Exercise of the Month: Constructive Rest Position

The energy of the natural world encourages us to slow down as winter approaches. Nights grow to maximum length and facilitate more sleep. Slick roads necessitate slower speed to stay safe. Cold weather hampers outside exercise.

The social world encourages us to do more during December. Decorating, sending cards, baking, parties, shopping, trips to the post office, travel, and more are packed into the time between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

Finding time to rest this month will help you tune in to the natural rhythm of life and give you more energy to enjoy yourself. That’s why this month’s exercise is to practice relaxation with the Constructive Rest Position.

Traditionally, the constructive rest position is done with both feet on the floor with the physical aim to release the iliopsoas muscles. It's used to counterpose psoas strengthing exercise such as Pilates and can be helpful in alleviating low back pain. The photo above shows a variation with is more restful: raising the legs and resting them on a chair.

Steps:
1. Lie down on your back with knees bent and feet on the floor or calves on a chair.
2. Place a small towel under your head if needed to keep your neck in line with your spine as shown in this Alexander Technique description.
3. Place your arms in a comfortable position, by your side or on your torso.
4. Quiet your mind and rest for two to twenty minutes.

For me, the Constructive Rest Position is like a power nap without the side effect of waking up groggy. If you’re short on sleep or feeling frazzled, try it and give yourself a boost.

Undulation of the Week, Tree Tops

Like many of the undulation exercises, Tree Tops can fit right into your daily activities. When you notice the trees around you, simply get grounded and imitate their fluid movements. The trees in this video inspired me.

Expand your ability to undulate like many different types of trees: palm, oak, redwood.

Relax!

August is here, the month of relaxation. While we don’t live in France where many people take the month off, we can adopt a less stressful attitude, and this starts with regular relaxation. It’s not slacking—no—this is an important activity for your health.

According to the Mayo Clinic, relaxation techniques help to lower blood pressure, slow heart beat, increase blood flow to tissues, and reduce muscle tension. Other benefits include improved immune system response, more complete healing, better sleep, and usually a happier life.

Sitting in front of the TV doesn’t count though. Dr. Weil’s website describes a very effective progressive relaxation exercise. There are a variety of relaxation therapies, including the use of music and aromas. My mom gave me a bottle of essential oils for “Peace and Calming.” It’s amazing how effective taking the time to smell a soothing fragrance can be! Most people find being in nature to be soothing, like fishing or a walk in the woods.

Like all other health habits, relaxation is best practiced regularly. Experiment and find the techniques that work best for you.

Breathing

Life cannot exist without breath. As our lungs inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, every cell in the body must inhale nutrients and exhale wastes. The quality of our respiratory breath affects every process in the body, down to the cellular level.

Inhale is energizing part of breath, so if you are feeling sluggish, draw in a bit more breath.

Conversely, the exhale promotes relaxation. When you're feeling stressed emphasize your out breath. Be careful not to extend the exhale too long as that can prompt anxiety, particularly if you are high strung like me.

The breath can create a wave inside the body that massages muscles from the inside out, and that's very effective. Without exaggerating, take a slightly bigger inhale and see if you can get all of your ribs to participate. First put your hands under your armpits. Can you feel the ribs move into your hands? Now feel your upper back and get your breath to move there. Take some time to work the breath between your shoulder blades and ribs, where most of us feel a lot of tension.

See if you can direct the wave to all parts of your chest, front, back, sides, top, and bottom. Then relax to let the wave travel further. Can you feel a subtle sensation inch into your pelvis and down your legs, or even down your arms and up your neck?

Here’s another valuable breathing lesson. As you inhale, let the breath gently fill your chest first then move down to soften your belly. Start each exhale with a slight contraction of your pelvic floor. (This is like a Kegel exercise. http://www.rnceus.com/ui/ukegel.html) Then continue the slight contraction from your pubic bone to the navel as you exhale. With the next inhale, let your belly soften again. Continue the cycle of small contraction from the bottom up on exhale and expanding and softening from the top down on inhale.

Just five minutes a day of conscious breathing exercises will improve the baseline for your wellbeing. Here are other exercises you can try:
http://cas.umkc.edu/casww/brethexr.htm
http://www.selfhelpmagazine.com/articles/stress/breath.html

This site has more information about the breath process and 10 exercises:
http://www.holisticonline.com/Yoga/hol_yoga_breath_home.htm.