Why you need to be doing mobility training if you want to avoid aches, pains and injuries.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:02

Welcome to Mindset, mood and Movement, a systemic approach to human

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:06

behavior, performance, and wellbeing.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:10

Our psychological, emotional, and physical health are all connected,

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:14

and my guests and I endeavor to share knowledge, strategies, and tools for

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:18

you to enrich your life and work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:23

Today we are looking at why you need to be doing mobility training if you want

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:28

to avoid aches, pains, and injuries.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:31

I'm delighted to have Gemma Ferguson off Gem Fit.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:34

Joining me, Gemer is a specialist in mobility, so I have a

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:38

reasonable knowledge in the space.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:39

Gemma has lots of knowledge.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:41

Together we're gonna look at how mobility training is super important

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:44

and how it's gonna benefit you.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:46

Gemma, welcome.

Gemma: 00:00:48

Thanks for having me.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:49

Good to have you.

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:51

I'm, uh, I want to go straight into mobility because mobility, we want

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:55

to describe what it is and, and perhaps understand where and how you

Sal Jefferies: 00:00:59

got into it and, and why it matters.

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:00

And perhaps can we, can we get your definition of mobility

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:03

to start with so we understand exactly what we're talking about?

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:05

And then secondly, perhaps you can take us like when you started

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:08

to pay a lot of attention to

Gemma: 00:01:09

Yeah.

Gemma: 00:01:10

So, for me, mobility is this like beautiful hybrid of flexibility,

Gemma: 00:01:14

stability and strength put together.

Gemma: 00:01:16

So there's a lot of ties there.

Gemma: 00:01:18

and I'm sure we'll unpack what each of those means and how we can have this.

Gemma: 00:01:21

Beautiful relationship with all of them.

Gemma: 00:01:23

but personally for me, whenever I started to do mobility training was definitely

Gemma: 00:01:28

when I, uh, really wanted to get into long distance running, triathlons, et cetera.

Gemma: 00:01:34

And I also knew that I was nursing a couple of autoimmune diseases.

Gemma: 00:01:38

So keeping the inflammation down in the body, uh, helping my joints have longevity

Gemma: 00:01:43

and then also increasing my performance.

Gemma: 00:01:45

On as well as that.

Gemma: 00:01:47

and also decreasing injury.

Gemma: 00:01:49

So yeah, it was a no-brainer for me to be honest.

Gemma: 00:01:52

Uh, when I heard about it, it sounded a bit like a magical formula.

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:55

when was that?

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:56

Cause I, I know we've spoken and you've said about, you know, distance

Sal Jefferies: 00:01:58

running triathlon, so some, some challenging, uh, areas of sport.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:02

When, when, how, how long ago did you actually start paying a lot

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:05

of attention to mobility as part of your training and part of your

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:07

lifestyle?

Gemma: 00:02:08

I'd say it was probably about six to seven years ago, I'd

Gemma: 00:02:11

been practicing yoga for, I'd say probably over like 10 to 12 years.

Gemma: 00:02:15

And, uh, it was serving me really well, but I was also feeling like

Gemma: 00:02:19

I'm, I'm flexible, but am I strong?

Gemma: 00:02:21

And, and then I was trying to find this sort of hybrid element of it as well.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:26

That's really interesting to hear about your

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:27

journey from yoga and into mobility.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:30

I too, uh, practice yoga, and I've taught yoga for many years

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:33

and yoga's a great discipline.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:36

What I see with yoga is that sometimes some pieces are missing elements

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:39

of strength and some aspects.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:41

So for complete mobility, I, I think yoga's brilliant.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:44

I wonder if we need a bit more so.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:46

Can we go a little deeper into those three components that you described

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:50

beautifully about what actually is mobility and, and of course to think

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:53

about if you've got aches, if you've got pains, if you've got injuries,

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:57

or you definitely don't want them.

Sal Jefferies: 00:02:59

Why we, why we need to understand these, these three pieces of what

Sal Jefferies: 00:03:02

mobility is.

Gemma: 00:03:03

like what you mentioned before, yoga is, is an amazing tool

Gemma: 00:03:07

both for the body and the mind.

Gemma: 00:03:08

And I'm also a yoga teacher.

Gemma: 00:03:09

I, I love yoga.

Gemma: 00:03:11

I teach it many, many classes.

Gemma: 00:03:12

And to be honest, most of my yoga classes are a bit of a

Gemma: 00:03:15

hybrid of both mobility and.

Gemma: 00:03:17

And yoga.

Gemma: 00:03:18

So it's a bit more like sports based stuff.

Gemma: 00:03:20

but.

Gemma: 00:03:21

If we were to really delve down into each and every single section of it, for

Gemma: 00:03:25

example, with a yoga posture, let's say at the end of the class when we do our

Gemma: 00:03:28

stretchy, stretchy sections, potentially, that's quite often what happens.

Gemma: 00:03:32

Uh, let's lie on our back and do a hamstring stretch.

Gemma: 00:03:35

So we're lying on our back.

Gemma: 00:03:36

We've got one leg up towards the sky and we're wrapping our fingers around the

Gemma: 00:03:40

back of the leg with us, the hamstrings.

Gemma: 00:03:42

and we're just lying there.

Gemma: 00:03:43

And every time we excel, maybe we pull the leg a little bit closer.

Gemma: 00:03:47

That's essentially flexibility.

Gemma: 00:03:48

Trying to let the nervous system calm down a bit, try and melt

Gemma: 00:03:52

into the stretch, and trying to find your passive range of motion.

Gemma: 00:03:56

So when there's nothing really active going on in the body quite

Gemma: 00:03:58

often it's a little bit of a letting the mind relax and getting the

Gemma: 00:04:02

parasympathetic nervous system to.

Gemma: 00:04:04

Allow yourself to get in to find that final and passive range of motion.

Gemma: 00:04:09

stability, however, is a little bit more around trying to find strength

Gemma: 00:04:15

around the joint capsule itself.

Gemma: 00:04:17

So if you were to try and hold that posture, But take the hand away.

Gemma: 00:04:22

Would you still be able to keep the leg exactly where it

Gemma: 00:04:25

is or will it fall back a bit?

Gemma: 00:04:27

Will it move back a bit?

Gemma: 00:04:28

And another way of doing it is that exact same stretch standing up.

Gemma: 00:04:30

Cause it's even harder.

Gemma: 00:04:31

You've got gravity to resist then as well.

Gemma: 00:04:34

and that is sort of where the relationship goes.

Gemma: 00:04:36

You're finding length still in your hamstring, but suddenly

Gemma: 00:04:39

your hips are like, ooh.

Gemma: 00:04:40

Oh my God, I've really gotta work hard here.

Gemma: 00:04:42

I've got stuff to hold onto.

Gemma: 00:04:43

I've got gravity to resist.

Gemma: 00:04:45

I've gotta still try and pull the leg in towards the chest, but my arms

Gemma: 00:04:48

aren't here to help, and that's whenever the magic can really start to happen.

Gemma: 00:04:52

So you need strength within your hips.

Gemma: 00:04:54

You need stability within the ligaments and the tendons around your hips.

Gemma: 00:04:57

And then you also need.

Gemma: 00:04:58

The flexibility of your hamstring to allow yourself to have the length

Gemma: 00:05:02

and the flexibility around many of the muscles around your hips as

Gemma: 00:05:05

well to bring yourself into that.

Gemma: 00:05:07

So maybe that answers your question a little bit as to

Gemma: 00:05:10

the difference between them.

Gemma: 00:05:12

and that's where I think we can then bring it into an actual real life scenario

Gemma: 00:05:17

where if you, for example, are doing trail running and suddenly you have

Gemma: 00:05:21

to run up a hill and you've got this.

Gemma: 00:05:23

Big step to get up onto.

Gemma: 00:05:25

You've gotta get your leg up there, you've gotta get your knee up there,

Gemma: 00:05:28

and then you've got to push yourself up.

Gemma: 00:05:30

So not only do you need the flexibility, you need the strength, you need the

Gemma: 00:05:33

stability, you need the mobility, and it all becomes like functional in this

Gemma: 00:05:37

sort of beautiful hybrid together.

Gemma: 00:05:39

and that's what mobility training can really help develop and yeah, bring

Gemma: 00:05:43

you into being a stronger athlete.

Gemma: 00:05:46

Increase in your range of motion and the power output that

Gemma: 00:05:48

you have at these new ranges.

Gemma: 00:05:51

That's, in my opinion of it.

Gemma: 00:05:52

Of course, maybe you will have something else to add.

Sal Jefferies: 00:05:55

That's, that is a, as an excellent description.

Sal Jefferies: 00:05:57

And yes, there's a lot of misunderstandings around

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:00

what mobility actually is.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:01

And, and of course we have go language.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:03

Language is like, there's signposts and they take our brain to a certain

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:07

description like, oh, I know what that is.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:09

And you've described that beautifully.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:11

It's interesting.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:12

I, I mean, I do a full range.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:14

I do the full pate, I do cardiovascular and zone two, which is, you know,

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:17

sort of, front cross swimming, running, that sort of thing.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:20

I go to zone five, so I play volleyball.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:22

I do plyometrics, which is jumping about lots, explosion.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:25

I do heavy, heavy weights.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:27

I do all, everything.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:28

And, and, and again, if, if, if you're not into activity that much

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:32

at the moment, don't be intimidated.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:34

It's, I've been doing this a long time.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:35

It's all a start, but our body is amazing, our.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:39

A nervous system is an adaptive system.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:42

It can adapt to the environment we give it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:44

So whatever we want to do, whether we want to be simply more mobile,

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:48

uh, stronger, uh, more energetic, all of these things into play.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:53

One thing I see with certainly strength work, it's very common in the gym.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:57

You got the, the big strong.

Sal Jefferies: 00:06:58

Practitioners, there's a lot of strength going on, and I might observe somebody

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:02

and there's, I dunno, a lack of range of movement in the, in the ankles.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:06

In the hips, and they're gonna go for heavy squats.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:08

It's like, okay, you haven't got the range.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:12

And the structure and the stability to take that safely.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:15

So what happens with the weight and that displaces perhaps somewhere

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:19

inappropriate and causes the classic shoulder problem, back problem injury.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:25

And this is where I think mobility is.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:28

I mean, it's a non-negotiable for me, it's non negotiating my training.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:30

It's non-negotiable people I work with.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:33

It's easy to forget though if you are into running or cardio

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:36

or, or mainly strength work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:38

Or perhaps you don't do too much and you're sitting at a desk and think,

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:41

oh, I don't really, you need mobility.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:44

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:45

Now let's, let's understand injury because it's all very well, isn't it?

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:48

We have a mindset in our culture, which is, you know, when there's

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:51

a problem, we go get it fixed.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:52

It's unfortunate is the way we're wired, avoiding injury.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:56

It's something I'm really interested in, gem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:07:57

So think of it like this.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:00

If you got an injury, what would happen?

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:02

Let's say you are active, then you can't be active.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:05

We know that tissue changes quickly.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:07

So there's, uh, there's a guy called Professor Andy Galpin.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:10

He's a professor of kinesiology in California, I think.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:13

Super guy.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:14

He says that we lose muscle strength three times quicker than we lose

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:18

muscle mass, and we lose muscle power three times quicker than strength.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:24

So if we are injured, you can't go to work, you can't do your exercise.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:28

The knock on effect of that physiologically is a massive problem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:33

What are you seeing with some of your experiences working with injury,

Sal Jefferies: 00:08:36

either prevention or cure, and how's mobility playing a good role in them?

Gemma: 00:08:41

What a question.

Gemma: 00:08:42

I love it.

Gemma: 00:08:43

Uh, so first and foremost, going back to all of the activities that you're doing.

Gemma: 00:08:46

Love that.

Gemma: 00:08:47

Music to my ears, like I do, do marathon running in the past and

Gemma: 00:08:51

long distance, medium distance, short distance, triathlon, and

Gemma: 00:08:54

probably everything in between.

Gemma: 00:08:55

From yoga to strength, I always say variety is a spice of life.

Gemma: 00:08:59

Also for your body.

Gemma: 00:09:01

So it's not about doing a million chats in a primary series Ashtanga class.

Gemma: 00:09:06

It's not about only doing shoulder cars.

Gemma: 00:09:09

Uh, for mobility training.

Gemma: 00:09:11

The body loves variety as much as we do.

Gemma: 00:09:14

Imagine if you were eating, I don't know, crunchy nut cornflakes every day, all day.

Gemma: 00:09:17

You get really bored of it and you probably get malnourished, and the body is

Gemma: 00:09:21

exactly the same if you go white and pine the concrete every single day running.

Gemma: 00:09:25

It's not gonna be super nice for your body in the long term.

Gemma: 00:09:29

So love that, preach that.

Gemma: 00:09:31

a hundred percent.

Gemma: 00:09:32

And also with mobility training, it's, uh, I would say it's also

Gemma: 00:09:35

not a one size fits all model.

Gemma: 00:09:37

Of course, you, you do it for the sports and the hobbies that you have or also

Gemma: 00:09:40

the lifestyle choices that you have.

Gemma: 00:09:42

Maybe it's the fact that, as you say, you sit at a desk for eight hours a day.

Gemma: 00:09:46

Oh my gosh, my neck, my shoulders, my lower back.

Gemma: 00:09:49

Mobility and training is there for you.

Gemma: 00:09:50

It's also there for you if you wanna run a marathon, everything.

Gemma: 00:09:54

Oh, everything in between it.

Gemma: 00:09:57

The only downside I think with mobility is that sometimes, in all honesty,

Gemma: 00:10:02

it's not that sexy in comparison to like hit training, and all those other

Gemma: 00:10:06

like buzzwords that are out there.

Gemma: 00:10:08

But I think that genuinely it's a humble unsung hero.

Gemma: 00:10:11

Of course, I'm a little biased towards it, but, I genuinely think it's a very

Gemma: 00:10:15

unsung hero in the sporting industry.

Gemma: 00:10:17

And also, as you said before, a bit misunderstood with stretching and yoga.

Gemma: 00:10:22

but if you are doing it now, bef whenever you are enjoying your sports,

Gemma: 00:10:27

I see it as nearly like prehab.

Gemma: 00:10:29

Prehab is more important than rehab because we don't wanna get to rehab.

Gemma: 00:10:34

Like we don't wanna be rehab in our body.

Gemma: 00:10:37

So if you really put a value on your movement, really put a value on your

Gemma: 00:10:40

health, the movements that you do right now, pain-free, actually having gratitude,

Gemma: 00:10:45

recognizing it, honor, like honoring it.

Gemma: 00:10:47

the best thing that you can do is.

Gemma: 00:10:49

Is to, to honor it, really, truly honor it by giving yourself this gift of mobility.

Gemma: 00:10:54

Because health and movement, it is genuinely a gift.

Gemma: 00:10:58

It's something that we take for granted until it's not there.

Gemma: 00:11:01

and that increase in your active range of motion.

Gemma: 00:11:05

Motion is lotion is motion.

Gemma: 00:11:07

Uh, motion is lotion.

Gemma: 00:11:09

It's, it goes around.

Gemma: 00:11:10

and if you don't use it, we lose it.

Gemma: 00:11:13

I'm saying all of the rhyming words right now.

Gemma: 00:11:16

but for example, if you are doing, as you said, with weight training and

Gemma: 00:11:19

overhead press in the gym, and you have got, uh, restrictional movements

Gemma: 00:11:25

in your shoulders, If you don't work on your shoulder mobility, suddenly

Gemma: 00:11:29

the ribs are gonna flare open.

Gemma: 00:11:30

The lower back's gonna take the load, and you are confused as to why you

Gemma: 00:11:35

have got a lower back injury whenever you haven't really looked at the root

Gemma: 00:11:38

cause as to, oh, it's actually because.

Gemma: 00:11:41

The only time I reach my hands over my head is whenever I'm in the gym and

Gemma: 00:11:45

suddenly I've put 40 kilograms on it.

Gemma: 00:11:47

And your body's like, ah, what's this, what's happening here?

Gemma: 00:11:50

I gotta find other ways to get this movement.

Gemma: 00:11:53

So, oh, what else?

Gemma: 00:11:54

Oh, I'm gonna tick my ribs.

Gemma: 00:11:55

They're gonna open up, that's gonna give me some, some movement.

Gemma: 00:11:58

Oh, oh, my lower back.

Gemma: 00:11:59

Yeah.

Gemma: 00:11:59

Yeah.

Gemma: 00:11:59

Let's jump into that vertebrae.

Gemma: 00:12:01

Uh, then suddenly you're just a bit confused about it.

Gemma: 00:12:04

so yeah, I genuinely believe whether it's your sport or your

Gemma: 00:12:08

movement, Adding mobility in with it.

Gemma: 00:12:11

And maybe you need a bit of guidance at the start.

Gemma: 00:12:13

Maybe it's organically there already in your head.

Gemma: 00:12:16

Maybe you need a bit of a kick up the bum with motivation, which

Gemma: 00:12:18

is also why we are here today.

Gemma: 00:12:20

but hopefully this will help guide and give you a bit of like, yeah,

Gemma: 00:12:23

give it a get up and go for it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:25

Let's see.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:26

That's, that's really cool.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:27

Injury is a big one.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:29

If you've, uh, I've been injured.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:30

I've had a shoulder injury that's gonna recurrent and I've done a lot of work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:34

I've done, all the physical work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:35

I've done rehab work, rehab work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:38

I've done psychological work on it because actually my shoulder, there's

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:41

a connection, the body to trauma, so it's an trauma I experience.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:45

So there are these things that are, that are layered through and.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:49

No, the whole premise of my, my work and mindset, mood and movement

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:51

is to help us see that our mind and our emotions and our body all

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:56

interrelating, inter affect each other.

Sal Jefferies: 00:12:58

And you, you make such a good point there, that if the body, the interrelationship

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:03

of the body, such as the shoulders aren't opening or they don't have the range, cuz

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:07

you haven't done the mobility work, but you ask your body to do the heavy work,

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:11

you push, uh, maybe you're picking up your kids or something like off the floor.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:15

If you don't have the range of movement, you are gonna be compromised.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:20

And the compromise generally ends up in an injury.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:23

And an injury is expensive on a lot of levels.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:25

First, you, you might have to pay for, for rehab and it can get price pricey.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:29

But I think the real cost is in what happens to your mental and emotional

Gemma: 00:13:33

my gosh.

Gemma: 00:13:33

So multifaceted.

Gemma: 00:13:34

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:35

And this is so big, right?

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:36

You know, so those of us who like say active, if you, if you say to a person

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:40

like Covid, like you can't go and exercise, that's, that's a big problem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:44

There's all these reasons.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:45

Exercise isn't just like, it makes you feel good.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:47

It biochemically changes how we feel and it biochemically affects the brain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:51

And if we are injured, we have a big problem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:54

The other thing I think is really interesting to consider is timelines.

Sal Jefferies: 00:13:58

I, I'm all about timelines.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:00

In the fitness world, we often talk about, uh, you know, you might

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:04

see a six week program, a 12 week program, and there's, there's some,

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:07

there's some val validities to that.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:08

It can getting people into a thing.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:10

But if you want muscles to get big, you could hit it hard in the gym

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:15

with a good trainer and you get some bigger muscles in 12 weeks.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:17

Cause they take around 12 weeks to grow.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:19

If you want range, then you want the fascia.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:22

So that's all the connect issue in between the muscles and stri the muscles and

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:26

all around that takes, uh, around 12.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:30

To 18 to sometimes 24 months to change.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:34

Now I'm gonna put hands up.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:35

When I first did yoga, and I've said this before, I was

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:37

awful, absolutely awful at it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:39

I'm not natural.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:40

Uh, in terms of flexibility.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:41

I had to work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:43

It took me two to three years to be able to do a downward dog

Sal Jefferies: 00:14:46

that resembled the correct shape.

Gemma: 00:14:48

But that's amazing.

Gemma: 00:14:49

But you, I bet you you're a much better teacher than those people who are bendy

Gemma: 00:14:53

and flexible and then can just go into those, you're the teacher that are,

Gemma: 00:14:57

is gonna really attract the people who really need yoga, if that makes sense.

Gemma: 00:15:01

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:02

Yeah, absolutely.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:02

Because of course, if you are flexible, and I saw this as a teacher, I, I

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:05

remember teaching many classes and there was a student once and she

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:08

was so flexible and I, and I was observing the movement patterns.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:11

Her body would, what I call.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:13

Flop.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:14

So those are super flexy people.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:15

You can just flop into a forward fold or a back bend and, and I could

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:19

observe that her awareness of her body wasn't as good as it could be.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:24

But the interesting thing, she didn't have strength to contain the range.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:28

And this also can lead to injury.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:30

This also can lead to a lot of serious joint problems for

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:33

hyper

Gemma: 00:15:33

gonna say hyper mobile people, they really need

Gemma: 00:15:35

mobility and strength training.

Gemma: 00:15:36

Yeah, yeah,

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:38

yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:38

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:39

Now let's touch into lower back.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:40

Cause you mentioned lower back pain as an example of if the person doing overhead

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:44

presses didn't have shorter mobility.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:46

Now there's some stats on, a global stats on back pain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:50

I think in the UK it's between one in four and one in six

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:52

people are gonna have back pain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:54

But globally it's something like 619.

Sal Jefferies: 00:15:58

619 million people worldwide.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:02

Uh, got low back pain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:03

That's around 2020 that was studied and that was in the Lancet.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:06

And it's just crazy.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:10

And I mean, the impact on, on work, on output, you know, a lot of people who

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:13

might listen to, uh, our podcasts, uh, and people I coach are business owners.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:17

If you can't work for a while, if you're a freelancer or founder, That's

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:21

expensive and damaging a lot of levels, and lower back pain is everywhere, and

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:26

there's a lot of things that are pointed at why do we have lower back pain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:30

One of the things that both studies and certainly I see is a lack

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:34

of movement on a regular basis.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:37

So I was just gonna kind of caveat, it's if you haven't done a lot of

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:40

movement and you're starting, and this is where you're starting to

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:42

get your, your learning around it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:44

You're not gonna launch into do a marathon.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:46

If you've done not done a 5k, you're not gonna bench press your body weight

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:50

if you haven't even lifted a dumbbell.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:51

It all starts at the first stage.

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:53

But one of the things that we need to do is have mo uh, movement and mobility every

Sal Jefferies: 00:16:59

day, because if the joints and the tissues aren't working, if the range of movement.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:05

Uh, and the movement patterns are not happening.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:07

I e your sedentary, that's a big problem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:11

Jim, I, I wanna get your, your knowledge on how to get someone from,

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:15

let's say a, a sedentary situation.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:18

Let's say they've been working in an office too long and just got out of

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:21

things and, and hearing us now and thinking, yeah, I really want to get

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:23

back into my exercise and, and so forth.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:26

What would be your guidance?

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:28

Okay.

Sal Jefferies: 00:17:28

Where would we start with the mobility part to, to nurture that journey?

Gemma: 00:17:32

Well, actually probably my guidance would be quite similar to my

Gemma: 00:17:34

pre and postnatal ladies that I train.

Gemma: 00:17:36

Actually it's start low and go slow.

Gemma: 00:17:39

because it's all about trying to hone into mindful movement.

Gemma: 00:17:42

And quality over quantity.

Gemma: 00:17:44

And that's very true with mobility.

Gemma: 00:17:47

it's not about how many joint rotations you can do, it's about

Gemma: 00:17:50

actually how slow can you do it?

Gemma: 00:17:52

How much can you really segment the spine?

Gemma: 00:17:56

We go back to yoga a little bit.

Gemma: 00:17:57

A cat and a car.

Gemma: 00:17:58

If you know this exercise, if you're listening, like you're on an all fours

Gemma: 00:18:02

hands underneath the shoulders, knees underneath the hips, and then you tuck

Gemma: 00:18:05

the tailbone under, run the back into like an angry cat position, and then you just

Gemma: 00:18:10

let the belly go, the tailbone comes up.

Gemma: 00:18:12

Maybe the eye gaze neutral in front of you.

Gemma: 00:18:14

A lot of us in yoga are just like, inhale.

Gemma: 00:18:16

Exhale.

Gemma: 00:18:16

Inhale, exhale.

Gemma: 00:18:17

Flex, extend, flex, extend.

Gemma: 00:18:19

And.

Gemma: 00:18:20

What can you really do to actually vertebrae at a spot

Gemma: 00:18:23

like vertebrae at a time?

Gemma: 00:18:25

Nearly like, if you have a necklace of pearls, moving

Gemma: 00:18:28

each of those one at a time.

Gemma: 00:18:30

How much control, how much strength, how much actually mind, body connection

Gemma: 00:18:35

does it need for you to, to put that signal vertebrae at a time?

Gemma: 00:18:40

So my actual.

Gemma: 00:18:41

Big advice to people starting back into activity, back into movement is not

Gemma: 00:18:46

to jump into that, oh, shredded six pack abs in 12 weeks sort of program.

Gemma: 00:18:52

Or suddenly find yourself in a dark room at a really fast treadmill.

Gemma: 00:18:55

actually start very, very slowly and, and.

Gemma: 00:18:58

Actually listen to the story that your body's telling you.

Gemma: 00:19:01

Where is achy and pain at the moment, and what movements can you do?

Gemma: 00:19:06

For example, with the lower back pain, there's so many reasons why an

Gemma: 00:19:09

individual could have lower back pain, whether it's ergonomic setup at the

Gemma: 00:19:13

desk, how many hours you're at the desk, if you hold tension into your

Gemma: 00:19:17

hips and stress into your lower back.

Gemma: 00:19:19

That mind body trauma connection, as you mentioned with your shoulders.

Gemma: 00:19:23

It could be your inner thighs, it could be your glutes, your hips, et cetera.

Gemma: 00:19:26

And.

Gemma: 00:19:27

If you have a fitness professional who has that sort of care and attention,

Gemma: 00:19:31

then they can start to make a more like, uh, individualized program.

Gemma: 00:19:36

For the Xs and pains that you have.

Gemma: 00:19:39

It could be that segmentation of the spine and hip cars.

Gemma: 00:19:43

So hip joint rotations, cars is an acronym, a very fancy

Gemma: 00:19:47

way of saying joint rotations.

Gemma: 00:19:48

If you're listening, and thinking what on earth that is.

Gemma: 00:19:51

Uh, we just doing that movement, standing up and taking five minutes every hour.

Gemma: 00:19:57

Do some spine movements, do some hip movements, sit back down.

Gemma: 00:20:01

That's, that's probably gonna be amazing for you at the start.

Gemma: 00:20:04

So start low, start slow, bite size chunks, nearly like those smart goals that

Gemma: 00:20:08

you always hear the corporates talk about.

Gemma: 00:20:10

it doesn't have to be big and fancy and a big commitment.

Gemma: 00:20:12

It's just actually what you can commit to right now.

Gemma: 00:20:15

I've got clients at the moment who are coming back, big CEOs,

Gemma: 00:20:20

three kids under the age of, uh, four, really, really busy bu and.

Gemma: 00:20:26

I have her doing 10 minute workouts a day, mobility, and all about getting the

Gemma: 00:20:30

abdominal wall back knitted together, DR.

Gemma: 00:20:33

Focused trainings.

Gemma: 00:20:34

And that's all that she's doing at the minute because that's the

Gemma: 00:20:36

time that she can commit to me.

Gemma: 00:20:38

But it's also amazing for her to have that moment and have that time and

Gemma: 00:20:42

then she goes back to her pelvic floor specialist and is able to track and see

Gemma: 00:20:45

the progress and is also able to say, Hey, my hips are actually so much better.

Gemma: 00:20:50

I'm able to sleep at night cuz my back's not sore anymore.

Gemma: 00:20:53

I feel like my core is able to support me more.

Gemma: 00:20:56

So it's all starting to knit together again for her.

Gemma: 00:20:59

And then more movement can start to unlock for her.

Gemma: 00:21:01

So step by step.

Gemma: 00:21:04

Unlocking more movement to be a stronger individual for

Gemma: 00:21:08

whatever it is that you need.

Gemma: 00:21:09

Whether it's walking to the shops, lifting your kids, chucking a ball

Gemma: 00:21:11

for your dog, or playing backyard cricket with your, with your family.

Gemma: 00:21:15

It doesn't matter what it is, it has to just be important for you,

Gemma: 00:21:17

and it's a good goal to aim for or to even strive to maintain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:22

Really nice.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:22

Yeah, really, really nice.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:24

And so interesting to hear the description of, you know, 10 minutes with your climb

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:28

and coming back from childbirth, obviously taking care of the correct, uh, work

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:32

and level and that it's interesting.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:35

That you also mentioned about how to do a cat cow really well.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:38

if you've been in a yoga class with you at the front or the practitioner,

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:42

you know, it's a million extensions, flexions, uh, can be quite mindless

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:46

and, and often what I call a lot of flip

Gemma: 00:21:48

Yeah, that's a really nice way.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:50

the spine, especially the flexible people and then

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:54

perhaps the, the people who got more restriction in their body.

Sal Jefferies: 00:21:56

It's kind of, it's just awkward and it's uncomfortable and.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:01

Yeah, so one person could kind of flip in and out.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:03

The other person is kind of clunky and struggling.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:06

I really like this premise that you are suggesting.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:09

It's something that I adhere to.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:11

Slow it down, slow

Gemma: 00:22:12

Less is more.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:14

I.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:14

Yeah, if you can't get the neurological conversation from the motor cortex

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:19

in the brain to talk to the lower vertebrae, the middle vertebrae, the

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:22

left shoulder, then how are you gonna do, how are you gonna play tennis?

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:26

Well, how are you gonna pick up your kids if you dunno what

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:29

your lower back's telling you?

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:30

Because switching this whole, neurological conversation on from the feedback from

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:36

the body to the brain is really important.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:39

And it's subtle.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:40

And if you are, if you are, you know, we we're all about trying to

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:43

avoid aches and pains, but if you are listening thinking, yeah, but my back's

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:46

killing me and my shoulders achy.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:49

Well, they're loud signals.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:50

They're like the loudest signals.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:52

The feedback system of the body can tell you or tell you your brain.

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:55

The subtle signals are, oh, does that, is that looser?

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:58

Is that more subtle?

Sal Jefferies: 00:22:59

And it does take the quieter practice.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:03

Now, I, I do a warmup system called ramp, which is raise, uh,

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:07

activate, mobilize, potentiate.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:09

This is based on a, a sort of scientific printer and.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:12

Mobilizing for the right workout is vital in there.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:15

And, and I think if we use the ramp system, uh, which is raising your blood

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:19

pressure, excuse me, raising your blood flow, uh, raising heat, raising everything

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:24

in the body, and then activating the right parts and mobilizing the right

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:27

parts, whether you are a runner.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:29

Whether you're a tennis player, whether you're a weight trainer, it's, it's

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:32

mobilization can go in at this warmup.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:34

And I, and I love that because it becomes a non-negotiable for, for my practice,

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:38

for my clients, that we do the ramp system, we go through it and it works

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:42

really well in terms of lower back.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:45

I, I wanna touch on this cause I, you know, the stats are

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:47

ridiculously high, low starts.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:49

We have low back pain and I used to have a lot of low back pain too.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:53

And I, I want to talk a little bit about the.

Sal Jefferies: 00:23:57

Synthesis between the back pain or let's say another body area, but let's

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:01

say we're back pain and where that takes you emotionally, how that feels.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:05

People who are in pain are often quite miserable.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:09

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:09

You know, people who are physically struggling are

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:12

often quite snappy and short.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:14

So then if we think about the ecology of what happens if you've got lower

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:17

back issue, well, you're a bit grumpy.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:19

That might mean you're grumpy to your partner, to your colleague.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:22

That might mean that you're snappy to the assistant you talk to in,

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:26

in the store, that sort of thing.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:27

What is going on with that whole energy is directly correlated between

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:32

how well you feel or not and how well you express yourself in life.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:37

So when we think about mobility, it isn't just a nice like, oh,

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:40

it's kind of helpful to do my overhead presses or pick up my kids.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:43

It's actually part and parcel of how does your mind experience

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:46

life because injury is

Gemma: 00:24:49

Yes.

Gemma: 00:24:50

That's a very nice way, but it injury is misery.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:53

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:54

and, and I think this is, I really, really strongly want to get across is

Sal Jefferies: 00:24:58

that if our body is not working well, We are gonna have emotional issues.

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:03

So if we've got anxiety and depression, you know, the, the two ends of the

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:06

spectrum of the nervous system into over mobilize or shut down, well,

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:09

what's happening with our body?

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:11

Is it strong enough for what we do?

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:13

Is it supple enough for your lifestyle?

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:16

And if those answer those questions are, are both, no, you know, we are not,

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:19

that supper can't really do what I want to do, or I think you're strong enough

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:23

and you're not attending to it, you, you're really missing an opportunity

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:27

to not only physically be better, But emotionally and mentally be better.

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:31

And this is one of the, my bug bears with the sort of psychotherapeutic

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:35

heating arts, is that if we talk mind and psychology, wonderful, we, I can

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:39

do loads of work with all the cool psychology psychological models, but if

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:43

a person is unable to hold their body in an upright posture with stability

Sal Jefferies: 00:25:47

and confidence, physical, then we are missing the, the, the embodied mind

Gemma: 00:25:53

And I, I have to say like I think we really do miss a trick in the fitness

Gemma: 00:25:58

industry and also in the psychotherapy industry and the, psychological industry

Gemma: 00:26:03

not interconnecting this stuff enough.

Gemma: 00:26:05

yeah.

Gemma: 00:26:05

In, in the.

Gemma: 00:26:06

In the fitness industry, it's so saturated on aesthetic outputs, and in the moment,

Gemma: 00:26:12

just go hard, go home, put on the flashing lights, have an instructor scream at

Gemma: 00:26:16

you, and it's all about getting 110%.

Gemma: 00:26:19

And there sometimes are moments for that.

Gemma: 00:26:22

But it's all about listening, as you say to those subtle cues.

Gemma: 00:26:25

Listen to the story that your body's telling you, because it's always talking.

Gemma: 00:26:29

We choose a lot of the time not to listen or we've forgotten

Gemma: 00:26:32

how to listen in all honesty.

Gemma: 00:26:34

So I love that.

Gemma: 00:26:35

Yeah, really nice.

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:36

A common thing that we all share is we probably all use either

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:39

a computer or a mobile phone, or both.

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:42

Now, these are normal, right?

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:44

We use 'em all the time and we can get some long-winded debates about whether

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:47

they're good, bad, or indifferent.

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:49

One of the structural issues I see with, uh, mobile phone usage is the positioning.

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:54

And laptops can be similar by default, if you, if we are using a phone,

Sal Jefferies: 00:26:58

we'll have our chin tucked down, our upper body rolled forward, we'll

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:02

be in a slightly flexed position.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:05

The overstretch on the neck, the stress on the neck, the, the holding of that

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:10

pattern for a long time reconfigures the architecture of the body.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:13

Now, I've said this before, both on podcasts and to, uh, many clients,

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:17

if we are flex forward, that.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:20

Implicitly is a threat response position for our body.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:24

So if we are generally folded forwards a lot, cuz we're using

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:27

our phone maybe more than we need to, this can be a serious problem.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:31

And then we start to talk about, well, why do I feel anxious?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:32

Why do I feel nervous?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:33

Why, why is my nervous system in a threat response?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:35

Well, how is the shape of your body?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:38

So for, for this very nature, cause we're not gonna get rid of phones,

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:42

they're, they're with us, right?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:43

We use, I use mine all the time.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:45

How can we use mobility to deal with that?

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:48

Very Very common issuer.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:50

We're using a phone, but the position's technically bad for us

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:53

and has all these extra effects.

Sal Jefferies: 00:27:54

What would your guidance pjm on how to address that using mobility?

Gemma: 00:27:58

well.

Gemma: 00:27:59

Oh, how much time do I have?

Gemma: 00:28:00

Uh, yeah, so this is a really common one.

Gemma: 00:28:03

and I even have like corporate programs with my work, like desk dwellers.

Gemma: 00:28:07

There's literally a whole section on my portal.

Gemma: 00:28:09

that's.

Gemma: 00:28:10

All around essentially Tex neck, uh, that's sort of hunched

Gemma: 00:28:13

over forward, over position.

Gemma: 00:28:15

and there's even loads of exercises that we can do literally right now seated.

Gemma: 00:28:19

those joint rotations for the neck, the neck cars, taking the neck

Gemma: 00:28:22

through its active range of motion, even drawing the shoulders back and

Gemma: 00:28:26

drawing the shoulder blades back.

Gemma: 00:28:27

And dawn a little brace of the court.

Gemma: 00:28:29

I can see you literally doing it right now, and

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:31

Pat Gem, perhaps, can we, can we do it?

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:33

I, I, I'd like to join in, so if you'd like to guide, I'm gonna join

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:36

you And if, and if, if you are, if, uh, if, uh, for, if you're listening.

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:40

Uh, and it's safe for you to do so you're not driving or something like that.

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:42

I, I invite you to, to follow along because this is ubiquitous.

Sal Jefferies: 00:28:46

So let's see if we can have a direct experience from

Gemma: 00:28:48

So, I mean, like even if you, for example, are sitting and you've

Gemma: 00:28:52

got a video call and maybe you've taken the actual video of the video call

Gemma: 00:28:55

off, but you're at work and you're just listening, you're in a conference

Gemma: 00:28:58

or something, you can literally be sitting in the seat right now and

Gemma: 00:29:01

think about softening the ribs.

Gemma: 00:29:03

So the ribs, drawing them down towards the hips.

Gemma: 00:29:05

Drawing the belly button in.

Gemma: 00:29:07

And then maybe in your next exhale, let's focus on drawing the shoulders back.

Gemma: 00:29:12

And together those shoulder blades like you're trying to hold a little tennis ball

Gemma: 00:29:15

in between your shoulder blades, there's still that little brace of the core.

Gemma: 00:29:19

And then in your next exhale, let's imagine that there's somebody at the top

Gemma: 00:29:23

of your head, like a little puppet master, and there's a string coming out and

Gemma: 00:29:27

lifting you up from the top of your head.

Gemma: 00:29:30

And then let's tuck the chin in.

Gemma: 00:29:32

And back.

Gemma: 00:29:33

So tuck the chin in and then draw your head back like it's trying to

Gemma: 00:29:37

push up against the back of your chair or the back of a wall, and feel

Gemma: 00:29:41

the length in the back of the neck.

Gemma: 00:29:43

Feel the spine stacked on top of each other and feel

Gemma: 00:29:47

the whole core and the whole.

Gemma: 00:29:49

Center of your body and the shoulders drop down from the ears.

Gemma: 00:29:53

It's a whole new position that you probably haven't sat in for

Gemma: 00:29:56

about three hours if you've been already at the desk all morning.

Gemma: 00:29:59

Right.

Gemma: 00:29:59

Which is pretty much what we've been doing, I'd imagine.

Gemma: 00:30:02

Uh, so even that moment, like taking a few breaths there and being aware of

Gemma: 00:30:07

it, suddenly whenever you relax back down into it, you don't automatically

Gemma: 00:30:10

fall back into this sludge, but you're a more relaxed, upright position.

Gemma: 00:30:15

And doing neck cars.

Gemma: 00:30:16

So taking your neck through the active range of motion.

Gemma: 00:30:19

I start every single one of my classes with it, whether they're doing a

Gemma: 00:30:22

running class or a hit class or a yoga class, because I think that we all, I.

Gemma: 00:30:28

Spend a lot of time looking down at our phone, hunched forward,

Gemma: 00:30:32

so opening up those shoulders and opening up the neck a bit.

Gemma: 00:30:35

Sometimes whenever I do this, it literally sounds like a crisp packet

Gemma: 00:30:38

getting scrunched up in my hand.

Gemma: 00:30:39

Like you could hear all the, the creaking and the popping, and as long as it

Gemma: 00:30:43

feels okay, you know, that's, That's great because it's everything being

Gemma: 00:30:47

like, oh, I've needed this for a while.

Gemma: 00:30:49

Thank you, thank you for this.

Gemma: 00:30:51

so they're like, , that's a simple little like movement that you can do.

Gemma: 00:30:55

Super small, super subtle.

Gemma: 00:30:57

You don't really need to, you don't need to change your clothes, you

Gemma: 00:30:59

don't need to warm up neck rotations.

Gemma: 00:31:01

Don't need to warm up.

Gemma: 00:31:02

Change your clothes.

Gemma: 00:31:03

So easy.

Gemma: 00:31:04

And for the upper back, I'd say one of my favorite exercises to do at

Gemma: 00:31:08

the desk is to literally get up and put your hands across the top of

Gemma: 00:31:11

the chair and hinge your hips back.

Gemma: 00:31:14

Let your head dive in between your arms, so nearly like

Gemma: 00:31:17

your ears are by your biceps.

Gemma: 00:31:19

And then let yourself like.

Gemma: 00:31:20

Sinked on.

Gemma: 00:31:21

Every time you exhale, allow your head and your nose come a little

Gemma: 00:31:24

bit closer towards the floor and feel that upper back go.

Gemma: 00:31:28

Oh gosh, I've been waiting for this.

Gemma: 00:31:30

Oh, where have you been?

Gemma: 00:31:31

Yeah, so yeah, de desk dwelling exercises.

Gemma: 00:31:35

So many of them,

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:36

Yeah, Thank you, Gemma That's a really helpful set of

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:40

exercises to do something that we can do quickly, immediately, and frequently.

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:45

I want to add, and I, I'm sensing you're the same quick fixes, so

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:49

there are quick things to do.

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:50

You can change things fairly quickly, but a quick fix to solving your neck

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:54

issue or your back issue or your shoulder issue, there aren't quick fixes as such.

Sal Jefferies: 00:31:58

It's about building a sustainable.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:01

Uh, practice and sustainable body, and of course sustainable joints

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:05

if you're gonna hit the pavement and start pushing the miles.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:08

If you're gonna do, you know, contact sport, if you're gonna lift heavy,

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:12

then if your joints aren't strong and stable, something's gonna give.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:17

And I think the three spots that we all need to look at for a neck,

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:20

shoulders, Uh, so probably four spots.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:22

So neck, shoulders, lower, back knees.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:24

They, they seem to be the hotspots where there are issues cuz there's

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:28

a lot of load goes through a lot of transmission of force.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:31

So we are transmission of force.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:32

Uh, and thinking about that, how can we use cars?

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:36

So is it complete articular rotation?

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:38

I believe that means, yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:39

So how can we use cars?

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:41

So if we're thinking about, okay, I'm starting to understand mobility is

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:45

strength, stability, and flexibility as one whole system, but how can we use cars?

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:50

To really help support those key joints, knees, low back, shoulders, neck.

Sal Jefferies: 00:32:56

How are cars gonna help the stability and the safety?

Sal Jefferies: 00:33:00

So when we're putting, loading through it, they're gonna be good to go.

Sal Jefferies: 00:33:03

What's, what's your, what's your guidance on them?

Gemma: 00:33:06

Well, firstly I'd like to say that like joint rotations, in general,

Gemma: 00:33:10

the reason why I love them is because they're literally accessible to everyone

Gemma: 00:33:15

at any, it doesn't matter what your range of motion is, anyone can do it.

Gemma: 00:33:20

So whether you are a 95 year old, Chair based lady who maybe has got lots

Gemma: 00:33:26

of arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, you can still do joint rotations.

Gemma: 00:33:30

It will look very different from a six year old potentially doing joint

Gemma: 00:33:33

rotations, but that's the beauty of it, because it's accessible to everybody.

Gemma: 00:33:37

You're moving to your own range of motion.

Gemma: 00:33:40

Joint rotations.

Gemma: 00:33:42

I love them because you're essentially, Nu bringing nutrients first and

Gemma: 00:33:47

foremost into the joint by bringing in that fresh blood supply, bringing

Gemma: 00:33:52

in that, getting that salvi fluid around the joints moving and grooving.

Gemma: 00:33:55

And if again, we think about sitting on a desk all day.

Gemma: 00:33:59

Shoulders are frozen, neck is frozen, hips are frozen, knees are frozen.

Gemma: 00:34:03

You get up and you think, Hey, Oh, it's time for my dog walk, or it's

Gemma: 00:34:07

time to go and run, or it's time to go and play tennis, and then suddenly

Gemma: 00:34:11

you just go from, okay, I've been sitting at the desk for five to seven

Gemma: 00:34:14

hours straight into throwing a ball in the air and doing a big serve, and

Gemma: 00:34:19

then running around to tennis court.

Gemma: 00:34:21

Then the joints are like, ah.

Gemma: 00:34:23

so it's a really great warmup exercise in terms of getting all the blood flow

Gemma: 00:34:27

and all the nutrients going to the joints, but also bringing nutrients,

Gemma: 00:34:31

bringing blood flow to the joints is essentially giving your joints fuel.

Gemma: 00:34:37

And we all know what it feels like to be given fuel food wise.

Gemma: 00:34:41

The joints are exactly the same.

Gemma: 00:34:43

The blood is full of all the goodies that the joints really

Gemma: 00:34:46

like for longevity and health.

Gemma: 00:34:47

So without wanting to go into it super scientifically, feed your joints.

Gemma: 00:34:52

Then whenever we take our, our joints through the active range of motion,

Gemma: 00:34:57

again, we're looking at increasing them.

Gemma: 00:34:59

So even if we were to use the example of sitting at the chair and doing wrist

Gemma: 00:35:02

cars, wrist rotations, probably after one very strong mindful joint rotation, your

Gemma: 00:35:09

wrists might even be quite icky because you're suddenly doing new movements.

Gemma: 00:35:14

That you haven't done with your wrists because you've probably just had it frozen

Gemma: 00:35:17

over a mouse or a keyboard for an hour, and again, maybe you haven't really moved

Gemma: 00:35:22

through your wrists very much because the elbow will come in and help and

Gemma: 00:35:26

the shoulder will come in and help you isolate that joint, and then you actually

Gemma: 00:35:30

see what movement that you have within there and then start to increase it.

Gemma: 00:35:34

More movement, more range of motion, more life.

Gemma: 00:35:37

That's essentially what I sort of say.

Gemma: 00:35:39

If you've got more movement in your body, you've got more life, if you've got more.

Gemma: 00:35:43

Ability to have more movement.

Gemma: 00:35:45

Like we mentioned before, psychologically you are feeling much more able to do more

Gemma: 00:35:50

things with your life, much less limited.

Gemma: 00:35:52

Suddenly you're feeling more confident in yourself and your body

Gemma: 00:35:55

and it all is really interlinked.

Gemma: 00:35:57

So more movement, more life joint cars.

Gemma: 00:36:00

Is that a good, good enough plug for you?

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:02

I love it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:03

That's so good.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:04

Yeah, and we're gonna kinda, I, I'm thinking back to when I've been un

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:08

uh, injured and unwell and I told you I had a shoulder injury and

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:11

that's been a massive challenge.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:12

I've had to really, I've had to back off.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:14

So as a back off strength work had to back off a lot of things,

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:17

and the impact of that was huge.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:19

Now, of course, I'm in a place where I do this professionally and personally.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:22

So I, I love to learn.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:24

It didn't make it easy though.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:26

It didn't make it easy to go back to doing tiny two kilo, uh, shoulder

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:31

rotation movements when I could probably overhead press a very large sum.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:35

Now the numbers are arbitrary.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:37

Really, it's just about can I, what can I do that's healthy and interesting and fun?

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:42

Cuz all training for me is fun.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:44

I've said this many times to people be like, wow, you are so motivated.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:47

I'm like, no, I'm having fun.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:49

Because if you could find the joy in movement, Which I

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:53

think is absolutely natural.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:55

What ki when, when were we kids, we weren't, we were always

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:57

running about doing stuff.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:58

I, I mean, no.

Sal Jefferies: 00:36:59

Younger generation now might be more screen orientated, but generally

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:02

children are playful and they're moving.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:05

It's utterly natural.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:06

And yet as an adult it's so easy to become sedentary and not do anything.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:11

And then that can create aches, pains.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:14

My term is misery.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:15

You know, you don't wanna be walking around feeling miserable and in aches

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:18

and pains and medicated all day.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:20

You want to walk around, ideally as well as you can,

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:24

because that affects your body.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:25

It affects your mood and it affects your mind.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:27

And that then affects everything you do.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:29

So there's such a, such a connection between all these parts, which I think

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:33

is absolutely vital to, to understand.

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:36

Why bother doing the rotations?

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:38

That's why it's all

Sal Jefferies: 00:37:40

interrelated.

Gemma: 00:37:41

I'll have to say like if you need a little bit of motivation for

Gemma: 00:37:44

it, because you're just like, oh yeah, Gemma joint rotations, yada, yada.

Gemma: 00:37:47

If you, if you genuinely find love in movement, because I always say

Gemma: 00:37:51

like, Personally, I really tried, whenever I teach my clients to really

Gemma: 00:37:57

intrinsically enjoy movement, we moved from, we moved from a place

Gemma: 00:38:00

of pleasure rather than punishment.

Gemma: 00:38:02

Essentially, a lot of people within the fitness industry

Gemma: 00:38:06

nearly see it as a punishment.

Gemma: 00:38:07

Oh, I had a cake at the weekend.

Gemma: 00:38:08

I had a bit massive blowout at the weekend.

Gemma: 00:38:10

I'm gonna go to the gym and just sit in a cross trader for 45 minutes, sweat it out.

Gemma: 00:38:13

Uh, and it's a, it's a bit of a toxic relationship.

Gemma: 00:38:16

And then, you know, why then would you want to be like, oh, I'm gonna do

Gemma: 00:38:20

joint rotations so that I can keep.

Gemma: 00:38:22

Standing on that cross trainer that I hate for two hours every week.

Gemma: 00:38:25

Whereas if, for example, playing tennis or dancing or hula hooping,

Gemma: 00:38:30

or chasing after your dog or running after your kids is what brings you joy.

Gemma: 00:38:35

Doing your joint rotations or doing your mobility so you can

Gemma: 00:38:38

keep that enriched moment in your life and that joy in your life.

Gemma: 00:38:41

Suddenly the purpose becomes very different because you're

Gemma: 00:38:44

not doing it because, Hey, I don't want arthritis, which, yes,

Gemma: 00:38:47

it helps prevent it in the future.

Gemma: 00:38:48

That's a very good extra thing, but right now, in this moment in time, you're doing

Gemma: 00:38:53

it so that you can, in not just two weeks time, think about that tennis tournament

Gemma: 00:38:58

or whatever your sport is, your triathlon.

Gemma: 00:39:00

You can think about.

Gemma: 00:39:02

Being a veteran in a, in your tennis club, and whenever you're

Gemma: 00:39:05

like 60 or 70, that's the aim.

Gemma: 00:39:07

That's the hope.

Gemma: 00:39:08

That's the dream, right?

Gemma: 00:39:10

Or whether you wanna weigh in your age category as a

Gemma: 00:39:12

veteran triathlon or whatever.

Gemma: 00:39:14

So I always think if you move from a place that's not of punishment

Gemma: 00:39:18

with exercise, really feel what intrinsically motivates you.

Gemma: 00:39:21

Those days where it might be a little bit less motivating, or cuz motivation

Gemma: 00:39:24

does come and go, then you know that actually you're gonna be better for it.

Gemma: 00:39:29

You're not doing like three minutes of burpees because you feel like you

Gemma: 00:39:32

should do three minutes of burpees.

Gemma: 00:39:34

You're doing it because you want to.

Gemma: 00:39:35

I mean, not many people do wanna do three minutes of burpees, but

Gemma: 00:39:38

there are some people, so yeah.

Gemma: 00:39:40

Yeah.

Gemma: 00:39:40

That's you.

Gemma: 00:39:41

I love it.

Gemma: 00:39:41

I love it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:42

Yeah, I really wanna speak to this point.

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:44

It, it's, again, it's ubiquitous and we have to really careful with

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:48

this sort of subtle cultural thing because it, it's, we just absorb it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:51

But this punishment model, which seems to be very pervasive and it's

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:55

incredibly toxic, such as, uh, I've over overeaten, I've over drank, or

Sal Jefferies: 00:39:59

I'm carrying a little body weight, or I'm undernourished, whatever it

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:01

is, I need to punish myself into it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:05

That is such a.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:07

It is such an unhealthy mental model to bring to movement of any nature and.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:15

Who says you need to be punished?

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:16

Who came out with that?

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:17

First thing I would do when I'm coaching someone is we challenge that, that

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:20

belief immediately, cuz that's toxic and erroneous, it's full of errors.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:25

You do not need to punish yourself if you've, let's say,

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:28

had a blowout the weekend.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:29

If you are moving, that's a nourishment, that's an investment.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:32

That's a play that is not this task master beating you up.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:36

And, and I know women get a bad rap on this.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:38

It's, it's even more pervasive, uh, for women about you, you, the shoulds.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:43

What you should do and, and it's, it just needs to stop.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:46

So take punishment out of your vocabulary and your mind as best you can, and

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:51

look to find joy and playfulness.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:55

It.

Sal Jefferies: 00:40:56

It's really, I'm gonna say if most people said to me, would you like more joy?

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:00

I don't think I or most people can go, no, thanks.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:03

I'm

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:03

good.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:04

I'm gonna be a bit

Gemma: 00:41:04

My cup is full.

Gemma: 00:41:05

I

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:06

I don't want any

Gemma: 00:41:06

possibly have anymore space

Gemma: 00:41:08

for this.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:08

many more.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:09

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:09

I'd rather just be kind, miserable for a bit.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:11

Alright, we're being playful here.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:13

But, you know, joy is one of the magic parts of life and it's so easy suddenly

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:18

as an adult to, to kind of get caught up in busyness, whether you are a

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:21

parent, whether you're a business owner, professional, and get caught up in the,

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:25

the, the seriousness of adulthood and.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:29

It's a big problem if you're not missing joy, cuz this is a one way show.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:32

You know, we, you can't sort of go back, oh, I'll do the next

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:34

10 years and be more joyful.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:36

It's like, no, you can't go back.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:37

That's not an option.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:38

And as a midlife, uh, human being as I am now in the middle of life,

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:43

whatever that might be, I know that my body needs a different treatment.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:46

I know that my mind needs different treatment and I know that if I don't stay

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:51

mobile and if I don't exercise and move.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:54

There are our ho hosts of problems.

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:56

Now I wanna speak to something you said at the top of the show and, I

Sal Jefferies: 00:41:58

have an autoimmune condition as well.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:00

Now autoimmune is, is, is a whole subject, which we probably can't

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:04

go into too much, but if you have a condition, it's tempting to.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:08

To be challenged by that.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:10

So my autoimmune condition is, uh, what is called ulcerative colitis.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:13

So my along will Ulcerate and it's, uh, it's a horrible condition.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:17

I've had it for 40 plus years.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:19

Its origin was in trauma, uh, as most, uh, as according to gavel Matt's work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:24

Most autoimmune conditions are based in some kind of traumatic event.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:28

Now, we are not gonna get too much into this, but, so I've done my work on that

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:31

and most of the time, It's in remission, but I was training a while back.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:35

I was in CrossFit, uh, at this time, doing a really strong CrossFit program.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:39

And, and I had what's called a flare up.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:40

So I literally couldn't do what I needed to do.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:44

I went one session and let's say I was, I, I don't know, Uh, back squatting 60 kilos.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:50

I can't remember what it was.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:50

Let's say it was 60 kilos.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:51

That very week when I had this flare, I couldn't even lift 40, so

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:55

I was down down to 60% of energy.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:57

The week after.

Sal Jefferies: 00:42:58

I couldn't even lift half of what I lifted two weeks ago.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:02

And, and this, uh, episode lasted like six months, so I was wipes hell.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:06

And it's very tempting if you have a condition like

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:09

that to be really despondent.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:10

So I, you know, I'm, I'm with you if that's, that's what's going on for you.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:13

But one of the things I'd say is it's all about, well, where am I at

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:17

today?

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:18

So if you have an autoimmune condition, maybe your mom coming back

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:21

from pregnancy, maybe you're new to exercise and you haven't been working

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:24

out for a while, where are you today?

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:26

What is your body okay with?

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:28

We're not doing punishment, we're doing play.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:30

We're doing joy, we're doing respect, and it might look like a 10 minute workout, as

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:35

you've already suggested with your climb.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:36

It might look like a brisk walk for the next month and then into a gentle jog.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:42

But where am I at today?

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:43

I think has so much more power and compassion to work with whatever condition

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:47

we we just unique people have, rather than it be a problem and a stopping point.

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:53

So I, I hope that's, uh, if, if you, if anyone's got a condition and they're

Sal Jefferies: 00:43:57

thinking, oh God, yeah, that all sounds nice, but I've got this problem, then

Sal Jefferies: 00:44:01

there's always a way to do something, you know, from the small ranges you've

Sal Jefferies: 00:44:05

alluded to already, Jim, to, to, to, to go into bigger, over long term.

Gemma: 00:44:09

My little thought process with that was right, because obviously, yeah,

Gemma: 00:44:13

I've, I've had definitely flareups in the past as well, where suddenly I,

Gemma: 00:44:18

you know, would go from running, uh, a marathon to then suddenly not even being

Gemma: 00:44:22

able to walk a kilometer, in the past.

Gemma: 00:44:25

And some of it is the fact that I really hadn't had that body mind connection.

Gemma: 00:44:30

and I really had.

Gemma: 00:44:31

To process a lot of stuff myself with autoimmune conditions, but also, you

Gemma: 00:44:36

know, my advice to people is rather than focus on the stuff that you can't

Gemma: 00:44:40

do, focus on the stuff that you can do.

Gemma: 00:44:43

So that was for me, a lot of mobility training, a lot of even lying on

Gemma: 00:44:47

the mat and doing deep diaphragmatic breaths and listening to what.

Gemma: 00:44:52

The pain was because pain is also incredibly multifaceted and where it's

Gemma: 00:44:56

coming from and how we are interpreting it, and really just honing in and

Gemma: 00:45:01

tuning in on it, and that takes time.

Gemma: 00:45:03

And rather than me being like, oh, well, you know, I entered this half marathon

Gemma: 00:45:07

and now I can't do it, or now I've wasted all this money on this half iron man that

Gemma: 00:45:11

I've been training for for six months.

Gemma: 00:45:13

I was like, what can I do today?

Gemma: 00:45:15

Okay, well I can go and have a drink with my friend, uh, like a cup of coffee with

Gemma: 00:45:20

my friend, which, you know, I wouldn't have been able to have done last week.

Gemma: 00:45:23

So I'm gonna walk there and that's gonna be my activity.

Gemma: 00:45:26

So it's, for me, it was flexibly inflexible, an

Gemma: 00:45:29

incredibly flexible program.

Gemma: 00:45:31

But there was always some time every day dedicated to whatever movement I could

Gemma: 00:45:37

do, whether it was joint rotations, whether it was stretching, whether it was

Gemma: 00:45:40

walk, whether it was some lightweights, and knowing that, hey, when I've got

Gemma: 00:45:45

this high level of inflammation, high impact activity, it's not happening.

Gemma: 00:45:50

Big strength stuff.

Gemma: 00:45:51

It's not happening.

Gemma: 00:45:52

But I can maybe do some body weight stuff.

Gemma: 00:45:54

Maybe I can.

Gemma: 00:45:54

Maybe I can.

Gemma: 00:45:55

But yeah, come see . It this time will pass.

Gemma: 00:45:59

If I listen to my body sooner, it will pass sooner.

Gemma: 00:46:03

Maybe sometimes it doesn't for those, but for me in that moment, it, it did.

Gemma: 00:46:08

And yeah.

Gemma: 00:46:09

Listen, like we said before, listen to the story your body's telling you,

Gemma: 00:46:12

especially autoimmunes like, like us.

Gemma: 00:46:14

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:15

Abso, absolutely.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:16

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:17

Really, uh, really, uh, wise words and such a, such a key point to kind

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:22

of suggest that if, cuz if it isn't working out for you, if there are

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:25

these issues, whether it's health, uh, autoimmune, whether it's an injury,

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:28

lifestyle, start with where you are.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:31

But start, I think that's a distinction.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:33

Start with compassion.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:35

But start, do something, whatever that is, but do, and I think the

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:39

distinction between not doing something and doing something,

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:42

it's often a little bit of effort.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:43

You're like, okay, I'm gonna roll out a mat, do some, do some shoulder work, do

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:47

some mobility, maybe do a little bit of body work, but it's commit to something.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:52

Now I'd like to bring this all to a sort of, conclusion.

Sal Jefferies: 00:46:57

So for, we've gone a lot into all the, the benefits, the impact, the

Sal Jefferies: 00:47:01

ecology of mobility, how it affects both fitness, health, and mindset

Sal Jefferies: 00:47:05

and, and, and everything we do.

Sal Jefferies: 00:47:07

What final takeaways, suggestions, or processes would you suggest that someone

Sal Jefferies: 00:47:13

who's, uh, either want us to learn more about mobility or to really get into

Sal Jefferies: 00:47:17

it, what would you suggest they do?

Gemma: 00:47:19

I would suggest what I mentioned for my desk dwellers.

Gemma: 00:47:22

Start low, go slow.

Gemma: 00:47:24

It doesn't have to be a one hour mobility practice every day.

Gemma: 00:47:28

It can literally be a five minute practice in at your desk, getting as a desk

Gemma: 00:47:35

break, maybe a warmup before a workout that you hadn't considered before.

Gemma: 00:47:41

Start just adding these little bits of mindful movements into your body

Gemma: 00:47:45

because this will then start to be the habit that will bring the change.

Gemma: 00:47:48

Like me flossing, I didn't floss at all until like three years ago, and I put in

Gemma: 00:47:52

New Year's resolution, the only New Year's resolution that I'd ever kept, and then

Gemma: 00:47:57

I went back to my dentist and my dentist was like, oh, what's happened here?

Gemma: 00:48:00

She's been flossing, and that was the only feedback I needed.

Gemma: 00:48:02

Not always floss, but it's only two minutes of a day that I floss and

Gemma: 00:48:06

that little, little healthy habit.

Gemma: 00:48:08

Has, you know, had a big impact on my oral hygiene, and it's a very convoluted

Gemma: 00:48:13

example, but it doesn't take a lot to.

Gemma: 00:48:16

To ha to make a big difference.

Gemma: 00:48:18

And that is the beauty of mobility.

Gemma: 00:48:20

You need a bit of patience.

Gemma: 00:48:21

It might not be the most sexy thing in the world.

Gemma: 00:48:23

You might not be able to see that extra seven degree of extra range

Gemma: 00:48:27

of motion in your shoulders, but I promise you that your body will, and

Gemma: 00:48:32

mobility is sometimes that thing that.

Gemma: 00:48:34

It might not be able, you might not see the benefit straight away, but

Gemma: 00:48:37

then whenever you stop it and then you remember what it feels like to be locked

Gemma: 00:48:41

up again and those shoulders, that pain between the shoulder blades, that egg

Gemma: 00:48:44

and the neck, and then you suddenly realize that this stuff is golden.

Gemma: 00:48:49

so I say give yourself the gift of mobility and, uh, give your appreciate

Gemma: 00:48:55

where you're at with your body right now.

Gemma: 00:48:57

Start slow, start low, build it up, and, uh, thank us later.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:02

Yeah.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:02

That's lovely.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:03

Yeah, absolutely.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:04

It's, it's, yeah, , put it in, uh, I have a nice, simple process, which

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:08

is start from the ground up, so when I get up in the morning, well, if

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:12

you're standing, it's the ankles.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:14

Yeah, so move the ankles, move the toes.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:16

Then I work to the knees, then I worked to the hips, then I worked to

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:19

the lower back and then I worked to the mid-thoracic and some twisting

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:23

up to the shoulder, up to the neck.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:24

Uh, I've done it for years.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:26

I sort of roll out a bed, just stand up and do it.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:28

It's quite gently in the morning cuz I'm not that warm.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:30

So it's, it's nice and gentle.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:31

And when I go to the gym, so I was at the gym this morning, I'll do

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:34

that whole kind of in the warmup.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:36

It's like, what am I doing this morning?

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:37

It was pushing work and jump work.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:39

So it's like, well what do we need to mobilize with the stuff

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:41

in the shoulders, the back.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:43

Just get in there and as you beautifully articulated, put it in non-negotiable.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:49

Two minutes every session or every time you do a warmup, but

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:53

repeat day in, day out and the the benefits will always compound.

Sal Jefferies: 00:49:59

It's a little like compound interest in money.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:00

It's exactly the same in the body.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:02

Repeat daily.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:04

You all feel great.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:05

Amazing, Jim.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:06

Well, I know, we've got so much, uh, knowledge on mobility.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:10

You've got a huge experience and I'm so happy to have spoken to you and learn a

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:14

little bit more from your perspective at mobility and to, to speak with you today.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:17

So thank you for joining

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:18

me.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:19

Uh, we'll

Gemma: 00:50:20

you.

Gemma: 00:50:20

Thank you.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:21

I put uh, gem's details in the show notes, uh, if you wanna get

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:25

in touch with Gem and obviously myself.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:27

so dear listener.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:29

If you are seated how you're sitting, could you roll those

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:32

shoulders back and down?

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:33

Could you loosen your neck?

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:35

Maybe you need to get up and go for a little walk and loosen up those

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:37

hips, but mobility and movement will affect your mood and your mind, so it's

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:45

nourishment for the soul, let's say.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:47

Dear listener, I will speak to you on the next one, Gemma.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:49

Thank you for your

Gemma: 00:50:50

Thank you.

Gemma: 00:50:51

See you guys later.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:52

See ya.

Sal Jefferies: 00:50:58

Thank you so much for listening.

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:00

If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and if a friend

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:04

would benefit from hearing this, do send it on to them as well.

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:07

If you would like to get in touch yourself, then you can go to my website,

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:11

which is sal jeffries.com, spelled S A L J E F E R I E s sal jeffries.com.

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:20

Hit the get in touch link and there you can send me a direct message.

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:24

If you'd like to go one step further and learn whether coaching could help

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:27

you overcome a challenge or a block in your life, then do reach out and

Sal Jefferies: 00:51:31

I offer a call where we can discuss how this may be able to help you.