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 immediately. I used to be simply desirous about, you recognize, 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. <chortle>, on this tremendous busy world with limitless to-do lists, it’s very easy to neglect that the vessel that carries us via all of it actually does want some tending. Generally 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 reside longer and to expertise so much much less accidents and setbacks, and likewise to return again stronger after we’ve perhaps had an damage or a setback. So, you recognize, creating extra proactive self-care practices might not sound just like the quick monitor 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 shortly from our exercises at that time. We wanna, you recognize, actually begin taking note of 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 holding your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for girls in peri and publish menopause. You could want a little bit extra of a warmup even earlier than your exercises than you used to. And for those who’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 this can 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 generally, you recognize, 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 simple approach to have a warmup. However in case you have the time, you recognize, strive 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 muscular tissues you’re getting ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints a little bit bit. So for those who’re resistance coaching, as an example, it’s at all times advisable to do a lighter set while you’re simply beginning out. And for those who’re unsure 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 positively don’t counsel a variety 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. Quiet 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 approach 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 will stretch our muscular tissues since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and suppleness are actually intimately linked and we wish to tackle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges influence 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 desirous 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 actually nice too as a result of you recognize, enhancing your flexibility helps your muscle tissue keep supple and conscious of resistance coaching and retains your joints wholesome too. For those who’re following considered one of my Rock Your Life Problem applications, not solely do you’ve got customized tracks for each program primarily based on which stage of life you’re in, you’ve got 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 lessons, and yoga practices. So you’ll be able to at all times simply add that in as a bonus.

(04:44)
I additionally wanna point out that you recognize, staying hydrated is actually vital to your muscle and joint well being as properly. So maintain ingesting water all through the day and drink extra while you’re exercising. And I’m positive you recognize the significance of standard motion all through the day, however it’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 examine in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you’re listening to me. Possibly you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you’ll be able to 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 we now 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, ingesting tea. We’re at all times in these ahead going through positions with our arms in entrance of ourselves. So for those who sit at a desk or a pc for work, you wanna take into consideration the posture you’re in there. And for those who ceaselessly 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 muscular tissues which can be working whilst you do all of these issues in entrance of you’re your chest muscular tissues and the opposite muscular tissues within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply wonderful. They’re meant to do all of these actions. However what occurs after we’re in these postures for lengthy intervals of time and we don’t use the muscular tissues on the alternative 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 form of ordinary 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 can be a little bit extra used begin to pull extra on the bones that they connect to. So we’ll, we’ll maintain speaking concerning 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 top of the humerus because the ball head and it sits on this very shallow dish of your shoulder and, and we now have this good big selection of movement that’s obtainable at that joint because of this, proper, that that joint can transfer very freely in a pleasant massive circle. And the soundness of this joint depends on the muscular tissues that come and encompass that joint from all of those completely different angles.

(07:23)
And among 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 soundness of this joint. So again to our instance, if we’re at all times utilizing the entrance physique muscular tissues as a result of we see in entrance of us and barely 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 consistently 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 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 path. So you recognize, what’s the answer? Effectively, first we will simply tune in after we’re sitting for lengthy intervals 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 subsequent 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 absolutely and deeply is actually useful for our physique and, and our mind and our considering 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 capability to get sufficient oxygen and, and we will rise up and we will 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 the entire issues that you simply’re doing together with your palms 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 aware 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 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 muscular tissues for like the subsequent 30 days contributing to additional imbalance. Or, you recognize, 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 day by day exterior of the health club or exterior of our exercises, we find yourself creating extra energy within the entrance facet of our physique and the bottom by no means catches up. We would have an imbalance from taking part in a sport after we had been youthful or an previous damage that by no means fairly acquired higher.

(10:51)
Generally individuals will even really feel ache of their shoulder once they’re understanding and ignore it, considering that that’s the nice ache you’re speculated to get from train. However really we’re simply concentrating on the identical muscular tissues which have continued to be overworked from our day by 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 via 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 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 sequence 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 each day. 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 techniques are interconnected because the muscular tissues hook up with our bones. So if muscle develops in an imbalanced manner throughout a joint and never solely pulls that joint within the path of the stronger facet, 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 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 simply personally wanna carry extra stability to, you can tune into strikes that I educate so much 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 elevate 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 also begin including in additional rows of every kind, like broad 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 muscular tissues.

(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 ceaselessly 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 muscular tissues between your shoulder blades as properly and open and stretch your chest. You may also do that very same place holding a stretchy band to offer your self a little bit extra resistance to drag in opposition to and even additional have interaction these again muscular tissues. So all of these varieties of workout routines can actually provide help to to activate the opposing muscular 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 steadiness into the shoulder, uh, and the rotator cuff. You may also tone down the depth of chest workout routines in your coaching program for those who’re working in the 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 for those who sit for lengthy intervals. Like for those who’re working together with your arms in entrance of you at a pc and you recognize, simply begin to actually be extra aware 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 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. Keep in mind, in case you are sitting and dealing for lengthy intervals 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 for those who’re form of rounding or dropping it ahead. Take a look at your place of your laptop for those who’re taking a look at a pc so much 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 a little bit bit extra. And you recognize, your head and neck are an enormous a part of this dialog, that ordinary ahead head posture is usually a enormous drawback for those who 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 day by day life as properly. The entire 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 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, as an example. So imbalances within the shoulder joint can influence the best way you’re utilizing these muscular tissues, which is among 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 for those who sit so much, 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 take into account the place your ft 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 via your knee and into your pelvis?

(17:03)
For those who’ve come to any of my lessons, you most likely 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 ft and ankles once they’re transferring 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 truly take up shock from weight bearing strikes. Now in fact, 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’d like if we’re on these varieties of surfaces so much.

(17:50)
However you recognize, for those who aren’t leaping on a tough floor, you won’t want that very same quantity of absorption. And for those who can start to strengthen your ft and also you do strive, resolve to do some barefoot coaching, I I simply actually counsel easing into it. And don’t, don’t simply begin all, all of sudden as a result of your ft will want a little bit 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 ft 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 ft 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 seem to be a hard and fast form of tilted bowl, however really it’s separate bones which can be linked by actually robust ligaments and it may possibly transfer and shift. For example, for those who’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. Nonetheless, 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 for those who’ve been in a automobile accident or had an damage. And until you’ve obtained care to realign these buildings, it might find yourself staying that manner 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 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 take into account addressing underlying considerations that you will have. Getting some palms on care could be such a sport changer. Each, you recognize the belongings you find out about your motion patterns and the best way it helps you get extra aligned. The difficult factor about getting palms 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 may help 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 recognize you’re in search of protection. Many practitioners go actually do go above and past getting persevering with schooling 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 manner or you’re chronically overtrained in a single path, these muscular tissues will proceed to drag the bones out of alignment and exert their pulling strain. For those who’re solely seeing a chiropractor who solely works in your bone alignment, you’ll most likely must maintain seeing them. You recognize, some chiropractors provide complimentary remedies to handle delicate tissue considerations or have that sort of care obtainable 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 throughout the therapeutic massage area as properly. For those who’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 delicate 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 so much. You may 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 may as well search it out as a proactive hands-on strategy to supporting you as an energetic girl to examine 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 day by day motion patterns like we talked about earlier than. Or, you recognize, checking in on previous damage patterns that you simply’ve corrected however can form of come again to hang-out you later in life for those who aren’t diligent in maintaining together with your steadiness and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and we now have much less, you recognize, 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 take a look at your motion patterns and prescribe corrective workout routines that can assist you reset your patterns and do hands-on work to launch caught bones and muscle tissue and tackle imbalances round your joints. Different varieties of shield practitioners can even do a variety of these items. 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 often 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 properly as a result of I, my proper facet is my dominant facet, so I are likely to have a little bit bit extra of a rotation on that facet.

(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 vital issues to apply often your self and be proactive about in order that for those who do go see any individual, 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 concerning the life-style decisions 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 to 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’ll be able to so that you could 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 for those who’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, for those who select to work with any sort of hands-on skilled, keep in mind that it ought to really feel supportive and which you could change practitioners if it’s not a superb match, you’re in management. When 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’re in. So after you end listening to this present immediately, be certain you retain bringing your consciousness to how you progress and the alignment of your physique and your exercises. For those who’re coaching with me and my coaches in considered one of my applications otherwise you’re in Rock Your Life, we’ll proceed to give you actually particular kind cues and provide help to keep current in your physique via the entire exercises that we do collectively.

(24:18)
However keep in mind to make use of these ideas exterior of your exercises as properly in your day by day life as you’re sitting and bending and standing and carrying issues. Use good kind 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 Useful Health Workshop sequence. It’s free it, it’s a sequence 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 essentially immerse your self within the kind you wanna be tuning into while you practice so that you could keep protected and wholesome over time at all ages. You’ll find 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 electronic mail with a video you’ll be able to comply with. And naturally, for those who’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 immediately. 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’re so superior blossom and wonderful. Bye for now.