Click on NOTE CATEGORIES to browse by topic, read through the entire archives, or type a topic in the search box.
Most of the time I am inspired to teach movement while actually moving. As a water baby, I seek swim time all year long. But where I get the most swim time—think hours—on our family lake trip. Many swimming with me will drop out after a while because, for example, their neck hurts. They’re not tired of swimming—swimming is just a pain in their neck. I don’t want you to miss out on swimming (or any activity) just because you didn’t know you could control your body positioning—including when you’re bobbing around in the water!
Summertime swimming can mean a lot of head-up swimming, so check out this video with a head-ramping-while-in-the-water exercise to see if it gives you more time in the water getting your joy on! Bonus move: If one of your hips tends to rest more flexed than the other, you’ll enjoy the second move as well.
Other exercises (you can find them in the Movement Multivitamin video and in my book Dynamic Aging, look for it at your local library) that can help make head ramping while swimming easier include:
- Head Ramp (the dry land version)
- Rhomboid Push-Up
- Head Hang
- Floor Angels
- Thoracic Stretch
These moves can be done here and there throughout the day or you can create a circuit with them as a workout—doing them 3-4 times, one after the other. Then you can follow them all up with a round of head ramping on your belly (i.e. faking a swim head ramp).
P.S. If you were wondering how to improve your balance so that you could ride on a stand-up paddleboard while also filming a video a la our videographer extraordinaire, but that skill set seems really far away, start with this Pelvic List exercise, which can help to nail down SUP-balance skills ASAP.
