From Belly Breathing To Diaphragmatic Breathing

August 10, 2021 No Comments

One of the topics that I’ve dived in deeply this year was various breathing techniques. I began experimenting with what I learned from my mentor, Ian Markow, in my body for three months before bringing it into my client work.

Here is how I use to breathe:

 

 

Here is how I breathe now:

 

 

And, this shift made the most significant change in my body 👇🏻

✨ My posture has improved significantly

✨ I began activating my glutes differently

✨ I effortlessly continue nose breathing on long hikes without feeling the need to open my mouth or have a dry mouth

✨ The residue of my post-concussion symptoms began diminishing

✨ My spine has never been this mobile, no lower back stiffness in the morning

✨ My jaw tension has reduced significantly

✨ I rarely have anxiety

✨ Feeling that my body weight is more equally distributed on my feet

To just name a few!

Shifting your breathing from belly breath (demonstrated in the first video) to expanding your ribs 360 degrees (back and ribs to the left and right) can be especially helpful for those who have flared-up ribs. Ideally, you want to reach a long exhale of 8 seconds, but you can start anywhere so you can transition to the next inhale slowly (not rushed).

For me, though, I didn’t flare up my rib, but what I did instead was compressing my spine to keep the rib down, and this breathing practice still helped me change a pattern that I perhaps learned at a young age.

After observing the miracle that proper breathing can initiate in our bodies, I wonder how many injuries could’ve been prevented by improving our breathing and why we are never taught these in school.

And I hope this blog be the invitation you need to explore your most valuable tool, your breath, a little or a lot more.

And always happy to have you try our weekly movement sessions using the code “7DAYTRIAL” here: https://jump.as.me/thejumphouse

 

 

Hedi Shah / Movement Specialist . Trauma-informed PT . Heart Resonance Therapist

jumpwellnesscoaching.com

“It’s not only about moving your body; it’s about connecting to your body when you move.”

Seven Mistakes In The Fitness Industry

July 19, 2021 No Comments

When I began changing the way I worked with clients, one of the hardest things I had done was de-conditioning myself from what the personal training and fitness industry had taught me.

 

I continuously caught myself wondering what if my clients preferred the old way. The way that promotes “the heavier, the faster, the sweatier, THE BETTER.”

 

But I acknowledged the doubts and trusted that my clients would get this different way. The way that promotes “the more efficient, the more functional, the more freedom, THE BETTER.”

 

Unfortanelty, we live in a culture that prioritizes quick fixes, torturous weight loss methods, and lifting a certain amount of weight over:

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀
→the quality of human movement,

→the joints’ health,

→the depth of breath,

→the grounded strength

→the freedom of movement in our bodies

→the sense of awareness of what’s happening in our bodies

 

I often see people lack the freedom in their body to do their day-to-day activities effortlessly; however, fitness culture insists on pushing them through that 100 reps of squats, 10-min plank hold, the 30 reps half-ass pushup, etc.

 

No wonder so many left with all kinds of injuries.

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ ⠀
As part of my commitment to changing the narrative around movement and educating you on what’s possible when you learn your body’s language

 

I believe it’s also essential for you to know the common mistakes in the fitness industry so you can choose your “better” way and spread it with your community.

Here are the top seven mistakes I see in the fitness industry: ⠀⠀⠀

⠀⠀ ⠀

1.Putting too much emphasis on strength, not enough on the foundation the strength is built on 

 

2. Putting too much emphasis on pushing through and not enough on increasing the nervous system capacity to deal with stress and downregulate post-stress

 

3.Putting too much emphasis on stretching not enough on mobility and neuromuscular control

 

4.Focusing too much on activating the right muscles, not enough on breathing correctly as you do them 

 

5.Focusing too much on bypassing pain and injury, not enough on working through the pain and the reasons behind injuries

 

6.Focusing too much on the variability of exercise (combining multiple exercises, add a jump, etc.) to the extent that the original value of the actual exercise is diminished

 

7.Constantly prioritizing a sweaty injurious training session over enhancing the overall quality of life

 

There are so many more; I may put together a part 2. 

 

For now, I appreciate you sharing this with your community so we can spread awareness around this what no longer works and advocate for what’s possible. 

 

Hedi Shah / Movement Specialist . Trauma-informed PT . Heart Resonance Therapist

jumpwellnesscoaching.com

“It’s not only about moving your body; it’s about connecting to your body when you move.”

Healthy Living

June 6, 2021 No Comments

I wish I could tell you all you need to live a healthy and thriving life is to eat healthily and exercise regularly, but this is far from the truth. 

 

The quality of your inner landscape, how you process your emotions, and how safe you feel inside could contribute to your overall health a lot more than just a healthy lifestyle. 

 

I battled with anger and unbearable rage for years; I smiled in one minute and lost my temper a second after that, especially towards people I cared about the most. The more I tried to control and suppress my anger, the more out of control it became. This pattern continued until I learned to sit with my anger. It came as a shock when I recognized my anger was coming from emotional hurt and even more shocking to realize how disconnected I felt from my emotions. 

 

When I was reading the book “When The Body Says No” by Gabor Mate, the part that got me the most was when cancer scientists studied a mixed group of cancer and non-cancer cases and showed them a series of disturbing images. The participants were asked to write how they feel after seeing those images while being monitored by stress devices. The result was mind-blowing. The people with cancer showed a significant disconnect between what they thought they felt and what they actually felt. 

 

This disconnection at some point protected us from getting more hurt, but what if we no longer need to suppress those emotions? What if we could live a more thriving life by unburdening our emotional pains? 

 

The Uplifted Series are addressing the topics that are left out from a lot of healthy living conversations. In these events, I am committed to bringing you excellent resources and practitioners that guide you through creating safety in your body so you can return home. 

 

This month, we have Juliana Herlaar. She is a spiritual counselor and works by weaving ancestral acknowledgment, inner child healing, emotional understanding, somatic practices, meditation journeys, and the power of connecting emotions to communication and boundaries with her clients. 

 

Come and join us to tap into your body’s infinite wisdom.

 

This 90-min session has two parts:

 

❶ A dialogue around understanding why we disconnect from our bodies from a psychological and physiological perspective. And why it’s essential to reconnect to the bodies’ inherent knowing of what it needs to do to shift emotions, thoughts, trauma & beliefs that keep us stuck. 

 

❷ A practice session of the Non-Linear Movement Method that allows the body the opportunity to lead, shift thoughts, move emotions, connect to sensuality, experience pleasure, move discomfort. It’s done on the floor with music.

 

After this event, you have a better understanding of:

 

✦ How & why we become disembodied 

✦ How disembodiment leads to people-pleasing & a disregard for own experience, intuition & beliefs. 

✦ How the body leads & how to listen to it through the Non-Linear movement practice. 

Looking forward to seeing you there! Click on the button below to book your spot.

Book your spot

Hedi Shah / Movement Specialist . Trauma-informed PT . Heart Resonance Therapist

jumpwellnesscoaching.com

“It’s not only about moving your body; it’s about connecting to your body when you move.”

Lower Body Strength

June 1, 2021 No Comments

Here is a step-by-step guide going through a solid lower body strength training session, starting from firing up your core, activating your glutes, and building that concrete strength.

1/Effective Core Engagement; I couldn’t show you a lower-body routine without touching on the importance of core activation. Let’s start your session by activating the deepest layer of your core. When it comes to using your core line efficiently, the first step is learning to engage your core without the need to flex or extend your spine. For example, when you do exercises on your back, you want to maintain the natural arch of your spine, not pressing down to the floor. Also, you want to avoid letting your belly hanging, and your rib cage flared up for movements like plank, which causes your lower spine to extend.

2/ Glutes Activation: After feeling the fire in your core, let’s move on to activating your glutes (booty). So many have a hard time firing up their glutes that could have so many reasons, lack of mobility in hips, no strength in the ball of the foot, too much compression in the spine, to name a few. This video could give you a kickstart. Keep this in mind, since you already engaged the core, you must feel it working as you are firing your glutes. If you feel like you are losing the core line, focus on your exhale (the longer, the better) to reconnect with it. 

3/Lower Leg Strength: Now it’s time to add more intensity! You could add weights or continue with bodyweight. In this video, you also learn how to recover from exercise (which is a form of stress) as quickly as possible with the power of your breath.

Give these movements a try, and let me know how stronger you feel in your upper back. If you’d like to incorporate a more regular movement routine to your life, check out our online studio for a week using the code “7DAYTRIAL”.

Hedi Shah / Movement Specialist . Trauma-informed PT . Heart Resonance Therapist

jumpwellnesscoaching.com

“It’s not only about moving your body; it’s about connecting to your body when you move.”

Inner Craving!

May 27, 2021 No Comments

Inner Cravings!

You crave progress

You crave to get to where we want to be

You crave to have the body you want

You crave to be pain-free

You crave to feel even more confident in your body

You crave to feel free in your body

You sit with those cravings for so long that your cravings become something far-fetched.

Something that causes you more pain than a direction to move towards

Something that you may feel threatened by and another reason to be disappointed in yourself

You may take a couple of steps towards what you desire, but they don’t work out the way you wanted because so many of us don’t get what we desire on the first tries.

Sometimes your cravings need a new level of you to come to fruition.

Sometimes the next level of you requires a new level of commitment, the one that says, ” I show up no matter what it takes and how long it takes.”

Sometimes the next level of you requires the willingness to invest in yourself like you never did before, whether it be time, money, or resources.

Sometimes the next level of you requires unshakable faith in yourself, your path, and your abilities.

Sometimes the next level of you requires a bigger vision for your life and the lives of generations after you, which may bring chills to your spine, put everything in perspective when you are going through a rough patch, and set your priorities when you feel lost.

What is the craving that you want to fulfill? What is this next level requires of you?

PS-If building strength and mobility are one of your inner cravings, check out our online studio for a week using the code “7DAYTRIAL”.

Hedi Shah / Movement Specialist . Trauma-informed PT . Heart Resonance Therapist

jumpwellnesscoaching.com

“It’s not only about moving your body; it’s about connecting to your body when you move.”