How you start your morning sets the pace for your whole day.
Now, we can’t all be Morning People, who would run the Night Shift? But face it, whatever time you crawl out of bed, be it 7:00 am or 7:00 pm, that’s your Morning, your Moment Of Truth, the time you set the pace for your day, will you face it boldly, with your best foot forward, or timidly check to make sure the floor is still there?
My Morning Routine – Then
My morning routine changed on May 1, 2012, not a very big change, mind you, but an incredibly significant change, none the less.
You see, for more years than I care to relate, decades really, I would wake with Lower Back Pain, if I slept 5 or more hours at a time, and I do.
The pain would fade away after a few hours of groaning, and moaning, but I got really tired of hearing, “Old, Fat Man” noises coming unbidden from my lips, so I set out to lose some weight, didn’t work, I always found it again, with extra to boot.
I did find, or invent a way to drop, not lose, 40 pounds fairly quickly, but strangely enough the lower weight actually increased my Morning Lower Back pain, possibly because I removed the fat insulating the nerves, I don’t know why, I just know it hurt more, not less.
Well, no way was I going to put 40 pounds of lard back on, and I found, remembered really, that being active in the Morning alleviated my pain faster.
So instead of sliding out of bed straight into my computer chair I started to do some minor back stretching, Windmills, twisting and turning, enough to get the blood flowing to my Lower Back.
Then my chiropractor, Dr. Nicole Palmer, showed me a Hamstring Stretch that was my Magic Pill.
My Morning Routine – Now
Earlier this year, some time in February or March, I worked out a regimen of Calisthenics to flatten my Lower Abs, with-out having to spend excessive time on the floor doing crunches.
Then I put it on a cyber shelf, lots of time until Summer, time flew by, next thing I knew it was the end of April, and I had yet to start my regimen, no way was I going to spend another Summer feeling almost good.
May 1, 2012 I got up, did my stretching, then went right into my Calisthenics regimen, 20 minutes later, more or less, I was both pleased and dissatisfied with myself. Pleased because I finally began my Calisthenics, not so pleased because of my very poor performance doing the Calisthenics.
I had planned on doing a Morning Webcast, start out with the work out, then spend a few minutes talking about Internet Marketing, Stretch Your Body, Stretch Your Mind something like that.
Only thing was, I was so uncoordinated and lacking flexibility I felt foolish offering to do it live.
By May 25, 2012 I was down 13 pounds, almost with-out effort, no dieting, the only change was my Morning Routine, it goes like this:
I get up, trying to not groan, walk to the Living Room and lay on my back. I take a rolled up neoprene back support cum weight reducer and put it under my Lower Back for support.
I raise my left leg to the ceiling, with my back flat on the floor, grab my leg with both hands and pull the stretch out for an eight count. And It Hurts, it hurts my truncated hamstrings, it hurts my back, it also hurts the tendons that connect my hamstrings to my buttocks.
I repeat with my right leg, it still hurts, but less. I do one more set.
Then I sit up, remove the back support and do two sets of hurdler stretches, one leg straight, the other making a number four on the floor.
I lay back down, place my hands palms down under my hips and do ten leg raises.
I turn over and do ten Push-ups.
I then sit up on my feet and knees, like you see students in Martial Arts movies listening to their Master teach.
I get my Ab Roller and do between 20 and 30 reps in sets of three, one straight ahead, one off to the right, and one off to the left.
I stand and attempt to touch my toes, some mornings I make, some I don’t.
That’s it for the floor work, about three to five minutes.
Depending on whether my Brother Jesse is awake I do my Calisthenics in the Living Room or the Garage.
Some of the moves I do don’t have names, I’ll do my best to describe them.
I start out with 40 Front Kicks alternating legs, pause for breath, then do 40 side knee raises, for each side.
Imagine you’re standing on one leg, the other leg stretched out opposite it, your hands extended the other direction, you pull your leg and arms toward each other.
Next I do another type of knee raise, this time I bring my left knee up on my left side, while also bringing my extended left arm down, 40 for each side.
Then I do Standing Bicycle Crunches, kind of a cross between the prior two moves, 40 for each side.
I do 40 Back Kicks ans finish off with 40 more Front Kicks.
That’s how I start my day, but it’s not so much what I do, as how I do it.
Michael Cole