Today I would like to share 3 hot health and fitness tips surrounding Hydration, Plantar Fascia (bottom of your feet), and Core Strength. These 3 tips can help your body burn fat easier, achieve better mechanics and mobility, and greatly improve your core strength. Although these tips might seem small, implementing these tips will help your FULL body.
1. Ensure your cells are hydrated before your workouts
Because I place a high importance on hydration, some my clients ‘confess’ their intake for the day with regret. As much as I wish for them to be hydrated before a Fascial Stretch Therapy session, I don’t might bringing them ‘confessing’ they got busy and forgot to drink water… because the more it comes to light, the more they will be more mindful to hydrate.
Aside from lubricating and hydrating the fascial tissue, you want to keep water in your cells so your body can use the h20 whenever it needs!
It’s like making sure your tires are pumped before driving a car, or making sure there’s oil in the engine.
Water is used by the body to carry out various processes called such as digestion, nutrient transport to brain, cleansing, burning fat, hormone production, bile formation, muscle repair, energy restoration, and collagen regeneration to name a few.
When the body is dehydrated, or doesn’t have available water, it will adjusts it’s efficiency to ration resources. Dehydration can be less detrimental, if the physiological load is reduced too. Can you imagine saying, “I am not hydrated properly I think I should reduce the amount of stress of put on my body,” or “I am not properly hydrated I think I should skip my workout.”
In an ideal world, we would be so in-tune with our hydration levels and simply honour our body’s needs by hydrating intuitively to give our body the available resources it needs.
Now, if you already drink enough water, great. For this week can you drink more herbal tea and less water?!
The reason for this is herbal tea has micronutrients and adaptogens that help our body’s cope with stress. Tea is medicine!
My other blogs on Hydration:
How much Water Should You Drink: https://www.activekinetix.com/how-much-water-should-i-drink/
What if I don’t Drink Enough Water: https://www.activekinetix.com/dehydration-symptoms-what-if-i-dont-drink-enough-water/
What if I Do Drink Enough Water: https://www.activekinetix.com/dehydration-symptoms-drink-enough-water/
2. Use your feet.
When you’re going up/down stairs, walking, doing step-ups, squats, lunges, standing in the kitchen. Feel your feet on the ground. Ground them in.
The more contact and awareness your Plantar Fascia has with the floor, the more the body senses support and stability. This means the rest of the Fascial network can reduce tension.
Foot work is transformational. Over the past 4 months, I have been working on restructuring my feet, strengthening my arches, and mobilizing the mid foot, and it has upped my mobility from a 7/10 to a 8-8.5. Here are the stretches I started doing 3-4 times a week for 5-8 mins.
Here are other resources for feet:
Big toe stretch: https://www.instagram.com/p/CUY_CPMFKJj/
Toe stretches and exercises: https://youtu.be/BFfLOu5g0Y0
How to Walk with a Proper Gait Cycle: https://youtu.be/quwcNSP4H9o
How to Choose the Right Shoe: https://youtu.be/a3-YpOgomTI
3. ‘Pull up your marbles’
If you’ve worked with me, you may have heard me say this. This is in reference to your pelvic floor. The reason I would use this statement is after working with someone for a few Fascial Stretch Therapy sessions, I start to get a FULLER picture of what is going on in their body. I would have had the opportunity to stretch all they Fascial lines and can see where the body is holding.
For some clients, I notice the body is craving strength and stability, usually around the core. The most effective way to create long-term core stability is by engaging ALL the muscles and fibres that make up the pelvic floor.
While you are exercising this week – draw awareness to the bottom of your pelvic bowl – Women and Men. Then imagine a couple of marbles sitting at the bottom of the bowl. Now imagine drawing these marbles upward and holding them there. It might feel like a half a second hold, keep practicing! The pelvic floor is the base of your pyramid. Start remembering it’s there and start building it up.
Learn how to use your Pelvic Floor properly: See my Pelvic Floor Meditation on YoutTube https://youtu.be/PqFbFvbLPN0?t=37
In closing, the tips for this week were specially selected for you. Most of my readers have been on their health and fitness journey in one way or another, for a long time. These tips are meant to optimize your body so you can see results from working out smarter and supporting your body, and engaging fascial layers and muscles that are often addressed.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me.
Thank you
XO
Asma
Asma Kassam, BHK, CSNA, CFST
Kinesiologist, Personal Trainer, mobility coach, Certified Nutrition Advisor, Fascial Stretch Therapist, Health & Fitness coach, Animal Flow instructor, and Women’s Health advocate
Active Kinetix Fitness & Rehabilitation
Burnaby, Vancouver
See my Women’s Health & Fitness blog: akfitnessandhealth.com/blog
Book a Fascial Stretch Therapy appointment online: https://activekinetix.janeapp.com/locations/capitol-hill-athletics/book#/staff_member/1
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