Hey,
How’s your Sunday morning so far?
Technical glitches going on still, so no audio format this week as well. Thanks for understanding.
I do see a parallel (we always see things with the lenses we have) between the rapid decline in the usage of masks in my city and how we implode in our fitness/dietary journey as it goes beyond what we originally anticipated.
Anyway, on to the 3 things for today.
fixing your posture is mandatory. All of us have poor posture because of the nature of our lives. I have 3 fun options for you that will not only improve your posture but go about improving your strength, your sense of inner balance, your core strength and stability and get you on the way to pushups as well.
3 quotes that can help you have a better day and a better week.
on the common obsession of looking ripped and how that hurts all of us on our fitness and health journeys. I want you to ask yourself a couple of questions and I’d love for you to get back to me with your thoughts and answers.
Let’s get on with it, shall we!
Before we get started, if you think one of these posts are useful, do share it with ONE friend of yours.
3 fun ways to improve your posture, build up your core strength and more
You sit all day. You are hunched over. These are given. Wouldn't it be awesome if you could do a movement that gets you stronger AND improves your posture? As well as improves your breathing, your core too.
The pushup is a great strength movement because it is an expression of our body being well-knit and our core function being solid. A lot of you want to do pushups as you think it is easy and accessible. It certainly is. But let’s put it to the test, shall we?
the test - are you ready to do a pushup?
A simple way to test it out is to lie down, face down. Keep your hands about shoulder-width apart and in line with your shoulders (or thereabouts). Plank! And push yourself up. If you came up in one piece, you are good!
But if you come up all wobbly, or are not able to come up at all. Or if you don't have a 2-minute plank, then the pushup is not the best place to start things off.
The traditional approach to building a pushup is to make the angle easier. The floor pushup has your body at an angle of about 70-80 degrees to the floor. If you stand up and lean against the wall and make the angle 20-30 degrees, it becomes so much easier. The mechanics of the movement remain the same but it suddenly becomes extremely accessible.
the alternate approach and 6 reasons why
A lot of you have also been off from strength training for a while and while you might still be strong enough to do pushups, your core and posture need work. The last thing you need is more pushing.
And for those of you who haven't done strength training in a while, the pushup might be a long way away. You should start off with the fundamentals, like the elbow plank and all that.
While some of you will focus on the fundamentals and chip your way slowly and steadily (high-five!), most of you will just jump in and do pushups with poor mechanics and injure your elbow or something sooner rather than later.
A lot of you don’t have good pushups. So, why start there?
This worsens our posture and well, is not fun.
Instead, I am going to give you 3 alternatives. Why?
get out of your comfort zone.
have fun.
work on your hunched posture and improve it.
improve your joint mobility.
and improve your core as well, while we are at it. By working on it reflexively!
improved diaphragmatic breathing, rather than the much harder skill of bracing and breathing behind a shield.
#1: The Hindu Pushup
The Hindu pushup is an amazing variation that has been traditionally in our country for a while. And is still practised today by the millions of folks doing yoga.
It is phenomenal for joint mobility - the downward dog position where we start off will help you, amongst other things
work your ankle mobility and stretch your calves out.
improve your mid-back aka thoracic spine mobility. Most of us have poor t-spine mobility which causes us neck and lower back issues.
And from there, it takes us into extension i.e. the upward dog position which continues to reinforce joint mobility in the other end range, as well as stretch out things like our hip flexors which get too tight from all the sitting we do.
It is also guided by our eyes and head, which improves our vestibular system i.e. the system that provides us with our sense of balance and spatial orientation.
While we will squeeze our glutes as we transition into the upward dog position, we don't really need to brace our abs and stay tight and as one unit. This is a fundamental requisite to resistance training - the ability to tie our body together as one unit and create the tension that's required. In my experience, that's something beginners struggle with quite a bit. And by going this route and working on moves that challenge you reflexively and not "are you skilled enough to brace your abs and squeeze your glutes and breathe behind a shield", we work slowly at getting better.
#2: The Rocking Pushup
Another version designed to help you fix your posture. From start to finish, the posture is the opposite of our hunched posture. You start off in a rocking stance, initiate the push from your toes and try to get your chest as far in front as possible.
Since there's no tight glutes and abs, the core starts to fire brilliantly! It might take time but it will.
This can be easily regressed as well - you limit the depth to whatever is comfortable.
I've also found that this teaches proper pushup mechanics. You learn to keep your elbows in the right place and your shoulder blade movement is perfect. As long as you keep gripping the floor with your palms and work on the chest being forward.
For those of you with a lot of pushups, this will be rather restorative. And if you want a bit of a challenge, just get your knees off and do them.
#3: Crawl
My favourite movement. I've found that this fixes a lot of things and highlights issues that we don't know you have. But without whacking you in the head but by gently coaxing you out of a poor pattern and into a good pattern.
Our posture is relaxed and yet in extension. The opposite of our hunched position that we find ourselves in almost all day. Our breathing is nice and relaxed.
We learn to initiate the movement from the foot and the force transfers through our lower body to our upper body, via the transmission.
Slow it down and find the various bits of wobbliness. Allow your stabilisers to kick in and do their job.
You can go forward and backwards as well. Even laterally.
These 3 alternatives to the pushup will
make you stronger
improve your posture
improve your core
improve your breathing
improve your balance and vestibular system
and get you closer to a pushup as well!
If that's not enough, it will also spice up your training and add a lot of sensible variety to it.
Try it out and let me know how it goes.
3 quotes
Do you work all day and yet feel like you didn't actually do anything? I certainly did. And I found these quotes to be mighty helpful.
If you can learn to define a successful day on your own terms, you’ve won!
– Brian Koppelman
A busy workday is unfortunately an affliction most of us seem to have. With constant emails that need to be answered, with Insta/FB that needs keeping up, with WhatsApp messages by the truckload - it is never-ending. And then there's the real work as well, which is beyond these seemingly urgent tasks that crop up all the time.
It used to leave me feeling overwhelmed and drained. But even having worked a 12+ hour day, I'd look back and wonder if I actually got any work done.
Until I realised that 12-hour workdays are silly. And that work will never end. And I need to learn to define what my important task for the day is. And if I finish my important task for the day, that's a good day!
It has made a huge change in my life. Previously, maybe 1 out of the 5 days, I might feel like I did a good bit of work. But that number has consistently been on the higher side ever since I adopted Brian's intelligent thought.
Be impatient with your actions. Be patient with your results.
– James Clear
Get to the gym. Lift weights. Don't put it off until tomorrow.
Now, wait a year for the good work to compound itself.
Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you made the effort to do your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming.
– John Wooden
Control the controllable. Coach Wooden is just full of brilliant thoughts, observations and fundamentals.
If you truly put in your best effort, then what else is there to it? This goes in line with the first quote for me - did I identify the right thing to work on and did I put in my best effort? If so, chalk it up as a successful day.
on looking ripped and getting a 6-pack
Do you really need to?
Does it really matter that much?
What do you think is going to change? Why do you want to get into the shape that Instagram tells us is all around us, the shape that magazine cover models and celebrities look like?
Is it going to make you a better parent? Is it going to make you a better friend? Are you going to be a better sibling? Are you going to be a better boss or employee?
Not really.
Being in good health, being in reasonably good shape (lesser abdominal fat, reasonable waist: height ratio), being StrongEnoughare all worthwhile goals and we should certainly aim to be there.
Being in good health will definitely make you work better, as you are mentally sharper. It can make you a better person, coz you are feeling physically and mentally better. You have more energy, sure.
But beyond that, do we really need to go the extra mile? Or the extra 100 miles?
What's a few extra kilos or inches in your waistline going to do to you, if your cholesterol is great (and whatever other markers we need to keep an eye on), you have the luxury of a beer with your mates when you want to, cake with your family when you want to, and indulge sensibly in all the things that you want to?
Enough is enough.
All of us should be 80% or thereabouts. You should be lifting weights regularly, you should be eating vegetables and all of that, sleeping well - at least 80% of the time.
A few weeks of the year, you can dial it up.
A few weeks of the year, you can dial it down if you need. But you might not need to.
For some of you with great genetics, 80% is often enough to get you to look ripped. For most of you, it will be enough to get you into a better waistline, into those clothes you want to fit into.
For most of you, that's enough.
Happiness is not found at the end of this when you get your 6-pack.
Do you think more time at the gym, more time restricting your eating, more time being obsessed about a goal that you are not entirely sure of what it adds to your life is going to get you to be happier? Or more time with your friends or family? Or be happy with where your current body is compared to where it was? Or more importantly, being happier with the choices you are making compared to what you were making?
I am not advocating being out of shape (or rather, unhealthy). I am simply telling you that being in shape versus looking ripped and having a 6-pack are not the same thing at all.
I think a lot of us fail at our health and fitness goals because we mistake our end-goal.
Think about it.
And that’s that!