Guest blog post by Ryan Hodge, Kelli’s personal trainer and founder of Kinection: @dh.hkinection

1) Movement: every part of your body needs to move every day

2) Breathing/Mindfulness:
re-center, re-focus, re-imagine

3) Sleep and Sleep Prep: your body repairs and the cycle continues

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit” – Aristotle

TODAY’S TOPIC: #1. MOVEMENT

Most people overestimate what they can do in a month and underestimate what they can do in a year. When specific actions become a habit, or a lifestyle, then change can happen much easier and much faster. Changing the direction of a plane or boat by the smallest degree at take-off can have a massive impact as to where the final destination is. It’s not much different in our lives. Small progressive changes to specific areas of your life can also make a huge impact on the journey to your goals.

So which habits do you think are going to be the most impactful in ALL aspects of your life? 

Up until this point, I’ve found that working on yourself in three areas is a great place to start. These areas are how you move, how you think, and how you rest. In this three-part series we will cover the three habits that will positively shift all of these things on a daily basis.

Let’s start with #1: Movement.

Let’s just face it. We could all use a little more movement. Not talking about all the different kinds of fitness crazes that we are led to believe are going to make us look good naked. I’m talking about moving our bodies in ways that they were designed to. Activities that progressively help our bodies move better than they do now. 

Our bodies crave movement. One habit you can start with is taking all your joints through a full, pain-free, range of motion every day. (You can check out Kelli’s Instagram highlight “Workouts” for inspiration and a glimpse at how I have her do joint mobility exercises.) Another similar idea is to just explore movement of all your body parts every day. If that seems daunting or you have no clue what that means, there are other options too: practices such as yoga or Qi gong are great examples of movement practices that will get your entire body to move. Regardless, it’s a game changer to have the habit of moving all your bits on a daily basis. This isn’t supposed to be intense or fatiguing. Challenging, most likely, but think of it as flossing and brushing for your joints and tissues. 

Let’s go over just a few of the benefits of this habit, shall we? 

1. Improved energy expenditure. That means that you “burn” more energy, or calories, on a daily basis than you normally would. More energy expenditure from increased activity will make it much easier to improve your body composition or burn fat. 

2. Improved joint health and function. When you move your body every day in a low intensity, you improve the resilience of your joints and better maintain their function. That means when you exercise, play sports, etc., everything is easier and adaptation can occur faster. 

3. Detoxification. Moving your whole body every day increases circulation and improves lymphatic drainage. Your lymphatic system is responsible for getting the cellular waste out and works directly with your circulatory and respiratory systems to function properly. Movement (along with proper breathing–coming up later) are vital for getting your lymphatic system flowing and the toxins out. 

Those are just three of the many other benefits of moving your whole body every day. I hope you enjoyed a small glimpse into my philosophy on movement. Sounds like I’ll be a regular around here, so stay tuned for the next guest blog I write! And be sure to shoot me a message on IG at @drh.kinection! See you soon.