Movement is Self-Care

Hi, good morning, good afternoon, or good evening, or good day wherever you are in the world. My name is Theresa Byrne. Students call me Master T, and I would love to lead you through some very simple movements. So if you've got the space, make sure that you don't have anything around you that you could hit, or, or anyone around you, right? Let's see, what are we going to start with today? My favorite, just a light punch across your body. So anytime we do punches, You want to put your thumb on the outside of your fist, and we're just going to cross that midline of your body. And you're also rotating from the ground up. What does that even mean? It means that instead of boxing like this, which would only use my arms, I'm rotating this part of my body so that I can actually get more— it's called compound movements. And that's really what exercise is all about, right? To me, it's functionality. It's that ability to train or to do movements so that when we need to, we can depend on our body and our body can depend on us. Imagine a world. Yes, that's my thought. I did a black belt testing. I earned my 8th black belt this past week, and I had food poisoning the week before and wasn't able to eat very much. But because I've been training and because I've been taking care of my body and Working it to— I don't want to say extremes, but working it to a harder level or challenging, I was able to fall back on my body and it was able to take care of me. And punch high! Not that I would recommend that to anyone else, but— So even when you're not up to par, right, even when you're not 100%, there are things that you can do to let your body know that you've got it. That you care for it, that you are taking care of it. And some of these moves, very simple range of motion, alignment, getting that blood flowing, increasing the temperature in your muscles, increasing the blood flow. It all helps us. And it not just— not only does it help us now, it depends— how do I say this— it showcases how we live the last 10 years of our life. So the more that you can— and we're going to punch over to the side. Keep your nose forward. So you're rotating and your nose is forward and you're punching all the way to the side. How you work out or how you move now will determine the last 10 years of your life. And what does that mean? We'll do some higher intensity workouts. Not all the time, 2, 3 days a week. Get those intervals in. Do some weightlifting. Work on your balance. Do some flexibility training. Make it fun and find movement that you like to do, that you will do 3, 4, 5 times a week. Okay, we're gonna go into a hook punch, which is a right arm— well, not a right arm, it's a hook, a right angle hook across your body, just like you are punching toward someone's face. Good. So these are Regular hooks, and now we're going to drop them into body hooks. So a body hook, I like to do it with my thumb up. Here, here, here, here. And this would be going towards someone's ribs, still with that same rotation. Breathing in and breathing out. Breathing in and breathing out. There are so many things that we can do to keep our bodies in In alignment so that it kind of lines up with our dreams and our goals, whatever those may be. All right, now we're gonna do 1, 2, low, low, high, high, low, low, high, high. What? Low, low. And I want to give a shout out— there's a group of people at Jonah Energy who— a group of women who do these movement videos twice a week. 245. 245, man, they are like working out as a group. I'm curious to see what that looks like, but here's a shout out to y'all. And 3, 2, last one. Nice. Go ahead and tap your opposite knee. Breathing in and breathing out. Good. So when I was testing for my black belt, there were several times that I was afraid that I was going to A, pass out, or B, throw up. And what stopped me from doing that? Well, first of all, was my partner holding on to me and breathing, relaxing my nervous system. 4, 3, 2, 1, and 1. Good. Now we're going to do little front kicks. So you're picking up your knee like you stepped in something gross and you kick it out. 1, 2, 3, 4. Breath can do a lot of things for us. It's the first thing we do when we come to the planet, and it's the last thing we do before we leave. So knowing what I know about the nervous system, when you can calm yourself and you can calm your body and your breath and your nervous system, you're able to function much better. 4, 3, 2, 1. Here, one here. Good. Little side kicks. So these are just To the side. You are using the heel. And if you ever needed these for self-defense, takes about 12 to 18— 12 pounds of pressure to buckle someone's knee. So if you ever needed these, these are a great little self-defense move. It's called a side kick. And these are pretty low, but they're also working your hips. 3, 2, 1. Nice. Let's do some knee circles because I love them and they're so good for our hips. A lot of these videos, a lot of the moves I do in these videos are really to help your body, not just the energy in your body, not the woo-woo energy, but just the flow. Because think about it, when you are out of alignment, like something gets stuck, then you start feeling shoulder pain or back pain. That's what happens when we are not doing full body moves or when we're not in alignment. All right, now hip circles. So even just some simple moves every day, these every day can help your body, can release the tension, can help put you back to rights. What's right? Just you and your alignment. Switch direction. Breathing in, breathing out. Nice. All right, we're gonna do a little punching combination. Uh, let's see what I want to do. Go ahead and step back with your right leg, and we're going to do a jab, cross, up, up. 1, 2, uppercut, uppercut. 1, 2, up, up. The reason I love uppercuts is because they're great core work. Yes, you're using your arm, but look at that, you're using your hips. Boom, boom. I was teaching a black belt class last week and I made them do boxing moves without their hands and they were like, what? But you can do it. You can actually showcase a move. It's not all upper body, it's your whole body. It's one of the reasons I love martial arts so very much. 4, 3, 2, 1. If you would like to, you can speed that up. If you're not feeling well or you're a little under the weather, you don't have to, but the important thing is that relaxed motion. So I'm not boom, boom, boom, boom. Nice and relaxed. Let the muscles extend and contract and use your muscles to stop the motion, not your joints. 4, 3. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 2, 1. Nice. And we're gonna switch to the other side. Jab, cross, up, up. Jab, cross, up, up. 1, 2, uppercut, uppercut. Lots of foot movements. You're gonna stay kind of on the balls of your feet. If you've ever seen a boxer, they're never flat-footed. They're not just standing there because an object in motion tends to what? Stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force, which is why if you are binge-watching Netflix, it's really hard to get off the couch unless, you know, something happens or you force yourself. All right, we're gonna get ready to speed that up. Again, that's an option. You do not have to speed it up. 2, last one, the speed. Ready and go. And again, nice and relaxed. So often I'll train boxers or martial artists and their moves can be very, very hard and that's harder on our body. So, you know, if I punch like this for many, many years, it's going to be hard. But if you can learn how to relax those muscles, you actually get much faster at it and it's good for your body and you're using all these body parts. So many ands! Ah, breathing in, breathing out. Let's see, I want to do a leg move before we end. We're almost to the end. 2 and 1. All right, we're gonna do a little squat kick, squat kick. Then you can kick at whatever height is comfortable for you. Squat kick, squat kick. And your squat doesn't have to be a low squat. It's kind of a bob. In boxing, you bob out of the way, move out of the way, get out of the way, and then kick. 4, 3, 2, and last one. All right. The last way that I end all my classes is a second of gratitude. Thankful for you. And I hope that you can be thankful for your body. Give it a second of thankfulness, gratitude for all of the work that it does. All right. I'll catch you on the flip side. Bye.