3 Methods to Assess Your Leg Power (and why it issues for girls’s well being)

Betty Rocker (00:16):
What’s up, rock stars Coach Betty Rocker right here. Thanks a lot for spending a while with me right this moment. So final time we talked, we went in depth about one of many essential indicators of our power, which is in fact, grip power. And simply to recap, grip power is admittedly essential as a result of it’s indicator of our total power. So it’s one to make use of to type of gauge the place you’re at now. Final time we talked, I went over 5 methods to check your grip power. And what we checked out have been squeezing a house toilet scale to see what number of kilos of stress you’ll be able to grip utilizing a dynamometer system, which measures your grip power hanging from a bar and timing your self doing a farmer’s carry with weights at your sides as you stroll and selecting up weights by the heads utilizing a pinch seize.

(01:05)
So these have been all of our checks, and the explanation it’s a fantastic thought to verify in on it periodically and why we should always care about it’s simply due to the related threat elements which are associated to poor grip power, which are actually all the pieces from elevated threat of bone breaks to poor immune well being, decrease cognitive operate, and a lot extra. And as we age, hormones like estrogen, progesterone and testosterone begin to decline. We’ve talked loads about this on earlier episodes and the way the lack of these key hormones actually impacts our power, making us extra liable to muscle and bone loss, and actually affecting our flexibility as that ligamentous tissue turns into much less pliable. The excellent news is when you’re utilizing Betty Rocker coaching applications and consuming tips, you’ve got important instruments to remain forward of loads of the age associated degeneratio the physique is admittedly liable to. I imply, use it or lose it, proper?

(01:59)
In the event you’re coaching with me, you’re persistently power coaching and also you’re working in your explosive energy, you’re consuming sufficient protein on your age group and also you’re prioritizing these fiber wealthy carbs and that wholesome fats. You’re making your self care a precedence like taking the remainder days between your excessive quantity coaching periods, and when you’re in perimenopause or put up menopause, you’ve acquired a extra personalized schedule on your coaching in my applications that actually is gonna profit you probably the most. You’re prioritizing your bedtime and also you’re stretching extra round your coaching. You’re conserving an “all or one thing” mentality in thoughts in an effort to keep constant. And you understand that our well being and health are this holistic course of that we work on over time, identical to we work on methods to speak to ourselves with kindness the identical method we might discuss to our buddies. And actually, making buddies with your self and talking to your self with kindness is likely one of the finest issues you are able to do for your self and your well being.

(02:54)
Generally it’s actually useful to consider the little model of you, and keep in mind that while you communicate to your self, you’re additionally talking to her. I do know you’ve got loads of love to present, so give that like to your self too, and keep in mind why you’re exhibiting as much as do the stuff I discuss. Like we gotta be exercising and caring about our meals for extra than simply that sizzling bod, proper? I imply, you might nonetheless have that too, nevertheless it goes deeper, proper? Today once I prepare, I take into consideration the one who I’ll be in 30 years and I wanna actually set her up for achievement. All the things I do now could be going to assist with that. I wanna maintain on to robust bones and have the muscle in my physique to have the ability to transfer and hike and revel in life, and I wanna keep as versatile as I can.

(03:38)
So actually lately I’m taking motion for 2 folks. I’m doing it for the little child model of me. I wanna make her pleased with who I’m, and I’m doing it for the older model of me. I would like her to look again and say, rattling woman, you set us as much as be robust and and have a look at how a lot we will do, proper? I simply discovered myself actually impressed with the grip power take a look at and the way a lot I might do. And also you would possibly assume, oh, come on Betty Rocker, you’re a coach. In fact that was simple for you and usually you’d be proper. However I did have a nasty fall about six months in the past now, and I dislocated my elbow. And ever since then I’ve been slowly and methodically rebuilding my power round that joint. It’s loopy, nevertheless it simply modified how I used to be in a position to do all types of workouts and I needed to actually take it sluggish as I got here again after that damage.

(04:25)
And I used to be simply so glad to have that muscle and power that I had constructed earlier than to attract on. And I used to be undoubtedly thanking my previous self for all her arduous work. Let me let you know, (snort). So anyway, after I used to be kind of checking in on my power with the grip power take a look at, it acquired me occupied with the opposite issues we wish to verify in with ourselves on periodically with regards to our power and our mobility, as a result of we additionally wanna have robust legs, a powerful core, good flexibility, and a strong capacity to steadiness as we age. One common take a look at you might even see on-line that actually targets all of these issues is the sit to face or sit to rise take a look at. A research printed within the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology assessed over 2000 adults, over 50 years outdated, performing this take a look at, and so they discovered that these with decrease scores had larger mortality charges from any trigger, and folks with larger scores had longer survival charges.

(05:24)
Now, this take a look at actually sizes up the power in our glutes, our hamstrings, interior and outer thigh muscle groups, plus our mobility, our steadiness, and our coordination and our core. So you are able to do this one proper now if you wish to, and when you’re watching the video model of this podcast on the present notes web page on my weblog or on my YouTube channel, you’ll be able to see an indication, however you can too simply hear alongside ’trigger I’ll clarify it. There are two elements to this take a look at. One is the sitting down and the second is the standing up. We’ll begin out with 5 factors for every a part of the take a look at for a complete of 10 factors. We’re gonna begin out standing, after which we’re gonna sit down cross-legged on the ground utilizing as few factors of contact with the ground as doable to carry ourselves down, which means your fingers, knees, elbows, or another a part of your physique utilizing as few of these physique elements as doable to carry your self all the way down to that seated place.

(06:15)
And we begin with these 5 factors and we deduct a degree for each level of contact that we have to use to carry ourselves down into that seated cross-legged place. Now, half two of this take a look at is to face up from that cross-legged place utilizing as little assist as doable from our fingers, knees, elbows, or different factors of contact with the ground. And as soon as once more, you begin with 5 factors and also you deduct a degree for each level of contact it is advisable to use that will help you arise. So when you’re someplace that you are able to do this, go forward and check out it out and make sure that you’re subsequent to some furnishings in an effort to attain out to assist your self. We’re simply assessing the place we’re at. Simply discover if it is advisable to put a hand down, if it is advisable to use your knees to come back up, or when you felt stiff or had bother being within the cross-legged place and coming into it or out of it, how did you do?

(07:03)
Now you’re gonna take your factors from every half and add them collectively to see the place you fall on that complete one to 10 scale. And when you wanted to make use of some assist to carry your self up, keep in mind that’s okay. The purpose of the take a look at is to only discover out the place we have to focus. We’d like loads of flexibility in our tissue and mobility round our joints to come back from a seated place to standing or from a standing place again to seated because the legs are bent and the tissue that crosses over the joint areas of our hips, ankles, and knees, all wants to have the ability to transfer freely. We’d like loads of leg and core power as all of these muscle teams work collectively to assist us stand up and are available down. And we want steadiness, capacity, and coordination, loads of which comes from our core power to assist us in that in-between section proper of the stand or the sit.

(07:54)
Now, when you discovered that you just struggled with this one, that’s completely regular. It simply could also be that it is advisable to work in your flexibility somewhat extra and simply perhaps begin stretching round your exercises extra persistently. As we age, we lose our collagen and our elastin and the issues that assist us be extra limber. Our ligaments turn out to be much less compliant as our estrogen ranges go down. So getting somewhat extra proactive about your self-care round your exercises, whether or not it’s a 3 minute warmup the place you’re simply transferring dynamically and even doing among the strikes out of your exercise with your individual physique weight, otherwise you’re doing say a 5 minute stretch after you prepare with these heat muscle groups, otherwise you’re including somewhat yoga or mobility work on a few of your relaxation days all through the week like we do in all the Betty Rocker applications.

(08:39)
That may be an effective way to enhance your joint well being and actually hold your physique limber and free and together with flexibility, among the workouts that may actually enhance all of these areas of your physique that assist with sitting and standing embrace strikes just like the it’s, this one’s acquired a few names, the knee drop lunge, which is also called the prisoner squat. And that’s the place you place your fingers behind your head and also you decrease your self all the way down to a kneeling place and then you definitely step proper again up once more, conserving your fingers again behind your head. And one other nice transfer that I like to incorporate in my applications is the Turkish getup. That’s the place you begin out mendacity in your again with one arm straight up within the air, you carry your higher physique up nearly coming right into a situp utilizing your core power, and then you definitely carry your legs below you coming into both a kneeling lunge or a low squat, and then you definitely come as much as a standing place holding your arm up overhead the complete time.

(09:35)
This transfer is a brilliant spicy transfer, nevertheless it actually helps to strengthen all the pieces out of your rotator cuff to your core, your legs, glutes, and it helps enhance your steadiness and adaptability as you’re getting up from the ground and coming again all the way down to the ground. It’s a featured transfer within the Ripped Rockstar Problem collection in Rock Your Life over the course of that individual problem collection in elements one, two, and three, we repeatedly work to enhance our Turkish getup in a single exercise every week. That’s a extremely enjoyable program in Rock Your Life. It’s best to undoubtedly test it out, however one other nice physique weight transfer to enhance your sit to standability and hold your steadiness flexibility core and legs robust is the burpee (snort). That’s the place we carry ourselves all the way down to a plank pose, do a pushup, bounce to our ft, after which bounce up within the air after which we repeat it.

(10:24)
Everybody likes to hate the burpee, however I’ve actually come to like it for the versatile methods we will use it to enhance so many features of our power. You’ll see loads of actually enjoyable burpee variations in my challenges and applications. All the things from a low affect burpee to uh, one you are able to do together with your fingers elevated that will help you construct up that power. You are able to do a double bounce burpee. That’s the place you’re gonna do two jumps on the high. You possibly can do a reverse burpee that when there’s no pushup in, nevertheless it’s additionally actually powerful to come back down and are available again up. After which there’s even a warrior burpee the place we add a mountain climber on the backside and two kicks on the high, proper. I began sweating simply occupied with burpees, (snort), however they’re simply such an incredible transfer to essentially embrace in your coaching commonly that actually helps you preserve so many essential features of your health.

(11:14)
Now, these strikes I discussed, the prisoner squat, the Turkish getup and the burpee are all going that will help you enhance your leg and core power, plus enhance your capacity to steadiness. And they’re going to all aid you with that sit to face take a look at, which isn’t actually why we’re coaching, nevertheless it’s a enjoyable technique to take a look at your self to be sure to’re staying on high of essential features of your well being. Additionally they recruit loads of your posterior chain musculature when you’ve by no means encountered that time period. It simply refers back to the muscle groups that run up and down the again facet of your physique, like your again, your glutes, your hamstrings, and your calves. And these muscle groups are all concerned in your capacity to leap and steadiness and transfer nicely. And you’ll find loads of enjoyable posterior chain particular exercise movies on my weblog on thebettyrocker.com, and so they’re additionally constructed into my Rock Your Life challenges and exercise applications. And leg power specifically is so essential for us as ladies –

(12:08)
We feature over half of our skeletal muscle in our decrease physique. So actually conserving that a part of our physique robust is enormously essential for us. And keep in mind that muscle tissue is what determines our resting metabolic charge. AKA what number of energy or how a lot vitality you’re gonna burn even at relaxation. So the extra muscle now we have, the extra effectively we burn physique fats. And this is likely one of the causes it’s simpler to realize weight as we age and begin to lose our muscle tissue if we’re not taking steps to assist holding onto it. So a enjoyable take a look at, you’ll be able to attempt to assess your leg and core power is an easy wall sit take a look at. That is the place you’re going to brace your self in opposition to the wall and decrease your self down so your knees are bent at a 90 diploma angle and your again is flat in opposition to the wall.

(12:59)
You then’ll simply time your self to see how lengthy you’ll be able to maintain this place. A fantastic benchmark to intention for is a full minute, and it’s powerful. Something greater than that’s only a bonus and an indicator that you just’re actually robust. In the event you’re less than a minute while you do the take a look at, that’s a-okay. In the event you can maintain it for 45 seconds, that’s nonetheless good. The typical is 35 to 45 seconds. So something above common is nice. In the event you’re beneath that, it’s simply one thing to work on, proper? There’s so many nice workouts that will help you construct your leg power like squats, deadlifts, lunges, and tons of variations of these as nicely. Beginning with physique weight variations all the way in which as much as weighted choices, there are leaping and excessive affect workouts too that can strengthen your legs. And talking of leaping, one other actually enjoyable take a look at you’ll be able to attempt that can assess your leg power is the standing broad bounce take a look at.

(13:52)
You may need completed this again in gymnasium class or keep in mind measuring your bounce size, nevertheless it’s a fantastic evaluation of your energy potential, particularly in your glutes and legs. And it’s one the place we want loads of that posterior chain power. Now, this take a look at is often completed for athletes who want their leg power for his or her sport, nevertheless it’s additionally simply nice to verify in on ourselves and see the place we’re at too, as a result of explosive energy signifies that you’ve acquired loads of power in your legs. So what you are able to do is lay out a tape measure, or you’ll be able to merely put down markers for a number of ft or meters out and just be sure you’re gonna do that on a giving floor like your garden or a mat. Perform a little warmup like some strolling lunges or some physique squats and a few excessive knees, and lay out your tape measure and are available to the zero finish together with your ft barely aside.

(14:40)
Swing your arms and bend your knees to assist in giving you as a lot ahead drive as you may get. And then you definitely’re simply gonna bounce as far ahead as you’ll be able to and land on each ft with out falling backwards. Your distance is to the place you land behind your heels. You’re gonna make three makes an attempt and mark down your distance every time. The typical distance for girls is 5 ft, seven and a half inches to 5 ft 11 inches. Wonderful is somewhat over six ft. In the event you’re beneath the common, that is simply an indicator to work on strengthening that posterior chain and the leg muscle groups normally. A few of the finest methods to enhance your leg and glute power are with power coaching strikes. So you are able to do deadlifts, there are squats, there are hip thrusts, lunges, and people are all of the slower resistance coaching leg and glute strengthening strikes, that are superb on your leg power.

(15:29)
However we will’t neglect the significance of plyometrics or explosive cardio strikes for creating the quick twitch muscle fibers that actually assist you’ve got the facility for brief, forceful contractions for strikes like a broad bounce. So you can too do strikes like bounce squats, bounce change lunges, field jumps, sprints, and naturally, truly simply practising broad jumps themselves. They’re such a fantastic train, even while you’re not measuring how far you’ll be able to go! And this kind of explosive leg power and the muscle groups that it calls on is likely one of the causes now we have loads of plyometric strikes in my applications that actually steadiness out the resistance coaching. We wanna load the joints after which explode, which helps actually enhance our muscular energy. Like we have been saying, it boosts our bone density and it improves our cardiovascular well being. To not point out this sort of explosive cardio actually improves our capacity to steadiness and our agility and coordination.

(16:25)
Plus, it improves our mind-body connection and our each day useful motion. So this is the reason I all the time have it in my applications, except they’re particularly labeled low affect. Like now we have a complete collection of low affect challenges in Rock Your Life as a result of some folks do have to take the leaping out for various causes, however in any other case we’ve acquired it in there as a result of it’s so useful. Now with regards to leaping and explosive motion, this is the reason I’m all the time going over kind and alignment and truly why I created the Free Foundations of Purposeful Health workshop collection that will help you take note of your physique mechanics. You may get that at thebettyrocker.com/fff/. In the event you wanna seize that, identical to we don’t wanna load the joints with weight utilizing poor kind, we don’t wanna bounce or explosively transfer with misaligned hips or knees or ankles. And typically you don’t know you’re not aligned till one thing begins to harm.

(17:21)
However folks typically ignore early warning indicators and simply chalk them as much as being sore from their exercise. However our our bodies are dynamic and life takes a toll, whether or not it’s due to the facet of your physique that’s dominant, otherwise you’ve had children otherwise you’ve been in a automotive accident or been injured sooner or later and needed to rehab and perhaps your physique developed some compensating kind of patterns. And people key joints can get out of alignment simply, like our hips, our shoulders, our spinal column, our si, and a lot extra. And you probably have the chance to work with a bodily therapist or a motion practitioner who makes a speciality of issues like gait evaluation or postural alignment, um, or optimization, simply periodically and proactively checking your kind and alignment with these hands-on assessments might be actually useful. And if up to now you’ve had somebody provide you with corrective workouts and also you’ve stopped doing them, it could be that you just simply have to begin to carry these again into play to essentially assist your physique.

(18:17)
As a result of patterns are typically caught for a very long time. It actually does take a devoted effort to get the physique to maneuver the way in which that we would like it to. Having anyone that will help you with this sort of stuff is like somebody holding up a really specialised mirror to your physique, and this may 100% aid you keep away from damage and actually prepare safely over time. As a result of I’d say that most likely one of the crucial frequent causes folks really feel hesitant about leaping and doing explosive strikes as they age is as a result of both they’re nervous they’re gonna get damage or as a result of they’re having achy joints or aches and pains. And once we’re coaching, we all the time wanna respect the physique and never push it to a painful place, proper? We wanna hearken to these cues and again off if one thing hurts. Now, some nice methods to stop these points might be coaching on a extra aligned physique and staying extra versatile.

(19:11)
And this stuff would possibly want somewhat extra consideration as we age, proper? It is perhaps that some hands-on care is required from a practitioner, or we have to dial in our kind a bit extra in our coaching, or that perhaps somewhat extra stretching is required round our exercises, like we have been speaking about earlier than, is that may simply actually assist hold the tissue round your joints extra pliable, aid you together with your mobility and your flexibility. Generally folks ask me about cardio and peri or put up menopause as a result of they’ve heard that cardio is unhealthy for us right now in our lives as a result of it elevates our cortisol. It is a nice query, and the reply is admittedly essential to listen to if that is you. So primary, any kind of exercise that actually taxes your physique will elevate your cortisol and trigger a stress response in your physique.

(20:00)
That’s a extremely pure course of, and it’s why I discuss train being a wholesome stress. After we are wholesome, we problem the physique in opposition to a load and it struggles proper? Then it will get stronger. Our cortisol goes up, whether or not we’re doing a tough resistance coaching exercise or a tough cardio exercise, the factor that modifications within the menopause years is that we simply turn out to be extra delicate to the cortisol due to decrease hormone ranges. That is why all of my applications have customized coaching schedules for girls in these life phases since you merely want somewhat extra restoration round your excessive quantity coaching so your physique can come again robust once more. In our biking years, these larger ranges of hormones give us extra resilience. Would we additionally profit from a extra balanced coaching schedule then too? Completely. We don’t wanna be driving ourselves into the bottom at any age, however we additionally recuperate quicker in our biking years.

(20:56)
So again to menopause and cardio. What actually wants to alter is the way in which we use cardio. So primary, we wanna ensure that we’ve acquired the resistance coaching as a foundational piece of our exercise programming, after which we’re including within the explosive cardio that has so many advantages for us. A wonderful thing about that explosive motion or plyometric coaching is that it’s brief in length sometimes. So you’re employed on it briefly intervals or bursts. This fashion, you get all these advantages with out straining your self. And we take applicable restoration round our excessive quantity coaching, whether or not it’s our cardio or our resistance coaching, and that is how you retain the stress to a stage you could successfully handle and also you get all the advantages that these explosive actions carry us. So to recap, on our leg power assessments right this moment, we’ve gone over the sit to face take a look at or sit to rise take a look at.

(21:50)
We’ve coated the wall sit take a look at, and we’ve coated the standing broad bounce take a look at. And all of those are going to evaluate your leg power and energy in several methods, and likewise actually aid you verify in with different essential well being markers which are important to our power, like our flexibility and our steadiness and coordination. These are all nice to verify in with your self on periodically, and I’d in fact love to listen to what you uncover and what you’re engaged on in consequence. So remember to drop me a line both on my weblog or on social media, on the present notes web page we’re, you understand, we’re all works in progress and now we have our ups and downs with regards to getting robust and staying that method. I’m no exception. I discussed earlier that my accident actually set me again and that it was nice to have the grip power take a look at as I used to be getting myself again and rebuilding my power.

(22:39)
So it’s actually enjoyable to to check this stuff out and see the place we’re at and know that we will all the time get stronger if we do it safely, if we do it mindfully. So I actually sit up for listening to from you about no matter you study and any questions that you’ve. And you may get all of the notes from right this moment’s episode over on the present notes web page on thebettyrocker.com, which incorporates the transcript and hyperlinks to something I’ve talked about and a video model of this episode. So thanks once more a lot for spending a while with me right this moment, and I sit up for persevering with this dialog. So until subsequent time, Rockstar, I’m Betty Rocker, and you’re so superior, flawsome and superb. I’ll discuss to you once more actual quickly. Bye for now.