Sleep.

I’m sure you want nothing more than to consistently get really great sleep at night. You want to be a good sleeper, because always getting poor, fragmented sleep can really impact your overall health on multiple levels.

And exercise definitely plays a role in how well you sleep at night and so does routine - especially that pre-bed routine.

If you want to be a better sleeper, what you need are a couple of simple moves that you can do right before bed that relax your body, ease any muscle tension and joint pain, and help your body calm down.

In this podcast episode, I’m going to share 3 moves that you can do right before bed that are so easy and feel so good, you’re going to want to start doing this little routine tonight.

Picture this…

You get to the end of the day, and you’re tired, exhausted and ready to go to bed. But when you climb into bed, you just can’t fall asleep. You’re tossing and turning, you feel wired and you can’t find a comfortable position. It feels like the entire weight of the day is falling on your body in that moment and keeping you awake. When you do finally fall asleep, you wake up a few hours later restless again and can’t fall back to sleep.

Have you been here?

What you probably need is a quick bedtime routine that you can do, maybe even on your bed at night, that will help ease your joints and your muscles and help your mind wind down.

So, I’m going to give you 3 simple exercises that will take you only about 5 minutes that will really help you sleep better.

The impact of poor sleep

Consistently having poor sleep can impact everything in your life.

• Motivation, energy, inflammation, cortisol levels, immune system
• When you don’t sleep well, you’re less likely to have the desire and energy to workout the next day, you’re less likely to make good food choices, your body is less likely to buffer and handle the physical impacts of stress.

Studies have even shown that women who get poor quality sleep at night (averaging around 5 hours) are more likely to be overweight, with all else being equal.

So many factors involved.

Now, of course - There are so many factors that play a role in how well you’re going to sleep at night.

• Your nutrition, your bedtime routine, stress levels, your hormones, especially during perimenopause and post-menopause

But your overall physical activity does contribute to being a better sleeper. If you have a consistent routine of exercising at moderate intensities, you are more likely to sleep better at night. Just anecdotally, I always sleep better on days where I got a thorough, well-balanced workout in. If I go a few days in a row where I just walk or don’t have very much physical activity, even if I’m eating well and am not stressed out, I’m just not as tired at night and I might struggle to fall asleep.

But this could backfire - for your workouts to not have a negative impact on your sleep, it’s best to make sure that you don’t try to get a higher intensity workout in right before bed. If a moderate to high intensity workout is happening at 7pm or later, it’s going to wind you up.

So in general, being someone who is physically active everyday, especially at moderate intensities, and trying to position that workout earlier in the day, that’s really going to help improve your sleep quality over time.

But let’s get specific here.

I want to give you a few exercises that you can do before you fall asleep that have the potential to help you sleep better.

1) Hooklying thoracic rotation

• The reason this one works so well is that it releases tension through your chest, shoulders, and upper back muscles
  • If you’ve been sitting, scrolling on your phone, or even have some underlying stress going on, it’s so common to carrying tension through your chest, through your posture muscles by the end of the day. If we can relieve that tension, it will have a relaxing effect on your entire system. Especially when we do it a certain way.
• Here’s how to do this move: Lay on your side in a fetal position, knees tucked up to hip level so your hips and knees are at 90 degrees. Stack your hands like you’re an alligator and then initiate the stretch by sliding your top arm as far forward as possible before you open that top arm out behind you like a book.
• Pause for one long, slow exhale and then gently return back to the start position and repeat. Do 4 per side and on the 4th rep stay in the stretch for 3 deep breaths.
• If you need to avoid any twisting motions, take a rolled up towel and lay it under your spine lengthwise, from your head to your tailbone, and lay over it with your arms open like a cactus.

2) Pelvic tilt into glute bridge

• The reason this one works so well is that it gently engages core stabilizing muscles to help decompress your spine and alleviate pressure on your low back and hips
  • Going to bed with back and hip pain is a really common reason why you might be uncomfortable at night, and having weak, disengaged core muscles could be why you wake up in pain
  • The pelvic tuck engages your deepest core muscles and the glute bridge part fires up your glutes and turns them on a bit to help stabilize your entire pelvic region
• Here’s how to do this move: Lay on your back with your knees bent and feet planted flat. Try to keep your shoulders relaxed as you gently tuck your tail under to flatten out your lumbar spine, pressing it into the bed. You should experience a small amount of decompression in that moment. Then keeping your pelvis tucked, squeeze your glutes and push your hips up halfway then gently lower.
• Do 10 reps of this, exhaling as you push up, inhaling as you lower.

3) 5-5-8 breathing

• I know it doesn’t sound like an exercise, but this is. Trust me.
• The reason this works so well is that this patterned breathing creates some gentle core engagement, it tones down your nervous system, actively lowers your blood pressure, and helps to calm and destress.
• Here’s how to do it: Just lay in the same position you were in when you finished your bridges, Lay one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest. Inhale for a count of 5, hold for a count of 5, exhale for a count of 8. If you’re particularly wound up, stressed and worried about something, I recommend tapping or counting on your fingertips to help redirect your focus.
• Do a minimum of 5 breath cycles, and up to 10 if you want to really relax.

Let’s put it all together

• Let me walk you through what this might look like for you at night. What your bedtime routine might look like with these 3 moves (less than 5 minutes) - walk them through it
  • Hooklying thoracic rotations
  • Pelvic tilt + glute bridges
  • 5-5-8 breathing
• You can even go through these moves in the middle of the night if you need to.
  • If you’re physically uncomfortable, and restless, go through all 3.
  • If your mind is suddenly racing and not very calm, you can just do the breathing.

Much Better Sleep!

When you follow this very simple routine right before bed, this is going to relax your body, release tension, and really help to calm you so that you’re in a much better state for falling asleep.

• Because if you’re not a great sleeper, and you continue to get poor sleep, it will impact your health if it hasn’t already.
• But just by having a simple, pre-bed routine like this that you do every single night, you’re going to experience your sleep improve AND your health improve as a result.

Ok, here’s what I want you to do so that you can start benefiting from this today.

• Practice these 3 exercises earlier in the day, at a separate time - not right before bed. I don’t want tonight to be the very first time you’re trying this, because anything new and unfamiliar isn’t very relaxing. Go through the routine now -  it’s only 5 minutes - and then do it again right before bed.
• I want you to commit to doing this for 4 nights in a row. Don’t just do it one night, and then forget about it, and be back to where you are now.

And then I want you to reach out to me and tell me how it feels and what you think.

More Resources & Links

FREE 5-Day Glute Builder Program eases back and knee pain and builds glute strength!

Related Episode: 240. Can’t Sleep? The Hidden Consequences of Poor Sleep for Women

Related Episode: 258. Unlocking the Secret to Better Sleep

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