Self Defense For Women And Girls

Women and girls have to defend themselves differently than men. We aren't as strong so we have to be smarter.

The element of surprise is our strong point if we have to fight. Staying out of bad situations is key. Staying alert and aware of your environment is vital.

Being fit is necessary if you do find yourself in a situation where you have to fight and fight hard.

www.selfdefenseforgirls.com  is a new website I just launched to help women and girls have the information you need to defend yourselves.

I've been teaching self defense for over a decade. Since my surgery I've not been able to teach so I got stir crazy and developed this website. I just filmed the youtube videos and had to be very careful of my neck. I'm still healing from my spine surgery.

I'm almost a year into recovery but have another year before I'll be able to teach and then I'll need an assistant. Self defense classes do and should get very physical.

Hope you enjoy the website. Let me know what you think!

Your fitness expert

Lynn   www.getrealfit.org

Break The Comfort Food Habit

I hear, read and work with women who use food for comfort. I have to plead guilty on that account too.

Food can bring a decompressing quality when stress is overwhelming you. It relaxes me and lets me escape the world of pressures. The only problems is then it adds to the stress because gaining weight is stressful for most women. Me included. It's an ugly cycle.

Breaking the habit is not often easy. Denial seems easier than facing the fact that eating when you're not hungry is not healthy. Food lies to you. It will only bring momentary comfort. Telling yourself that over and over is helpful.

Having a list of things you can do to relax yourself when you feel a lot of stress, boredom or anger is so important.

I take short strolls around the block if my day is too much. I have a dogwood tree that is very beautiful when it blooms. I'll go in my back yard and just stare at it for a bit, focus on my breathing and then try to get at my day again.

At night focusing on my breathing and watching what I call a "stupid show" helps me. A comedy that has no apparent lesson or purpose other than to make me laugh. Laughter is healing.

My dogs bring me so much relief from stress I swear they are angels brought to help me get through this wild and crazy thing we call life.

It's far more fun to eat when you are truly hungry. Tell yourself messages like that over and over.

I'm not saying it's easy or that you'll be perfect at not giving into emotional eating. Having back ups is really important. So is forgiving yourself if you do have a slip.

You are not alone! Most women deal with the emotional eating nightmare. Talking about it helps too. Feel free to leave me comments and or questions about the issue.

Your fitness expert

Lynn   www.getrealfit.org

Exercises For Your Back Using An Exercise Ball

Another free workout for you:)

It's so important to exercise your back. Often women focus on working the chest and abs but the back go by the way side. Not a good plan. That can cause serious spinal problems due to unbalanced muscles. You want your muscles to be equal in strength so they don't pull your body out of alignment. 




Hope you enjoy these exercises!

Feel free to ask questions and leave comments. I'd love to hear from you!

Your fitness expert

Lynn Hahn    www.getrealfit.org

The Danger Of Wanting To Be Perfect

My new podcast is not about a warm and fuzzy topic. It covers eating disorders. I hope you'll listen to this one and please feel free to talk to me about it. It's a topic I know about first hand.

Here's the link to the podcast

http://www.lynnhahnpodcast.libsyn.com/

Take care

Your fitness expert

Lynn  www.getrealfit.org

Are You A Side Sleeper?

I'm a side sleeper. From the research I've done that's a good sleeping position. Makes sense to me. When you were in your mothers womb you curled up in the fetal position.

Chiropractors suggest sleeping on your side. I had a problem with it though. It made my lower back hurt. My physical therapist explained that you don't want your legs to be curled in too high. That allows the internal disc gelatin to migrate backward  toward your nerves. That explained why my lower back was hurting when I woke up.

My  physical therapist encourages me to sleep with a pillow between my knees. That does two things. It prevents me from bringing my knees up toward my belly button and it helps to unload the weight of my top leg from the muscles of my spine.

I had a problem with a regular pillow though. I toss and turn when I sleep so the regular pillow stopped me from being able to toss and turn so I would wake up. Great! Now I couldn't sleep. So was it going to be a painful lower back or no sleep humm...

I found a solution. I found the pillow in this photo. Love it! It's small enough that I can toss and turn and it comes right with me. It doesn't get stuck in the bedding. It's far more comfortable than a regular pillow too because it's made to go right between your legs. The cut out curve makes it fit better.

So if you are a side sleeper you might want to give this pillow a try. Had to pass this one your way:)

I'm an amazon associate so I'm able to offer it to you right here. How cool is that?

Your fitness expert

Lynn   www.getrealfit.org

Snap, Crackle ,Pop

Some of my clients make what I call "joint music" when they exercise. A snap or pop occurs in their joints. Several women have it in their hip bone area. Some have it in the knees or elbows.

My body is like a melody of snaps and pops. My knees pop when I get up and down. My elbows like to "catch" and now my neck sings a crunching noise.

I've always been like that, other than my neck that's a new thing. My body music can be really loud and a bit embarrassing when I'm in church or the library. People sometimes look at me with concern, some with annoyance.

My clients often ask me if it's okay to continue to exercise when they hear their joints snapping. Here's my reply...

If there's pain with the noise than you should stop exercising and you do need to see your doctor. There could be problems but if there is no pain I'm told generally it's not a problem. I work with a lot of physical therapists so I've posed this question to them many times.

There are several things that could be happening when you hear the popping noise. It can be escaping of gases or the movement of your tendons and ligaments within your joint.

Your joint is bone surrounded by cartilage. The cartilage is protected by a capsule filled with synovial membranes that produce a fluid. The fluid contains oxygen, carbon dioxide and nitrogen gases. When your joint cracks it can be because your joint capsule is stretched which can cause gas bubbles to form. When the gas is released that is the popping noise heard.

It can also be from the friction caused when your joints are compressed and expanded and the tendons get out of place. The noise occurs when they snap back in place.

Again, if there's no pain it generally causes no damage. If there is pain it's time to give your doctor a visit.

Your fitness expert

Lynn   www.getrealfit.org