Yesterday, I did five minutes of warmup on the cardio bike before Emilie showed up. It was slightly before my appointed time, but she suggested starting right away, and I said sure.
We did balance stuff, including the standing on the half-cylinder. She is pleased with my progress, enough so that she told me to "play with balance." We also did (again) an exercise for the hamstrings, and a more difficult form of crunches (which involves a block behind my head, among other things, and which I had to bail out of because it was causing weird tension in my scalp); and more stretches.
The hamstring exercise is called the "hamstring bridge," and I got Emilie to write it down for me, since I'd already forgotten it once:
Lie on back.
Back of ankles on the foam roll.
Hands by side.
Release glutes (I'd have probably written "relax," and at other times she's talked about letting them just hang loose--the point is that they aren't doing the work here)
Allow ribs to drop down front of body [sic--I'm hoping this will come back when I lie down and do it]
Follow breath all the way to the ends, completely deflating the lungs.
Lift pelvis off floor and follow breath
My other instructions are
I did one set of chest presses after Emilie and I were finished, then realized I wasn't in the mood for weights after all, and just changed and came home.
We did balance stuff, including the standing on the half-cylinder. She is pleased with my progress, enough so that she told me to "play with balance." We also did (again) an exercise for the hamstrings, and a more difficult form of crunches (which involves a block behind my head, among other things, and which I had to bail out of because it was causing weird tension in my scalp); and more stretches.
The hamstring exercise is called the "hamstring bridge," and I got Emilie to write it down for me, since I'd already forgotten it once:
Lie on back.
Back of ankles on the foam roll.
Hands by side.
Release glutes (I'd have probably written "relax," and at other times she's talked about letting them just hang loose--the point is that they aren't doing the work here)
Allow ribs to drop down front of body [sic--I'm hoping this will come back when I lie down and do it]
Follow breath all the way to the ends, completely deflating the lungs.
Lift pelvis off floor and follow breath
My other instructions are
- "Challenge balance as often as possible" (which includes standing on one leg, and riding the subway standing up and not holding on—the one leg was her suggestion, I asked about the subway thing, and she said sure. That's a game I used to play a fair amount, but haven't recently.)
- Go on 1/2 roll balance every visit to the gym (this is the one I've been calling a hemi-cylinder)
- Open chest! (that's a stretch for the pectorals;
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adrian_turtle showed me a version with a rolled-up towel, but Emilie wants me to use the foam roll, which is significantly less comfortable)
I did one set of chest presses after Emilie and I were finished, then realized I wasn't in the mood for weights after all, and just changed and came home.
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The foam roll probably lifts your back quite a bit higher than the towel roll we were using, so that could explain why it was more challenging. I've also found that a bra, and self-consciousness, can make that type of stretch less comfortable for me. You might want to experiment with it at home, not just at the gym, now that you have your own foam roll.