Daily Tip #12 - Core (and Immune) Strengthening

0:01 - Intro 

Hello, I'm Shane from MATRIX. Welcome to Tuesday. I'm here bringing you your next Week-Daily Tip. If you remember from last week, we did a couple of Tips where we worked on strengthening our muscles -- the upper body and the lower body. Today, we're going to go through the same thing, but we're going to work on our core muscles.

0:21 – Why We Do Muscle Squeezes 

Now, if you remember from those other videos, I mentioned how doing these exercises not only gets you stronger, but it can help your immune function because it stimulates the part of the brain that interacts with the vagus nerve -- which is very important in immune function. Well, with today's muscle contractions, not only are we going to be stimulating that part of the brain, but because we're working on the core, we're going to be working on the vagus nerve directly. So, it's twice as powerful! Something really useful. In addition, these drills are going to set us up for some more things that we'll be doing in the future, including tomorrow. So, make sure you do practice them.

0:59 – How Hard to Squeeze

When it comes to these muscles squeezes, there's a couple of things to remember. The first one being, we're looking to eventually get to a level 10 out of 10 on squeezing. But when you're first starting them, you want to start around a 2, 3, maybe a 4/10. Particularly on these because when we get into the back muscles, there's a good possibility for cramping. And we don't want you to do that at all.

1:25 - Contraindications 

Number two, don't do these movements if you had any underlying conditions. That might be an issue for you like specific back injuries, different open wounds, sores, those types of things. Where if you shouldn't be doing these movements in general, please don't be doing these exercises. With that being said, some of the things we're doing today can be trickier when you're standing up. Although I'm going to be standing during the video, you're more than welcome to try these seated or even laying down to just make them that much safer. But otherwise, strong isometric contractions are very safe and very useful to be doing.

2:09 – The Squeeze Sequence 

If you remember from the previous videos, there's also a specific sequence that we move through so that we get a full range of motion. We're going to be stretching first. Then coming into the contraction. And then going back into the stretch. Because we're going to be holding these contractions for a little bit of time -- I do encourage that once you get the hang of them -- work towards being able to breathe while you're doing them as well. Just another important note. And as we get into the exercises today, I'm going to be taking you through the squeeze once on each side. But for an actual workout, again, think about doing maybe 3 to 5 repetitions of 3 to 5 seconds each. Now with all that stuff out of the way, are you ready to give it a shot? Here we go!

2:58 – Abs (Rectus Abdominus) Squeeze

The first one that we're going to do is for our Rectus Abdominus. That's our main core muscles. The muscles you get when you're doing a sit-up. The muscles that look like a six-pack. Alright! Believe it or not, these muscles actually attach way down on your hip pointer -- that little bony piece that you can feel at the front of your hip -- and it attaches all the way up into your third, fourth, and fifth rib. A lot higher up than you may expect. What we're going to do is when we stretch, we're going to try and take those two points away from each other. And when we squeeze, we're going to try and bring them together. It's going to look like this. Sitting down or standing up, I want you to start to lean back. Lengthen, lengthen, lengthen the spine as much as you can. And thinking about getting these upper ribs as far away from your hip pointer as you can as you possibly can. And in doing so, you're even thinking about rolling the pelvis away. Stretching up and back. You should feel a pretty nice stretch across the front of your belly. Now from here, we take it in the other direction. We start to bring those two ends together. The ribs are coming down. The tail is tucking under so that the hip pointers are coming up. And we're squeezing. Real strong. All those things together. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze... and then release. Come on back up and stretch it out.

4:22 – Getting Each Side

Now, you might be saying to yourself, there aren't two sides to that one. Well, there are and I'm going to show you how to do it, now. We're going to switch from one side to the other. Just so you can get the feel while we're in one single contraction. Let's give that a shot! Again, first, it's the stretch. The tail kind of sticks back so the hip pointers roll down. The spine gets long. We roll the rib cage up and back. Getting as much distance as we can through here. Once we found the stretch, we reverse. Try to bring the rib cage down into the pelvis. Try to tuck the tail under to pull the pelvis up into the ribcage. Once you've got that squeeze on both sides, give yourself a little tilt to the one side. You'll feel that squeeze even more. A little tilt to the other. You'll feel it more on that side. And then as you come back out to stretch -- lifting up and back like we did -- lean a little one way to feel a longer stretch. Lean a little the other way to feel a longer stretch. And release. That one got me a little sweaty. Hopefully, you're kind of feeling that too.

5:24 – Obliques Squeeze

The next ones that we'll move into are the Obliques. Those are the muscles on the side that really help us rotate. There are two different ones, but we're going to focus more on the external obliques which do the twisting towards the front for the purpose of today. To stretch this one, it's going to be very similar in the fact that we're going to want to pull the tailbone back to get the hip pointer to a roll down. But this time instead of leaning backward, we're going to start to lean over towards the side. And we're going to rotate away just a little bit so that you're getting a nice stretch from your hip pointer. And try to pull the ribcage back from there. Once you've got the stretch, think about this side of your ribcage getting pulled down into the same side hip pointer. The hip is are going to come up. The tail is going to tuck under. Squeeze really strong. You should feel much more on the side. Find the squeeze. And then again, release. Letting the hip drop. The tail pulls back.  And the body leans away. And rotates away. Awesome.

6:10 – Obliques Squeeze, Side #2

Let's try the other side. Same thing. Tail comes down. Hip pointer or falls away. Leaning the body away. Rotate it back to that side. Again, the rib cage is moving one way. The hip is moving the other. Find a big stretch. And now try to bring it all together. Rolling the ribcage down. Pulling the hip pointer up. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze into the obliques. Try to get as much feeling through the side there as you can. And then release. And stretch it back out. Alright. Hopefully, you're a little bit more aware of the front half of your core.

6:24 – Back-Extensor Notes 

The last muscles, we're going to do are for the back half. Now, in working the front -- as a human being -- we are very front dominant. So, we have more awareness of what's going on here and it's probably a little bit easier to connect, and to connect properly. When we start working into the spinal muscles, I'm going to coach you through it very slowly. But when you're practicing this, you want to go even more slowly. Coming out of it as frequently as you need to, just so you don't overdo. Because we don't have as good of awareness back there, it takes more practice than it does on the front side of the body. And remember, these in particular might be better done seated or even laying on your belly. You won't be able to get the stretch as well when you're laying on the belly. But it's much more secure for you to do the squeezing portion. With that being said, let's give it a shot.

8:06 – Back-Extensor Squeeze

This stretch — in my opinion — feels amazing. What we're going to want to do here is you're going to want to think about tucking the tail underneath. That's going to lengthen. From there, we're going to lengthen the spine and round the spine in so you're getting as much length as you can. Now these muscles do run from your sacrum -- your low back -- all the way up to the neck. We're going to work from the bottom up. And we're not going to get into the neck today because there are some other contraindications there. So, just work up into the middle of your shoulder blades. From here we've got the rounding. In addition, we're going to rotate a little bit and lean. Almost like the crown of the head is going down towards the big toe on the opposite side. That should open up a nice stretch through your back body. Now from here, to reverse, come back up into vertical. We're going to start at the base as I mentioned. So, think about sticking your tailbone back and leaning a little bit to that side. Hopefully you can start to feel some squeeze, come into the muscles down here. Continue to lengthen up. But as you do, think about starting to roll backward. And you're going to hopefully feel the engagement of the muscles start to climb up through the spine. Getting a little bit taller. Remember, you can take a break anytime you want and come back in. And as you get longer, longer, longer, you'll feel it move higher, higher, higher up through the spine. And you can play with subtle little leans, subtle little rotations to really connect. And then once you feel like you've had enough squeeze there, slowly come back out. And again, we'll simply tuck the tail. Crown of the head towards the opposite big toe. A little bit of rotation and movement to help you stretch. And find what feels best. So, that's a good strong spinal extension on one side. When I finished doing those, I actually see a little bit better. It's another one of those weird brain things that has an anatomical connection, but we won't get into now.

10:07 – Back-Extensor Squeeze, Side #2

From that being said, we're going to do the other side to finish up this core workout for today. Again, the stretching portion is tail tucking underneath. We're lengthening and rounding the spine down. Once you've got that length, think about the crown of the head moving toward the opposite big toe. So that you're stretching through one side of your back. The arms can hang pretty heavy from there. Now slowly start to come back up. As we come into the squeeze. You're going to stick the tail out. Lengthen through the spine. Start low. Think about the bones here coming together towards the bones here. You'll begin to feel the squeeze through the musculature down low. As you get a little bit higher, think about the bones a little higher up coming toward the bones in the middle. And you'll start to feel a squeeze higher through the spine. Again, taking breaks whenever you need to. Get a little bit longer. Squeeze a little bit higher. See if you can complete the chain from the base all the way up through your mid-back. We're going to skip the neck for today. Find your big strong squeeze. And then gently release. Come back out. Crown of the head towards the big toe. Tail tucking under. A little bit of movement for your stretch. And I did forget to mention on that side -- once you're into it -- you can play with little twists, or little side bends to emphasize where you need to work.

11:37 - Summary 

In summary from today, we just worked on how to squeeze the belly. How to squeeze the Obliques And how to work the Back-Extensors. Some of the main muscle groups within your core. This is going to get you stronger, a lot more stable, and also -- because we're working on moving and squeezing the organs and the fascia -- it's going to help your immune system as well.

11:58 - Farewell 

Play with that today. Please do practice because we're going to use some of these tools in tomorrow's Tip. Check back in and 11 o'clock. And I hope to see there!