Later in the week, I have been in the health and fitness industry for 27 years.
During that time, I have been involved in pretty much every aspect of the industry and have seen and tried a lot of the fads and trends that cycle through the industry at regular intervals.
I’ll maybe go through these in another post, some were good, some were ridiculous.
I do this to try and get a better understanding of anything my clients might try and if the thing is actually any good.
I’m trying two things out at the minute that I’ve seen expensive versions being posted about on socials…
The first are toe spacers – https://amzn.to/3NSg7Oc
I’ve recommended a single version of these for years for my injury clients who struggled with bunions to try and correct the big toe joint but never tried them myself.
My feet are a bit of a mess after decades in martial arts, long distance hiking and running, poor footwear choices and drunken clumsiness.
As with everything I do, I used them without looking at any guidelines or instructions. My advice would be start with blocks of 20 minutes rather than going for the whole day. My toes were killing at the end of the day and everything felt fatigued the next day.
However, I’m a few weeeks in and my toes are definitely improving, so worth a try.
The second is a version of a jaw exerciser I saw on Joe Rogans podcast – https://amzn.to/3NLr445
Over the past 2 years, I’ve read lots around the subject of breathing for health and tried lots of different methods. It also lead me down the road of looking at how the jaw changes the shape of our face and resulting in an altered palate and nasal cavity etc.
Some of the issues people are struggling with were put down to the fact that we no longer need to chew our food as much resulting in weaker jaw muscles which don’t pull on the bone structure leading to a smaller mouth.
It should be no surprise, I first used it while watching TV which led to a 30 -45 minute session. I felt like David Coulthard and was fatigued the next day. This will be a long term trial but I like the concept of it, I’ll check in with my dentist clients to see what they think of the theory.
K uses hers like an anxiety chew, and I’ve found I’m doing something similar as a boredom chew. My advice would be not to focus purely on the front teeth and move it around a bit.
Fran used nose strips – https://amzn.to/3NHj9o8 a few years ago after completing a restorative breathing certification, I didn’t see the point at the time but have tried the last few nights. They’ve had a positive affect on sleep quality according to my Whoop.
Darren “experimenting” Checkley
