Lesson Info
3. Floor
Lessons
The 5 Daily Movements Overview
03:56 2Body Archetypes and How to Counteract Them
06:27 3Floor
07:30 4Couch Stretch
02:39 5Breathing
15:07 6Hip-hinging
10:52 7Hanging
07:22 8Walking
14:29Lesson Info
Floor
All right, so the first thing that we're gonna discuss is how and why to sit more effectively on the ground. So, cultures, as we mentioned that spend time with regularity on the ground have minimal to no incidence of osteoarthritis in the hips, very low incidence in the knees, and they generally have better circulation, lower, lower incidence of diabetes and things of the sort. What we're gonna do, how we're gonna start, is with a little quiz for you guys to take. This quiz originally came from the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology, it's called the sit-rise test. So what you do, is you start off in a standing position. So we're gonna get up into standing. Don't judge me as I get up. Boom, pow! And then from this position, start off, you're gonna get down onto the ground, and you're gonna start off with a perfect score of 10. So as we go down on the ground, we're gonna cross our legs and start to drop down on the ground. If at any point I have to put a hand, oof! (buzzer sound...
s) Down on the ground, I lose a point. If I have to put a knee (buzzer sounds) down on the ground, I lose a point. Elbow down on the ground, any point of contact other than our bum and our feet, we lose a point. So starting off, coming all the way down, I have a perfect score of 10 to begin. I drop down (hums) like I'm on an elevator shaft, dropping straight down drop down onto my tuchus. Oh! Perfect 10 so far. Also, if there's a wobble we lose half a point as well. (buzzer sounds) As I'm coming back up I'm gonna roll onto the side of my feet, slowly come up. Thank the Lord, I got a 'cause I read the book (triumphant trill) about it and that's how we're gonna do it. And why this is relevant, what they found in this study was that people that scored in the zero to three score range, and these are people from age 51 to 80 years old, there was a study that lasted six years in total. People that scored in the zero to three range were six times more likely to die in the span of that study than people that scored in eight to 10 range. So you could do the math. Every point of contact was indicative of overall health and the potential cause, or, or or leading to all cause mortality. So that's one of the many reasons of why it matters. Now, here is how we're gonna actually be able to do it more effectively. So you could treat it almost like a, like a yoga practice as opposed to driving in your car, sitting, hunching in your car to go do yoga. We can just start to integrate that into our lives and integrate that into who we are as people. So the first thing you're gonna do is play with a position that we call the 90/90 position. So in this position, our legs are gonna be in about 90 degrees. Boom, left leg 90 degrees. Back leg comes back behind, 90 degrees. Pow, just sitting in this position. This is a beautiful way to start to open up some range in space in the hips. So my hip is in medial rotation here. I could even do a little self massage from this position. Great. Get into the TFLs and glute me-medius and minimus and all those different parts that get tense in our modern sitting culture. Then you can go no hands, rotate across, 90/90 position on the other side. It could be very supportive for you to raise your hips, up off of the ground as you're doing this as well. You could use a pillow or a poof or a floor cushion or anything of the sort. The next position to start to integrate in our daily lives. In yoga-speak you call it Sukhasana, in elementary school, school speak you might call it criss-cross applesauce. You're just gonna cross the legs up. Boom, just like this, you know, grab your, your bum cheeks, reach them back behind you and then stack yourself up from there. The most important thing as we're in this position is that we raise our hips up above the height of our knees. So if your hips are up above the height of your knees and you just grab a pillow, oop (exhales) sit this guy down, like so. What that does is it stabilizes your pelvis and your lower back so that you can actually be balanced and stacked and aligned through your spine while you're sitting. So it doesn't matter how high it is. For some people, it might be two feet for you to get to the point where your hips are up above the height of your knees. That's the thing that's the most important. Doesn't matter how you do it, how you get there, get poofs, get floor cushions, get yoga blocks. I don't care. Just make sure that your hips are up above the height of the knees, 'cause it's gonna make everything much better for your life to come. Next position (whistles and groans) is we're gonna go into a kneeling position. So with kneeling, it's gonna be like this. You call it maybe Seiza position if you're in like a martial arts studio or something of the sort, just sitting down, knees together, sitting back, having your, your heels just on the outside of your bum and spending, you know you could maybe say five minutes or so in this position. Next position to switch over to is a Toe Sit. So Toe Sit position, boop, coming down, stretching out all that plantar fascia, all that connective tissue around the feet. If this is challenging for you it's gonna be challenging for most people, especially if you don't do it with regularity something you could do is you could throw a pillow in between your hamstrings and your calves. And (sighs) this actually feels a lot better for me as well. So, this is a beautiful way to just start to open up some of that connective tissue around the feet, around the ankle around the knees, around the hips, and also circulate all this vital fluid throughout your body. Last position we're gonna tinker with, is we're gonna go into a straddle position. So straddle position, boom boom, coming down, one foot out, other foot out, (smacks object) bam, start to, to actually actively reach the legs long. So almost like you're trying to like, pull that femur, pull that leg, kind of traction it from the pelvis. Reach, reach, reach same thing, reach, reach, reach, get long through the spine. Imagine there's a string in the back of your head, slowly pulling your spine up towards the ceiling. Keep the ribs slightly tucked, down towards the ribs. And this is another one where you could put a cushion underneath your hips. So these positions in, in total, the recommendation in the UI method book is to be in these positions for at least 30 minutes each day. It's not a big ask. If you ever went to any yoga class, maybe did a dance class or a martial arts class or jujitsu or anything of the sort, you'd spend a lot more time in these positions just naturally. So while you're working on your computer, while you're drinking tea in the morning or breakfast or anything of the sort, playing with your kids, it's a beautiful opportunity to start to open up some range of motion in the ankles, in the knees, in the hips, and start to stabilize and nurture all that connective tissue around the spine and just make you feel better. (upbeat music) So this would be a beautiful movement or exercise, not really exercise. It's just a, a human resting position to be in for, you could say five minutes a day or so. It's really up to you. So you can do this position with heels up, like so. You can come into kind of more of like one of these type positions. Like you might see like an umpire sitting in. You can do heels down. For a lot of people they won't have that range of motion yet in the ankles to be able to do that. So in the next section, we'll break down specific exercises on how to make that happen.