Aging Backwards_10 Years Lighter and 10 Years Younger in 30 Minutes a Day

by Miranda Esmonde-White

  HOLDING HANDS IN A FORWARD REACH

  This very popular feel-good stretch works to loosen the spine and upper body. While holding hands in front of you, sway side to side, bending as far sideways as you can to get maximum relief and flexibility. Move very slowly 4 to 8 times side to side, taking the time to really enjoy the feeling of these stretching movements.

  FINGERS, WRISTS, AND HANDS

  Extend your arms out toward the wall with your elbows straight. Open and close your fists as rapidly as possible. This exercise will strengthen the hands while stretching the muscles of the fingers, helping to prevent and reverse wrist and finger arthritis. Do a minimum of 32 to 64 rapid fist openings and closings.

  SHOULDERS, WRISTS, AND HANDS

  Twist the arms forward and back within the shoulder sockets while keeping the hands flexed and elbows straight. You probably won’t like the feeling of this exercise but you will love the results: looser arms and less upper body pain. This sequence increases mobility of the shoulders and spine and reverses atrophy. Repeat 16 slow twists of the arm.

  PLIÉS WITH HEEL RAISERS

  Step 1: Start with feet apart, placing the knees over the mid arch or heels. Keep the stance as wide as you can unless it actually is painful to hold a wide stance. Too wide or too narrow a stance puts undue stress on the knees. Continuously bend and straighten your knees in slow pliés. This movement will strengthen the quads while cleaning scar tissue in the hips. It will also increase the flexibility of your quads, helping to relieve compression on arthritic joints. Do at least 8 slow pliés before adding the heel raisers.

  Step 2: Lift one heel only as high as you can. Press the full weight of the body into the lifted heel to stretch the shin as much as possible. Be sure to keep the weight of the foot going through the full five toes. Be sure also not to let the ankle wobble—the ankle must be in clean alignment with the shinbone of the lower leg. Raise and lower the same heel slowly 3 times before changing sides. Repeat both sides twice. Pliés are some of the best exercises to relieve knee, hip, and ankle pain. Try to spend 3 to 4 minutes doing pliés.

  Tip: These are the best exercises for knee pain.

  SIDE LEG LIFTS

  Pull your leg away from your body with the foot pointed. Simultaneously lift your leg as you pull it, taking 3 seconds for each leg lift. Do a minimum of 8 to a maximum of 32 lifts with the foot pointed, as well as 8 to 32 with the foot flexed, before changing to the other leg. These side leg lifts decompress the hip joint, relieving pain and preventing further hip damage.

  Tip: These exercises are excellent for hip arthritis.

  WASHING TABLES

  Place your feet apart, your knees and arms bent, and your hands facing downward, fingers spread as though they were going to wipe a tabletop clean with a large cloth. Start bending slightly sideways with a pelvic tilt and your full spine rounded.

  Move from side to side to mimic the action of wiping the top of a very sticky, dirty table. This exercise moves the full spine, upper body, and arms. Do at least 8 wipes of the “table,” side to side.

  Tip: This movement helps relieve back pain.

  WASHING WINDOWS

  Start with feet apart, knees and arms bent, and fingers spread out as if to hold a large cloth with which to clean a window. Frame the face with the arms, keeping the elbows well spread apart.

  Imagine that you are cleaning a very dirty window and you are sliding your hands across it, but the dirt is sticky and is giving you resistance. Gently shift your weight side to side as you clean the window. Sway gently side to side, washing the window a minimum of 4 to 8 times. This “washing windows” series increases the mobility of your spine, bringing fluids into the vertebrae and reducing back pain.

  CHAPTER 13

  INCREASE YOUR ENERGY

  Even young people can be struck with an energy deficit. If you are working hard, raising kids, trying to keep your head above water, it can be easy to let exercise slide. Please don’t! That exercise will give you the power and endurance to get through even the roughest dog-eat-dog days.

  As we age, every aspect of our lives tends to slow down. We walk slowly, stand up slowly, get dressed slowly, and even eat slowly. The process of slowing down takes place over a long period of time, making these changes imperceptible to us. The realization that we’ve slowed down dawns on us most clearly when we are around the young, who generally move at a much faster pace with much less effort.

  In some ways slowing down is one of the nicest aspects of aging, because we actually take time to appreciate the world around us. But truth be told, all the middle-aged and older people I know still want to feel like a valuable part of the human race and want to be able to enjoy life. We don’t want to give up the option of having a bounce in our step and energy in our bodies. We want to have the choice to move rapidly or slowly! Achieving this requires an understanding of how to maintain energy.

  Remember that energy is found in our muscles, in the calorie-burning mitochondria. We need to turn up those furnaces to get energy, and to do that we need to move!

  There is a common misconception that to raise your energy levels, you have to run on a treadmill for hours on end. But I’ve rarely set foot on a treadmill—I’ve done it less than a dozen times in my life—and I’m full of energy at 65.

  One of my jobs is to train Olympic athletes in energy production. When I first start training them I make them compete with me to see who can move fastest. They usually laugh, believing that with their 40-year advantage they’ll win, but so far I’ve always beaten them! That is when they learn to respect the phenomenal power of strong and flexible feet, toes, knees, and hips. Athletes are competitive by nature and so it’s easy for me to get them to do foot, ankle, and hip exercises. They all want to beat me and they usually can after a few classes of footwork.

  One of my favorite stories about energy is my experience with Joannie Rochette, an Olympic figure skater whose coach had tried every type of training to improve her energy. Athletes often come to me as a last resort, after they have exhausted all other options, and Joannie was no exception. Joannie at 20 years of age didn’t have sufficient stamina to finish her long program at full strength and so she was losing valuable points. Her coach thought her lack of energy was due to a weak cardio, so she had her running with professional football players in the hope that this would improve her stamina. But it didn’t.

  When Joannie arrived at my studio, she was ranked eleventh in the world. After I analyzed her, the first thing I saw was that she had no movement, no mobility, in her toes or ankles. This very common affliction in pro athletes is caused by years of wearing tight skates or running shoes, and never working in bare feet.

  Her figure skates prevented any mobility in her ankles or toes, causing premature atrophying of her feet, ankles, calves, and shins. Her atrophy was equivalent to the muscle atrophy seen after someone had been in a cast for weeks. Anyone who has ever been in a cast knows that after a few short weeks the muscles visibly shrink! That’s what happened to Joannie’s feet. Even though she was only 20, the fact that she had spent her entire life skating meant that her feet had been continually immobilized in skates, and this immobilization had led to weak, skinny muscles and atrophy. The atrophy caused her shins, calves, and feet to become weak and that was the source of her lack of energy.

  We spent the next 7 months strengthening and stretching her feet to reverse the atrophy. She proceeded to compete in the Turin Olympics, where she was ranked fifth in the world; and eventually she went on to win a bronze medal at the Vancouver Olympics.

  That lesson from Joannie taught me that there are many reasons why we lose our energy, and that it is important not to focus solely on strengthening the cardiovascular system as the only source of energy.

  The beauty of strong flexible feet and lower limbs is that they give us not only increased energy but also a bounce in our step. Nothing makes us feel as young and vital as having a spring in our step and energy to spare. Nothing makes us feel
as old and worn out as walking a short distance and becoming exhausted.

  I have put together a series of exercises that will increase your energy and give you a bounce in your step. I suggest that you do these exercises two to three times a week. You should see a rapid change in your energy and—best of all—you’ll feel as though you’ve turned the clock back 10 years.

  BARRE FOOTWORK

  Stand at barre (or sturdy, high-backed chair) with feet apart. Raise and lower heels to work calves. Keep your knees straight. Repeat 8 times.

  Bend knees, keeping heels firmly on the ground to target calves.

  Raise and lower heels with knees bent, using barre or chair for support. Repeat 8 times.

  Standing on one leg and, keeping the other leg bent, raise and lower the heel. Repeat 4 times with each foot.

  CALF STRETCH SEQUENCE

  Step 1: Start with one leg extended behind the other, with the heel placed firmly on the ground to target calf. Hold for 6 seconds.

  Step 2: Bend back knee slightly for an Achilles stretch. Hold for 6 seconds. Shift back and forth between steps 1 and 2 three times.

  FOOTWORK (HEEL RAISERS)

  Step 1: With one foot placed slightly behind the other, bend both knees while pushing heels into the ground. Repeat 3 times.

  Step 2: Contracting the ankle muscles to stop them from wobbling, raise the heels to work the feet. Completely straighten the knees. Hold this position for 6 seconds before slowly lowering heels. Return to step 1. Repeat 3 times, alternating the front leg.

  LYING LEG LIFTS

  Step 1: Lying down straight, support the upper body with one arm bent and the other hand placed in front. Lie flat and raise both legs together 8 times.

  Step 2: Lift the leg with the foot pointed, focusing on continuously pulling the leg out of the hip socket and away from the body. Repeat 8 to 16 leg lifts with a pointed foot.

  Step 3: Lift the leg with foot flexed, focusing on continuously pulling the leg out of the hip socket and away from the body. Repeat 8 to 16 leg lifts with a flexed foot.

  After side leg sequence, sit up, hug your bent knees, and wiggle the hips around to release tension.

  STANDING LEG LIFTS

  Raise and lower one leg in front of you with foot pointed, focusing on extending the leg away from you as much as possible. Keep the back straight and don’t bend at the waist while lifting your leg. Do 8 to 16 leg lifts.

  Raise and lower one leg to the side of your body with foot pointed, focusing on extending the leg away from you as much as possible. Rotate the knee to face the front. Do 8 to 16 side leg lifts.

  Extending your leg behind you with your bum tucked under, raise and lower the leg, focusing on pulling the leg away from the hip as much as possible. Keep the back as straight as possible and don’t hunch forward. Do 8 to 16 back leg lifts.

  Do 8 kicks front, side, and back, toes pointed; repeat with foot flexed; then change legs (to strengthen balance and hips). Do this for approximately 3 minutes, pulling up on the spine and keeping the back straight all the time.

  PLIÉS FOR ENERGY

  Step 1: From plié starting position, raise and lower the heel 3 times, squeezing an imaginary orange until the foot rests on the ground. These heel raisers strengthen ankles, quads, and knees.

  Step 2: In a plié, extend one leg until straight, keeping the other one bent and stretching the groin. Shift weight into deep side lunge.

  Step 3: Keep heel on the floor while flexing the ankle. Return to starting position. Repeat entire sequence 8 times, alternating sides.

  CHAPTER 14

  RELIEVE YOUR PAIN

  Pain can come from many sources, so please check with a doctor to determine the cause of your pain. It’s best to clear up any medical problems so that you can feel free to exercise as much as you want without worries. Once your doctor has ruled out anything serious, and if your pain is muscular-, joint-, or age-related, chances are the following exercises will do wonders for you.

  Don’t be afraid to exercise when you are in pain. The only type of pain to fear is a sharp knifelike pain, which is a warning that the body cannot tolerate what you are asking it to do, so you need to stop before you injure yourself. However, the vast majority of people in pain are afraid to move at all, assuming that it will cause them even greater pain. The irony is that movement is the best way to relieve most common pain—so move!

  I am a big believer in checking with a doctor and not self-diagnosing. There are so many reasons why you are in pain.

  Once a doctor gives you the all clear to exercise, the exercises I am suggesting in this chapter should help to relieve your pain. You’re about to be amazed at how quickly simple exercises will relieve pain. Remember: Inactivity and a sedentary lifestyle are the number one cause of chronic pain, because they lead to muscle shrinkage and atrophy.

  The human body is designed to be strong, flexible, and well balanced, and will respond rapidly to exercises. You can be in pain for years and, after just one or two workouts, start feeling relief. Pain medication is great, but it is not a cure. Medication can also exacerbate the underlying problem by masking its true severity. If the cause is atrophy or shrinking muscles that are compressing your joints, the only way to permanently relieve that pain is to pull the joints apart (decompress them) through stretching and strengthening.

  HOW TO DO PAIN RELIEF EXERCISES

  This series of exercises will help relieve finger, knee, spine, hip, and calf pain. There are two stages in doing pain relief exercises:

  Stage 1: Healing

  Stage 1 is aimed at increasing blood flow and relieving pain immediately. In this stage, you must stay relaxed throughout the workout. Don’t think of it as strengthening—think of it as healing. Keep your muscles relaxed like a rag doll! Large full-body movements done while you are relaxed help increase blood flow, which initiates healing. When muscles are contracted in strengthening mode, blood flows into them much more slowly.

  Stage 2: Maintaining Relief

  Stage 2 requires you to be working hard as opposed to relaxed. Only when you work hard will permanent changes happen in your muscles, allowing them to be pulled apart and strengthened simultaneously.

  Stage 1 relieves you of pain; stage 2 keeps the pain from coming back. Begin stage 2 when you are no longer in pain. When you develop strength alongside flexibility, you will decompress the joints permanently, thereby stopping the squeezing from occurring. Stage 2 pulls the joints apart, giving them enough space to move easily and remain well lubricated. Stage 2 prevents the grinding of bone on bone, which is the cause of pain!

  Get ready to be amazed at the pain-relieving power of your own body!

  I call these decompressing exercises, as they release the compression caused by atrophy. These decompressing exercises apply to all joints from the vertebrae of the spine for relief of back pain to the hips, knees, feet, and fingers for relief of pain from arthritis and osteoporosis. Lengthening, strengthening, and rebalancing exercises are the secret to decompressing the joints to relieve pain. If the damage to your joints isn’t so severe that joint replacements are necessary, these exercises will provide you with pain relief. Make sure you do them for 30 minutes daily (or on as regular a basis as you can manage). Every workout will take you closer to being pain-free!

  WAIST ROTATIONS

  Step 1: Stand with your legs apart and your arms straight above your head. Pull your arms as high as possible, until you feel your spine being stretched.

  Step 2: Imagine that you are drawing a semicircle with your arms and upper body. Slowly bend sideways, still pulling your arms diagonally upward, and then continue drawing the semicircle as you move past the front and to the other side. Finish in the starting position with both arms reaching toward the ceiling. Repeat the semicircle going in the other direction. Do 4 to 6 semicircles, alternating sides.

  Tip: This movement relieves back and hip pain.

  ARM EXERCISES

  As you do this sequence, keep the shoulders down and
don’t move them from steps 1 to 4.

  Step 1: Extend arms out toward the wall with elbows straight and hands flexed. Imagine that you are pushing a heavy weight downward as you do 8 slow pumps downward.

  Step 2: Rotate arm position backward, pumping arms backward against an imaginary weight. Do 8 slow pumps backward.

  Tip: These exercises help relieve pain in shoulders and fingers and are great for relieving arthritis or after a long day at the office.

  Step 3: Rotate arm position with the wrists pointing upward. Pump arms upward against an imaginary weight. Do 8 slow pumps upward.