Tire Talk 42: Final (and BEST) Ground Game
Transcript
Hey Mindset community, Dr. Ellen here coming to you today with your next Tire Talk.
Alright, we’re going to finish up our ground game series today, but first I want to thank you for a little bit of a departure last week, because it was really important for for us to take a minute to talk about that self-love and that self-care, and why it’s important to do that on a consistent basis not just in a reactionary mode to stress and things like that of the day.
We want to make sure we’re doing it on the front end to stay ahead of our issues and still continue to move forward and optimize your health. That’s one super, super great way to do that.
So as we finish up our ground game these principals we’re going to talk about are very similar to that, but it’s important to learn how to ground yourself and actually use the force coming from here, both kind of metaphysically as well as just pure physics if you learn how to harness that grounding ability into the floor, or into the ground, it can be incredibly powerful.
So that’s something that you want to practice and harness, so that in the moment you have that tool available to you. Whether that’s, you happen to be standing giving a presentation, or in my case working with a patient, or just when life starts to get pretty darn fast and you feel like things are moving around you, learning how to physically ground yourself to get you in the moment can be massively powerful and really, really, really amazing to experience.
But the only way you get to that is if you practice consistently. So using your exercise time to do that can be pretty amazing for you, that’s the time we want you to utilize some of those skills. So let’s talk about that.
Today I challenged myself to do an entire workout where I didn’t move my feet. I stayed in this position for about 25 minutes, moving different weights around.
That’s the basic physics of it all and it was pretty amazing–by the end my feet were very tired because I was working so hard to stabilize and ground myself that I was shocked at how much work that can really be when you do it for a prolonged period of time.
Man, at the end of it, could I feel this amazing connection to the ground, and if any of you watch Dancing with the Stars some of the judges will actually talk about this, about grounding your foot into the floor, and how that gives you so much more stability as a dancer.
That’s so true on a physical sense throughout your day as a human, okay? So the first thing we’re going to do is talk about the setup. So get into the position with your feet underneath your hips into a very comfortable position.
Some people like a little bit wider to begin because you’re more stable, okay. As you get better you can have them right underneath your hips, whatever feels good, you just don’t want to your feet together, that’s just a little bit too narrow to get some of the rotational stuff we’re going to practice today.
So a little bit wider, and then I want you to pretend your feet are on the paper plates. And I want you to screw your feet into the ground with a little bit of rotational force.
Now, your feet aren’t actually going to move here. Your feet are glued to the ground. So when you do that you create something we call torque, and that is a really important skill to harness if you’re going to get into heavier lifting and strengthening later down the line, because that creates your stability.
In that moment when you screw your feet into the ground, you should feel these muscles on the back and lateral aspect of your legs start to contract. So let’s talk about that–the intensity of that contraction should match whatever you’re doing. So there should be a supply and demand pretty much close match.
What you don’t want to see is this demand, to stand and give your presentation for two minutes and yet you’re on a hundred percent contraction. That doesn’t match. So it depends on what you’re doing, how hard you should be contracted.
For me I just finished my workout it’s a little bit chilly in here, and we’re doing our talk so I have this on like 20%. 20% which is about what you need during the day here if you’re just standing still.
So feet are screwed into the ground, nice and gently, you’re creating a little bit of contraction and stability and activation of some of these posterior and lateral tissues up here into the hip and maybe even some down into the leg.
So you’re going to hold that position while we add movement. And the first movement we’re going to do is a deadlift, which is probably the best way to pick something up and to put it back down, especially if it’s a slightly heavier object.
I’m going to use a 20-pound dumbbell, and I’m going to put that right between my mid-foot kind of right between the ball of my feet. And what we’re going to do is create our little bit of torque, screw our feet into the ground. I’m going to hip hinge, so that means…we’re not going to talk a ton about technique today, that’s not what the purpose is, the purpose is grounding.
If you want to learn technique or you have questions about that, give us a call, that’s what we do professionally. We’re also going to be starting these wonderful gym memberships at our office and part of the memberships there is an on-ramp program where you learn those skills and techniques. So if you want to learn those things give us a call or sign up for one of our memberships.
For today, we’re just going to talk about grounding so our feet are screwed in. You’re going to hip hinge, which means our back stays straight, okay, it’s not vertical but it’s straight as you drive your hips behind you.
Feet are still screwed in and you’re going to stand up driving the hips forward.
Keep the feet screwed in, screwed in, screwed in, put it back down.
Screw in the feet, hold ’em, hold ’em, hold ’em, pick it up, put it back down.
And you’d be surprised, just keeping that torque and stability, how much more energy it takes to create stability.
So keep working on that torque, torque, torque. Screw those feet in, pick up your object, stand up, and then slowly put it back down.
So that takes your deadlift, for your lifting technique, a little bit to a higher level, but also works on those feet and grounding into the floor, getting you connected to what you’re doing in that moment.
The other thing is, if you have flat feet or, you know, collapsed arches, and such this is a really great movement to start to utilize. Because it begins to get your feet active and connecting and grabbing the ground.
So not only it does all the things we talked about before, but it actually creates a stable foot, and that’s something that eventually you’ll need to get into being able to do on one leg, so that you don’t collapse an arch as you walk, or as you run, or things like that. We don’t want to see those things.
So that’s movement number one. Take that same setup and apply it to a squat, which is a lot more familiar movement for most people.
We’re going to do a goblet squat today. That’s going to be, pick it up in a deadlift, put it at your chest. Now before we begin to load into the squat, screw your feet into the ground, create that stability and torque, and you’ll sit back into your squat, and stand back up.
Create your stability and torque, screw your feet into the ground, sit into your squat, come back up.
So it just takes things to a whole other level. What it really does long-term, it gets you a mindfulness practice within your movement practice. And that’s what we’re all about here at Mindset.
If you do sign up for one of our memberships you will know exactly what we’re talking about once you start, because mindfulness and movement–they are one. And when you can maximize those they empower and lift both of them dramatically.
So optimizing your health in all senses of the word…we talk about that frequently on our Tire Talks, that’s what we’re starting to do here. If you can take what we just learned, apply it to either of those basic movement principles, or into your workouts and daily movement, you’re on the right track, big time.
So, we love you more than you know, have a wonderful week, it’s starting to get cold–if you hadn’t noticed I started off with about three more layers than what I got on right now, so make sure you’re taking care of yourself, you’re safe in your driving.
Pack a couple extra layers of hat coats and things like that in your car for somebody else, so somebody gets into an accident on the side of the road, you can help.
If you get into an accident you’re protected and safe, take your jumper cables in your car.
You know, make all those good Michigan choices if you live around here. If you don’t, and you’re in Arizona, just plug your ears.
Have a wonderful week we love you more than you know! Have a great one!