Reflections...Movement for everyday healing...
Welcome to GreenNote Fitness Reflections.
Each month I share with you what I’m doing for longevity - to live my life fully with joy while serving others.
We will deep-dive into optimizing brain function and mitochondrial health while
maintaining strength and balance of body, mind, and spirit.
As the clouds filled the sky, a heavy rain fell upon us. No outdoor walk this morning. Instead I was asked to lead everyone with exercises we could do indoors. I had just the thing...
For the next 40 minutes or so, I shared with a group of individuals eager to learn, what I do every day. These movements are key to my morning routine, helping to ground and connect to my purpose.
From breath, to movement, to opening up the hips and mind, I will walk you through this exact routine.
I believe in these so much that not only do I do them first thing in the morning (EVERY morning) and throughout the day, I also have all of my clients do these as well. Additionally, I encourage them to take frequent breaks during the day and go through the series of movements. They don’t take long to do and even just a short break is really good on the body and mind.
Gators - begin and end with this exercise; you will notice when done the second time after all the other exercises, your shoulders are much looser and can move more freely and with ease. Repeat 10x.
I, Y, T’s - as the letters imply, make these letters of the alphabet with “cheerleader” precision; really good for the scapular stabilization and mobilization. Repeat 10x.
Forward arm circles - you can’t see it in the video but my thumbs are facing forward. Make a closed fist, with the exception of the thumbs; point them forward while you move your arms in a forward motion. Make sure arms stay level with shoulders. Repeat 10x.
Reverse arm circles - similar to the forward arm circles, leave your thumbs out of a closed fist. In this instance rotate arms backwards with thumbs pointing back. Make sure arms stay level with shoulders. Repeat 10x.
Elbow curls - curl your fingertips to your palms, point your thumbs out, and place your big knuckle at your temple with your thumbs pointed down towards the ground. Pull your elbows back behind your head as far as they’ll go, then bring them together in front of your face. Keep your elbows up at shoulder level and keep your head still for the duration of the exercise. Repeat 10x.
Bent over arm circles - with knees slightly bent, lean over at waist, let arms hang and using gravity, gently let arms move in a circle. Slowly stand up.
"No suppers" - external shoulder rotation. Keep elbows touching your sides, palms up, rotate arms out and back. Repeat 10x.
Gators - alternating raising arms up and down, palms facing inward, you should notice an ease with your shoulders.
Bodyweight squat with opening up the chest
My personal morning routine goes right into my yoga poses after the arm movements. However, for this day, I lead the group through performing a proper squat while opening up the pectorals or chest muscles at the top of the squat.
Bodyweight alternating reverse lunge
Easier on the knees than a forward lunge, I demonstrated a reverse lunge with alternating steps.
Jumping jacks
Good ole fashioned jumping jacks really get the heart pumping. Alternatively, if you have knee issues, you can just step one leg out while arms go overhead and repeat on other side.
RDL’s (Romanian Deadlifts)
These are great for strengthening the hamstrings and core, what's needed for a strong back and stability throughout the posterior chain. Can be done with both legs at the same time or for more of a challenge, single-leg.
Push-ups
I encourage everyone on the planet to be able to complete 20 military style push-ups. If you are working towards that goal, begin push-ups at an incline until you build up strength to be able to complete from the floor.
Yoga poses
This video shows my exact movements I complete each morning. I started doing push-ups in this routine after doing Up Dogs and Down Dogs hurt my lower back. After it healed, I just kept the push-ups in the routine.
Over time, I kept adding to my morning routine. It may look like a lot but just adding a little bit at a time really helps. The key is to have a morning routine, however long it is. Just be consistent. It will make all the difference in the world.
To our reflection,
Lisa Schaffer
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See my last newsletter My 5-Day intermittent fast…?
