13 November 2008

Of Killing Birds With Stones

So here's an interesting thing.

I was making a spinach and feta pull-apart today. Great recipe! I don't usually mess about with yeast and dough and kneading and rising because the end product is sometimes a little heavy and if you can't finish it the day it's made (and our family usually can't), it's a bit of a loss the next day.

Anyway, the recipe calls for 10 minutes of kneading. That's a lot of physical activity for someone like me. But I was getting into it and noticing how it was working my upper body. And then I noticed that because the dough was fairly stiff, I had to 'brace' my body so I could knead properly.

The muscles I was working were for core stability, and in particular the transverse abdominals. These are the ones I need to exercise regularly to help what (I think) Kaz Cooke calls "achy breaky pelvis" - the sacro-iliac dysfunction I got when I was pregnant and haven't yet lost due to low tone and lax joints and grumble grumble grumble. And kneading the bread was the best workout I'd given those muscles for a while!

Then I remembered how the pelvic floor works in synergy with the transverse abdominals and if I try to exercise that at the same time, I'd be making bread, toning the upper body, dealing with the achy breaky pelvis and solving the sneezing problem all in one!

This is a recipe I'll have to make more often.

11 comments:

GreenJello said...

Genius!

Maybe I'll make some of this after I get my bum out of my computer chair and into the kitchen. Maybe.

Swift Jan said...

You are one clever lady!! You may just have to send that recipe my way!! It looks delish btw...

angie said...

Stopping by from SITS to say hi!

That bread looks sooo good. Spinach and feta, yum!

Givinya De Elba said...

It is a great recipe, and relatively easy for one that involves yeast. The recipe is linked in the words "spinach and feta pull-apart" in the second paragraph.

Do you think cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce would be a good twist on spinach and feta? Garlic and herbs?

Hippomanic Jen said...

Hmmm. Sounds like it is good for you to eat AND gives you a work-out. Spinach and feta - both very high on the itchy-spots scale - but that's OK because I'm not really a fan of either! he, he, he.

Adelaine said...

Now that is multitasking!

Jen said...

wow, I am so impressed. All that from kneading bread.

Zip n Tizzy said...

What a great discovery. And, from the looks of that bread, I think you should be making it every day.
Yumm!

Anonymous said...

That bread looks delicious. And who knew one loaf of bread could do so much? It certainly is a work out to knead it by hand.

Dee said...

I guess thats one way to work off the calories of what you eat, before you eat it! Looks yum

Anonymous said...

Yum! Yum! Yum!