Chronic bad posture — you know, slouching and hunched shoulders — can result in everything from restricted movement, to tension and headaches, to an inability to breathe well. An important element of building better posture is spinal movement.
Here are three simple (but not necessarily easy) bodyweight exercises that will help create flexibility and more fluid motion in your spine. Better posture, in turn, will have you feel better and move better through your whole body.…
Even if you’ve adopted a standing desk and good movement habits into your life, chances are you still spend a fair amount of the day sitting or with your upper back hunched and shoulders rolled inward. Chronic bad posture can result in everything from restricted mobility, to pain and tension, to an inability to breathe well.
So let’s help your shoulders and back open up by using this simple sequence of corrective exercises.…
Today we’re going to work on a series of pistol squat variations, one of which is likely perfect for you. The pistol squat is also sometimes called the single-leg or one-leg squat.
This video will walk you through the progressions to the full pistol squat. But even if you can’t do a full pistol squat or never intend to, you can still get a lot of benefit from training its different variations.…
Today, we’re going through progressions and regressions of a single-leg squat known as the “skater squat” or “shrimp squat.” This version of a one-leg squat is easier on your knees than the pistol and requires less flexibility, as well. So it’s a great way to build up your strength and balance. That said, it’s harder than a regular lunge, so it’s common to need to modify this movement when you first start training it.…
For those of you just getting started with kettlebells, here is a simple sequence you can dive into immediately. It’s easy to scale this up or down for your fitness and strength levels, and the technique involved in these movements is perfect for kettlebell beginners who need to practice the basics.
The exercises are:
For details on these movements, watch the video.…
This video will walk you through a simple sequence to learn the kettlebell swing. If you’re just getting started with the swing, these movements are great tools to help you along your way to being able to safely and effectively perform the full kettlebell swing. Each move builds upon the next until you are doing the complete exercise. You’ll see me perform each part of the sequence and I’ll explain how to do it in detail.…
Did you know when you do the warrior pose sequence in yoga that you’re reenacting the beheading of Shiva’s father-in-law? True story! But, lucky for us, this same sequence and its modifications turn out to also be amazing for helping our hamstring flexibility.
Today we’re focusing on the final part of the warrior sequence, known as warrior III or virabhadrasana III.…
In this video, I’m going to walk you through two of the yoga postures I see people struggling with most often. Instead of forcing yourself into a pose, we can use a yoga block as a prop to help us get the benefits of the pose while still keeping healthy form and avoiding injury. It’s less about making yourself look like the “right” way of doing a pose and more about staying true to the nuance and intention of the pose.…
Creating new habits that last a lifetime is tricky business no matter what realm of human experience we are discussing. As a personal trainer and lifestyle coach, I find it is often a struggle to guide others in creating healthy habits, but I’ve learned a few strategies that work more often than others.
One of these strategies is to adopt a process orientation rather than a goal orientation for anything you take on in life.…
