Alexus Duffy PT, DPT

If you’ve ever sprained an ankle or pulled a muscle, I am 100% positive some has told you to rest, take some NSAIDS, and slap some ice on it. But did you know, that these things can actually hinder and slow down your healing?

The new recommendations for soft tissue injuries is PEACE ☮️ and LOVE🫶🏼

I particularly like the LOVE aspect of these new recommendations.

HERE IS WHAT THEY MEAN!

Load: progressive weight bearing and loading of the injuries structures

Optimism: Be confident and positive in order to condition your brain for healing!

Vascularization: Choose some non painful cardio activity to increase blood flow to aid in healing

Exercise: progressively reintroduce mobility, strength and proprioception to take an active approach in recovery

NATIONAL SLEEP DAY💤

Did you know 35% of adults report getting less than 7 hours of sleep a night??

Sleep plays a role in so many aspects of your health including memory, energy level, pain, injury risk, performance, and body composition!!

If you are on your health journey, adjusting your sleep habits and consistently getting 7-9 hours a sleep is a low hanging fruit that needs to be addressed.

Here’s some sleep habits to consider incorporating:
🌙consistent wake and sleep times (even on the weekends!!)

🌙reducing screen time prior to bed time (tvs, tablets, phones computers, put it all away)

🌙stop drinking caffeine after 2pm

🌙 be physically active during the say!

Tell me, how many hours of sleep do you get a night? What is a sleep habit that you can incorporate?

It happens every January. People get so excited, thinking “I am going to change my whole life starting TODAY”. They create 8 different goals, they have action plans for each, but then 3 months later, it is as if they never were made.

Motivation is gone. So logically, your progress towards your goals stop. That is why you can not rely on motivation to keep you going.

So, instead of making these huge life altering goals, why don’t you pick one habit to begin incorporating into your life.

This habit should be small and require minimal effort and thought to perform. These are not life changing, but these small habits added together will begin to lead you in the direction of the life you want.

What can this look like??

✨Drinking a glass of water before your morning coffee.
✨adding a vegetable to every meal
✨riding your bike for 10 minutes a day (rather than committing to 60 minutes every single day)
✨going on a walk after dinner
✨doing 5 minutes of mobility after waking up

Small changes made over time are much more manageable when creating habits.

Tell me in the comments, what small habit can you or have you incorporated into your life?

‼️ASSESSING ANKLE RANGE OF MOTION 101‼️

Surprising to many, the ankle actually plays a major role in your squat stance. When a joint lower on the leg isn’t functioning properly, joints higher up have to compensate. Let’s break it down🧠

In the bottom of a squat, if your ankle has limited dorsiflexion, this means your tibia or lower leg will be more vertically. In order for you to maintain your balance, you are going to bring your trunk forward causing more flexion at the hip. This could be the culprit of that nagging ✨pinchy hip✨

FOLLOW• LIKE • SHARE

‼️Do you have pinchy hips when you squat?
First thing to try is adjusting your squat form. Every person has a different shaped hip, thus every person has a different optimal stance🏋🏼‍♀️ Try these 3 modifications to your stance ⤵️⤵️⤵️

☑️Try adjusting the width of your stance making it either narrower or wider.

☑️Adjust the amount of toe out you have. Your toes can be facing directly in front of you or turned out to the sides to various degrees. Find which position is most comfortable to you!

☑️Finally, check your form. You want to make sure that your knees are pressing out and traveling directly over your 2nd toe as you go down in your squat.

Give these 3 things a try and see if that helps decrease your pain when squatting! Of course, their are other reasons that your squat may be painful like lack of mobility or pelvic alignment. Stay tuned for more info on that. Happy squatting fam💪🏼🏋🏼‍♀️

YOU DESERVE TO HOLD SPACE.

Go to the gym. Be uncomfortable. Try new things. Soon it won’t be so new and intimidating. You got this👊🏼

Also if you’re a frequent gym goer than help a sister out if they look confused! You were a beginner once to. Let’s support each other🖤

🔥“Your all” is relative. 🔥

Give every day your all but some days that’s going for a walk🚶‍♀️and some days that getting a new PR👊🏼

There are so many factors that play into your performance and you can’t control all of them.

Just give your best for the day💗

Let’s reflect! Comment below what your 2021 New Years goals were!! Did you keep them? Why/why not?

a little 🧠 gain for you guys this Saturday evening
•
•
One of the primary reasons we love fitness around here is because we want to be strong and capable older adults. That doesn’t start 50 years down the road. That starts TODAY.

Imagine what you want your later years to look like. Does it look like you plying on the floor or running with your grand kids? Does it look like carrying your groceries from the car to your house and putting them away independently? Does it look like being able to stand from a chair or vehicle by yourself? Or walking without the fear of falling down?

Then fitness is for you!! Build it now while you can. What are you waiting for??

🛑COMMENT🛑
What is the top thing holding you back from going all in with your health?

In the stories yesterday we talked about comments that are often made about our body, food, or exercise during the holidays.

Often these comments catch us off guard and we don’t know how to respond.

Let’s be prepared this time around 👊🏼

Here are some potential responses that tell others that you don’t agree with their comment but can be a way to open up conversation about your health journey.

Comment below which dialogue you like best or what have you learned that works best for you?

‼️PSA‼️

Negative self take should not be a way to motivate yourself to get done whatever you need to get done.

Know your worth. Be confident in who you are and your abilities. Then get to work!

👊🏼I think there is a long-standing myth, especially around the women's fitness sphere that to lose weight you HAVE to run and eat 1,200 calories or less to be successful.

👊🏼For one, 1,200 kcal is a ridiculous number to think is appropriate for a MAINTAINABLE diet, but that is a conversation for another day.

👊🏼Today, let’s talk about running🏃🏼‍♀️, specifically steady-state endurance running. You know the kind of running when you tie your laces and you hit the road and try to run for 30 minutes straight at a steady pace with breaks as you need to catch your breath. Not too long ago, I too was caught up in the idea that the only way to lose weight was to run every single day. And at first, it worked! Until, my body began to adapt and the only thing I knew to do was to run for longer times, which all of my busy people know, we don’t have much of, am I right?

👊🏼So how do you lose weight? In short, the calories you take in have to be less than the calories you expend. Exercise can help increase the calories that you expend but overall the number of calories you would expend running for 30 minutes is negligible. Thus, as the saying goes, you are largely built in the kitchen and exercise is only a means to increase your calorie expenditure.

Now, are there benefits to running?? YES, it helps so many things such as:
🧠Improves mood
💪🏼Increases energy
🍑Improves sexual function
🍩Aids in digestion
🫀Reduces your chance of developing type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease
🤯Combats decline in brain functioning with aging

But is endurance running the ONLY way to lose weight? No ❌

👊🏼Find an activity that you love and that is sustainable. Whether that is taking an aerobic dance class, HIIT, running, kickboxing, CrossFit, weightlifting, insert whatever activity here. You just need something that is going to make your muscles and heart work to assist in your calorie expenditure.

👊🏼Running is good and has wonderful effects on your body, don’t get me wrong, but let’s get rid of the idea that the only way to weight loss is running!

I think everyone has had or currently is in a time where they can not keep a consistent gym routine. You know you NEED to go. You know its good for your HEALTH. You know you will FEEL better after you’re done. Yet, you still find yourself pushing the gym or running or whatever physical activity you like off to the side and eating doritos on the couch

❌ BUT WHY?? ❌ What is stopping you? ❌ What barriers are making you second guess your time exercising? ❌

Truly reflect here, and ask yourself “is my environment and routine set up in such a way that it enables me to have the LEAST amount of barriers to get to the gym?”

Now take those barriers and think of ways you can prime your environment to make future actions easier. Here are some easy ways to begin setting yourself up to succeed in your exercise routine.

1️⃣ Take Sunday afternoon to review your week and SCHEDULE those gym times.

2️⃣ Set your gym clothes + shoes out the night before.

3️⃣ If you will be low on time, prep meals to make the day easier. If you’re going to try and squeeze time before you’re off to work, pack your lunch the night before and pack a morning snack. If you’re going after work, try to find time to prep small parts of your dinner.

4️⃣ Get some accountability. Whether that means you meet a friend, take a fitness class, get a trainer, or even have a check in text with someone you trust. If you can’t rely on yourself, maybe you just need some accountability to get you started.

5️⃣ Have a consistent sleep routine. If you are exhausted because you decided to binge Netflix til 3am, your workout will suffer. You have to have adequate sleep for your body to work at its best, and that means going to bed and waking up at consistent times and getting 7-9 hours of sleep.

At the end of the day, the decision to be consistent is up to YOU. You have to decide to show up, but there are things you can do that make showing up easier on those hard days❤️

✨Hi friends, I’m Alexus Duffy✨

I am a physical therapist with a background in exercise science. Growing up, I was always active and did some kind of sport, but weight training and other aspects of health and wellness were not taught to me! I’m sure that’s largely the same for all of you.

Eventually, you start getting older and you try and figure out this health thing on your own, but it is HARD and so so intimidating. I am still learning and growing everyday, but I am so passionate about helping make fitness and wellness simple and sustainable.

When you imagine your life down the road, I bet you want to be able to play with your grand kids, walk without a cane, get off the couch by yourself, and shop and carry your own groceries. Well guess what people, the time is NOW to start preparing for that future you are imagining.

Let’s start learning to be confident in our bodies, get fit, and be strong.