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Marching into a spring - Part 1

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spring flowers

Welcome to the March Edition! (Remember to login first to be able to see all of the articles →)

The weather is warming up. The snow is melting. The grass is starting to get green. Soon we will see new growth popping up.

And this year we are biting at the bit to get outdoors.

That is why we need to get as much of our spring cleaning done as we can. We don't want to spend one more day in the house if we don't have to!

And soon, we'll want to have people over. The house will be ready!

Keep working on your spring cleaning tasks.

Along with warmer weather will come outdoor activities. After sitting around for quite a few months, you'll want to start slowly working back up.

Breathing exercises are a good place to start. Huh?

When we're sitting around, we tend to be lazy - even when it comes to breathing. We breathe shallow breaths. Stress makes it even worse. Hunching over our computer makes it even worse. If you try taking a walk around the block, you just might find yourself huffing and puffing.

Sit up straight.

Breathing in through your nose, take a deep breath into your belly without raising your chest for a count of 8.

Hold for a count of 8.

Exhale through pursed lips for a count of 8, deflating your belly like a baloon.

Its best if you can do 5 minutes at a time, a few times a day.

This exercise also relieves stress.

Ok, now lets work on posture.

Here's an old video I did probably 10 years ago...

Poor posture makes you look and feel older.

Think about this, when you're all crunched over, your organs are crushed too. It puts a kink in the works for sure!

You have to retrain your muscles to hold you upright.

Sit up straight. Pull your shoulders up and back. Hold as long as you have time for.

I try to do this while I'm driving and pull my shoulders back into the seat.

I got an inexpensive pusture corrector on Amazon. It works, but the one I got is hard to get off.

No matter which method you choose, you have to do it consistently to retrain and strentghen those muscles.

Next, you should do some stretching.

Here's another one out of the time capsule...

Then start building your cardio and endurance

My favorite way to start off is to pick a favorite upbeat song and walk in place.

You can also dance.

Here are a couple of fun exercises I found...

In my book, the best exercise is plain old walking. Try to get up to 2 miles a day on nice days. It takes about 20 minutes to walk a mile. It gets you outside, getting fresh air, relieving stress, and maybe talking to people along the way.

I was raised taking a walk after dinner with my grandmother. I still prefer that time slot. A lot of people want to walk in the morning. There is no right and wrong. You do what is right for you.

I'm realizing that there is a lot I want to cover this month, so this has now become Part 1.

I still need to cover: