Many ask me this question when I say breakfast cereal is not food. So what to have?
Simple, have food. Anything you want, anything you like, as long as it’s healthy. There are no rights a wrongs. As long as the food you have is nutritious, satisfying, fuels the body and you enjoy it, have it.
I can have chicken an rice for breakfast. You may not like the idea, so you won’t have that.
In this video I show you a different option. A meal (breakfast, lunch, dinner) which you can make however you want. I gathered what was left in the fridge, before I go grocery shopping. Simple, fast and very healthy and satisfying.
The foot massage with a golf ball is an excellent exercise to release tension in the foot muscles, and improve foot flexibility and mobility. At the end of the day a goof foot massage feels really good, doesn’t it? See the video below on how to do it and if you have any questions contact me.
I asked each participant to describe the session in 3 words. This was their first time meeting me and doing something like this. The session was exhausting but so rewarding.
Alison: Challenging, Exhausting and Exhilarating Marielouise: Awesome, Froggy and Quite Dirty Eva: Novel, Energetic and a lot of Fun Fiona: Exhilarating, Tiring and Lovely Mihai: Intense, Natural and Reassuring Maria: Energetic, Fun and Cheerful
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Bandage for sprained toes and fingers….small toes though, it’s designed for fingers.
Injured fingers? Try this little bandage, I think it’s really cool and could have helped me when I fractured one of my fingers in a Karate competition.
There is more to fitness than calorie counting and “chasing” weight loss. Many people get disappointing by the fact that weight goes up and down over several months, and just give up. What is the point right?
So how can you get and stay fit, healthy and slim without even thinking about it. Without making weight loss a life long pursuit? I explain everything in this video:
Here’s a method which will help you get out of monotony, make exercising more fun and different and reduce bias in the choice you make when you choose your exercise.
We unconsciously do more of the things we are good at and which we love. This means progress slows down to the point where we make very little progress. When you have a Personal Trainer or a Coach, they will give you exercises you are not good at, but when you have to choose alone we tend to be biased without realizing.
So here’s a way to solve this problem and to also make things more interesting. This is not a method of training to get results though. If your training needs set repetitions and sets, a certain structure, then this is not going to work. But it will make things different.
I will be using the same video I used in the first post on press-ups: Press-Ups – Why It’s Difficult To Do A Full Press-up, to list some of the most common mistakes we do when learning and practicing press-ups.
There are 3 main reasons why we make press-up mistakes:
We don’t know how to do it – no one taught us
We want to do a lot of them – a lot for some people can be 10; we try to do a lot of them regardless of HOW we do them
We get tired and we lose technique without realizing – having no one next to us to correct leads to even more mistakes
Practicing and repeating press-ups with incorrect technique can lead to:
Muscle strain – particularly the neck, lower back and shoulder blades
Lower back pain
Shoulder pain
Elbow injuries
Muscle imbalances
When you lose technique, further repetitions are useless and you are wasting time and energy.
Common press-up mistakes (you will also see them and explained in the video below):
Head hanging – straining neck muscles. You should focus your attention on a point just in front of your hands. Not just your eyes but the whole head.
Sinking into the shoulders – for beginners in particular, this is sinking into the shoulders to give the impression the body is lowering. Shoulders must be stabilized and the press-up is done by bending the elbows to lower the body.
Elbows to the side – places unwanted stress on the joint and can lead to overuse injury. Although this makes it more difficult learn how to do press-ups with elbows going back, brushing the sides of the body.
Hips sinking below the chest – lower back pain and the abdominal muscles are not working. Hips should follow the chest. When the chest stops the hips stop as well. Hips never go lower than the chest. We do that because, again, we have the impression we go lower in the press-up.
Hips too high – core is not working. This is a pressup variation, forming an “A” shape. But for classic press-ups the hips have to follow the chest. However, if you are unsure it is better to have your hips higher than lower. Hips higher – core not working, while Hips lower – over arching back and lower back pain. Better the first, if you are unsure.
Correct these press-up mistakes and you will train and strengthen your whole upper body. The more correct you do them, even just a few at a time, the more effective they are.
And here is the video I promised, jump at minute 2:48 for press-ups mistakes:
Doing a full press-up is very, very achievable but not as easy some think. You just try it a few times and expect to go from not being able to bend your elbows to a correct full press-up
There are many muscles involved in doing a correct full press-up. Because there are so many muscles involved, for a beginner, until those muscles strengthen, it takes a while. That is why it is important to have patience and practice, if you want to do a full press-up in the end.
These are roughly the main muscles press ups work. There are also the oblique muscles (side of the abdomen), lower and upper back muscles. The whole mid section of your body need to work to keep you in the right position.
So you see, it cannot happen over night. Work and consistency needs to be put into it. So I have put together a video with how I managed my full press-ups and how I helped my clients who really wanted to do this. Hope it’s good enough to help you as well.
A strong and stable hip joint reduces the risk of injury in your pelvic joints, spine and knees. It also promotes a good posture, as there is no limitation in the hips flexors area (above the thighs, the muscles which help you bring your knee up, that’s hips flexion) and you develop a stronger core and stability muscles.
For runners, and not only, strong stability muscles, a stable hip joints, strong glutes maximus and hips flexibility and mobility can save a lot of injuries, help recover faster from injuries, and help perform better.
By strengthening muscles around the hips joints, which also stabilize the joint, you can relieve lower back pain as well.
Alignment
All exercises must be performed with correct alignment. If you lost technique and perform them with poor alignment then it’s for nothing. Dozens of repetitions are useless if they are not performed correctly.
Running is more than just placing one foot in from of the other. Running with good alignment, and a stable, mobile and flexible hip joint is the key to performance, speed or endurance, and less injuries.
1. Bridges
Lie down on your back.
Soles of your feet, hip width appart, flat on the ground and knees bent.
Keep heels as close to your buttocks as possible.
Lift your hips off the floor – using the buttocks.
This exercise activates your buttocks and hip stabilizers in your hip joints. It will reduce some of the back stiffness and lower back pain, and also improve your posture.
2. Squats
Particularly full or deep squats. These are excellent to strengthen your buttocks, and all stabilizer muscles from your feet all the way up to your core. It is a natural movement and should be practiced every day.
Balancing exercises are again exercises which should be performed daily. They strengthen all stability muscles from the soles of the feet to the core.
Balancing exercises do not stop at just standing on one leg. Not at all. Try variations such as:
standing on one leg and placing a pencil on the floor, then picking it up ( the SeeSaw)
making a big circle around your body as far as possible, close to the ground but without touching (360 Degrees) – see video below
imagine you are the center of a clock, stand on one leg and touch with the other leg (with the toes only) each number around the clock (without putting any weight on the leg that reaches out)
Get creative but do take care where you balance. Even if you have very good balance, in case you do lose balance make sure you will not fall and hurt ourself. Safety first.
These exercises and more are some of the balance exercises we practice on out Natural Human Movement coaching. They are also part of the online Academy – a 12 weeks, weekly training and planning on Natural Human Movement, with videos, audios and detailed technique descriptions.
If you want to know more about The Academy contact me.
If you’d like to experience the outdoors Natural Human Movements training, we have FREE taster sessions taking place in Surrey. Message me and let’s book you on a taster session. Click here to message me.
