5 Important Self Care Suggestions 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 present. I used to be simply interested by, you realize, how usually we simply soar right into a exercise after which once we’re achieved we race on to the following factor on our checklist. <snigger>, on this tremendous busy world with infinite to-do lists, it’s very easy to neglect that the vessel that carries us by way of 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 look after our our bodies truly units us as much as have higher outcomes from our exercises, to reside longer and to expertise rather a lot much less accidents and setbacks, and likewise to return 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 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 being attentive to not over coaching as we have been speaking about in one other latest podcast. And we additionally wanna begin simply paying extra consideration to the well being of our joints as we’re making much less collagen and elastin than we used to. Any stage in life is an efficient time to be proactive with protecting your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for ladies in peri and publish menopause. It’s possible you’ll want a little bit extra of a warmup even earlier than your exercises than you used to. And in case you’re coaching at the next quantity as in resistance coaching with heavier weights or doing quite a lot of excessive depth interval coaching, you positively 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 encircling tissue in an effort to simply transfer higher.

(02:10)
And generally, you realize, you should use the start of a exercise to heat up by easing into it at a low depth. That’s a very nice and straightforward solution to have a warmup. However 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 on your coaching or do some dynamic warmup strikes that stimulate the muscle groups you’re making ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints a little bit bit. So in case you’re resistance coaching, as an example, it’s all the time advisable to do a lighter set while you’re simply beginning out. And in case 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 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 quite a lot of static stretching earlier than a exercise. You wanna save that for after your exercise when your muscle groups are already heat. And talking of post-workout, that could be a nice time to do this. Calm down stretch, your muscle groups 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 solution 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 will stretch our muscle groups since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and suppleness are actually intimately linked and we need to tackle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges influence 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 help the cartilage and bone tissue, we wanna be interested by our common practices that help our muscle and joint well being. That’s why including issues like mobility drills or yoga periods on relaxation days is admittedly nice too as a result of you realize, bettering 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 among my Rock Your Life Problem applications, not solely do you may have customized tracks for each program primarily based on which stage of life you might be 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 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 admittedly vital on your muscle and joint well being as effectively. So hold ingesting water all through the day and drink extra while you’re exercising. And I’m certain you realize the significance of normal motion all through the day, nevertheless 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 sort of verify in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you might be listening to me. Perhaps you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you’ll be able to positively simply tune into your posture and spot 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 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 in case you sit at a desk or a pc for work, you wanna take into consideration the posture you’re in there. And in case you steadily 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 muscle groups which can be working when you do all of these issues in entrance of you might be your chest muscle groups and the opposite muscle groups within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply advantageous. They’re meant to do all of these actions. However what occurs once we’re in these postures for lengthy intervals of time and we don’t use the muscle groups on the alternative facet of our physique as a lot, is we begin to get a bit stronger within the muscle groups that work on a regular basis and a bit weaker within the muscle groups that don’t do very a lot work.

(06:32)
And we additionally begin to tackle these type 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 muscle groups which can be a little bit extra used begin to pull extra on the bones that they connect to. So we’ll, we’ll hold speaking in regards to the shoulders for instance. That shoulder joint or your rotator cuff is a really shallow ball and socket joint. So you’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’ve 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 huge circle. And the soundness of this joint depends on the muscle groups that come and encompass that joint from all of those completely different angles.

(07:23)
And a number of the muscle groups that connect to your shoulder come out of your chest, some come out of your again and a few come from beneath your arm in your armpit space. And it’s the relative energy of those muscle groups to one another that impacts the soundness of this joint. So again to our instance, if we’re all the time utilizing the entrance physique muscle groups as a result of we see in entrance of us and infrequently utilizing the again physique muscle groups, the shoulder joint slowly turns into imbalanced as a result of we’re inadvertently strengthening these entrance physique muscle groups continuously and the issues we do with out utilizing the again muscle groups as a lot. And that’s the place that relative energy begins to develop into 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 once 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 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 yet another good deep breath. After which simply as you exhale, discover the place of alignment that your physique can come into as you breathe, as you’re taking that good deep breath. And keep in mind that respiratory extra totally and deeply is admittedly useful for our physique and, and our mind and our considering capability. So we actually wanna watch out of not being in that continual rounded head ahead, continual rounded, shoulder ahead collapsed chest, which impacts our breath and our capacity to get sufficient oxygen and, and we will rise up and we will stretch our chest open extra, which helps relieve and calm down these hardworking muscle groups. And, and also you may not really feel like they’re working tremendous arduous 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 just’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 muscle groups greater than the opposite muscle groups that encompass the shoulder joint.

(09:59)
So going past that, we wanna simply begin extra mindfully coaching and strengthening these again physique muscle groups in our train routines. And being aware we’re not over coaching our entrance physique muscle groups in those self same train routines as a result of what I see occur generally are issues like pushup challenges or plank challenges, and abruptly we pile on prime of our each day posture of ahead movement and train that additionally targets those self same muscle groups 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 considering of how we’re utilizing our our bodies each day exterior of the gymnasium 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 would have an imbalance from taking part in a sport once we have been youthful or an outdated damage that by no means fairly bought higher.

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

(11:35)
I simply share this particular instance with the shoulder joint as a result of rotator cuff accidents are so frequent. And I feel it actually helps to listen to how issues can develop as a result of it’s not simply the shoulder joint the place this sequence of occasions can play out. I’m simply utilizing it for instance. I imply, take into consideration legs and your hips and pelvis and the motions that you just use day after 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 groups 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 will probably 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 each day posture and alignment in addition to the alignment we’re in with our exercises and our common proactive self-care practices like stretching and our mobility drills and all of those useful ideas that we have been speaking about. Now in case the shoulder occurs to be a joint that you just personally wanna deliver extra stability to, you can tune into strikes that I educate rather a lot 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 definately slowly increase them up and down whereas your elbows, wrists, and shoulders are touching that floor. And also you discover how this opens and stretches your chest whereas additionally activating your again muscle groups. It’s also possible to begin including in additional rows of every kind, 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 muscle groups.

(13:40)
And also you’ll see these in all of my completely different exercise applications. There are fundamental strikes that I actually like to do steadily 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 groups 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 present your self a little bit extra resistance to tug towards and even additional have interaction these again muscle groups. So all of these kinds of workout routines can actually enable you to to activate the opposing muscle groups in your shoulder joint that act in the wrong way of that ahead motion. And that may actually enable you to begin to deliver stability into the shoulder, uh, and the rotator cuff. It’s also possible to tone down the depth of chest workout routines in your coaching program in case you’re working in direction of balancing out that again physique energy.

(14:34)
If that is one thing that you just suppose impacts you, you’ll be able to simply extra mindfully stretch your chest muscle groups, particularly in case you sit for lengthy intervals. Like in case you’re working together with your arms in entrance of you at a pc and you realize, simply begin to actually be extra aware of, of the, of how intensely you’re, you’re doing chest workout routines together with again strengthening workout routines in your total exercise plan. You would possibly 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 wished to share this since we have been speaking about rotator cuff and, and that’s one thing that’s actually frequent for lots of people. Bear in mind, if you’re sitting and dealing for lengthy intervals of time, you actually need to tune into your shoulder alignment, deliver your shoulders again and down, do this respiratory exercise that we simply did collectively a couple of minutes in the past.

(15:26)
Reset your head and convey it upright in case you’re type of rounding or dropping it ahead. Have a look at your place of your laptop in case you’re taking a look at a pc rather a lot and make it possible for 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 realize, your head and neck are an enormous a part of this dialog, that ordinary ahead head posture generally is a large drawback for those who causes complications and neck ache. So actually work in your physique consciousness and your exercises of protecting your head and neck aligned together with your backbone and convey that into your each day life as effectively. All the muscle groups in our our bodies that act on joints have an agonist and antagonist or muscle groups with opposing actions like flexion and extension. This helps create stability round your joints, your biceps and your triceps are one instance that’s straightforward to image.

(16:14)
Your quads and hamstrings are one other one. And each of these examples cross two joints so the biceps and triceps connect throughout your shoulder and elbow joint, as an example. So imbalances within the shoulder joint can influence the way in which you’re utilizing these muscle groups, 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 in case you sit rather a lot, your hamstring is in a shortened place and your quads are in a lengthened place. And over time that shortened hamstring can pull your pelvis out of alignment, inflicting again ache and restriction of your vary of movement. So that you would possibly 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 way of your knee and into your pelvis?

(17:03)
If you happen to’ve come to any of my courses, you most likely have seen me coaching barefoot. And one of many causes I do it is because I simply discover it simpler to stability and convey energy into my ft and ankles once 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 muscle groups in between your toes that have been made to really soak up 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 rather a lot.

(17:50)
However you realize, in case you aren’t leaping on a tough floor, you may not want that very same quantity of absorption. And in case you can start to strengthen your ft and also you do attempt, resolve to do some barefoot coaching, I I simply actually counsel easing into it. And don’t, don’t simply begin all, abruptly as a result of your ft will want 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 make it possible for we could have some, some patterns in our ft and underdeveloped muscle groups that make it tougher to be secure 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 strains up and the way in which that your pelvis strains up.

(18:36)
The pelvis could seem to be a hard and fast type of tilted bowl, however truly it’s separate bones which can be linked by actually sturdy ligaments and it will probably transfer and shift. As an illustration, in case you’ve had children, there’s a selected hormone launch to calm down the muscle groups 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 unique place and it may be barely rotated or a bit off kilter. One thing comparable can occur to the pelvic bones in case you’ve been in a automotive accident or had an damage. And except you’ve acquired care to realign these constructions, it could find yourself staying that approach or sort of coming again to hang-out you. That’s truly my state of affairs. I nonetheless go to bodily remedy to assist me overcome a number of the patterns that occur in my pelvis from outdated 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 could have. Getting some fingers on care might be such a sport changer. Each, you realize the belongings you find out about your motion patterns and the way in which it helps you get extra aligned. The tough factor about getting fingers on care might be that each state and nation too has several types of coaching and necessities for various sorts of practitioners and on what kinds of therapeutic practices they’ll use in your care. So the kind of practitioner who may also help you probably the most can range relying in your wants and the place you reside. And naturally your medical 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 multiple software of their toolkit or they’re working with complimentary practitioners out of their workplace.

(20:16)
As an illustration, a chiropractor is, goes to regulate your bones, but when your muscle groups connect to your bones and they’re patterned a sure approach or you might be chronically overtrained in a single path, these muscle groups will proceed to tug the bones out of alignment and exert their pulling strain. If you happen to’re solely seeing a chiropractor who solely works in your bone alignment, you’ll most likely must hold seeing them. You understand, some chiropractors supply complimentary remedies to handle delicate tissue issues or have that kind 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 several types of specialties inside the therapeutic massage area as effectively. If you happen to’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 delicate tissue manipulation that particularly addresses your situation.

(21:11)
Bodily remedy additionally does have quite a lot of specialties inside it, that’s why I deliver it up rather a lot. You would possibly consider it primarily as rehab for an damage and that’s definitely one of many methods it will probably 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 method to supporting you as an lively lady to verify in your motion patterns, tackle any imbalances that you just’re coping with, which may come from having a dominant facet and overusing these muscle groups or each day motion patterns like we talked about earlier than. Or, you realize, checking in on outdated damage patterns that you just’ve corrected however can sort of come again to hang-out you later in life in case you aren’t diligent in maintaining together with your stability and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and 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 method they usually 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 kinds of defend practitioners also can do quite a lot of these items. So it simply actually is dependent upon 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 outdated patterns, particularly my pelvis aren’t pulling me out of alignment or placing me in a compromised place. I’m usually checking in with my shoulder alignment as effectively as a result of I, my proper 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 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 apply recurrently your self and be proactive about in order that in case you do go see someone, I imply, any nice practitioner goes to present you homework and ask you to do issues by yourself. Any nice physician is gonna be asking you in regards to the way of life selections that you just’re making round their care as a result of that’s solely going to make what they offer you simpler. So get probably the most bang on your buck if you’re 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 in an effort 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 in case you’re getting back from an damage to just remember to get stronger safely and also you aren’t going too quick or compromising that therapeutic tissue. And actually, in case you select to work with any kind of hands-on skilled, keep in mind that it ought to really feel supportive and that you would be able to change practitioners if it’s not a very good match, you’re in management. Whilst you could not must see anyone in any respect, I do need you to concentrate on your physique and the common posture and motion patterns you might be in. So after you end listening to this present at present, make certain 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 among my applications 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 way of all the exercises that we do collectively.

(24:18)
However keep in mind to make use of these ideas exterior of your exercises as effectively in your each day life as you’re sitting and bending and standing and carrying issues. Use good type and simply keep proactive together with your self-care stretch and do your yoga days and your mobility days and keep hydrated. I extremely advocate utilizing my Foundations of 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 an effective way to essentially immerse your self within the type you wanna be tuning into while you prepare in an effort to keep secure and wholesome over time at all ages. You could find 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 each day as an e mail with a video you’ll be able to comply with. And naturally, in case you’re in Rock your Life, this complete course is constructed proper in together with all the opposite bonus programs and supplies so you’ll be able to reference at any time. And hey, thanks a lot for spending this time with me at present. 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 superb. Bye for now.