The way we wake up tells us a lot about ourselves, yet few people pay attention.

You feel the quality of your rest physically and mentally.

I’ve asked many sleep-deprived clients to describe the first two hours of their day.

This thread presents some common themes:
1/ Physical Pain

Some people wake up to the sound of pain instead of an alarm, a loud scream from one or multiple places in their bodies.

Waking up is a physical battle for them.
2/ Heavy Brain

Many people describe this heavy feeling of the brain. Their bodies get out of bed just fine, but their brains feel like an anvil or foggy sometimes for 2-4 hours.
3/ Mental Stress

A few people describe their mornings as the worst part of their day because that’s when their depressive/anxious thoughts hit the hardest.
4/ The Snoozer

A lot of people have to fight their alarms to get up, sometimes for more than two snooze rounds.

Their bodies and brains need to shut down again as soon as they open their eyes.
5/ Digestive Distress

Sometimes it’s the intestines that wake someone up.

They feel painful cramps and an alarming urge to evacuate everything.
6/ Team no sleep

Some people are already awake when it’s time to get out of bed because they’ve been up all night unable to fall asleep.

One described his mornings as an adrenaline rush that crashed hard by noon.
The purpose of this thread is to give you more metrics to track your progress than the scale and the mirror.

Your new lifestyle efforts will change the quality of your mornings before your body composition.

More energy, less brain fog.

Pay attention.

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More from @mythoughtfood

3 Nov
Our bones are alive and change based on the work they do daily.

A seated, inactive life gives you a soft skeleton with a chair-shaped posture.

You starve your foundations of energy.

If you need a reason to exercise today, do it to feed your bones. Image
Your spine is robust by nature and can withstand impacts from all directions.

You let it become fragile over time with your inactive lifestyle, unable to absorb any kind of shock.

This regression will worsen as you age, especially for women in menopause. Image
You will run out motivation to exercise at some point down the line, and when you do, it’ll be easier to quit if your only why is for the mirror.

Find deeper reasons. A firm skeleton made of dense bones will serve you for the rest of your life. Image
Read 5 tweets
2 Nov
Chronic pain fools us.

You focus on where it hurts and nothing else.

The nuisance hijacks your mind then slowly robs you of your vitality.

Don’t let this loud feeling steal your attention.

Find and fix the silent leaks elsewhere in your body, and your powers will return. Image
The site of your pain only tells you what took more pressure than it could handle.

You’ll never resolve your issue if the sources of this excess tension remain present.

Look around your pain. Sometimes the source of the problem is further than you might think.
Read 4 tweets
28 Oct
The way our heads rest on our bodies shapes our postures.

The weight of your skull sits firmly above the spine, balanced by the muscles below.

Any deviation will tense one side and weaken the other.

This strength offset is a rock in your shoe that eventually turns into pain. Image
Some of your neck muscles pull your head back, others slide your chin forward.

The balance between these two groups is a significant factor in your head posture.

An alarming amount of people lack the basic neck strength to support their heads.

Fix this immediately:
Weak scapular muscles are also widespread amongst people with pain and posture issues.

Your shoulders slouch and pull your head forward along with them.
Read 7 tweets
18 Oct
How to resolve or prevent chronic joint pain:

- Stand/walk more during the day

- Find and strengthen your weakest muscles ( Hint: most of them are on your rear side)

- Narrow the strength-gap between your left and right limbs

- Train your feet daily

- Fix your sleep
1/ Stand and walk more

Sitting for too long numbe the muscles from your upper back down to your spine and your legs.

Stand and walk often during the day to keep them loaded and prevent them from becoming too weak to support you.

You’ll also love the extra brain power.
2/ Find and strengthen your weakest muscles

All your muscles work together to execute a movement.

A link in the chain that fails to pulls its part will force others to compensate and cause pain over time.

You’ll never improve without fixing the source. Find the weak link.
Read 6 tweets
17 Oct
6 Tips to Improve Your Neck Mobility:
1/ Strengthen Your Serratus Anterior

This typically neglected muscle anchors your shoulder-blade into your rib cage.

A weakness there puts excess pressure on your neck when you move your arms.

Do more Scapular Push-Ups to assess and strengthen the boxer’s muscle.
2/ Strengthen Your Lower Trapezius

Many lifters have a much stronger Upper than Lower Trapezius muscle.

They can shrug a heavily loaded barbell yet can’t lift a light dumbbell past their ear during T3 Raises.

This dysfunction pulls the shoulder-blades up and stresses the neck.
Read 7 tweets
15 Oct
Our necks have a vital mission, move and protect the head.

The extension of your core bridges body and brain.

Train your neck as much as your abdominals and you’ll be more stable than ever.

This thread presents exercises to steady the weight of the world on your shoulders.
1/ Chin Tucks

You weaken your extensor muscles when you look down at a screen all day.

This exercise will balance the front and back of your neck to give you some much needed support.
2/ Neck Supports

A similar movement as the first except with more resistance.

You push your head into the exercise ball, which then tries to shove you right back.

You’ll feel power jolt through your upper back muscles after this one.
Read 9 tweets

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