Superman Starter Set

When I began my adventure into holistic health a few years ago, I started with eating organic foods according to my metabolic type. About a year into my new eating habits, I began working out with one of my best friends who is a CHEK practitioner (i.e. the most awesome and holistic kind of trainer who does way much more than train), with a focus on corrective exercises and improving my posture. Thus my journey into another realm of holistic health commenced.

And I’ll be completely honest, when I started these corrective workouts I had the worst posture ever! If any posture at all. I also had no muscles whatsoever in my core, back, arms or anywhere else. My first couple of workouts, while comprised of simple (but not always easy) exercises left me completely exhausted. They also helped me start to develop better overall posture.

The name of one of these FUNdamental exercises:

The Superman.

Works out perfect for us superhero nerds.

My goal of this post, however, is to share more than just the Superman corrective exercise, but to share three exercises that remind me of Superman, that will not only help to improve posture, but will also activate muscles on just about every part of the body. 

The three exercises that I wish to share are most commonly known as:

1. A Superman
2. A Cobra
3. A Wall Push-up.

Translated into the holistic health nerdspeak, these exercises become:

1. A Superman
2. Another pose of Superman flying
3. Superman stopping a train.

All three of which I will try to explain here. But a caveat before we begin: Don’t give up because you think you look or feel stupid. The first time I did most of these exercises, I felt ridiculous. When I had pictures taken for this post, I felt stupid. But the perks from doing these exercises outweigh feeling silly or stupid. So, in that frame of mind, lets begin.

The Superman.

I love to do this exercise because I really just like that it’s called a Superman. But then again, that’s exactly what it looks like:

The How to:

Start by lying on the ground on your stomach with your arms straight out in front of you, and your legs straight out behind you. Like so:

Next pick up your arms and legs as straight as you can and as far as you can off of the ground. While you do this tighten three things: your stomach, your butt and the area between your shoulder blades. Keep your thumbs pointed towards the sky and your toes pointed behind you. Should look like this:

Now reset back to the starting position and repeat.

The Cobra (Another superman flying pose).

These pictures proves that Superman doesn’t just fly one way, and this pose is really just another Superman themed exercise. The cobra, however, is also one of my favorite exercises. Ever. I say this having spent many seconds painfully holding the best form of this pose that I could. The longest I have held a cobra is 90 seconds. One day I’ll make 5 minutes. Can’t wait!

The How to:

Start lying on your stomach on the ground legs behind you. This time, keep your arms to your side, mostly parallel to your body. You should look/feel like this:

Now, once again, pick up your arms and legs off of the ground, and try to pull your chest off the ground as well, keep your head up. Again, you’ll tighten three things while doing this: Your stomach, your butt and the area between your shoulders. If it’s difficult for you to multi-task and do this all at once, just remember it only takes practice. When your holding this pose you should look like this:

Then reset back to the starting position. Repeat.

Superman Stopping An Oncoming Train (or a Wall Push-up)

This is a relatively simple exercise, and I really do like how it looks like you’re practicing to stop a train, a car, or some heavy, moving vehicle or object (think Sisyphus)... For superheroes, this could be practical, as stopping trains is a thing:

The How to (and this one’s easy):

Start with your feet shoulder width about and firmly on the ground, leaning towards a wall. Your arms should be straight and your palms should be flat on the wall. Like so:

Now, lean your body towards the wall, keeping straight posture, bending at the elbows, just like a push-up. Remember to  keep your stomach (core) tightened to get more out of this exercise. And voila, you should look like this:

Then return to the starting position. And repeat.

Repetitions, Sets and the 4th Dimension of Time

The best thing about these exercises is that they’re relatively simple, they use only your own body weight and don’t require any more equipment other than floor space or a wall, which in most cases are easy to find. In my opinion, they’re an easy starter set of exercises, at least to start correcting posture and activating muscles. But I did want to briefly cover the role of repetitions, sets, and how long to hold each pose.

If you’re a beginner (NOOB!) then I would try to do at least 10 repetitions of each of these exercises. If you can easily do that many, do 3 sets of 10 repetitions and go forward from there. 

If you’re relatively or extremely fit or want to move on from just increasing your reps, you can play with and change the difficulty of the first two exercises (The Superman and The Cobra) by changing the length of time you hold each pose. The longer you hold it, the more difficult the exercises become. If you can hold a perfect one for 60 seconds, AMAZING.

Do a couple of those, and you will be sore.

The Unintended Consequences of Drinking Inorganic Milk

Ever since I can remember, I’ve never really ever *liked* milk. I can remember adults telling me to finish my milk when I was a child, and I can remember when the GOT MILK? ads targeted the nerd population. Now years later, I still don’t really drink milk, and live under my childhood milk and cereal commandment: If there is no cereal, I shall have no milk. And now, well I pretty much think the same thing only modified: If there is no gluten-free cereal, I shall have no [organic] milk. Picky, I know. I’m a work in progress. Holistic Health after all, is an ongoing process.

So what’s so special about organic milk, besides the higher price? Well first, I’ll start with the convenience factor. Ignoring the price, organic milk lasts SO much longer. Next time you’re in the milk section at the grocery store, take a look at the expiration dates on the organic milk: yep, about a month into the future. Amazing. Shelf life for organic milk, is pretty awesome, especially if you don’t drink milk all the time (like some people *ahem* me) and there’s no worrying about it going bad right away.

But the big difference between organic and inorganic milk, is that the organic milk is completely free of the hormones and antibiotics that are often given to cows in the United States (the EU actually doesn’t allow hormones in milk, nor do they allow U.S. milk into the EU either). The worst of these hormones is rBGH or recombinant bovine growth hormone. This is the chemical that is given to cows to extend the length of time during which they can produce milk by up to 8 to 12 weeks. During this extended time period, the cow is stressed, since producing milk occurs at the cost of the cow’s own tissues and health, and the cow becomes more at risk mastitis (inflammation of the breast tissue) which can impact the milk. But besides just having a negative impact on the cow, rBGH actually has a negative impact on humans too.

As it turns out, cow DNA and human DNA are quite similar, only two strands apart, as Walter Bishop notes when he requests a cow for his lab in the first part of this clip from the Fringe Pilot:

 This is worrisome, as rBGH causes an increase in a growth hormone called IGF-1 in milk. A chemical which is identical in both humans and cows (sounds like frogs and dinosaurs in Jurassic Park doesn’t it? And we all how that turned out...). This similarity causes human bodies to identify IGF-1 in cow's milk as their own when ingested. Increased levels of IGF-1 can be associated weight gain, as well as several types of cancers. Those may not be beer bellies that many a person may sport, but milk bellies. The debate that surrounds these issues is often touchy and is still ongoing. If you’d like to read more from the anti-milk side, Robert Cohen has a book titled Milk: The Deadly Poison, which goes into much more detail. Particularly with regards to the milk bellies, which actually sounds like a condition Walter Bishop himself would have discovered. And my opinion? I’m not an anti-milk extremist myself, but I do prefer organic milk, and I eye regular hormone infused milk with suspicion; I won’t drink it.

So, if you’re a big milk drinker, or you have kids who drink lots of milk, play it safe and buy organic milk. Because unfortunately, in the reality we live in, chemicals don’t usually grant super hero powers (no matter how much we want them too), but often cause ailments or cancers of some sort instead. And instinct would suggest that chemical free is usually best.

But, if you already do drink organic milk, here’s a challenge for you: Go Goat (organic, of course). Its the most commonly drank milk on the planet, and much better for you, despite its distinct taste. 

I may not drink much milk, but when I do, it’s organic, and it’s goat. And there’s usually cereal involved :).