WORKOUT
Health and performance coach David Birtwistle shares his top fitness tips to help you keep your gut healthy and happy as well as improve your overall fitness.
DID YOU KNOW THAT regular exercise and movement can have a positive impact on your gut? It’s because movement helps increase the diversit y of your gut microbiome. What’s more, exercise can help promote more efficient digestion as well as alleviating bloating and constipation.
Exercise can also improve your mental health, which, in turn, can benefit your gut as too much stress can adversely affect your gut – causing a vicious circle! My workout below is super simple and can help you get moving at home to help improve your microbiome health.
GENTLE WARM UP
Always start your workout with a warm up. This can be some gentle stretches, eventually working up to some more repetitive movements and lunges. This will help to prepare you mentally and physically and increase your hear t rate, and therefore your blood flow, to enable more oxygen to reach your muscles.
●TIP! Allocate around 10 mins for a warm-up and include the following three movements.
●Kneel on the floor on all fours with your hands shoulder-width apar t and your knees directly below your hips.
●Inhale while flexing your lower back and bringing your head up while tilting your pelvis towards the ground.
●Hold for 10 seconds, then exhale and bring your abdomen in, arching your spine and bringing your head down and pelvis up (pictured).
●Repeat several times.
ALTERNATE RAISES
●Start on all fours, with your hands directly below your shoulders and your knees under your hips, spine in neutral, head looking to the mat and neck in alignment with your spine.
●Reach your right hand for ward and away from you so it comes out in a straight line parallel to the floor, and at the same time, shoot your left foot away from you so the leg stretches out into a straight line, also parallel with the floor.
●Keep your torso level while you do this, not letting your pelvis dip.
●Bring your arm and leg back into the all-fours position, then repeat with the left arm and right leg.
●Do this 10 times in a slow and controlled way. This helps to work your core and stabilising muscles.
HIP FLEXOR LUNGE
●Kneeling on the ground, bring one foot for ward with your foot flat on the ground and lean into the bent leg.
●Extend your back leg out ever so slightly so you can feel a stretch down the front/hip of your extended leg.
●Hold for up to 30 seconds, deepening the stretch if you can. Swap legs.
●Option: reach your hands back to open your chest.
BUILD YOUR STRENGTH
Muscle strengthening exercises, which include using weights of some form, whether that be your body weight or
