These exercises structure the body, balance it and prevent contractures. And they help to adopt a correct body posture
Although aging there is a natural loss of muscle tone of the bust, the deformation of the chest is largely the result of sagging shoulders and hunched backs.
For therapies that work with muscle chains, in women the correlation between the position of their shoulders and that of their chest is very evident: the more the shoulders fall, the more the chest sinks and the more the belly protrudes.
Any woman, regardless of age, can significantly reduce the fall of her breast by adopting an upright position and modifying her body habits. You can also perform some daily exercises, gently and progressively, taking into account breathing and avoiding any pain. We tell you how you can do chest exercises at home.
WHY DO CHEST EXERCISES AT HOME
We need our body to possess some strength to perform everyday tasks. By providing safety and effectiveness in movements, it also provides self-confidence. Get out of bed, climb stairs, carry your shopping bag, clean the house, go hiking… They are daily movements that require strength, but also require standing and protection of the back, knees or neck.
Any physical activity is strengthening, but traditionally muscle strength training is related to weights and gym machines. However, there are other ways to grow it.
CHEST EXERCISE WITH AN ELASTIC BAND
The elastic bands or treadmills allow you to exercise the most important muscle groups gently and without leaving home. They are also effective for chest exercises. If you don’t have an elastic band, you can wear an old panty or stocking.
It is advisable to perform a series of exercises a day, better in the morning and outdoors or in front of a window. Over time you can increase the number of repetitions and the force exerted by rolling the tape on the cuffs, which increases resistance.
Cross your arms with your elbows flexed and then extend them.
Depending on the height at which you place the band (under the chest, above or at shoulder height) you will be exercising different muscles in the area.
A variant is to start with the arms extended to the front to open them in cross.
This way you have to do some more strength.
Over time you can increase the number of repetitions and the force exerted by rolling the tape on the cuffs, which increases resistance.
In addition to strengthening the chest, this exercise also tones the shoulders and arms. The result is a more correct and more aligned body posture.
EXERCISE TO TONE THE CHEST: THE CHANDELIER
One of these specific toning exercises for the chest, which works the pectorals but also strengthens the back and shoulders, consists of standing up, with your legs open to the width of your hips, keeping your back straight and your neck stretched, as if you wanted to touch the ceiling.
The arms are placed in a cross, at shoulder height. The elbows are flexed upwards about 90 degrees, in the form of a chandelier, watching that the shoulders are kept low, and with open hands and fingers stretched.
He stays a few seconds in this position and relaxes.
CHEST EXERCISE THAT STRENGTHENS THE PECTORALS
With the heels at the width of the hips and the tips of the feet facing outwards, the legs are flexed keeping the back straight and the nape of the neck straight.
The arms are stretched out to the sides as if pushing two walls, with the wrists flexed upwards and stretching the fingers.
Then the elbows are flexed and the palm of one hand is joined against the other, a little below the shoulders, forming a rhombus.
He squeezes for a few seconds and relaxes.
THE TONING POWER OF COLD WATER FOR THE CHEST
Apart from practicing exercises to strengthen the chest, it is considered highly recommended to finish the showers by directing a stream of cold water towards the breasts and making circular movements around the chest.
Finally, swimming is very indicated since it not only develops and strengthens the pectoral muscles, but also stimulates the peripheral circulation of the breasts.
Calisthenics is a training method that uses one’s own body weight and allows you to train at any time and place (also at home) without the need for specific equipment.
To develop strength and endurance and stay fit you need nothing more than your own body weight. This is what calisthenics is based on, a type of exercise that has its origin in ancient Greece and has become popular again in recent years with the proliferation of circuits where you can train in many parks. But you can also practice calisthenics exercises at home.
CALISTHENICS: WHAT IS IT
The word calisthenics comes from the Greek: kallos (beauty) and sthenos (strength). It is a type of exercise in which the person’s body weight is used, without using apparatus or equipment (only in some exercises you may need a jump rope or a fixed bar).
The objective of calisthenics is to overcome the resistance offered by the weight of your own body and the exercises are performed with different levels of intensity and rhythm, which you can increase as you practice. It can both serve as a warm-up to perform another sport or be the training itself.
CALISTHENICS AT HOME: EXERCISES
Unlike other exercises that focus on a single area of the body, calisthenics exercises involve many muscle groups at the same time.
Some of the most characteristic calisthenics exercises that you can do at home are:
SQUATS
With this type of exercise, the quadriceps, adductors, hip muscles and glutes are worked. To practice squats:
Stand, with your body straight and your feet a little apart (a little more than the width of your shoulders).
Lower by flexing your hips, knees and ankles at the same time (as if you were going to sit, hence the name).
Return to the starting position and repeat the squat.
Variants of squats include jumping ups, opening the legs sideways or incorporating weights.
PUSH-UPS
Push-ups work the muscles of the upper body (pectorals, triceps, deltoids …) and also activate the core and lower body.
There are many different types of push-ups (holding only with one arm, with your fists, clapping between each push-up…). To perform the basic push-ups:
Lie face down, with your body straight, arms outstretched and hands on the floor.
Bend your elbows and lower them until they are at an angle of 90 degrees or less.
Next, squeeze your chest muscles and push to return to the starting position (keeping your body straight and stable at all times).
STRIDES
Strides are a basic calisthenics exercise to work the legs, buttocks and core and improve balance and coordination.
Stand upright, with your legs slightly apart (about hip height) and your arms in a jug (you can also leave them stretched, attached to your body).
Take a step forward (neither too long nor too short), keeping your back straight and your torso perpendicular to the ground.
The knee of the leg that is left behind should be brushing the ground.
Return to the starting position and repeat with the other leg.
PLATES
There are several ways to make planks, an exercise that consists of holding a position for a period of time.
To make forearm plates:
Place your forearms on the floor. Your elbows should be in a straight line with your shoulders and your legs stretched and slightly apart.
Elevate your body by keeping your back straight and leaving only your forearms and toes in contact with the ground, so that your weight rests on your forearms.
Hold the position for at least 1 minute.
With this posture you work the abdominal, pectoral, back and shoulder muscles (deltoids).
BENEFITS OF CALISTHENICS
Calisthenics allows you to develop strength, endurance, flexibility, balance and coordination.
If you are starting in this practice, the first thing you will notice is how your muscle strength develops. With time and increasing the intensity of the exercises, your muscular endurance will also increase and you will begin to notice all its benefits.
The physical results of people who practice calisthenics are believed to be similar to those who perform weight-bearing exercises, with the advantage that calisthenics does not require special equipment and therefore can be performed anywhere.
In addition, several studies support the benefits of calisthenics for health, including:
A recent study conducted on adults who spend more than 6 hours a day sitting has seen that practicing calisthenics exercises increases muscle strength and balance, which according to the authors could help reduce the effects of aging.
Another study conducted on 4610 people found that people who perform calisthenics exercises have less risk of suffering from low back pain than those who use bodybuilding machines.
Strength training and calisthenics have also been seen to have benefits for the mental well-being and physical health of older people.
FOR WHOM IS CALISTHENICS NOT INDICATED?
Before starting to exercise it is advisable to consult the doctor if it is suitable for you. This is especially important in case you have an injury (for example, in the back), since it is very possible that the exercises proposed by calisthenics are not suitable for you.
On the other hand, keep in mind that people who are overweight or obese, or those who are in very low physical shape, may find it very difficult to exercise using their own body weight.
Walking is the great conquest of the human body and one of the most complete and beneficial exercises for health. In addition, delighting in the steps that lead us helps us connect with the present.
Walking is one of the healthiest and cheapest exercises that can be practiced, and doing it the right way can help strengthen the heart, lungs and muscles, as well as generate a feeling of well-being.
Let’s walk through the benefits of walking, such as physical, mental and spiritual experience.
BENEFITS OF WALKING EVERY DAY
When we walk in our body there are changes that have a positive impact on our health. These are the benefits of walking daily.
It activates breathing, which stimulates the fluidity of the circulatory system and all systems and devices, producing heat. Speeds up the transport of cellular information. It gives life, vivifies our exchange with the environment.
It lifts the mood and calms the nervous system, when it recovers a rhythm slower than that of thought, the rhythm that touches with the feet on the ground and projects us towards the sky.
Helps to lose weight. A person of 75 kilos who walks fast for ten minutes each day and for a kilometer spends 550 to 800 calories a day, that is, what a regular meal provides. It is therefore an easy way to control weight.
It improves cardiovascular fitness, as walking makes the heart beat faster to transport oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the muscles. Walking regularly increases the efficiency of the heart and lungs.
It lowers blood pressure and the risk of arteriosclerosis, by reducing the levels of low-density lipoproteins (“bad” cholesterol) and increasing high-density ones (“good” cholesterol).
Prevents osteoporosis.
It is one of the most important means of recovery from diseases.
It generates well-being. Psychologically, walking generates a feeling of well-being and can mitigate or alleviate stress, anxiety and depression by accelerating the production of endorphins, the body’s natural tranquilizer.
Helps concentration. It makes us more receptive to any information and provides the peace of mind to select, evaluate and elaborate it if necessary.
It exercises a virtue much needed in our day: patience.
SPIRITUAL BENEFITS OF WALKING
“Walker there is no way, the road is made by walking, by walking the path is made and, when looking back, you see the path that will never be stepped on again. Walker there is no way, but trails in the sea.”
With this famous poem Antonio Machado presents walking as a way of living and the present as the most important moment in our lives. In addition, it confirms the melancholy due to the passage of time, but also its beauty.
Walking is not just any movement but the first that the human being learns while standing and the one that makes it possible to move anywhere.
The one that defines us and makes us equal and different, because there are as many ways of walking as individuals.
It is part of the cultural heritage of West and East, and permeates all fields, in the form of a path walked or to be walked, spiritually or physically. Back to the road
The Tao Te Ching says, “a ten-mile road begins with a step.”
The Tibetan Book of the Dead proposes the initiatory journey from death in this world to life in the afterlife.
The Camino de Santiago, which follows the Milky Way and crosses part of Europe, is a physical path that involves a change of consciousness. Like the Inca Trail, which leads to the top of Machupichu in Peru.
“I got tired, of asking the world why and why, the compass rose has to help me and from now on you are going to see me wandering, between the sky and the sea, wandering. By the mountains, the river, the sun and the sea, which taught me the verb to love.”
Tired of turning things around with thought, Joan Manuel Serrate returns to the road just because, to walk and enjoy what it offers.
WALKING AS THERAPY
But something is happening that makes us lose the north and forget the easiest way to move, precisely now that we can move with all kinds of gadgets anywhere.
Our walks have become therapeutic activities; travel on foot, in connections between means of communication; Our trips are transports in which we are taken.
And a very significant fact: according to the latest research, today people walk more in cities than in rural areas, where it is easier to park cars.
One of the most pressing problems is the rush to come. We do not remember that we are already in the best place, doing what we should do, at the right time.
The journey, the path, walking, lose importance with respect to the place to which we are going. We do not realize that our goal exists in thought, in maps, but it is only a part of the most important moment we live and the only one we really have: the present. Although the ideal illuminates the direction of the route, it is essential to delight in the journey.
WALKING TO IMPROVE MOOD
Walking is one of the most beautiful ways to enjoy the road, to live the time that we have had to live and let the mind expand at ease in a time that belongs to both it and our body. It is the most humane movement that exists.
It puts us in contact with the earth, tunes us with our body, both internally and externally, gives us a binary rhythm, vital to learn any other, because it is the rhythm that speeds up memory.
We can walk in almost all circumstances and places, and reach places that we would never reach otherwise: slopes, cliffs, shortcuts, mountains, summits, forests …
Walking allows us to discover the essence of the places we pass, to observe more precisely the environment.
Even in the big cities, to know them and get to their soul, it is best to buy a good plan, put it in your pocket without looking at it and get lost in the streets, alleys and squares.
Walking is free, safe and effective. It does not require special skills or training, nor does it require machines or instruction manuals. It is recommended for all ages and in all circumstances.
BENEFITS OF WALKING FOR THE BRAIN
According to footprints and skeletons found in West Africa, the first living things began to walk on two legs four million years ago.
Thus, another revolution occurs in the autonomous movement of humans: they do not need to bend their backs to the sides, like reptiles, or bend and stretch it like other mammals.
They make their own a fundamental quality: the legs and arms move in the opposite direction, through the rotary movement of the spine. When the right leg steps forward, the left arm is brought forward, and vice versa. It is a unique movement in the animal world.
The circular movement of the spine allows us to keep our balance, breathe, pick up things, look around, walk … The human being, who until then walked on all fours, must reorganize the movements, find their place and systematize them again.
To coordinate these functions there is an unprecedented growth of the brain. With this neurological development the first stone is laid for the unlimited ability to learn movements. We are able to learn them throughout our lives
When we still do not speak, we begin to walk, in a miracle fruit of imitation that precedes any physical learning, behavior and behavior and that marks us for the rest of life.
In children it is a revolutionary change. Suddenly they can reach unknown places and see from many more points of view than when they crawl. Their movements are directed to a place, they take, they taste, they fall, they learn with astonishing rapidity, and their dynamic development is equated to the cerebral, and soon after they begin to speak.
Walking returns us to the ancestral movement, the one that has not improved or worsened throughout history, the one that does not need words or reasoning but that drives these two by putting the world and its wonders, suddenly, within our reach.
It changes our position and with it the disposition to relate to ourselves and the environment. It is a physical and mental change.
WALKING AS A RITUAL
Since the romantic artists in the nineteenth century, the walk par excellence has been through nature. To return to it was to return to the first house, a ritual to find our roots. But nature in old Europe today is a natural park, in which the lye of human beings and their culture continue to prevail.
In the American continent, new and wild, the writer Henry David Thoreau proposes aminar as a ritual in which we become nature, in a mystical union that was later picked up by the hippie movement.
In Central European countries there is a tradition from medieval times that ritualizes walking.
Young people under thirty left home walking to find places to train in a trade. They made a pilgrimage along the roads for three years and one day, all in the same attire, black corduroy and a bundle of tools and another reserve suit.
They stopped at places where they were allowed to work and learn the trade in exchange for bed and board. They stayed there for a while and returned to the road when they mastered the technique of the place.
They constituted a guild with very clear codes of honor that were transmitted by voice. As important as the trade they learned was the journey they made. Of these, today only carpenters perpetuate this tradition, which can still be seen on the roads of Germany.
In Australia there was the walkabout, a rite of passage from puberty to adulthood in which young Aboriginal people were abandoned in the desert. They wandered for about six months in these places to learn how to survive in a hostile environment. They left with few weapons and when they returned, if at all, they could enter adulthood and marry. Now it is called walkabout to walk without destination.
MEDITATE WHEN WALKING
Let’s walk like a camel, which is the only animal that ruminates when it walks. Let’s make walking an object of study.
A traveler asked a servant of the poet Wordsworth to teach him the master’s study. The butler led him to a room and said, “Here is your library, but the object of study is outside.”
Walking takes us to the beginning, to the simplest, to the present moment: the one in which the intangible becomes miraculous reality.
After having walked for a while, looking forward, towards a point, seeing everything without fixing anything, we will learn to contemplate heaven, earth and their changes. And we will begin meditation, which simply consists of walking where we walk, with our thoughts, body and environment.
To do this, we will observe the breath and its vital impulse and we will feel the organism with the five senses. And we will notice how thoughts flow and change as we walk.
In this flow we will realize that we are not only composed of visible solids or liquids, but that a part of our being belongs to the realm of the invisible, of the ethereal: they are thoughts, emotions, desires, memories, dreams, instincts, impulses and beliefs.
They constitute another energy field, subjective, that is not seen and that occupies a place within us. However, it is as important as the visible and objective energy field: the earth, the sky or the body.
They are the two areas in which we can know, understand and know. When thought and senses flow like our steps, we guess that everything we perceive, everything that exists in the world, is the result of the transformation of the absent into the present, from the invisible into the visible, from the silent into sound, from the tasteless into tasty.
What we contemplate comes from the unknown; What we appreciate is also the fruit of the priceless. Above, below, before, or after the present moment that is fleeting, is the source of all creation, which manifests itself every step of the way.
That which is incomprehensible at another time, other than this one we live. A mystery like existing or being born, which is always there, silent, eternal and generous. It provides the Earth and the Universe with their movement. It is the enigma of which we are part and from which we proceed. And we are getting to know Him in His manifestation as we walk.
Says physician and writer Deepak Chopra, “We are spiritual beings who have human experiences from time to time, and not the other way around.” We are also a manifestation of divinity, in the form of light, heat, muscle mass, bone mass, body, thought, and spirit. It’s who we are, and we appreciate and love it in the simplest movement: walking.
WALKING AS A LIBERATING EXERCISE
Which path is more conducive to walking? Anyone is good, you just need to take the first step and continue for a few minutes.
Let us remember that we live on a planet that moves and rotates on itself. We are passengers and every day we go around the galaxy. The sky changes continuously.
Let’s start by looking at the sky, because he will tell us that walking is an adventure. And if we look at the path we travel step by step, carefully, we will see that it has infinite variations.
If we still feel insecure, we can go where our heart takes us. It doesn’t matter if it’s cross-country, through a park or in a shopping mall crowded with passers-by. Let us ask ourselves the key question, from the heart: will we generate prosperity for ourselves and for those around us? If so, go ahead!
Lewis Carroll said: “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will do.” Not knowing is an exercise in humility. Whoever does not know, and knows that he does not know, is capable of learning. Nothing makes us as human as learning and adapting to what the body, heaven and earth say. Leaving aimlessly is not wrong, let’s open the senses and let ourselves go.
HELP ALONG THE WAY
They say that once a man reached the end of the road he had walked in his life and, looking at it, observed that in some of its parts there were four footprints and in others only two.
The first traces coincided with the times in which living had been easier, and the second, with the most difficult.
He was puzzled and as he looked ahead, he saw the goddess of the road. And he said: “You promised me that you would accompany me along the way and I see that you only did it when things were going well for me. Why have you deceived me?”
The goddess of the road replied, “I never deceived you; When the road was easy and pleasant, I walked beside you. If you only see a footprint on the road when difficulties and sorrows appear, it is because I carried you on my back.”
There is always a goddess on the path who helps us. Even if we are overwhelmed and the sadness of some loss breaks our hearts, the body always starts and moves us. Heaven does not cease to be there, at all times. Not even the Earth stops spinning.
After walking for a while, looking forward, towards a point, seeing everything without fixing anything, we will learn to contemplate heaven, earth and their changes.
Walking helps us recognize that no matter how bad we feel, there is always a part of us that carries and loves us. That allows you to see the colors of the road and recognize the unlimited sky.
Thoreau says: “The natural remedy for our ills is in proportion, in which night is transformed into day, winter into summer, and thought into experience. Only then will there be air and sunlight in our thoughts.”
If we manage to regain harmony and learn to look, then we will find nature in a pot at home, in a plant or in a street tree.
Let’s not do like that friend who, walking by the sea in a big city, told me: “What I like is nature”.
He was so accustomed to relating nature to fields and forests that he did not notice the depth of the sky or the changing beauty of the waves, nor could he distinguish the pungent smell of saltpeter or the rhythmic cooing and unstoppable water as it caressed the beach.
WALKING TIPS AND GET ALL ITS BENEFITS
The most important slogan is: love your feet, don’t save on shoes. When buying them, try four or five pairs, because each manufacturer has a different last.
The most important thing is that you feel stable inside the shoe, but that you can also bend the sole.
Damping, stability and flexibility must balance each other.
And remember that:
It is preferable not to walk in full sun. Better in the mornings or afternoons.
Wear comfortable clothes, which do not squeeze you.
Walking on a flat surface at first will facilitate concentration.
Drink water before, during, and after walking.
Start slowly and then pick up your own pace, be it vigorous or slow.
When walking, have as much fun as you can.
HOW TO START WALKING
This warm-up exercise provides a light, loose, invigorating, complete and effortless gait.
If we walk calmly but determined, we will distinguish that we place the weight on the right foot and with the hip we move the left foot and leg through the air. And then it happens just the other way around. Each time the hip drags the left foot it relaxes.
We accompany relaxation with thought for a few steps: we feel the weight of the foot, its temperature, if it is loose or stuck to the ankle, what angle it forms with the leg … First, we must walk, and then accompany.
Repeat the process with the other foot. And we compare the two: weight, volume, lightness…
Then we accompany with the thought the left leg when it is dragged by the hip. We turn right and compare them.
We place the hands on both sides of the pelvis and appreciate its movements: up and down, forward and back: and at the sides. We observe the union of iliac crest, coccyx, sacrum and pubis forming a circle (concave or convex), which propels us forward.
Let’s now put the underside of the hand on the back crossing the spine to accompany it. By tensing the left side of the back, we have the weight on the right foot, and vice versa.
To release tension and keep your balance, we project one arm forward, and the other behind.
Finally, we put our hand on our heads, to feel how the footsteps resonate.
It is known that eight out of ten people would improve their health if they walked.
The benefits of jumping rope or on a trampoline are numerous: it’s a fun way to gain balance, aerobic endurance and muscle tone. We tell you how to take advantage of this simple activity.
Jumping rope seems like a child’s or boxer’s thing but it is an excellent exercise for anyone who wants to stay in shape. In addition, jumping on a domestic trampoline or on a trampoline – what in the United States is known as rebounding – is not only fun and recommended from the psychic point of view, it also has very positive effects on physical health. In this article we tell you the benefits of jumping and how to do it right to get its benefits without suffering injuries.
BENEFITS OF JUMPING ROPE
Jumping rope is simple, cheap, fun, requires hardly any space and, well done, gives very good results. Among them:
Improves coordination.
It favors rhythmic harmony.
Reaffirms the muscles of legs, calves, arms and pectorals.
Tones the buttocks.
Keeps joints flexible.
Increases lung and cardiovascular capacity.
Burns a lot of calories; It is estimated that 30 minutes jumping at a good pace can consume up to 315 calories.
CONTRAINDICATIONS OF ROPE
Despite all these health benefits, jumping rope is not an activity recommended for everyone: if you suffer from an injury to your back or knees, or suffer respiratory or bone problems, it is better to abstain.
To avoid injuries and that the knees do not suffer it is important to flex them slightly when jumping and look for a soft surface where to practice the jump.
In general, it is not advisable to jump rope more than three days a week. It is preferable to combine this practice with other complementary physical activity, such as swimming.
HOW TO JUMP ROPE?
To start jumping you don’t need much: a rope, good shoes and the right place:
The rope can be easily purchased at any sports or toy store.
The shoes should have a reinforcement in the ankles and, if possible, air chamber to cushion the impact of the weight of the body, three times higher when jumping.
The ideal is to do it on grass, sand or earth, although a wooden floor can also serve.
Another aspect to keep in mind is that it needs a brief warm-up and some final stretches.
TIPS FOR JUMPING ROPE
Length of the rope. To calculate its ideal size, if it is stepped on with the heels, the ends must be joined with the hands at the height of the navel, with the arms stretched out.
Appropriate frequency. At first, alternate a day of exercise with one of rest: the first day, it is enough to skip five minutes at a moderate pace. On the second day, up to eight minutes; and the third, up to twelve. From here you can increase the time progressively up to 30 minutes.
BENEFITS OF JUMPING ON A TRAMPOLINE
It’s a fun way to gain balance, aerobic endurance, and muscle tone. In addition;
stimulates blood and lymphaticcirculation,
increases cardiac and respiratory capacity,
improves muscle tone (especially of legs and buttocks),
and also exercises coordination, balance and flexibility.
HOW TO PREPARE TO JUMP ON A TRAMPOLINE
Part of the momentum for the jump is achieved by moving with the ankles, so it is necessary to warm them up before with some preliminary exercises on the ground: raising the toes, flexing and extending the tip, loading the weight on the insteps, etc.).
On the other hand, in the air the whole foot must work in a pointed position so that in the descent the ankles do not suffer too much.
Also, although in the air they must be held together, the feet have to be slightly apart when they rest on the elastic mesh, which gives more stability.
Anyway, in order to avoid injuries, you should start with discreet boats.
If you later want to gain height, at takeoff you can draw with your arms an imaginary semicircle that goes from back to front.
The landing is done with the legs semi-flexed and keeping the body aligned, with the shoulders on the hips, which helps the weight of the body to concentrate more on a point, and thus increase the flexion of the mesh and better prepare the takeoff of the next jump.
It is also very important to maintain visual references so as not to get dizzy, especially in rotations.
THE FOUR BASIC JUMPS ON A TRAMPOLINE
Vertical. In the jump the arms are raised and the body is kept extended. When descending they go down to the sides.
Grouped. They bring their knees to their chests and their hands try to hug the shins.
Carpado. The legs are raised together forward and the trunk lowered to the front in order to maintain balance.
Straddling. The legs are raised open as if they wanted to draw an imaginary horizontal line.
The body makes a coordinated and unconscious effort to stay balanced. Consciously exercising balance improves posture and breathing.
The brain devotes a noticeable part of its activity to maintaining the position of the body in balance.
All parts of the body weave a network of correspondences to achieve balance both when we are static on the planet, that is, we only move with it through the solar system, and when we advance on foot, running or with any of the displacement systems.
It is a fabric of relationships so complicated that, even today, when so much progress has been made in the study of balance, it remains unknown in some of its parts.
We know that any disruption of balance affects our overall health, and vice versa. Any emotional, psychic or spiritual disorder affects physical balance.
Although the process that leads us to be in balance is unconscious, over time we can adopt postures and positions that are not convenient and that harm us without knowing how or why. What causes the loss of tools to be able to be better with respect to the Earth, ourselves and the environment. Balance exercises can help you regain balance.
WHAT IS BALANCE?
If standing and looking straight ahead we close our eyes and stand on tiptoe, we will fall if we do not have the body aligned.
Both the eyes and the musculoskeletal system are part of the sense of balance, as well as the ear, skin, nervous system and brain that coordinates all of them.
In the inner ear is the vestibular apparatus, a system of fluid-filled chambers and ducts that monitor changes in head position.
Through the sensory hair that moves with the liquid, nerve impulses are transmitted to the brain about the different states of the position of the head with respect to the body and the place where we are.
This information is joined by the information that comes through the nervous system from the eyes and the musculoskeletal system (muscles, joints and bones).
From there the brain coordinates the movements necessary to maintain balance when walking, running, dancing, tying shoelaces…
WHY WE LOSE OUR BALANCE
When one of these systems fails, it compensates with the others. But the whole body participates in the process and any change in one part requires the modification of the rest.
We have an example when boarding an airplane: the pressure exerted on the ear canals when taking off or landing can change all body sensitivity and cause loss of balance or give the feeling that the head has remained in the clouds.
Another example to illustrate the following point: if it is not given a boost, a spinning top fall and finds its static equilibrium lying down. The smaller the base of support of a body and the higher the center of gravity with respect to its base, the greater the difficulty in balancing it. But at the same time that base facilitates its movement.
In humans, the base is small (the feet) and the center of gravity is very high (at 55% of its height, in front of the second lumbar vertebra).
That is why man is a terrible animal to maintain static and optimal balance for dynamic: the relationship of his base with his center of gravity facilitates the fall but also the movement.
The more movement, the more balance. Children who do not require special treatments need and recognize themselves in physical activity to seek the limits of their physical and emotional balance.
Tall people have difficulty coordinating their movements because their center of gravity is farther from the ground. Achieving their balance is an arduous task and from a young age they require a greater number of body awareness and movement exercises.
In any case, become aware of the voluntary acts that have become automatic by repeating them, demarcate the movements that are necessary from those that are not, recognize the habits acquired by the long hours of work in a position or when standing … These are not easy tasks. But they are necessary to save back, cervical pain or headaches.
Postural re-education methods help to increase body awareness. Both the Feldenkrais method and the Alexander technique, the Mézieres method, RPG or eutony teach to increase it.
The balance is also better harmonized the more favorable the relationship with the base. Reflexology or muscle exercises and massages performed on the feet help the whole body maintain a more stable and aligned position.
WHY IMPROVE BALANCE
The enhancement of a harmonious balance has a positive impact on the human being, harmonizing all his forces. This is how important it is to keep the balance, adopt a correct body position that supports it and watch, agree and adjust the elements that participate in it.
It is said that the greatest difficulty that animated film directors had to face to create their characters from the computer was to draw human beings that were not symmetrical. Those who were had a rather unpleasant, somewhat monstrous appearance.
We all have one foot slightly older than another, a somewhat longer leg. a slight deviation in the spine. Also, the ability to see is different for each eye and the holes in the nose each have a different shape.
We are asymmetrical and this is the natural thing, what makes us human. No human being is completely symmetrical. But it is harmonious, and that is where its beauty lies. Although that makes it difficult to find the center of balance.
Everything that does not fall is in equilibrium, but this does not mean that this balance is optimal. To know and improve it, we need to know how we come to adopt the bodily position with respect to the Earth that allows us the relationship with it.
HOW TO GAIN BALANCE?
Become aware of the voluntary acts that have become automatic by repeating them, demarcate the movements that are necessary from those that are not, recognize the habits acquired by the long hours of work in a position or when standing … These are not easy tasks. But they are necessary to save back, cervical pain or headaches.
Postural re-education methods help to increase body awareness. Both the Feldenkrais method and the Alexander technique, the Mézieres method, RPG or eutony teach to increase it.
The balance is also better harmonized the more favorable the relationship with the base. Reflexology or muscle exercises and massages performed on the feet help the whole body maintain a more stable and aligned position.
Practicing physical exercise helps to gain balance and harmonize it. The more complex it is, the greater mastery of equilibrium is achieved. First you learn the simplest movements and positions, to get rid of harmful habits and internalize new ones.
Then you have to align yourself with respect to the Earth through different placement exercises, the Pilates method, that of Pilar Domínguez or cos-art.
Finally, the best exercises are those that combine changes of pace, direction, dexterity, skill, play, strength and speed.
Among others, we recommend surfing both in the water and on wheels, scootering, rollerblading, table tennis, tennis, martial arts, dance, basketball or volleyball.
All this will always depend on what we want most and if we want to understand and get closer to the body: pleasure is not incompatible with exercise, on the contrary.
BALANCE EXERCISES TO REGAIN STABILITY
FOOT EXERCISE TO IMPROVE BALANCE
Stand on your right foot as if rooting you in the ground. He feels the abdominal strength and projects his spine towards the sky.
Make half a tip with your left foot and whole tip until you leave the ground while putting your arms cross. Try to move the vertical as little as possible and look at a fixed point.
Return to the starting position. Repeat the exercise with the other foot.
WORK THE POSTURE: FRONTAL EXERCISE
With your left foot on the floor, raise your right leg until your foot is at knee height.
Close your pelvis, position your leg so that your knee faces straight ahead, and then open it again. At the same time, move your arms up and down. An added difficulty is looking at the side of the leg that does not rise.
Return to the starting position and repeat the exercise with the other leg.
WORK THE POSTURE: OBLIQUE
In the anterior position let the hip decenter towards where the weight is.
Stay suspended for a few seconds and let yourself fall towards where you have arched your hips, with your left foot on the ground ahead of your right, at the same time that you make a full turn with your arms. Close the circle by returning to the starting position.
Repeat three times and change legs and direction.
LEG MOVEMENT TO DEVELOP BALANCE
Stretch your arms and place one forward and the other up, at a 90º angle.
Throw forward the leg of the arm you have advanced, totally relaxed. Let her return to the ground to throw her back, also relaxed. Do not stop the movement when you reach the ground. Use abdominal force so that the trunk does not move. Start below.
To add difficulty, change the direction of your head.
STAYING BALANCED BY PUSHING YOUR LEG BACK
Standing, arms crossed, bend your right leg back and leave your left straight.
Push back, forward, or side on your right leg until you find balance and center on your left leg and foot. During the exercise, press the abdominal area against the back and root it on the ground through the support leg, and project it towards the sky.
BALANCE WITH LEG AND TRUNK STRETCHED
In the posture of the previous exercise, with the leg stretched back, gradually bend the trunk by the hip joint. Stretch your whole body in this position.
Go back to the starting point and repeat to the other side. Change direction and do not forget how important is the foot that supports you as the abdomen-back relationship.
BALANCE ON INCLINED PLANE
Start as in the frontal exercise, extend the right leg and leave the weight on the left leg to tilt the trunk in block.
Then repeat everything to the other side.
The exercise is more difficult if starting from the standing position you take a step to the right, pick up the left to take another step with the right and on this foot perform the exercise.
STRETCH THE SPINE WHILE MAINTAINING BALANCE
Lean with your hands and feet on the ground.
From this position, tilt your hips back, to stretch your entire spine. It is important that the impulse comes from the hip and not from the legs.
Then try to stretch your right leg back in the same direction in which you tilted your hips.
WHAT DOES A BALANCED POSTURE LOOK LIKE?
Any action carried out correctly from a balanced posture has the following characteristics:
It does not denote effort although it implies strength and energy. Watch the evolutions of great dancers on stage, hear a great singer sing, watch an expert skier slide through the snow, see taichi or yoga masters in action… It makes us think that his movements are simple and easy. This is only so in appearance. In fact, after years of learning their respective techniques, they continue to repeat them until they purify them of any unnecessary effort so that they seem as natural and light as possible.
It offers no resistance. If it offers, it is because when planning an action, we do it with added tension in some part of the body, which includes from frowning to tensing the tongue. Or that it is not related to our center of gravity. Every movement or force that is engendered in the body or reaches it must find a way out. The only way for this to happen is when it passes through the pelvis. The good pianist ensures that the movement of his fingers on the keyboard is born in the pelvis.
It is possible to change its meaning. A well-balanced action must be able to be stopped and immobilized in any of its phases or reverse direction effortlessly and without changing the attitude. This is true except in reflex movements and those involving inertia, such as swallowing and jumping. But even some yoga or martial arts masters can reverse this type of movement.
It allows you to breathe. Without correct breathing, balance is not possible. When the air does not enter pushing the diaphragm and stays in the superficial breathing of the upper chest, something goes wrong in the balance, as well as in the affections and emotions that it produces. If the breath flows to the diaphragm and reaches, through the anterior part of the body, the abdomen and the lower abdomen, and through the posterior, the back and all the nerve branches, then we are on the right track.
BALANCE, AN UNCONSCIOUS ABILITY
Our ancestors, over millions of years of evolution, began to lean on the feet instead of the four limbs.
Thus, they freed and made independent the movement of the hands and arms, which allowed them to first handle and then manufacture utensils, design tools, build houses and reach civilization.
All this thanks to the force that acts on us from the planet under our feet: the force of gravity.
The confidence and certainty of feeling the push or attraction that always acts and gives us shelter on Earth are what make evolution possible.
The strength that the Earth gives and receives is always the same, which makes it difficult to perceive, but gives us the assurance that it will not fail us and we will be able to walk, run, paint, love, read or grow food.
However, by not feeling it, we stop giving it the value it deserves, we forget the generosity with which it gives us energy without conditions. What should be a dialogue of forces becomes a monologue in which the Earth sustains us and we do and undo without having it present.
As a consequence, the balance fits it more or less well, but does not tune it. We organize ourselves amicably with gravity without knowing the optimal path. Thus, we adopt inappropriate positions that lead to discomfort and bodily dysfunctions.
When we are babies, we first learn to move our heads, then to roll with our bodies, to sit, to stand on all fours and, later, to crawl and investigate the world at ground level.
One day, among the things we touched and examined, we discovered the usefulness of furniture. With our hands clasped to a chair or a table, we push the body up and stand on both feet, like the elders. From there, we turn our heads, we can observe what is happening around us and direct the body towards what attracts us.
At first, we do everything a little in fits and starts, but we learn soon. And one of life’s greatest gifts arrives: we start walking. The simplest and most complete movement in balance.
Or we need to speak, or devices outside our own body, or listen to long explanations about how our forces are balanced in motion: only by imitating those who live around us do we understand and relate to the world. But it is impossible for us to remember how it happened or what strategies we used to achieve it.
The process that leads us to be in balance is unconscious. And the same happens with the primordial emotional processes that accompany it and that will profoundly affect our existence.
Unconscious learning has very positive aspects: its ease and speed. If we were to learn to stand or walk by explanations, given the quantity, precision, complexity and conjunction of mechanisms and parts involved, we would still be learning it.
READINGS ON BALANCE AND ITS EFFECT ON THE BODY
Human body; Beverly McMillan. Ed. Libros Cupula
Guide to improve body structure; John L. Stirk. Ed. Uranus
One of the big problems of the back is that we do not see it. Understanding how it relates to the rest of the body helps us take better care of it and gain well-being.
Almost 51% of boys and 69% of girls have suffered back pain before the age of fifteen. As time passes, the back continues to complain without us looking for the exact causes or having devoted enough attention to it.
This complaint, which manifests itself with pain, offers a possibility to improve the relationship with the body.
Let’s talk about the back, how it works in a balanced body and how to prevent its dysfunctions with exercises.
WHY BACK PAIN APPEARS
The Earth’s gravitational field is the most powerful physical influence that weighs on any human life. When the human energy field and gravity stop tuning in, the body invariably adapts to gravity. We do not perceive it, but we adapt to it, we have no other alternative.
The body’s ability to adapt to the Earth’s gravitational field depends on the horizontal rotation of the pelvis, around an imaginary line that joins the heads of the two femurs that articulate in it.
In an ideal body (at rest and in an erect position), this line would be horizontal and would not have a tendency to an asymmetrical rotation.
The weight of our body is transmitted downwards and projected upwards through three lines: frontal, lateral and parietal.
The front goes from the center of the head, down the navel, to divide the legs into two symmetrical parts;
the lateral descends from the fontanelle through the ears, shoulder, hip joint, knee until it flows into the center of the heel;
and the parietal divides the trunk into two halves from its center of gravity from the pelvis.
The balance of the three lines begins in the feet, because they offer the solid base for gravity to access the body and structure it to the head.
Any imbalance existing at higher levels can have its cause in the placement of the foot and ankles, which influence the successive position of knees, thighs, pelvis, spine, back, torso, arms, neck and head. Sometimes, when we have back pain, it is advisable to visit a good podiatrist.
WHICH MUSCLES WORK TO AVOID BACK PAIN
The central part of the back is the spine. Its name is deceiving, because a column is a support and that is not the primary function of this center. It could be called the spine or axis: it has the functions of distributing, moving, stabilizing, extending the forces of the body and, finally, protecting the spinal cord that descends from the brain and has the nerve endings necessary for the coordination of movements and perception of the environment.
The body is not only supported by the spine, it is part of a complicated system of forces in balance that includes five muscle groups. Let’s see how they work in relation to the back, because their health depends on that relationship.
Abdominals. Of these, the recti are the best known, perhaps because they are the most visible, extending from the bottom of the ribs to the top of the pelvis, protecting and stimulating the internal organs. When contracting, they bring the ribs closer to the pelvis and mobilize the spine concavely. The abdominals of the lateral part are of two kinds:
The former bring the ribs closer to the pelvis and open and close the spine laterally.
The seconds, when contracting, rotate the hips without moving the shoulders, as in the delicious belly dance.
Paravertebral. They extend throughout the back of the trunk, from the nape of the neck to the pelvis, joining the pelvis behind it with the lower part of the ribs, the vertebrae with the shoulder blades and, the vertebrae with each other, to the nape of the neck.
Psoas. It deploys from the last dorsal vertebra and the five lumbar vertebrae to the thigh through the pelvis. When contracting, it brings the thigh and vertebrae in front until they touch the chest and knees.
Buttocks. They extend from the pelvis to the femur behind the body, forming the buttocks. When contracting, they bring the leg back and out. They contribute, together with other pelvic muscles such as the pyramidal, to maintain a dynamic tension in the pelvic girdle, which provides a stable point of support to the spine.
Hamstrings. They extend down the back of the thigh from the pelvis to the knee. If they are shortened, they tend to cause a rectification of the lumbar and to curve the dorsal ones exaggeratedly, since they are the posterior braces and cause a backward deviation of the pelvis.
The paravertebral muscles coordinate with the abdominals and psoas to keep the spine straight, as do the opposing ropes that hold the mast of a ship.
The buttocks fix the spine to the pelvis giving it stability. And the hamstrings give stability to the pelvis and with it to the spine connecting both with the legs and feet.
It is a miracle of joint and solidary forces in balance that allows us to have the spine erect and stand.
If any of these forces is poorly placed or does not have enough power, it causes a deviation from all the others and produces, among others, back injuries.
It is therefore very important to structure these forces to maintain the balance of the body and optimize its functions.
WHY BREATHING INFLUENCES BACK PAIN
There is a muscle that also affects the back and that is fundamental for it and for our life: the diaphragm.
It is the muscle that forms the lower support of the lungs and the roof of the abdomen. It is shaped like a parasol attached by its outer edges to the ribs and spine, which it moves with each breath.
Our first emotional reaction to any perception that comes to us from the outside occurs in the breath and in the diaphragm. From there it communicates to the spine and back.
For example: we are happy, we breathe at the top of our lungs and the body moves freely; Sadness, on the other hand, produces anguish, shrinks us and does not allow us to breathe deeply, slowing down the movement of the diaphragm, passing to the back, from it to the psoas, the pelvis and extending throughout the body.
To structure the back, we will need to observe our breathing, its state, depth and consistency. Our attitude towards work, everyday life or life in general has a lot to do with the back.
Dr. Ida Rolf, founder of the body integration technique called rolfing, said: “The attitude of the individual towards his environment reflects, in fact, the firmness and adequacy of his spinal structure.”
EXERCISES TO STRENGTHEN THE MUSCLES OF THE BACK
There are two ways to improve our relationship with the back and optimize its functioning:
Improve the strength and endurance of the muscles that act on the back. It involves the practice of power, speed and stretching exercises with relaxation. Relaxation alone will help us at any given time, but it will not be able to reorganize the muscular forces that produce the imbalance in the back.
Refine the coordination of the chain of movements that influence the back. Act on the information transmitted by the movement, changing bad habits. We will achieve it with body techniques: Feldenkrais, Alexander, RPG. Or the treatments of rolfing, osteopathy, chiropractic. And oriental massages (shiatsu, Thai …).
With this in mind, here we propose a selection of exercises that will help you optimize the functioning of the back:
1. STRETCH THE DORSAL AREA
Roll the head and neck towards the chest. Then turn the trunk and head from the waist, facing the ground in the direction of one foot. Wait for your back muscles to stretch.
Next, you stretch your waist in the direction indicated by the fingers of your hand and, at the same time, bend your legs.
2. OPEN YOUR SHOULDER BLADES
Roll the trunk forward. From here, turn the shoulder blades in the direction of the buttocks, and then open them without tension in the arms or head. Hold the position for 10 seconds. Drop the shoulder blades and relax them.
The fourth time, pick up the entire trunk to the upright position with the shoulder blades back and open.
3. STRETCH YOUR NECK AND NECK
Roll head and neck forward. Stretch your upper back for a few seconds.
Continue to turn your head to the right with the tip of your nose facing the ground, stopping to stretch your back.
Keep turning until you tilt your head toward your right shoulder. Stretch your opposite arm.
4. STRETCH THE PSOAS MUSCLE
Take a long step forward with your right foot.
Open your arms in a cross, turn the trunk to your left without moving your feet and tilt the trunk towards the right leg. If you bend this leg before tilting the trunk, it will be easier for you to tilt and you can stretch your leg in the inclined trunk position. It exhales when stretching.
Repeat to the other side.
5. ENERGIZE THE BACK
Lie on your back on the floor. Cross your left leg over your right, so that you can rest the arch of your left foot on the ground, to the right of your body. Perform ten breaths, without doing anything else, feeling the weight of the body, especially in expiration.
Repeat to the other side.
At the end, face up, collect your legs on the belly and hold them with your hands to reach the fetal resting position. Keeping this posture, you can lean sideways to the left or right, or down, in that case with your arms extended along the body.
6. STRENGTHEN YOUR HAMSTRINGS (AND BACK)
Standing, feet slightly apart and knees slightly bent, lean forward until you form a right angle; Extend your arms back or cross to balance
Stretch your legs without losing the straight line of the back, and lengthening it in a direction parallel to the ground. Try not to shrink your toes! With practice, the exercise can also be performed with your arms stretched over your head, and resting only on one leg and with the other stretched back.
Then repeat by changing the support leg. In this posture you can turn the body so that it faces the horizon instead of the ground.
7. ALIGN THE SPINE
First put all four limbs on the floor with your legs bent and the weight evenly distributed between the limbs. Rest your palms well on the floor throughout the exercise.
Pushing the hip back and up, stretches the entire spine. It is very important that the movement is not born from the legs, but in the pelvis, which tilts backwards and upwards. You can simplify the exercise if in the starting position you crawl instead of leaning only on your feet.
8. STRETCH THE SACRAL AREA
Face down, take one foot with one hand, with the elbow bent, without making force with the back and resting the groin on the floor.
Hold the position for 10 seconds and change legs. Finally, grab both feet with both hands. When finished, leave your arms, legs and body stretched on the floor. You can do the exercise by resting your forehead on the ground, without turning your head. Feel your breath for a few moments.
The most beneficial of all these exercises is to let go at the end. Then the body reacts on its own.
BOOKS TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE CARE OF YOUR BACK
The Great Book of Back Pain; Mike Hage. Ed. Paidós
Be fit; Bob Anderson, Ed Burke and Bill Pearl. Ed. RBA-lntegral
THE BEST WAY TO SIT
We spend more than half of our lives sitting. The back suffers from it and we even have a bad conscience.
We should learn to sit correctly. But how to do it?
There is no ideal way to sit because, sitting, the vertebrae support twice as much weight as standing. That does not improve with ergonomic chairs, which ask the body for a constant adjustment to its qualities with the corresponding overload.
The best way to sit is as follows: continuously change the position. Cross your legs, pick up one leg under your buttocks and shift, lean to one side and the other, lean on the backrest and curve forward, and, from time to time, get up from the chair and perform the work standing.
This yoga practice synchronizes movements and breathing to strengthen and stylize the body, purify the body and calm the mind and emotions.
“I thought yoga wasn’t so physical,” Maria said after her first ashtanga yoga session, “I thought it was much calmer.”
It is generally ignored that yoga has physical and dynamic variants, including Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga, an energy technique to improve physical health and achieve inner calm.
ASHTANGA YOGA: THE MOST DYNAMIC STYLE
Like any style of yoga (which in Sanskrit means “union”) it favors the integral well-being of the person, but it differs from others by the practice of vinyasa, a system of synchronized movements and breathing.
These movements act as a common thread between the postures (asanas) and allow a fluid and dynamic practice.
If you want to learn at home to practice yoga, you may be interested in the online course of initiation to yoga of Escuela Cuerpomente.
The continued practice of ashtanga yoga stylizes and strengthens the body, provides a serene state of mind and purifies the organism, mind and emotions.
Its benefits are innumerable and therefore it has become one of the most fashionable yoga styles in the West despite coming from India, from a text called Yoga Kurunta with more than a thousand years old. People with very different lifestyles practice it assiduously.
It is a demanding activity, since it requires tenacity, endurance and concentration, but anyone can start; The only requirement is to be consistent and patient.
THE BENEFITS OF ASHTANGA YOGA: CHANGES IN THE BODY AND MIND
Maria had practiced different sports, including swimming, spinning and jogging, but could not “hook” on any. He started in yoga at a time when he suffered a lot of stress.
“It had caused a high cholesterol, anxiety and tension in my back, and I could not improve. It was to start doing yoga and get relaxed,” she explains. “Everything was balanced for me.”
He has been practicing ashtanga for a year and a half and has noticed many changes, both physical and mental and emotional. The most notable: a change in your body posture, the disappearance of external and internal tensions, the strengthening of the abdominals, an improvement in your digestion and circulation, an increased ability to concentrate and, most importantly, the disappearance of stress.
“After a few months of practicing ashtanga, I noticed that I had created a resistance to stress; I was no longer affected by things that I would have done before. I felt much better.”
Maria started in ashtanga yoga at a time of great stress and after a few months she noticed physical improvements and that she lived more relaxed.
The changes that the practice causes in the body and mind are immediate if it is continued; It is recommended to start with a minimum of two sessions a week.
The most quickly detectable are the physical ones: the body is stylized and muscules slightly. “It was the first thing I noticed; the body is toned from head to toe,” says Maria. They also quickly improve posture, flexibility, coordination and strength.
From an internal point of view, the practice of ahstanga increases the ability to concentrate, vitality and energy, thereby achieving a healthy and awake physical and mental state.
In the medium term, it helps to release tension, relax the mind, reduce stress and balance the metabolism, significantly improving the digestive process, constipation, circulation and falling asleep.
Over time, emotional blockages are undone and even mental processes are observed from detachment, without judging or identifying with them.
HOW IS AN ASHTANGA YOGA SESSION
Who starts in ashtanga does not have to have practiced yoga before or possess specific skills.
The sessions can be guided (the teacher explains the sequence) or, when the postures are known, Mysore style (the student practices at his own pace and the teacher corrects him).
In either form, the structure of the practice is always the same: the same sequence of asanas is repeated and, as the practice progresses, the teacher adds new postures.
Knowing the series, without having to follow the teacher or think about what posture he follows, allows you to concentrate on the rhythmic and regular sound of breathing, which automatically calms the mind and paralyzes the continuous thoughts that come to mind and that, in general, are the most frequent cause of stress.
With the regular practice of ashtanga yoga it is possible to eliminate internal and external tensions, concentrate attention on the now, and thus make the difficult “live and enjoy the moment” a reality.
The session begins by saying a mantra in Sanskrit that expresses the desire for health and prosperity; sun salutations follow that help warm and purify the body; standing postures, which provide strength and stability; sitting postures, which intensify and tone the practice; and the finals, which are used to regain balance and harmony.
Each asana prepares for the next: it develops the strength, elasticity, and balance needed to continue.
It is advisable to relax a minimum of 10 minutes after practice to assimilate its benefits.
Apart from vinyasa (the union of breathing and movement) the essential principles of ashtanga are the combination of calm and regular breathing (ujjayi) with the muscular contractions of the abdomen and pelvic floor (bands), and the fixed focus point of the gaze (Drishti).
The back is closely linked to the rest of the body. Preventing it from hurting requires modifying habits and movements acquired in everyday life.
Back pain develops little by little, day by day, with the repetition of an inadequate posture in front of the computer or when performing physical efforts incorrectly.
Even back pulls due to sudden movements (such as getting out of bed to hold our crying daughter) require bone or muscle weakness that has taken years to form.
In general, back pain originates far from it: it can begin in a wrong position of the soles of the feet, in the hyperextension of the knees, the wrong placement of the pelvic floor, the immobility of the rib cage …
Back care involves not only regular exercise but a change of habits, a greater awareness of the body, whether it is in motion or not, in relation to the environment. Therefore, techniques such as yoga can be very useful to prevent back pain.
Do you want to know how to take care of your back with yoga? Sign up for the online course of initiation to yoga of Escuela Cuerpomente.
With conscious information about movement coming from the nervous system, the brain properly rearranges and organizes that movement. In this way, the back is freed from pain in the dorsal, cervical and lumbar area.
Let’s see below 10 simple habits to apply in everyday life.
1. HOW TO AVOID BACK PAIN WHEN SLEEPING
We spend a third of our life in bed. If we do not rest well, the muscles lose flexibility and the likelihood of pain increases.
The mattress and box spring. Invest in a quality box spring and mattress. Research which are the best and let yourself be advised. What is good for one may not be good for another; Take time to find the right one.
When you get out of bed. First, stretch and yawn with pleasure. Then, little by little, try to pass the weight to one side of the body and, from there, sit on the bed and put your feet on the slippers or the carpet.
Sit up on the bed. Relax the trunk, leaning over the thighs, and stand back on the ischia, feeling how the belly accompanies the lumbar area and the trunk progressively aligns with the Earth.
2. HOW TO COOK WITHOUT STRAINING YOUR BACK
If you measure more than 1.75 meters in height, try to adapt the kitchen furniture to your height, otherwise you can notice it in the dorsal area.
The attention is not incompatible with good position and ease. Try not to raise your shoulders unnecessarily when cutting bread, peeling potatoes or making a sauce. If you manage to carry out this recommendation for three weeks, the body will remember it and release its shoulders and neck on its own.
The top-loading washing machine is more comfortable than the side one. If you have it from the first and you must bend over, put your back straight and the abdominal muscles inwards. If it is one of the latter, try to squat every time you fill or empty it.
3. HOW TO CARRY YOUR PURSE, BACKPACK OR BAGS
Carry the wallet in your hand without hanging from your wrist, bend your elbow slightly so that the shoulder blades do not load, and move the load slightly following the oscillation of the arm. Change her arm as much as you can.
If you have a backpack, carry it on your back or chest.
If you carry bags, distribute them equally between both hands.
The ideal is to have your hands free, so that they swing to the rhythm of walking, which is determined by the feet, continues by the hip, continues by the back and is released in the arms. This will save strain on the upper back.
When climbing stairs, try to place the coccyx towards the thighs to release the lumbar and sacrum, harden the abdominals in the direction of the back and feel a thread that from the floor runs through the body and, through the head, goes to heaven.
To go down stairs, place your foot on the floor at the tip, then settle the heel, giving way with your legs, bending your knees slightly. You will go down light, fast and with less effort.
4. TIPS FOR DRIVING WITHOUT LOADING YOUR BACK
The most important rule is: after two hours of driving, pause, get out of the car and walk a little. If you are in a rest area, try not to sit in the cafeteria, move.
As much as possible, while driving, change the way you sit and the position of your legs.
The ideal seat allows you to have a straight back, it does not require strength from the thighs on the seat to reach the pedals. Stick your back to it and engage your pelvis by pressing the pedals.
At the traffic light, massage your cervical. Hold them with both hands and slide them around the neck and neck until you drop your arms next to the body, relaxed. Wait about ten seconds and repeat.
In a traffic jam, bring the palms of the hand in front of the shoulders, the tip of the thumb of the right hand in the dimple formed by the clavicle and the right trapezius, the rest of the fingers behind the trapezius. Do the same with your left hand. Take the trapezoids and drag them dropping your arms relaxed downwards. Rest for 10 seconds and repeat.
5. THE BEST ANTI-PAIN POSTURE IN THE OFFICE
Any position you adopt when sitting, if you hold it too long, will lead to a stop of the fluids that nourish the intervertebral discs and in the long run can produce pain in any part of the spine.
The best way to sit, which is with your back straight, should last no more than an hour. Change position, drop your pelvis, lean forward, pick up one leg folded in the chair and then the other. Take a deep breath from time to time.
The back of the chair should reach below the shoulder blades, with a slight inclination that supports the lumbar area. The seat, adjustable and with the outer edge rounded to avoid pressure on the thighs. The chair, with arms to allow the release of the back.
Although the center of the computer screen is lower than your gaze and your arms form a relaxed 90º angle with the desk, the most important thing is what happens on the screen. Do not allow reading that information to take your head excessively forward, forcing the gaze, or generate tension in the arm and hand that moves the mouse.
Not taking care of posture at work can lead to pain in the cervical, shoulder blades, dorsals or tendonitis.
6. HOW TO STAND WITHOUT STRAINING THE SPINE
When we spend more than an hour standing, we must take into account the placement of the body with respect to the ground:
The feet. He usually wears comfortable, lightweight shoes with low heels. Do not save on shoes, think that they support the foundation of the building, which is the body when it is standing. See a podiatrist to balance your feet with insoles if necessary.
The knees. Hold them on, until you notice that they can be moved backwards and allow the hip to move in any direction. If you spend a lot of time standing still, put a small stool under one foot to unload your back.
The pelvis. Perpendicular above the feet, it is like a bowl hanging from the sky. To mobilize it, hold your body with your back to the wall and try to tilt the pelvis towards the thighs while gluing the lumbar to the septum without taking off the rest of the trunk. Relax and repeat.
The shoulders. They are aligned perpendicularly above the iliac crest and heels, respecting the curve of the spine.
The head. The ears are in a sagittal line with the shoulders and fontanelle, central point of the skull and prolongation of the spine. Remember that the part of the body that supports the head and neck are the lower abdominals (below the navel).
7. HOME STRETCHES FOR YOUR BACK
Lie on the floor or carpet on your back and interlace your legs with your hands at the height of the tibias. Listen to your breathing. When inhaling, let your legs move away from the body a few millimeters and when you exhale draw them towards you; In the pause until you breathe in again, rest. Remember that you are listening and following the air, do not blow to make the movement.
Then, on your knees, sit on your twins and leave the trunk resting on the thighs and the forehead on the floor. Listen to your breath, feel the contact of the body with the ground and perceive the five senses.
As a family, it is best to learn simple massages in pairs, for example on the feet and back.
Before going to bed, do quiet activities: reading, listening to music or stargazing.
Allow the day to go through your head, what you have lived and learned, the people you have found. Remember that each one offers an opportunity to learn, as teachers who put life into it.
8. BACK EXERCISES AGAINST PAIN
Unlock shoulders and dorsals. Cross your arms stretched out with the palms of your hand looking at each other and interlace your fingers raising them; Perform the movement three times down and up. Repeat it but invert the forearm that is on top. Don’t let your shoulders go up or your trunk move.
Energize the back. When looking ahead, you should have your arms in the field of vision. Leave your elbows slightly bent. Rotate forward the arm spirally from the index finger, passing through the wrists, elbows, and continue with the shoulders, winding the trunk down. Breathe three times and then unroll it following the reverse path.
Release the rib cage. Standing, facing forward, with your left leg straight, bend your right knee and try to bring your right hand to your right foot by bending the trunk around your waist. Extend and look at your left arm. Without moving your legs, swing your trunk and arms to the other side. Change the position of the legs and tilt the trunk to the other side.
Strengthen thighs and back. Stand with the trunk touching the wall, the feet are slightly apart, and the heels do not touch the socket. Bend your knees and lower your hips towards the floor, trying not to detach from the wall, for which you must tilt it forward. Get as low as your knees and strength allow. Repeat 3 times.
Relax the cervical. Standing or while sitting, lift a bent leg in front of your body and pull it toward you. Then cross your fingers around the tibia, leave the leg relaxed in the air and counterbalance by pulling the body back straight and in a line inclined with the ground. Don’t let your chest sink. Breathe. Perform the exercise with the other leg.
9. EXERCISES TO UNBLOCK THE SPINE
Lie on the floor on your back, holding your head with your hands (intertwined or not) by the occipital bone. Gently, lift her off the ground as if you were rolling her necks to look at her feet. Leave your head on the floor and repeat it three times. Feel how your back has changed.
Then, pressing the soles of your feet on the floor, try to bring your knees forward and up, in the direction marked by the thighs, lifting your hips off the ground. It is not just about lifting the hips, but about giving it the direction that the thighs and knees have from the pressure of the soles of the feet against the ground. Repeat it ten times and then link the two exercises.
To bind them, roll up your head and, when you support it again, press the soles and raise your hips in the direction of your knees. When you lower your hips, roll your head again making a rocking effect by rolling your neck and lifting your hips.
10. EXERCISES TO LENGTHEN THE VERTEBRAE
Press the sole of the right foot against the ground and let the body, from this force, turn to the left. The lateral turn begins with the hip, passes to the chest, and ends at the head. Although the force of the sole of the foot raises the right hip, it is important that the thigh does not tilt to any side. Do it seven times, then stretch your leg and relax to feel the contact of your back with the ground, the change that has occurred in it and in your breathing. Then repeat the exercise on the other side.
Start as in the previous exercise, but now put your arm perpendicular to the ground with your shoulder blade well supported. Press with your right foot on the floor, raising your hips and turning your body and head to the left. At all times the right arm remains vertical, gently stretching towards the sky.
When returning to the initial position, leave the force of the sole of the foot and try to settle the shoulder blade on the ground. Repeat it seven times, rest and notice the changes that have occurred in the body. Do it the other way.
THE TIME OF THE BATH ALSO MATTERS
The bathroom is the place of internal and external cleaning. The way you perform them will help keep your back flexible.
Shower with hot water and install a sprinkler to give more pressure to the water spending the same amount. The hot shower will open your pores.
Occasionally rub your back and body with a natural bristle brush.
To finish the shower, switch briefly to cold water, so that body and back react and circulation is activated.
Squatting is good for your back. Before deposition, squat on tiptoe, open your feet and legs wide, and try to place the trunk between them with some forward inclination; Then rest the entire sole of the foot on the ground. Take three deep breaths. You will notice that the air goes to the lumbar, coccyx and sacrum. This frees the end of the column and facilitates evacuation.
There is a way to practice physical exercise while still taking care of your children: do it with them. In addition to being a lot of fun, it is beneficial for everyone.
Alfred Hitchcock said that there was nothing more difficult than filming with animals or with children. Many parents would agree that their children also don’t make it easy for them to get the exercise they want. But there is a solution: do it with them.
Thus, parents manage to stay in shape and at the same time serve as an example to children, on whom the threat of obesity weighs (one in three school-age children already has more weight than they deserve).
Exercise not only burns calories but also helps to disconnect from worries, favors body and mind to harmonize and, if done as a family, enhances good communication and joy.
In addition, children learn best (to exercise and, in general, to relate, decide or create) when all their senses are stimulated at once, which happens when performing a physical activity.
The type of proper exercise depends on the age of the creature. It is not advisable to take a baby younger than 6 months as an exercise partner, because his neck does not have enough strength to support the head.
But from that age the baby can move playfully in the water and even learn to coordinate arms and legs better through certain exercises.
CAN YOU EXERCISE WITH CHILDREN?
In any case, doing a little exercise together has to make the child funny. It cannot be an obligation because then the effects can be more negative than positive.
Instead of proposing to “do a little exercise” it is convenient to tell him that “let’s play” or “let’s meet other children”.
On the other hand, children, especially the youngest ones, do not want or make sense to reach the limit of their strength. Therefore, when they do not want to continue, their decision must be respected without pressuring them, no matter how much the adult is interested in squeezing themselves.
When exercising with children, it is necessary to take into account their physiological, maturation and growth characteristics, which determine the type of training that can be performed:
Children have a higher heart rate than adults.
You have to pay attention to their subjective feeling of tiredness, because they rarely lie in this aspect.
Special attention should be paid to overweight children.
It is better to err on the side of moderate than to overdo it with the intensity of exercise.
You should never train a child with a plan designed for an adult, even if you intend to adapt it.
Priority should be given to aerobic resistance training (moderate, long-term exercise that works the respiratory system and the heart) over anaerobic exercises (which require very brief but intense muscular effort).
HOW TO EXERCISE WITH CHILDREN
Family yoga. Many yoga schools offer courses for children and parents. Teachers often encourage children to play the role of animals or plants; So, the class becomes fun for them. In the case of opting for a yoga course, it is important that parents practice at home the postures learned, which are valid for adult beginners.
Tennis. It is indicated for those who do not feel comfortable practicing team sports. You can do balls with children, without taking it too seriously, let them give a few balls or allow them to practice against a pediment wall. Tennis promotes coordination, responsiveness and speed. In addition, the child learns to know the responses of the ball, which can serve as a basis for other sports.
Swimming. The water is ideal for very active children, because in it they can vent freely and without hurting themselves. Swimming is among the main preventive sports: it strengthens the muscles in general and that of the back, chest and abdomen, in particular. It is very important that children start learning the correct techniques of each style because then the vices are difficult to correct and can cause physical discomfort.
Cycling. Going outdoors and walking at a pedal pace is very attractive for everyone. The advantage of the bicycle is that it does not stick to a court and is practiced sitting. Make sure that the size of the bike is the most adapted to the age and height of the child.
Football. The advantage of the “king sport” is that the interest of most children is assured. In addition, he works sometimes amazing transformations: some individualistic children become excellent teammates or the quiet ones bring out their genius. On the physical level, football promotes mobility, reaction and strength. Playing to score goals, to dodge and to run with the ball are always fun games.
Inline skating. Although it is not a media success, this activity delights children. Skating strengthens most of the large muscle groups and, in addition, promotes coordination. For everyone, but especially for children, it is very important to use protections: knee pads, wristbands, helmet and elbow pads.
It is best not to choose one proposal and discard the others but to try several to enjoy the advantages of each one and improve the coordination of movements.
On the other hand, the goal should be to have fun and build a healthy habit rather than performing the activity with technical perfection or seeking maximum intensity in the effort.
HOW TO EXERCISE WITH A BABY
Jogging with trolley. In central and northern Europe, it is increasingly common for young moms and dads to run pushing a stroller. It is quite an experience for the child, as long as he is more than 10 months old. You only need a three-wheeled car with good cushioning. It is not recommended that the race exceeds 30 minutes, so that the child does not get bored.
Activities in the water. They are very interesting for babies: they entertain them, stimulate them and favor their motor development. In addition, they strengthen the muscles, especially the back. Until the first year of life, babies have a natural respiratory reflex: if they are submerged, the airways are automatically blocked and do not let water pass into the lungs. Therefore, the stage that covers from 6 to 12 months is very suitable for babies to learn to swim (or not to forget) without effort or fear. Meanwhile, parents exercise for the sake of accompanying them.
GYMNASTICS EXERCISES FOR TWO
Back. Lying on their backs, they bend their knees with the soles of their feet resting on the floor. The child sits on the hips, well held by the little hands, and the buttocks are raised until only the shoulders are in contact with the floor. It remains a few seconds in that position breathing calmly and slowly returns to the initial position but without the buttocks touching the ground.
Abdominals. Lying on their back, with their knees equally bent, the child sits on their hips holding them under their arms. Little by little, the trunk is lifted by bringing the navel inward and pressing the lumbar against the ground. It is thus held for a few seconds, breathing, and returns to the initial position.
The body has an enormous purifying capacity, but to take advantage of it you have to support the complex detoxification system. We teach you how to do it through exercises.
Toxins that accumulate in the body can block our body’s functions and be an impediment to breathing, digesting, relating or reproducing. If we do not remove them, they produce physical, mental, emotional and spiritual discomfort.
HOW WE ELIMINATE TOXINS
We have the appropriate toxin elimination mechanisms to fulfill our functions. Many of the molecules, vitamins and enzymes that our body produces every day are dedicated to eliminating the waste products that we originate.
Most of the work is done in the digestive system, kidneys, lungs, lymphatic system and skin that are tuned and involved together in a complex detoxification system.
When breathing. The elimination of toxins in respiration occurs in expiration which removes carbon dioxide and disposable materials that the blood has metabolized.
In digestion. In digestion is performed in the digestive tract, after transforming food with the help of the liver we remove detritus through the intestine.
When sleeping. While we sleep, the brain can cleanse itself of toxins, among which are proteins related to Alzheimer’s disease.
In the kidney. The kidney metabolizes the liquid toxins we ingest.
Through the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system protects us by recognizing and eliminating foreign substances and potential pathogenic microorganisms.
Through sweat. The skin removes toxins through the pores.
Exercising. Any acceleration of the cells of our system produces an immediate well-being and clean of toxins.
But the most interesting thing is that all these systems work together and when we affect one, we affect a little in all, while there are actions that require all the systems, devices and elements that constitute the human being such as breathing or sleeping.
WHY EXERCISE HELPS ELIMINATE TOXINS
When we run, jump rope, perform a spinning or bicycle class, Pilates or Bikram Yoga our cells accelerate producing heat.
Moving activates the skeleton, muscles and tendons and facilitates the elimination of toxins in these parts of the body and produces a relaxing effect.
But what to do when we have an injury? We can relax by learning to meditate, to do Chikung or Taichi.
Or we can meditate by walking, listening and perceiving everything that comes to our senses including the breath and the earth we step on through our feet.
EXERCISES TO ELIMINATE TOXINS
Here we propose you to influence to support the detoxification functions that the body already performs through specific exercises.
OPEN THE DIAPHRAGM TO ACTIVATE BREATHING AND ABDOMEN
Standing with the feet apart like the pelvis, and the knees unstrained, we will open the arms in cross, and then place the right arm in the direction of the right heel and the left arm facing the sky. The torso is slightly twisted with the left side in front of the body and the right behind.
From this position we look back at the right hand, we take it down helping us gently bending the knees until the kneecaps are above the toes and slightly loosening the left arm. Inspiring throughout the movement.
Then we look forward up to the left hand stretching the legs, arm, left hand and especially the ribs and waist on the left side, without letting the left shoulder blade rise and exhale in this position.
We repeat these movements eight times and rest. We observe its effect and repeat the same exercise by changing the arms.
ACTIVATE THE IMMUNE SYSTEM
The immune system recognizes and eliminates foreign substances and potential toxic microorganisms.
An exercise to support this function is as follows:
Stand sitting on the floor with your back straight, legs bent, open and the soles of your feet against each other. We rest our hands on our ankles and make a back and forth of the legs up and down to warm the joints.
Then we put our hands on the thighs exerting a slight pressure with the arms down while trying to raise the knees for three seconds and release. When we make the pressure, we take out the air and when we release, we inspire. Try not to raise your shoulders upwards and exert force with your arm slightly bent.
We will perform 2 sets of 5 repetitions.
ELIMINATE TOXINS THROUGH THE SKIN AND LUNG
Standing with feet apart like pelvis and knees loosened.
Behind the body we take the thumb of the right hand with that of the left hand and begin to raise the arms back with the thumbs that rise upwards. We support this movement by letting the head and trunk bend forward while exhaling. We will remain as shown in the figure.
In this position we release the pressure of the thumbs and arms to inspire and we exert it again when exhaling.
Repeat for five times and return to the standing position. We rest and we can repeat with each finger, that is, the second time with the index finger of the right hand that takes the one of the left hands and so on.
ACTIVATE CLEARANCE IN THE KIDNEYS
This exercise can be done sitting or standing.
Rub the palm of the right hand against that of the left-hand exerting circles until heat is produced in both hands.
Then when we inhale, we rub the kidneys five or six times up and down, and when we exhale, we rub our hands again.
We repeat the procedure five times, resting and listening to the effect produced.
If you have your period, instead of rubbing the kidneys we will leave the heat of the hands on the kidneys when inhaling and we will rub the hands in a circle when exhaling.
STREAMLINE THE DIGESTIVE TRACT
We stand face down with our palms and toes facing the ground. The arms will be slightly bent and the chest open, the head follows the spine and the legs are at right angles to the knee and the thighs at right angles to the body.
From this position we bring the right knee inside the body up towards the left shoulder and return to the initial position, then bring the knee and left leg inside the body up towards the right shoulder and return to the beginning.
It is a dynamic exercise that we will perform ten times on each side and rest to repeat once again.
TO SLEEP BETTER
We stretch on the floor to feel the breath and the contact of the different surfaces of the body.
We sit with our legs extended, but not stretched, so that we can have our back straight and feel that the trunk and head rest on the ischia.
From here we begin to walk with the ischia forward supporting the right on the ground to lift the left ischium and move it forward, then we leave the left ischium displaced on the ground to lean on it and move the right. And so, on we will advance the body walking with the ischia forward about five steps. Then we tried five backwards.
We rested with our bodies lying down and observed how breathing and contact with the ground changed. Repeat it and go to sleep!
