Morning routine.
I am definitely a creature of habit and because I have lived on my own for so long, there is no one to tell me to do things differently. I have developed something of an unusual morning routine which now takes about an hour, so it’s a bloody good job I don’t have a dog to walk, children to sort out or a boyfriend who hogs the bathroom.
Annoyingly, I wake most mornings at about 6am, desperate to pee. I have tried everything to avoid this… drinking only a little water in the evening, making sure I have my last loo visit right before I go to bed, even varying my bedtime, but no matter what I do, I wake up, look at my phone and it’s six-bloody-o'clock. Of course, now that I’m awake, I find it very difficult to go back to sleep, so I usually start my ritual.
I begin by lying on my back and raising my legs so that my feet are above my face. I then grab my big toes with each hand, hip distance apart, bend my knees so they are almost in my armpits, and rock from side to side. I would love to say this is an actual yoga pose but I think I made it up. But what it does do is relieve pressure in my back, open up my hips, and it feels great even if it looks ridiculous. Then I roll over onto my hands and knees and do ‘cat pose’, which involves rounding your spine as you exhale and coming back to flat as you inhale. I can only do this with a few pillows under my knees because the downward pressure might crack the cement holding my plastic left kneecap to its titanium joint implant. Oh, what I have to think about! After about 20 breaths I get off the bed and stand up.
I then begin rubbing myself vigorously with my fingers and hands, from between my toes to the top of my head, taking in every limb, nook and cranny! This was an exercise my body therapist, Peter, gave me to do, and when I looked at him with bewilderment as he described it, he decided to video himself doing it in his garden and then sent it to me for reference. I have to admit it’s one of the funniest things I’ve watched, especially when his cat decided to enter the scene to rub against his leg and he nearly kicked it across the lawn. Imagine you are washing yourself all over in the shower, minus the soap and water, and that’s pretty much what it entails. When I get to my shoulders, I do some hard squeezing and karate chops, and then go up the back of my head rubbing my scalp, pulling my earlobes and sticking my fingers in my ears. It’s really good to massage into the back of the ears and the base of your skull too as this opens up the meridians. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes and it’s supposed to wake up the skin, the organs and energise you. It certainly does.
Then the twerking begins, which is the only way I can explain it. Again, this is a Peter exercise, guaranteed to get your blood pumping and your limbs loose. Imagine a dog shaking off water in slow motion… it sort of starts in their bottom and goes up the body. Well that is probably what I look like, a booty twerk combined with an electric shock. It actually feels bloody marvellous as long as you don’t put your back out or pull a muscle. After 10 minutes of that, I do my face yoga.
I started doing this a few years ago when I noticed I was getting a slightly less defined jawline (jowls if you will). Ooh I didn’t like that at all, so I started googling face exercises and after trying many of them, I’ve now come up with the ones I think work best. Using the tips of your fingers and working both sides of the face, gently massage your skin in circles, from the forehead to the temples to the cheeks, either side of the nose and down the creases of the mouth. Pinch along the jawline to your ears, then rub your neck upwards with your fingers either side of your windpipe. To finish, I tilt my head back and blow kisses at the ceiling which is supposed to tighten your neck and jaw as well. It should take a good 5 minutes and if it feels all a bit rough on morning skin, use a bit of face oil or do it when you’re moisturising. What’s interesting is that because a lot of men shave every morning, they naturally pull similar faces as they try and remove whiskers from awkward places. The shaving exfoliates their skin at the same time so they can sometimes look a lot younger as they age. Annoying I know.
After the face yoga, I lie back down on my bed and meditate for 10-15 minutes, which might seem counterproductive as I have just woken up my body, but it actually allows you to slow things down again and really focus on your breathing. I usually do guided meditations with an app, making sure I carefully vet the teacher and what they sound like, as there is nothing more annoying than getting ready to meditate and suddenly hearing a really irritating voice telling you to relax. As well as meditation I’ve also added another technique to my morning routine. This is slightly stranger than everything else I’ve already mentioned but one of the supposed benefits is it reduces stress and helps sleep. I do it in the morning after meditation because it is a method in two parts, and the second part is in the shower. As I take my showers in the morning it makes sense to do it early rather than before bed.
So, this is the Wim Hof method. Wim Hof, also known as The Iceman, is an extreme athlete and well known for being able to withstand freezing temperatures. He has become rather a celebrity in recent years because of the many other celebrities that talk about him and the amount of world records he has broken, like climbing Everest in only a pair of shorts and hiking boots. I first heard his name when I was watching a documentary about Tony Robbins, the American motivational speaker. The film was fascinating, not only because of the techniques Tony uses to help so many people, but it also showed how disciplined he is with his own health routine. In each of his many homes he has had an ice-cold plunge pool which he jumps into after a hot sauna each morning. This sort of cold therapy is not unusual, it has been around for thousands of years, especially in Finland where people regularly take saunas followed by cold immersion of some kind. The benefits are widely known as well; improving heart health and circulation as well as increasing adrenalin and endorphins. It basically makes you feel good. But the theory is much easier than the practise!
Wim Hof not only extols the benefits of cold immersion, but he also has developed a way of breathing, a sort of temporary hyperventilation that gives you more energy, lowers stress levels and improves your immune system. It all sounded quite fascinating, so of course, I thought I’d try it. You take 30 quick, deep breaths, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the mouth. Then you take one further deep breath and exhale, holding until you need to breathe again. I know this sounds barking mad, especially when the warning instruction is to do the breathing exercise in a safe and comfortable place, just in case you pass out! My Father actually said it reminded him of his school days, where kids would hyperventilate until they fainted, for fun!! So, once you have done the breathing, you sort of space out a little and the first few times, I actually held my breath for 2 minutes before checking the timer, without any problem. The second part of the Wim Hof method is to then immerse yourself in ice cold water, and as I haven’t an ice bath to my disposal I basically just jump in the shower and turn the temperature to cold for 30 seconds. It really isn’t pleasant. What is pleasant is how you feel afterwards… tingly and alive. Combined with repeated exposure to the cold, Hof says that his method will lead to seemingly superhuman feats of endurance, brought on, he says, by the physiological changes that his breathing techniques impart. Don't worry though, I'm not about to climb the Himalayas in a bikini!!
And after all that, which takes about 45 minutes, I make breakfast and take it back to bed. Yes folks, I have breakfast in bed every single morning, listening to either a podcast or the radio, and finishing with a sudoku puzzle or crossword to get my little brain cells stimulated. Of course, if I’m staying in someone else’s house or if I have friends or family staying with me, I don’t do much of the routine mentioned above. I certainly don’t bring my guests breakfast in bed, if that’s what you were hoping… and unless you specifically request it, I won’t make you twerk or immerse yourself in freezing cold water with me!!
Annoyingly, I wake most mornings at about 6am, desperate to pee. I have tried everything to avoid this… drinking only a little water in the evening, making sure I have my last loo visit right before I go to bed, even varying my bedtime, but no matter what I do, I wake up, look at my phone and it’s six-bloody-o'clock. Of course, now that I’m awake, I find it very difficult to go back to sleep, so I usually start my ritual.
I begin by lying on my back and raising my legs so that my feet are above my face. I then grab my big toes with each hand, hip distance apart, bend my knees so they are almost in my armpits, and rock from side to side. I would love to say this is an actual yoga pose but I think I made it up. But what it does do is relieve pressure in my back, open up my hips, and it feels great even if it looks ridiculous. Then I roll over onto my hands and knees and do ‘cat pose’, which involves rounding your spine as you exhale and coming back to flat as you inhale. I can only do this with a few pillows under my knees because the downward pressure might crack the cement holding my plastic left kneecap to its titanium joint implant. Oh, what I have to think about! After about 20 breaths I get off the bed and stand up.
I then begin rubbing myself vigorously with my fingers and hands, from between my toes to the top of my head, taking in every limb, nook and cranny! This was an exercise my body therapist, Peter, gave me to do, and when I looked at him with bewilderment as he described it, he decided to video himself doing it in his garden and then sent it to me for reference. I have to admit it’s one of the funniest things I’ve watched, especially when his cat decided to enter the scene to rub against his leg and he nearly kicked it across the lawn. Imagine you are washing yourself all over in the shower, minus the soap and water, and that’s pretty much what it entails. When I get to my shoulders, I do some hard squeezing and karate chops, and then go up the back of my head rubbing my scalp, pulling my earlobes and sticking my fingers in my ears. It’s really good to massage into the back of the ears and the base of your skull too as this opens up the meridians. The whole thing takes about 15 minutes and it’s supposed to wake up the skin, the organs and energise you. It certainly does.
Then the twerking begins, which is the only way I can explain it. Again, this is a Peter exercise, guaranteed to get your blood pumping and your limbs loose. Imagine a dog shaking off water in slow motion… it sort of starts in their bottom and goes up the body. Well that is probably what I look like, a booty twerk combined with an electric shock. It actually feels bloody marvellous as long as you don’t put your back out or pull a muscle. After 10 minutes of that, I do my face yoga.
I started doing this a few years ago when I noticed I was getting a slightly less defined jawline (jowls if you will). Ooh I didn’t like that at all, so I started googling face exercises and after trying many of them, I’ve now come up with the ones I think work best. Using the tips of your fingers and working both sides of the face, gently massage your skin in circles, from the forehead to the temples to the cheeks, either side of the nose and down the creases of the mouth. Pinch along the jawline to your ears, then rub your neck upwards with your fingers either side of your windpipe. To finish, I tilt my head back and blow kisses at the ceiling which is supposed to tighten your neck and jaw as well. It should take a good 5 minutes and if it feels all a bit rough on morning skin, use a bit of face oil or do it when you’re moisturising. What’s interesting is that because a lot of men shave every morning, they naturally pull similar faces as they try and remove whiskers from awkward places. The shaving exfoliates their skin at the same time so they can sometimes look a lot younger as they age. Annoying I know.
After the face yoga, I lie back down on my bed and meditate for 10-15 minutes, which might seem counterproductive as I have just woken up my body, but it actually allows you to slow things down again and really focus on your breathing. I usually do guided meditations with an app, making sure I carefully vet the teacher and what they sound like, as there is nothing more annoying than getting ready to meditate and suddenly hearing a really irritating voice telling you to relax. As well as meditation I’ve also added another technique to my morning routine. This is slightly stranger than everything else I’ve already mentioned but one of the supposed benefits is it reduces stress and helps sleep. I do it in the morning after meditation because it is a method in two parts, and the second part is in the shower. As I take my showers in the morning it makes sense to do it early rather than before bed.
So, this is the Wim Hof method. Wim Hof, also known as The Iceman, is an extreme athlete and well known for being able to withstand freezing temperatures. He has become rather a celebrity in recent years because of the many other celebrities that talk about him and the amount of world records he has broken, like climbing Everest in only a pair of shorts and hiking boots. I first heard his name when I was watching a documentary about Tony Robbins, the American motivational speaker. The film was fascinating, not only because of the techniques Tony uses to help so many people, but it also showed how disciplined he is with his own health routine. In each of his many homes he has had an ice-cold plunge pool which he jumps into after a hot sauna each morning. This sort of cold therapy is not unusual, it has been around for thousands of years, especially in Finland where people regularly take saunas followed by cold immersion of some kind. The benefits are widely known as well; improving heart health and circulation as well as increasing adrenalin and endorphins. It basically makes you feel good. But the theory is much easier than the practise!
Wim Hof not only extols the benefits of cold immersion, but he also has developed a way of breathing, a sort of temporary hyperventilation that gives you more energy, lowers stress levels and improves your immune system. It all sounded quite fascinating, so of course, I thought I’d try it. You take 30 quick, deep breaths, inhaling through the mouth and exhaling through the mouth. Then you take one further deep breath and exhale, holding until you need to breathe again. I know this sounds barking mad, especially when the warning instruction is to do the breathing exercise in a safe and comfortable place, just in case you pass out! My Father actually said it reminded him of his school days, where kids would hyperventilate until they fainted, for fun!! So, once you have done the breathing, you sort of space out a little and the first few times, I actually held my breath for 2 minutes before checking the timer, without any problem. The second part of the Wim Hof method is to then immerse yourself in ice cold water, and as I haven’t an ice bath to my disposal I basically just jump in the shower and turn the temperature to cold for 30 seconds. It really isn’t pleasant. What is pleasant is how you feel afterwards… tingly and alive. Combined with repeated exposure to the cold, Hof says that his method will lead to seemingly superhuman feats of endurance, brought on, he says, by the physiological changes that his breathing techniques impart. Don't worry though, I'm not about to climb the Himalayas in a bikini!!
And after all that, which takes about 45 minutes, I make breakfast and take it back to bed. Yes folks, I have breakfast in bed every single morning, listening to either a podcast or the radio, and finishing with a sudoku puzzle or crossword to get my little brain cells stimulated. Of course, if I’m staying in someone else’s house or if I have friends or family staying with me, I don’t do much of the routine mentioned above. I certainly don’t bring my guests breakfast in bed, if that’s what you were hoping… and unless you specifically request it, I won’t make you twerk or immerse yourself in freezing cold water with me!!
Comments