LYT

Category: PT Corner with Kristin Williams

  • My Journey to Get LYT

    My Journey to Get LYT

    by Kristin Williams, PT, DPT

     

    This month we’re focusing on reintroducing LYT to our community and the global audience. If you read Lara’s blog about The Story of LYT a couple of weeks ago, you know what makes this method and its effects on the body so special. Today I want to share with you what it was about LYT that drew me to it initially and how I got to where I am today.

     

    Back in 2010, I was working full-time in an outpatient orthopedic physical therapy clinic in Louisville, Kentucky, and treating patients with a variety of diagnoses. I started to get a whole host of referrals for injuries that occurred in yoga. Most people were coming to me with wrist, hip, back, and shoulder injuries, which we ended up attributing at least in part to what they were doing in the practice. Around this same time, my husband got a job in Princeton, New Jersey, where I would be transitioning from full-time to part-time work. It was the perfect opportunity for me to check out what in the world people were doing in yoga and why they might be getting hurt.

     

    It only took one traditional vinyasa class for me to come to recognize that at least half of the people in class were putting their bodies into compromising postures and at a high risk of injury. At the same time, however, I was drawn to the challenge I found in the practice and became a regular student. I started offering free physical therapy screens at a local studio as a way to give back to the community. It was at one of these screens that someone told me about Lara’s studio, which was just around the corner at the time…so I went to check it out.

     

    What I was first struck by was how challenging the practice was, despite not trying to contort my body into deep end-range yoga poses. I fell in love with the blueprint, specifically the RESET, which I felt prepared the body so well for what it was being asked to do in the practice. Two things I had noticed in many of the traditional vinyasa classes I took elsewhere were that people weren’t ready for what they were being asked to do and that they were trying to imitate the teacher, who was usually hyperflexible. For example, if the teacher put their leg behind their head, the student was going to try to do it too, biomechanics be damned. I found myself both cringing and holding my breath, just waiting for people to get injured throughout each and every class. So the LYT Method was a refreshing change…it wasn’t easy, but it was both safe and sustainable. 

     

    I also loved the education that students were receiving in each class. The themes were fun too, but it was the attention to moving well and how to take that good movement off the mat that spoke to me as a physical therapist. It was so reminiscent of what I was doing on a regular basis in the clinic. So I decided to go through the LYT teacher training in 2014. I remember being floored by how much anatomy Lara covered in the training (and secretly thrilled that I already knew it all like the back of my hand haha). I loved that biomechanics were heavily focused on and still creativity was applauded. When I graduated, I started teaching at the studio twice a week and the rest is history.

     

    Over the last 10 years, I’ve watched LYT go from being a local movement to a global phenomenon. The passion of the teachers we train all over the world to help people move better for life is awe-inspiring. As we say in LYT, you don’t need an advanced degree to be the expert of your own body. I have always been so thankful for my PT degree, as it is what has allowed me to treat myself when things go awry. My LYT practice has taught me to move in a variety of ways to avoid age-related injuries. My goal as a LYT teacher is to educate people about their bodies and help them to help themselves for life.

     

    On that note, I’ll see you on the mat.

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health

    Benefits of Yoga for Mental Health

    May is Mental Health Awareness Month, when mental health activists and practitioners across the globe work to spread the word that mental health is something everyone should care about. While many of us are well aware of the physical benefits of LYT online yoga classes, did you know that daily yoga has been shown to have a positive effect on your mental health as well? In fact, one of the best benefits of yoga is how it can help a person manage stress.

    Impact of Daily Yoga on Mental Health

    Our bodies are hard-wired to react to stress, which can wreak havoc on our bodies and minds. When we encounter a perceived threat such as a heavy workload, managing family, or pain and illness, a small region in our brain called the hypothalamus sets off an alarm in the body. Through a combination of nerve and hormone signals, the adrenal glands release a surge of hormones, including cortisol. Cortisol is the primary stress hormone and performs several functions to prepare the body in a fight-or-flight situation, including altering the immune system and communicating with the brain areas that control mood, motivation, and fear. If a person is under prolonged stress and overexposure to cortisol, they are at risk of many different health problems, including anxiety, depression, headaches, digestive issues, muscle tension and pain, heart disease, sleep problems, and memory/concentration impairment.

    Mood Boosting

    All exercise can boost our mood by lowering levels of cortisol in the body and increasing the production of endorphins. However, yoga may have additional benefits, as it has been shown to increase levels of a brain chemical called gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is associated with better mood and decreased anxiety. A review of 15 studies, published in the journal Aging and Mental Health, looked at the effect of a variety of relaxation techniques on anxiety and depression in older adults, including yoga, massage therapy, progressive muscle relaxation, stress management, and listening to music. While all the techniques provided some benefit, daily yoga and listening to music were the most effective for both depression and anxiety. Yoga appeared to provide the longest-lasting effect of the two.

    Meditation with Yoga

    Yoga’s inclusion of meditation and breathing can also have positive benefits on mental health. Meditation has been shown to reduce activity in the part of the brain called the limbic system, which is dedicated to emotions. As your emotional reactivity decreases, you have a more level response when faced with stressful situations. Deep, slow breathing is associated with calming the body down, as it helps activate the parasympathetic nervous system, relaxing the body after periods of stress or perceived and/or real danger. 

    Yoga and Mental Clarity

    Finally, a regular yoga practice facilitates mental clarity and calmness. The increased body awareness we create, especially with LYT Yoga, is particularly helpful with early detection of physical problems. Recognition and correction of suboptimal movement patterns relieves chronic stress patterns in the body, so we feel better physically. When we feel better physically, we are better equipped to find harmony in the mind. There is a cascade effect of self-healing and better overall health, inside and out.

     

    So find some time in your schedule for your LYT Method practice, utilizing the movement as medicine for the body and mind. Be kind and compassionate to yourself both on and off the mat. Hop online and join me, so we can take a little time for healing together.

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • Resistance Training and Metabolism

    Resistance Training and Metabolism

    As I near the golden age of 50 in just a few short months, I find myself more and more interested in resistance training and its benefits. As a matter of fact I just joined a gym for the first time in well over a decade and the weight room is the main reason! I love that LYT has been focusing on the benefits of resistance training this month and one benefit that I’ve always heard about but never really understood the “why” behind was how it improves one’s metabolism. Knowing that menopause is right around the corner has me concerned about how my metabolism may be impacted. Full disclosure is that I’ve always been blessed with a high metabolism, but I’m concerned and expect that one day that will change. So I decided to do a little research on how resistance training and metabolism. 

     

    The first question that one could ask is what exactly is metabolism? Simply stated, it’s the chemical reactions in the body’s cells that change the food we eat into energy, which we need to move, breathe and think. Thousands of metabolic reactions are happening at the same time to keep our cells healthy and working. The resting metabolic rate is the rate at which a person’s body burns energy in the form of calories while at rest. This can be affected by a person’s genetic makeup, health issues, and by body composition, which is where resistance training comes into play. 

     

    When we exercise, we are breaking down and rebuilding muscle. Research has shown that resistance training creates a higher degree of muscle damage than aerobic training, and the muscle protein repair/synthesis process is an energy-demanding metabolic process. Estimates suggest that every pound of muscle burns roughly six calories per day at rest. While this may not seem like a lot, it’s three times as many calories as a pound of fat, which burns roughly two calories. So since lean muscle is more metabolically active than fat, a body with more muscle mass will burn more energy (calories) even at rest. This equates to an increase in the resting metabolic rate. Unfortunately for us, starting as early as age 30 the body begins to slowly lose muscle mass. Women lose up to 15% of the total body muscle per decade by the age of 50. So not only are we losing strength, but our metabolism is slowing due to the decrease in muscle as well. 

     

    In addition to changing body composition by increasing the amount of lean muscle, resistance training has been shown to increase the excess postexercise oxygen consumption (EPOC) as compared to steady-state aerobic training, like walking or jogging. Also known as oxygen debt, EPOC is the amount of oxygen required to return the body to its resting metabolic rate and explains how your body continues to burn energy after you’ve finished your workout. Similar to how a car has to cool down after it has been running, the body continues to burn calories at rest for a period of time after you exercise. Yet another metabolic perk for resistance training!  

     

    However, not all resistance training modes are created equal when it comes to metabolic benefits. Higher exercise intensities produce higher EPOC values. Performing compound exercises such as squats, deadlifts, lunges, pull-ups, etc, which recruit the most amount of muscle, and doing them at higher intensities such as HIIT (or plyometric LYT classes), are all great options for higher EPOC values. The same is true for lifting weights to stimulate the most muscle growth for increased metabolism. Finding the resistance that is heavy enough for you to perform only 8-12 reps per set with proper form will increase muscle size as compared to muscular endurance. Increased muscle mass yields increased metabolism…I think we see a pattern here.

     

    I don’t know about you, but I’m properly convinced to stay on my LYT mat doing my online classes which are full of compound bodyweight resistance training movements for the long haul. I’m also convinced that maintaining muscle mass as I age is a good step towards maintaining if not increasing my metabolism as well. If you haven’t checked out our Monthly Challenge called “Get Pumped”, you should! It’s full of resistance training coupled with our traditional LYT method blueprint. A definite win-win situation!

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • 5 Simple Core Strengthening Exercises

    5 Simple Core Strengthening Exercises

    In the LYT Method, we stand by the motto “More Core” for a reason. Whether you’re reaching for something, balancing, getting up off the floor, or simply standing in one place, the muscles of the core are working to keep your spine and pelvis stable. Unfortunately, many people are weak in their core. Most people think only of the abdominals when they hear the term “core”, but there’s a much broader picture to consider when wanting to strengthen this area. We need to consider not only the spine, but also the girdles of the shoulders, hips, and pelvis when incorporating core strengthening exercises. 

     

    Why does core strength and stability matter and why incorporate core strengthening exercises? Movement of the body through space depends on the creation and transfer of forces between different segments of the body. For example when we bend over to pick something up off the floor, not only do we need the strength of the arms to lift the object up, but we need to stabilize and lift through the lower body and transfer force through the trunk just to make this movement occur. Failure to do so successfully can increase the risk of injury anywhere along this chain of movement. 

     

    Core stabilization exercises have been shown to reduce the risk of this type of injury, as well as decreasing pain, reducing disability, and restoring/increasing strength. When core muscles are activated, there is an increased stiffness of the spine which enhances stability, allowing for this transfer of force. We need to strengthen not only the deep postural muscles but also mover muscles, as both have been shown to be key in stability. 

     

    Here are five simple (yet challenging!) exercises to improve your core stability:

     

    1. Glute Bridge – as the largest muscle in the body, the glutes play a huge role in core stability, acting as both a mover and a stabilizer.
      •  Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat.
      •  Press down through the feet to lift the pelvis up off the floor, elongating in the spine (do not press up too high or the back will arch).
      •  Hold for 2-5 seconds, keeping the pelvis level. Lower down with control.
      •  Do 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions.
    2. Supine March – holding the spine stable while moving the lower extremities is Core Stabilization 101. 
      •  Lie on your back with your knees over the hips and shins parallel to the floor (feet off the ground).
      •  Keeping the knee bent, slowly lower the left leg to tap the toes to the floor. Do not let the back arch up or allow the ribs or pelvis to move. 
      •  Return the left knee over the hip and repeat with the right leg. That is considered 1 repetition.
      •  Do 3 sets of 10 repetitions.
    3. Side Bridge – this exercise targets the deep oblique abdominals as well as the stabilizing muscles of the shoulder and hip.
      •  Lie on your left side with your knees bent to 90-degree angles and your elbow underneath your shoulder.
      •  Lift your bottom hip off the ground, trying to keep your knees, hips, and upper body in one long line.
      •  Hold for 10 seconds. Try to work your way up to a 1-minute hold!
      •  Do 10 holds on each side. As you increase your hold time, decrease your repetitions.
    4. Forearm Plank – this is a 1-stop shop exercise, targeting all the layers of your abdominal wall, as well as the shoulders, upper back, thighs, and glutes.
      •  Start on your hands and knees and then lower the forearms to the ground with the elbows under the shoulders.
      •  Walk one foot back at a time, tucking the toes under and keeping the knees off the floor.
      •  Hold this position without letting the back arch or hips drop, while keeping the neck long and in line with the trunk.
      •  Hold for 10 seconds. Try to work your way up to a 1-minute hold!
      •  Do 3-5 repetitions. As you increase your hold time, decrease your repetitions.
    5. Half Kneeling Chop – another 1-stop shop exercise that combines core stability, balance and hip stability, and shoulder strength all together.
      •  Start on your hands and knees and then lift your hands off the floor coming into tall kneeling.
      •  Step the left foot forward so both knees are bent to 90-degrees. The left foot will be directly under the left knee and the right knee will be directly under the right hip.
      •  Option to hold a light weight in the hands or simply clasp the hands together.
      •  Rotate the torso towards the right leg, bringing the weight towards that hip, keeping the arms extended. This is the start position.
      •  Using your abdominals, rotate the trunk to lift weight diagonally across the body and above the left shoulder, keeping arms extended. 
      •  Reverse to the starting position. This is one repetition.
      •  Do 2-3 sets of 10 repetitions on each side.

     

    If you’re familiar with the LYT Method, all of these exercises should look familiar to you as we do these and variations of them in each and every class. More Core is not about getting six-pack abs, although that is an added benefit that many find comes with the territory. It’s about creating a readiness in the body to move well and prevent injury. It all starts with core stabilization, so give these a try! 

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • Self-Care After An Injury

    Self-Care After An Injury

    When I started college, I had no idea what a physical therapist was or what they did. Sure I’d had some injuries in high school, but nothing that required rehabilitation. It wasn’t until I started having recurring injuries in college track and began seeing multiple athletic trainers and orthopedic doctors that I finally landed myself in a physical therapy clinic…and completely changed the trajectory of my life. I love being a physical therapist. I love that I can help heal peoples’ injuries and get them back on their feet the same way a PT many years ago did for me. But one of the things I love the most is knowing how to care for myself and not feeling helpless after an injury because I’m confident in the body’s ability to heal itself through self-administered therapeutic interventions and good movement. As a result, I have less fear of when pain happens in my own body. 

     

    Over the years, I’ve found that fear secondary to pain is one of the biggest limiting factors in one’s ability to recover after an injury. This fear can include wondering whether it will end, what is causing it, how much damage there is, and if movement will make it worse. These thoughts, beliefs, and expectations are important modulators of pain and can significantly affect one’s recovery from injury. While many people consider pain to be a physical response from the body, it is actually a response from the brain with both sensory and emotional components. When the brain processes a noxious stimulus from the body (sensory input) like a sprained ligament or torn muscle, how we experience that pain is shaped and influenced by previous experiences and how we react to them (emotional input). Anxiety, fear, and hyperfocusing on one’s symptoms can increase pain, while positive expectations and emotions can decrease pain. So one of the first things I tell my patients and myself after an injury is that it’s going to be okay. The body has an amazing ability to heal itself if we just put it in the proper environment to do so.

     

    Once we develop a more positive relationship with pain after an injury, we can consider it simply information from the brain. It’s our body’s way of telling us that something we’ve been doing isn’t working for this area of our body and we need to make a change. In many cases, that change does not include stopping everything altogether. Unless a bone is broken, I rarely recommend complete rest. Let pain or an injury be your opportunity to look closely at the way you move. Some simple strategies I use include the following:

    1. Observe how you’re moving, what might not be pulling its weight, and why this area is the victim of your mechanics. 
    2. Assess the range of motion and strength of the area that is injured and compare it to the other side. Do the same thing for joints that are nearby. For example, if you’ve hurt your knee, check out the knees but also look at the hips and ankles. If you’ve hurt your lower back, examine how your hips, pelvis, and ribs are moving. There’s a good chance that the injured area is overworking for an underperforming adjacent area. 
    3. Examine how you’re holding your entire skeleton (full body posture) throughout the day and if that may be impacting the injured area as well. Taking a holistic look at an injury is not only the best approach, but also helps the brain to tune into the body in a more objective manner (less emotion) and retrain suboptimal movement patterns to reduce the chance of further injury. 

     

    Once you’ve done your self-assessment, movement is the medicine. In essence, we want to stretch what’s tight, strengthen what’s weak, mobilize what’s stiff, and stabilize what’s hypermobile. If you find issues in areas away from the injured site that are underperforming, strengthen and/or mobilize them. Doing so will help you take demand off the injured area and the body will give a big sigh of relief. If you find deficits in the area of the injury, I don’t recommend a “no pain, no gain” mantra, but let pain be the guide. Working into significant pain or discomfort is likely to irritate an injury and prolong recovery. I give my patients/clients a simple analogy to follow which I call the “stoplight rule”. Green is no pain, yellow is mild to moderate discomfort, and red is significant or wincing-type pain. A nice mix of exercises that strengthen and mobilize in the green and yellow range seems to work best. Doing only green light exercises may not adequately restore full joint range and muscle function, which can prolong recovery and even create compensatory movement patterns. Exploring into those areas of yellow light movements and exercise not only works into fuller and more pre-injury ranges of motion, but also helps the brain to understand that the body is safe, allowing healing to occur quicker. Moderation is key and more is not better. Although working with a physical therapist or highly qualified movement specialist is often recommended with more severe injuries, don’t forget that the body is a great healer in and of itself. Try it out on your own and if that doesn’t work, seek the help of a qualified professional. 

     

    On the LYT Daily, we have TONS of short videos with drills and flows addressing a variety of injuries right at your fingertips. Many of the things in these classes are what we do to heal ourselves and they work! Overcoming fear is the first step. Education is paramount. Movement is medicine. Until then, I’ll see you on the mat!

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • To Stretch or not to Stretch? Is It Even a Question?

    To Stretch or not to Stretch? Is It Even a Question?

    Over the last 25 years or so, there has been a debate in the literature about the benefits of stretching before exercising.

    Back in my early athletic years, the thing to do before any sports activity was static stretching. We’d run a lap or two to warm up beforehand and then everyone hit the grass and did static stretching for 10-15 minutes. Around the time I was graduating from PT school, the general opinion was changing and static stretching before exercise was becoming all but taboo. However, it remained an integral part of a treatment session and any time I would stretch someone on the table, they would always tell me how great it felt and how they “wished they could take me home with them and do it every day”. Taking the evidence and my own professional experience into account, my opinion of static stretching began to evolve to a place where I still believed it had a place in people’s lives, but as part of a bigger picture. Just recently, I did a literature review of stretching to back up this claim and was pleased by what I found. 

     

    History tells us that people have been stretching for thousands of years and in many cultures. From the World Wars until the 1990’s, the general belief was that prolonged static stretching would improve athletic performance by increasing flexibility and range of motion and thereby improving movement economy. However, by the late 1990s and early 2000s, there was widespread evidence on the potential harmful effects of static stretching. A meta-analysis of the literature conducted on 104 studies in 2013 reported that prolonged static stretching negatively affected maximal strength and power performances, no matter the participant’s age, gender, or fitness level. Based on these results and others, several leading medical platforms changed their recommendations and stated that static stretching should be eliminated from any warm-up routine. Soon everyone was focused on dynamic stretching alone before an athletic endeavor.

     

    Nevertheless, I continued to believe there was a place for stretching in fitness and rehabilitation. In fact, in the summer of 2016 I created the Stretch class we now teach on LYT Daily in response to the very reactions I was receiving from clients and patients alike about how good they felt after being stretched. My goal with stretching was rarely to increase flexibility per se, but more as an assessment of soft tissue resistance and available joint range of motion. I also recognized the benefit that the sensation of stretching provides to the brain via mechanoreceptors in the muscles and tendons. I believed it was a great way for a person to learn more about their body and the story it was telling them within its tissues.   

     

    It seems the literature wasn’t far behind me. By 2019, the evidence was finding that static stretching itself was not the culprit of decreased strength and power. It was the duration the stretch was held that determined whether or not there were negative effects of static stretching prior to athletic activity. Across the board, these studies showed that stretches held for 60 seconds or less had no negative impact on power or strength, whereas stretches over 60 seconds did. So why does duration matter? In stretches held for over 60 seconds, there are short term changes in the neuromuscular response, including decreased motor unit activation (strength) and decreased maximal voluntary isometric torque (power). There is also evidence that long duration static stretching decreases muscle-tendon unit stiffness, which affects the length-tension relationship of the muscle, and thereby compromises the muscle’s ability to generate force/torque. However in the same stretches held for 60 seconds or less, no significant changes in motor until activation, maximal voluntary torque, or muscle tendon unit stiffness is seen. 

     

    Today, many researchers are recommending once again that we include short duration static stretching in a pre-exercise routine because it has the potential to lower the risk of sustaining musculotendinous injuries and does not have the previously perceived negative effect on strength and power. In addition to this, one study in particular reported their participants felt they were “more likely to perform well when stretching was part of the warm-up”, indicating a positive psychological benefit of stretching and an important component of optimal performance. My opinion on the matter is unchanged. I utilize static stretching both to treat my own injuries and to keep tabs on the general condition of the muscles, joints, and surrounding connective tissues over time and following activity. Combining regular gentle stretching with dynamic movement like we do in the LYT Method is an ideal way to move better and feel better longer. We get the best of both worlds, keeping our tissues strong and healthy while maintaining a steady conversation with our bodies through observation. If you’ve never tried one of my Stretch classes, you should join me or one of the other trained LYT Instructors on Saturday mornings from 9:30-10:30 am ET. You won’t regret it! Until then, I’ll see you on the mat.

     

    Xoxo,

     

    Kristin

     

    Chaabene H, Behm DG, Negra Y, Granacher U. Acute Effects of Static Stretching on Muscle Strength and Power: An Attempt to Clarify Previous Caveats. Front Physiol. 2019 Nov 29;10:1468.

    Behm, David G. The science and physiology of flexibility and stretching: implications and applications in sport performance and health. Routledge, 2018.

    Blazevich A. J., Gill N. D., Kvorning T., Kay A. D., Goh A. G., Hilton B., et al. (2018). No effect of muscle stretching within a full, dynamic warm-up on athletic performance. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 50, 1258–1266. 

    Simic L., Sarabon N., Markovic G. (2013). Does pre-exercise static stretching inhibit maximal muscular performance? A meta-analytical review. Scand. J. Med. Sci. Sports 23, 131–148.

  • Knee Osteoarthritis

    Knee Osteoarthritis

    A lot of people come to see me for physical therapy with the diagnosis of “Knee OA”, or osteoarthritis. Another common descriptor is “my knees are ‘bone on bone’”. And yet, many people don’t really understand what this means, how it happens, or what the general prognosis is following diagnosis. It’s no wonder that this can be very scary! The good news is that OA comes in slow stages of progression and isn’t an indicator of either pain or function in a lot of people.

     

    The term “arthritis” refers to inflammation (-itis) of a joint (arthr-). Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis in the knees. It is a degenerative, wear-and-tear type of arthritis that occurs most often in people ages 50 and older. There is a gradual wearing away of the protective covering (articular cartilage) of the bones of the knee (femur, tibia, and patella), which results in a decrease in the joint space. As the cartilage wears away, it becomes frayed and rough. Over time, this can result in bone rubbing on bone and the development of painful bone spurs. The knee may become stiff and swollen, which may be worse in the morning or after prolonged sitting. Loose fragments of cartilage can interfere with knee range of motion and cause locking or a grinding noise (crepitus). But all of this usually doesn’t occur until the later stages of OA, so a lot can be done to manage symptoms and halt progression of this degenerative diagnosis.

     

    When a person comes to see me with this or any diagnosis, I always do an examination. With any type of wear-and-tear issue, the most important thing to evaluate is the body in motion. In the simplest of terms, humans are just very advanced machines. In the same way that your tires will wear unevenly if you don’t rotate them, your body will wear down if you don’t give it regular tune ups and move in multiple planes of motion! So typically if someone has developed OA in the knees, it’s due to traditionally both poor body mechanics and overuse of some sort. By improving the way in which we move, we decrease the wear and tear through our joints. Keeping the kneecaps (patellae) tracking over the feet, sitting back into the hips with heels-down squatting to keep the knees behind the toes, and maintaining strength in the core and hips all help minimize the amount of weight through the articular cartilage of the knees. Maintaining full joint range of motion allows weight to be transferred across a larger surface area and minimizes the amount of force through in any area in particular. It is important to note that the knees are pretty simple joints. All they really want to do is bend and straighten. If that’s all they do throughout their life, they tend to stay pretty healthy. It’s when medial, lateral and twisting moments occur at the joint that we see injury. It’s with overuse, such as overtraining, that we see wear-and-tear. But the fact of the matter is that we need weight-bearing exercise to maintain health of our articular cartilage. Studies have shown that 10% of sedentary people have knee OA as compared to only 3% of recreational runners. In elite/professional runners, the percentage increases to 13% due to the overuse. Add exercise in additional planes of motion, such as LYT™ yoga, which increases strength of the hips and core, increases muscle and joint flexibility, and focuses on proper joint mechanics, and I’d argue your chances diminish even further. So pay attention to how you move, stretch what’s tight, strengthen what’s weak, mobilize what’s stiff and stabilize what’s hypermobile. Create a more effective and efficient machine to combat knee osteoarthritis…or osteoarthritis of any joint for that matter! Movement is medicine! On that note, I’ll see you on the mat!

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin

  • Starting a New Workout Routine

    Starting a New Workout Routine

    Starting a New Workout Routine

    Research has shown that a regular workout is among the factors that have the most beneficial effects on health.

    Exercise helps maintain body weight, can boost your brain health, reduces the risk of heart disease, enhances the immune system, and slows the effects of aging. So why do less than 5% of adults perform the minimum recommended amount of exercise (150 minutes at moderate intensity or 75 minutes at vigorous intensity) per week?

    Many find that getting into the habit of working out can be a huge challenge. Not to mention that there are right and wrong ways to go about it safely. In the spirit of New Year’s resolutions, let’s talk about how to ease into a workout routine. 

     

    The best place to start is to determine your “why” and go from there. One of the reasons listed above may be motivation enough! Figuring out which is most important to you can help you stay on track when you might feel like quitting. Keep it in the back of your mind as you go through your fitness journey. You’re going to have good days and bad days, so having this “why” may be the thing that keeps you on track.

     

    The next step is to set a realistic goal within a realistic timeframe. Upwards of 65% of all people who begin an exercise program end up dropping out in three to six months. This is likely due to the fact that we tend to set unrealistic goals that are unattainable within our projected timeframe. Start with smaller and more attainable short-term goals. Once you’ve set your goals, create a plan to reach them. 

     

    First and foremost, start slow. Progressive overload is a commonly utilized method with weight training and involves gradually increasing the weight, frequency, or repetitions in a routine. But it can be applied to cardiovascular fitness programs as well. Exercise is a science and should be approached as such. Your weekly routine should include cross-training, as I wrote about in last week’s PT Corner. Starting with anywhere from 10-15 minutes of exercise and slowly building in intensity, duration, and frequency. A general rule of thumb is increasing by no more than 10% per week. 

     

    Having a formal training plan or workout schedule to follow is a great way to help stick with the plan. When I used to train for marathons, I would write my six-month training regimen on the calendar as a way to stay motivated. Scheduling time into your day until exercise becomes part of your routine is a great place to start. Look at your schedule, determine the most ideal time for you to exercise each day, and then make it a recurring appointment. Always have a Plan B for when life gets in the way. If you can’t make your 60-min LYT Yoga Expresso class because of an unexpected engagement, schedule time for a 20-min HIIT class instead! If and when setbacks happen…and they will…don’t just throw in the towel. Be compassionate with yourself and get back in the game when you’re able. Doing something is better than nothing at all.

     

    Finally, accountability is huge. I used to pick a fun destination for my marathons, so once I bought that plane ticket and entry fee, there was no turning back! Many times I would run them with friends as well. Finding a social network to exercise with is a game changer! My 5:45 am classes at the LYT NJ studio grew in popularity because we all began to feel like family. People would ask about or check up on those who missed a few days in a row. We looked forward to seeing each other and sweating together, even at the wee hours of the morning! 

     

    On that note, we’ve created a “Start Here” collection of videos for those people who are new to movement or getting back to movement after a long break on our LYT Launchpad page. Going through the body from head to toe, we have created short, simple classes to restore and maintain mobility and improve strength and stability. Each move is similar to what you may see in a traditional LYT class, so you can build slowly towards our Beginner level program. A simple LYT style class is also included in each section. Check them out to help get yourself moving. I’ll see you on the mat!

     

    Xoxo,

    Kristin