Workout Because You Love Yourself Not Because You Hate Yourself
One of the first questions I ask a new client before we start on their fitness program is “what is your main fitness goal?” People’s goals can vary quiet a bit. Some individuals want to lose weight while others want to gain weight…some want to move better and others just want more strength. Although goals can be different the true reason behind each goal can be narrowed down to one thing and it’s the same for almost everyone.
I discovered this one driving factor a few years into my fitness career. When people would tell me their fitness goals I would dig deeper and ask “why?” As I went deeper and deeper with each client something became very apparent…everyone wants to reach a fitness goal so that they can feel happy. “I just want to lose weight so I can be happy.”
It was at this point I realized something. Although I was a good trainer who was dedicated to my clients and to helping them getting to their goals, very few had achieved long-term success. Sure many would get to their original goal but eventually they would “fall off the wagon” and get right back to where they were before. I started to think that perhaps it had nothing to do with their training methods or diet…perhaps it had to do with their root driving factor. I started to think that maybe it was all backwards.
Rather than aiming for a goal so that they could be happy, they had to be happy first. I changed my approach and started teaching my clients to train and eat because they love their bodies instead of hating their bodies. Then things started to really take off. Clients succeeded faster and their success seemed more effortless. They also STAYED fit and healthy. Their techniques and training methods didn’t change but HOW they applied them did.
You see, although hating your body is a powerful motivator initially it will eventually drive you to make decisions that aren’t the best for you. Here is an example…imagine you hate your belly. To you its disgusting and ugly and you just want it gone. You are angry with yourself for even letting yourself get a belly. Now think of how this motivates you. If you have a hard and stressful day at work or if you didn’t get a good nights sleep…but you really HATE your belly so you force yourself to get to the gym. The workout you choose to do is intense because you really hate your body and the pain you feel and how tired you are part of the punishment. You don’t deserve to feel good cause you hate your body. This attitude of hating yourself is a very powerful initial motivator…until it isn’t. At some point you get sick of hating your body. At some point your “willpower” fades and you just want to feel good. You “fall off the wagon” and say “screw it, I just want to love myself now and feel good.” So you stop all exercise and you BINGE on your favorite foods. Does this cycle sound familiar?
Also consider the exercise choices you make under the pretense of hating yourself. Maybe your body actually needed a LOW INTENSITY workout day on the day you were really stressed out and tired? Maybe what your health needed was some sleep? You can’t make the best decisions if you hate yourself.
Lets use a different example. Lets imagine that you look in the mirror and you objectively notice that your body is reflecting poor health. You don’t confuse your body image with your self image…you simply see that you haven’t been taking good care of the body you have but this doesn’t make you a bad or disgusting person. In fact you realize how much you LOVE yourself and you want to start taking care of it. Now when you go to the gym the workouts you choose are APPROPRIATE. The foods you choose don’t feel restrictive, they feel nourishing. You ENJOY the process now because the entire time you are TAKING CARE OF YOU. Who doesn’t like to do that?
It is all about the process!!! If you workout and eat because you love yourself exercise and food become enjoyable. Ask yourself this question…if you truly enjoyed working out and eating right would you ever “lose” the motivation to do so? Of course not. Even taking time off from the gym or eating the occasional cupcake wouldn’t be covered in guilt because you made those decisions to take care of YOU. Yes, taking time off from the gym can be the right thing if your body, mind or emotions are fried and that cupcake can be healthy for other parts of you besides just your physical self.
Once you process and make this shift in how you think about exercise and diet the rest is easy. Remind yourself that you LOVE yourself and watch how well you end up taking care of yourself.
12 Exercises To Improve Hip Mobility & Undo Hours Of Sitting
Improve Your Hip Mobility And Reduce Aches and Pain
These days it can be incredibly easy to spend too long sitting, be it a desk job or too much time driving. This tends to lead to tight hips and for many this can create restriction along with all sorts of niggles and pain. In this modern computerised world, our body doesn’t tend to do as much movement through its ranges of motion as it should. Which can lead to hip restriction, lower back pain, knees problems and this can prevent you from moving correctly.
My goal as a trainer is to help you be able to spend more time doing the things you love and be able to move your body in a way that you choose. For many, though frustrating physical problems hold people back from doing hobbies they love through to playing with their kids.
Your hips are a huge movement hub of your body, so when they get tight its no wonder they can cause havoc elsewhere in the body. However, when we move our body correctly and nourish our hips with correct stretches and exercises we can create more potential for strength, power, and athleticism.
That’s why I have put together this article to help provide you with some great stretches to help bring back some balance into your hips and prevent any niggles in the future.
If we don’t use it we lose it.
Our body needs consistent exercise through our hips to stay mobile, strong, and healthy. Even small restrictions can have frustrating and painful consequences. That’s why finding a routine where you can work on your hip mobility consistently will really pay huge dividends to prevent issues down the track.
This series of 12 hip stretches will help loosen the major muscles that are tight on most people and is great to do as a routine each day. In this video, I run through each of the exercises and then below you will find a photo and description of the exercises.
The key to any stretching or exercise regime is that you are consistent at it and the more consistent you are the more benefit you will gain. I would suggest doing this daily to really see any improvement. Stretching improvements, in general, are from simply training the muscles to better tolerate the stretched position you are placing them in. It’s about consistency and the more you do it the more you will learn to relax and your muscles ease off from that natural tendency to hold tight. The body has a natural stretch reflex which tightens muscles and is protective. By stretching routinely you are working on convincing your body that nothing bad happening and the body can relax in these new stretched out positions.
Improve Hip Mobility with each of these 12 Exercises
With each of these stretches aim to hold initially for 20-30 seconds and release, then move into it again for a further 20-30 seconds. Over time try and increase that holding time to a duration of approx 1-2 minutes. Feel free to take breaks within that though to shake it out and release.
1. Key Hole Stretch
Lie on back with both knees bent.
Cross one ankle over the opposite knee.
Then reach through to take a hold of your shin or thigh.
Then pull everything in towards you to feel a stretch through your glutes and ITB. To intensify this you can lift your chin and chest up towards your knees and curl everything in together.
2. Seated Twist
Sitting down, cross your left leg over your right.
Press down through your big toe on your left leg and anchor both seat bones.
Then turn your head around towards the back as you lift up tall through your spine.
Feel this stretch into your glutes and ITB.
3. Reverse Cow Pose
Lay down on your back and cross your right leg over your left.
Close them up so they are super snug with no gap between them.
Then reach up towards your feet and pull your feet towards the floor as you flatten your back down onto the ground. If you can’t reach your feet you can use a couple of belts or a towel to wrap around your feet and grab a hold of.
4. Butterfly stretch
Sit up with feet together and pull them in towards your groin.
Press your knees down toward the ground.
You can use your elbows to press into your legs and move your groin closer to your heels.
5. Frog Pose
Start on hands and knees, bringing your knees as far apart as is comfortable.
Line your heels up with your knees with your toes pointing out.
Rock back and forth in that position and then press back your seat bones towards your heels.
6. Kneeling Lunge
Set up by placing one knee on the ground, with the other leg stepped out in front.
Tuck your tail under you and squeeze your glutes.
Keep the chest tall and the hips square while you reach hand overhead.
To make the stretch harder, you can pull the back knee up off the ground.
7. Half Lotus
Sit on your bottom with your legs cross, then place your right heel on top of your left thigh.
Flex your foot and tip forward from your hips.
8. Hindu Squat
Place your feet hip-width apart and pointing forward. Then drop down into a deep squat with your elbows between your knees.
9. 90/90 knee drops
Sitting on your bottom extend your bent legs in front of you making them into 90-degree boxes.
Then swing your legs over to the other side while sitting back onto your bottom
Do this a few times to loosen them up and then sit up and turn towards your back foot and hold.
10. Pigeon Pose
Start with your front knee bent to a 90-degree angle. The back knee can be as bent or extended as is comfortable for you.
Rotate the back hip toward the front heel, and then toward the back foot.
Keep the chest up tall, and only bear as much weight as you can comfortably.
11. Hamstring stretch
To stretch the hamstrings lengthen both legs out in front of you and lift up your seat bones and sit them back a touch.
Then tip forward from your hips and reach towards your toes.
Lean forward slightly to feel a stretch in your hamstrings. Be sure to keep your core engaged.
12. Wrapped Leg Supine Twist
Wrap your legs up by placing your left leg over your right while laying on your back, then let them fall over to the right side while still remaining wrapped up.
If this is to much you can unwrap them and just let them stack above each other.
Lift your head and turn away from your legs and draw your shoulders down towards the ground.
As you practice you’ll notice that some of the stretches will be easier to perform than others and over time as you work through all the different stretches you will begin to feel your hips loosen up and notice how much deeper you can get into the poses.
Our hips are incredible structures that allow us to be mobile and strong. They are a power hub of our body and so taking care of them is a must. The more you take care of them the better you will be because of it.
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