Office Exercise Series: Chair Twist for Energy and Immunity

Welcome back mind-body students!

You may recall the office exercise series we did on the blog a while back, which focused on keeping you productive and healthy at work. Well, we've got even more exercises for you to try at the office when you're taking a break and re-energizing to get more done.

This week, it's the chair twist! A great way to take stress off your lower back, improve posture, help regulate energy and focus, and keep your immune system working as it should.

Remember to breath deep!

Mind-Body Workout #9: Greatest Hits!

Hey there, Mind-Body students!

This week we have a fun workout to do: these five techniques are the most popular exercises on my Youtube channel (not including massage techniques or sports tips). So this routine was created by you guys through popular demand!

Good luck!

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Mind-Body Workout #9: Greatest Hits!

The first two exercises (the two most popular) are relaxing stretch postures: the chair twist for organ health and digestive regularity, and the emergency posture for the head and neck. How each of these stretches for 1-2 minutes, working up to three minutes each if you can. Remember to do the chair twist to each side.

Once you are done with these stretches, your upper body and torso should be nice and loose, which will help with the remaining techniques.

The remaining three exercises are upper body techniques, some of which are pretty advanced. First we have tai chi/kung-fu blocking for speed with a partner. If you don't have a partner to practice with, you can do this coin-grabbing exercise on your own. Do about 2-3 minutes of this, switch off who is blocking, do another 2-3 minutes, and then repeat. In total, each person should be blocking for 4-6 minutes.

The next exercise is a beautiful medical qi gong movement called "white ape picks up the peach" that really helps increase shoulder and forearm mobility. It also stretches the chest. Do this movement 10 times on each side. Do it very slowly and focus on your breathing the entire time. Thoughts of no thoughts.

Last but not least, we have the most difficult technique: Advanced Tai Chi Ball movement. If you afraid of dropping the tai chi ball, just use a soccer ball or basketball. This will do just as much for your flexibility and balance as using the wooden tai chi ball. You can start with the small circles I show toward the end of the tutorial if your not confident or flexible yet, and gradually work your way to further extending your arm when you practice. Do as many of these circles as you are comfortable with. Twenty on each arm is plenty. Don't push it or go too fast, because you can damage your shoulder if you get out of control.

And that's it for this week! Happy Stretching!

Mind-Body Workout #8: Building Strength, Speed, and Health in the Arms

Great to have you back again, mind-body students. This week, we have a new installment in a series that has become a blog favorite: the mind-body workouts!

On the agenda for today: a total workout for the arms, which includes work on your shoulders, elbows, wrists, and more! The workout is divided up into three sections: strength-building, speed work, and relaxing. Let's jump right in.

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Mind-Body Workout #8: Building Strength, Speed, and Health in the Arms

Part 1: Strengthening

Wall Push-ups with Fire-Breath: This exercise gets the blood-flowing into the arms and chest. Remember to do both kinds of sets, elbows-in, and elbows-out. These work the biceps and chest, and the triceps and deltoids respectively. If you find that this exercise is too easy for you, you can always take a small step back from the wall and move your hands lower. Add in fire breath to engage and calm the mind!

Panther Walk: This is a more intense pushing exercise that will truly build strength in your arms as you launch your body off the ground with each repetition. To really mix it up, do a set of 10 or so going forward, backward, left, and right. (You can always start with five each way instead, if 10 is too difficult.)

Part 2: Speed

The Washing Machine: If you do this technique slowly, it is a nice relaxing move. However, you can speed the move up to practice quick, precise movements with the arms. As you increase the speed, you want to bring the circles closer to your body and make them tighter. This technique is particularly relevant for developing effective blocking movements in martial arts.

Saber: This speed move is another technique that doubles as a relaxing technique depending on how slowly or quickly you do it. The first rule is to keep the stick as straight as possible all throughout the movement. You can watch yourself perform it straight ahead in the mirror to see if the stick is flaring to one side or the other. The motion should require less and less arm movement as you become more coordinated and proficient with it. As that happens, focus more of your energy on breathing deep. Remember: swift, precise arm movement.

Part 3: Relaxation

Iron on the Wall with Fire Breath: This is a classic exercise here on the blog. You can't believe how much of a difference simply letting go of the tension in the shoulders and neck can make. Not just for arm health, but for total body and mind health! You want the muscles between the neck and shoulders (the trapezius muscle) to become soft and moldable, kind of like clay. For most people, they start like rock. Hold the stretch for 2-3 minutes, working up to that if you can't hold it that long at first.

Reduce Inflammation: Working your arms hard can cause issues in the complex joints. The biggest cause of this harm is intense stress on the joints (like doing a heavy arm strengthening workout) followed by very little motion and range of motion use. To avoid having this happen while you are developing arm strength and speed, you should do this gentle exercise for a few minutes with both arms. There are two basic motions: vertical, and horizontal. Do both to help heal any minor strain or damage the joints naturally experience as you work them out.

And that's it! Happy Stretching!

Surgery-Specific Exercise Routines: Part 2

This week, we continue our surgery-specific exercises with two more techniques. As we go over these exercises, you'll notice that they accomplish two things.

1. They slowly stretch the soft tissue. This is so important for recovering from AND preparing for surgery. Particularly recovery. If you pull your soft tissue too hard after surgery, you can end up doing a lot of harm. So the gentle static techniques and movements are designed to create more flexibility and improved circulation gradually, not all at once.
    
2. They incorporate the whole trunk when done correctly. This is also key, particularly for surgery preparation. After surgery, certain areas of your body (muscles, ligaments, and other soft tissues) will not be as strong. In order to compensate for that, other areas of your body will do more work. So if you have surgery on your chest, your shoulders, abs, and arms will need to do more work while your chest is weak. Only preparing the exact area you are getting surgery on is not really preparing at all. Your whole upper-body needs to prepare for the experience and recovery process.

With that being said, let's check out this week's two exercises:

Push the Tablets is a great exercise for stretching the shoulders, upper-back, chest, and neck muscles. All the time you are breathing and stretching the small rib muscles, as well as rotating through the trunk which nourishes the organs and improves flexibility in the spine.

Another important part of preparing for surgery is getting maximum oxygen intake in the days leading up to the operation, and the days following. The Alphabet Stretches (M & T) are a great way to do this. These are the first two of four total stretches. We'll do the next two next week.

See you next week! Happy Stretching!

Begin Stretching Now to Prepare for Spring Sports

Hey mind-body students!

Before jumping into your spring sports seasons (literally), you should begin a stretching routine to prepare your body for the hustle. In the first few weeks of 2017, we showed you some stretches and strengthening exercises to help you prepare. Now, we're giving you a more in-depth stretching routine to cover your whole body and loosen your muscles up even more.

Pre-Season Stretching Routine for 2017

Begin with the body's core and the spine by doing the Stretch and Release the Bows motion. This is a dynamic stretch, which is even better for your flexibility and stability. It also warms up your body and prepares you for further stretching.

Next we'll move onto the legs with Tiger Stance from Side to Side. This movement stretches the groin, hips, and the muscles of the legs and feet, getting blood moving and putting some good stress on your lungs. You'll need to develop your lung capacity a little bit before you can get into the sports season.

Next we'll focus on stretching the feet and calves, because those two small pieces of your body are perhaps the most important in all of sports. If your feet aren't working right, you just can't play. And even if your feet don't hurt, weak ankles and instability in the tendons and muscles of the feet can lead to serious joint injuries in not only the feet, but the knees, hips, and even spine and neck. Stretch those feet!

Moving up the body, let's stretch the hips both on the floor, and standing against the wall. Correctly aligned hips with good flexibility prevent many lower back injuries, and improve physical performance more than almost any other body area. The hips are where you direct your explosive speed and power.

Next, we'll do the Rainbow Stretch for the spine. (You can just stay right against the wall from the last hip stretch.) While you are doing this stretch, breath into the side areas of your lungs that open up. That way, you'll be able to develop spine flexibility and rib flexibility at the same time that you gain lung strength.

Lastly, we'll do a quick stretch for the neck called Eagle Drinks the Water. The neck doesn't usually get hurt during regular sports activity. Mostly, neck injuries are due to accidents instead of tight muscles. However, a hurt neck can put an athlete our for an entire season. Protect your performance by keeping the neck stable and flexible.

That's it for this week. Happy Stretching!

Tai Chi Tips for Sports: Leg Strength and Balance

Welcome back mind-body students! If you missed last weeks episode of Tai Chi Tips for Sports about improving lower back rotation, you can check that out here.

This week, we talk about the Up and Down strengthening exercise as it relates to sports training and conditioning. You also get to find out the specific Tai Chi form inspiration for the Up and Down move. It's called "Pick Up the Needle from the Sea Bottom."

Hope you enjoy! Happy Stretching!