Daily Breathing Exercises to activate your Parasympathetic
Specific Exercise Breathing Techniques that you can do on a daily basis (Recommended in a Morning, Afternoon or Dinner right before you eat). This breathing technique will activate your Parasympathetic Nervous System. Once its activating, were activating the rest and digest part of your system which will help you digest your food better, relax the body, bring the stress level down so cortisol levels will go down and this is the very important part of the nervous system in the body that gets activated during the day.
Exercise:
Lay down exhale completely and do 10 breaths. Hold it for 3 to 4 seconds and then exhale all the way. (Please see the video). Putting a lot of energy to get it to the lower pelvis, not just in the belly but down to the pelvis breathing deep into the pelvis. If you have not done this before don’t use weight, you can use your hand just to put a little pressure, you’ll have a challenge just getting the breath down into your pelvis because you have not activated those muscles, you haven’t brought air that deep in your stomach in a long time.
So try it out 3 sets a day, 10 reps each time so 10 deep breaths.
Exercise For Your Eyes
Exercise that is extremely powerful not only into your eyes muscles which will help with reading and seeing better but will also dramatically help your brain which will directly improve your movement patterns.
Take 5-10 minutes a day to do this exercises. You will see dramatic improvement in your eyes and dramatic improvement in your neurology, the way your brain functions and your movement patterns.
Exercise:
1. Put your thumbs up. One thumb off to the left up to the left and then down to the left and then keep your head up and you’re going to look down at your thumb and then back up and reset look forward in between. (Please see the video) Do 4 sets, try to minimize the head movement and just use your eyes. Switch sides, same thing look down and then up.
2. Arms on the side look forward and then look to the left, look forward again and look to the right. Try to focus and if you need to, bring your hands further a little bit more and then repeat. Do 4 reps. Think about how your brain feels, how your eye feels.
3. The next one we’re going to do, snub all the way up in the air, head straight. Look up in your thumb make sure it’s in the line of vision and we’re going to do a big circle all the way around and then to the other side. (Please see the video) You can do that twice.
4. Thumb straight in front of you and then bring it in. Focusing on the thumb as it comes in close and then bringing it out and repeat. 3 reps.
Those few exercises you can do upon awakening. It will actually awaken your mind up right away. When your eye looks into certain areas it goes into certain compartments of your mind, and instantly it will awake your brain up and will access parts of those brain that have maybe not been functioning properly or you haven’t been using in a long time. That will access those parts of the brain instantly and will help you move better as well as helping your eyes.
Full body Mobility drills (EarthFIT Personal Training)
Mobility exercises that will increase proprioception. So essentially what’s that gonna do is make you feel safer in your environment. And also, it will reduce pain. If you do something like this – even 5-10 minutes a day, it would literally change your entire life. You’ll have more awareness in space, you’ll increase your visual perception and you’ll also increase your breathing, which will reduce stress and threat to the body and allow your life to become better. So I’m gonna take you to every joint and we are going to do movements to every joint and it’s going to loosen the whole body. One thing I want you to do while you’re doing this is belly breathing. So breathing in and out through your belly. Here we go, we’re gonna get started and follow me through we are going to get about 3 to 5 repetitions of each exercise.
Alright, here we go!
1. The neck
-Forward and backwards (3-5 reps)
-Turn side to side (3-5 reps)
-Lateral (3-5 reps)
-Turn, look down and across, each time try to move into a good stretch
-Look across, up and over, when you look up and across try to push your head up to the top and feel a good stretch all down your neck.
2. Shoulder Rotations
-Rolling your shoulders forward and backwards
-Shoulders up, full rotation
-1 arm, look at your fingertips, 3 rotations backwards and forward
-Circle up in the air and then go bigger and bigger
-Figure 8s: forward figure 8, look all the way back behind you and across the body. Change directions, think about the joint
-Switch arms, same Shoulder Rotation exercises
-Both arms: Forward big circles all the way around (3-4), then the backward direction. Cross the body raising your arms up each time and a little bit more
-Arms crossing the body, open up with palms facing forward and then crossing the body and, bring up a little bit higher
3. Chest
-Suck the chest in and out, push in and out
-Circle around, chest in and out
-Circle the elbows
-Wrist, bring the hands in and then out the other way loosen up the wrist,
-Reach to the ceiling as high as you can (3 reps)
4. Hips
-Tilt pelvis back and forth
-Side to side
-Combine two movements, tilt the body back and forth then switch back the other side (like a gyration).
-Rock the body down to the side (looks like your entire torso is forming a circle). And rotate. If you’re dealing with back pain you may need to avoid this one.
4b. Hips
-Do small circle and each time getting bigger and bigger, forward circles and then move backwards (3 circles at least). The knee is slightly bent
-Figure 8, changing directions
-Switch legs, same exercise
-Lateral movement, same with other side
5. Knees
-Knee wag back and forth and then do circles on the knee, same thing on other leg
6. Ankles
-Step on 1 foot, press down (toes pointed down), turn the foot inward and turn the foot outward
-Switch legs, same exercise
-Circles with the toe (3 circles), then back with the other direction
-Figure 8 with the toes
-Switch, same exercise
So there you have it! That’s total mobility from head to toe. You just loosened up your whole body. So that’s perfect, the next thing you can do is a dynamic warm up before your workout, but if you just do this on a daily basis you will have better connection (mind body connection) with your body, you’ll reduce injury, you’ll increase performance and increase total body awareness, if you can tell, I’m slightly breathing a little bit heavier. You should focus on your breathing in the training. I was speaking so it’s hard for me to focus but while you are doing those movements, you should be going <INHALE> <EXHALE>… you’re gonna get more oxygen to the body and therefore increase performance, get more oxygen into the lungs – and going to feel better.
Alright, so this is Ian Hart with EarthFIT training. There you go, that’s mobility exercises from head to toe. Go ahead and do that 5-10 minutes a day and you’re gonna see how it changes your life and your performance.
Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator of BACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, author of HEALING HACKS, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM and MYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.