I was going to put this in the Mental Health thread but if people are interested it deservs it’s own thread.
Ok, so I am becoming more and more aware that I am wasting time and energy and not fullfilling potential.
I am lazy and king of procrastination. I don’t waste time on phones or spend nowhere near as much time on the internet as many, I eat pretty balanced etc etc, so, what am I doing wrong?
What’s making sense to me recently is, I’m not practicing some obvious fundamentals.
I have been starting to do very simple stretch routines, some general and some specific to my state of my legs. also, more importantly, learning to breath.
This post would be way too long to add all the linked ideas and inspirations to learning these benefits and to be honest any of the ideas and the people who push them make me not take anything seriously because of the flowery way they put it all across. But the fundamentals make sense to me in order to maintain the body and mind. I don’t want this to come across all mumbo jumbo and anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a new age flowery cunt.
So, the point! Like me, I assume most of us are not quite doing or feeling what we hope for ourselves? So, I propose an experiment.
2 weeks, we all spend 5-10 mins twice a day doing some fundamental stretches etc. If we do them as we get out of bed and before we get in to bed then we have no excuse to not do it as we are there with nothing to do apart from lay there. And when we find ourselves sitting for an amount of time, we do some deep breathing. After 2 weeks, lets see if we feel any benefits physically and mentally. Also as a bonus we could find some time to sit and listen to music we love. I don’t mean on the go, I mean sit and listen, think nothing but the sounds you are hearing. Music is the fucking best and feel that people who don’t listen to music are not only missing out but are shutting themselves away from a good source of positivity.
Is anyone up for it?
I have been doing stretches in this way for a few weeks and slowly I am feeling the benefits physically with all my aches and pains but I know that this is just the begining for me and my issues. I also decided a few days ago to concentrate on breathing so I am right at the start of this experiment. I have been doing yoga for 2 years once a week with friends but never really got the whole breathing thing until recently even though it’s a huge part of yoga.
If you are up for it? The stretches are (while lying in bed):
crunch right knee to chest, stretch out leg into the air and grab behind your knee and pull it to chest while trying to keep leg as straight as possible. Copy for left leg.
Right knee up and place foot over left thigh and push over to left with hand, work the knee up and down to rotate and stretch hip. Copy for left leg.
open hips up forcing your thighs apart, you can do both at the same time. grab behind the knee’s and crunch up.
lay in a cross pose then place right leg over left at a right angle to it twisting your hips but with keeping back as flat as possible and turning your head the opposite way. Copy other for other side.
Get out of bed and stand. Breath out and bend to touch toes (you probably won’t), breath in and stretch up hands in air. Repeat and get closer to toes. A few goes to touch toes or floor or as close as you can depending on your timber.
arms by side and stretch as far down your side as you can one side at a time. Then arms up and out to the side and twist around both ways.
stand with your feet facing forwards but right in front of left about 1’ away and a foot width to the side. lunge forward bending right knee with foot flat down while lifting back leg heel but keeping leg straight. 5 of these. Then do 5 of these while doing a body twist, just torso with arms out, both ways. You’ll feel your ankles stretch. These are like excersises for shin splints but I think they’re great for skating.
Anytime of day as much as you like but breath in deep through nose bloating belly until you can’t take any more in, then breath out through mouth slowish and crunch up belly until you can’t push any more air out. you could experiment with breathing, there must be loads of beneficial techniques.
This all takes me 5-10 mins max and I know even that tiny amount of time is hard to find especially with work and kids etc but once you get into a routine it’s quite easy to manage it.
Already too long a post so I don’t blame anyone for not being interested but for anyone game for it lets see if anyone benefits to something so small and simple.
Not the body builder hype but the vegetable juice. I bought a pretty hefty juicer and it was only £50! Currently rinsing Carrot, Celery, Apple & Ginger juice. There’s loads of recipes.
I also have a Nutri-Bullet for fruit smoothies.
Been hearing about adding raw weed to the smoothies but I’m kind of into smoking it
Learning new breathing techniques has really helped with my mental health, especially when it comes to grounding techniques and anxiety. I liked meditation but kinda couldn’t get with some of the apps and tutorials, and have found simply finding time to breathe properly and focus on my body is a winner. Going to try those stretches, need to get in the routine again as I always find it’s easy to drop off if you’re not injured or feeling mentally strong- the classic of only helping yourself when you need it most
Watch some of Mantak Chia’s vids, he’s all about breathing to build energy (Chi) which he says helps keep the organs healthy which help deal with all problems mental and physical. Who knows if there is anything in it but I like the idea of it all.
started doing yoga every morning for 10/15 minutes every day about a month ago. never thought id ever enjoy it but i am now doing it every morning and trying to do 30 minutes most evenings.
i also started intermittent fasting at the same time, so last meal in the evening at about 6 and not eating until 11am the next day when i have frozen water Mellon and orange juice and a banana until lunchtime.
pretty hard at first missing breakfast but felling good once i got into it
I regularly make this ginger, pineapple, lemon and mint juice and it’s soooooooo good.
I recently started going to a yoga class once a week after thinking about it for years and am glad I got over my self-consciousness or whatever it was that kept me away from giving yoga a go. I was worried it’d be too spiritual or some shit that I’d hate but it’s fun and makes me happy.
Skated loads and didn’t drink enough water Saturday, my legs are so sore now. Oh well.
It’s a beautiful day. (Raemers reference, I’m not a hippie (yet)).
I found this about 4 days ago and thought I’d try in to build up some core strength.
It kicked my arse. I thought I was fairly fit but i was sweating like a vegan in a butchers.
I’m 4 days in to doing it and it’s still hard. Side planks are the worst.
Skaters as a whole need to do more calisthenics, movement training and body weight fitness. All those muscle groups are connected, so if you’ve got a weak core, you’ll have a sore back from skating. If you hamstrings and calves aren’t getting enough training, you’ll be jacked from pushing. Fuck cross-fit and it’s shit form though, that’s just useless.
This is a good morning routine by Calisthenic Movement - their YT channel has a huge range of stuff, from basics like this to more difficult stuff.
Stumbled across this the other day, there’s some good stretches and strength-building movement in it, like deep squats and archer squats -
There are so many yoga poses I can’t do properly because my legs are so muscular, it’s ridiculous. Oh well, it does me good and I look forward to learning more and feeling better.
I would love to do more yoga/stretching routines but I just don’t have the attention span for it.
I did start doing the couch to 5k this evening tho. My girlfriend started earlier in the week so I’ve got some catching up to do.
Basically you build it up over 9 weeks to run 5k.
First week is a half hour routine starting with 5 minute walk, then 1 minute run followed 90 seconds walk repeated 8 times and finishing with a 5 minute walk. You do this 3 times over the week.
Each week you do slightly more and the podcast app for it talks you through it all as you go.
Yeah, I used to do a lot of running in my early 20’s and 5k was not a problem, I think the couch to 5k is designed for people who have zero experience, but also so that you can run it comfortably by the end.
My ambition is to step it up from that. I’ve got half an eye on the Plymouth 10k in October.
I think the assumption that everyone could do a 5k is pretty middle class of you hugo
There are probably tens of thousands of people that moan about walking to the fridge to get more chocolate cake. They could probably do 30metres if pushed.
I work with a load of runners and they are a right boring bunch of bastards. Always wobbling on about how healthy it is yet they are way more fucked up than I am after 20 years of skating.
