This video shows one of the first moves I was taught by the fitness trainer I used to help me finally lose "half my size" and never gain it back. At the time he taught me this, and some other simple moves, I thought they were really stupid.
Sitting on the ground and leaning over a few inches does not seem like it will help you lose weight. When I first started, I could not go more than an inch or two anyway since my big fat stomach was in the way.
But this move and other small moves did work!
Now it helps many others I have worked with since then. This is normally how I begin and end any stretching session.
Directions
- get down to the floor comfortably
- use props to get up and down as needed
- start breathing with attention
- center your body up over your hips
- center your body, pulling gently with your heels
- lean forward by pushing your lower spine back
- keep breathing
- bend forward by moving up your spine
- when you get to a stopping point, drop your head and shoulders, relax
- keep breathing
- lift up by moving back up your spine from bottom to top
- your head is the last body part to straighten up
Modifications
- you can do this once or repeat up to 5 times
- sit on a pillow if you are more comfortable that way
- twist from side to side gently at any point in the move
- reach your arms out forward or to the side
- can be done in bed; hook your ankles over the edge for stability
- never overextend
- never hold your breath
You can hear me breathing hard in this video. I did not believe that breathing with intention would help either. Now I know breathing well is critical for success.
Before I met and started working with this trainer I had spent 3 years to lose about 40 pounds. I did not care what it took. I was going to lose weight or die trying.
Before I met and hired this trainer, I was up to walking 2 hours a day. I was not counting my steps, but each one was a painful misery. I had started 3 years prior, only able to walk 10 minutes at a time. So I thought I was making progress to be able to walk so long and so far.
When hearing how I was "working out" the trainer's advice was to "stop that incessant walking" and start stretching instead. I was so sick and miserable that I would try anything, do I started down this new path.
My routine changed to about 1 hour of stretching each day and maybe 20 minutes of walking. But instead of painfully lumbering down the road for hours, now I was going at a speedy clip, and feeling energized at the end of that time.
And my shoulders, back, hips, knees, and feet were no longer in painful agony. All of the sudden, I could move. I COULD lift my arms over my head without pain. I COULD turn my head. I COULD twist my spine.
My son 
At the end of those two weeks I asked
Instead my son said,
"Are you crazy! Give him all the money you've got. You are the healthiest I have ever seen you. You can stand up straight, walk down stairs, and your hair is not gray anymore."
That was all it took for me to continue (no gray hair!?) and 10 months later I was at my goal weight and have never looked back.
Everything this trainer taught me, was something I never knew before. The common wisdom is that fat people are just stupid and lazy and this is why we can't lose weight.
Instead I found out about the lies in the common wisdom, the poison in the food supply, better ways to work out, and countless other things I never knew before. This is what I try to convey to others, and see it work if they listen and take action.
In the many years since losing weight and becoming a weight loss coach myself, I swim upstream from Christmas to Superbowl Sunday, trying to catch people who have a spark of hope and a dream that this will be the year they finally get healthy. What I paid a fortune for, I give away for free or cheap.
This year I cannot bring myself to try. I have limited wifi time now and trawling my fb groups for people to help is not how I feel like spending it.
But I'm watching as my natural health coach brethren go through the same agony I normally do each year at this time. We all know the answer but cannot convey it when people are so sure they already know what to do.
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I'm posting health and fitness information to my son
More In this Exercise Series:
Stretching
Stretch open your hip joint
Lunge Easily and properly
Get Down on the Floor While Obese
Back and Neck Stretch
Forward Bends
Don't Kneel for Cat and Cow Poses
Strength
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