You gotta be IN it ...

Hi, Master Theresa here, and if you are in a place where you can do some movement and join me, I'd love to have you get your body moving. Let's start with some elbows, and I hope that the audio is working, that you can hear me. Elbows going forward. Now, if you don't have any shoulder issues or impingements, you can make your arms go longer, or You can also do singles. Guess what? They all work. I like them all. And take your arms backwards. Good. Starting with elbows, if that feels okay, go ahead and extend. You want to check into your body every day because I will tell you, even as a professional athlete, there are some days where certain exercises that I did the day before, my body is like, yep, not doing that. I might be able to do a bunch of push-ups one day, and the next day my body's like, yep, we can do some, but not as many as we did. So you really want to check into your body every day. And arms up and down, up and down. And let's see what kind of trouble we can get into today. Let's win! Let's move our bodies. Oh, that feels good. And I want you to punch over to the side. Keep your eyes forward as you rotate, punching. Shoulders are relaxed and you're pivoting. You're, you're like squeezing, pivoting your midsection. So I'm using my shoulders and my hips and I'm keeping my eyes forward. Actually, it's good for brains too. 3, 2, and 1. Speaking of brains, let's do contralateral. We're going to tap twice, and if you're feeling kind of flexy You can tap with your forearm. If you're feeling really flexy, go ahead and bring that elbow down. It's all up to you, whichever one works for you today. 3, 2, last one here, and last one here. Good. Now we're going to do a little front kick, step back, kick to the front, step to the back. So you're going to kick, put that foot underneath you, and then Do a back kick. Nice and low as we're warming up. I used to call this the rocking horse because you're sort of in a rocking position. Tighten your core, and you don't have to go very high on the kicks. You don't have to go very high on the back kicks. You don't have to go any forcefully or anything more than you want. 3, 2, 1. Good. Switch to the other side. Low front, low back. Low front, low back. Low back. Nice. Low front, low back, low front, low back. Good. 3, 2, and 1. Nice. Go ahead and take your knee out. Circle, circle, circle. And hey, any day that you get movement in, whether it's Intense exercise, whether it's stretching exercise, it changes your body. Our brain is so connected to our body that we can change our emotional states by moving. And there are certain vagus nerve stimulation things you can do. There are certain body things you can do to make yourself feel different or feel better. And let's do some hip circles. And, uh, follow me for more recipes. Follow me for more brain-body connectors. And I had to heal a brain injury— switch directions— and I had to learn a lot of this stuff and apply it like my life depended on it. Because between you and me, my life did depend on it. So it's not that I just learned it in a book or studied it in a class, push side to side, although that's very valuable. I had to use this stuff to put myself back together. So if you're not starting from the deficit I was, which was rocking 30% of my brain capability, then you're already in the better, right? You're rocking it. Okay, we're gonna start with a combination. I'm gonna have you put— this is my left leg— if you put your left leg forward, and we're gonna start jab, cross, jab, and then you're gonna bring your front knee up. 1, 2, 1, knee. 1, 2, 1, knee is the combo. Now, you might like to go fast, you might like to go slow, this might be the perfect speed for you, and that's okay. Whatever works for you. Now, if you're more of a turbo person, now is a good time to do it. Good. Punch, punch, punch, knee. Punch, punch, punch, knee. Good. Now, because we've been working on balance, we're going to double that knee up in 3, 2, and 1. Knee, knee, punch, punch, punch, knee, knee, punch, punch, punch, knee, knee, punch, punch, punch, knee, tap, knee. Good. And this is great core work as well. Knees are excellent core work. 3 more. 2. Last one. Awesome. Switch to the other side. Jab, cross, jab, knee. 1, 2, 1. 1, 2, 1. Knee. 1, 2, 1, knee. Good. Now if you want to go faster, you can. The rule as a black belt is we always practice something slowly. We get the techniques of it down, we get the alignment of it down, we feel into it before we add power or speed. Some people just tend to go speed right away. You don't want to necessarily do that because you could injure yourself. Or do something incorrectly and pull a muscle or learn it incorrectly. And even with my black belt students, something that they know, I'll have them slow it down quite a bit just so I can watch how they're doing that technique. We are going to double this knee. Ready? And double! One, one, boom, boom, boom, knee, knee, one, one, one, knee, knee. Knee, knee. Jab, cross, jab. It's actually 1, 2, 1, knee, knee. 1, 2, 1, knee, knee. And that knee can go as high as you're comfortable. And you can bring your upper body forward if you want, or just bring that knee up. A couple more. Good. Last one here. Nice. All right, go ahead and circle your arms. Take a sumo squat. Sumo squat means your knees are facing out. And you never want your knees to go over your toes. This is very dangerous for your knees. Same with any kind of squat. If I'm squatting and my knees are forward, they're taking all of the brunt. So up and down. Got you on a timer. I'll double-check our times. I'm going to add some interesting arms. Boxers, speed bag. Nice. Up and down. Good. Now we're going to switch the direction of our speed bag and hold the squat. Hold it, hold it. You can pulse it if you want to. You're gonna hold it down. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Nice. Toe heel your feet together. All right, I want to get you a little stretch. In those quads. So hit your butt. If you have knee issues, just pick up your foot and think about bringing it— your boots to your glutes, your booty to your heels. Nice. Good. And next, work on a little flexibility for the hip. So I was creating a set of exercises prior to my brain injury, my accident, What I call warrior moves. Not gonna lie, they're not easy, but they help all the supporting muscles around our big muscle groups. So we'll do a set of arms and we'll do a little legs, and then boom, Bob's your uncle. So we're gonna do it, uh, a set of blocks. Now what I want you to think about doing is block and freeze, block and freeze. It's an isometric. Good. And I'm gonna time you. You do whatever you want with your lower body. You can take a squat if you want, but your isometrics means squeezing. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze. I noticed that when black belts were training for their first degree, second degree, third degree, they were just thinking about making it through the day. Squeeze, squeeze. Getting all their exercise, all the movement in. And they weren't thinking about their bodies, and their bodies started changing shape. So I started mirroring and doing— taking some of the things we do in training and offering it for fitness. 3, 2. Nice. All right, the next one is weird, but I love it. Uh, which is me, right? You're gonna take your leg out at a figure 4. If you have something you put your hand on, that will help. And you're just gonna raise your foot to the center. There is a martial arts technique where you scrape down someone's shin, and we are mirroring that. So you're holding, your knee is out, you are raising. I don't know if I can do this without raising up and down. 2, and time. Good. Other leg. So you're raising, your knee is facing out, your foot is relaxed, you're using all these little muscles. To help bring up your foot, and you're strengthening the muscles that support your knee and your hip. Keep going, you're almost there. I know you're starting to feel it. I hope you're starting to feel it. Good. Keep— should keep— make sure that knee is facing out. 3, 2, time. Yeah, you did it! You did it! All right, last thing, get grateful. Say thanks to your body. Thanks for breathing. Thanks for helping me get through the day. Thanks for everything that you do. And thanks for showing up. Appreciate you.