Welcome to The Cherry On Top.
If you've been following me all of these years, you know I'm a bit of a health nut or just nuts depending on who you ask. Hehehe...I had some severe pain going down my right, thigh and went to visit my new osteopath to see if he could help me out.
This kind of therapist is a must have in your health address book. They move and manipulate your body into healing. Sometimes they rub and massage your feet to help with your shoulder and all kinds of other crazy places that might seem unrelated to us lay people.
I had a back injury that no therapist could fix and finally after years, my doctor suggested an osteopath. I had no clue what that was, but to make a short story even shorter, I was completely cured after 2 sessions! He cured (When's the last time you were cured by a doctor?)my painful jaw (most probably from grinding my teeth) in 3 or 4 visits as well. I have hip issues for several years now that seemed to be giving my original osteopath a bit of trouble. So, I figured I'd try another one. Sometimes it just works out that way, right?
The new guy worked largely through massage. Painful fricking massage! Let me tell ya, people. These massages do not feel good most of the time. In the beginning you may even want to cry, but as they keep digging and prodding, the pain lessens more and more. Shoo! Anyway, the muscle manipulation techniques were not helping at all. He suggest a dry needle which I quickly declined. Another therapist tried it and it was a kind of pain I did not wish to revisit.
Then we tried resistant bands. The little ones known to some as mini resistant bands. The exercises started working right away. Yay! Even better, I could take the band home and on my crazy Scandinavian adventure which rendered me homeless for just under a month.
My band didn't take up any space at all in my backpack. You can even slip the mini ones in your pocket if necessary. They don't cost anything either. I got a pack of 6 for under ten Euros and those were what seemed to be the good ones. I also recently ordered the larger, clothe-like ones for even more resistance.
I stayed true to a lousy 20 repetitions in 2 sets, daily and the pain is vanished. For shits and giggles, I used the band in an all body workout. When you wake up at 5 am, you don't want to make a lot of noise. I could stay in my room, hotel or wherever I was staying and do my simple exercises. To my amazement, after just two weeks, I stopped sleeping on boobs! The dangling daisies have risen to new heights. Hehehe...My arms and legs are a lot more tone and the slack skin and cellulite are minimal.
Readers, I don't even think my workout takes 10 minutes! I try to do it every single day, but I may miss 1 or 2 out of 7 days.
To be completely honest, I may not be able to attribute all of my positive physical changes to the bands, but the leg injury and boobs, for sure. I did a lot of walking on my trip and didn't drink nearly as much alcohol as usual. It's way too expensive in Norway! That's an easy way to sober up.
Back in the day, I was a body builder. So I knew how to workout with these things. I recently looked up some videos and shorts on You Tube to see what other people have come up with to do with these bands and you can too.
The bands are practically free. My first ones broke all of the time. So not all bands are created equal. This new set I bought is still in order. The bands have different levels of resistance which is great for the different parts of your body you want to workout. The legs will need more resistance than your arms, etc.
Space isn't too much of an issue. The space I need for yoga is about the same.
There are more videos out there than one can possibly follow. Find a person you can tolerate and see if they have different videos according to body part or even how much time you spend that day. I breezed through the shorts because I don't want to dedicate too much time to this kind of workout. I keep up with strength training, weight training, walking and yoga.
See if it's for you? Again, the cost is insanely low (under $10). You don't have to be in any kind of shape to get started. It's so easy, you may even ask yourself if it's actually working and you don't have to do it long at all if you do't want to. I'd recommend if you want to keep the workouts short, then do it more often. I roll out of bed and start my workout. Unless I really have to pee. Then I do that, first. Hehehe...
Check out this channel to get started? I couldn't find just the perfect channel for my fans, but this one seemed professional and thorough. Don't let these buff chicks put you off. Here's another channel you can try from someone who I would consider a lot more normal in body type for the overall population.
I've been plugging away at finishing up some of the books I've started and want to try and get published. Of course, the gardening, DIY natural products for us and the house and pimping up our old house in Germany is taking up a lot of time. There are so many things I still have to share with you like my amazing trip around Scandinavia this summer, what we did with our bumper crop of cherries, window accessorizing, my blog on last year's Christmas baskets and I want to share some digital holiday goodies in the near future as well. Stay tuned, dearest readers and take care!
