exercise so you possibly can maintain your stretches longer and simply breathe into them extra. And it is a actually wholesome approach to transition from an intense exercise session and convey your coronary heart fee 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 will stretch our muscle tissues since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and suppleness are actually intimately related and we need to handle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges influence the stretch capability of our ligaments and tendons and our potential 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 absolutely nice too as a result of you realize, bettering your flexibility helps your muscle tissue keep supple and attentive to resistance coaching and retains your joints wholesome too. In the event you’re following one in all my Rock Your Life Problem applications, not solely do you may have customized tracks for each program based mostly on which stage of life you’re in, you may have devoted practices for self-care, like yoga and mobility constructed proper into your coaching applications. Plus you even have entry to your entire class library that features tons of stretching movies, mobility drill courses, and yoga practices. So you possibly can at all times simply add that in as a bonus.

(04:44)
I additionally wanna point out that you realize, staying hydrated is absolutely essential in your muscle and joint well being as effectively. So preserve ingesting water all through the day and drink extra whenever you’re exercising. And I’m positive you realize the significance of standard 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 form of test in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you’re listening to me. Perhaps you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you possibly can 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, a lot of the issues we do in our day-to-day life occur in entrance of us.

(05:32)
So we’ve this type of ahead movement tendency from driving to shoveling the snow and raking the leaves to gardening, utilizing our pc, consuming, sitting on the sofa, ingesting tea. We’re at all times in these ahead dealing with 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 wanting 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 muscle tissues which are working when you do all of these issues in entrance of you’re your chest muscle tissues and the opposite muscle tissues within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply nice. They’re meant to do all of these actions. However what occurs once we’re in these postures for lengthy intervals of time and we don’t use the muscle tissues on the other facet of our physique as a lot, is we begin to get a bit stronger within the muscle tissues that work on a regular basis and a bit weaker within the muscle 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 outdoors of our work or outdoors of the instances we’re habitually in them. And we begin to create these patterns in our our bodies and the muscle tissues which are just a little extra used begin to pull extra on the bones that they connect to. So we’ll, we’ll preserve speaking concerning the shoulders for example. That shoulder joint or your rotator cuff is a really shallow ball and socket joint. So you possibly can image the top of the humerus because the ball head and it sits on this very shallow dish of your shoulder and, and we’ve this good big selection of movement that’s obtainable at that joint consequently, proper, that that joint can transfer very freely in a pleasant large circle. And the steadiness of this joint depends on the muscle tissues that come and encompass that joint from all of those totally different angles.

(07:23)
And among the muscle 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 muscle tissues to one another that impacts the steadiness of this joint. So again to our instance, if we’re at all times utilizing the entrance physique muscle tissues as a result of we see in entrance of us and barely utilizing the again physique muscle tissues, the shoulder joint slowly turns into imbalanced as a result of we’re inadvertently strengthening these entrance physique muscle tissues consistently and the issues we do with out utilizing the again muscle tissues as a lot. And that’s the place that relative energy begins to develop into unstable. You may most likely image an aged individual, 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 once we’re in postures of ahead movement. So chronically with little or no to no motion within the opposing route. So you realize, what’s the answer? Properly, first we will simply tune in once we’re sitting for lengthy intervals 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. Do this once more.

(08:52)
And the following 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 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 do not forget 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 power rounded head ahead, power rounded, shoulder ahead collapsed chest, which impacts our breath and our potential to get sufficient oxygen and, and we will rise up and we will stretch our chest open extra, which helps relieve and loosen up these hardworking muscle tissues. And, and also you won’t really feel like they’re working tremendous arduous due to course you’re, you’re simply at your desk otherwise you’re your cellphone 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 tissues greater than the opposite muscle tissues that encompass the shoulder joint.

(09:59)
So going past that, we wanna simply begin extra mindfully coaching and strengthening these again physique muscle tissues in our train routines. And being aware we’re not over coaching our entrance physique muscle tissues in those self same train routines as a result of what I see occur typically are issues like pushup challenges or plank challenges, and out of the blue we pile on high of our day by day posture of ahead movement and train that additionally targets those self same muscle 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 day by day outdoors of the fitness center or outdoors 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 enjoying a sport once we had been youthful or an previous damage that by no means fairly bought higher.

(10:51)
Typically individuals will even really feel ache of their shoulder once they’re understanding and ignore it, pondering that that’s the great ache you’re speculated to get from train. However really we’re simply focusing on the identical muscle tissues which have continued to be overworked from our day by day actions and even our job and the again physique muscle tissues 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 once we do these pushups for example, and our shoulder isn’t in the correct 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 in fact, and it’s not taking place to each single individual.

(11:35)
I simply share this particular instance with the shoulder joint as a result of rotator cuff accidents are so widespread. 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 example. I imply, take into consideration legs and your hips and pelvis and the motions that you just use each day. 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 programs are interconnected because the muscle tissues hook up with our bones. So if muscle develops in an imbalanced approach throughout a joint and never solely pulls that joint within the route of the stronger facet, it may additionally create these compensating motion patterns all through different elements 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 day by 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 had 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 loads 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 then you definitely 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 tissues. It’s also possible to begin including in additional rows of every type, like large grip rows, excessive pull rows, slim grip rows, single arm rows and strikes like reverse flies, superwoman lifts, swimmers, all of these strikes that focus on and strengthen your again muscle tissues.

(13:40)
And also you’ll see these in all of my totally 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 have interaction the muscle tissues between your shoulder blades as effectively and open and stretch your chest. It’s also possible to do that very same place holding a stretchy band to provide your self just a little extra resistance to tug towards and even additional have interaction these again muscle tissues. So all of these kinds of workouts can actually provide help to to activate the opposing muscle tissues in your shoulder joint that act in the wrong way of that ahead motion. And that may actually provide help to begin to carry stability into the shoulder, uh, and the rotator cuff. It’s also possible to tone down the depth of chest workouts in your coaching program when you’re working in the direction of balancing out that again physique energy.

(14:34)
If that is one thing that you just assume impacts you, you possibly can simply extra mindfully stretch your chest muscle tissues, particularly when you sit for lengthy intervals. 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 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 may wanna tone it down on the chest stuff and perhaps 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. Bear in mind, in case you are sitting and dealing for lengthy intervals of time, you actually need 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. Have a look at your place of your pc when you’re a pc loads and ensure that it’s at eye degree and also you’re not having to look down. You wanna rise up and stretch and transfer round just a little bit extra. And you realize, your head and neck are an enormous a part of this dialog, that routine ahead head posture could be a enormous drawback for those that causes complications and neck ache. So actually work in your physique consciousness and your exercises of conserving your head and neck aligned together with your backbone and convey that into your day by day life as effectively. The entire muscle tissues in our our bodies that act on joints have an agonist and antagonist or muscle 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 simple 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, for example. So imbalances within the shoulder joint can influence the way in which you’re utilizing these muscle tissues, 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 when you sit loads, 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 ft are in all through the day. How is the footwear you may have 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)
In the event you’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 energy 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 capable of separate, say you’re leaping, it’s the muscle tissues in between your toes that had been made to truly take in shock from weight bearing strikes. Now in fact, the physique wasn’t actually made to leap on actually arduous 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 kinds of surfaces loads.

(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 ft and also you do attempt, resolve to do some barefoot coaching, I I simply actually recommend easing into it. And don’t, don’t simply begin all, abruptly as a result of your ft will want just a little time to develop the energy. 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 ensure that we could have some, some patterns in our ft and underdeveloped muscle tissues that make it more durable to be steady as we’re beginning out. In order that’s simply an space to experiment with and take sluggish. 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 traces up and the way in which that your pelvis traces up.

(18:36)
The pelvis could look like a hard and fast type of tilted bowl, however really it’s separate bones which are related by actually robust ligaments and it may transfer and shift. As an example, when you’ve had children, there’s a selected hormone launch to loosen up the muscle tissues and joints and ligaments throughout being pregnant and assist your physique stretch and accommodate the start. Nevertheless, after you’ve had children, the pelvis could 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 when you’ve been in a automotive accident or had an damage. And except you’ve acquired care to realign these buildings, it might find yourself staying that approach or form 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 previous automotive accidents and motorbike 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 issues that you’ll have. Getting some arms on care will be such a recreation 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 will be that each state and nation too has various kinds of coaching and necessities for various sorts of practitioners and on what kinds of therapeutic practices they will use in your care. So the kind of practitioner who can assist you probably the most can range 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 on the lookout for protection. Many practitioners go actually do go above and past getting persevering with schooling and have a couple of 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 tissues connect to your bones and they’re patterned a sure approach or you’re chronically overtrained in a single route, these muscle tissues will proceed to tug the bones out of alignment and exert their pulling strain. In the event you’re solely seeing a chiropractor who solely works in your bone alignment, you’ll most likely must preserve seeing them. You already know, some chiropractors provide complimentary therapies to deal with smooth tissue issues or have that kind of care obtainable 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 various various kinds of specialties inside the therapeutic massage discipline as effectively. In the event you’re on the lookout for particular structural work that addresses muscular imbalances, I, I like to recommend on the lookout for medical therapeutic massage, myofascial launch set off level or sports activities therapeutic massage and smooth 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 loads. You may consider it primarily as rehab for an damage and that’s definitely one of many methods it may serve you and that’s how lots of people get launched to it. However you may also search it out as a proactive hands-on strategy to supporting you as an lively girl to test in your motion patterns, handle any imbalances that you just’re coping with, which might come from having a dominant facet and overusing these muscle tissues or day by day motion patterns like we talked about earlier than. Or, you realize, checking in on previous damage patterns that you just’ve corrected however can form of come again to hang-out you later in life when you aren’t diligent in maintaining together with your stability and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and we’ve 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 they usually can take a look at your motion patterns and prescribe corrective workouts that can assist you reset your patterns and do hands-on work to launch caught bones and muscle tissue and handle imbalances round your joints. Different kinds of shield practitioners may also do loads of these items. So it simply actually relies on the practitioner. I see my PT each couple of months and I’m usually reviewing my motion patterns and issues that I do recurrently for coaching, like squats and deadlifts simply to make sure that any of my previous 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 facet is my dominant facet, so I are inclined to have just a little bit extra of a rotation on that facet.

(22:45)
That’s why I’m usually instructing you mobility drills and how one can open up and take a look at your rotator cuff and, and open up your shoulder joint. These are actually essential issues to apply recurrently 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 concerning 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 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 personal self-care as a lot as you possibly can to be able to 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 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 kind of hands-on skilled, do not forget that it ought to really feel supportive and that you may change practitioners if it’s not a superb match, you’re in management. Whilst you could 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’re in. So after you end listening to this present at this time, ensure you retain bringing your consciousness to how you progress and the alignment of your physique and your exercises. In the event you’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 provide help 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 ideas outdoors of your exercises as effectively in your day by 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 possibly can comply with over 14 days the place every day we break down for you totally 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 whenever you practice to be able to keep secure and wholesome over time at all ages. You will discover that over@thebettyrocker.com slash ff or simply go to my web site and scroll down in the 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 day by day as an e mail with a video you possibly can comply with. And naturally, when you’re in Rock your Life, this complete course is constructed proper in together with all the opposite bonus programs and supplies so you possibly can reference at any time. And hey, thanks a lot for spending this time with me at this time. 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’re so superior blossom and wonderful. Bye for now.