10 minutes of hot yoga

There are two aspects to flexibility: one, how long your body thinks the muscles are; and two, how long they actually are.  This post will deal with the latter aspect. In my last post, the 5 essentials of a long athletic career, I referenced something I call 10 minutes of hot yoga.   If you're not familiar with it, hot yoga is done in a 95-105 degrees Fahrenheit room.   It's based on the idea that you must be hot enough that you're sweating to stretch.  In fact, you must be if you wish to increase the absolute length of your muscles.    However, if you have another activity you wish to do, such as endurance sports for many of my patients, or martial arts for myself, the two hours a hot yoga class requires (1:15-1:30 in actual class time, transportation and showering after) makes them inconvenient. 

My solution to this dilemma is break up that class.  Most busy folks budget a certain amount of time for exercise.   What you do then is schedule the last ten to fifteen minutes for stretching.  If you've been working out hard, you'll already be sweating and therefore hot enough to stretch.  This allows you some of the benefits of hot yoga in a convenient format.  If you exercise 6-7 days a week, and spend the last 10-15 minutes stretching, at the end of a week you've basically gotten a hot yoga work out in for free. 

What follows is my introductory lower body stretching routine.  While upper body stretching is a good idea, most folks have much tighter legs.  Before doing these stretches it is useful to soften the muscles with the foam roller.  How to do that will be dealt with in a future post.  Each stretch should be held for 30-60 per side.  If time allows, they can be repeated a second time. The first stretch is the traditional straddle stretch.  It hits the inner thigh muscles.  Please note that my hands are behind me supporting my weight so my low back doesn't round as I lean forward. 

 The butterfly stretch also hits the inner thighs but in a different way.  Again, my hands are behind me to support the low back.  This time, the stretch is done by using your hip muscles to push the knees done; don't use your hands or elbows as you may have seen in the past.  This just forces your low back to round.

Opposite the inner thigh muscles are the hip rotators, which you just used to push the knees down in the last stretch.  Sit in Indian style, then cross the left leg  over the right knee so that the left foot is flat on the floor.  Twist back to the left and simply hug your left knee into your chest with both arms.  Lastly, sit as tall as you can. 

The next, and perhaps, most important stretch is the lunge.  Take long left step forward with the feet on two parallel lines.  Please note that my right foot is on the ball, while still pointing forward.  Tighten your stomach to keep from arching your back, stretch your head up as tall as you can, and bend the left knee a bit.  If you're doing this correctly, you should feel a stretch essentially in the front hip pocket on your right leg. Now, you can add an upper body stretch, as in the second photo by reaching the right arm behind your head and grabbing it with your left.  This will also add to the hip stretch as long as your stomach is tight.

 Stretching the hamstrings on the back of the thigh is relatively easy.  Place your feet together and arch your back.  Think of lifting your kneecaps as you tighten the muscles on the front of your thighs.  With everything pre-stretched, lean forward until you feel the back of your legs tighten. 

Stretching the quads is the last piece for the lower body.  There are a lot of ways to do this, but my favorite is standing.  In the photo, please note that I've trapped my leg up against the wall.  This is done more easily if you have something you can rest it on, such as the side of a staircase.  Straighten up, and finally, add to the stretch by pulling your knees together. 

Move into these stretches gradually and carefully, making sure to start when you're sweating already.  Doing this routine 6 days a week means that you've stretched for a full hour every week.  Over the long term, that hour can transform your body.  Take care, and feel free to post a comment if you need some help.

How to keep doing what you love, or the 5 essentials of a long athletic career

Somewhere between age twenty and age forty, most active folks realize the activities they love are harder than they used to be.  It may be more difficult to sustain the same level of effort, take longer to recover, or one may simply not be as strong or limber as one once was (say that three times fast).  At that point, they have to make a choice: either, they work harder to do what they used to; or, they give up.  Fortunately, that second choice isn't permanent.  Later, we'll return to the effects of inactivity and how to undo them.  For the moment, however, I'd like to discuss five of the best ways to keep doing what you love despite the passage of time.  They are the dynamic warm-up, 10 minutes of hot yoga (daily), the foam roller, kettlebells, and proper recovery.  In the future, I'll dedicate an entry (or series of entries) dealing with each of these.  But for the moment, let's just sketch them out a bit.

The dynamic warm-up and 10 minutes of hot yoga have to do with the two major aspects of flexibility, how long your body thinks your muscles are, and how long they actually are.  The dynamic warm-up re-sets how long your body thinks the muscles are to their actual length.  10 minutes of hot yoga done regularly will increase that actual length safely and gradually.  The foam roller is the cheap and easy solution to the tight, stiff, sore, or achy muscles that come from regular activity that don't need the attention of a health professional.  Kettlebells are a form of strength training from Russia that allow one to undo muscular imbalances and increase stability.  Weight training was supposed to increase strength, endurance, and speed, but never actually quite produced those results; kettlebells do.  Proper recovery is composed of a number of things, but chief among them are enough sleep and the right nutrition at the right time.

That's a brief outline of the 5 essentials.  Future posts will deal with each in considerably more detail.  The foam roller, in particular, will involve a whole series of posts on how to use it for each major body part.  As they say, stay tuned...

Welcome to Artful Health

Thanks for visiting the Artful Health Blog, a service of Artful Chiropractic in Manchester, NH.  This blog will offer information about health and wellness, with an emphasis on fitness and exercise.  We'll be looking at different techniques for increasing strength and stability, maintaining flexibility, and avoiding injuries. Additionally, we'll also look at the types of biomechanical problems active folks run into frequently, such as shoulder pain, knee problems, and foot issues. 

One of my particular interests is what you might call "low tech, high concept" exercise.  This refers to the use of simple technology with complex movements.  Expensive exercise machines have generally failed to provide the improvements they were designed for, whereas far simpler devices, such as kettlebells, routinely outperform them.  The key with the "low tech, high concept" exercise is working smarter before you start working harder.  You have to know more, and importantly, you can't tune out while you're exercising.  High concept exercise requires you to be in the moment.  This also makes high concept exercise better for stress relief, as you really can't be preoccupied while you do it.  

Along the same lines is the crossover between Artful Health and martial arts.  As a long-time martial arts practitioner, I see many overlaps between my clinical work and the various martial arts I practice.  Even if you're not a practitioner, learning about these can be very useful to improving your own expression of health.

Finally, I welcome your questions and comments.  Feel free to suggest a topic you'd like to hear more about.  That's all for now.

Steve Baroody, D.C.