30 min Essentrics Connective Tissue Workout with Miranda Esmonde White

i'm miranda esmond white thank you for joining me for connective tissue workout now connective tissue is really interesting to work with because it's firm like in ligaments and tendons so we have to do specific very detailed exercises for fingers and feet and and alignment so that's for your ligaments and tendons for your fascia we have to work differently your fascia is same very stiff fabric but comes in layers cellophane layers that are there's that fluid between them so we need to get those layers to slip and slide so there's that and then between the layers there's the fluids so just the different nature of connective tissue makes workout interesting so i'll guide you through when you're working which part of your connective tissue so we're going to just start warming up the body getting the blood flowing so make sure you go from straight to bent elbows and really exaggerate full strengthening full bending of the elbows so don't just sort of halfway do it in and now bend those knees and stand on the soles of your feet don't stand on the one side or the other so stand flat on the soles of your feet okay now we're gonna go in pulling the arms in from the front pull pull pull so you're going to really again exaggerate that straightening and bending this is all getting the blood circulating warming up the body arms up pull and starting to loosen up your connective tissue so as we use the muscles the muscles are surrounded by sheets of that cellophane fascia so as we pump the muscles doing all these now you're going to go down in in and down up down up knees bent knees bent knees bent knees bent so we're getting all the different planes behind you two three four five six seven now we're going to do it with bend elbows bend straight bend straight really important for fascia that you do the full bending and straightening of the muscle because that's going to implicate how the fascia is worked which is on top okay good now just cross over and twist so feel the twisting of the sheets of fascia that are on the exterior of your torso and really let yourself twist all the way breathing with the movements bending those knees fascia can get very very tight when the muscles aren't moved the fascia starts to gum up to glue up so the cellophane sheets block so we have to use the knees to loosen up this trouser fascia that goes from your knees right to your waist so now we're going to be working fascia connective tissue so tuck your tailbone under and you're going to start to feel stiffness in your back so bend your knees you'll feel stiffness across the knees that stiffness is probably your connective tissue take the lumbar region of your spine and around it take your ribs push them back walk down touch your knees and drop the head so you're gonna just sway side to side but go with me slowly one side this way as you're swaying the sheets of fascia have chance for the hydration for the lubrication to go between them to regain that slipperiness in your back so don't forget your fascia is messaging system through the liquids okay keep bending bigger bigger bigger knees elbow up stretch you're going to feel the sheets through the ribs bigger bend feel the sheets before you start the arm so you're going to place yourself make sure you feel the stretch before you begin to move and final big one so that you really work into your fascia up reach now feet little bit in tuck your tailbone under this is for the front and back of your spine rotate those arms forward lift your shoulders bend your knees and pull those elbows behind you don't bend your body back okay lift your elbows tuck your tailbone under lift the elbows and the shoulders forward so really feel that working through your shoulder blades down bend your knees so we go from bent legs tuck your tailbone under shoulders up around lift up bend those knees and feet out and lift one arm up up open stretch other arm up open breathe out stretch up pull those arms out lift lift the top arm relax the shoulder reach pull the arm down bend your knees now you're going to start to roll right down put the back arm right on your back and put your head on your knee stretch your arms out lift right up so you're completely straight pull lift out right out lift your arms right up and let that shoulder relax don't keep your shoulders down let it relax bend your knees twist take your back arm and put it around your back wrap your arm right around your leg and drop the head and just move in that position stretch out lift higher open get that chest open pull up we're working mad major sheets of connective tissue in these ones right from the feet right from your ankles knees open your arms right through your torso through your waist and when you do these exercises and you strengthen the fascia it will give you better shape because the fascia is what gives you shape stretch out that arm round your back tailbone under reach around pull that arm behind you pull right back feel the chest and bend over stay here breathe out round your back stretch right out right out pull it behind you you've got to feel it right through the chest other side stand bend stretch that arm around right around over your head drop down drop drop drop bend reach right around right around feel the chest opening wide up you go and drop down so that was working the connective tissue particularly full body sheets and chains of connective tissue so that will give you more of shape and more of bounce to your movements so now we're going to start with feet so put one foot in front and we're going to start this is for your ligaments and tendons so these are the these stabilizers the ligaments are the stabilizers of your joints so you want to make sure that you don't have any twisting in your ankle so you use mirror for this and this is to rebuild the crimp in your ligaments if the crimp has become little bit out of shape it's lost its formation it's deformed then you're going to have unstable ankles you're gonna have no push no bounce in your step so these exercises are very particular they're very specific to give you bounce in your step so that's where we're going very slowly pop your foot down pop your foot down so you make the action go fast and it's amazing how this works so after it's slow if you've you're if your ligaments have become deformed the this the crimp in them has just lost its its beautiful form that gives you strength it takes bit of time to rebuild it muscles can change literally in one or two days they can get stronger group that takes longer so you want to you want to be patient but one day you're going to notice that you've run up the steps that you used to go slowly and you're starting to run you you run to the door without even noticing you're going to notice that you've got more bounce in your step so it's slow but very very rewarding thing to do to get this crimp rebuilt and it's through these deliberate exercises so now pull up sink down and see the difference between sinking and then pulling out of your hips so pull right up stretching your torso bend your knees and keep pulling up now again because it's connective tissue workout we're working on deliberate alignment movements so feet flat on the ground we're going to go bad alignment rolling your feet in and you see what happens to your knees good alignment which is your soles of your feet on the ground okay so we're going to do that four times just to do poor alignment your knees will sink in there's no way you can have good alignment in your knees feet flat on the ground that's what call correct alignment of the feet and look at how wonderful your knees are so we're going to go bad again and correct okay and one more poor alignment of the feet and then correct alignment of the soles of your feet and see how wonderful your knees feel we're going to shift side to side so keeping the soles of your feet flat focus on how the alignment of your ankles is working by keeping the soles of the feet on the ground so you can get little wider and just shift side to side okay keep going shift take your bum and pull your bum back but watch that you've got good alignment on this foot on the both feet shift your weight so we're getting alignment of your ankles that's for your stabilizers pull the bum back and we're stretching in the long adductor here which has got massive amounts of connective tissue so it's we're doing more than just one body part shift your weight over pull your bum back flex your foot you feel that i'm sure you do and shift your weight back last time over you go lift your foot up pull right back okay good now we're going to do another you're going to learn how to twist your foot finish with good alignment so always stand flat on your foot and move just automatically return to good alignment dig your back heel into the ground good alignment of the foot place that foot on the ground change your feet good alignment of your foot get that foot flat on the ground foot on the ground so these are specific ligament and tendon because as we bend the back heel putting it into the ground you're getting your tendon your achilles tendon other foot knee up heel up tuck under bend so you keep working on the alignment don't have those ankles wobbly and all this clean alignment is going to strengthen and reform your disintegrated crimp okay so arms out inhale open those arms as wide as you can round and brace yourself take your elbows and drop those arms down now making sure you're tucking your tailbone under so you're going to rock side to side now actually be aware of feeling that connective tissue so stretch out your back move around so you can feel different parts and you'll be aware that yeah yeah that's not really muscle because it's more than just one spot it's right through your back so just move around rounding your back bending those knees get down bend the knees because these are full loaded worth of connective tissue in your knees so just show slowly come up still feeling that connective tissue but as you roll up one vertebra at time you're going to change where you feel the stretch you should be feeling it somewhere in your ribs around your shoulder blades right up reach up you're going to reach out and up other arms same thing reach out and up okay reach out and up okay good now we're going to work the ribs full of connective tissue here so bend over cut the air and look underneath lift that elbow right up so you're going to feel the other ribs wipe the air around your back so you're going from straight spine to rounded spine with the tailbone tucked right under cut the air but you're not bending forward you're not letting your weight bend forward what you're really doing is tucking the tailbone under and then the shoulders round too other side cut the air so you feel the ribs roll the back bend the knees look underneath your elbow start to feel those ribs you're going to feel it right through into your hips that's connective tissue we never knew you used to think that was connective tissue but when you feel the same pull in large swatch of your body that's connective tissue because it comes in these big sheets and teeny little sheets do it again cut feel those ribs so we're getting ribs at the side and then we lift the elbow and we get the ribs at the back as they're attaching into the spine okay good just bring those arms in get them up okay you're gonna open your elbows and then pull your elbows in so we're working the connections between your shoulder blades tons of connective tissue between your shoulder blades to loosen it up drop your head and up so connective tissue is different from muscular workout but you're going to feel extremely energized after it because that fluid between once once your fascia starts slipping and sliding then you can move easily okay so next breathe in put one foot slightly in front of the other you're going to work now this is the spine so your spine 27 little vertebra each of them has stabilizer ligaments so they move just fraction so we want to really round your back drop your fingers down drop your head and straighten your spine you're going to notice tucked my tailbone under working the spine and pushing the spine back i'm not doing this this is wrong i'm not bending forward and back i'm going tailbone under okay so here we go elbows in tailbone under open your chest tailbone under so this is working the tiny ligaments of your spine as well as major ligaments of the entire shoulder region open out tuck your tailbone under and rock back let's change to the other side tuck under you're going to rock your weight on the back leg keeping the heel on the ground and that will stretch your achilles tendon and that is big the tendon is connective tissue big strong like rope you need to realign the ankles to strengthen that tendon then you go check under really work work as hard as you can to dig in to your shoulders check under that tailbone and tuck it under more and open it up more and tuck it under more more get the shoulders up okay good other side elbows close together in you're gonna pull them down and pull back tuck under really dig into the to that back dig into your spine now stretch it in the opposite direction okay so we're stretching the back of your spine and the front good clean alignment tuck it under and stretch back in the other side tuck under around you go so these are very slow deliberate exercises all smooth and moving smoothly the specific to connective tissue faster exercises are for for explosive movements for your muscles which are important also we need to do everything but we definitely need connective tissue exercises okay we didn't even know connective tissue existed until about 10 or 15 years ago so how could we possibly do connective tissue workouts so stretch up and you're going to be stretching all these tendons and ligaments in your arms bend and use your spine and bend it's whole new way to keep us young is by working this wonderful majestic connective tissue arms out shoulders up shoulders down make flex those wrists now just work your fingers try to straighten your fingers so bend and this is what we're working are basically ligaments and tendons in the fingers and they tend to shrink as we don't use them if you don't straighten them if you don't force them same thing with underneath your arms so you might have trouble straightening your arms that is not muscular that's to do with your connective tissue so slowly slowly slowly keep straightening those arms straighten them out bend your fingers and then straighten up those fingers and it could take you couple of weeks and maybe couple of months depending on whether your connective tissue has atrophied as you might have but it might have just gotten really gummed up and you need to move everything so the more you move and the trick to moving connective tissue is to move it gently so we can't move fast because imagine that you're trying to loosen up glued together fashion glue together cellophane saran wrap or something if you move too fast you'll rip it if you move slowly it'll loosen so that's what we're doing okay so you're going to go bend open lift and lift bend down pump and up so the movements the bending bending straightening and then the pumping but gently is what's helping to hydrate and to ungum up that glue those glued up sheets of connective tissue in out so we can do these exercises faster but they're not for connective tissue when you go faster they'd be for muscles and push push in out now to the ceiling press down pressing just pumping gently with deliberate force deliberate muscular strength bend your knee in out press and do two circles circle around and circle around we're gonna go to the other side in out two pumps circles circle right around and again right around okay good back little star one two three four up two three four and again one two three and four now one part of our connective tissue system is fluid it's all the lubricants that are everywhere it's the liquid and that liquid can congeal so if we sit too much or if we don't move other than just sort of walking we tend to get the hips the hip socket like our inside our teeth the connective tissue that was fluid and moving around our bodies the minerals in it harden so like you plaque in your teeth gets into those hips so we want to do exercises to actually work the ball and socket so just twist that hip ball and socket okay now really push into it turn it out twisting from the top of your leg not from your foot deliberately thinking of that ball and socket so this is very specific ungluing exercise for the ball and socket of your this is just connective tissue exercise but once you've unglued that hip you can move you're going to find that you just can run instead of being stiff okay now push into the hips you're going to place push so you add little bit push okay good now we're going to do little kick with this thing so you're going to just kick your leg land and push into that hip push into the other hip so you're working the ball and socket of both joints little circle around little fan kick kick land make sure that you're not landing with kerplunk control your landing so you've got to lift up just tell yourself to lift before you land so that you don't drop your weight into the knee exercise should make you fit it shouldn't injure you you've got to do it safely take care of your body as you're exercising it don't beat it up okay we're gonna go to the other leg okay so you're gonna do little fan kick stay up shoot that hip and really dig into the hips and you're getting that long inductor at the same time but this is really fallen socket of the hip joint up so when you start moving more rapidly just walking more easily getting out of the chair more easily you're going to realize that all these connective tissue exercises are really working it's amazing so you have to do them every day but they're not very long and they feel good do them every day just like 20 minutes half an hour that's all twist that's not correct okay here we go over you go twist okay good good good just go forward and back and forward and back and do the same thing with the other leg just thinking about the ball and socket as you swing your leg forward and back okay down good okay next so pull up never let yourself just sort of start position and be hanging just always focus on lifting out of your body and you're gonna find that just that one thought will make your body stronger because you have to use your muscles to lift you up but you're going to like it it feels good okay so now we're going to go imagine you're lifting feather and look at it and let it float away so you're going to go down lift feather and watch it float away now the reason say feather is it'll make you relax so you want to relax so that your connective tissue and your muscles don't get goo like this you could just let them flow one more time down pick up that feather breathe in with it and just let it float away okay other side down you go look at the feather and let it float away okay and let your legs just sink into the movements bend those knees remove your body as much as you can with ease with gentleness just let those legs bend and just let the feather float off grab it gently lift it up breathing with it let it float away and that way just keep moving keep moving as though you were feather and the smoother you move the more you're pulling out of your body the more you actually will feel like feather okay so you're going to just pull that arm across behind your head and then imagine little bird lands on your finger you're gonna sweep your hand across and sweep your hand keep the birdie on your finger and let it fly away cut the air over you go now imagine little bird lines on your hand so you have to move smoothly and smoothly okay do it again cut the air little bird is going to land on your finger so as you watch it you're moving carefully and that slowness of not wanting to let the bird fly off your hand will work the connective tissue cut the air okay so the gentleness the slowness tucking your tailbone under so use the imagery of of the bird gentle bird that you want to stay there so you're not going to scare it away by jerky movements okay good lift your arms up reaching up now just pull towards the ceiling try to touch the ceiling just try to wipe the ceiling with your fingertips so you're going to bend the knees and then gently reach up feel this straight this stretch this strip this long chain of connective tissue pull over twist down come up breathe in there's huge chain behind your back of connective tissue just twist and lift the other arm breathe in pull up you're gonna feel that long strip of connective tissue down your side then we're going to get into chain that goes right down your back and your legs and up and the chain that goes down your front just to strengthen them so hope you had good workout and you're going to feel great the rest of today yay see you soon