How NOT to become a frail old person

"Brainy What-Why-How"

Your weekly nibble of brain-based tips to help you move and feel great!

🧠

What:

What kind of old person do you want to be? 

One that moves through the world afraid of falling? 

Or one that's vibrant, energetic, and stable enough to dance, hike, and move through the world with confidence? 

Yeah...of COURSE you want the latter! 

And that comes through remembering one rule of thumb about the nervous system:

EVERYTHING is

USE IT OR LOSE IT.

Including being able to keep yourself balanced (i.e. not falling!) 

Why:

But what do we mean by "use" it when we think of staying balanced, upright, not falling? 

...when we think of twirling in a circle while dancing, or stepping on a loose rock while hiking, or simply being shoved accidentally by a fellow shopper while running errands?

It's the ability for your reflexive stability muscles to keep you upright when you are perturbed. 

That is NOT being able to balance when you PURPOSEFULLY step gently into one foot to lift the other into tree pose or Warrior 3...

where nothing is knocking you off balance, 

where your head and eyes are neutral,

where you were expecting to have to balance. 

Those things are great, but they're SIMPLY NOT ENOUGH to train the kind of stability needed to stay vibrant as you get older.

How:

According to science, we need to be training our balance 90 minutes per week! 

That's about 13 minutes per day! Of actively FIGHTING against something that's making you wobble.

So here's how you can help yourself rack up those minutes:

While you are:

  • brushing your teeth

  • peeling clementines (I’m surely not the only one that stands and eats 5-6 in a single session)

  • blowdrying your hair

  • putting your yoga props away after practice (or putting the weights back on the rack at the gym)

  • putting shoes/socks on 

Add challenges to the balance with:

  • your foundation: stand on one foot, or stand with one heel to the other foot's toe like you're on a balance beam

  • your head position: tilt your head, turn it side to side, or look up or down

  • your eyes: look in different directions, or of course CLOSE YOUR EYES

So, for example: 

While you're blowdrying your hair, flipping your head in different directions so you can get to different areas, do it standing on one foot! 

While you're putting your yoga props away, tilt your head side to side as you bend over to put the bolster away and stand back up. 

Get creative, and have fun with it! And remember, the more you wobble but FIGHT for the balance, the more you're training all the reflexive systems of your nervous system ðŸ’ª 

Another option of course,

Is to join in any of the Warming flows on Move With Adell, where we do this kind of balance. Tomorrow brings the â€‹newest Warming Flow!​

Fight for it,

Adell xoxo

Want to go way deeper on all of this geeky brain stuff?​

• Join me on Move With Adell -- I upload 2 new videos a week -- â€‹Click here​ to start your FREE trial.

• Check out the courses from Z-health, where I started my education in brain-based approaches: â€‹Click here​ for my discount codes on their first 3 courses!

• Sign up to the â€‹waiting list​ for my next NeuroYoga TTC where I teach YOU how to blend yoga + neurology.

• Get my book â€‹"Too Flexible to Feel Good: A Practical Roadmap to Managing Hypermobility"​

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