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 right now. I used to be simply fascinated by, you recognize, how usually we simply leap right into a exercise after which after we’re finished we race on to the following factor on our record. <giggle>, on this tremendous busy world with limitless 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 dwell longer and to expertise rather a lot much less accidents and setbacks, and in addition to return again stronger after we’ve possibly had an harm or a setback. So, you recognize, creating extra proactive self-care practices could not sound just like the quick observe to health, however I guarantee you it’s a vital part, particularly as soon as we hit perimenopause and key hormones, significantly estrogen begin to decline.

(01:18)
We simply don’t bounce again as rapidly from our exercises at that time. We wanna, you recognize, actually begin listening to not over coaching as we had 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 holding your muscle tissue wholesome, however it’s actually important for girls in peri and publish menopause. You might want slightly extra of a warmup even earlier than your exercises than you used to. And when you’re coaching at the next quantity as in resistance coaching with heavier weights or doing plenty 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 encircling tissue with the intention to simply transfer higher.

(02:10)
And generally, you recognize, you need to use the start of a exercise to heat up by easing into it at a low depth. That’s a very nice and simple solution to have a warmup. However you probably have the time, you recognize, 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 tissues you’re making ready to coach and, and simply mobilize your joints slightly bit. So when you’re resistance coaching, for example, it’s all the time advisable to do a lighter set if 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 a few of the strikes of the exercise with your individual physique weight and, and stretch and bend and transfer round dynamically or at a decrease depth than plan to coach at.

(03:00)
I positively don’t recommend plenty 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 do this. Quiet down stretch, your muscle tissues are heat out of your exercise so you may 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 produce 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 are able to stretch our muscle tissues since muscle connects to tendons that cross joints, mobility and adaptability are actually intimately linked and we wish to handle them each in our self-care. Our estrogen ranges impression the stretch capability of our ligaments and tendons and our means 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 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 de facto nice too as a result of you recognize, enhancing your flexibility helps your muscle tissue keep supple and aware of resistance coaching and retains your joints wholesome too. If you happen to’re following one in all my Rock Your Life Problem applications, not solely do you have got customized tracks for each program primarily based on which stage of life you might be in, you have got devoted practices for self-care, like yoga and mobility constructed proper into your coaching applications. Plus you even have entry to your complete class library that features tons of stretching movies, mobility drill lessons, and yoga practices. So you may all the time simply add that in as a bonus.

(04:44)
I additionally wanna point out that you recognize, staying hydrated is de facto essential on your muscle and joint well being as properly. So hold ingesting water all through the day and drink extra if you’re exercising. And I’m certain you recognize 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 type of verify in with ourselves, tune into the posture you’re sitting in or standing in as you might be listening to me. Possibly you’re strolling or driving or doing one thing else, however you may 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, many of the issues we do in our day-to-day life occur in entrance of us.

(05:32)
So we have now this kind of ahead movement tendency from driving to shoveling the snow and raking the leaves to gardening, utilizing our laptop, consuming, sitting on the sofa, ingesting tea. We’re all the time in these ahead going through positions with our arms in entrance of ourselves. So when you sit at a desk or a pc for work, you wanna take into consideration the posture you’re in there. And when you often 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 tissues which might be working whilst you do all of these issues in entrance of you might be your chest muscle tissues and the opposite muscle tissues within the entrance of your physique that make these ahead actions. And that’s simply high-quality. They’re meant to do all of these actions. However what occurs after we’re in these postures for lengthy durations of time and we don’t use the muscle tissues on the alternative 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 kind of ordinary 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 might be slightly extra used begin to pull extra on the bones that they connect to. So we’ll, we’ll hold speaking concerning the shoulders for instance. That shoulder joint or your rotator cuff is a really shallow ball and socket joint. So you may image the top of the humerus because the ball head and it sits on this very shallow dish of your shoulder and, and we have now this good wide selection of movement that’s out there at that joint because of this, proper, that that joint can transfer very freely in a pleasant large circle. And the soundness of this joint depends on the muscle tissues that come and encompass that joint from all of those totally different angles.

(07:23)
And a few of 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 power of those muscle tissues 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 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 power begins to develop into unstable. You possibly can in all probability image an aged particular person, somebody who walks with their head tilted ahead and their shoulders rounded ahead. And that is an instance of what can occur to us over time after we’re in postures of ahead movement. So chronically with little or no to no motion within the opposing path. So you recognize, what’s the answer? Effectively, first we are able to simply tune in after we’re sitting for lengthy durations of time and easily reset our posture by bringing these shoulders again and down opening our chest. Possibly you wanna take a pleasant deep breath in proper now with me,

(08:37)
Take one other good deep breath in. And on this subsequent breath discover as you breathe, how that buoys your chest opens you up, naturally brings your shoulders again and down. 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 one more 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 do not forget that respiration extra totally and deeply is de facto useful for our physique and, and our mind and our pondering 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 means to get sufficient oxygen and, and we are able to rise up and we are able to stretch our chest open extra, which helps relieve and calm down these hardworking muscle tissues. And, and also you may not really feel like they’re working tremendous laborious 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 along with your palms 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 generally are issues like pushup challenges or plank challenges, and immediately we pile on prime 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 recognize, 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 gymnasium or outdoors of our exercises, we find yourself creating extra power within the entrance facet of our physique and the bottom by no means catches up. We’d have an imbalance from enjoying a sport after we had been youthful or an outdated harm that by no means fairly obtained higher.

(10:51)
Typically folks will even really feel ache of their shoulder once they’re figuring out and ignore it, pondering that that’s the nice ache you’re presupposed to get from train. However really we’re simply concentrating 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 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 for example, and our shoulder isn’t in the proper place, say it’s ahead, we’re additionally now weight bearing down by means of the elbow joint and into the wrist joint in a compromised place. This isn’t inevitable 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 widespread. And I believe it actually helps to listen to how issues can develop as a result of it’s not simply the shoulder joint the place this 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 daily. Possibly you’ve even had a previous harm 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 programs are interconnected because the muscle tissues hook up with our bones. So if muscle develops in an imbalanced method throughout a joint and never solely pulls that joint within the path of the stronger facet, it could additionally create these compensating motion patterns all through different elements of your physique in addition to ache.

(12:37)
And for this reason 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 convey extra stability to, you would 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 along with your arms again in a cactus place or goalpost place, and you then slowly increase them up and down whereas your elbows, wrists, and shoulders are touching that floor. And also you discover how this opens and stretches your chest whereas additionally activating your again 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 concentrate 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 often the place you stand simply along with your arms out at your sides at shoulder peak and also you level your thumbs behind you and pulse them again. That is gonna interact the muscle tissues between your shoulder blades as properly and open and stretch your chest. It’s also possible to do that very same place holding a stretchy band to provide your self slightly extra resistance to tug towards and even additional interact these again muscle tissues. So all of these varieties of workouts can actually assist you 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 assist you to begin to convey steadiness 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 direction of balancing out that again physique power.

(14:34)
If that is one thing that you just assume impacts you, you may simply extra mindfully stretch your chest muscle tissues, particularly when you sit for lengthy durations. Like when you’re working along 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 workouts together with again strengthening workouts in your general exercise plan. You would possibly wanna tone it down on the chest stuff and possibly tone it up with the the again stuff that may be actually useful. So this this, if this is applicable to you, I simply needed to share this since we had been speaking about rotator cuff and, and that’s one thing that’s actually widespread for lots of people. Keep in mind, if you’re sitting and dealing for lengthy durations of time, you actually wish to tune into your shoulder alignment, convey your shoulders again and down, do this respiration exercise that we simply did collectively a couple of minutes in the past.

(15:26)
Reset your head and produce it upright when you’re kind of rounding or dropping it ahead. Have a look at your place of your laptop when you’re a pc rather a lot and guarantee that it’s at eye degree and also you’re not having to look down. You wanna rise up and stretch and transfer round slightly 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 downside for those that causes complications and neck ache. So actually work in your physique consciousness and your exercises of holding your head and neck aligned along with your backbone and produce that into your day by day life as properly. All the 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 impression the way in which you’re utilizing these muscle 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 when 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 toes are in all through the day. How is the footwear you have got on and the way is that impacting your foot and ankle alignment and the way is that translating up by means of your knee and into your pelvis?

(17:03)
If you happen to’ve come to any of my lessons, you in all probability have seen me coaching barefoot. And one of many causes I do it’s because I simply discover it simpler to steadiness and produce power into my toes 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 in a position to separate, say you’re leaping, it’s the muscle tissues in between your toes that had been made to really take in shock from weight bearing strikes. Now in fact, the physique wasn’t actually made to leap on actually laborious 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 rather a lot.

(17:50)
However you recognize, when you aren’t leaping on a tough floor, you may not want that very same quantity of absorption. And when you can start to strengthen your toes 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, unexpectedly as a result of your toes will want slightly time to develop the power. 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 guarantee that we could have some, some patterns in our toes 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 gradual. However the backside line is your toes and their alignment, whether or not you’re barefoot or in a shoe, goes to affect the 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 kind of tilted bowl, however really it’s separate bones which might be linked by actually robust ligaments and it could transfer and shift. As an illustration, when you’ve had children, there’s a particular hormone launch to calm down the muscle 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 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 when you’ve been in a automobile accident or had an harm. And except you’ve obtained care to realign these buildings, it could find yourself staying that method or type of coming again to hang-out you. That’s really my scenario. I nonetheless go to bodily remedy to assist me overcome a few of the patterns that occur in my pelvis from outdated automobile accidents and bike crashes I had in my teenagers and twenties.

(19:28)
And talking of bodily remedy, that’s simply one of many methods that you could be wanna contemplate addressing underlying considerations that you will have. Getting some palms on care will be such a sport changer. Each, you recognize 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 palms on care will 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 will help you probably the most can differ relying in your wants and the place you reside. And naturally your medical insurance if it covers it or if you recognize you’re on the lookout for protection. Many practitioners go actually do go above and past getting persevering with training 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 tissues connect to your bones and they’re patterned a sure method or you might be chronically overtrained in a single path, these muscle tissues 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 in all probability have to hold seeing them. You already know, some chiropractors provide complimentary therapies to deal with delicate tissue considerations or have that sort of care out there proper of their workplace. And you might also see a therapeutic massage therapist for stress-free functions or for them to work in your muscle tissue. There are lots of several types of specialties throughout the therapeutic massage subject as properly. 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 plenty of specialties inside it, that’s why I convey it up rather a lot. You would possibly consider it primarily as rehab for an harm and that’s actually one of many methods it could 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 energetic lady to verify in your motion patterns, handle any imbalances that you just’re coping with, which may 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 recognize, checking in on outdated harm patterns that you just’ve corrected however can type of come again to hang-out you later in life when you aren’t diligent in maintaining along with your steadiness and coaching or simply because the, the physique ages and we have now much less, you recognize, reserves to, to deal with the pressures and forces in our our bodies.

(21:57)
Typically a a bodily therapist is considerably interdisciplinary of their strategy and so they can take a look at your motion patterns and prescribe corrective workouts that will help you reset your patterns and do hands-on work to launch caught bones and muscle tissue and handle imbalances round your joints. Different varieties of shield practitioners can even do plenty 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 usually for coaching, like squats and deadlifts simply to make sure that any of my outdated patterns, particularly my pelvis aren’t pulling me out of alignment or placing me in a compromised place. I’m usually checking in with my shoulder alignment as properly as a result of I, my proper facet is my dominant facet, so I are inclined to have slightly bit extra of a rotation on that facet.

(22:45)
That’s why I’m usually educating you mobility drills and the best way to open up and take a look at your rotator cuff and, and open up your shoulder joint. These are actually essential issues to apply usually your self and be proactive about in order that when you do go see any person, I imply, any nice practitioner goes to provide you homework and ask you to do issues by yourself. Any nice physician is gonna be asking you concerning 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 individual self-care as a lot as you may with the intention 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 harm to just remember to get stronger safely and also you aren’t going too quick or compromising that therapeutic tissue. And actually, when you select to work with any sort of hands-on skilled, do not forget 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 have to see anyone in any respect, I do need you to pay attention to your physique and the common posture and motion patterns you might be in. So after you end listening to this present right now, ensure you retain bringing your consciousness to how you progress and the alignment of your physique and your exercises. If you happen to’re coaching with me and my coaches in one in all my applications otherwise you’re in Rock Your Life, we’ll proceed to give you actually particular type cues and assist you to keep current in your physique by means of all the exercises that we do collectively.

(24:18)
However keep in mind to make use of these ideas outdoors of your exercises as properly in your day by day life as you’re sitting and bending and standing and carrying issues. Use good type and simply keep proactive along 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 sequence. It’s free it, it’s a sequence of movies you may observe 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 if you practice with the intention to 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 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 may observe. 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 may reference at any time. And hey, thanks a lot for spending this time with me right now. Rockstar. I hope this gave you some good insights and causes to be extra proactive along 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.