In a previous post where I described a few benefits of reasonable exposure to cold, I explained why I begin my days with a cold shower. To answer the many readers who asked if there are benefits to taking hot baths, the answer is an emphatic yes. Read more
If you have shoulder pain and stiffness while using your arms overhead, I encourage you to add scapular mobility exercises to your self care routine, as optimal movement of your shoulder blades along the posterior surface of your ribcage is vital to ensuring proper biomechanics of your shoulder joints when your arms are raised overhead.
If you're new to scapular mobility exercises, I would start with the Cow-Cat drill found here: Read more
Hanging from an object overhead is one of the most effective ways of maintaining and improving shoulder and spinal mobility.
Be sure that you are warmed up before engaging in hanging exercises - ideally, you want to take your shoulders and spine through a solid warm-up and even work up a bit of perspiration to ensure that your tissues are well perfused with blood to prevent injury. Read more
Begin with your heels on the ground and the balls of your feet against the lowest rung of your stall bars, or if you don't have stall bars but have a secure object to anchor your hands to, you can have the balls of your feet pressed up against the wall with your heels on the ground. Read more
If you can make use of a reasonably accurate way of almost instantly monitoring your oxygen saturation (SO2) level, you might consider utilizing an inexpensive pulse oximeter, as shown above. Read more
This video demonstrates some movement patterns that you can do with a long stick or dowel. I shot this video indoors with hope that closer positioning to my tripod allows for easier viewing of these movements.
Using a stick to take your shoulders through these and other movements can help you identify and work through restrictions in shoulder, trunk, and hip mobility. Read more
What follows are what I would call high value mobility exercises - movements that yield immense physical health benefits per second of time and calorie of energy invested.
Please note that you should feel free to modify such exercises to suit your circumstances. For example, if you can't be on all fours to mobilize your wrists, you can do the same movements standing with your hands against a wall. Read more
