Regan Movement

Calf strength is so important for balance, walking and supporting the way forces travel through your feet, ankles, knees and up into your hips and low back.

I love doing calf raises on a step because you’re building strength through the full range, including that lengthened position at the bottom.

One thing to watch: don’t let your heels splay out as you lift. Keeping good alignment helps you actually strengthen the muscles you’re trying to work.

Strong, mobile calves are such an important part of keeping your knees and low back supported and your whole body moving well.

Butterfly tapping is one of my favorite tools when I need to come back into my body.

It uses gentle, alternating taps from side to side, a form of bilateral stimulation that can help:

• Create a sense of grounding and calm
• Bring your attention back into your body
• Help settle you when you’re feeling stressed or overwhelmed
• Slow down racing thoughts and create a moment of pause
• Pair breath and touch to support nervous system regulation

I’ll do this for even a minute when I feel like I need to reset.

Sometimes feeling better isn’t about doing more. It’s giving your nervous system a little space to settle.

One of my favorite morning rituals: dry brushing my face for lymphatic drainage.

I notice the biggest difference in:
• Morning puffiness, especially under my eyes
• Helping fluid move through my face and neck
• That congested, heavy feeling in my face
• My sinuses literally feeling like they start to drain
• Waking up my skin and giving my face a little natural glow
• Releasing some of the tension I hold in my face and jaw

It takes me about a minute, feels so good and is one of those little things I notice when I do consistently.

Gentle is key. You’re encouraging fluid movement, not scrubbing your skin.

I don't even want to think about how many hours a day we're holding our cell phones. Then we wonder why our neck and shoulders are tight, why we've got a protruding stomach, why we feel stiff, why our posture looks like a question mark.

Of course we should be on our phones less. But regardless, it's part of our lives, so here's one of my favorite cues.

Drop your elbows down and let them rest on your chest. Bring the phone to your body instead of bringing your body to the phone.

Save for a constant reminder 📱

Foam Rolling Your Armpits? Sounds like a strange spot to roll, but hear me out.

Your armpits are packed with fascia, lymph nodes, and the tie in points for muscles that pull your shoulders forward, your pecs, lats, and the fascia connecting into your neck and chest. Rolling there releases tension that's often the real source of tight neck and shoulders, not the neck and shoulders themselves.

That same tension can contribute to a rib flare, rounded shoulders, and limited shoulder mobility. It also plays into your breathing mechanics, since tight pecs and lats restrict how well your ribcage can expand. It also helps with lymphatic drainage, which feels especially important around the breast tissue, an area most of us never think to address.

The result: better alignment, shoulders that stop rounding forward, and a neck and chest that finally get to release from the actual source of the tightness.

One of the biggest reasons I stay strong and mobile isn't long workouts every day, but that I sprinkle movement throughout my day. While the coffee brews, at the kitchen sink after doing the dishes, waiting for dinner, and all of these in between moments throughout the day.

These little movement snacks add up. They improve mobility, build strength, wake up muscles that have been sitting all day, and just help your body feel better. We think we need a long and daunting workout to make a difference, but your body actually loves frequent movement more. Move often, it all counts no matter how small.

Save this for inspiration and follow for more movement snacks 🤍

How do you get on and off the floor?

Next time, pause and pay attention. Most of us, like I am doing on the left, grab onto something to pull ourselves up, and get up with bad posture. It's a missed opportunity for strength building, causes back and neck pain, and is honestly one of the ways we age ourselves faster than we need to.

A few things that help you do it properly (like the example on the right): Hinge from your pelvis instead of rounding your spine. Don't let your thigh roll in. Exhale to initiate standing so your core is what's actually supporting you, not your arms.

I'm all about finding ways to build strength throughout the day and keep our movement from making us tighter, less mobile, and older than we need to be. Try it next time you get up off the floor, no hands, and let me know how it feels.

Crossing your legs isn’t inherently bad. It’s what happens when it becomes your only position for hours at a time.

Your pelvis tilts and rotates to compensate, your spine pulls out of neutral to hold you upright, and one hip flexor shortens while the other lengthens. Do that every day, same leg over the same leg, and that’s often where low back and hip pain that seems to come from nowhere is actually coming from.

It also restricts circulation at the knee.

If you’re going to cross your legs, alternate sides. Just don’t let it become the position you live in for eight hours straight!🙏

Gratefulness is my word of the year. Morning yawning and stretches replace screens in the morning. I work on hypopressive breathing along with my coffee, matcha, protein, and electrolytes. I make sure to find time for myself to do strength and mobility work, or on other days, a private gyrotonic lesson with Malia or acupuncture a couple times a month, which is what’s kept me strong, supple and feeling good in my body.

The teachers in my studio and my clients all carry good energy, and it matters to me to protect that and create more of it, for both me and my daughter. This allows us to go home with good energy heading into the evening. Breathwork at night before bed to reset my nervous system, and even journaling even a couple sentences when I have a second. Every day has different moments that help me fill my cup ☕️

I’m working hard while constantly growing, learning, and evolving. My life is full and I'm grateful for all of it.

One of the most underrated wellness habits is dancing! And it's not even about the workout, but rather the release.

I stopped somewhere around Covid, even after years of dancing professionally. Not sure why. Then one day I put music on, closed my eyes, and the joy and the escape of it hit me instantly. Reminded me of being a kid, spending hours dancing to every kind of music.

It's not about looking good or being good at it. It's about being free and letting go.

Your body shakes off stress, processes emotion, breathes deeper, reconnects with itself. Balance, coordination, heart health, strength, all of that comes along with it, almost as a bonus.

Hope this can inspire you to give it a try.