The Body & Movement

Arm Strength

Planking on a mountaintop in New Hampshire

Arms tend to be a weak point for many ladies. But there are so many fun moves we can do if our arms, wrists, and shoulders are strong and stable enough. You can do handstands, cartwheels, monkey bars, kick boxing classes, and push-ups. Am I selling you on arm strengthening exercises yet? Okay, you can pick up your grand kids, nieces or nephews. You can lug your own bag through the airport and get it up in the overhead bin without assistance. Even little things like brushing our hair comes from our arm strength.

To build up to all the exercises you dream of doing, start with the basics. Check out the videos below for some very basic arm strengthening exercises. Never do anything that hurts. It’s never worth it. Take your time building up.

For the Shoulders:

Basic Tricep & Bicep Exercises:

Overhead Press for Shoulders:

Plank to Down Dog (Great for strength and shoulder flexibility combined)

Want to Learn More:

Read Tips for a doing a handstand. Click here.

Having Goals and Trying a Jacob’s Ladder. Click here.

What is your purpose? Click here.

Ways to Keep in Touch:

Arm StrengthMaggie Downie2018-04-24T16:01:05-04:00

Instructor Highlight Helen

Helen isn’t an instructor, but you’ve seen her work if you’ve opened our newsletter or been to our Facebook page. Helen handles all our social media and networking. She also regularly provides Maggie with lessons about how to use basic technology like her iPhone, so our appreciation for Helen runs deep. Here’s Helen’s highlight!

Get to Know Helen:

When you aren’t teaching what are some of your favorite ways to move?

I don’t teach, but I enjoy taking walks! It may seem silly but I enjoy moving while cleaning the house… the house gets clean and I get moving!

What song motivates or picks you up the most?

It depends why I need to be picked up… but something upbeat and catchy!

Favorite Food?

Pizza!! I am also a sucker for Reese’s Peanut Butter cups.

Time you normally crawl into bed?

I am usually in bed around 10pm, but don’t fall asleep until a little after 11pm… I need time to decompress!

What skill would you like to master?

I would love to learn more about graphic design.

What would be the most amazing adventure to go on?

I am not sure Disney is an adventure, but I really want to go. I would […]

Instructor Highlight HelenMaggie Downie2018-04-24T16:02:57-04:00

Arm Workouts

Clearly, I need to do more arm workouts. My friend’s eight-year-old daughter asked me how old I was. I made the mistake of saying, “How old do you think I am?” She walked over to me and instructed me to lift my arm up and out to the side with a bent elbow. Then she patted my tricep flab to test its giggle-bility and pronounced me “forty!” I’m thirty-six. Apparently, my triceps age me.

Everyone laughed and my father-in-love (what we endearingly call my boyfriend’s dad) asked the eight-year-old how old she thought he was. “Fifty,” she guessed. In her mind I was ten years younger than a 78-year-old man.

This is my great-grandma.

As a little girl, I was fascinated by my great-grandma’s tricep flab, and she amazingly let me play with it. She was reasonably toned, but I could still whack her sagging arm back and forth. Born in 1899, she’d spent her early years washing her clothes by hand and cooking everything by hand, using a whisk instead of electric beaters. She was strong. Some tricep flab is going to happen to the best of us.

April Arm Month

In honor of […]

Arm WorkoutsMaggie Downie2018-04-02T10:22:11-04:00

Butt Massage

Years ago a friend mentioned to me that she had gone for a rather awkward massage. The therapist told my friend that she had tight hips and then proceeded to straddling her on the table, digging her knees into my friend’s glutes and hips to work out the kinks. My friend was understandably uncomfortable. This is not a normal occurrence in a massage. In fact, more often than not, massage therapists pass right over our glutes, bypassing a butt massage altogether.

Last year, Matt and I went away for my birthday. We signed up for massages. At one point the therapist said to me, “You have really tight hips.” Then she straddled me and dug her knees into my butt. All I could think of was my friend’s story. The massage felt great, but I would have been uncomfortable if I hadn’t heard about this happening. The second my massage was complete, I texted my friend: where did you get that massage? Sure enough we were at the same place, and I have no doubt we had the same massage therapist.

Believe it or not, this was not the most awkward massage I’ve had. In China a massage therapist once rubbed my […]

Butt MassageMaggie Downie2018-03-26T20:50:23-04:00

Are You Engaging Your Abs or Your Butt?

In almost every exercise it is easy for another part of the body to take over and do the work of the muscles we are targeting. This is particularly true when we do a pelvic tilt or rock from imprint (basically a flat lower back) to neutral (the natural curve in your low back). Often instead of initiating imprint using the abdominals, people will squeeze the butt. It gets the job done, but you then you miss all that wonderful ab work. The glutes are a major mover and a big muscle. They can create an imprinted position when called upon to engage that way. But if you want to strengthen and improve control of your abdominals, particularly to counteract back pain and help protect the back when moving, you need to make the glutes quiet down and learn to fire the abs. So how can you tell if you are engaging your abs or your butt?

What Do You Feel?

Start by just stopping to notice what you feel. Is your butt squeezing when you imprint? Do you feel like your legs are involved by sort of pushing into the floor? Do you even feel the abs doing the work? If […]

Are You Engaging Your Abs or Your Butt?Maggie Downie2018-03-07T16:19:39-05:00