Peak Women by Peak Physique

Leaf cleanup can be a pain, literally. Lyssa from Peak Women by Peak Physique in Troy is here to show us how to warm up, lift those leaf bags, and protect our backs while tackling those fall chores. People can get injured from doing this the wrong way, right? Absolutely. I think a lot of people forget it can actually be an aerobic activity, and you can really hurt your back. If you're doing things uneven, you can put pressure on your spinal cord, hurt your disc, muscles, ligaments, so there's correct ways to do it. Wow. And I'm sure a lot of people don't think about all that when they're like, oh, I'm just going to rake the leaves and whatnot. Yeah. Very similar to shoveling in the winter. You don't realize you're actually going to be doing some exercise. Oh, man. So you have something that looks like a rolling pin here. I do. This is a hand roller. It's another way to use a foam roller. So we're basically warming up your muscles and getting them ready for work. So just as simple as taking a roller, going like this. Oh, that's easy. Yeah. Lubricating the fascia, getting your legs ready. Thank you so much. Lori, show us how it's done. And that matches your outfit very nicely, if I don't say so myself. There you go. Do I need to do it a little bit harder? So you want to apply pressure when you're doing it? It shouldn't be painful, but it should feel like a good massage. Lori, this looks like a dance. Okay, so that's one way to get ready before you rake the leaves and whatnot. Oh, that does feel really good. I just did leg day the other day, so that feels good. You do that every day. So you have this, and then what else can people do to warm up before they get in the yard? Warming up the upper body is key. So even something as simple as arm circles. I've done that before. Here, go forward. Got some long arms. Protract and retract your scapula. Get your back and chest ready. Just kind of warm everything up a little bit. How many reps should you do? 10, 15. Just until you feel warmed up. You can even do some hip circles, hip openers. I'm sticking up. And that helps with what? the squatting when you're picking up the bag or so it helps to get your muscles warm and ready because we're going to do you know when you are going to be lifting something up we're not wanting this we want to use your legs to bend and pick up okay and even when you're using the rake we're going to have you know the your knees bent so you're engaging all of your muscles and if you're not ready for that that's when injury can happen something like this too even absolutely stretch out your legs go ahead Laurie show us how it's that's right definitely okay and then we have the rake here so what's the is there a certain technique people should be using yes okay absolutely so with the rake you want to make sure that when you're raking you have that bend in your knee engage your core and we're going to go down and use your upper body to pull back towards you really important in terms of injury as you know let's say you're raking you're you're going you're in the groove what's the way that most people are right now what's the wrong way wrong way um well A lot of people do it like this, but then they're going like this, pulling back, using back muscles. A huge mistake is, let's say you're in the groove, you see leaves over here. Do you just turn your body and go like this and you have that twist in your spine? No. So change your feet, take that extra second, and turn your body here, and then you're pulling towards or not getting that twist in your spine. The other thing is, even if you set a timer on your phone, switch. Switch sides so you have the lead hand. Why is that important? because then you're you're basically getting you're giving those muscles a break so you're using them more evenly both sides yes your stance i've never thought of the the lunge well i don't really rake leaves anyway but i the lunge stance i think you just don't jamie go like this but yeah it's important to do that yes you'll be able to use your core strength um to support your back and then your legs are taking a lot of that load instead of loading your back where you're here going like this is there anything we need to know when it comes to actually getting the leaves up like you've been and I usually I'm doing like this with a giant so what's a really I was actually reading up on this okay the great idea is to get a tarp okay and then make small piles so you can put small piles on your tarp and then when you're gonna lift your tarp instead of coming down like this see use your legs and then pick it up keep it closer to your body then out here and then you can dump it into your leaf bag so now Now, if this is a workout in and of itself, do you need to go to the gym if you're raking the yard for the day? Yes, specifically Peak Physique and Peak Women in Troy. There we go. I like what you did there. Be sure to check them out. They'll get you right for sure. Got a quick question. Do you do the leaves in your yard at your house? I know that's right. I think we're all three of us are on the same page here, ladies. I don't. Okay. She's like, I've got these tips. You guys do them. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. We will have more information on our website, Fox2Detroit.com. We'll be right back. Show us that lunge, Lori. There we go. We'll be right back. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me.