Skip to main content

Featured Exercise- The Sumo Squat

The Sumo Squat

This sumo-inspired exercise will strengthen your inner and outer thighs.
  • Stand with your feet as wide apart as possible while pointing your toes outward.
  • Lower your body until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
  • Hold for a beat, exhale, then press back up to starting position. Repeat.
Keep your shoulders directly over your hips at all times. Don't lean forward or let your knees extend beyond your toes. Keep your transverse engaged and don't arch your back.

I took this from Jillian Michaels' newsletter. I subscribe because I find the content is often inspiring/informative/insightful. Yes she is my guilty pop-fit pleasure :)





Comments

Popular posts from this blog

BulletProof Coffee

I have a client who regularly makes us a cup of BulletProof coffee before our workouts. I have come to enjoy its flavor. BulletProof Coffee is simply black coffee blended in a blender (not mixed with a spoon), with clarified grass fed butter (Ghee) and a medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil (Coconut oil works). Apparently there are benefits to brain function by blending healthy fats with your morning coffee. Also it has ketonic diet sympathies, as the fasted body in the morning continues burning healthy fat as energy, reducing hunger and helping with weight management. This is my understanding, anyway. I find it tasty and it perks me up :) Interested in making this for myself, I went to Amazon looking for products. Here is what I found- typical of protein powders and health food supplements, I found a lot of packaging and marketing. This BulletProof coffee package which costs $75.99 for coffee and some hyped up coconut oil? Then there is this Ghee at $57.99. As I added thes...

I don’t have a Diastasis- Why is my abdomen still distended postpartum?

I get asked this question all the time! Here is my answer: Research has shown that 100% of pregnant women will develop some degree of diastasis recti. A diastasis is a lateral separation in the abdominal wall between the recti or “six pack”, due to a stretching of the midline connective tissue or “linea alba”. Although some diastasis will heal postpartum, in many cases a separation will remain without restorative exercise. Distention from DR will present as a doming in the midline. Women who heal a diastasis spontaneously or through restorative exercise may still find that their abdomens are distended, particularly after a meal and/or at the end of the day. If there is no diastasis, why is this? This abdominal distention does not occur in the midline, but rather across the entire abdominal wall. This is due to a weakened hypotonic TVA- transverse abdominis muscle. The TVA is the deepest anterior abdominal muscle, wrapping around the midsection like a girdle, with a left an...

Stretches for Achy Hips!

Without rehabilitation, the postnatal body has a non optimal core. From Diastasis Recti to pelvic floor dysfunction, inhibited multifidus/lower back muscles (especially in the lumbar spine), thoracic immobility (tight ribs), and possibly abdominal adhesions from a C-Section incision- there are a multitude of maternal physiological impairments to consider. The body continues to perform by enlisting non optimal biomechanics to compensate for the lack of core strength. Compensatory strategies help to achieve the stability, strength and endurance that the core is not providing, but exacerbate deteriorating movements in a snowball effect. This is very evident in the pelvis. When the deep stabilizing core is unable to provide adequate pelvic stability control, the smaller muscles that are designed to help the core take on too much of the task. They become stuck, gripped, and can cause referred pain throughout the body. Knowing to stretch the common overused and v...