Tone It Up Weekly Schedule!

Hey Girls,

Below are the links to the weekly schedule by PDF and also the YouTube playlist for the free workouts. I also threw in Beach Babe workouts for anyone who wants to use their premium workouts.

Wonder Wednesday Ep.01

Are you a curious person?

Cupping Week 3 - Glutes

(This is actually my glute/butt area but its well covered in the right places!)

I was dreading this session.
The part of my body I really do avoid foam rolling 😂 Especially those glute medius muscles 😬

As with last week, if you want to know the back ground of the massage technique cupping, refer to my first post HERE

So lets get a little technical when it comes to your glute muscles and how cupping can help relieve some of the tension.

Your glute/butt area is made up of different muscles:

Glute Maximus - main butt area
Glute Medius - side of butt
Glute Minimus - under the above muscles

As well as the Piriformis muscle that is connected in that region (as you cam see on the right side of the above picture)

Our glutes are the biggest muscle group in our body and do so much for us.

They help to extend, rotate and abduct our hips. Having strong glutes can improve every day living from climbing the stairs, sitting, standing and of course our posture is better.

We can strengthen our glutes until we are blue in the face but what happens if we don't stretch them, roll them, ease them up and release them?

SO many issues can arise from having a tight glute. Seriously, it's crazy.

Unless we actively use this muscle group, it can go very much unworked.

An article by 'The Glute Guy' wrote about how much we under use our glutes.
This shocked me. We only use 10% of our glutes when getting up and down from our chair. Makes sense that most of the strength would come from our hamstrings when you think about it 🍑 But still. And a lot of our society have desk jobs where we sit for 8 hours.

So the saying "lazy bums" is actually true 😂

Toilet Squat Challenge -

Everytime you go to the bathroom in work or at home, do 10 squats and make sure to squeeze those bum cheeks HARD!

So we can strengthen our glutes through strength training such as deadlifts, squats, single leg work, sprinting etc but we can also strengthen in yoga. Some pose examples would be:

Opposing Arm Leg
Fire Hydrant
Donkey Kick
Glute Bridge

Just to name a few. But you must work on that feeling of how to activate the glutes. I always so some activation moves such as glute bridge and good mornings in the gym before I start a leg workout to make sure my glutes are switched on and ready to work.

Liebenson (2006) states that if a lack of coordination is seen when walking backwards, it indicates the gluteus maximus is weak.

So off you go, try it out and see what you think 😉

So lets go back to what happens when they tighten and why a technique like cupping can help.

Issues that arise:

• Low back pain
• Tight IT band
• Sore knees (runners knee)
• Heel Pain (plantar fasciitis)
• Achilles tendinitis
• Shin Splints
• Tight Piriformis muscle (from being overworked)

I tend to suffer with glute tightness because I am lazy AF with foam rolling! And my lower back aches sometimes. I think that is cause more from tight hip flexors though.

We started on my glute medius and whoa!!! This was done using the suction cups and general massage along with some elbow grease 😬 It helps to bring blood flow to the area while working out any knots.

My piriformis was pretty tight too and more so on one side than the other. It's normal to have one side stiffer than the other for different muscles.

Mines kind of strange. My left leg is stiffer than my right but my right glute med and piriformis are tighter than my left!!

We then moved on and the elbow was used to get in deep into the glute maximus. Ouch!!!

The pain is an oddly satisfactory pain though. Although you need to breathe through it, you know it's for a good reason. 

The feeling after it? AMAZING!!! Worth every bead of sweat 😂 Honestly I felt so relaxed and spacious in the car on the way home!

Is it now 3 days after the session and they still feel good. Obviously you will need more than one session to really work the kinks out, especially if you have let it build up over time.

During yoga class this morning we were practicing hip openers and they did still feel a little tight but it is up to me to keep on top of having them loose by massaging the butt area with a torture ball like the peanut 😈 This is the one I have:

Ways to soften up your tight glutes:

• Cupping/Sports Massage

• Foam Rolling with a hard ball

• Epsom Salt Bath (magnesium helps relieve muscle pain and aids in relaxation)

• Stretches such as Pigeon Pose, recline twist (my favourite), cow legs (really good for getting into the glute med & piriformis)

So to round up:

1. Strength Glutes through strength training and body weight exercises
2. Release tension in Glutes through massage / self massage / soaking

Easy peasy lemon squeezy 😊

Let me know if you have any questions about this topic. I'd be happy to help out!

Lastly,

COMPETITION TIME

This might be your last chance to enter and receive a free cupping/sports massage session with Kev!! 

Have a tight spot you want checked out? Feel you need to loosen up in a certain area? Well why not enter this competition and get a freebie, on us!!

Simply tag a friend on my Instagram post and follow myself & Kev. That is your entry.

Lifewith_Elisa Instagram

Kevmcdpt Instagram

Easy!

I hope you enjoy this little butt education 😋

Again, I am here if you have any queries!

Elisa x

Tone It Up Weekly Schedule

Hey everyone,

So as we know Tone It Up have a wonderful new app out.

I used it for the free trial and it is amazing to keep your accountable and show up for your workout. But if you are like me and can't afford the app right now, I have gone ahead and planned out the week per the apps workouts.

I looked at each workout on the app and weekly schedule and chose YouTube videos to match.
Some favourites of mine are in there (I love the LYB series and 2014 Bikini Series).

This is just a guide for the girls who want to keep in line with the schedule.

I have also created a YouTube playlist for you all so no need to go searching.

All details below.

PDF Download Week 3

Week 3 YouTube Playlist


Also, if anyone would like me to incorporate the DVD/premium workouts into the schedule I can as of next week (I have them all so happy to go through what workouts would suit 😊 )

Happy week 3 of #TIU21

Elisa xx

Cupping Week 2 - Legs!!!

Following on from last weeks post, week 2 of cupping with Kev from Compound Fitness Ireland. We went for the gold and hit my legs 😖

If you want to know more about cupping, refer back to last weeks post HERE

My legs always feel tight and I am the first to admit I don't foam roll as much as I should. I also have to admit I was naive enough to think yoga every day would balance out any tightness hence the lack of foam rolling or proper muscle care. (I know I am an eejit).

So lets go through each muscle group and how I got on.

Calves (back of lower leg)

The first point of call was starting with my calves. These always feel tight but to my surprise they were not as bad as I thought in my head. Also my achilles were good too (Bren is always jealous of them - I was a sprinter before he was 😉)

When I arrived I was worried about having my calves done because they were so sore from YIN YOGA on Monday night, yes YIN! Our beautiful teacher Jenny had us hold a toe sit for about 10 to 15 minutes.... OUCH. If you have any tightness in your feet or achilles then you will definitely feel this a few days later!

(a toe sit)

But although I had muscle pain from that, the knots were actually on the medial (inside) and the lateral (outside) of my calf. Kev did his work here by massaging the area first, doing a cupping massage technique and then leaving the cups on the tight areas while he moved on.

Hamstrings

Hamstrings are an area in which I always feel tightness. But to my surprise, Kev said they are fine. 

No unusual knots. So I am starting to become aware that some of the restriction in my flexibility does not come from my hamstrings but could actually be related to my glutes (bum) both glute max and med. If they are tight I won't have my full range of motion and of course I'll feel a tightness in my hamstrings. We didn't tough on the glutes this week, that's next weeks exciting adventure!!!!

But for example in wide leg forward fold (in the picture below), if my glute max and glute med are tight, it will restrict a correct forward bend from the pelvis because the muscle will be too tight to stretch into it. 

As he did with my calves, Kev worked on both hamstrings and cupped them with not a huge amount of bruising at all.... GOOD SIGN 😃

Then we hit the money shot.....

IT Band (Iliotibial band)

Kev warned me about this.... I felt the odd twinge when he was massaging and cupping my hamstrings so I knew what was to come. 

As painful as it was, it as exactly what I needed. This was definitely the part that needed a good seeing to the most 😋

If the IT band is tight, it can cause pain in the knee joint and even in the hip.It can reduce your range of motion in your hip too.

Its a band of fibrous tissue that runs along the lateral (outside) part of your leg. 

I used to run A LOT back when I first began my fitness journey. After about a year or so I developed really bad knees. I wasn't sure why. Every time I ran my right knee swelled. So I went to a physio and he said my legs were tighter than any legs he has seen in a while, even athletes! 😂 He did acupuncture on them and it helped a bit. But it wasn't until I really paid attention to foam rolling more and warming up my leg muscles BEFORE a run that I started to see improvements. 

I guess not enough has been done because they are still in bits haha. No amount of yoga and stretching will help it. I need deep massage to work out the tension and knots in the muscle fibers of my legs and the rest of my body.

MAKE STRETCHING & FOAM ROLLING A PRIORITY! My new goal!

Other ways to help with tight muscles:

• Hydrate
• Take magnesium tablets
• Have epsom salt baths (magnesium salts)
• Sleep

Lastly we touched on (not sure that's a great term to use 😂) the....

Quads

Another extremely sensitive area for me. Anytime I am entering into a Warrior pose or even a low lunge, I feel such a pull on my quads and hip flexor! I would consider myself flexible as opposed to an average gym goer but they seriously hold me back. And again, my fault for not releasing the tension myself with a foam roller or ball.

It is ALWAYS my quads that give out when we are holding a quad dominant posture. 

For example:

Utthita Parsvakonasana (Extended Side Angle)

My quads always die in the posture after a minute or two especially if it's combined in a Warrior dancing sequence holding the postures for a few minutes each.

And Parivrtta Baddha Parsvakonasana (Revolved bound side angle pose)

Anything where my front leg is bent at a 90 degree angle is pretty much torture for me after a minute and during my cupping session I found out why.

My quads are tight AF. 

I knew this. I shy away like a little baby from foam rolling out knots. 

But it is keeping me from progressing in my practice! 

Kev also felt tightness on my inner thigh/abductor muscle which also explains a lot.

It's clearly the reason I can't do the splits. DUH.

So basically I am an uptight yogi who needs to get her shiz together 😂

Regarding the pain of this session, it was hard but I tapped into my breath again this week. I squirmed and wriggled but got it done! And it is worth every niggle if it means I will progress and give my body the care it needs.

This Friday will be interesting....

THE GLUTES!! 🙈

Competition!!!!

We are running the same competition as last week where one lucky person will win a free session with Kev worth €60!

All you have to do is follow us on the below social media platforms and enter by tagging a friend who would also like to win 🙌 Your tag is your entry and you can enter on all 4 platforms 😊 The more times you enter with a different friend tagged, the more chance you have of winning. Wooooooo!

Winner announced Friday evening the 20th of October.

Good Luck!

Instagram:

Elisa

Kev

Facebook:

Elisa

Kev

ps: This competition is only for those who can travel to Kev's office/gym in North Dublin.

Elisa x