3 Methods to Assess Your Leg Power (and why it issues for girls’s well being)

Betty Rocker (00:16):
What’s up, rock stars Coach Betty Rocker right here. Thanks a lot for spending a while with me at present. So final time we talked, we went in depth about one of many vital indicators of our energy, which is in fact, grip energy. And simply to recap, grip energy is absolutely vital as a result of it’s indicator of our general energy. So it’s one to make use of to sort of gauge the place you’re at now. Final time we talked, I went over 5 methods to check your grip energy. And what we checked out have been squeezing a house rest room scale to see what number of kilos of strain you’ll be able to grip utilizing a dynamometer system, which measures your grip energy hanging from a bar and timing your self doing a farmer’s carry with weights at your sides as you stroll and selecting up weights by the heads utilizing a pinch seize.

(01:05)
So these have been all of our checks, and the rationale it’s an amazing concept to verify in on it periodically and why we should always care about it’s simply due to the related danger components which can be associated to poor grip energy, which are actually the whole lot from elevated danger of bone breaks to poor immune well being, decrease cognitive perform, and a lot extra. And as we age, hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone begin to decline. We’ve talked loads about this on earlier episodes and the way the lack of these key hormones actually impacts our energy, making us extra vulnerable to muscle and bone loss, and actually affecting our flexibility as that ligamentous tissue turns into much less pliable. The excellent news is for those who’re utilizing Betty Rocker coaching applications and consuming tips, you’ve got important instruments to remain forward of a variety of the age associated degeneratio the physique is absolutely vulnerable to. I imply, use it or lose it, proper?

(01:59)
When you’re coaching with me, you might be persistently energy coaching and also you’re working in your explosive energy, you’re consuming sufficient protein in your age group and also you’re prioritizing these fiber wealthy carbs and that wholesome fats. You’re making your self care a precedence like taking the remaining days between your excessive quantity coaching periods, and for those who’re in perimenopause or put up menopause, you’ve obtained a extra custom-made schedule in your coaching in my applications that basically is gonna profit you probably the most. You’re prioritizing your bedtime and also you’re stretching extra round your coaching. You’re protecting an “all or one thing” mentality in thoughts in an effort to keep constant. And you recognize that our well being and health are this holistic course of that we work on over time, similar to we work on methods to speak to ourselves with kindness the identical manner we might speak to our pals. And actually, making pals with your self and chatting with your self with kindness is likely one of the finest issues you are able to do for your self and your well being.

(02:54)
Typically it’s actually useful to consider the little model of you, and do not forget that if you communicate to your self, you’re additionally chatting with her. I do know you’ve got a variety of love to provide, so give that like to your self too, and bear in mind why you’re displaying as much as do the stuff I speak about. Like we gotta be exercising and caring about our meals for extra than simply that sizzling bod, proper? I imply, you might nonetheless have that too, but it surely goes deeper, proper? Today after I practice, I take into consideration the one that I’ll be in 30 years and I wanna actually set her up for fulfillment. Every part I do now’s going to assist with that. I wanna maintain on to sturdy bones and have the muscle in my physique to have the ability to transfer and hike and luxuriate in life, and I wanna keep as versatile as I can.

(03:38)
So actually as of late I’m taking motion for 2 individuals. I’m doing it for the little child model of me. I wanna make her pleased with who I’m, and I’m doing it for the older model of me. I need her to look again and say, rattling lady, you set us as much as be sturdy and and take a look at how a lot we are able to do, proper? I simply discovered myself actually impressed with the grip energy check and the way a lot I may do. And also you may assume, oh, come on Betty Rocker, you’re a coach. After all that was straightforward for you and usually you’d be proper. However I did have a nasty fall about six months in the past now, and I dislocated my elbow. And ever since then I’ve been slowly and methodically rebuilding my energy round that joint. It’s loopy, but it surely simply modified how I used to be in a position to do all types of workout routines and I needed to actually take it sluggish as I got here again after that damage.

(04:25)
And I used to be simply so glad to have that muscle and energy that I had constructed earlier than to attract on. And I used to be undoubtedly thanking my previous self for all her laborious work. Let me inform you, (chuckle). So anyway, after I used to be kind of checking in on my energy with the grip energy check, it obtained me occupied with the opposite issues we wish to verify in with ourselves on periodically on the subject of our energy and our mobility, as a result of we additionally wanna have sturdy legs, a powerful core, good flexibility, and a strong means to steadiness as we age. One fashionable check you might even see on-line that basically targets all of these issues is the sit to face or sit to rise check. A examine revealed within the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology assessed over 2000 adults, over 50 years previous, performing this check, they usually discovered that these with decrease scores had greater mortality charges from any trigger, and other people with greater scores had longer survival charges.

(05:24)
Now, this check actually sizes up the energy in our glutes, our hamstrings, inside and outer thigh muscle tissue, plus our mobility, our steadiness, and our coordination and our core. So you are able to do this one proper now if you wish to, and for those who’re watching the video model of this podcast on the present notes web page on my weblog or on my YouTube channel, you’ll be able to see an illustration, however you can even simply hear alongside ’trigger I’ll clarify it. There are two elements to this check. One is the sitting down and the second is the standing up. We’ll begin out with 5 factors for every a part of the check for a complete of 10 factors. We’re gonna begin out standing, after which we’re gonna sit down cross-legged on the ground utilizing as few factors of contact with the ground as doable to convey ourselves down, that means your arms, knees, elbows, or some other a part of your physique utilizing as few of these physique elements as doable to convey your self all the way down to that seated place.

(06:15)
And we begin with these 5 factors and we deduct some extent for each level of contact that we have to use to convey ourselves down into that seated cross-legged place. Now, half two of this check is to face up from that cross-legged place utilizing as little help as doable from our arms, knees, elbows, or different factors of contact with the ground. And as soon as once more, you begin with 5 factors and also you deduct some extent for each level of contact it’s essential use that can assist you get up. So for those who’re someplace that you are able to do this, go forward and check out it out and make certain that you’re subsequent to some furnishings in an effort to attain out to help your self. We’re simply assessing the place we’re at. Simply discover if it’s essential put a hand down, if it’s essential use your knees to return up, or for those who felt stiff or had bother being within the cross-legged place and coming into it or out of it, how did you do?

(07:03)
Now you’re gonna take your factors from every half and add them collectively to see the place you fall on that complete one to 10 scale. And for those who wanted to make use of some assist to convey your self up, do not forget that’s okay. The purpose of the check is to simply discover out the place we have to focus. We’d like a variety of flexibility in our tissue and mobility round our joints to return from a seated place to standing or from a standing place again to seated because the legs are bent and the tissue that crosses over the joint areas of our hips, ankles, and knees, all wants to have the ability to transfer freely. We’d like a variety of leg and core energy as all of these muscle teams work collectively to assist us stand up and are available down. And we want steadiness, means, and coordination, a variety of which comes from our core energy to assist us in that in-between part proper of the stand or the sit.

(07:54)
Now, for those who discovered that you simply struggled with this one, that’s completely regular. It simply could also be that it’s essential work in your flexibility somewhat extra and simply possibly begin stretching round your exercises extra persistently. As we age, we lose our collagen and our elastin and the issues that assist us be extra limber. Our ligaments grow to be much less compliant as our estrogen ranges go down. So getting somewhat extra proactive about your self-care round your exercises, whether or not it’s a 3 minute warmup the place you’re simply shifting dynamically and even doing a few of the strikes out of your exercise with your individual physique weight, otherwise you’re doing say a 5 minute stretch after you practice with these heat muscle tissue, otherwise you’re including somewhat yoga or mobility work on a few of your relaxation days all through the week like we do in the entire Betty Rocker applications.

(08:39)
That may be a good way to enhance your joint well being and actually maintain your physique limber and unfastened and together with flexibility, a few of the workout routines that may actually enhance all of these areas of your physique that assist with sitting and standing embody strikes just like the it’s, this one’s obtained a few names, the knee drop lunge, which is also referred to as the prisoner squat. And that’s the place you place your arms behind your head and also you decrease your self all the way down to a kneeling place and you then step proper again up once more, protecting your arms again behind your head. And one other nice transfer that I like to incorporate in my applications is the Turkish getup. That’s the place you begin out mendacity in your again with one arm straight up within the air, you elevate your higher physique up virtually coming right into a situp utilizing your core energy, and you then convey your legs underneath you coming into both a kneeling lunge or a low squat, and you then come as much as a standing place holding your arm up overhead the complete time.

(09:35)
This transfer is a brilliant spicy transfer, but it surely actually helps to strengthen the whole lot out of your rotator cuff to your core, your legs, glutes, and it helps enhance your steadiness and adaptability as you’re getting up from the ground and coming again all the way down to the ground. It’s a featured transfer within the Ripped Rockstar Problem collection in Rock Your Life over the course of that exact problem collection in elements one, two, and three, we constantly work to enhance our Turkish getup in a single exercise every week. That’s a very enjoyable program in Rock Your Life. You need to undoubtedly test it out, however one other nice physique weight transfer to enhance your sit to standability and maintain your steadiness flexibility core and legs sturdy is the burpee (chuckle). That’s the place we convey ourselves all the way down to a plank pose, do a pushup, bounce to our toes, after which bounce up within the air after which we repeat it.

(10:24)
Everybody likes to hate the burpee, however I’ve actually come to like it for the versatile methods we are able to use it to enhance so many points of our energy. You’ll see a variety of actually enjoyable burpee variations in my challenges and applications. Every part from a low influence burpee to uh, one you are able to do together with your arms elevated that can assist you construct up that energy. You are able to do a double bounce burpee. That’s the place you’re gonna do two jumps on the prime. You could possibly do a reverse burpee that when there’s no pushup in, but it surely’s additionally actually robust to return down and are available again up. After which there’s even a warrior burpee the place we add a mountain climber on the backside and two kicks on the prime, proper. I began sweating simply occupied with burpees, (chuckle), however they’re simply such a tremendous transfer to actually embody in your coaching repeatedly that basically helps you keep so many vital points of your health.

(11:14)
Now, these strikes I discussed, the prisoner squat, the Turkish getup and the burpee are all going that can assist you enhance your leg and core energy, plus enhance your means to steadiness. And they’re going to all aid you with that sit to face check, which isn’t actually why we’re coaching, but it surely’s a enjoyable option to check your self to be sure to’re staying on prime of vital points of your well being. In addition they recruit a variety of your posterior chain musculature for those who’ve by no means encountered that time period. It simply refers back to the muscle tissue that run up and down the again facet of your physique, like your again, your glutes, your hamstrings, and your calves. And these muscle tissue are all concerned in your means to leap and steadiness and transfer effectively. And you could find a variety of enjoyable posterior chain particular exercise movies on my weblog on thebettyrocker.com, they usually’re additionally constructed into my Rock Your Life challenges and exercise applications. And leg energy specifically is so vital for us as girls –

(12:08)
We feature over half of our skeletal muscle in our decrease physique. So actually protecting that a part of our physique sturdy is enormously vital for us. And do not forget that muscle tissue is what determines our resting metabolic charge. AKA what number of energy or how a lot vitality you’re gonna burn even at relaxation. So the extra muscle we’ve got, the extra effectively we burn physique fats. And this is likely one of the causes it’s simpler to achieve weight as we age and begin to lose our muscle tissue if we’re not taking steps to help holding onto it. So a enjoyable check, you’ll be able to attempt to assess your leg and core energy is an easy wall sit check. That is the place you’re going to brace your self towards the wall and decrease your self down so your knees are bent at a 90 diploma angle and your again is flat towards the wall.

(12:59)
Then you definitely’ll simply time your self to see how lengthy you’ll be able to maintain this place. An important benchmark to intention for is a full minute, and it’s robust. Something greater than that’s only a bonus and an indicator that you simply’re actually sturdy. When you’re less than a minute if you do the check, that’s a-okay. When you can maintain it for 45 seconds, that’s nonetheless good. The typical is 35 to 45 seconds. So something above common is nice. When you’re beneath that, it’s simply one thing to work on, proper? There’s so many nice workout routines that can assist you construct your leg energy like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and tons of variations of these as effectively. Beginning with physique weight variations all the best way as much as weighted choices, there are leaping and excessive influence workout routines too that may strengthen your legs. And talking of leaping, one other actually enjoyable check you’ll be able to attempt that may assess your leg energy is the standing broad bounce check.

(13:52)
You might need finished this again in fitness center class or bear in mind measuring your bounce size, but it surely’s an amazing evaluation of your energy potential, particularly in your glutes and legs. And it’s one the place we want a variety of that posterior chain energy. Now, this check is usually finished for athletes who want their leg energy for his or her sport, but it surely’s additionally simply nice to verify in on ourselves and see the place we’re at too, as a result of explosive energy implies that you’ve obtained a variety of energy in your legs. So what you are able to do is lay out a tape measure, or you’ll be able to merely put down markers for a number of toes or meters out and just be sure you’re gonna do that on a giving floor like your garden or a mat. Do some warmup like some strolling lunges or some physique squats and a few excessive knees, and lay out your tape measure and are available to the zero finish together with your toes barely aside.

(14:40)
Swing your arms and bend your knees to assist in giving you as a lot ahead drive as you may get. And you then’re simply gonna bounce as far ahead as you’ll be able to and land on each toes with out falling backwards. Your distance is to the place you land in the back of your heels. You’re gonna make three makes an attempt and mark down your distance every time. The typical distance for girls is 5 toes, seven and a half inches to 5 toes 11 inches. Wonderful is somewhat over six toes. When you’re beneath the common, that is simply an indicator to work on strengthening that posterior chain and the leg muscle tissue usually. A number of the finest methods to enhance your leg and glute energy are with energy coaching strikes. So you are able to do deadlifts, there are squats, there are hip thrusts, lunges, and people are all of the slower resistance coaching leg and glute strengthening strikes, that are wonderful in your leg energy.

(15:29)
However we are able to’t neglect the significance of plyometrics or explosive cardio strikes for growing the quick twitch muscle fibers that basically assist you’ve got the facility for brief, forceful contractions for strikes like a broad bounce. So you can even do strikes like bounce squats, bounce change lunges, field jumps, sprints, and naturally, truly simply practising broad jumps themselves. They’re such an amazing train, even if you’re not measuring how far you’ll be able to go! And the sort of explosive leg energy and the muscle tissue that it calls on is likely one of the causes we’ve got a variety of plyometric strikes in my applications that basically steadiness out the resistance coaching. We wanna load the joints after which explode, which helps actually enhance our muscular energy. Like we have been saying, it boosts our bone density and it improves our cardiovascular well being. To not point out this type of explosive cardio actually improves our means to steadiness and our agility and coordination.

(16:25)
Plus, it improves our mind-body connection and our day by day practical motion. So this is the reason I all the time have it in my applications, except they’re particularly labeled low influence. Like we’ve got a complete collection of low influence challenges in Rock Your Life as a result of some individuals do must take the leaping out for various causes, however in any other case we’ve obtained it in there as a result of it’s so helpful. Now on the subject of leaping and explosive motion, this is the reason I’m all the time going over kind and alignment and really why I created the Free Foundations of Purposeful Health workshop collection that can assist you take note of your physique mechanics. You will get that at thebettyrocker.com/fff/. When you wanna seize that, similar to we don’t wanna load the joints with weight utilizing poor kind, we don’t wanna bounce or explosively transfer with misaligned hips or knees or ankles. And generally you don’t know you’re not aligned till one thing begins to harm.

(17:21)
However individuals usually ignore early warning indicators and simply chalk them as much as being sore from their exercise. However our our bodies are dynamic and life takes a toll, whether or not it’s due to the facet of your physique that’s dominant, otherwise you’ve had youngsters otherwise you’ve been in a automobile accident or been injured sooner or later and needed to rehab and possibly your physique developed some compensating sort of patterns. And people key joints can get out of alignment simply, like our hips, our shoulders, our spinal column, our si, and a lot extra. And when you’ve got the chance to work with a bodily therapist or a motion practitioner who focuses on issues like gait evaluation or postural alignment, um, or optimization, simply periodically and proactively checking your kind and alignment with these hands-on assessments will be actually helpful. And if previously you’ve had somebody offer you corrective workout routines and also you’ve stopped doing them, it could be that you simply simply must begin to convey these again into play to actually assist your physique.

(18:17)
As a result of patterns are typically caught for a very long time. It actually does take a devoted effort to get the physique to maneuver the best way that we would like it to. Having any individual that can assist you with this type of stuff is like somebody holding up a really specialised mirror to your physique, and this may 100% aid you keep away from damage and actually practice safely over time. As a result of I might say that most likely one of the crucial widespread causes individuals really feel hesitant about leaping and doing explosive strikes as they age is as a result of both they’re nervous they’re gonna get harm or as a result of they’re having achy joints or aches and pains. And once we’re coaching, we all the time wanna respect the physique and never push it to a painful place, proper? We wanna take heed to these cues and again off if one thing hurts. Now, some nice methods to stop these points will be coaching on a extra aligned physique and staying extra versatile.

(19:11)
And these items may want somewhat extra consideration as we age, proper? It is likely to be that some hands-on care is required from a practitioner, or we have to dial in our kind a bit extra in our coaching, or that possibly somewhat extra stretching is required round our exercises, like we have been speaking about earlier than, is that may simply actually assist maintain the tissue round your joints extra pliable, aid you together with your mobility and your flexibility. Typically individuals ask me about cardio and peri or put up menopause as a result of they’ve heard that cardio is unhealthy for us at the moment in our lives as a result of it elevates our cortisol. It is a nice query, and the reply is absolutely vital to listen to if that is you. So primary, any sort of exercise that basically taxes your physique will elevate your cortisol and trigger a stress response in your physique.

(20:00)
That’s a very pure course of, and it’s why I speak about train being a wholesome stress. Once we are wholesome, we problem the physique towards a load and it struggles proper? Then it will get stronger. Our cortisol goes up, whether or not we’re doing a tough resistance coaching exercise or a tough cardio exercise, the factor that adjustments within the menopause years is that we simply grow to be extra delicate to the cortisol due to decrease hormone ranges. That is why all of my applications have customized coaching schedules for girls in these life levels since you merely want somewhat extra restoration round your excessive quantity coaching so your physique can come again sturdy once more. In our biking years, these greater ranges of hormones give us extra resilience. Would we additionally profit from a extra balanced coaching schedule then too? Completely. We don’t wanna be driving ourselves into the bottom at any age, however we additionally get better quicker in our biking years.

(20:56)
So again to menopause and cardio. What actually wants to alter is the best way we use cardio. So primary, we wanna ensure that we’ve obtained the resistance coaching as a foundational piece of our exercise programming, after which we’re including within the explosive cardio that has so many advantages for us. A beauty of that explosive motion or plyometric coaching is that it’s brief in length sometimes. So you’re employed on it briefly intervals or bursts. This fashion, you get all these advantages with out straining your self. And we take applicable restoration round our excessive quantity coaching, whether or not it’s our cardio or our resistance coaching, and that is how you retain the stress to a stage which you can successfully handle and also you get all the advantages that these explosive actions convey us. So to recap, on our leg energy assessments at present, we’ve gone over the sit to face check or sit to rise check.

(21:50)
We’ve coated the wall sit check, and we’ve coated the standing broad bounce check. And all of those are going to evaluate your leg energy and energy in numerous methods, and likewise actually aid you verify in with different vital well being markers which can be important to our energy, like our flexibility and our steadiness and coordination. These are all nice to verify in with your self on periodically, and I might in fact love to listen to what you uncover and what you’re engaged on in consequence. So you’ll want to drop me a line both on my weblog or on social media, on the present notes web page we’re, you recognize, we’re all works in progress and we’ve got our ups and downs on the subject of getting sturdy and staying that manner. I’m no exception. I discussed earlier that my accident actually set me again and that it was nice to have the grip energy check as I used to be getting myself again and rebuilding my energy.

(22:39)
So it’s actually enjoyable to to check these items out and see the place we’re at and know that we are able to all the time get stronger if we do it safely, if we do it mindfully. So I actually stay up for listening to from you about no matter you study and any questions that you’ve got. And you may get all of the notes from at present’s episode over on the present notes web page on thebettyrocker.com, which incorporates the transcript and hyperlinks to something I’ve talked about and a video model of this episode. So thanks once more a lot for spending a while with me at present, and I stay up for persevering with this dialog. So until subsequent time, Rockstar, I’m Betty Rocker, and you might be so superior, flawsome and wonderful. I’ll speak to you once more actual quickly. Bye for now.