Practice: Strength Together

Jenna Zaffino:

Hi, everyone. I'm Jenna. And I'm Sterling. Welcome to your seated partner strength class. We're gonna be working on lots of seated exercises, a little bit of cardiovascular work, and also some resistance training. Now, Sterling and I both have red bands today. Not all bands are created the same way and some have a lot more resistance than others. So if you have one at home that you like, then please feel free to use that. 

Jenna Zaffino:

If not, you can always substitute your small hand weights, soup cans, bottles of water for the actions that we're doing with these bands. In addition, we have a little squishy ball so that we can do some hand warm ups before we get going on our arms and legs, and pretty much anything that you can ball up and make a fist with will do, whether it's a t shirt or a pillow or another sort of ball. That'll be fine. For now, we're gonna start with our cardio warm up, so we can take our props and put them off to the side. The scale of exertion that we're going to use today is called your rate of perceived exertion or your RPE. And basically, it goes from a number 1, which is you,  very relaxed on the couch, not putting out any energy at all, to a number 10, where you are putting out all of the energy and perhaps too much energy. Today, we're gonna be working between a 3 and a 6 in any given exercise, and it is completely up to you as to how you approach the level of energy you're working with. If you need to back off a little bit, that's fine. 

Jenna Zaffino:

If you wanna amp it up and you feel like today is a 7th day, then we trust you to make a good, informed choice for your body. Sterling and I will be showing some variations that'll give you some options. So to begin, we're going to sit at the front of our chair so that we're holding ourselves upright away from the back of the chair. So let's start with some heel taps forward, starting on the right and then the left. Just alternating side to side. You can have your hands on your thighs like Sterling or you can have your hands on your chair like me. Just giving yourself the support you need. And our goal for the next few minutes is to really just get our hearts beating a little stronger. 

Jenna Zaffino:

So for some of us, that's gonna mean starting to go a little faster. So if you are wanting to stay with a tempo that's relatively slower, you'll stay with sir Sterling. And if you wanna amp up the tempo a little bit more, you can go with me. And it's always just good to pay attention to those signals that your body is giving you. So when you're moving up the scale of your exertion, you're definitely gonna feel that your heart rate quickens a little, which means your breaths will also most likely quicken as well. We wanna think about not becoming too short of breath in a practice like this, but instead working towards something that feels like you can still hold a conversation, you just might need to take a few more breaths to get the words out. Nothing that's emergent, nothing that feels dangerous, everything should feel within your discomfort zone as we exercise, but not beyond it. Good. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Let's go a few more here, getting ourselves nice and warm in the legs. Excellent. And then let's come back to stand. We're gonna take our arms all the way down, and just to the shoulders, reach up overhead to the shoulders, all the way down like you're doing a bicep curl. I'm gonna go at a quicker pace, Sterling will demonstrate a slower pace. Just taking your time, and we want you to know that you always have your options here. And so even when you're working with your partner, you might not be doing exactly the same thing the entire time, but the important part is that we're moving together. Yeah? Correct. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Yeah. Good. And also, I think it's important to note that going slower is not, doesn't mean less value. 

Sterling Lato:

Not at all. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Not at all. Good. Alright. Let's take another arm exercise. Let's bring our hands out to the front, and we're just gonna bend our elbows, pulling back, little squeeze in the shoulder blades, pulling forward. Pulling them back, and pulling forward. And so what you can think about here is adding a little Network by lifting your heels as you pull back and reaching forward, Pulling back and reaching forward. Good. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Back and forward. Let's go for 4, and 3, and 2, and 1. Good. Alright. One more chance to get our heart rate up a little bit higher. We're gonna take our legs open, open, close, and close, open, open, close, and close. Let's stay with this tempo. If you wanna add some arms, we can just go open, open, close, and close. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Open, open, close, close, open, open. Good. Alright. So we're moving, we're moving, and I'm going to take the tempo up a little bit. Here we go. Open, open, close, close. It's gonna we're gonna confuse each other, but we'll be okay. We'll be okay. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Just if you want a little bit more. You can also find your own rhythm to this music. Just let it work for you. Just feel like your temperature is raising just a little bit. Good. 4, 3, 2, and 1, and rest. Okay. Last one. 

Jenna Zaffino:

We do know that when our arms are over our head, it does help or encourage our heart to pump a little bit harder to get the blood towards our fingers. So we're just gonna amplify our warm up by reaching one hand up, and then reaching the other hand up, and reaching one hand up, and the other. Good. And you can stay at this pace, or you can go faster, faster, faster. Good. Never underestimating the power of a simple movement to create warmth in our body, to challenge our breath appropriately. Good. And also, for those of you who are in a work environment where you can take time out to do some movement, I mean, what better way than to take a little chair movement break and get your body recalibrated. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Good. We'll go 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Alright, rest. You feeling good? Yes. Okay. We're going to start with our squishy ball, and let's take it in our right hand. So this is simply to warm up the muscles of your hand and your wrist so that when we start to move with our bands, we're a little bit more ready to hold them and work them well. So we're gonna just do squeeze, release, squeeze, release, squeeze, release, and then you can either pass the ball to the other and, or if you're feeling coordinated, you can pass it over. 

Jenna Zaffino:

I I didn't know if that was gonna work, but here we go again. Squeeze, release, squeeze, release, squeeze, release, and 

Sterling Lato:

I'll play it safe. 

Jenna Zaffino:

You're gonna play it safe. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Okay. Squeeze, release, squeeze, release, squeeze, release, and pass or toss. Squeeze, release. It does help if you really watch the ball when you pass it. What did they say? Keep your eye on the Let's pass it. Yep. There it is. Let's do a couple more. Squeeze, release. Squeeze, release. Squeeze, release. Go for it. Last time. Squeeze, release. Squeeze, release. Squeeze, release, and pass. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Alright. You can always do more of those as you need to. We're gonna go ahead and take our bands and turn to face each other. Once you have your chairs facing each other, one partner will take the band and loop it through so it's connected like so. And you may or may not have to move farther apart in order to make this work, but for our purposes, we can always hold on higher up the band just to make it work. So we're gonna start with our arms long, and our first is called a row. So, we wanna feel our shoulder blades pull back together, and then we wanna pull our elbows, and our hands are aiming to be close towards your hip, closer to your hip than to your shoulder. We wanna try to avoid this action and keep it down low. 

Jenna Zaffino:

And if you have a chair with a wide back like we do, it's kind of a nice, target to touch your elbows back there and feel your back engage. And? So we'll release. So we're gonna do 2 and 2. We're gonna pull and release. Good. Pull and release. There we go. Full sitting up tall the entire time and working on really feeling your whole back, that whole v of the back. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Yeah. Good. Cool. Yeah. You're a little taller than I am, so your elbows are going higher. That's right. Good. 

Sterling Lato:

I can fix that by holding on a little closer to the connection point. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Oh, there you go. Yeah. Good. So where do rowing patterns show up in your life? 

Sterling Lato:

Tension while driving. Yeah. No. Anytime I have to pull a door open or drag something across the floor.  

Jenna Zaffino:

Yep. Absolutely. You don't need to be rowing a boat to. Enjoy this action. 

Sterling Lato:

Walking the dog. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Let's go for 4. Yeah. The dog on the leash struggle is real. Good. 2 and 1. Good. Alright. 

Jenna Zaffino:

So we're gonna keep this configuration. And then if you did hold closer, now is the time to get your handles. And we're gonna do a little postural exercise. Again, if the band is too tight, it's gonna make you feel like you'll fall over, but we're starting with ours a little bit looser. We want the back of our hands to face away. We're gonna start with the y, so that's pulling. Oh, that's nice. And then release. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Then we're gonna bring our hands closer together and go up to an I, which is both hands overhead, and release. And then we're gonna go out to a t, which is both hands out to the side. So if your eye looks like a y, that's okay. If your arms are bent, that's okay. And if you don't want to use resistance and you just wanna make the shapes, that is a great choice you can make for yourself. Okay? So we'll start with our y, nice and tall, finding the middle back muscles and release, going up high to the eye, high to the I. Good. Release, and then out to the t. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Trying to get those chests open and release. Whoo. It's amazing how much you have to work with your partner 

Sterling Lato:

Yep. And could be doing more work. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Absolutely. You might end up slingshotting your way across. That's it. Yeah. So I'm really waiting to feel you tug on the resistance and then kind of match that. Yeah. Let's do 2 more rounds. These are really wonderful for posture, but they don't come without a challenge. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Up, that's it, and then out to the side. Nice. Alright. And then we'll untangle and then we're going to do our bicep curls here. Again, you can sub out the band for a weight, a soup can, a water bottle, or just do the movement of your arms yourself. If you're seated with us, you're gonna be standing on your band, and the way that the length of the band is for us, it's gonna be elbows at 90 degrees to start. So we're gonna pull up to the shoulder and then lower down to that 90 degrees, trying to keep just the tiniest bit of tension on the band. Again, as we move in, we're working a 3 to a 6. 

Jenna Zaffino:

So if you need to take a break between repetitions to find that level, if it goes too high too fast, please do so. All right. So going up and down. And I oftentimes like lifting on a slower cadence just to make sure I have the form. Excellent. Yeah. 

Sterling Lato:

So you're not lifting from the shoulder. You don't wanna push the elbow forward. Right. You're just lifting the hand up. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Yeah. Kind of folding at the elbow a bit more. And the biggest challenge that most of us have is keeping the chest open while we're doing that. I was gonna say you were doing a great job, honestly. And or another challenge I see a lot in with my clients is leaning back using the body weight to do it. Now, we never shame a compensation. We think the brain's doing a good job figuring out how to make it happen when it's not sure how to make it happen, but there are ways to get a little more benefit to the strength of this then.

Sterling Lato:

And keep it safe.  

Jenna Zaffino:

Yeah. Exactly. Good. Let's go for 3, and 2, and and. Awesome. Good. Now, if you like any of those exercises, they felt really good. It is always a wonderful idea to repeat the circuit over and more time, two more times, depending on your energy level. 

Jenna Zaffino:

But for now, we're gonna work into a sit to stand, exercise which is our standing exercise today. So let's put this to the side, we'll turn our chairs back around to face you. 

Sterling Lato:

Now, we're going into a sit to stand exercise. This will require a decent amount of lower body strength and control. Your feet will be about hip width apart. If you need them to be a bit wider or more support, that is perfectly fine. You don't necessarily need to keep the toes straight ahead. If turning out feels better for your knees and hips, that will work as well. We begin the movement with a hip hinge. So you're folding where the legs meet the pelvis or meet your torso. 

Sterling Lato:

From there, you stand up. And after the first one, you may have to rearrange your feet to find a spot that works best for you. To get back down, we work in reverse. You're gonna hinge back, bend at the knees and hips to sit back down. Good. Let's try a few more of those. Lift up and back down. There are a few modifications you can give yourself. 

Sterling Lato:

One is to press against the chair with your hands to help you stand up and then find the chair again to sit back down. You could also stagger your feet. If you have one leg that you know is considerably stronger than the other, you can take that leg forward with the other one back so you're not putting as much weight on the leg that may be less comfortable, especially the knee injury or knee replacement. And if you just wanna switch that up, just send the other leg forward for a few repetitions. 

Jenna Zaffino:

And it's nice to have options, you know, that it's not just about I mean, it's about getting up, but there's lots of different ways to get up. 

Sterling Lato:

And sometimes you just switch it up because it's fun. Not necessarily because you 

Jenna Zaffino:

have to. Yeah. No. This is a good lunge challenge too. Now let's talk about how to help each other if you have a partner who is having a little bit of extra challenge getting up or getting down, or it's something that you're progressing to. So the partner that perhaps has more stability or is working in a caregiver role can absolutely help by offering a hand, offering their own body weight, and also just kind of watching and almost spotting to see where the support is needed. Whenever we're helping someone out in terms of moving their body weight from one place to another, it's always really important that the caregiver or the person who's doing the helping is in their own body like and and grounded and supported, not trying to take the entire weight of the person themselves, but instead trying to help them do the action for themselves. So that happens in a couple different ways. 

Jenna Zaffino:

And is to get closer for sure. And so let's say, Sterling was going to do a hinge to stand. I might offer her my hand and as she comes up, I might do a little hook under her arm, which is an easier way for me to keep my center of gravity grounded and help her find her way, and then on the descent, to hinge and then lower with control. After doing that a couple times, that could help. Certainly, we can do something where we reach and somebody might push down to come up or hold on as they hinge down and you can balance their weight out in the opposite way. And I'm certain that through conversation, you and your caregiver can learn a bit more about what feels like it's helpful and what feels like it's helping you progress to a place where you might be able to be more independent in your movement. So we've discussed a lot of options. So let's come together and do 10 sit to stands. 

Jenna Zaffino:

However you like to do them. Alright. With or without support, with or without a partner. Ready, set on your own timing. Go for it. Make sure you get all the way up, and then look for that chair on the way down. And at whatever tempo or cadence you want to with whatever amount of support you need. 10 is gonna feel like a lot. 

So again, check-in with that level of your own exertion. Are you at a 3? Are you at a 6? Are you at an 8? Good. Keeping your breathing nice and steady as you go. And if at any point in time you need to take a rest at the bottom, that is absolutely fine, or at the top. I'm coming up on my last one. You're gonna make that your last one? Okay. Great. Excellent. 

Now, let's come all the way up to standing and last time. I guess that wasn't our last one. And then, we're gonna use our chairs to finish in a, standing stretch. So of course, you can use a chair to support your balance, a wall, a countertop, or you can just do this with your own body. Sterling's gonna lead us through our stretches. 

Sterling Lato:

Alright. Our first stretch will, will stretch and lengthen the back and we'll get into your hamstring muscles as well behind the legs. Start with your hands on the top of the chair or whatever you're using for support. You'll walk your feet back a little bit so you have your weight anchored down into your heels. Your hips are stacked over the knees and heels as well. Start by lifting your chest up, and you're lifting your hips up behind you a bit as well. And as your head goes down, start redirecting the pelvis to more of an upright position. Your chest pulls away from the top of the chair. 

And again, you're gonna pass through center. Your head lifts in the front, hips lift a little in the back, Good and. It's more of the center area of your spine is pulling up toward the ceiling as your head goes down. Try adding some breathing into this. You can breathe naturally, of course. You can also inhale as you're lifting the head up. Exhale, lowering it back down. If it feels more natural to reverse that breathing order, that works as well. 

You can exhale as the head lifts up and inhale as the head goes down. Let's try 3 more of those. 

Jenna Zaffino:

This one feels so nice.. Reminds me of when my dog is happy to see me and then tail tucked between the legs when my dog is ashamed because he stole something off the counter. 

Sterling Lato:

It's amazing how much they communicate with us without saying a word. Last one. And return up. And upright. We'll go into a calf stretch next. Taking your right foot forward, your left foot is back. You're gonna push your hips back as the chest lowers down. And if you're able to, try lifting your right toes away from the floor. 

Don't force that if it doesn't feel too great. You can hold it here and you can stand back up and drop back down into it. You have a few options. You can also just fold forward and maintain that position and lift and lower the toes. Just a little tap down and pull back up. So if the up and down motion makes you feel a little light headed or you just don't like it, don't do it. Let's try 2 more of those taps on this side. Good. 

Return to your upright position and switch legs. Your right foot goes back, the left goes forward. Find your support. Hinge. Oh, a little tighter on this side. You can hold this and just lift the toes and not move anymore. You can return to an upright position and drop back down into it. You can even stay there and just lift the toes and press back down a few times. 

You can also just rock forward and back as well. It's another option. Just play with it. See what works best for your body. We'll finish up here, return to standing. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Oh, yeah. Then we're gonna try one last challenge, which is simply just a balance on one leg using your chair or not. Everything we did from the sit to stand to even the toe taps right there, all factors into our systems of balance. So feel free to either use your chair or we can use our partner and hold our hands. So, we'll start here. We're gonna pour our weight into the right leg. You can have your other hand out. 1st, lift your left heel off the ground, so the toe's still down, and then as you're ready, see if you can bring that leg all the way up. 

We're going, taking the show on the road. Good. And then come all the way down. Yeah. Lots of trust. Absolutely. And then shift sides, take a second to pour your weight down into your left leg, lifting your right heel, And when you're ready, pick it up. A little wobble over here, but we're doing okay. 

Sterling Lato:

I'll support you. 

Jenna Zaffino:

Yes. I feel it. And all the way down. Nice work. Nice work us. Nice work you. Now, if any of these exercises felt particularly meaningful or interesting or good, then your weaving well-being tip is to try to recreate some of these exercises for yourself either on your own or by taking this class again. The more you show up for the movement, the more the movement is going to show up for you and we are in this mindset of consistently treating our body with stuff that really does feel good to us. 

So remember you are strong and resilient and the small moments matter. Thank you for strength training with us. Thank you for being here. 

Sterling Lato:

Thank you, for having me 

Jenna Zaffino:

And, we'll see you really soon.