Ok, so I am reporting back a little early but since I don’t think there will be a drastic change in my results over the next two days, we’re in the clear.
On September 1, I told you about my experiment for this month – 5 minutes of circle-based mobility exercises each night before bed.
And, despite the fact that I was ‘going in circles’ this whole time, I have definitely made some progress towards increasing my mobility and improving my sense of well-being.
Here are my discoveries:
1) As I suspected in my initial post, doing circles seems to reduce the restless, twitchy feeling I was often experiencing while sitting in bed reading before going to sleep.
2) I feel far less stiff and achy when I get up in the morning.
3) My body feels a bit more mobile and fluid overall.
4) I like having a small physical practice as part of my bedtime routine.
5) If I had trouble settling into sleep in the evening, doing a few more circles was soothing.
Obviously I am declaring this experiment a success!
And I am giving myself bonus points and a gold star ⭐️ for sticking with my experiment even though this month included some travel with friends and coordinating a 10 day arts festival.
Normally that kind of shift in routine would affect any kind of new practice I was trying to incorporate into my days but I guess that my plan to go in circles was just the right-sized practice for almost any circumstance.
And since it has worked out so well, I plan to keep this circular strategy going.
…and the other good stuff about heading back to class.
Thursday night was just as good as I hoped it would be.
I thoroughly enjoyed the familiar routine of walking into class, talking to my friends, and doing our warm-up.
My body and brain were utterly soothed by the rhythm of the beginning of our class.
You know how it is – you can be a bit addled or off-kilter and then start some familiar routine and the momentum of that routine (making tea, preparing a meal, working with a partner in a project, following your morning plan) carries you forward and you soon realize that you have left that weird feeling behind.
And when we started our patterns, my relaxed state allowed me to access my muscle memory with ease.
I still made mistakes, of course, but my errors felt a bit funny instead of frustrating.
I swear I made up several new movements – perhaps I should consult with the technical committee? Ha!
And along with my amusement at my mistakes, I was thrilled to discover that my summer exercise plan was making a real difference for my mobility, my strength, and my flexibility.
I already felt encouraged by my fitness progress but seeing how my exercise efforts were positively impacting my ability and capacity at TKD made me even more determined to continue with the Hybrid Calisthenics program.
I’m travelling at the moment (I taught a storytelling workshop in Nova Scotia last night!) so I am missing our second class of the year but I am definitely looking forward to class on Thursday night.
Next step: set some personal goals for TKD for this year.
I found the practice quite useful at the time. Having a list of small movement prompts that felt useful, that kept me from stiffening up too much, and that could be done quickly made a huge difference for my mental health at a difficult time.
I know that I kept it up for a while but I don’t remember noticing when I fell out of the habit of doing them*
In fact, I had essentially forgotten all about them until I came across the book again this weekend and actually said, “Oh! Movement snacks! I love them.”
I flipped through the book right away and picked a movement to do (I put my arms overhead and wiggled my fingers and the like) and as I did that, I had an idea…
“Do you know what would be better than having these listed in a book? If they were on separate cards or something so I could just pick one out at a time without having to flip through them.”
And that, my friends, is how I spent a chunk of my Saturday cutting up a photocopy of the listed movements and separating them into two types.
The first group was ‘overall practices’ – like taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., and the second group was ‘quick things’ – like using a ribbon to practice balancing skills or standing on one foot to brush my teeth or stir a pot.
Now I am trying to decide the best container to hold all the movement ideas (and I strongly suspect that I will be decorating the container AND the slips of paper but I will leave that as a fun treat for Future Christine) so I can just pick one when I am so inclined.
This is from before I rediscovered the book but before I took this I was practicing getting up off the floor without using my hands for support so that’s totally a movement snack! I look a bit cranky because I wanted to be better at that project than I was. Image description: A head-and-shoulders selfie of me – a middle aged woman with a round face and shoulder length light brown hair that is kind of wavy/curly here – sitting on the floor. I am wearing a black shirt and a slightly disgruntled smirk. Behind me you can see the light green wall of my bedroom with a bunch of photos and decorations on it – including a string of star-outline lights hanging up behind me.Also, I can never seem to remember to look at the camera instead of the screen so I am looking downward a bit instead of straight ahead.
PS – Sam wrote about exercise snacks in May of this year and Catherine wrote about them in September 2024 but the ‘snacks’ they describe seem to be slightly different than the ones in Durham’s book. While she has some suggestions – taking the stairs, parking further away, etc., that are more exercise-y Durham has much more of a focus on mobility/movement rather than on getting a few minutes of cardio in. I guess that’s why the book is ‘movement snacks’ rather than ‘exercise snacks!’ Also, I agree with Catherine that using the word ‘snacks’ is much more likely to make me think of food than exercise. Don’t worry though, I make sure to have plenty of both kinds of snacks. 🙂
*My Dad actually passed away in May of 2023, just a few months after my initial post, so my timeline for those few months is blurry, to say the least.
I’m at the final stage of recovering from my lower back injury from the winter.
It started with analysis and restricting movements until my back healed then re-introducing different spinal movements.
The last step is yet another “silly little movement” called the Jefferson curl.
Emily described it as going from standing to fully bent over, curling my spine like a pill bug.
This bug is curled up just bragging about its range of motion
Emily and I spoke about why moving each vertebrae separately was important.
First, it’s helping my proprioception. As I stand tall and slowly curl my head, neck and each part of my spine – I’m understanding what muscles and connective tissues are doing at each stage of the movement.
Second, it’s practicing movements that occur in everyday life. Bending over to pick up a sock or stooping to get a weed in the garden should be effortless and not require special movements.
Third, learning this move is removing my fear of re-injury. I’ve been overly protective of my back which, ironically, makes me more prone to injury.
The internet has strong opinions about the Jefferson curl specifically and spinal movement in general!
Do a quick search about spinal flexion and or the Jefferson curl. It’s ok. I’ll wait.
You will quickly find people yelling about always keeping a neutral spine. Others imploring everyone to use the full range of motions of your back. What a mine field!
Under my physiotherapist’s guidance and coaching, I practiced the movement with a tiny 5 pound kettle bell. I didn’t even know they came that small!
Emily reassured me that it would feel like breaking every rule about form. It did! Since it is so ingrained in me not to round my spine I struggled to get my body to comply.
After two weeks of doing 2-5 reps a couple times a day using a 5 pound weight, the Jefferson curl is feeling more fluid and available to me.
I’m not saying everyone needs the Jefferson curl in their routine but it has caused me to question if I’m unnecessarily restricting other movements.
I tend to shy away from kneeling and other pressure on my knee because of an old injury. I’m going to gently explore that and challenge my self-imposed restriction.
Use with caution
It’s not that the advice to keep a neutral spine is wrong. When lifting heavy loads, it’s important to get in the right posture and engage your legs and core. Good form for exercises matter!
So I will never be using my heavy weights on this movement. I also need the range of motion available to me in my life because socks and weeds need picking up!
My hips are very cranky lately and instead of just being annoyed most of the time and stretching when I think of it, I have decided to actually try to make them happier by doing some targeted exercises and stretches and the like.
Yes, I know that a problem with my hips is not an isolated thing – I probably have a whole series of cranky muscles that need some kind attention – but I also know that my brain loves falling into the trap of ‘if I can’t do everything, I won’t do anything’ so I have decided to start by focusing on my hips.
And since I also know that my brain gets easily bored exercise routines, I have decided that ‘focusing on my hips’ means ‘trying all kinds of different videos to see which ones my hips like best.
So, here is my ‘happier hips’ experiment:
Try each of these videos once over the next two weeks and see which ones we (me and my hips) like best.
Updates will follow as events warrant.
A video called ‘7 Tight Hip Stretches’ from the Ask Dr Jo YouTube channel. The still image shows Dr. Jo, a woman with light skin whose brown hair is pulled back in a bun, sitting on a mat on the floor with her hands on the mat behind her. Her right leg is bent at the knee with her foot on the floor and her left leg is bent with her knee facing the camera and her left foot on her right knee. She is facing the camera and she is mid-sentence.
a short YouTube video called ‘Tight Hips? You’re not alone’ from the Yoga with DJ channel. In the still image a person in a grey tank top and black shorts. with black framed glasses with their hair in a bun on top of their head sits on a black yoga mat with the soles of their feet touching each other and their knees pointed to the sides of the mat (butterfly pose), and they are using their hands to push downwards on their knees. There are shelves of plants behind them and their yoga mat is on light-coloured parquet flooring.
a video called ‘Gentle Yoga for Tight Hips’ from Yoga with Adriene. In the still image, Adriene, a woman with long dark hair and a happy expression is wearing back leggings and a black tshirt as she sits on a yoga mat that is divided long ways into two shades of green. Her hands are resting behind her on the mat and she is leaned back slightly. Her left foot is on the floor and her left knee is bent (pointed toward the ceiling) Her right leg is bent, her right foot is resting on her left leg, and her right knee is pointing away from the viewer. Her dog Benji is sleeping in front of her but near the back wall and a table with a plant and a decorative item on it is behind her to her right.
a video called ‘Hip CARs//For IT Band Syndrom, Piriformis Syndrome etc’ from Tom Morrison. The left hand side of the image is red with text reading ‘What is The Best Hip Mobility Drill Ever!?and the right shows Tom Morrison, a man with long hair wearing a black shirt and dark pants and a woman in a black shirt and grey capri leggings with her blonde hair in a high ponytail standing next to the frame of a machine at the gym. She is holding on to the frame and tipping her leg to one side to stretch her hips.
another Yoga with Adriene video. This one is called ‘Hip Mobility – Open Your Hips – 13 Minute Yoga practice and there’s still image shows her lying on her back on a light green yoga mat and she is wearing a one piece exercise suit that is both a tank top and leggings. She is making the figure 4 position with her legs. Her right leg is bent with the knee pointing away from the viewer and her right ankle is resting on her left thigh as she pulls her left thigh toward her with her hands .
This video from Oscar Moves is called ‘Give Me 4 Minutes. I’ll Fix Your Tight Hips.’ Still image is divided into halves. On the left, he is wearing a dark shirt and shorts and he is pushing down on his right leg near the knee with both hands. On the right side, he is wearing a green shirt and dark shorts and he is sitting with the souls of his feet together and his knees pointing out to either side in butterfly position and he looks relaxed.
Being a person who is good at getting things done is part of my identity.
And yet lately, I’ve been struggling. Not with everything. In the world of fitness, I’m struggling with one very specific, very small thing: doing my daily mobility routine. The routine includes exercises to improve my hiatal hernia, hip mobility movements, and some stretching to maintain the range of motion I worked so hard to get after knee replacement surgery.
I’ve got three different 10-minute routines–one done lying on my yoga mat or in bed, one to be done with a chair, either seated or standing holding the chair for support, and a flow version for when I’m feeling extra good.
My plan is always to do them in the morning. In theory, I’ve got time between when I take mediation and when I can eat breakfast. There’s supposed to be a full hour there! And yet…sometimes between Wordle, and drafting my #ThreeGoodThings and “Hey, Google please play the CBC news” and similarly “Hey, Googling” the weather in Guelph today and showering and putting on coffee and thinking about breakfast and lunch…well, you get the idea.
I’ve written about my 5 to 9 routine here before and admitted that really for me, given my work schedule, it’s more like 5-7 am and I listed some options for what I might do in that time. The options were write, walk Cheddar, ride my bike, or my physio/mobility routine. And yet I’ve mostly managed to do none of those things in the 5 to 7 am time slot! It’s all Wordle, scrolling and going back to sleep. To be fair, that’s also when I share our blog posts to social media, which WordPress won’t do automatically anymore.
I said “mostly” because the week gets a great kick off with all my Monday morning energy going into the Herd’s Morning Morning Coffee Crew ride. And Tuesdays and Thursdays we’re at the gym at 7. The mobility routine has to happen first, before these things. And it’s just 10 minutes.
I could do it while the coffee drips! Actually, that’s not a bad idea. I might try it.
Do you have a small thing you struggle to do? What techniques have worked for you to just get it done? I’m listening….
I’ve been in physical therapy for a recurrence of sciatica since late July. I’d had pain and weakness in my right hip since May, causing me problems climbing stairs and pain that would wake me up at night. Blech!
Once I finally acknowledged that yes, I needed some help, and got started with a supervised twice-a-week plan, plus at-home exercises, I felt relieved. Relieved that I had a structured plan for dealing with the pain and getting stronger, and also relieved that I could leave this plan up to the professionals (thanks, Julian and Louis!), who would guide me through a process of healing and rebuilding my muscles and getting needed functionality back. Ahhh…
Starting with stretching exercises and some easy strength-building (e.g. bridge, clamshells), I moved on to a full array of hip machine exercises, leg presses, balance activities, farmer’s carry, and stair climbing with dumbells on one side. It’s been gratifying to see and feel my strength increase and pain decrease. Yay!
My classes are all on the second floor of one of the campus buildings, with extra stairs to get into the building. I’ve really not enjoyed waiting for the super-slow elevator to take me to my floor, but it was necessary. Until the past couple of weeks. I’m now taking all the stairs, and my strength has increased so I don’t need to rely on the stair railing to offset weakness in my hip. Yesss!
I knew it was coming, so I wasn’t surprised when I got a call from the PT practice to say I didn’t need twice-a-week sessions anymore. I’ll go once a week for the next few weeks to transition to discharge. This means they think I’m recovered enough to maintain my newly-regained strength and flexibility on my own. Uh, yay?
I mean, here’s the thing: I know I should be feeling like this:
This lamb is feeling it. Thanks, Jonathan Mabey from Unsplash.
And I am. It means I’m pretty recovered and functional. I’ll have 4 more hours back for my week. I won’t be paying $40 in co-pays each week. I’ll be climbing stairs to beat the band!
But I also I feel a little like this:
This woman is also not completely sure about the plan. Thanks Simon Abel for Unsplash.
What am I worried about? I’m worried about the challenge of keeping up my fitness maintenance without the help of the PT bros, who I’ve come to like and respect and depend on. Now I have to depend on, well, me. Hence the worried face.
The good news is that my gym has all the machines I need and is a mile from my house. I also know what to do, and in fact like the experience of the weight work and strength training. And, I can bring a friend to my gym for free on the weekends, so I can enlist help in getting there.
And yet.
I’m almost at that transition point– not yet finished with PT, not yet into a regular gym routine. So that’s my next challenge: get to the the one-mile-away-from-my-house gym to do those exercises without the guidance of physical therapists, but instead with the company of other exercisers, including friends.
Maintaining strength, flexibility and functional fitness is really important to me. And it doesn’t always come easy. It’ll take some adjustment, just like twice-a-week PT and at-home exercises did. I’ll report back in a month to let you know how things are going.
Dear readers, what have your experiences of transition from PT/physio to maintenance exercise been like? I’d love to hear what’s worked for you.
I have written About this before. So has Sam, multiple times, all the way back to 2018. Our focus was on bikes more generally and how they can help with disabilities, but three years ago I predicted an e-bike would be in my future. It was and I love it.
However, it was out of service for nearly a year with some sort of electrical issue. I hadn’t worried about it over the winter. But then I had to take it to Toronto for repair, only getting it back when my son brought it with him for Thanksgiving,
Meanwhile, my knees have been sufficiently sore that I didn’t feel like biking much this year. Plus I’m still nervous about biking too hard or too long with my heart murmur. And I have needed my car much more because I combine work with errands involving hauling stuff, or visiting my mom who lives almost 30 km away.
Getting the e-bike back felt like a gift, especially when two swimming friends invited me for a little ride. One cycles everywhere and the other does triathlons. Did I mention I have barely ridden in a year?
I didn’t have to worry about keeping up or overdoing it; the little boost from my battery was just enough.
Me with my e-bike, along with Florence and Sumiko, enjoying a glorious late afternoon near the Ottawa River.
We rode for a little over 20 kilometres, with frequent stops to admire the views on both sides of the Ottawa and Gatineau rivers. And of course there was ice cream.
Me in a bright blue shirt, enjoying an ice cream cone It was a locally-made green apple flavour.
Way back when, BTB (“Before The Blog”), I hurt my back pretty badly. First, there was a fall when skiing. Then, there was the Australian beach crash. I talk about the beach incident here. For years after those accidents I put my back out doing simple things like taking off my cycling shoes or sitting too long at my desk.
All of that prompted me to get a standing desk and I’ve used one at work for more than a dozen years.
So for the past bunch of years, since moving to Guelph, I haven’t had very many back issues. I figured I’d solved that problem.
Until last week.
After three days of bike riding, followed by hot yoga, and then weight training, I spent way too much time sitting at my desk. I was tired and somehow never moved my desk to the standing position.
I followed the very long sitting at my desk day with a night at the movie theatre. When I got up from the movie theatre seat, there was that horrible low back pain that I know so well from the past.
The next day I was okay sitting, and okay standing, but moving between those positions was very painful.
I thought, in that doomy and pessimistic way that gets us all sometime especially in this political climate, that that was it. My back would just hurt forever.
Sarah nagged me into stretching. And I ordered a new set of yoga balls to use on my back when I’m sitting.
Things are getting a bit easier in my brain and in my muscles and while it’s tempting to jump back into my regular routine, I am determined not to fall into that trap.
Instead, I am working bit by bit on creating more ease for myself in my day to day actions.
And, like the title says, creating ease isn’t easy.
This ease was actually fairly easy to create. Image description: a drawing of the word ‘ease.’ Each letter is capitalized and is a different colour (blue, yellow, purple, dark pink) and the background is all kind of overlapping sets of concentric circles.
Creating ease means doing gentle yoga and stretches, breathing deeply, relaxing when and how I can and, it means spending a lot of time and energy paying close attention to how I am moving, how I am sitting, how I work, and how I do a variety of tasks.
My ADHD brain is ok with the first few things but it is not a fan of the latter part of that list – in fact, even the thought of paying that kind of attention to those details is tiring.
But I do want to feel better. And I know that unless I make some adjustments, it’s going to be a) harder for my neck/back/shoulders to heal and b) I’m going to keep having some of the same issues over and over.
Right now, I am working on two things that I hope will prevent me from exacerbating my current issues AND will help me avoid some other issues in the future.
Here are my current practices:
1) Getting up and rolling my shoulders/doing a few neck stretches every 20 minutes or so.
I already like to use the repeat timer app throughout my work day so I have a better sense of time passing AND so I don’t feel like any given task is going to take forever. (I have given myself permission to change tasks whenever the timer goes off)
Now, I don’t just note that time is passing, I use the chime as a reminder to move and stretch. It’s not perfect – I sometimes inadvertently ignore the timer – but I definitely have a higher success rate than I would without it.
2) Practicing holding my head differently when I am drawing, writing, and using my phone.
Since a lot of my leisure time is spent doing one of those activities making this change will really help.
Instead of spending so much time with my head down and my neck jutting forward, I am taking Katy Bowman‘s advice about how to hold my neck:
A video called ‘Hold Your Head Better When Using Screens’ from the Nutritious Movement YouTube channel. The still image shows a woman in a purple shirt standing in profile holding a phone in her right hand and holding her left hand up to the back of her neck.
Since I can’t necessarily put my drawing/reading/writing in the same place I would hold a phone, I am also using the same movement to take breaks during my drawing/reading/writing sessions – here’s a demo in this Facebook video of hers from a few years ago.
Between these two movement elements things, the yoga, the massage therapy, and all of the being-careful-but-not-coddling-myself, I am hoping to keep inching towards more ease in my body – especially the muscles of my neck and upper back.
Creating ease isn’t easy but it will be totally worth the effort, right?
