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A client of mine has been working with a modified windmill exercise in her program for several months.
This week she was very excited to show where she's at with the exercise - Her fingers were reaching the floor!!
An Overview of What my Client is Doing With Windmills
The idea behind adding it into this client's routine, was initially to create mobility through her lowerback / hip area, however it also provided some variety in movement for her as well. It reminds me of a modified triangle pose in yoga, somewhat. What I love about it is it adds a hinge at the hip, a rotation and extension all in one. It's a full body movement which are always wonderful "bang for your buck" go to's in my books.
The video link above will give you an idea of what she is doing (without weight), though we do a slightly modified version from the video. When we first started implementing the exercise (early June of this year) into her twice per week routine here at the studio, her bottom hand would stop just above her knee. She was quite restricted in the movement. She does 5 reps per side, holding at the bottom for 3-5sec each time for 2 (and now 3) sets total in her routine.
In 6 months time, she moved her range of motion from her hand being above her knee, to her fingers touching the floor. Awesome!
So what, you say? I'll tell you what!
The best part of this story I'm sharing is it's MORE PROOF that simplicity, time and consistency are a recipe for positive change. No ego necessary.
My client comes in for 2-coaching sessions per week at the studio. She does some mobility work / exercises at home herself, however her windmill exercise she only does at the studio. Of course, it all helps. But let's "zoom out" on this to see how the change happened - and it's in no way elaborate, "hard" or "Instagram worthy".
She just did the work... over time... with consistency.
Without really "trying" or thinking about it much, my client just did her windmill stretch exercise twice per week over this 6 month period. To add to this, she took weeks off during this latter half of the year as she was on trips, camping etc. So really, she saw this change with even less time and effort than it appears!
I'm sharing this story because it's another example of how if we can put our egos aside, do the simple things well and do them consistently, nature will take care of the rest. Nothing forced. Nothing stressful. Just action and patience.
The Mindset we need to Shift for Positive Change
If we can learn to practice a mindset and approach that is more simplistic, patient and trusting in nature/our physiology, we will see positive change in our deep health. We have to see that our "pushing", stressing and "aggressive" approaches have only steered us further from sustainability and longevity in our health practices. Simplicity cultivates positive change. It just won't happen overnight.
As we did with this client story, if we "zoom out" on the bigger picture in our health practices, we can see that overall things really don't take much time.
...What's 6-months in the grand scheme of the rest of your life?
...If you can lift more or run further by the end of the year than you could at the start, isn't that a good thing?
...If in 3-months you're walking EVERY day for 30min compared to randomly walking here and there in the years prior to that, is that really a bad thing?
Set aside the ego and the impatience.
Cultivate a mindset of basics, simplicity and consistency to create positive change in your health.
It works. And stories like this are the living proof.
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