This month, we are going to focus on shoulder health. Follow along all month long and get moves that help create strong, mobile shoulders.
At-Home Workouts
Hip Month – Week 5
We are going to close out hip month by activating and lengthening our posterior chain with these 2 exercises.
Hip Month – Week 4
This week we are moving through our stretches, making them dynamic and loaded to help utilize our new found flexibility.
Hip Month – Week 3
Hip Month – Week 2
This week we are focusing on hip rotation with our 90/90 mobilization and our shin box press-up.
Hip Month – Week 1
In the month of November, we will be exploring our hips. Each week we will release 2 new exercise for you to try. Give it a whirl!
November Move of the Month – Hanging
At the beginning of September, I had the great opportunity to spend a week interning with Ido Portal in Germany. While I was there, I met a great women from Northern Ireland and last month (October) she invited her crew to participate in a hanging challenge. So for the month of October I hung and swung and watched my grip get stronger and my shoulders more open. So, I decided this month, I should invite my crew to participate.
The details of the original hanging challenge from Ido himself can be found here. In short, the challenge is to hang for 7 minutes of accumulated time per day. However, since I am a big proponent of not letting the perfect get in the way of the good, I suggest we start at just hanging every day. So, it can be in dosages of 10 seconds or 2 minutes. You can hang for an accumulated time of 1 minute or 15 minutes and each day can be different. There are no rules.
I do have a few suggestions though…
- Hang in different places with different grips.
- Set yourself up for success by identifying easy to access areas to hang.
- Set an alarm on your phone so you do not forget to get at least one hang in a day.
- Try to build on your time each day.
- Don’t bore yourself out of the challenge, find friends to hang with our post your photos on Instagram and tag me! (@brennabacke)
Today is day 1! Get our there and hang!
Runner and Walker Recovery – Hip Pain
At my studio, Koa Fit, we work with not only runners and walkers with hip pain, but also cyclists, dancers, golfers, tennis players and a lot more. As said before in my previous posts about foot pain and knee pain, “hip pain” is a broad term. Most importantly, your hip pain could actually be back pain in disguise. It is important to know if your hip pain is a symptom of overuse/misuse or if it is nerve pain. A physical therapist can run you through some tests to help you identify where your pain is coming from.
For the purpose of this post, I am going to be addressing the hip pain in the upper hamstring that is usually associated with activity. It normally comes about during or after strenuous activity and feels like a a deep ache or muscle strain located where your leg meets your bum in the back. Any pain that feels “sharp” or “burn-y” is most likely nerve pain and you will need more evaluation before getting appropriate exercises.
To help relieve and prevent the onset of hip pain, try the exercises below. Even with the absence of hip pain, these exercises are good to perform to keep the hips moving smoothly and to avoid over-tightness.
Runner and Walker Recovery – Knee Pain
Let’s move on to the 2nd biggest complaint among runners and walkers, knee pain (if you have the 1st, foot pain, please see my last post). I know “knee pain” is such a broad term, but let’s start big picture and then move into the details.
Pain in the knee, if not caused by trauma (getting side-tackled for example), comes from a dysfunction of your biomechanics, or movements. The movement I am talking about most is your gait, whether walking or running. When you have a breakdown in the mechanics of your gait, that deficiency gets highlighted over thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of repetitions with each training session.
It is important to have a professional assess your walking and running patterns to identify any inefficiencies you may have in your stride. But for now, we are going to focus on one of the more common points of pain, patellofemoral pain. This is the pain commonly felt just below the kneecap and is usually a signal of over-used quadriceps and an under-utilized posterior kinetic chain (arch, calves, hamstrings, and glutes).
Try the exercises below to help prevent the onset of patellofemoral pain and keep your knees happy!
Runner and Walker Recovery – Foot Pain
One of the main complaints I hear from my runners and walkers is about pain their feet. Whether it be the heel, arch, or ball of the foot, it seems every pedestrian ends up with foot pain at one point or another.
There are many factors that can cause inflammation on the bottom of the foot. It is best to get an assessment by a movement specialist to determine your precise cause. However, there are a few general movements you can start doing to help you keep the pain at bay or even prevent it from starting in the first place. Check out the video below and follow along to help increase your foot’s flexibility and strength.
Brenna Backe 