Gentle Exercise at Home, Restorative Video Series

Transcription

Hi guys. We are going to be doing a little bit of mobility and strength exercises today that you can do in the comfort of your own home. So we're going to start with some mobility warm up exercises. This is always important to do before a workout to get the muscles warmed up and that heart rate up, ready for exercise.

So the first one we're going to do is arm circles. So we're going to start with our arms out and we are going to rotate forward, nice little circles to start. And as you go, you're to slowly make those circles bigger, and just take it at your pace. Again, we're just warming up our upper body here. All right. And we'll take our arms out again, and we're going to go backwards. So same thing. Start small, and we're going to start getting bigger and bigger. Couple more rotations here. Again, take it at your pace.

All right, next one we're going to do is a hip opener. So if you have any balance issues, or need to hold onto something just in case, go ahead and grab a chair or anything sturdy. All we're going to do is take our knee and walk it around in a circle here. Okay? Again, if you need to hold onto a chair or something so that you're able to balance, you can do that also. And we'll take a couple more rotations here. Again, take it nice and slow so you keep your balance, and we're just getting those hips warmed up. And if you can only get that leg up a little bit perfectly fine. Do a couple more here. Let's do one more on each side. Good.

All right, last one. We have lunges. So we are going to take it to the floor. You can also do this on a soft surface in bed. If you are on the floor and you have any knee issues, you can always put a towel or a pillow, something soft under that knee to make it a little comfortable. So we're going to be standing up nice and tall here, and all we're doing is rocking forward, holding for a couple seconds, and then coming back. And again, here you want to take it as far as your body will allow. You do not want to go until you feel any pain. You just want to feel a nice stretch there. And we'll do a couple more here, and then we're going to switch sides. Again, make sure we're keeping our chest up, not letting ourselves tip forward here. Last one, and we're going to switch sides. Get that balance back before you start. I'm going to do 10 on this side. So you'll do 10 on each side. All right, almost done here. We're going to do two more. All right.

Now that we're all warmed up, we are going to go into our exercise strength training portion. First thing we're going to do is a simple squat. So we're going to start off with our feet a little bit wider than hip width. Toes facing a neutral position. You don't want them facing out or letting your knees go in. So find that nice balance there. And you're going to be sitting back like you would in a chair, and we're going to be pushing through those feet to come back up. So we'll do 10 of these. We'll do the first set together, and then I'll have you do two more sets. So we'll be doing three sets of 10 repetitions for each exercise. Good. Again, making sure that chest is staying up. Knees can go over the toes a little bit, but we don't want any forward or backwards motions. Everything is focusing down, pushing through those feet. So we're going to do two more Good.

One other thing I wanted to say about the squats. If you can not get to parallel, again, perfectly fine. Take it as far down as you can. Again, we don't want any pain. A lot of times squats can get the knee a little bit. So if you're feeling any pain in the knee, anywhere else, only go to what feels comfortable.

All right, our next one, we're going to take to the ground and do an upper body exercise. So we are going to be sitting on our bottom, feet flat, knees bent, and you are going to let your palms sit right behind you, fingers facing the bottom. So this is going to work the triceps. That's the back of the arm. And all we're going to do, lower ourselves down, pushing our elbows back. And with our hands, we're pushing ourselves back up. All right, so we're lowering, using those hands and arms to push. So this one, you don't want to use your core to sit up and push you forward. You just want to focus on those arms, making you nice and tall. Again, we're going to do 10 here together. So we'll do a couple more. Last one. Good.

All right. We're staying down on the ground. Our next one's going to be a plank. So couple ways we can do this. We can do it on our hands or our elbows. Hand positioning will be here. We want our shoulder to be over our wrists, feet together, and we're keeping a straight line from our head to our toes. If you want to take it to the elbows, it will look like this. If this is too challenging, you can drop to the knees, and you're still working the core here. Just takes a little pressure off the shoulder and the upper bodies here. So again, if you're staying up, we can be here. And this one, you're going to hold for as long as you can. Try to aim for about 15 to 20 seconds. If you can go longer, that is great. Kind of hold it here, challenge yourself, squeeze that core, take a deep breath and we'll hold it here for a couple more seconds. Make sure we're pulling in our belly button. And again, really squeezing that core. Couple more seconds here. You got it. And relax. Good job. All right. Again, as long as you can, try and set a goal for yourself. If you got 15 seconds today, try and aim for 20 seconds. Next time, just take it into small increments.

All right, we got one more here. Bird dog crunches. So we're going to be on our hands and knees. Again, shoulders over wrists, knees under our hips. And this is really going to challenge, balance and coordination and also work the core. So I start by extending one leg out, and the opposite arm. And we're going to find a balance here, and all we are doing is crunching. So knee to elbow, and coming back out, keeping that balance. So if we get a little wobbly, take your time, and we're going to do it on each side. All right, let's take it to the other side. So reposition yourself. I'm going to do opposite arm, opposite leg. So find that balance there, and we'll go knee to elbow. All right, go ahead and relax. We're going to move into our stretching.

So with those exercises there, you may be feeling sore tomorrow or the next couple days. That is perfectly normal. So you may feel, like I said, a little muscle soreness, and these stretches can help. So it's always important to do a little bit of stretching after any workout or when you are feeling sore. So I'm going to give you a couple that really help focus on the lower and upper body.

So we are taking it back down to the ground, and we are going to stretch out our hamstrings and our hips here. So like I said, take it to the ground, or a bed, or a couch, whatever is a comfortable surface for you. So we're going to lay back here. One foot's going to be out, the other we are going to pull towards our chest. So this is called a knee to chest. If you want to, you can bend this leg. It makes the stretch a little bit easier, adds some flexibility to this side here. And we're going to hold these stretches for about 20 to 30 seconds. And remember when we are stretching, you do not want to go to a point where you feel pain. Just slight discomfort, feeling a stretch. Kind of breathe, make sure we're breathing through these exercises and our stretches here. And from here you can and pull the leg up, extend it to the sky, and we'll stretch our hamstring. So the back of our leg here. Same thing. If you need to pull that knee up, it also feels nice to roll out that ankle while we're up here also.

All right, we're going to do it on the other side here. So readjust if you need to, and we're going to pull knee to chest here. Don't forget, if you need to bend this knee, you can. And we're going to take that leg up to the sky. Hands can go behind the leg if you need it to. Little tip to remember as we're breathing, when we exhale, try and fall a little bit deeper into that stretch if you can. Again, we don't want any pain here. Roll out those ankles if you'd like, and go ahead and relax.

All right. Next two we are going to stand up for. This next one does require a little bit of balance and coordination. So again, if you need to grab onto a chair, we'll grab that. So we're going to do a quad stretch front of the leg here, and again, find that balance, and we're going to hold on to one leg and pull that back. So a little tip for balance exercises. If you focus on something in front of you and stare at it, it'll help you focus and keep that balance. So I found a spot on the ground that I'm going to use for my balance. And again, be holding onto a chair, help you out here. And we're going to do the other side. So again, about 20 to 30 seconds on each side. Find that balance before you pull that foot back to really get that stretch in there. I'm quite wobbly on this side.

Make sure your foot is staying flat on the ground when we do any balance or any stretching exercises here. Couple more seconds, keep breathing. Make sure you're not holding your breath at all during any exercise or stretch. It helps you get through all of that. And relax. Good. Shake it out a little bit if you need to. We got one more here. It's going to be a chest opener.

So this one, little disclaimer before, if you have any surgeries or you can't lay on your chest, this one may be a little bit difficult. It's going to release that tight tightness from your chest, but just be careful with this one, and I'll show you why here in a second. So arms are going to be in a goal post position, and all we're going to do is pull the shoulder blades together, open up that chest, you're going to feel a nice stretch here. Hold it for a couple seconds and come back to neutral. And we're going to go through those motions a couple times. And again, if you do have any complications up in this area, only go to a little stretch and come back. It does not have to be a big motion. A lot of us are actually really tight in this area, so this may be hard for you, and that's okay. Going to do a couple more here. Last one, and done. Nice job guys.

Thank you for joining us today. Make sure you are staying active, and it's going to help so much with your overall health and wellbeing. Great job. Thanks for joining, and keep it up.