Tight Abs, Adrenal Fatigue & Instagram

It’s all about “the more” … the diastasis which is caused by more pressure than normal, the stress that’s caused by pressure to do more, the anxiety that’s cause by pressure to be more, the adrenal fatigue that’s caused by all of those and the need to sleep more and have more caffeine to do more… So I ask, “What if we do less?”

Hi there! I’m new, and I thought I’d introduce myself. I have four children (12m-7.5y), and four pregnancies and births in 6.5 years have certainly done a number on my body! I just started proactively working out for the first time in my adult life in October. I did Stroller Strides for six months, which I loved, but none of the instructors were knowledgeable about DR, which was really frustrating and limiting for me. 

I’m taking a break from Stroller Strides for a while, as I’m also battling adrenal fatigue, and it was getting worse with the intense SS workouts. I’m hoping that the milder and shorter Fit2B workouts will be just the right pace for me as I work to heal my adrenals, close my diastasis, and improve my physical fitness.” -E.W.

What if we don’t need to do more to be more? What if we don’t need to workout more to have more health? What if we need to be gentle? What if you need to let it go because those intense workouts everyday are killing you. Those crazy ab moves are killing your core. That crazy schedule and all the stimulants you’re taking to keep up with it is killing your adrenals. The more you eat, the less healthy you feel… I truly believe that for everything in life (except swimwear) less is more.

Can you be too {more} tight?

There is a very REAL correlation between weak abs and weak back muscles, yet tight “strong” muscles everywhere else, and I’d like to highlight how it’s yet another reason to NOT do crunches because – are you ready for some anatomy? Here we go: imagine yourself getting ready to do crunches and visualize how your hips are bent which means that your hip flexors are shortened. Your knees are also bent which means your hamstrings are shortened. If your feet are flat to the floor, then your calf muscles are ALSO shortened. That’s a lot of shortening, and too much shortening (diet or workout wise) isn’t healthy!

Oh, look! We’re on instagram! Follow us @fit2bstudio …okay now back to my meandering musings on crunches and adrenals and “less is more”

Back to that crunch… Now that you’re all set up in a crunchy position – if you’re like a lot of people who don’t understand GOOD crunch form – you yank on your head to lift your shoulders off the ground which shortens yet bulges your abdominals. And your elbows are bent. And your neck is probably bent because everyone wants to watch their tummy instead of the ceiling… So almost EVERY major muscle group is flexed/shortened/tightened…. EVEN THE SPINE. And most people rely on crunches and crunch-like motions for their primary core work, but the problem is that the erector spinae muscles of the spine aren’t primarily exercised by flexion… Their very name implies that they are exercised by, ahem, erection {not that kind 🙂 }Your spinal erector muscles work to extend, lengthen and hold you upright, not allow you to curl forward like an elderly lady with a dowager’s hump.

So motions that flex the abs and the hamstrings and the calves and the hips fail to include spinal strengthening. And we are in a crunch position ALL. THE. TIME. Yet articles like this one {don’t click here; you won’t learn anything} say to do as many crunches as possible to tighten loose skin after pregnancy! Gah! Crunches only work one of your ab muscles!

If you’d like to explore healthy ways to tighten loose skin after pregnancy check out this post from Healthy Ambition and one that I wrote about puckering skin.

Now, moving along… whenever you sit back on a couch, you’re usually in that same crunched position just at a different angle. Toes pointed (tight calves) knees bent (short hamstrings) hips flexed (tight psoas, tight upper quads and tight iliacus) spine curved (more pressure to core, shortened rectus abs, flexed spine) rounded shoulders (tight pec/chest muscles) neck thrust forward…. The cure isn’t to simply stand more. The cure is to simply open up and MOVE. MORE.

And it just so happens that’s what we do here with Fit2B Studio and our videos 🙂 Click HERE to try one if you haven’t already! We try to RELAX while “working out” which sounds like an oxymoron to a lot of people. But that’s my goal: for everyone who does one of my routines to feel lengthened and strengthened and BLESSED by their bodies, not stressed and wound-up and worn out!