Betty Rocker (00:16):
What’s up, rock stars Coach Betty Rocker right here. Thanks a lot for spending a while with me at the moment. So final time we talked, we went in depth about one of many essential indicators of our energy, which is after all, grip energy. And simply to recap, grip energy is actually essential as a result of it’s a great indicator of our total energy. So it’s a great one to make use of to form of gauge the place you’re at now. Final time we talked, I went over 5 methods to check your grip energy. And what we checked out have been squeezing a house lavatory scale to see what number of kilos of stress you’ll be able to grip utilizing a dynamometer gadget, which measures your grip energy hanging from a bar and timing your self doing a farmer’s carry with weights at your sides as you stroll and selecting up weights by the heads utilizing a pinch seize.

(01:05)
So these have been all of our exams, and the rationale it’s an awesome thought to verify in on it periodically and why we must always care about it’s simply due to the related threat components which are associated to poor grip energy, which are actually every thing from elevated threat of bone breaks to poor immune well being, decrease cognitive perform, and a lot extra. And as we age, hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone begin to decline. We’ve talked so much about this on earlier episodes and the way the lack of these key hormones actually impacts our energy, making us extra liable to muscle and bone loss, and actually affecting our flexibility as that ligamentous tissue turns into much less pliable. The excellent news is should you’re utilizing Betty Rocker coaching packages and consuming tips, you’ve got important instruments to remain forward of a whole lot of the age associated degeneratio the physique is actually liable to. I imply, use it or lose it, proper?

(01:59)
Should you’re coaching with me, you’re constantly energy coaching and also you’re working in your explosive energy, you’re consuming sufficient protein to your age group and also you’re prioritizing these fiber wealthy carbs and that wholesome fats. You’re making your self care a precedence like taking the remainder days between your excessive quantity coaching classes, and should you’re in perimenopause or publish menopause, you’ve bought a extra custom-made schedule to your coaching in my packages that basically is gonna profit you essentially the most. You’re prioritizing your bedtime and also you’re stretching extra round your coaching. You’re retaining an “all or one thing” mentality in thoughts so to keep constant. And you understand that our well being and health are this holistic course of that we work on over time, similar to we work on methods to speak to ourselves with kindness the identical method we might speak to our pals. And actually, making pals with your self and talking to your self with kindness is among the finest issues you are able to do for your self and your well being.

(02:54)
Generally it’s actually useful to consider the little model of you, and keep in mind that once you communicate to your self, you’re additionally talking to her. I do know you’ve got a whole lot of love to offer, so give that like to your self too, and keep in mind why you’re exhibiting as much as do the stuff I speak about. Like we gotta be exercising and caring about our meals for extra than simply that scorching bod, proper? I imply, you can nonetheless have that too, nevertheless it goes deeper, proper? Nowadays after I practice, I take into consideration the one who I’ll be in 30 years and I wanna actually set her up for achievement. All the things I do now’s going to assist with that. I wanna maintain on to robust bones and have the muscle in my physique to have the ability to transfer and hike and luxuriate in life, and I wanna keep as versatile as I can.

(03:38)
So actually as of late I’m taking motion for 2 individuals. I’m doing it for the little child model of me. I wanna make her pleased with who I’m, and I’m doing it for the older model of me. I would like her to look again and say, rattling lady, you set us as much as be robust and and take a look at how a lot we are able to do, proper? I simply discovered myself actually impressed with the grip energy check and the way a lot I may do. And also you may assume, oh, come on Betty Rocker, you’re a coach. In fact that was simple for you and usually you’d be proper. However I did have a foul fall about six months in the past now, and I dislocated my elbow. And ever since then I’ve been slowly and methodically rebuilding my energy round that joint. It’s loopy, nevertheless it simply modified how I used to be capable of do every kind of workout routines and I needed to actually take it sluggish as I got here again after that harm.

(04:25)
And I used to be simply so glad to have that muscle and energy that I had constructed earlier than to attract on. And I used to be positively thanking my previous self for all her arduous work. Let me let you know, (chuckle). So anyway, after I used to be kind of checking in on my energy with the grip energy check, it bought me fascinated with the opposite issues we need to verify in with ourselves on periodically in terms of our energy and our mobility, as a result of we additionally wanna have robust legs, a robust core, good flexibility, and a stable potential to steadiness as we age. One standard check you might even see on-line that basically targets all of these issues is the sit to face or sit to rise check. A examine revealed within the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology assessed over 2000 adults, over 50 years previous, performing this check, they usually discovered that these with decrease scores had greater mortality charges from any trigger, and other people with greater scores had longer survival charges.

(05:24)
Now, this check actually sizes up the energy in our glutes, our hamstrings, inside and outer thigh muscle tissues, plus our mobility, our steadiness, and our coordination and our core. So you are able to do this one proper now if you wish to, and should you’re watching the video model of this podcast on the present notes web page on my weblog or on my YouTube channel, you’ll be able to see an indication, however you may as well simply hear alongside ’trigger I’ll clarify it. There are two components to this check. One is the sitting down and the second is the standing up. We’ll begin out with 5 factors for every a part of the check for a complete of 10 factors. We’re gonna begin out standing, after which we’re gonna sit down cross-legged on the ground utilizing as few factors of contact with the ground as potential to carry ourselves down, which means your fingers, knees, elbows, or some other a part of your physique utilizing as few of these physique components as potential to carry your self right down to that seated place.

(06:15)
And we begin with these 5 factors and we deduct a degree for each level of contact that we have to use to carry ourselves down into that seated cross-legged place. Now, half two of this check is to face up from that cross-legged place utilizing as little assist as potential from our fingers, knees, elbows, or different factors of contact with the ground. And as soon as once more, you begin with 5 factors and also you deduct a degree for each level of contact you must use that can assist you rise up. So should you’re someplace that you are able to do this, go forward and take a look at it out and ensure that you’re subsequent to some furnishings so to attain out to assist your self. We’re simply assessing the place we’re at. Simply discover if you must put a hand down, if you must use your knees to come back up, or should you felt stiff or had hassle being within the cross-legged place and coming into it or out of it, how did you do?

(07:03)
Now you’re gonna take your factors from every half and add them collectively to see the place you fall on that complete one to 10 scale. And should you wanted to make use of some assist to carry your self up, keep in mind that’s okay. The purpose of the check is to only discover out the place we have to focus. We’d like a whole lot of flexibility in our tissue and mobility round our joints to come back from a seated place to standing or from a standing place again to seated because the legs are bent and the tissue that crosses over the joint areas of our hips, ankles, and knees, all wants to have the ability to transfer freely. We’d like a whole lot of leg and core energy as all of these muscle teams work collectively to assist us stand up and are available down. And we’d like steadiness, potential, and coordination, a whole lot of which comes from our core energy to assist us in that in-between part proper of the stand or the sit.

(07:54)
Now, should you discovered that you just struggled with this one, that’s completely regular. It simply could also be that you must work in your flexibility somewhat extra and simply perhaps begin stretching round your exercises extra constantly. As we age, we lose our collagen and our elastin and the issues that assist us be extra limber. Our ligaments change into much less compliant as our estrogen ranges go down. So getting somewhat extra proactive about your self-care round your exercises, whether or not it’s a 3 minute warmup the place you’re simply transferring dynamically and even doing a number of the strikes out of your exercise with your individual physique weight, otherwise you’re doing say a 5 minute stretch after you practice with these heat muscle tissues, otherwise you’re including somewhat yoga or mobility work on a few of your relaxation days all through the week like we do in the entire Betty Rocker packages.

(08:39)
That may be a good way to enhance your joint well being and actually hold your physique limber and free and together with flexibility, a number of the workout routines that may actually enhance all of these areas of your physique that assist with sitting and standing embrace strikes just like the it’s, this one’s bought a few names, the knee drop lunge, which is also called the prisoner squat. And that’s the place you place your fingers behind your head and also you decrease your self right down to a kneeling place and then you definately step proper again up once more, retaining your fingers again behind your head. And one other nice transfer that I really like to incorporate in my packages is the Turkish getup. That’s the place you begin out mendacity in your again with one arm straight up within the air, you elevate your higher physique up virtually coming right into a situp utilizing your core energy, and then you definately carry your legs below you coming into both a kneeling lunge or a low squat, and then you definately come as much as a standing place holding your arm up overhead all the time.

(09:35)
This transfer is a brilliant spicy transfer, nevertheless it actually helps to strengthen every thing out of your rotator cuff to your core, your legs, glutes, and it helps enhance your steadiness and adaptability as you’re getting up from the ground and coming again right down to the ground. It’s a featured transfer within the Ripped Rockstar Problem sequence in Rock Your Life over the course of that individual problem sequence in components one, two, and three, we repeatedly work to enhance our Turkish getup in a single exercise every week. That’s a extremely enjoyable program in Rock Your Life. You must positively test it out, however one other nice physique weight transfer to enhance your sit to standability and hold your steadiness flexibility core and legs robust is the burpee (chuckle). That’s the place we carry ourselves right down to a plank pose, do a pushup, bounce to our toes, after which bounce up within the air after which we repeat it.

(10:24)
Everybody likes to hate the burpee, however I’ve actually come to find it irresistible for the versatile methods we are able to use it to enhance so many features of our energy. You’ll see a whole lot of actually enjoyable burpee variations in my challenges and packages. All the things from a low affect burpee to uh, one you are able to do along with your fingers elevated that can assist you construct up that energy. You are able to do a double bounce burpee. That’s the place you’re gonna do two jumps on the prime. You can do a reverse burpee that when there’s no pushup in, nevertheless it’s additionally actually robust to come back down and are available again up. After which there’s even a warrior burpee the place we add a mountain climber on the backside and two kicks on the prime, proper. I began sweating simply fascinated with burpees, (chuckle), however they’re simply such an incredible transfer to actually embrace in your coaching commonly that basically helps you keep so many essential features of your health.

(11:14)
Now, these strikes I discussed, the prisoner squat, the Turkish getup and the burpee are all going that can assist you enhance your leg and core energy, plus enhance your potential to steadiness. And they’re going to all enable you to with that sit to face check, which isn’t actually why we’re coaching, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable option to check your self to ensure you’re staying on prime of essential features of your well being. Additionally they recruit a whole lot of your posterior chain musculature should you’ve by no means encountered that time period. It simply refers back to the muscle tissues that run up and down the again facet of your physique, like your again, your glutes, your hamstrings, and your calves. And these muscle tissues are all concerned in your potential to leap and steadiness and transfer properly. And you will discover a whole lot of enjoyable posterior chain particular exercise movies on my weblog on thebettyrocker.com, they usually’re additionally constructed into my Rock Your Life challenges and exercise packages. And leg energy particularly is so essential for us as girls –

(12:08)
We supply over half of our skeletal muscle in our decrease physique. So actually retaining that a part of our physique robust is enormously essential for us. And keep in mind that muscle tissue is what determines our resting metabolic fee. AKA what number of energy or how a lot power you’re gonna burn even at relaxation. So the extra muscle we now have, the extra effectively we burn physique fats. And this is among the causes it’s simpler to achieve weight as we age and begin to lose our muscle tissue if we’re not taking steps to assist holding onto it. So a enjoyable check, you’ll be able to attempt to assess your leg and core energy is an easy wall sit check. That is the place you’re going to brace your self towards the wall and decrease your self down so your knees are bent at a 90 diploma angle and your again is flat towards the wall.

(12:59)
Then you definitely’ll simply time your self to see how lengthy you’ll be able to maintain this place. An ideal benchmark to intention for is a full minute, and it’s robust. Something greater than that’s only a bonus and an indicator that you just’re actually robust. Should you’re lower than a minute once you do the check, that’s a-okay. Should you can maintain it for 45 seconds, that’s nonetheless good. The common is 35 to 45 seconds. So something above common is nice. Should you’re under that, it’s simply one thing to work on, proper? There’s so many nice workout routines that can assist you construct your leg energy like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and tons of variations of these as properly. Beginning with physique weight variations all the best way as much as weighted choices, there are leaping and excessive affect workout routines too that can strengthen your legs. And talking of leaping, one other actually enjoyable check you’ll be able to strive that can assess your leg energy is the standing broad bounce check.

(13:52)
You might need completed this again in gymnasium class or keep in mind measuring your bounce size, nevertheless it’s an awesome evaluation of your energy potential, particularly in your glutes and legs. And it’s one the place we’d like a whole lot of that posterior chain energy. Now, this check is often completed for athletes who want their leg energy for his or her sport, nevertheless it’s additionally simply nice to verify in on ourselves and see the place we’re at too, as a result of explosive energy implies that you’ve bought a whole lot of energy in your legs. So what you are able to do is lay out a tape measure, or you’ll be able to merely put down markers for a number of toes or meters out and just remember to’re gonna do that on a giving floor like your garden or a mat. Perform a little warmup like some strolling lunges or some physique squats and a few excessive knees, and lay out your tape measure and are available to the zero finish along with your toes barely aside.

(14:40)
Swing your arms and bend your knees to assist in giving you as a lot ahead drive as you will get. And then you definately’re simply gonna bounce as far ahead as you’ll be able to and land on each toes with out falling backwards. Your distance is to the place you land in the back of your heels. You’re gonna make three makes an attempt and mark down your distance every time. The common distance for girls is 5 toes, seven and a half inches to 5 toes 11 inches. Wonderful is somewhat over six toes. Should you’re under the common, that is simply an indicator to work on strengthening that posterior chain and the leg muscle tissues typically. A number of the finest methods to enhance your leg and glute energy are with energy coaching strikes. So you are able to do deadlifts, there are squats, there are hip thrusts, lunges, and people are all of the slower resistance coaching leg and glute strengthening strikes, that are wonderful to your leg energy.

(15:29)
However we are able to’t overlook the significance of plyometrics or explosive cardio strikes for creating the quick twitch muscle fibers that basically assist you’ve got the ability for brief, forceful contractions for strikes like a broad bounce. So you may as well do strikes like bounce squats, bounce swap lunges, field jumps, sprints, and naturally, truly simply training broad jumps themselves. They’re such an awesome train, even once you’re not measuring how far you’ll be able to go! And such a explosive leg energy and the muscle tissues that it calls on is among the causes we now have a whole lot of plyometric strikes in my packages that basically steadiness out the resistance coaching. We wanna load the joints after which explode, which helps actually enhance our muscular energy. Like we have been saying, it boosts our bone density and it improves our cardiovascular well being. To not point out this type of explosive cardio actually improves our potential to steadiness and our agility and coordination.

(16:25)
Plus, it improves our mind-body connection and our each day useful motion. So because of this I all the time have it in my packages, until they’re particularly labeled low affect. Like we now have an entire sequence of low affect challenges in Rock Your Life as a result of some individuals do must take the leaping out for various causes, however in any other case we’ve bought it in there as a result of it’s so helpful. Now in terms of leaping and explosive motion, because of this I’m all the time going over kind and alignment and truly why I created the Free Foundations of Useful Health workshop sequence that can assist you take note of your physique mechanics. You may get that at thebettyrocker.com/fff/. Should you wanna seize that, similar to we don’t wanna load the joints with weight utilizing poor kind, we don’t wanna bounce or explosively transfer with misaligned hips or knees or ankles. And typically you don’t know you’re not aligned till one thing begins to harm.

(17:21)
However individuals usually ignore early warning indicators and simply chalk them as much as being sore from their exercise. However our our bodies are dynamic and life takes a toll, whether or not it’s due to the facet of your physique that’s dominant, otherwise you’ve had children otherwise you’ve been in a automotive accident or been injured sooner or later and needed to rehab and perhaps your physique developed some compensating kind of patterns. And people key joints can get out of alignment simply, like our hips, our shoulders, our spinal column, our si, and a lot extra. And you probably have the chance to work with a bodily therapist or a motion practitioner who focuses on issues like gait evaluation or postural alignment, um, or optimization, simply periodically and proactively checking your kind and alignment with these hands-on assessments may be actually helpful. And if previously you’ve had somebody provide you with corrective workout routines and also you’ve stopped doing them, it might be that you just simply must begin to carry these again into play to actually assist your physique.

(18:17)
As a result of patterns are typically caught for a very long time. It actually does take a devoted effort to get the physique to maneuver the best way that we wish it to. Having someone that can assist you with this type of stuff is like somebody holding up a really specialised mirror to your physique, and this can 100% enable you to keep away from harm and actually practice safely over time. As a result of I’d say that most likely one of the vital frequent causes individuals really feel hesitant about leaping and doing explosive strikes as they age is as a result of both they’re nervous they’re gonna get harm or as a result of they’re having achy joints or aches and pains. And after we’re coaching, we all the time wanna respect the physique and never push it to a painful place, proper? We wanna hearken to these cues and again off if one thing hurts. Now, some nice methods to stop these points may be coaching on a extra aligned physique and staying extra versatile.

(19:11)
And these items may want somewhat extra consideration as we age, proper? It is perhaps that some hands-on care is required from a practitioner, or we have to dial in our kind a bit extra in our coaching, or that perhaps somewhat extra stretching is required round our exercises, like we have been speaking about earlier than, is that may simply actually assist hold the tissue round your joints extra pliable, enable you to along with your mobility and your flexibility. Generally individuals ask me about cardio and peri or publish menopause as a result of they’ve heard that cardio is unhealthy for us at the moment in our lives as a result of it elevates our cortisol. This can be a nice query, and the reply is actually essential to listen to if that is you. So primary, any kind of exercise that basically taxes your physique will elevate your cortisol and trigger a stress response in your physique.

(20:00)
That’s a extremely pure course of, and it’s why I speak about train being a wholesome stress. After we are wholesome, we problem the physique towards a load and it struggles proper? Then it will get stronger. Our cortisol goes up, whether or not we’re doing a tough resistance coaching exercise or a tough cardio exercise, the factor that adjustments within the menopause years is that we simply change into extra delicate to the cortisol due to decrease hormone ranges. Because of this all of my packages have customized coaching schedules for girls in these life levels since you merely want somewhat extra restoration round your excessive quantity coaching so your physique can come again robust once more. In our biking years, these greater ranges of hormones give us extra resilience. Would we additionally profit from a extra balanced coaching schedule then too? Completely. We don’t wanna be driving ourselves into the bottom at any age, however we additionally recuperate sooner in our biking years.

(20:56)
So again to menopause and cardio. What actually wants to alter is the best way we use cardio. So primary, we wanna be sure we’ve bought the resistance coaching as a foundational piece of our exercise programming, after which we’re including within the explosive cardio that has so many advantages for us. A wonderful thing about that explosive motion or plyometric coaching is that it’s quick in period sometimes. So you’re employed on it briefly intervals or bursts. This manner, you get all these advantages with out straining your self. And we take acceptable restoration round our excessive quantity coaching, whether or not it’s our cardio or our resistance coaching, and that is how you retain the stress to a degree that you could successfully handle and also you get all the advantages that these explosive actions carry us. So to recap, on our leg energy assessments at the moment, we’ve gone over the sit to face check or sit to rise check.

(21:50)
We’ve coated the wall sit check, and we’ve coated the standing broad bounce check. And all of those are going to evaluate your leg energy and energy in numerous methods, and in addition actually enable you to verify in with different essential well being markers which are important to our energy, like our flexibility and our steadiness and coordination. These are all nice to verify in with your self on periodically, and I’d after all love to listen to what you uncover and what you’re engaged on consequently. So you’ll want to drop me a line both on my weblog or on social media, on the present notes web page we’re, you understand, we’re all works in progress and we now have our ups and downs in terms of getting robust and staying that method. I’m no exception. I discussed earlier that my accident actually set me again and that it was nice to have the grip energy check as I used to be getting myself again and rebuilding my energy.

(22:39)
So it’s actually enjoyable to to check these items out and see the place we’re at and know that we are able to all the time get stronger if we do it safely, if we do it mindfully. So I actually sit up for listening to from you about no matter you study and any questions that you’ve. And you will get all of the notes from at the moment’s episode over on the present notes web page on thebettyrocker.com, which incorporates the transcript and hyperlinks to something I’ve talked about and a video model of this episode. So thanks once more a lot for spending a while with me at the moment, and I sit up for persevering with this dialog. So until subsequent time, Rockstar, I’m Betty Rocker, and you’re so superior, flawsome and wonderful. I’ll speak to you once more actual quickly. Bye for now.