Car Pilates Exercise Hack
At a relaxing lunch with a girlfriend, we started talking about how we manage to fit everything into our daily schedules. It’s not easy, and I don’t even have children to come home and take care of. When we talked about how difficult it is to fit in exercise, I shared my car exercise hacks.
She laughed hysterically and said I had to share these in a musing. So here you go…
Car Pilates
When I drive I’ve gotten in the habit of doing 3 things repeatedly.
1. When I’m stopped I put my hands on either side of the steering wheel and squeeze the wheel inward, making sure to keep my shoulders down, neck long and abs in. I do sets of 8 inward pushes followed by an 8 count hold. (It reminds me of when I was young and used to put my hands together in front of my pre-pubescent chest and chant “We must, we must, we must build up our bust.” Come on… all you women out there you did the same thing… right?)
2. While I’m crunching the steering wheel I do glute (booty) clenches. Again, shoulders down, neck long, abs in. And make sure that nothing is moving except your glutes and arms, your legs shouldn’t be moving especially since your right foot is firmly on the brake pedal.
3. To top it all off, I constantly (as in not just car pilates but everywhere) remind myself to suck in my gut, lace my ribs together and drop my shoulders to elongate and relax my neck. It’s so interesting to me that, as a dancer, I’ve reinforced this posture for over 50 years and I still find after a few seconds my mind drifts elsewhere and I’m back to slumping, protruding and hunching. So, I hit the refresh button and suck in my gut, lace my ribs and elongate all over again–the car is a great place to reinforce this posture. I literally repeat this process at least 100 times throughout the day. I’m confident that some day it will become natural. Until then, I’ll just have to keep reminding myself over and over and over again.
So? You know it’s coming! What’s your exercise hack?
Mine is doing barre work in the kitchen while I am cooking, usually if I’m waiting for pasta to cook or sauce to simmer, I’m using my kitchen worktop doing plies and the occasional grande battement…! This could be a potential health and safety issue….
YES I forgot about the kitchen ballet barre. So good!
And dont forget your kegels ?
Great ideas I wish I could remember to do that! In the middle of the night when I can’t sleep I get up, down on the floor and do crunches, push ups and a few glute exercises then climb back into bed and feel more relaxed and I got a little strength training in. I usually can fall back asleep fairly quickly…win/win!!!
WOW! That’s remarkable. I would think that doing those exercises would get your blood pumping a bit so you COULDN’T sleep, but it probably does wonders to get your mind off of whatever woke you up in the first place.
I’m a naturally fidgety person so that helps. A friend of mine is a belly dancer and she taught me this belly roll thing. You pull your lower abs in & up repeatedly. After only a few you feel the burn. I also catch myself doing heel lifts & walking on my toes for absolutely no reason. I have a connective tissue disorder and am more susceptible to sprains & dislocations at the mid point in my cycle due to higher relaxin levels so I do my best to focus on isometrics during that time. Actually, I would love some… Read more »
The lower belly roll thing is brilliant. That’s basically what I do when I “suck in my gut”. Regarding your “hunchback in progress”…. NO NO NO resist the urge. First of all, imagine how tiring it would get for your arms to hold a bowling ball out straight in front of you all day. Your head is the same weight as a bowling ball, so your poor neck is getting a massive strain having to hold your head out all day. Shove your chin straight back, get your head over the top of your neck and drop your traps down… Read more »