Stay Active During Holiday Activities

Have you made plans for the holidays? Most people do travel planning and meal planning, but what about fitness planning? Holiday exercise sessions are not on most people’s holiday agendas. After all, holidays are for rest, relaxation, and fun! Right?

Well, exercise can be fun, and has been proven to help you feel better and rest better. Why skip it over the holidays? Schedule some holiday exercise sessions for fun and relaxation. What about ice skating or Christmas caroling around your neighborhood? If you can’t handle the outdoor temperatures or activities, don’t forget that walking done indoors at a shopping mall counts as exercise, but stopping to browse in the stores doesn’t! Don’t look for parking places near the store entrance. Park out in the lot and walk. You may get in the store faster than searching for a close parking space anyway. Plan fun-filled holiday activities, especially ones that keep you moving.

Improving Posture

With so many of us working desk jobs, many of us experience shoulder and neck from slumped or rounded shoulders. In the video below, I share an exercise I have used to help minimize and even reduce rounded shoulders.

In the video, we placed a stack of magazines under the model's head. Before we start, we want to be sure that her head was parallel with the ceiling, not tilted back and not tucked either.

Next, she pushes her head into the magazines, which elevates the chest. She should hold that for three seconds and then relax for six seconds. Ideally, she would do this several times a day as she builds postural strength that would allow her to maintain good posture.

As she improves, we can begin to take away a magazine every 3-4 days until eventually she doesn't have any magazines underneath her head.

As with any exercise, we want to make sure we do not experience pain. The key is to feel comfortable with just enough effort to feel like you're performing the exercise.

Stop immediately if you begin to experience pain during this exercise.