One thing that I’ve learned as a fitness trainer in the past 5 years is this: better POSTURE is key to transform your body and overall health. Which is why I’ve become a stickler about posture in my classes.
If you want to have longer, leaner muscles, a tight, strong CORE, and better posture, you need to focus on proper ALIGNMENT in everything you do, especially during your workouts. When your body is properly aligned, your workouts are safer, more effective, and believe me, it will also strengthen your metabolism and help promote weight loss.
One KEY element to develop better alignment, and therefore better posture and a long, lean, toned body is to KEEP A HEALTHY FASCIA.
Fascia is a thin layer of connective tissue that envelops your entire body, just under your skin, wrapping itself around your organs, muscles and joints. Our fascia also contains our nerves and lymphatic system…AND, our fascia is partly responsible for the shape of our bodies. Recent research has shown that taking care of our fascia is KEY to maintaining a healthy, fit, toned, youthful and aligned body.
When our fascia is not properly stimulated, it can thicken, dry up and harden which can cause all sorts of structural and alignment issues in the body. Stiffness in your joints and pain in your muscles is often due to the hardening of fascia surrounding your joints/muscles. When we don’t work on our flexibility nor our alignment and carry around bad posture and stress, our fascia can harden, and often make our bodies feel heavy, thick, uncomfortable, and run down.
Benefits of a healthy fascia:
improved body symmetry and alignment
increased blood flow, therefore faster exercise recovery
reduced appearance of stretch marks and cellulite
reduced risk of injury
less day-to-day pain
improved sports/exercise performance
longer, leaner muscles
When our fascia is healthy, it helps to improve posture and reduce pain. Moreover, the movements to stimulate your fascia help tone your body, increase flexibility, reduce stress and promote weight loss.
So what can we do to support it?
Here are a few ways to stimulate and lubricate your fascia for a healthier body:
1. HYDRATE. Most people are simply not drinking enough water. Start your day with 2 full glasses of water before you even start your day. And you want to be continuously drinking water throughout the day, and boost this water intake when you sweat. Read more HERE for my best hydration tips.
2. USE A FOAM ROLLER. Rolling helps to ‘lubricate’ your joints and reduce inflammation and helps break up any built-up thickness and density in your fascia. Just get onto the roller and roll, letting your muscles talk to you. When you hit a trigger point or tight spot, stay and work on that spot for 30 to 60 seconds as it slowly dissipates.
3. SELF-MASSAGE. I suggest doing a 5 minute self-massage after your shower everyday (and if this seems too much, start by aiming for 2-3 times a week then work your way up, and start with just a 1 minute full body massage). You want to start at your feet and massage up to your head, and from your hands up to your shoulders. Just apply your favorite nontoxic cream or natural body oil, while using a bit of pressure on your hands, working your way up. Nothing fancy needed.
4. GET A PROFESSIONAL MASSAGE as often as your budget allows. Both professional massages, daily self-massage and regular rolling (with a foam roller) all help improve circulation throughout your entire body which helps to oxygenate the blood, boost lymphatic drainage and flush toxins from the body…essential for DETOXIFICATION and weight loss and overall contributing to a toned body.
5. MOVE YOUR BODY UPON WAKING. Start your day with some movement, even if its 1 minute of jumping, dancing and/or a few minutes of stretching.
6. EXERCISE & STRETCH REGULARLY, being careful to avoid overusing or injuring your muscles which can tighten fascia. I suggest working out 5-6 days a week, allowing for a day of rest or just more stretchy movement. When exercising, focus on strengthening your muscles via targeted exercises (to almost the point of fatigue) while simultaneously lengthening the muscles, and then STRETCHING these muscles right after, taking a few deep breaths in each stretch. Stretching to elongate your muscles can help you release tension in your muscles, and promote healthy fascia. This is what we do throughout my barre classes.
7. ALIGN YOUR TORSO, ALWAYS. While you exercise, you want to focus on keeping ears aligned with shoulders aligned with hips and if standing, aligned with heels. You want your belly drawn in, and shoulders pulled down away from your ears. This way you are working your core throughout your exercises. And again, make sure you ALWAYS take a moment to lengthen and stretch during your workout.
8. LENGTHEN YOUR SPINE. In everything you do, keep repeating to yourself: straight spine. Right now as you’re reading this, do this: lengthen your spine, grow taller. Extend your crown to the sky, your sits-bones to the floor/chair, broaden your chest, pull your shoulders down away from your ears, and tighten your core. Wow, your posture just got better, you’re taller, your core is working to build muscle and burn fat, and you’re innately expressing more confidence. Do you feel it? As your fascia is healthier, this becomes easier and more natural - as it’s a 2 way relationship: consistent lengthening of your torso/overall body helps keep healthy fascia, which in turn helps support good posture. Do this throughout your day, as you’re sitting in your computer, as you’re at the table eating, as you’re standing up and cooking, and especially during most standing positions of your workouts.
9. GET PROPER SLEEP, EVERY NIGHT. Resting is equally important for a healthy fascia. Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep every night. Read HERE some of my best tips for getting proper sleep, and HERE a bit more on sleep for weight loss.
10. MANAGE YOUR STRESS. Here is one easy tool to practice daily to help with stress, and additionally, check out here 17 things i do regularly to help destress.
READY TO TAKE YOUR WELLNESS ROUTINE TO THE NEXT LEVEL AND TRY MY BALANCE BARRE CLASSES, WITH INCREDIBLE FOCUS ON ALIGNMENT, POSTURE AND OVERALL TONING? Now you can access my online classes from anywhere in the world, either my live Zoom classes (with access to recordings for 48 hours) and/or starting with my 6-week online program of pre-recorded classes that you can do at your own pace (which also includes health tips and recipes).