(Aether Bios Clinic) Bridgeford’s Best Bites: Osteopathy Tips
QUICK AND EASY EXERCISES TO KEEP YOU MOVING AND FEELING WELL
In this busy world, most people seem to find it less than easy to add beneficial exercises into their daily routine and often struggle on feeling less than in their bodies. I am talking about the simple, restorative exercises that keep your body moving and feeling well as opposed to cardiovascular type or organised exercise classes and routines.
I find there are two main keys in taking care of our health and well-being: one is in learning to listen to the body – it is the boss after all and will always get its way! The other is in taking the right steps to give the body what it needs, which can be different at different moments and in different situations.
Ignoring the signs that your body needs a rest from a certain activity or posture, or that something is too much for us in this moment will eventually lead to discomfort or injury of some sort. With the mind in control, we can push the body beyond its limits just to finish a task like digging up a root in the garden, lifting too many heavy objects or doing something in an awkward position, including prolonged desk work; add tiredness or dehydration into the mix and we are inviting a recipe for discomfort and pain.
What I am looking at here is some targeted exercises, stretches and movements to help you keep your body moving well. These only take a few minutes to do and rather than just having an exercise time slot to do a whole lot of exercises, these simple exercises can be done throughout the day in response to listening to your body. Of course, having an exercise slot is also a great idea. Some exercises can even be done in bed before getting up, for example if you know your back or ankles are stiff in the morning; the reward can be quite instant and then the investment of the few minutes becomes worthwhile.
With a little awareness and mindfulness of your bodies you may start to notice, for example that your neck can feel tight after a time of sitting at the computer; a few simple neck stretches can help to ease this. You may also notice tension in your lower back and a few simple spinal twists can help to ease this. You may notice after walking that your feet and ankles can ache; again a few simple, well performed, targeted exercises can help to bring relief.
Learning to listen to your body can take a little focus to begin with, yet in time it easily becomes a habit of listening and responding giving you effectively more time as you feel better and more energised. All exercises should be done within your limits, with good breathing to help focus and should feel good – its ok to feel a little stretch or release – never pain! When you see how much better you feel in your body from a few minutes of focused, targeted exercise, it becomes an easy next step to listen to your body and do the movements in response to your body’s needs!
You can learn some of these exercises in my quick and easy series and some from the archives on YouTube:
Reverse Chicken Neck to help neck posture https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqWDoVFgNAc&t=56s
Core Zip and Suck for better use of your core https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2VmNRKhY1o&t=56s
Sciatica Relief is also general low back relief https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbbdigfuEOY&t=61s
Spinal Relief simple spiral twists https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIvQXNZpCSg&t=5s
Elbow Relief tennis, golfers, and other aches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDQHdSmFro0&t=5s
Shoulder Relief creating freedom in the shoulder https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNFfSHXyMQ
Back & Neck Posture laying on towels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2_scF42GqU
Piriformis Release laying on ballshttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QznN7UFXW00&t=17s
Simple Neck Exercise stretches https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwzbyaD5k-s&t=23s
Simple Neck Strengthening Exercises resistance exercises https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8Vlg177csg
Basics of Breathing https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7k98Ium30Q&t=79s
Coming shortly… Feet and Ankles, Wrists, Knees, Stretching your Back in Bed …and many more
We are happy to advise you on your health matters.
Lin Bridgeford DO KFRP MICAK MICRA FSCCO MCMA MSc
Registered Osteopath & Kinesiologist & Senior Yoga Teacher
Master Hypnosis and NLP Practitioner
Aether Bios Clinic, Saltdean
01273 309557 07710 227038
www.osteo-info.co.uk YouTube search Aether Bios OR Lin Bridgeford Instagram linbridgeford
https://linbridgeford.wordpress.com contains all my articles as blogs.
