3 Exercises You Should be Doing Every Day to Improve Your Health

These are my 3 exercises to improve or maintain your health

1.  "Shoulder Blades in back pockets"  

Most people tell you to "sit up straight" or "stand up straight" by sticking your chest out and putting your shoulders back.  The problem with this is that most people tend to over-correct and reduce or minimize the curve in their thoracic spine (mid back).  In fact, if you have "pinched your shoulder blades together" you can sometimes feel stiffness or pinching in the mid back. 

I prefer showing people to slide their shoulder blades towards their back pocket.  Like magic, their shoulder blades flush against their rib cage (reducing scapular winging), and their mid back slouching automatically becomes corrected.  Most people even notice the curve in their neck becomes more normal with this exercise. 

2. "Pick up something off the ground"  ie. Deadlift

When most people pick stuff up off the ground, they tend to do so by bending the back (typically forward flexion of the lumbar spine). 

I aim to show people how to minimize bending of the back and maximize bending of the hip.  The hips are an ideal joint to use as they have a tremendous range of motion.  They also have large muscles (glutes) attached to them which are much more efficient at lifting (heavy) items as opposed to the low back muscles. 

3.  Deep Squat

Deep Squatting is very important for maintaining range of motion as we age.  You don't have to lift heavy weights to go into a deep squat (although if you are weight training, it is good to develop strength through full range.)  For range of motion (particularly the hip joint), if we don't use it, we can lose it.  This is a great way to defend against arthritis of the hip.  Cartilage in the hip (and the rest of the body) does not have a blood supply and thus needs to be "squished" to bring fluid/nutrients into and out of it.  For this to happen, we need to put joints through full ranges of motion.