On this page you will find fitness videos led by Lou Dutch who at the time of recording was the lead for fitness in Dorset Police.
These motivational videos are primarily aimed at getting you moving. They are simple, easy to follow and can be easily built into your daily routine.
More about Lou Dutch
Lou is a highly qualified and experienced soft tissue therapist, strength and conditioning coach and personal trainer, who has been the lead for fitness in Dorset Police.
Lou has completed over 100 marathons and ultra-marathons including two 100 mile ultras. She has also completed several Ironman distance triathlons including a Double Ironman (4.8 mile swim, 232 mile bike ride and a 52 mile run completed in one go). Lou represented the British Police Cycling Team at the European Championships in both 2008 and 2012 gaining a podium spot and was the emergency services time trial champion for both 10 and 25 miles for three consecutive years.
Lou said “Making training enjoyable is my passion, I want to help you to achieve your goals in a safe way – remember, the only limits we have are the ones we place on ourselves. The human body and mind is an amazing piece of machinery and can achieve incredible things.”
Lou is focused on helping you to participate whatever your level of fitness – make sure you select the one that is best for you.
Lou: Hi all. I’m Lou Dutch, I’m the Dorset Police health and fitness trainer. And I’ll be taking you through this set of videos.
So I’m a qualified sports remedial massage therapist, strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer, and I’ve got additional qualifications such as boxercise instructor, kettle bells, spinning, running leader and a few other sporting qualifications.
So I myself was a police officer with Dorset Police for 14 years, during which time I worked on uniform response, dog section, and I was the lead personal safety trainer. So I’m well aware of the effects of policing, both mentally and physically on the body, and it is a really demanding job.
Sporting wise, sport’s always been my passion since a child. I think it was when I won the sack race, and throwing the rounders ball competition at school that just led me to want to keep doing it, and it lit that fire within me.
Latterly, I've been doing endurance events, so I've now done about 100 ultramarathons and marathons, two of which were 100 milers. And I've also done many Ironman distance triathlons, including a double Ironman. So that's a 4.8 mile swim, a 222 mile bike ride and a 52 mile run in one go.
I was also really fortunate enough to represent the British Police at the European Championships twice, in 2008 and 2012, and managed to get a bronze medal in the time trial. And I was also the emergency services time trial champion over 10 and 25 mile distances for three consecutive years.
And as well as that, I want to mix things up. I love obstacle course racing, it’s just amazing fun, works all over body strength, plus you get to be a big kid for a day, rolling around in the mud, and strength competitions.
So I've had a mixed sort of sporting career. I’m absolutely passionate about all things sports, and anyone can achieve it. I'm not saying it because to say this is what I've achieved. I am no different to anyone else, it’s just wanting it badly enough, having that passion, and going out and doing it.
So yeah, it's there for anyone to achieve. I’m absolutely fascinated by what the body can achieve, both mentally and physically, and have a sort of fascination with where that limit is, because we can achieve so much more than we think we can. So many people put limits on themselves saying they can't do it, when of course they can. We were actually designed to walk and run, we weren’t designed to sit, which is what I'll talk about next. So we were designed to move, we were designed to do stuff like this.
So absolutely passionate about it, want to inspire others, and hopefully these videos will assist you on your fitness journey wherever you’re at. But most of all have fun.
So I’m a qualified sports remedial massage therapist, strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer, and I’ve got additional qualifications such as boxercise instructor, kettle bells, spinning, running leader and a few other sporting qualifications.
So I myself was a police officer with Dorset Police for 14 years, during which time I worked on uniform response, dog section, and I was the lead personal safety trainer. So I’m well aware of the effects of policing, both mentally and physically on the body, and it is a really demanding job.
Sporting wise, sport’s always been my passion since a child. I think it was when I won the sack race, and throwing the rounders ball competition at school that just led me to want to keep doing it, and it lit that fire within me.
Latterly, I've been doing endurance events, so I've now done about 100 ultramarathons and marathons, two of which were 100 milers. And I've also done many Ironman distance triathlons, including a double Ironman. So that's a 4.8 mile swim, a 222 mile bike ride and a 52 mile run in one go.
I was also really fortunate enough to represent the British Police at the European Championships twice, in 2008 and 2012, and managed to get a bronze medal in the time trial. And I was also the emergency services time trial champion over 10 and 25 mile distances for three consecutive years.
And as well as that, I want to mix things up. I love obstacle course racing, it’s just amazing fun, works all over body strength, plus you get to be a big kid for a day, rolling around in the mud, and strength competitions.
So I've had a mixed sort of sporting career. I’m absolutely passionate about all things sports, and anyone can achieve it. I'm not saying it because to say this is what I've achieved. I am no different to anyone else, it’s just wanting it badly enough, having that passion, and going out and doing it.
So yeah, it's there for anyone to achieve. I’m absolutely fascinated by what the body can achieve, both mentally and physically, and have a sort of fascination with where that limit is, because we can achieve so much more than we think we can. So many people put limits on themselves saying they can't do it, when of course they can. We were actually designed to walk and run, we weren’t designed to sit, which is what I'll talk about next. So we were designed to move, we were designed to do stuff like this.
So absolutely passionate about it, want to inspire others, and hopefully these videos will assist you on your fitness journey wherever you’re at. But most of all have fun.
Series 1: Get moving and increase your mobility
In these first four videos, Lou discusses the importance of looking after yourself. She focuses on different areas of the body providing simple exercises for you to follow, to increase your mobility and build into your daily routine.
Musculo-skeletal health
In this video, Lou looks at how people have become more sedentary and what we can do to make ourselves stronger and more robust.
Hi team, so welcome to the musculo-skeletal health presentation. When I say musculo-skeletal health I’m talking about the soft tissues, so muscles, tendons, ligaments, which obviously all have an effect on the skeleton and joints as well.
So as an introduction, fundamentally, as a nation now we’re not strong enough to do what we do. And the reason we’re not strong enough to do what we do is because we tend to be very sedentary and we sit all day. So even as a police officer you know the amounts of time that you’re sitting in a car, at a desk, and fundamentally most of the nation now will sit at a desk or sit somewhere for either the majority or part of their day.
If you think back to – it depends how old you are – grandparents, great grandparents, great, great, great grandparents, they were fundamentally active in everything they did, so they would have to walk several miles to the shops, they would carry heavy shopping back. They would have to wash floors by hand, they would have to wash by hand, if they had a tele they had to get up and actually press the buttons to turn the television station over. So every muscle in their body was being used. If you think about us now, like I’ve said, we already sit a lot, but we press a button the tele changes channel.
For some people if they have Alexa, Alexa will even close the curtains for them. I have Alexa so if you have got one bin her because she is fundamentally making us even more lazy, you know, if we can’t close the curtains by ourselves it really isn’t helping our bodies and causes all sorts of illness. So we’re not strong enough to do what we do, we need to make ourselves more robust so this gives you an idea, really, of why muscles get tight, why they get weak and thing we can do about it and then onwards you will see the videos progressing in order to assist you with that.
If I sit down, and you know what people look like when they’re sitting down, hopefully, I would usually, if I was in a classroom with you, I would ask you to shout out names of muscles that you think might be tight on me or any person sitting. If you think about yourselves at the end of a day getting out of a chair, what’s hurting or what niggles you may or may not have or people that you know.
As you will see we’ve highlighted muscles that may be weak and may be tight and it, basically, covers the whole body and we’re not wrong in thinking that. Now, the interesting thing is that muscles can be tight and weak or they can be tight and strong, and for the majority of us sitting they tend to be tight and weak, so they feel tight but they’re quite weak, so functionally they don’t work as efficiently as they should do. Although you shouldn’t generalise with people because we’re all very unique in our physiology and, obviously, the stuff that we do during the working day, there are a few muscles that I can guarantee will probably be tight and weak on people that sit so we’re going to go through those.
I’m going to mention first of all the glute muscles, so the buttock muscles, they should be the big powerhouse of the boxy but, unfortunately, because we sit on them all day they tend to be less active and activated than they should be. So, of course, they activate to a certain extent because if they didn’t you’d obviously fall over when you stepped out of your chair, and I’m assuming that most of you don’t, but they’re just not as efficient as they could be because we’re sitting on them. And, as a result of that, other muscles, like the lower back, will have to compensate and, therefore, it leads to injury. So glutes are a big one that need to be worked on for the majority of people.
Your hamstrings, so the muscles at the top of the leg here. The hamstrings join at the sit bone, so right onto the buttock muscle. Now, because we’re sitting all day we’re basically shortening those hamstrings, so they’re in that flexed position all day, every day. And it’s an exaggeration but because they’re shortening and they attach here they’re almost pulling you backwards, which is putting a lot of pressure through those lower discs of the spine.
So hamstrings tend to be tight on a person sitting, tight hamstrings, like I just mentioned, can lead to lower back pain, so if I was to see somebody in my clinic with lower back pain I would be looking at their hamstring flexibility first and foremost and if the hamstrings are tight I would be giving them a rehab programme and part of that rehab programme would be to lengthen those hamstrings.
Another classic muscle that is tight on people that sit is your hip flexors and your quads. So you’ve got four quad muscles, obviously, named quad, one of which crosses both the knee joint and the hip joint. So, again, when we’re sitting this muscle is being squashed and shortened all day every day, again, if you imagine, and it’s an exaggeration again, it’s pulling your forward, so it’s tilting the pelvis forward and that’s the position you’re in. So you’ve got your hamstrings potentially pulling you backwards, quads pulling you forwards and they’re vying for this attention.
Another classic area that tends to be tight on people that sit are the neck muscles and shoulder and back muscles, because we’re hunched over all day in this position. The neck, or the head weighs about five kilos so the neck muscles are having to support that five kilos, particularly when we’re protruding the head, which we tend to do. So it becomes very tight and it can cause people a lot of pain, and if you’ve got tight neck muscles very often they can cause tension headaches so you may be getting headaches during your working day, as well. There are obviously various reasons why you get headaches but it is a causation by sitting there with your head protruded and the shoulder muscles and neck muscles having to support that weight.
We obviously become tight in the pectoral muscles, the muscles across the chest, again, for this reason, we’re hunched forward, we’re shortening those muscles, they become shorter and they pull us in so we need to counteract that and open out so pec muscles tend to be tight as well.
So we’ll stick with those four muscles for the time being that tend to be tight on most people and it’s something that you can bear in mind and work on. Another thing to mention here is that every part of the body is wrapped in a netting called fascia, so this netting surrounds all the muscles of the body and soft tissues. If you’ve ever heard of plantar fasciitis or you’ve had it, it’s where the fascia on the bottom of the foot becomes really tight and inflamed and it’s very, very painful.
I’m just going to do a little demonstration with a golf ball now, we need to think of the body as a whole rather than isolated muscles because by affecting on muscle and the fascia it will have a knock on effect, potentially, on other areas of the body so the golf ball will just show you how it works. You will need, well, you can have a golf ball, tennis ball, any kind of hard ball that will give a bit of pressure. You need a bare foot preferably but I will just take my shoe of now and leave a sock. And you’re going to roll that golf ball the length of your foot, the width of your foot and cover as much surface area as you can.
But before you do that I want you to just test your hamstring length. So remember that you’re not warm but you’re going to keep your knees straight and you’re going to reach down your shins as far as you can go before you feel those hamstrings start to stretch, so you’re not feeling pain but you’re just feeling that stretch. And just make a mental note of where you get to, so a couple of inches above my ankles.
Then you’re going to roll the golf ball under the foot, so the whole length of the foot, you need to put as much pressure as you can through there. So length of the foot, width of the foot, this is actually a very good, sort of, rehab exercise if you have got plantar fasciitis just to try and release that netting, the fascia, on the bottom of the foot, as it’s a very painful condition.
So you’re going to roll for about two to three minutes with that golf ball the whole length and width of the foot. I obviously won’t do two or three minutes, you don’t want to stand and watch me doing that for two or three minutes, it’s just a demonstration. So that’s one foot and then over to the other, and you may notice that you’re more sore on one side or the other, so whole length of the foot and width.
And then when you’ve done that what I want you to do is retest. So, again, with those straight legs, straight knees, you’re going to reach down and you’re going to see how much further you go. Now, I only did, what, 20 seconds ish on each foot and already I’ve got further. You could say that I’ve set that up, but I promise you every time I’ve done this with people it works, do it for yourself.
The reason is, like I’ve just said, thinking about the body as a whole, so by affecting the fascia on the bottom of the foot and releasing that netting it has a knock on effect at the posterior side of the body, so into the Achilles, into the calves and into the hamstrings. If you have got really tight hamstrings, which I can guarantee the majority of people have, you can affect your hamstring flexibility just by rolling a golf ball under your foot for two/three minutes each side. So if you do nothing else in your working day two/three minutes with a golf ball will assist, obviously, it won’t counteract the effects of sitting completely because you do a lot of that, but it will just help to make you a little more robust, so golf ball, great piece of kit.
Now, think about yourself, you know, have you had an injury or have you got a current injury, I would imagine you have at some point. Usually, again, if I’m live with people there’s very few people that don’t put up their hands and say they’ve had some kind of injury. You know, facts and figures wise, back pain and musculo-skeletal problems are the biggest cause of accidents in the UK, certainly in police forces they are coupled with stress. You know, if you’re stressed the muscles get really, really tight, particularly in the shoulder, neck and back, so they do tend to go hand in hand, as well.
And they have a massive impact on your quality of life, for those that are keen on being outside or doing their sport, or just anything, just being functional on a day to day basis, they can stop you in your tracks. And I speak from personal experience, I’ve had many an injury because of what I’ve done sporting wise and career wise, and it is debilitating and it does mentally affect people, particularly if they’re very active. So it’s really worth paying attention to your body and trying to make yourself as resistant as you can.
So causes of injury, obviously, we’ve already mentioned sitting, poor posture. Now, we could debate as to actually is there an ideal posture now and there probably isn’t, but if you’re suffering any niggles or pain there is certainly an improved posture and we’ll go through the various postures shortly.
Obviously, sitting at your desk for prolonged periods of time, but not only that you then get in your care for prolonged periods of time and, you know, some people even drive to the gym to then sit on a static bike in the gym. So, you know, some of us are sitting literally the whole day.
Lifting or carrying objects, obviously, if you’re doing it wrongly but also, like is said, because we come weak because we are sedentary we haven't got the strength necessarily to lift objects and that’s when we’re going to get injured.
Muscle imbalances is a massive one for me, I’ve seen a lot of people in clinic that will come in and they are very unequal, let’s say, on both sides of their body. So, you know, people will come in with one shoulder up towards their ear because they’ve been carrying heavy bags on that side or that’s the side they always carry their shopping on, so these muscles here become more developed or tight because we’re in that constant position. And it’s very, very noticeable to external people but not the person, because they become so used to that and the body adapts.
If we’re very much stronger on one side, and I’m stronger on my right, again, it will lead to injury because I can guarantee that my stronger side will be doing all the work when I’m lifting something, the other side is perhaps too weak to be able to cope with it. So muscle imbalance is a huge thing and what I would say is if you have children or even now as an adult if you can be as ambidextrous as you can it will go a long way in helping to correct those muscle imbalances.
So if you’re right handed, you know, try lifting stuff with your left hand, albeit it not heavy you need to work up slowly. That’s a huge, huge thing and it’s those repetitive small movements that you do every day that can actually cause a big injury. So using a mouse all day at a computer, tiny little things that you may think don’t make a difference but they really can do and they can cause chronic injuries.
What I will say as well about injuries is a lot of people will say to me, well, I was playing football and that’s when my hamstring went. And, absolutely, sport is the catalyst a lot of the time for injuries but the causation is the years and months of being sedentary and, like I say, muscles switching off, not having that range of motion.
If you sit all day at your desk and the hamstrings are getting shorter and then you’re playing football you’re then saying to your hamstrings, I want you to stretch, I want you to have this range of motion and, of course, they haven't got it so they tear. So it’s the sitting and sedentary and things that you do in every day life are potentially the cause, your sport or something you do that involves you to be more mobile and have that range of motion is the catalyst. The sport you do or the hobbies that you do and comparing them to being sedentary and how that’s going to work for you with muscles and tightness et cetera.
So there are, sort of, four postures or ways people stand, let’s call it, that you will probably see. Well, the first on, I say you probably see, the first one you probably won’t see much it’s ideal alignment, so in ideal alignment your ear would line up with your shoulder, your shoulder would line up with your hip and your hip would line up with the ankle bone. I challenge you to go and find people, it’s a great game you can play in Tesco’s or wherever you go shopping, spot the person with the ideal posture because I’m yet to find anybody. Also the spine should have its natural curves and that’s to shock absorb. So, again, somebody with ideal alignment with all those parts of the body lined up and their natural curves, yes, good luck spotting one.
Now, the second posture which you’ll see a lot is this kyphosis, so the rounding of the thoracic spine up at the top of the spine because we’re sitting like this all day. Neck is protruding, poor little neck muscles are having to work really hard, we’ve shortened our pec muscles and we’re all bent over and hunched.
And we’re seeing younger and younger people like that because, obviously, now we’ve got [unintelligible 00:16:23], haven't we, and people playing on social media all the time. So I’m seeing young children now coming in to see me for treatment and they’ve already got that kyphosis happening it’s not a great place to be.
Added to that you get lordosis, you get an exaggerated lumbar curve, so it curves inwards and, again, that can cause awful pressure on the discs, particularly the lower discs. Again, it can be caused by tight hamstrings and sitting. So we’ve got that horrible kyphosis curve and then we’ve got this lumbar curve, not a good position to be in.
You’ll also see some people with a say back posture, so you’ll see their hips swaying back past their knees, again, it can be caused by tight hamstring and things that they’re doing during their working day. And then you will see some people who have no curves to the spine at all and those curves have been flatted.
That’s a general, you know, putting people into compartments as to what you’ll see but it’s really worth looking at yourselves in the mirror. People look at themselves for vanity or cleaning their teeth in the morning but, actually, really important is just take note of your posture. You know, are you standing with one shoulder higher than the other, is your pelvis twisted, is there one side of your neck that’s hurting more than the other. So it’s really worth paying attention to what’s going on in your body and then trying to work out how we can rectify that.
So tips at work with your desk, you may or may not have your own desk, but we need to sit up straight. We tend to start, especially when you’re tired, you start slumping, so nice straight back, and that’s hard work because if your body is used to doing that it’s then really hard to say, no, you need to work. So later on through the videos with mobility and the Desk to Durable programme that I do you will be given some ideas as to what you can do to strengthen those back muscles and counteract this horrible hunched effect.
Your knees should be level with your hips, ideally, when you’re sitting on your chair and your feet should be flat on the floor. So a lot of people tend to cross their legs or they cross one leg over the other, and this goes for sitting on a sofa in an evening. Now, if we’re doing that I’ve already mentioned that the hip flexors, the muscles that cross the hip, become really squashed. So if you’re doing this with one leg over the other you’re squashing this side a bit more and you’re almost getting this twisted pelvis, so sometimes people can think they’ve got this twisted pelvis but, actually, it’s where this hip flexor is tight and if we release it, stretch it with flexibility mobility, again, you can help to correct that muscle imbalance.
The monitor should be arm’s length from your eyes, so not too close to you and not, obviously, stretched out too much, and your elbows should be vertically under your shoulders. Most importantly is to get up and move around ideally every 15 to 20 minutes, which we just don’t do, some people are sitting there for nine/ten hours a day. So if you can set yourself a little reminder, even just standing up for five seconds and sitting back down is going to do you a lot of good because you’re, basically, stretching these muscles out that are getting squashed all day.
And we do lose a certain amount of height during the working day, as well, because you’re squashing those spinal discs together, but if you get up during your working day and you’re stretching them out then you’re counteracting the effects of sitting all day long. So just getting up and moving is going to really, really help.
So mobility and stretching, you will see those in the next couple of videos, they will be videos only about ten minutes long that you can fit into your working day that you can do as often as possible. Flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch temporarily when needed, which we tend to lose when we’re sitting and then when we go and be mobile they struggle to have that flexibility.
And mobility is the ability of a joint to move through its intended range of motion, again, they go hand in hand and we start to limit our mobility, particularly as we get older. Mobility and stretching is probably the part of training that gets neglected the most and, actually, is the most important. If you’re not mobile and you’re not flexible you will never reach your full potential with any sport or just functional movement on a day to day basis.
Just quickly to mention here, as well, strength and conditioning. Like I say, we’re not strong enough to do what we do, by incorporating strength into your training programme we can reduce injuries by 50 percent. It improves running economy, and I say running economy because police officers, obviously, have to do a fitness test that involves running, but it will improve the economy of every sport you do. Like I’ve said before, we’re not strong enough to do what we do now as a nation and we need to strengthen the soft tissues. The stronger your soft tissues are the more they will support the joints.
You will also notice as we go through that I will tend to do a lot of single arm and single leg exercise, the reason being, as I’ve mentioned, that muscle imbalance is a big cause of injury and we become so dominant on one side. So by doing single arm and single leg stuff we know that we’re working both sides equally.
And, most importantly, and again we’ll cover this in videos to come, you need to think about the way you move. So by thinking about the way you move, moving correctly, you’re going to be activating muscles that need to be activated and, therefore, making yourself robust.
So I hope you find this interesting, it’s the basis of just understanding your body, thinking about your body, thinking about what particular injuries you’ve got and how you can keep yourself more robust for functional, day to day activity. But also if you’re into your sport about how to reach your full potential.
I will see you in the next videos.
So as an introduction, fundamentally, as a nation now we’re not strong enough to do what we do. And the reason we’re not strong enough to do what we do is because we tend to be very sedentary and we sit all day. So even as a police officer you know the amounts of time that you’re sitting in a car, at a desk, and fundamentally most of the nation now will sit at a desk or sit somewhere for either the majority or part of their day.
If you think back to – it depends how old you are – grandparents, great grandparents, great, great, great grandparents, they were fundamentally active in everything they did, so they would have to walk several miles to the shops, they would carry heavy shopping back. They would have to wash floors by hand, they would have to wash by hand, if they had a tele they had to get up and actually press the buttons to turn the television station over. So every muscle in their body was being used. If you think about us now, like I’ve said, we already sit a lot, but we press a button the tele changes channel.
For some people if they have Alexa, Alexa will even close the curtains for them. I have Alexa so if you have got one bin her because she is fundamentally making us even more lazy, you know, if we can’t close the curtains by ourselves it really isn’t helping our bodies and causes all sorts of illness. So we’re not strong enough to do what we do, we need to make ourselves more robust so this gives you an idea, really, of why muscles get tight, why they get weak and thing we can do about it and then onwards you will see the videos progressing in order to assist you with that.
If I sit down, and you know what people look like when they’re sitting down, hopefully, I would usually, if I was in a classroom with you, I would ask you to shout out names of muscles that you think might be tight on me or any person sitting. If you think about yourselves at the end of a day getting out of a chair, what’s hurting or what niggles you may or may not have or people that you know.
As you will see we’ve highlighted muscles that may be weak and may be tight and it, basically, covers the whole body and we’re not wrong in thinking that. Now, the interesting thing is that muscles can be tight and weak or they can be tight and strong, and for the majority of us sitting they tend to be tight and weak, so they feel tight but they’re quite weak, so functionally they don’t work as efficiently as they should do. Although you shouldn’t generalise with people because we’re all very unique in our physiology and, obviously, the stuff that we do during the working day, there are a few muscles that I can guarantee will probably be tight and weak on people that sit so we’re going to go through those.
I’m going to mention first of all the glute muscles, so the buttock muscles, they should be the big powerhouse of the boxy but, unfortunately, because we sit on them all day they tend to be less active and activated than they should be. So, of course, they activate to a certain extent because if they didn’t you’d obviously fall over when you stepped out of your chair, and I’m assuming that most of you don’t, but they’re just not as efficient as they could be because we’re sitting on them. And, as a result of that, other muscles, like the lower back, will have to compensate and, therefore, it leads to injury. So glutes are a big one that need to be worked on for the majority of people.
Your hamstrings, so the muscles at the top of the leg here. The hamstrings join at the sit bone, so right onto the buttock muscle. Now, because we’re sitting all day we’re basically shortening those hamstrings, so they’re in that flexed position all day, every day. And it’s an exaggeration but because they’re shortening and they attach here they’re almost pulling you backwards, which is putting a lot of pressure through those lower discs of the spine.
So hamstrings tend to be tight on a person sitting, tight hamstrings, like I just mentioned, can lead to lower back pain, so if I was to see somebody in my clinic with lower back pain I would be looking at their hamstring flexibility first and foremost and if the hamstrings are tight I would be giving them a rehab programme and part of that rehab programme would be to lengthen those hamstrings.
Another classic muscle that is tight on people that sit is your hip flexors and your quads. So you’ve got four quad muscles, obviously, named quad, one of which crosses both the knee joint and the hip joint. So, again, when we’re sitting this muscle is being squashed and shortened all day every day, again, if you imagine, and it’s an exaggeration again, it’s pulling your forward, so it’s tilting the pelvis forward and that’s the position you’re in. So you’ve got your hamstrings potentially pulling you backwards, quads pulling you forwards and they’re vying for this attention.
Another classic area that tends to be tight on people that sit are the neck muscles and shoulder and back muscles, because we’re hunched over all day in this position. The neck, or the head weighs about five kilos so the neck muscles are having to support that five kilos, particularly when we’re protruding the head, which we tend to do. So it becomes very tight and it can cause people a lot of pain, and if you’ve got tight neck muscles very often they can cause tension headaches so you may be getting headaches during your working day, as well. There are obviously various reasons why you get headaches but it is a causation by sitting there with your head protruded and the shoulder muscles and neck muscles having to support that weight.
We obviously become tight in the pectoral muscles, the muscles across the chest, again, for this reason, we’re hunched forward, we’re shortening those muscles, they become shorter and they pull us in so we need to counteract that and open out so pec muscles tend to be tight as well.
So we’ll stick with those four muscles for the time being that tend to be tight on most people and it’s something that you can bear in mind and work on. Another thing to mention here is that every part of the body is wrapped in a netting called fascia, so this netting surrounds all the muscles of the body and soft tissues. If you’ve ever heard of plantar fasciitis or you’ve had it, it’s where the fascia on the bottom of the foot becomes really tight and inflamed and it’s very, very painful.
I’m just going to do a little demonstration with a golf ball now, we need to think of the body as a whole rather than isolated muscles because by affecting on muscle and the fascia it will have a knock on effect, potentially, on other areas of the body so the golf ball will just show you how it works. You will need, well, you can have a golf ball, tennis ball, any kind of hard ball that will give a bit of pressure. You need a bare foot preferably but I will just take my shoe of now and leave a sock. And you’re going to roll that golf ball the length of your foot, the width of your foot and cover as much surface area as you can.
But before you do that I want you to just test your hamstring length. So remember that you’re not warm but you’re going to keep your knees straight and you’re going to reach down your shins as far as you can go before you feel those hamstrings start to stretch, so you’re not feeling pain but you’re just feeling that stretch. And just make a mental note of where you get to, so a couple of inches above my ankles.
Then you’re going to roll the golf ball under the foot, so the whole length of the foot, you need to put as much pressure as you can through there. So length of the foot, width of the foot, this is actually a very good, sort of, rehab exercise if you have got plantar fasciitis just to try and release that netting, the fascia, on the bottom of the foot, as it’s a very painful condition.
So you’re going to roll for about two to three minutes with that golf ball the whole length and width of the foot. I obviously won’t do two or three minutes, you don’t want to stand and watch me doing that for two or three minutes, it’s just a demonstration. So that’s one foot and then over to the other, and you may notice that you’re more sore on one side or the other, so whole length of the foot and width.
And then when you’ve done that what I want you to do is retest. So, again, with those straight legs, straight knees, you’re going to reach down and you’re going to see how much further you go. Now, I only did, what, 20 seconds ish on each foot and already I’ve got further. You could say that I’ve set that up, but I promise you every time I’ve done this with people it works, do it for yourself.
The reason is, like I’ve just said, thinking about the body as a whole, so by affecting the fascia on the bottom of the foot and releasing that netting it has a knock on effect at the posterior side of the body, so into the Achilles, into the calves and into the hamstrings. If you have got really tight hamstrings, which I can guarantee the majority of people have, you can affect your hamstring flexibility just by rolling a golf ball under your foot for two/three minutes each side. So if you do nothing else in your working day two/three minutes with a golf ball will assist, obviously, it won’t counteract the effects of sitting completely because you do a lot of that, but it will just help to make you a little more robust, so golf ball, great piece of kit.
Now, think about yourself, you know, have you had an injury or have you got a current injury, I would imagine you have at some point. Usually, again, if I’m live with people there’s very few people that don’t put up their hands and say they’ve had some kind of injury. You know, facts and figures wise, back pain and musculo-skeletal problems are the biggest cause of accidents in the UK, certainly in police forces they are coupled with stress. You know, if you’re stressed the muscles get really, really tight, particularly in the shoulder, neck and back, so they do tend to go hand in hand, as well.
And they have a massive impact on your quality of life, for those that are keen on being outside or doing their sport, or just anything, just being functional on a day to day basis, they can stop you in your tracks. And I speak from personal experience, I’ve had many an injury because of what I’ve done sporting wise and career wise, and it is debilitating and it does mentally affect people, particularly if they’re very active. So it’s really worth paying attention to your body and trying to make yourself as resistant as you can.
So causes of injury, obviously, we’ve already mentioned sitting, poor posture. Now, we could debate as to actually is there an ideal posture now and there probably isn’t, but if you’re suffering any niggles or pain there is certainly an improved posture and we’ll go through the various postures shortly.
Obviously, sitting at your desk for prolonged periods of time, but not only that you then get in your care for prolonged periods of time and, you know, some people even drive to the gym to then sit on a static bike in the gym. So, you know, some of us are sitting literally the whole day.
Lifting or carrying objects, obviously, if you’re doing it wrongly but also, like is said, because we come weak because we are sedentary we haven't got the strength necessarily to lift objects and that’s when we’re going to get injured.
Muscle imbalances is a massive one for me, I’ve seen a lot of people in clinic that will come in and they are very unequal, let’s say, on both sides of their body. So, you know, people will come in with one shoulder up towards their ear because they’ve been carrying heavy bags on that side or that’s the side they always carry their shopping on, so these muscles here become more developed or tight because we’re in that constant position. And it’s very, very noticeable to external people but not the person, because they become so used to that and the body adapts.
If we’re very much stronger on one side, and I’m stronger on my right, again, it will lead to injury because I can guarantee that my stronger side will be doing all the work when I’m lifting something, the other side is perhaps too weak to be able to cope with it. So muscle imbalance is a huge thing and what I would say is if you have children or even now as an adult if you can be as ambidextrous as you can it will go a long way in helping to correct those muscle imbalances.
So if you’re right handed, you know, try lifting stuff with your left hand, albeit it not heavy you need to work up slowly. That’s a huge, huge thing and it’s those repetitive small movements that you do every day that can actually cause a big injury. So using a mouse all day at a computer, tiny little things that you may think don’t make a difference but they really can do and they can cause chronic injuries.
What I will say as well about injuries is a lot of people will say to me, well, I was playing football and that’s when my hamstring went. And, absolutely, sport is the catalyst a lot of the time for injuries but the causation is the years and months of being sedentary and, like I say, muscles switching off, not having that range of motion.
If you sit all day at your desk and the hamstrings are getting shorter and then you’re playing football you’re then saying to your hamstrings, I want you to stretch, I want you to have this range of motion and, of course, they haven't got it so they tear. So it’s the sitting and sedentary and things that you do in every day life are potentially the cause, your sport or something you do that involves you to be more mobile and have that range of motion is the catalyst. The sport you do or the hobbies that you do and comparing them to being sedentary and how that’s going to work for you with muscles and tightness et cetera.
So there are, sort of, four postures or ways people stand, let’s call it, that you will probably see. Well, the first on, I say you probably see, the first one you probably won’t see much it’s ideal alignment, so in ideal alignment your ear would line up with your shoulder, your shoulder would line up with your hip and your hip would line up with the ankle bone. I challenge you to go and find people, it’s a great game you can play in Tesco’s or wherever you go shopping, spot the person with the ideal posture because I’m yet to find anybody. Also the spine should have its natural curves and that’s to shock absorb. So, again, somebody with ideal alignment with all those parts of the body lined up and their natural curves, yes, good luck spotting one.
Now, the second posture which you’ll see a lot is this kyphosis, so the rounding of the thoracic spine up at the top of the spine because we’re sitting like this all day. Neck is protruding, poor little neck muscles are having to work really hard, we’ve shortened our pec muscles and we’re all bent over and hunched.
And we’re seeing younger and younger people like that because, obviously, now we’ve got [unintelligible 00:16:23], haven't we, and people playing on social media all the time. So I’m seeing young children now coming in to see me for treatment and they’ve already got that kyphosis happening it’s not a great place to be.
Added to that you get lordosis, you get an exaggerated lumbar curve, so it curves inwards and, again, that can cause awful pressure on the discs, particularly the lower discs. Again, it can be caused by tight hamstrings and sitting. So we’ve got that horrible kyphosis curve and then we’ve got this lumbar curve, not a good position to be in.
You’ll also see some people with a say back posture, so you’ll see their hips swaying back past their knees, again, it can be caused by tight hamstring and things that they’re doing during their working day. And then you will see some people who have no curves to the spine at all and those curves have been flatted.
That’s a general, you know, putting people into compartments as to what you’ll see but it’s really worth looking at yourselves in the mirror. People look at themselves for vanity or cleaning their teeth in the morning but, actually, really important is just take note of your posture. You know, are you standing with one shoulder higher than the other, is your pelvis twisted, is there one side of your neck that’s hurting more than the other. So it’s really worth paying attention to what’s going on in your body and then trying to work out how we can rectify that.
So tips at work with your desk, you may or may not have your own desk, but we need to sit up straight. We tend to start, especially when you’re tired, you start slumping, so nice straight back, and that’s hard work because if your body is used to doing that it’s then really hard to say, no, you need to work. So later on through the videos with mobility and the Desk to Durable programme that I do you will be given some ideas as to what you can do to strengthen those back muscles and counteract this horrible hunched effect.
Your knees should be level with your hips, ideally, when you’re sitting on your chair and your feet should be flat on the floor. So a lot of people tend to cross their legs or they cross one leg over the other, and this goes for sitting on a sofa in an evening. Now, if we’re doing that I’ve already mentioned that the hip flexors, the muscles that cross the hip, become really squashed. So if you’re doing this with one leg over the other you’re squashing this side a bit more and you’re almost getting this twisted pelvis, so sometimes people can think they’ve got this twisted pelvis but, actually, it’s where this hip flexor is tight and if we release it, stretch it with flexibility mobility, again, you can help to correct that muscle imbalance.
The monitor should be arm’s length from your eyes, so not too close to you and not, obviously, stretched out too much, and your elbows should be vertically under your shoulders. Most importantly is to get up and move around ideally every 15 to 20 minutes, which we just don’t do, some people are sitting there for nine/ten hours a day. So if you can set yourself a little reminder, even just standing up for five seconds and sitting back down is going to do you a lot of good because you’re, basically, stretching these muscles out that are getting squashed all day.
And we do lose a certain amount of height during the working day, as well, because you’re squashing those spinal discs together, but if you get up during your working day and you’re stretching them out then you’re counteracting the effects of sitting all day long. So just getting up and moving is going to really, really help.
So mobility and stretching, you will see those in the next couple of videos, they will be videos only about ten minutes long that you can fit into your working day that you can do as often as possible. Flexibility is the ability of a muscle to stretch temporarily when needed, which we tend to lose when we’re sitting and then when we go and be mobile they struggle to have that flexibility.
And mobility is the ability of a joint to move through its intended range of motion, again, they go hand in hand and we start to limit our mobility, particularly as we get older. Mobility and stretching is probably the part of training that gets neglected the most and, actually, is the most important. If you’re not mobile and you’re not flexible you will never reach your full potential with any sport or just functional movement on a day to day basis.
Just quickly to mention here, as well, strength and conditioning. Like I say, we’re not strong enough to do what we do, by incorporating strength into your training programme we can reduce injuries by 50 percent. It improves running economy, and I say running economy because police officers, obviously, have to do a fitness test that involves running, but it will improve the economy of every sport you do. Like I’ve said before, we’re not strong enough to do what we do now as a nation and we need to strengthen the soft tissues. The stronger your soft tissues are the more they will support the joints.
You will also notice as we go through that I will tend to do a lot of single arm and single leg exercise, the reason being, as I’ve mentioned, that muscle imbalance is a big cause of injury and we become so dominant on one side. So by doing single arm and single leg stuff we know that we’re working both sides equally.
And, most importantly, and again we’ll cover this in videos to come, you need to think about the way you move. So by thinking about the way you move, moving correctly, you’re going to be activating muscles that need to be activated and, therefore, making yourself robust.
So I hope you find this interesting, it’s the basis of just understanding your body, thinking about your body, thinking about what particular injuries you’ve got and how you can keep yourself more robust for functional, day to day activity. But also if you’re into your sport about how to reach your full potential.
I will see you in the next videos.
Lower limb mobility
In this video Lou focuses on lower limb mobility, including your feet, ankles, and hamstrings, giving you some simple exercises to try at home.
OK, so if you have if you have a lower limb mobility, starting off with the ankles that can become very stiff we’re going to circle them five times one way and five times the other making the circles as big as you possibly can. If you want to make it a little more interesting you can write your name, for example, so you can spell it out with your feet but, otherwise, five ankle circles on way and five the other.
And then we’re going to take the other leg forward, do exactly the same thing. Also, a nice little balance test, so if your balance isn’t great you can, obviously, hold onto something. So make sure that movement is coming all from the ankle and we’re not compensating with the knee and hip to make movement. So five one way and five the other. Great work.
OK, so moving into getting those knees and hips moving, just bringing the knee up towards the chest as high as you can, you might hear some clicking and clunking, I certainly am, but as long as it’s not associated with pain that’s OK. You don’t also have to wear bright leggings to do this, you can wear whatever you want but I do like a bright legging. So five each side.
So now I’m going to progress on from there, imagine that you’ve got a fence to your side and you’re lifting your leg up and over that fence and then back up and over the fence towards the body again. Up, over that fence and back up over the fence, we’ll get some nice hip mobility. So, again, five each side keeping your chest upright and hips as forward as you can. Again, clumping is fine but if you have got any pain then, obviously, stop what you’re doing, don’t ever push through the pain. So five on one side and then we’re going to go five on the other, up and over that fence.
And, again, like with the upper limb mobility you may find that one side feels more restricted or is tighter or actually does associate itself with pain so it’s worth taking note. Last one coming up, again, it’s a nice low controlled movement and, obviously, we’re getting that balance aspect, as well, and we’re strengthening the side that is stabilising there.
OK, so we’re going to go down onto the floor, we’re going to do a hip flexor stretch. So the muscle that goes across the hip there that we talked about again in the musculoskeletal health presentation becomes very tight during our working day. Your rear foot is on the floor, front leg flat on the floor, chest is upright, tilt forward slightly and you will feel that stretch across the hip flexor but we’re going to do it dynamically, so at the same time we’re going to stretch the hamstring.
So you’re going to go forward, you’re going to feel that stretch and then you’re going to take your weight backwards, your front heel stays on the floor but toes come off and point towards you, you straight the leg and you will feel a stretch in the hamstring. And then go back to get that hamstring stretch. If you’ve got any knee issues, obviously, be very careful about putting your knee on the floor, you can put a towel or something soft under that rear knee.
We’re going to do two more, so you should feel it in the hip as you go forward and as you go back you’ll feel it in that hamstring, the muscle at the top of the leg there. So we’re going to do one more, great work, and then we’re going to change to the other side. Other knee goes onto the floor, other leg out in front, same thing, chest upright, lean forwards so you feel that stretch in the hip and take the weigh back onto the heel and you will feel it in the hamstring. Just make sure as you go forward that that knee doesn’t extend beyond the toes but is level with at least the second toe, so don’t let that knee collapse inwards. That’s three. Two more. And one more. Great work.
Now if you’re able to get up and down off the floor OK I call this a 9090 mobility for the hips. So front leg out in front of you parallel, rear knee and leg go off behind as if you’re hurdling, I will show you from this angle. And from here, keeping the chest upright if you can, you can put your hands on the floor if you need to, we’re going to keep the feet in contact with the floor and rotate to the other side so we get an internal rotation of the hips and external rotation of the hips, a nice one to do for those hips.
So your hands can balance behind you just rotating through. Now you can advance it on if you’re able without hands but, again, just make sure you keep that chest nice and upright. It’s entirely up to you which one you do, hands off or hands on. So a really nice one for the internal and external rotation of the hips there. Let’s just do one more to each side.
Great work. And just being careful as you stand up.
Awesome.
And then we’re going to take the other leg forward, do exactly the same thing. Also, a nice little balance test, so if your balance isn’t great you can, obviously, hold onto something. So make sure that movement is coming all from the ankle and we’re not compensating with the knee and hip to make movement. So five one way and five the other. Great work.
OK, so moving into getting those knees and hips moving, just bringing the knee up towards the chest as high as you can, you might hear some clicking and clunking, I certainly am, but as long as it’s not associated with pain that’s OK. You don’t also have to wear bright leggings to do this, you can wear whatever you want but I do like a bright legging. So five each side.
So now I’m going to progress on from there, imagine that you’ve got a fence to your side and you’re lifting your leg up and over that fence and then back up and over the fence towards the body again. Up, over that fence and back up over the fence, we’ll get some nice hip mobility. So, again, five each side keeping your chest upright and hips as forward as you can. Again, clumping is fine but if you have got any pain then, obviously, stop what you’re doing, don’t ever push through the pain. So five on one side and then we’re going to go five on the other, up and over that fence.
And, again, like with the upper limb mobility you may find that one side feels more restricted or is tighter or actually does associate itself with pain so it’s worth taking note. Last one coming up, again, it’s a nice low controlled movement and, obviously, we’re getting that balance aspect, as well, and we’re strengthening the side that is stabilising there.
OK, so we’re going to go down onto the floor, we’re going to do a hip flexor stretch. So the muscle that goes across the hip there that we talked about again in the musculoskeletal health presentation becomes very tight during our working day. Your rear foot is on the floor, front leg flat on the floor, chest is upright, tilt forward slightly and you will feel that stretch across the hip flexor but we’re going to do it dynamically, so at the same time we’re going to stretch the hamstring.
So you’re going to go forward, you’re going to feel that stretch and then you’re going to take your weight backwards, your front heel stays on the floor but toes come off and point towards you, you straight the leg and you will feel a stretch in the hamstring. And then go back to get that hamstring stretch. If you’ve got any knee issues, obviously, be very careful about putting your knee on the floor, you can put a towel or something soft under that rear knee.
We’re going to do two more, so you should feel it in the hip as you go forward and as you go back you’ll feel it in that hamstring, the muscle at the top of the leg there. So we’re going to do one more, great work, and then we’re going to change to the other side. Other knee goes onto the floor, other leg out in front, same thing, chest upright, lean forwards so you feel that stretch in the hip and take the weigh back onto the heel and you will feel it in the hamstring. Just make sure as you go forward that that knee doesn’t extend beyond the toes but is level with at least the second toe, so don’t let that knee collapse inwards. That’s three. Two more. And one more. Great work.
Now if you’re able to get up and down off the floor OK I call this a 9090 mobility for the hips. So front leg out in front of you parallel, rear knee and leg go off behind as if you’re hurdling, I will show you from this angle. And from here, keeping the chest upright if you can, you can put your hands on the floor if you need to, we’re going to keep the feet in contact with the floor and rotate to the other side so we get an internal rotation of the hips and external rotation of the hips, a nice one to do for those hips.
So your hands can balance behind you just rotating through. Now you can advance it on if you’re able without hands but, again, just make sure you keep that chest nice and upright. It’s entirely up to you which one you do, hands off or hands on. So a really nice one for the internal and external rotation of the hips there. Let’s just do one more to each side.
Great work. And just being careful as you stand up.
Awesome.
Neck and shoulder mobility
In this video, Lou demonstrates a routine you can follow daily to help improve the mobility in your neck and shoulders and reduce pain and stiffness in this area.
OK, so welcome to the mobility series of videos. We’re going to firstly look at neck and shoulder mobility. As you will have found out from the musculoskeletal health presentation neck, shoulders back take an awful lot of strain during the working day because we sit. So you can either do this sitting at your desk or you can do it standing up, and I would suggest doing this daily if you can.
So we’re going to start by looking to the left and then to the right and we’re going to do five reps each side. This is all with your neck so we’re not compensating by moving anything else, the hips and shoulders stay forward. As you do your reps you might feel that you loosen off slightly, so that’s four and then we’re going to do our last one, five.
Now, this time you’re going to look to the left and then you’re going to look down to your left hip, you’re going to look to the right and down to the right hip. This targets the muscles that go up towards the neck that get really tight and they can cause tension headaches. So over to the right hand side, down towards the right hip. We’ve got two more to do each side. Obviously, if you’ve got a particularly stiff neck you can increase the reps but don’t ever push through pain. Last one for each side. Good.
OK, next one we’re going to do is you’re going to take your ear down towards your shoulder, so don’t bring the shoulder up to the ear, the ear goes down towards the shoulder, again, five each side. And you may find, or you probably will find that one side feels much tighter than the other side. So that’s three, two more to each side, taking the ear down towards the shoulder. One more to each side. Perfect.
So we’re going to do some shoulder shrugs. Shoulders up towards the ear, so tense those shoulders and then relax them down, five again. You’ll find in your working day we tend to get really tight like this so just relax those shoulders down. Number three, two more to go. And one more.
OK, so we’re going to do some arm circles now, just five backwards, so really taking those shoulders in nice big circles, squeezing those shoulder blades at the back. Two more backwards and then we’re going to reverse it and go forwards, so shoulder circles forwards. Again, this just helps to increase the blood flow so great to do during your working day. One more forward.
We’re going to go for a bit of thoracic rotation, so moving the spine. Put your hands out in front of you as if you’re holding a tray, the hips forward, again, you can do this sitting. You’re going to rotate your ribs round to the left hand side and then you’re going to go to the right hand side. My chest stays nice and upright, see if you can go a little bit further each time. So round to each side, you’re taking those ribs with you. Three more to each side. Good, two more. Again, nice to do during your work day because we’ve become so static, so just getting some movement in the spine, getting the fluid and blood moving through the body.
Good work. Now what I want you to do is you’re going to round the top of the spine and you’re going to open out the chest. So round the top of the spine bending that top of the spine, opening out, so another great one you can do during your working day. We’re just going to do two more. OK, nice work.
And lastly finishing with some nice big arm circles. Take those arms right past the ears and, again, you may find that you’re more restricted in one side than the other so it’s just worth taking note. Nice big circles. Two more backwards, nice and slow, again, keeping that chest upright. OK and take those arms forward. Three more forward. Two more.
Great work.
So we’re going to start by looking to the left and then to the right and we’re going to do five reps each side. This is all with your neck so we’re not compensating by moving anything else, the hips and shoulders stay forward. As you do your reps you might feel that you loosen off slightly, so that’s four and then we’re going to do our last one, five.
Now, this time you’re going to look to the left and then you’re going to look down to your left hip, you’re going to look to the right and down to the right hip. This targets the muscles that go up towards the neck that get really tight and they can cause tension headaches. So over to the right hand side, down towards the right hip. We’ve got two more to do each side. Obviously, if you’ve got a particularly stiff neck you can increase the reps but don’t ever push through pain. Last one for each side. Good.
OK, next one we’re going to do is you’re going to take your ear down towards your shoulder, so don’t bring the shoulder up to the ear, the ear goes down towards the shoulder, again, five each side. And you may find, or you probably will find that one side feels much tighter than the other side. So that’s three, two more to each side, taking the ear down towards the shoulder. One more to each side. Perfect.
So we’re going to do some shoulder shrugs. Shoulders up towards the ear, so tense those shoulders and then relax them down, five again. You’ll find in your working day we tend to get really tight like this so just relax those shoulders down. Number three, two more to go. And one more.
OK, so we’re going to do some arm circles now, just five backwards, so really taking those shoulders in nice big circles, squeezing those shoulder blades at the back. Two more backwards and then we’re going to reverse it and go forwards, so shoulder circles forwards. Again, this just helps to increase the blood flow so great to do during your working day. One more forward.
We’re going to go for a bit of thoracic rotation, so moving the spine. Put your hands out in front of you as if you’re holding a tray, the hips forward, again, you can do this sitting. You’re going to rotate your ribs round to the left hand side and then you’re going to go to the right hand side. My chest stays nice and upright, see if you can go a little bit further each time. So round to each side, you’re taking those ribs with you. Three more to each side. Good, two more. Again, nice to do during your work day because we’ve become so static, so just getting some movement in the spine, getting the fluid and blood moving through the body.
Good work. Now what I want you to do is you’re going to round the top of the spine and you’re going to open out the chest. So round the top of the spine bending that top of the spine, opening out, so another great one you can do during your working day. We’re just going to do two more. OK, nice work.
And lastly finishing with some nice big arm circles. Take those arms right past the ears and, again, you may find that you’re more restricted in one side than the other so it’s just worth taking note. Nice big circles. Two more backwards, nice and slow, again, keeping that chest upright. OK and take those arms forward. Three more forward. Two more.
Great work.
Bodyweight exercises
Lou demonstrates some basic bodyweight exercises, concentrating on ensuring you have the correct technique.
Lou Dutch: OK. So we're going to look at some basic body weight exercises that will be included in the videos, because it's so paramount that technique is correct.
So we’re going to look at push, pull and core exercise, lower body exercises. So we’ll start with the basic squat.
So you want your feet parallel. Now everyone's physiology is different, so it needs to be comfortable for you, but probably just over shoulder width. Your feet may be slightly turned out or not. Chest needs to remain upright, and then my hips go back is if I'm sitting on a chair, so I’ve got a chair behind me just to demonstrate that.
So from here, I sit back as if I'm sitting onto a chair. My knees go out over the second toe. My chest is upright, so if I'm wearing a logo, you’ll be able to see it. And I stand tall and squeeze the glutes at the top. So chest up, knees go out. Weight goes on to the rear of the heel, and back up. And obviously if I take the chair away, it looks like I’m still sitting on that imaginary chair.
So knees out over second toes, we engage those glutes, chest up. Squeeze the glutes at the top. Hips go back. So that's your squat. Like I said, if you’ve not squatted before, start by squatting onto a chair.
Second exercise we’re going to look at is a lunge. There are loads variations on the lunge. We're going to look at a forward lunge to begin with. So again, you’re going to start with your feet parallel. You're going to take a big step forward. Both sets of toes pointing the same way. And imagine your feet are on train tracks. Chess is upright again, and weight is going to go down, so you're not going to extend over the toes. Your weight is going to drop down so that your rear knee touches the floor.
So from the side, feet parallel, big step forward. Both sets of toes pointing forward. We’re going to descend down. Front shin is vertical to the floor. Rear shin is horizontal. Knee goes out over that second toe to make sure the glutes are engaged.
So other side, big step forward. Front shin horizontal, rear shin - sorry wrong way around. Front shin vertical, rear shin horizontal. Knee out over the second toe, chest upright. And step back. That’s your lunge.
We’re going to look at a push and a press now. So your basic for push up. You are effectively doing a plank, but it's a moving plank, so it's imperative that your whole body stays straight. Tummy button in, squeeze the glutes.
There are various scales that you can use, so if you are just starting out, you will be against a wall. So hands below the shoulders. Everything nice and straight. And you’re lower down towards the wall. Your nose will virtually touch the wall and then you'll push back off. So nice straight body. Everything lowers towards that wall. And back up.
If you want to make it slightly harder, you’ll go onto your knees on the floor. So again, hands will be a little bit further forward, directly below the shoulders, everything nice and tight. My neck is in line with the spine, and I’ll lower everything down towards the floor until my chest touches the floor and my pelvis on the floor to. And I push back up. So stay nice and tight, everything stays as - one I like - like a plank of wood. Push back up.
If that's too easy for you, do full press up again. We start in that nice plank position, everything nice and tight. Squeeze the tummy button in. Squeeze the glutes. I lay all the way down to the floor. Touch the chest with the floor or floor with the chest, and press back up.
So again, start on the scale that suits you, and we can progress from there.
So we’ve done a push, we’ll do a pull. Again you can do this - many variations of a pull, if you've got equipment, we’re going to basic renegade row. So you start in the same position as your press up. And from here you’re going to lift your arm off, and you’re going to pull your arm - your fist into your armpit, with your elbow close to your body. Minimising the movement in the hips and everywhere else.
Obviously you can increase that by adding a weight into that, and as you pull weight into the armpit, I’ll show from the front, you’d have your weight in this hand. Pull in, back down to press up position. Pull in with the other hand. But it maybe that body weight is sufficient for you.
So again loads of core exercises. But quite nice one is the dead bug. So dead bug, as it would suggest, you’re replicating a dead bug. So you’ll lie on the floor. Back flat on the floor. Your knees go up towards the ceiling. Your hands, also go up towards the ceiling, above your head. Head is flat on the floor. And I’m going to take alternate leg and hand out away from my body. So the left leg goes out. The right arm stretches out above the head. But I need to keep my back flat on the floor all times.
So it may be that you only extend up there, quite high. Or if you find that easy, you can take the foot and arm lower to the floor. And then you would do the other side. So little bit of balance, a little bit of coordination, really working that core. Making sure that lower back stays flat on the floor at all times.
And just to go through, because obviously a lot of people do it, plank, not necessarily an exercise that you have to do but quite easy to do anywhere you go, but again, making sure technique is right.
So with plank, your elbows will be below your shoulders. Legs go out. So again I’m in that nice straight line. Glutes engaged. And I’d hold that position. More effective, or using in conjunction with, is the side plank. Because again, we have that muscle discrepancy or muscle imbalances, so it tests both sides. With a side plank, your elbow will go below your shoulder. Depending on how easy or hard you find it, you might want both knees on the floor and bent. So my knees, hips and elbows should line up. I can lift my hips off the floor when I hold a position, keeping those hips high.
If I want to make it slightly harder, I’ll take my feet outstretched, and I’ll lift up from that position? Keeping those hips up and making sure the body is in complete alignment. And obviously then you can try the other side.
So you can do a little plank complex where you do 10 seconds in front plank, 10 seconds side plank, 10 seconds other side plank.
So there's a few body exercises for you to have a look at, to explore, may your own little circuit, and obviously I will be including them in videos subsequently.
So we’re going to look at push, pull and core exercise, lower body exercises. So we’ll start with the basic squat.
So you want your feet parallel. Now everyone's physiology is different, so it needs to be comfortable for you, but probably just over shoulder width. Your feet may be slightly turned out or not. Chest needs to remain upright, and then my hips go back is if I'm sitting on a chair, so I’ve got a chair behind me just to demonstrate that.
So from here, I sit back as if I'm sitting onto a chair. My knees go out over the second toe. My chest is upright, so if I'm wearing a logo, you’ll be able to see it. And I stand tall and squeeze the glutes at the top. So chest up, knees go out. Weight goes on to the rear of the heel, and back up. And obviously if I take the chair away, it looks like I’m still sitting on that imaginary chair.
So knees out over second toes, we engage those glutes, chest up. Squeeze the glutes at the top. Hips go back. So that's your squat. Like I said, if you’ve not squatted before, start by squatting onto a chair.
Second exercise we’re going to look at is a lunge. There are loads variations on the lunge. We're going to look at a forward lunge to begin with. So again, you’re going to start with your feet parallel. You're going to take a big step forward. Both sets of toes pointing the same way. And imagine your feet are on train tracks. Chess is upright again, and weight is going to go down, so you're not going to extend over the toes. Your weight is going to drop down so that your rear knee touches the floor.
So from the side, feet parallel, big step forward. Both sets of toes pointing forward. We’re going to descend down. Front shin is vertical to the floor. Rear shin is horizontal. Knee goes out over that second toe to make sure the glutes are engaged.
So other side, big step forward. Front shin horizontal, rear shin - sorry wrong way around. Front shin vertical, rear shin horizontal. Knee out over the second toe, chest upright. And step back. That’s your lunge.
We’re going to look at a push and a press now. So your basic for push up. You are effectively doing a plank, but it's a moving plank, so it's imperative that your whole body stays straight. Tummy button in, squeeze the glutes.
There are various scales that you can use, so if you are just starting out, you will be against a wall. So hands below the shoulders. Everything nice and straight. And you’re lower down towards the wall. Your nose will virtually touch the wall and then you'll push back off. So nice straight body. Everything lowers towards that wall. And back up.
If you want to make it slightly harder, you’ll go onto your knees on the floor. So again, hands will be a little bit further forward, directly below the shoulders, everything nice and tight. My neck is in line with the spine, and I’ll lower everything down towards the floor until my chest touches the floor and my pelvis on the floor to. And I push back up. So stay nice and tight, everything stays as - one I like - like a plank of wood. Push back up.
If that's too easy for you, do full press up again. We start in that nice plank position, everything nice and tight. Squeeze the tummy button in. Squeeze the glutes. I lay all the way down to the floor. Touch the chest with the floor or floor with the chest, and press back up.
So again, start on the scale that suits you, and we can progress from there.
So we’ve done a push, we’ll do a pull. Again you can do this - many variations of a pull, if you've got equipment, we’re going to basic renegade row. So you start in the same position as your press up. And from here you’re going to lift your arm off, and you’re going to pull your arm - your fist into your armpit, with your elbow close to your body. Minimising the movement in the hips and everywhere else.
Obviously you can increase that by adding a weight into that, and as you pull weight into the armpit, I’ll show from the front, you’d have your weight in this hand. Pull in, back down to press up position. Pull in with the other hand. But it maybe that body weight is sufficient for you.
So again loads of core exercises. But quite nice one is the dead bug. So dead bug, as it would suggest, you’re replicating a dead bug. So you’ll lie on the floor. Back flat on the floor. Your knees go up towards the ceiling. Your hands, also go up towards the ceiling, above your head. Head is flat on the floor. And I’m going to take alternate leg and hand out away from my body. So the left leg goes out. The right arm stretches out above the head. But I need to keep my back flat on the floor all times.
So it may be that you only extend up there, quite high. Or if you find that easy, you can take the foot and arm lower to the floor. And then you would do the other side. So little bit of balance, a little bit of coordination, really working that core. Making sure that lower back stays flat on the floor at all times.
And just to go through, because obviously a lot of people do it, plank, not necessarily an exercise that you have to do but quite easy to do anywhere you go, but again, making sure technique is right.
So with plank, your elbows will be below your shoulders. Legs go out. So again I’m in that nice straight line. Glutes engaged. And I’d hold that position. More effective, or using in conjunction with, is the side plank. Because again, we have that muscle discrepancy or muscle imbalances, so it tests both sides. With a side plank, your elbow will go below your shoulder. Depending on how easy or hard you find it, you might want both knees on the floor and bent. So my knees, hips and elbows should line up. I can lift my hips off the floor when I hold a position, keeping those hips high.
If I want to make it slightly harder, I’ll take my feet outstretched, and I’ll lift up from that position? Keeping those hips up and making sure the body is in complete alignment. And obviously then you can try the other side.
So you can do a little plank complex where you do 10 seconds in front plank, 10 seconds side plank, 10 seconds other side plank.
So there's a few body exercises for you to have a look at, to explore, may your own little circuit, and obviously I will be including them in videos subsequently.
Series 2: Desk to durable
In this four-week course, Lou takes you through a series of exercises to build on Series 1.
Week 1: Desk to durable
OK. So welcome to what I call the Desk to Durable set of videos. Desk to Durable is designed for people, obviously, who are sitting at their desk, so it’s exercises and movements that you can do throughout your working day and it shouldn’t take more than ten to 15 minutes. Even if you are a highly trained athlete but you have to sit you still need to do this in addition to everything that you do outside of the sitting arena, shall we say.
So we’ll work through these, each week the reps will increase or the weight will go up so you can monitor how you’re doing. And, like I say, it can be done in a lunch hour, shouldn’t take you more than ten to 15 minutes.
We’re going to start with a basic chair squat, so if you think about the way you move every time you get out of your chair, rather than getting up like a load of jelly and just letting everything collapse and not work properly. If you do it properly you are effectively doing a squat and you’re working and engaging certain muscles.
So think about sitting on the edge of your chair when you get up, your feet are flat on the floor, your chest is upright. And when you step up you push those knees over the second toe at least to make sure that the glutes are as active as they possible can be. So no hands either, you stand up, the hips go back to sit down keeping those knees out and that’s, effectively, a squat.
If you do this every time during your working day you think about the way you move you have effectively done probably a fair number of squats by the end of your day, without even having to set foot inside a gym.
So we’re going to do five reps three times. We’re going to stand up, squeeze the glutes at the top, sit back down. Two. If you find that easy what you can do is slow the lower, so slow the descent to the chair and we’re putting the muscles under tension for a longer amount of time and making them work more. That’s four and that’s fine.
Take a little breather and then we’re going to do another set of five. Obviously, if that is too easy for you if you’ve got a weight, a ruck sack, a water bottle, or you happen to have a spare kettle bell around you at work, you can add weight. So let’s do another five. Think about the chest upright, push those knees up, stand, squeeze the glutes at the top and sit back down.
So our weight is going back down onto the chair, so the weight is on the mid-foot and rear-foot rather than tipping forward onto the ankle. Two more.
Good, take another little break and we’ll do one more set of five. Like I said, if you want to make it harder add some weight or slow that descent down. So five more. Again, make sure that you’re not using the hands. Push those knees up so make sure that everything is working as fully as it can do. Two more. One more. Great work.
Right, we’re going to do a set of three exercises in a little circuit. If you’ve got a band, grab a band, I doesn’t matter what band it is. And if you haven't got a band, that’s fine, you don’t have to have a band at all. Again, you can do this sitting because it is designed to be at your desk, but if you can stand out of your chair it just engages more muscles.
Depending on how hard you want to work you’re going to take your hands to the edge of that band. If I take it narrower, obviously, it will give me more resistance. And what you’re going to do with a slight bend at the elbow, knuckles, wrist, elbows, shoulders all in alignment, you’re going to pull that band apart until it touches your chest, squeezing those shoulder blades at the back. So from the side chest is nice and upright, back is upright, pull that band apart until it touches the chest and let it come back in. You control the band both out and then back in, the band doesn’t control you. So we’re going to do five of those in a minute.
The next exercise we’ll do in conjunction with that is a single leg balance. So you’re going to take one knee upwards, you’re going to balance on your single leg, making sure the chest is upright. If you squeeze the glutes, actually, this is a very functional exercise, you are working every muscle pretty much in the body. And you’re going to hold that and it also works your balance and then you will do the other leg.
And the final exercise in that little series is a single arm row. So if you’re in an office and you’ve got a sturdy door handle or something solid that you can link your band over you will do that. Yes, please make sure it’s not a flimsy door and you pull the door off, that’s never a good look, it’s got to be nice and solid. We’re going to use single arms to make sure that both arms are working effectively.
So you will take hold of your band, again, chest upright. If I’m using my left hand to do that row your right foot will be forward, you’re going to pull that band in, elbow stays tucked nice and close into the body, and you’re squeezing those shoulder blades as you pull the band back. So, again, you control the band, the band doesn’t control you, elbow basically scrapes past those ribs, and then we’ll change sides.
They’re the three exercises. So we’re going to do five band pull aparts to begin with. Grab your band, arms out in front and pull the band apart and control the band back into the start position. Really squeeze those shoulder blades, imagine you’ve got a £50 note in between the shoulder blades that you don’t want to let go so squeeze nice and tight. If I’d have said £2 you probably wouldn’t have cared but £50 is worth squeezing for, I reckon. So one more, that’s great.
So now into our single leg balance. We’re going to do 20 seconds on one side and then 20 seconds on the other. Again, chest nice and upright, squeeze those glutes. You will feel that your foot is desperately trying to stabilise, which is good, the more you do it the more the feet will get used to it and that proprioception where you relative to the ground. You want to spread those toes in your shoe. Good, let’s change to the other side, so other leg up. Nice work. Again, you’ll probably find that one side feels slightly more wobbly than the other, slightly weaker, so it’s worth doing each side. Great work.
OK, so onto that single arm row, we’re going to do five each side. Let’s start with the left arm, so right leg forward, pull that band in. That’s one, squeeze those shoulder blades again, and back out. Again, control that band out and in. Great, so when you’ve done the fifth one change over to the other side. It’s in my right hand so left leg forward, pull the band in, squeezing the shoulder blades. Two more. Great.
So we’re going to repeat that circuit again. Pick up your band again, your five band pull aparts. So this is a great exercise, any type of rowing exercise for strengthening the back and shoulders and opening out the chest. We know that we’re hunched over sitting so this is just trying to reverse the effects or certainly assist with making the back and shoulder muscles stronger in order to support you. One more, control that band out, control that band in. Great work.
Our single leg balance. Again, take that knee up, squeeze those glutes. You will feel all the body trying stabilise, which is really good, and hopefully over four weeks you will notice the difference. Chest nice and upright, you can squeeze that tummy button as well, so a nice tall posture. Great work. Onto the other side. Really try and splay your feet in your trainers as that little stable base, a lot of us just tend to balance without putting our full spread of toes on the floor up the body. Good.
And back onto our row. So five on each side. Into my left hand so right leg is forward, keeping that elbow nice and close to the body. And, obviously, you will want to find a band that gives you enough resistance but not so much that you have to fight it. So squeeze those shoulder blades, nice and show and controlled, the slower and controlled you do it the more you’re working effectively. Great and onto the other side. Slow and controlled, keep that elbow tucked in, squeeze those shoulder blades. We’ll just do two more. Great work.
So next set of three exercises, obviously, if you haven't got time you can stop there, if you want to add on there’s another three to go. We’re going to do our glute abductions or glute activations. So like you’ll have head me say before our glutes tend to be fairly weak because we sit, we obviously still work but we need them to be more active. You can do this … it’s probably easier sitting on a chair, actually, so you’re going to sit on the edge of your chair.
Now, if you’ve got a band you can tie it on the top of your knees and you’re going to push out into that band. So feet on the floor about shoulder width, you push out against that band and as you do that you will feel the glutes having to activate. Make sure you keep your chest up at the same time. If you haven't got a band it’s really simple, you’re going to use your own hands as a resistance machine. You put them on the outside of your knees and you offer yourself resistance. You’re going to push against your knees, meanwhile your knees are going to push out against your hands, which will cause the glutes to activate.
So that’s the first exercise and now we’re going to do a power press with the band. This is about core, working the core, it’s a nice one to do because you’re standing so you’re using all the muscles. Again, you’re going to have your band securely tied to something quite sturdy and you’re going to pull the band out until you feel that it’s trying to pull you back so you’ve got this resistance kicking in in the core area.
Obviously, you want enough resistance so you know you’re working but if you’re fighting it then, clearly, you need to lower the resistance so you can step a little bit further in or change the band. So you’re going to pull it out until you feel that resistance, everything stays square on, and from there you’re just going to push the band out in front of you. And when you do that, because you’re lengthening the lever, you’ll feel the core having to activate more.
So that’s the second exercise and then we’re going to finish with a lunge. Lunge almost like a series of single leg holding, walking, basically. You’re going to take one leg forward, so let’s put our left leg forward, your right leg will go behind and you’re going to be on your toes on your rear foot. Make sure that your feet are on train tracks, you’re not on a tightrope, and both sets of toes are pointing forward. Your chest will stay upright, knee out over the second toe, and we’re just going to descend to the floor so that if you are able your rear knee will touch the floor and you will come back up. Really pushing with this front glute to get you up. So that’s the third exercise.
We’re going to start with our glute abductions and we’re going to do just five for the first week. So grab your band or your hands as a resistance band, we’re going to push out, hold for a second and relax. That’s one, push out again, that’s two, three, two more. So the more we can activate the glutes the more they should activate and work for us when we’re doing sport or we’re being more physical so do this as often as you can during your working day. And that’s five.
So we’re going to do power press, three to each side. Go to your band, you’re going to pull it out until you feel that resistance, we’re going to push the band out for one, two, so you should be feeling it even more in your core as you push forward, and three. Then we’re going to change to the other side, so face the other direction. One, two, three.
And finishing with the lunge, so three each side again. Left leg forward, rear leg behind, we’re going to go down towards the floor, push back up keeping this knee over the second toe. That’s one, two, three. And change sides. Again, you might feel that you’re more wobbly on one side than the other. That’s one, keep this knee out over the second toe, activate those glutes, chest upright. And last one.
Good and we’ll go through that set again. So glute activations we’re going to do five, push out against those hands, one, two, three. Two more, four, five.
OK, so power press, go to your secure band, pull it out until you feel that resistance. You’re going to push out for one, two, three. And change to the other side. One, two, three.
And last set of lunges. So left leg forward, onto your toes on the right foot, make sure both set of toes are pointing forward. You can descend down so your weight is going down and back up. And two and three. Change to the other side. One, nice and slow and controlled, down slam that rear knee to the floor. Last one. Awesome.
Nice work, folks. Hope you enjoyed that and I’ll see …
So we’ll work through these, each week the reps will increase or the weight will go up so you can monitor how you’re doing. And, like I say, it can be done in a lunch hour, shouldn’t take you more than ten to 15 minutes.
We’re going to start with a basic chair squat, so if you think about the way you move every time you get out of your chair, rather than getting up like a load of jelly and just letting everything collapse and not work properly. If you do it properly you are effectively doing a squat and you’re working and engaging certain muscles.
So think about sitting on the edge of your chair when you get up, your feet are flat on the floor, your chest is upright. And when you step up you push those knees over the second toe at least to make sure that the glutes are as active as they possible can be. So no hands either, you stand up, the hips go back to sit down keeping those knees out and that’s, effectively, a squat.
If you do this every time during your working day you think about the way you move you have effectively done probably a fair number of squats by the end of your day, without even having to set foot inside a gym.
So we’re going to do five reps three times. We’re going to stand up, squeeze the glutes at the top, sit back down. Two. If you find that easy what you can do is slow the lower, so slow the descent to the chair and we’re putting the muscles under tension for a longer amount of time and making them work more. That’s four and that’s fine.
Take a little breather and then we’re going to do another set of five. Obviously, if that is too easy for you if you’ve got a weight, a ruck sack, a water bottle, or you happen to have a spare kettle bell around you at work, you can add weight. So let’s do another five. Think about the chest upright, push those knees up, stand, squeeze the glutes at the top and sit back down.
So our weight is going back down onto the chair, so the weight is on the mid-foot and rear-foot rather than tipping forward onto the ankle. Two more.
Good, take another little break and we’ll do one more set of five. Like I said, if you want to make it harder add some weight or slow that descent down. So five more. Again, make sure that you’re not using the hands. Push those knees up so make sure that everything is working as fully as it can do. Two more. One more. Great work.
Right, we’re going to do a set of three exercises in a little circuit. If you’ve got a band, grab a band, I doesn’t matter what band it is. And if you haven't got a band, that’s fine, you don’t have to have a band at all. Again, you can do this sitting because it is designed to be at your desk, but if you can stand out of your chair it just engages more muscles.
Depending on how hard you want to work you’re going to take your hands to the edge of that band. If I take it narrower, obviously, it will give me more resistance. And what you’re going to do with a slight bend at the elbow, knuckles, wrist, elbows, shoulders all in alignment, you’re going to pull that band apart until it touches your chest, squeezing those shoulder blades at the back. So from the side chest is nice and upright, back is upright, pull that band apart until it touches the chest and let it come back in. You control the band both out and then back in, the band doesn’t control you. So we’re going to do five of those in a minute.
The next exercise we’ll do in conjunction with that is a single leg balance. So you’re going to take one knee upwards, you’re going to balance on your single leg, making sure the chest is upright. If you squeeze the glutes, actually, this is a very functional exercise, you are working every muscle pretty much in the body. And you’re going to hold that and it also works your balance and then you will do the other leg.
And the final exercise in that little series is a single arm row. So if you’re in an office and you’ve got a sturdy door handle or something solid that you can link your band over you will do that. Yes, please make sure it’s not a flimsy door and you pull the door off, that’s never a good look, it’s got to be nice and solid. We’re going to use single arms to make sure that both arms are working effectively.
So you will take hold of your band, again, chest upright. If I’m using my left hand to do that row your right foot will be forward, you’re going to pull that band in, elbow stays tucked nice and close into the body, and you’re squeezing those shoulder blades as you pull the band back. So, again, you control the band, the band doesn’t control you, elbow basically scrapes past those ribs, and then we’ll change sides.
They’re the three exercises. So we’re going to do five band pull aparts to begin with. Grab your band, arms out in front and pull the band apart and control the band back into the start position. Really squeeze those shoulder blades, imagine you’ve got a £50 note in between the shoulder blades that you don’t want to let go so squeeze nice and tight. If I’d have said £2 you probably wouldn’t have cared but £50 is worth squeezing for, I reckon. So one more, that’s great.
So now into our single leg balance. We’re going to do 20 seconds on one side and then 20 seconds on the other. Again, chest nice and upright, squeeze those glutes. You will feel that your foot is desperately trying to stabilise, which is good, the more you do it the more the feet will get used to it and that proprioception where you relative to the ground. You want to spread those toes in your shoe. Good, let’s change to the other side, so other leg up. Nice work. Again, you’ll probably find that one side feels slightly more wobbly than the other, slightly weaker, so it’s worth doing each side. Great work.
OK, so onto that single arm row, we’re going to do five each side. Let’s start with the left arm, so right leg forward, pull that band in. That’s one, squeeze those shoulder blades again, and back out. Again, control that band out and in. Great, so when you’ve done the fifth one change over to the other side. It’s in my right hand so left leg forward, pull the band in, squeezing the shoulder blades. Two more. Great.
So we’re going to repeat that circuit again. Pick up your band again, your five band pull aparts. So this is a great exercise, any type of rowing exercise for strengthening the back and shoulders and opening out the chest. We know that we’re hunched over sitting so this is just trying to reverse the effects or certainly assist with making the back and shoulder muscles stronger in order to support you. One more, control that band out, control that band in. Great work.
Our single leg balance. Again, take that knee up, squeeze those glutes. You will feel all the body trying stabilise, which is really good, and hopefully over four weeks you will notice the difference. Chest nice and upright, you can squeeze that tummy button as well, so a nice tall posture. Great work. Onto the other side. Really try and splay your feet in your trainers as that little stable base, a lot of us just tend to balance without putting our full spread of toes on the floor up the body. Good.
And back onto our row. So five on each side. Into my left hand so right leg is forward, keeping that elbow nice and close to the body. And, obviously, you will want to find a band that gives you enough resistance but not so much that you have to fight it. So squeeze those shoulder blades, nice and show and controlled, the slower and controlled you do it the more you’re working effectively. Great and onto the other side. Slow and controlled, keep that elbow tucked in, squeeze those shoulder blades. We’ll just do two more. Great work.
So next set of three exercises, obviously, if you haven't got time you can stop there, if you want to add on there’s another three to go. We’re going to do our glute abductions or glute activations. So like you’ll have head me say before our glutes tend to be fairly weak because we sit, we obviously still work but we need them to be more active. You can do this … it’s probably easier sitting on a chair, actually, so you’re going to sit on the edge of your chair.
Now, if you’ve got a band you can tie it on the top of your knees and you’re going to push out into that band. So feet on the floor about shoulder width, you push out against that band and as you do that you will feel the glutes having to activate. Make sure you keep your chest up at the same time. If you haven't got a band it’s really simple, you’re going to use your own hands as a resistance machine. You put them on the outside of your knees and you offer yourself resistance. You’re going to push against your knees, meanwhile your knees are going to push out against your hands, which will cause the glutes to activate.
So that’s the first exercise and now we’re going to do a power press with the band. This is about core, working the core, it’s a nice one to do because you’re standing so you’re using all the muscles. Again, you’re going to have your band securely tied to something quite sturdy and you’re going to pull the band out until you feel that it’s trying to pull you back so you’ve got this resistance kicking in in the core area.
Obviously, you want enough resistance so you know you’re working but if you’re fighting it then, clearly, you need to lower the resistance so you can step a little bit further in or change the band. So you’re going to pull it out until you feel that resistance, everything stays square on, and from there you’re just going to push the band out in front of you. And when you do that, because you’re lengthening the lever, you’ll feel the core having to activate more.
So that’s the second exercise and then we’re going to finish with a lunge. Lunge almost like a series of single leg holding, walking, basically. You’re going to take one leg forward, so let’s put our left leg forward, your right leg will go behind and you’re going to be on your toes on your rear foot. Make sure that your feet are on train tracks, you’re not on a tightrope, and both sets of toes are pointing forward. Your chest will stay upright, knee out over the second toe, and we’re just going to descend to the floor so that if you are able your rear knee will touch the floor and you will come back up. Really pushing with this front glute to get you up. So that’s the third exercise.
We’re going to start with our glute abductions and we’re going to do just five for the first week. So grab your band or your hands as a resistance band, we’re going to push out, hold for a second and relax. That’s one, push out again, that’s two, three, two more. So the more we can activate the glutes the more they should activate and work for us when we’re doing sport or we’re being more physical so do this as often as you can during your working day. And that’s five.
So we’re going to do power press, three to each side. Go to your band, you’re going to pull it out until you feel that resistance, we’re going to push the band out for one, two, so you should be feeling it even more in your core as you push forward, and three. Then we’re going to change to the other side, so face the other direction. One, two, three.
And finishing with the lunge, so three each side again. Left leg forward, rear leg behind, we’re going to go down towards the floor, push back up keeping this knee over the second toe. That’s one, two, three. And change sides. Again, you might feel that you’re more wobbly on one side than the other. That’s one, keep this knee out over the second toe, activate those glutes, chest upright. And last one.
Good and we’ll go through that set again. So glute activations we’re going to do five, push out against those hands, one, two, three. Two more, four, five.
OK, so power press, go to your secure band, pull it out until you feel that resistance. You’re going to push out for one, two, three. And change to the other side. One, two, three.
And last set of lunges. So left leg forward, onto your toes on the right foot, make sure both set of toes are pointing forward. You can descend down so your weight is going down and back up. And two and three. Change to the other side. One, nice and slow and controlled, down slam that rear knee to the floor. Last one. Awesome.
Nice work, folks. Hope you enjoyed that and I’ll see …
Week 3: Desk to durable
OK, week three of Desk to Durable, so the reps go up. You can obviously add a bit of a weight if you want to make it harder.
We’re going to start with our chair squat. Everyone tends to have some water on their desk so I’m going to use this as my weight. You’re going to hug it into your chest, hug it as close into your chest. We’re going to sit back in the chair, knees go out, chest upright and we’re going to do seven reps. Obviously, you don’t need to add weight if you’re not ready for it but if you are grab whatever you can. So that’s three, four, five, six, seven. Good, have a little break and we will do the next set of seven.
So if you want to try a weight you can grab a water bottle or anything you’ve got handy like a rucksack, or if you’ve got your own weights brilliant. Next set of seven, hold that weight nice and close in. That’s one. Make sure those knees [unintelligible 00:01:09] toes, we’re engaging those glutes as much as we can and weight goes back onto that chair. Hopefully, this is something you can do in the lunch hour just to get stuff moving, you don’t want to be static, which most of us are, for hours on end a day so anything to get that body moving. And we’ve got our last one coming up of this set.
Good work, so take a little break and we’ll do our last set of seven. If you want to increase the weight, obviously, you can but really it’s just getting that mobility that we to neglect during our working day. So last set of seven, hold that weight into you, if you’ve got a weight stand up, back onto the chair. That’s two, we’ve got five more to do. Three more to do. Five, six and seven. Great work.
So we’re going to move onto our next set of three exercises. We’ve got our band pull aparts, we’re doing seven this week. So hands onto the band, if you want to increase that resistance you might want to take your hands a little narrower on your band or change your band to a stronger one. One, control the band in and out, two, three, four. Three more. Five, squeeze those shoulder blades, six and seven.
Onto our single leg balance, we’re doing 30 seconds this week. So right leg up, hopefully, you’ll find if you’re practicing this in between weeks it will become a little bit easier. It is so important, although it looks simple and it’s slightly less dynamic when we walk we are doing a series of single leg balances. And if there is a discrepancy between each side, so one side is stronger than the other, it can lead to injury so it’s really important. Great work, last few seconds coming up before we change legs. Good.
Onto the other leg, lift the other leg. And if you have noticed that one side was the weaker, you know, if you’ve been practicing it again has it become any easier. So just take a mental note of where you are body wise. Great work. This is really good for balance, as well. Last few seconds. Nice work.
OK, onto our single arm row. So we have got seven single arm rows this week, right foot forward into left hand, pull that band in towards your armpit, elbow scrapes past those ribs squeezing the shoulder blades. Like I’ve said before, any type of rowing action is absolutely brilliant to help counter effect the effects of sitting. We’ve got two more and one more and then we’ll change sides.
So left foot forward, right leg goes back. Again, you may find that one side feels slightly weaker than the other. You can obviously do this exercise double handed but I always like to give single arm and single leg exercises, as I explained in the first presentation, so that we become more balanced muscularly. So one more this side. Great work.
Back to the band pull apart for the second round, but if you want to make it harder, as well, you can add a third or fourth round, so if you’ve got the time. I just want to fit this in so it’s easily manageable in your lunch hour. So seven pull aparts, control that band out, control that band back in, squeeze those shoulder blades. Three more, and one more. Great work.
Again, single leg balance again, 30 seconds, so right leg up, nice tall chest, tummy button in, squeeze the glutes. Feel those feet just tremoring trying to stabilise you there. Spread those feet out so you’ve got a nice tripod base, head nice and high, as well, nice straight back. Great work. Keep holding. Great.
Onto the other leg, so left knee up. Obviously, if you do find balance hard you can just rest your hand or something to assist you and then just progress your way up from that. You can take the time down if you need to you, obviously, don’t need to start the 30 seconds. Nice work. And rest.
And into our single arm row. So seven on each side, left arm first, squeeze those shoulder blades. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Then to the other side. One, two, three, squeeze those shoulder blades, four, five, six, last one, seven.
Last set of three exercises, we will go twice round. So we’re going to start with our glute, abductional glute activation, hands are a resistance machine so on the outside of the knees you’re going to push and give yourself resistance and you’re going to push out with your knees to aspirate the glutes. We’re going to do seven. So one, hold for a second and relax, two, three, four, five, six, last one. Great work.
Onto the power press, working my core, we’re going to do five each side this week. Just pull then and out until you feel that resistance and then we’re going to extend out for one. As you push out you will feel the core activation. Two, three, four, last one, five. Onto the other side. So one, two, three, four and five.
Onto our lunges, so five each side again. Left foot forward, right leg goes behind, imagine your feet are on train tracks pointing the same way your weight is descending directly below you. So one, push up with that front glute, two, three, four, last one, five. Onto the other side. So one, I cheated then my knee didn’t touch the floor. Two, there we go. Three. Two more. Four and five.
Last time through. So glute activations, we’re going to do seven. One, two, three, four, five, keep that chest upright, two more, six and seven.
Power press, five each side. Take the band out until you feel the resistance, pushing out for one, two, three, four and five. Onto the other side. One, two, three, four, five.
And last set of lunges, five each side. One, so chest nice and upright, keep that knee out over the second toe. Three. Rear knee touches the floor ideally if you’ve got that range of motion. Four, five. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four, last one, and five.
Great work. I will let you get on with your day and I shall see you next week for week four.
We’re going to start with our chair squat. Everyone tends to have some water on their desk so I’m going to use this as my weight. You’re going to hug it into your chest, hug it as close into your chest. We’re going to sit back in the chair, knees go out, chest upright and we’re going to do seven reps. Obviously, you don’t need to add weight if you’re not ready for it but if you are grab whatever you can. So that’s three, four, five, six, seven. Good, have a little break and we will do the next set of seven.
So if you want to try a weight you can grab a water bottle or anything you’ve got handy like a rucksack, or if you’ve got your own weights brilliant. Next set of seven, hold that weight nice and close in. That’s one. Make sure those knees [unintelligible 00:01:09] toes, we’re engaging those glutes as much as we can and weight goes back onto that chair. Hopefully, this is something you can do in the lunch hour just to get stuff moving, you don’t want to be static, which most of us are, for hours on end a day so anything to get that body moving. And we’ve got our last one coming up of this set.
Good work, so take a little break and we’ll do our last set of seven. If you want to increase the weight, obviously, you can but really it’s just getting that mobility that we to neglect during our working day. So last set of seven, hold that weight into you, if you’ve got a weight stand up, back onto the chair. That’s two, we’ve got five more to do. Three more to do. Five, six and seven. Great work.
So we’re going to move onto our next set of three exercises. We’ve got our band pull aparts, we’re doing seven this week. So hands onto the band, if you want to increase that resistance you might want to take your hands a little narrower on your band or change your band to a stronger one. One, control the band in and out, two, three, four. Three more. Five, squeeze those shoulder blades, six and seven.
Onto our single leg balance, we’re doing 30 seconds this week. So right leg up, hopefully, you’ll find if you’re practicing this in between weeks it will become a little bit easier. It is so important, although it looks simple and it’s slightly less dynamic when we walk we are doing a series of single leg balances. And if there is a discrepancy between each side, so one side is stronger than the other, it can lead to injury so it’s really important. Great work, last few seconds coming up before we change legs. Good.
Onto the other leg, lift the other leg. And if you have noticed that one side was the weaker, you know, if you’ve been practicing it again has it become any easier. So just take a mental note of where you are body wise. Great work. This is really good for balance, as well. Last few seconds. Nice work.
OK, onto our single arm row. So we have got seven single arm rows this week, right foot forward into left hand, pull that band in towards your armpit, elbow scrapes past those ribs squeezing the shoulder blades. Like I’ve said before, any type of rowing action is absolutely brilliant to help counter effect the effects of sitting. We’ve got two more and one more and then we’ll change sides.
So left foot forward, right leg goes back. Again, you may find that one side feels slightly weaker than the other. You can obviously do this exercise double handed but I always like to give single arm and single leg exercises, as I explained in the first presentation, so that we become more balanced muscularly. So one more this side. Great work.
Back to the band pull apart for the second round, but if you want to make it harder, as well, you can add a third or fourth round, so if you’ve got the time. I just want to fit this in so it’s easily manageable in your lunch hour. So seven pull aparts, control that band out, control that band back in, squeeze those shoulder blades. Three more, and one more. Great work.
Again, single leg balance again, 30 seconds, so right leg up, nice tall chest, tummy button in, squeeze the glutes. Feel those feet just tremoring trying to stabilise you there. Spread those feet out so you’ve got a nice tripod base, head nice and high, as well, nice straight back. Great work. Keep holding. Great.
Onto the other leg, so left knee up. Obviously, if you do find balance hard you can just rest your hand or something to assist you and then just progress your way up from that. You can take the time down if you need to you, obviously, don’t need to start the 30 seconds. Nice work. And rest.
And into our single arm row. So seven on each side, left arm first, squeeze those shoulder blades. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Then to the other side. One, two, three, squeeze those shoulder blades, four, five, six, last one, seven.
Last set of three exercises, we will go twice round. So we’re going to start with our glute, abductional glute activation, hands are a resistance machine so on the outside of the knees you’re going to push and give yourself resistance and you’re going to push out with your knees to aspirate the glutes. We’re going to do seven. So one, hold for a second and relax, two, three, four, five, six, last one. Great work.
Onto the power press, working my core, we’re going to do five each side this week. Just pull then and out until you feel that resistance and then we’re going to extend out for one. As you push out you will feel the core activation. Two, three, four, last one, five. Onto the other side. So one, two, three, four and five.
Onto our lunges, so five each side again. Left foot forward, right leg goes behind, imagine your feet are on train tracks pointing the same way your weight is descending directly below you. So one, push up with that front glute, two, three, four, last one, five. Onto the other side. So one, I cheated then my knee didn’t touch the floor. Two, there we go. Three. Two more. Four and five.
Last time through. So glute activations, we’re going to do seven. One, two, three, four, five, keep that chest upright, two more, six and seven.
Power press, five each side. Take the band out until you feel the resistance, pushing out for one, two, three, four and five. Onto the other side. One, two, three, four, five.
And last set of lunges, five each side. One, so chest nice and upright, keep that knee out over the second toe. Three. Rear knee touches the floor ideally if you’ve got that range of motion. Four, five. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four, last one, and five.
Great work. I will let you get on with your day and I shall see you next week for week four.
Week 2: Desk to durable
OK team, so week two of Desk to Durable, so the reps are going to increase but the exercises will stay the same.
We’re going to start with our chair squat, so thinking about the way you move, we’re going to sit back into the chair, knees out, [unintelligible 00:00:18] toes up and we’re going to squeeze the glutes at the top. So we’re doing six this week, the reps have gone up by one. So nice and slow and controlled. Like I say, if you want to make it a little bit harder you can add any type of weight that you’ve got around you.
And rather than doing it as a set of six, obviously, like I said last week, if you do it as part of your working day then you’re, effectively, doing a load of squats without going to the gym. So that’s our first set of six, we’re going to do two more sets of six. If you want to make it harder grab that weight. OK, so standing up, squeeze the glutes at the top, back to that chair so the weight goes back, push those knees out [unintelligible 00:01:01] so we’re activating those glutes.
Feet are about shoulder width on the floor but, obviously, everyone is very different so do what’s comfortable for you and what works for your body. One more. OK good, just take a little breather then we do our last set of six. OK, so standing up, squeeze the glutes, that’s three. Obviously, if you’re coming back from injury or you’ve got niggles going on, you know, if you need to use your hands to begin with that’s absolutely fine. And the last one. Great work.
So the next step for the exercise is same as last time, we’re going to have our band pull apart. We’ve got the single leg balance and we’ve got our single arm row. So the reps go up again, six of the band pull apart. Like I say, you can do this seating but if you can stand up better. Band out in front of you, squeeze the shoulder blades, control the band in and out, that’s one, that’s two, three. So if you are sitting at your desk great exercise to do to discourage that horrible hunch in the upper back and kyphosis. We’ve to two more. Good.
Onto our single leg balance, we did 20 seconds last time so we will do 25 today. Standing on one leg, again, try and keep that chest upright, feel the feet try and balance you. Squeeze those glutes as well so we’re making that glute work to keep us steady. Great work onto the other leg. Lift that leg up, just nice and upright. Great work, feel that glute holding you doing the work but also using your hip flexors to keep this leg up, chest nice and upright. Great work.
And onto the single arm row. So band secured onto your secure door solid base, into the left hand so my right leg is forward with a slight bend, you’re going to pull that band in and out. Make sure there’s enough resistance just squeezing your shoulder blades. We’re going to do six on each side this week, so increasing the reps by one. Four, five and six. Change to the other side, make sure that elbow stays nice and close to the body so it’s brushing past the ribs, chest nice and upright. You’re pulling that band in towards the arm pit, so you’ve got two more to go, and one more. Good work.
So back to our band pull apart, another six reps for round two. One, two, three, four, five, one more, and six. Good, our single leg balance again for 25 seconds. So lifting that right leg up, that left foot stabilising you, glutes having to work, nice tall chest. This hip flexor is also working to hold you there. Again, this is something you can do whilst you’re making a cup of tea, cleaning our teeth, to practice that.
You will notice there are imbalances on both sides. Onto the other leg, so make a not of which side for you feels harder or where you’ve got less balance and that’s the side you need to really work on for some strength exercise. Nice work. Last few seconds coming up. Great.
And last set of the single arm rows. So right foot forward into your left arm, chest nice and upright, we’re going to do six. One, so control that band in, control that band out, two, squeeze the shoulder blades, imagine you’ve still got that £50 not there, you must keep it for the weekend, don’t drop it. Two more and one more on that side. And change, so it’s in your right hand, squeeze those shoulder blades, control it in, control it out. Two more. And last one.
Good, so onto our second set of three exercises which we did last week, just that the reps are going up slightly. So into our glute activations. We’ve got six glute activations to do, so either with the band tied around the knees or use your own hands as resistance, feet flat on the floor about shoulder width, you’re going to push out into your hand, hold for a second feel the glutes activate and relax. So that’s two, nice tall chest, three, four, five. Any of these exercises you can take in isolation during your working day, you obviously don’t have to go through the whole lot. Six.
Great onto our power press. So a cool exercise where we’re standing, again, taking hold of that band that’s secured, you’re going to pull out until you feel resistance in the core and then you’re going to push out in front of you. We’re doing four each side. So that’s two to make sure everything is facing forward, as you extend forward you will feel the core activating even more. Onto the other side, four the other side, you may need a stronger band or you may need to pull the band out further if you can’t feel it, and four.
Good onto our lunge, so on the floor, four each side. Left leg forward, right leg goes behind onto the toes, your weight is going to go down. So one, knee out over that second toe so you’re really using the glutes to push you back up on that front leg, two, three, and four. Other side, so right leg forward, left leg onto your toes, one, use that front glute to push you back up. Two more, last one. Great work.
Week two done I shall see you for week three.
We’re going to start with our chair squat, so thinking about the way you move, we’re going to sit back into the chair, knees out, [unintelligible 00:00:18] toes up and we’re going to squeeze the glutes at the top. So we’re doing six this week, the reps have gone up by one. So nice and slow and controlled. Like I say, if you want to make it a little bit harder you can add any type of weight that you’ve got around you.
And rather than doing it as a set of six, obviously, like I said last week, if you do it as part of your working day then you’re, effectively, doing a load of squats without going to the gym. So that’s our first set of six, we’re going to do two more sets of six. If you want to make it harder grab that weight. OK, so standing up, squeeze the glutes at the top, back to that chair so the weight goes back, push those knees out [unintelligible 00:01:01] so we’re activating those glutes.
Feet are about shoulder width on the floor but, obviously, everyone is very different so do what’s comfortable for you and what works for your body. One more. OK good, just take a little breather then we do our last set of six. OK, so standing up, squeeze the glutes, that’s three. Obviously, if you’re coming back from injury or you’ve got niggles going on, you know, if you need to use your hands to begin with that’s absolutely fine. And the last one. Great work.
So the next step for the exercise is same as last time, we’re going to have our band pull apart. We’ve got the single leg balance and we’ve got our single arm row. So the reps go up again, six of the band pull apart. Like I say, you can do this seating but if you can stand up better. Band out in front of you, squeeze the shoulder blades, control the band in and out, that’s one, that’s two, three. So if you are sitting at your desk great exercise to do to discourage that horrible hunch in the upper back and kyphosis. We’ve to two more. Good.
Onto our single leg balance, we did 20 seconds last time so we will do 25 today. Standing on one leg, again, try and keep that chest upright, feel the feet try and balance you. Squeeze those glutes as well so we’re making that glute work to keep us steady. Great work onto the other leg. Lift that leg up, just nice and upright. Great work, feel that glute holding you doing the work but also using your hip flexors to keep this leg up, chest nice and upright. Great work.
And onto the single arm row. So band secured onto your secure door solid base, into the left hand so my right leg is forward with a slight bend, you’re going to pull that band in and out. Make sure there’s enough resistance just squeezing your shoulder blades. We’re going to do six on each side this week, so increasing the reps by one. Four, five and six. Change to the other side, make sure that elbow stays nice and close to the body so it’s brushing past the ribs, chest nice and upright. You’re pulling that band in towards the arm pit, so you’ve got two more to go, and one more. Good work.
So back to our band pull apart, another six reps for round two. One, two, three, four, five, one more, and six. Good, our single leg balance again for 25 seconds. So lifting that right leg up, that left foot stabilising you, glutes having to work, nice tall chest. This hip flexor is also working to hold you there. Again, this is something you can do whilst you’re making a cup of tea, cleaning our teeth, to practice that.
You will notice there are imbalances on both sides. Onto the other leg, so make a not of which side for you feels harder or where you’ve got less balance and that’s the side you need to really work on for some strength exercise. Nice work. Last few seconds coming up. Great.
And last set of the single arm rows. So right foot forward into your left arm, chest nice and upright, we’re going to do six. One, so control that band in, control that band out, two, squeeze the shoulder blades, imagine you’ve still got that £50 not there, you must keep it for the weekend, don’t drop it. Two more and one more on that side. And change, so it’s in your right hand, squeeze those shoulder blades, control it in, control it out. Two more. And last one.
Good, so onto our second set of three exercises which we did last week, just that the reps are going up slightly. So into our glute activations. We’ve got six glute activations to do, so either with the band tied around the knees or use your own hands as resistance, feet flat on the floor about shoulder width, you’re going to push out into your hand, hold for a second feel the glutes activate and relax. So that’s two, nice tall chest, three, four, five. Any of these exercises you can take in isolation during your working day, you obviously don’t have to go through the whole lot. Six.
Great onto our power press. So a cool exercise where we’re standing, again, taking hold of that band that’s secured, you’re going to pull out until you feel resistance in the core and then you’re going to push out in front of you. We’re doing four each side. So that’s two to make sure everything is facing forward, as you extend forward you will feel the core activating even more. Onto the other side, four the other side, you may need a stronger band or you may need to pull the band out further if you can’t feel it, and four.
Good onto our lunge, so on the floor, four each side. Left leg forward, right leg goes behind onto the toes, your weight is going to go down. So one, knee out over that second toe so you’re really using the glutes to push you back up on that front leg, two, three, and four. Other side, so right leg forward, left leg onto your toes, one, use that front glute to push you back up. Two more, last one. Great work.
Week two done I shall see you for week three.
Week 4: Desk to durable
This week the reps have gone up again so we’re going to do three sets of eight reps of our chair squat. So if you haven't used a weight and you feel that you can you can grab a water bottle or anything near you. I’m going to grab a ruck sack today, so if you are holding a weight hold that weight nice and close into you.
We’re going to do the first set of eight, so back into the chair, knees out, stand up, squeeze the glutes at the top. That’s two. I mean, if you’re feeling that strong you could grab a colleague, not a problem, put him on your shoulders. Actually, no, don’t do that. Four more. Five. Six. Two more, seven and eight. Have a little bit of a rest. If you find that weight too easy you can increase it or if you’re still on body weight brilliant [unintelligible 00:01:00] if you want to make it harder.
OK, next set of eight, tuck that weight nice and close in. One, that goes back onto that chair, and try and not slam down on the chair, so we’re literally [unintelligible 00:01:14] and then coming back up so we don’t want any excess force going through that spine as we sit. Two more. If you’re feeling that confident, obviously, you can take the chair away and do a squat into the air. OK, so another little rest and we’ll do our last set of eight before we move on.
Obviously, if you need more rest you can, that’s absolutely fine. So grabbing the weight, one, two, three, four, five, three more, six, seven, last one, and eight. Great work, so you can put your weight down and we’re going to move onto our band pull aparts.
So grab your band if you’ve got one and we’re going to do eight this week. Arms out in front, pull the band apart until it touches your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades. That’s one. Nice controlled band. Three, four, five and three more. Six, seven, last one, eight.
OK, so 35 seconds on the single leg balance. Right leg up, nice upright chest, you feel those glutes engaging, feet are helping you to balance. Again, if you find 35 seconds too easy you can increase the amount of time you do it for, equally, if you find it too hard just decrease the amount of time. If you want to make it harder again you can do things like close your eyes because it takes away one of the sensory senses, or you can stand on a cushion which will make it a little bit more unstable. Great work.
So changing onto the other side, other knee up. Remember to keep breathing, don’t hold your breath for those full 35 seconds. Squeeze the glutes. Great work. Keep that balance. Hold onto something or steady yourself if you need to. Awesome.
And then our single arm rows, so we’re doing eight each side this week. Keep that elbow tucked in, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Great work.
So going back to our band pull aparts for the second time around, so eight. Band out in front, one, really squeezing those shoulder blades, this really helps to counter effect the effects of sitting. Four, five, six, seven and eight.
Last set of single leg balance, 35 seconds. So raise one knee up, nice tall chest. Squeeze the glutes. Everything is working really hard to stabilise you. Again, hopefully, you’ve been practising this whilst cleaning your teeth and making a cup of tea, or any time you get an opportunity. If you get really good you can balance something on that foot. Great.
Other side, off we go. Yes, 35 seconds is a long time. Great work. So last set. Awesome, so that’s the last set of single leg balance.
Single arm row, eight each side, keep that elbow tucked in. One, squeeze those shoulder blades, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Last set on the other side, one, two, three, four, five, three more, six, seven and eight. Great work.
Right, last set of three exercises. We’ve got our glute activations, so we’re going to do eight, sit on the edge of the chair, feet flat on the floor, hands as a resistance machine or you can tie a band above your knees. So we’re pushing out for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.
Onto our power press, we’re going to do six each side, so pulling the band out until you feel that resistance and then we’re going to push the arms out. One, two, three, four, five and six. Over to the other side, one, two, three, four, five and six.
Onto lunges, so six each side again, weight descending, rear knee touches the floor. One, push up with that front glute. Two, three, four, five and six. Onto the other side. One, two, three, four, five and six. Great work.
Last set through, so eight glute activations. One, two, three. If you find it too easy, again, you might want to get a stronger resistance band. Five, six, seven and eight. Power press, six each side again. Again, if you’re finding this easy now you might need to get a strong band, pulling the band out until you find the resistance, pushing out, one, two, three, four, five and six. On to the other side, one, two, three, four, five and six. Good.
So if you find the lunges quite easy now, again, you could add some weight, so water bottle, kettle bell, dumb bell, holding it nice and close into your chest. So last set of six each side. One, two, three, four, five and last one on that side six. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four. Two more, last one. Great work.
So that’s the last one in the series of the set of four so, hopefully, you will have noticed an improvement as the reps have gone up and you’ve added weight. It may have made a difference to your working day, things like niggles, shoulder, back, neck injuries, so really interesting to hear your feedback. I will be releasing another set of four Desk to Durable where we advance the exercises on.
I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll see you in the next videos.
We’re going to do the first set of eight, so back into the chair, knees out, stand up, squeeze the glutes at the top. That’s two. I mean, if you’re feeling that strong you could grab a colleague, not a problem, put him on your shoulders. Actually, no, don’t do that. Four more. Five. Six. Two more, seven and eight. Have a little bit of a rest. If you find that weight too easy you can increase it or if you’re still on body weight brilliant [unintelligible 00:01:00] if you want to make it harder.
OK, next set of eight, tuck that weight nice and close in. One, that goes back onto that chair, and try and not slam down on the chair, so we’re literally [unintelligible 00:01:14] and then coming back up so we don’t want any excess force going through that spine as we sit. Two more. If you’re feeling that confident, obviously, you can take the chair away and do a squat into the air. OK, so another little rest and we’ll do our last set of eight before we move on.
Obviously, if you need more rest you can, that’s absolutely fine. So grabbing the weight, one, two, three, four, five, three more, six, seven, last one, and eight. Great work, so you can put your weight down and we’re going to move onto our band pull aparts.
So grab your band if you’ve got one and we’re going to do eight this week. Arms out in front, pull the band apart until it touches your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades. That’s one. Nice controlled band. Three, four, five and three more. Six, seven, last one, eight.
OK, so 35 seconds on the single leg balance. Right leg up, nice upright chest, you feel those glutes engaging, feet are helping you to balance. Again, if you find 35 seconds too easy you can increase the amount of time you do it for, equally, if you find it too hard just decrease the amount of time. If you want to make it harder again you can do things like close your eyes because it takes away one of the sensory senses, or you can stand on a cushion which will make it a little bit more unstable. Great work.
So changing onto the other side, other knee up. Remember to keep breathing, don’t hold your breath for those full 35 seconds. Squeeze the glutes. Great work. Keep that balance. Hold onto something or steady yourself if you need to. Awesome.
And then our single arm rows, so we’re doing eight each side this week. Keep that elbow tucked in, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Great work.
So going back to our band pull aparts for the second time around, so eight. Band out in front, one, really squeezing those shoulder blades, this really helps to counter effect the effects of sitting. Four, five, six, seven and eight.
Last set of single leg balance, 35 seconds. So raise one knee up, nice tall chest. Squeeze the glutes. Everything is working really hard to stabilise you. Again, hopefully, you’ve been practising this whilst cleaning your teeth and making a cup of tea, or any time you get an opportunity. If you get really good you can balance something on that foot. Great.
Other side, off we go. Yes, 35 seconds is a long time. Great work. So last set. Awesome, so that’s the last set of single leg balance.
Single arm row, eight each side, keep that elbow tucked in. One, squeeze those shoulder blades, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Last set on the other side, one, two, three, four, five, three more, six, seven and eight. Great work.
Right, last set of three exercises. We’ve got our glute activations, so we’re going to do eight, sit on the edge of the chair, feet flat on the floor, hands as a resistance machine or you can tie a band above your knees. So we’re pushing out for one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight.
Onto our power press, we’re going to do six each side, so pulling the band out until you feel that resistance and then we’re going to push the arms out. One, two, three, four, five and six. Over to the other side, one, two, three, four, five and six.
Onto lunges, so six each side again, weight descending, rear knee touches the floor. One, push up with that front glute. Two, three, four, five and six. Onto the other side. One, two, three, four, five and six. Great work.
Last set through, so eight glute activations. One, two, three. If you find it too easy, again, you might want to get a stronger resistance band. Five, six, seven and eight. Power press, six each side again. Again, if you’re finding this easy now you might need to get a strong band, pulling the band out until you find the resistance, pushing out, one, two, three, four, five and six. On to the other side, one, two, three, four, five and six. Good.
So if you find the lunges quite easy now, again, you could add some weight, so water bottle, kettle bell, dumb bell, holding it nice and close into your chest. So last set of six each side. One, two, three, four, five and last one on that side six. Change to the other side. One, two, three, four. Two more, last one. Great work.
So that’s the last one in the series of the set of four so, hopefully, you will have noticed an improvement as the reps have gone up and you’ve added weight. It may have made a difference to your working day, things like niggles, shoulder, back, neck injuries, so really interesting to hear your feedback. I will be releasing another set of four Desk to Durable where we advance the exercises on.
I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I’ll see you in the next videos.