The Flex Guide
I’m happy you FLEXed and clicked on my blog. I appreciate how you spend your free time and I want to start off fresh with explanation in mental performance and movement practices. Here’s an invitation to read up before we get started.
1️⃣ One minute balance breath meditation
Not only can meditation help you the find stability and clarity we crave as humans, but by adding an essential oil to the practice we introduce another calming sensation to the nervous system that arrives at the limbic system of the brain. The brain releases unique neurochemicals, triggering a variety of reactions. This is because the limbic system’s structures can affect mood, memory, cognition, behavior, and emotion. Our sense of smell is responsible for memory storage, retrieval and to establish emotional state. When we associate mindfulness/meditation, mental imagery and/or breathwork techniques with an aroma, it may accentuate feelings of calm and lowers stress hormones if it is pleasing to your brain. You see, your brain, can process emotion by our sense of smell better than a picture or visual memory.
Grab yourself a Young Living essential oil and place a couple drops in your hand. Rub your palms together in a circular motion and cup them over your nose.
Set a timer. Your goal is 1 minute, in the hopes that frequent practicing allows you to work up to 5-15 minutes. Maybe more? You’ll never know unless you make it a priority.
For a beginning mindfulness practice, focus on breath moving in and out through your nose allowing your mind to fixate on pacing from 1 to 4 on the inhale and 4 to 1 on the exhale.
Side note: take some time to browse my essential oil website and educate yourself, you’ll be surprised what you will learn.
2️⃣ Roll your fascia
What is fascia again? Well, it’s a thin casing of connective tissue that surrounds and holds every organ, blood vessel, bone, nerve fiber and muscle in place. The tissue does more than provide internal structure; fascia has nerves that make it almost as sensitive as skin. * HopkinsMedicine.org
It can get grizzly and stiff if you don’t treat it well and unfortunately can be the source of pain triggers.
Good news: Spending a few minutes releasing areas of the body that feel tension or pain with self myofascial release (SMFR) techniques may also provide relief in another part of the body because our bodies are so interconnected by connective tissue. The whole body has a response to the treatment provided. Meaning fascia takes note how it’s been treated and sends messages to your brain to reorganize how you perceive pain.
I know everyone is pressed for time, but even 30 seconds of rolling connective tissue could shield you from an injury, help speed up the recovery process and best yet actually prime your performance to up level activities. With new breakthroughs in movement science research on myofascial release techniques have shown the feeling of exhaustion dissipates a lot sooner along with learning proper breathing bio-mechanics. More on that later.
Try my walking/running prep here. You’ll be surprised how your knees, shins and ankles are prepared for those long outdoor hikes. Need a pair of Yoga Tune Up® balls? Grab them here.
3️⃣ Hydrate your skin
The skin is our largest organ and needs a lot to keep it turning over new cells, generate collagen and elastin so it can glide easily across our joints and muscle (revisit tip 2 for confirmation- expand rolling forearms, feet, back and glutes for optimal blood flow). I had the rare opportunity to learn firsthand about how skin breaks down with my husband’s 106 year old grandmother and here’s what I’m going to say.
🔑Drink water - pure, filtered water. Need taste? Make yourself water cocktails with fresh herbs, fruits and veggies. No added sugars, additives or dyes.
When you know you’re on the go and do not have fresh ingredients on hand, try vitality drops in your water or herbal/green tea for powerful health benefits with electrolytes. Look into golden tumeric as well for reducing inflammation in your system as well as a tasty treat when your tired of plain water.
Need a simpler solution to electrolyte balance? Try adding a half tsp of pink Himalayan salt or Celtic sea salt to 16 ounces of water. Keeping the ingredient list to bare minimum is key. Have you checked the label of the last thing you drank? If it has a bunch of preservatives and chemical names you don’t know, stop drinking it.
🔑Indulge in self care
I have recently been vetting many self-care products for their effectiveness, but more importantly their health and safety markers. Products are now flagged as endocrine disruptors and become hazardous for health thus effecting optimal sport performance. Take a look at the products you use on a daily basis. Is there room for you to ditch and switch to products with truly pure ingredients without harmful chemicals, additives, preservatives or dye? You may be surprised by how many personal care products on the market have ambiguous language labeling that can attribute to poor performance. Check and read labels or message me if you have questions. Checking WholeFoods Market acceptable ingredient list on their website is also a good place to start.
Here’s my list of my favorite self-care choices.
Ancient ayurvedic traditions of dry brushing the body helps the skin exfoliate and turnover new cell growth. Try doing this once a week and increasing frequency up to three times/week. Using a gua sha stone or pink quartz crystal roller for your face has many benefits.
Better circulation
Improved lymphatic drainage
Anti-aging effects through tighter skin
Less dark circles below your eyes
Less wrinkles appearing on your face
Boosts cell turnover
Helps alleviate acne and rosacea
Brightens your complexion
4️⃣Move your Body
How many times have we heard the saying, “if you don't move it, you lose it”? I had the pleasure of listening to Tom Myers, author of Anatomy Trains speak recently. He reinforced the message behind that old saying and confirmed through exercise science research that our connective tissue becomes stiff and hard if we do not continue to move our joints through all range of motion. Unfortunately, even past the pandemic downturn, the average American is still not meeting the suggested movement. Lifestyles changes and choices are mostly to blame. Keep your body moving well through frequent self myofascial release and movement. <hint: YOGA>
Create mini movement breaks for your body to “snack on”. If you have been sitting a while reading this blog (and I thank you for making it this far), try this short yoga practice that covers all three planes of motion. If you give it a try, let me know how you like it in the comments below.
Mini Movement Break
As always, I'm here to help you discover mental performance training that provides results along with movement practices that will peak your physical performance. When you book a private session with me, I will customize a program that addresses the mental and physical side of your performance and gets you to your goal faster.
My gratitude runs deep for the human beings who have enjoyed this journey with me thus far. You are precisely why I am so committed to the work that I do. And I look forward to every new athlete or team I will work with in the future.
A Million Times, Thank You!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to serve and empower you along your path.
Know that if you ever have questions—I’m only an email away.
Sharing is caring, if there a friend you know would benefit from this, please forward.
Flex Up, Julie
