I was first introduced to the foam roller in my pilates class and since then we have had a love-hate relationship.
I love how my muscles feel after rolling them along the foam, but the process kills!
Here are some tips from Shape.com to using the foam roller and reaping the benefits. Remember when it really hurts is probably when you need it the most.
Stretching Exercises
The foam roller is an effective tool for anyone that experiences tightness in the quads, hamstrings, or calves. “A client can complain of knee aches and in just 3 minutes of rolling out the IT band, they report greatly diminished pain,” says Jackie Warner, fitness trainer and star of Personal Training with Jackie: Power Circuit Training.
If you’re using the roller to release tightness in the legs, position your body over the roller and lower yourself down. Aim to hold each foam roller exercise for about 20-30 seconds. Rolling these muscles can be painful, but you’ll feel much better after. “Avoid direct contact on the joints and focus more on the deep muscle and connective tissue right above or below the joints,” adds Warner. This technique shouldn’t be used to treat injuries. You might cause more damage when muscles and surrounding ligaments or tissues are inflamed.
Correcting Posture
Stand taller by using the roller to correct postural imbalance. Try lying on the roller with your body in a bridge and slowly roll up and down your vertebrae. This foam roller exercise will help release tension in the muscles surrounding your spine. Many people also roll their upper backs in lieu of going to see a massage therapist.
Strength Training
You can focus on your balance and core muscles with the roller too, but it’s a bit more advanced. “Some instructors use them as a balance strengthener by doing squats and kicks while standing or kneeling on rollers, but do so with a professional instructor that can help you get the most out of it,” adds Warner. Looking for a more basic move? Try focusing on your triceps with this foam roller exercise.
From Oprah.com
Ancient Greek physicians prescribed garlic. Egyptian herbalists favored licorice. For Oprah, the cold-fighting concoction of choice is the juice of freshly crushed cranberries.
Cranberries are rich in health-boosting antioxidants, including vitamin C and flavonoids (which can act as anti-inflammatories). And fresh cranberry juice offers all its nutrient content with none of the high-fructose corn syrup and other additives found in many store-bought brands.
Continue Reading Here.
Wouldn’t your day seem so much easier if you didn’t have to deal with fatigue?! Here are some tips from Mens Health to energy that will last all day long!
7 a.m.: The Morning Fog
Fill it up. Make your morning meal a bowl of instant oatmeal prepared with skim milk. Tufts University researchers recently found that people who ate one packet of instant oatmeal spiked with 1/2 cup of skim milk received a steady glucose infusion, which increased their alertness all morning and improved their ability to process information. And if you aren’t already jolting yourself with java, start; a University of Pennsylvania study shows that a dose of caffeine can combat sleep inertia.
1 p.m.: The Lunchtime Letdown
Order a combo meal. If you can’t (or won’t) limit your lunchtime carbohydrate consumption, work in extra fiber to slow your digestion and the release of insulin, says Susan Kleiner, Ph.D., R.D., owner of the consulting firm High Performance Nutrition. For example, if your noon nosh includes a baked potato, make sure you eat the skin, which is dense with a type of fiber called pectin. “Pectin slows everything down in the gastrointestinal tract,” says Kleiner.
3 p.m.: The Afternoon Slump
Expose yourself. As in, give yourself a shot of sunlight. The sun’s rays will provide a boost to your circadian clock that should solve your afternoon slump—if you time things right. “The key is adequate exposure to sunlight very quickly after you wake up in the morning,” says Michael Terman, Ph.D., a professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University medical center. “As you move into the middle of the day, the same amount of light exposure doesn’t affect the circadian clock at all.”
6 p.m.: The Preworkout Conk-Out
Snack before you sweat. Schedule a small snack roughly an hour and a half before your postwork workout. The ideal mini meal totals 250 calories and consists of 25 to 35 grams (g) carbohydrates, 10 to 15 g protein, and up to 5 g fat, says Kleiner. Two handfuls of pretzels and two slices of cheese fits the nutritional bill, as does a Myoplex Lite bar.
8 p.m.: The Prime-Time Torpor
Rock yourself awake. First, do not stretch out on the couch or recline in your easy chair. “Underlying sleepiness becomes more apparent when we put ourselves in sleep-conducive positions, such as lying down,” says Wright. And instead of turning on the TV, power up your iPod. “To increase the perception of energy, listen to a piece of music that is upbeat and familiar, and use that song to get you going,” says Andrea Scheve, director of the University of Pittsburgh medical center music-therapy program.
Shut It Off
It would be funny if it weren’t so frustrating: You spend the entire day fighting fatigue, only to slip into bed, shut your eyes, and suddenly realize that you now have too much energy. This is due to doing too many other activities, other than sleeping, in your bed. Which means the fix is what sleep researchers have recommended all along: no books, no Leno, and definitely no laptop when you’re under the covers. Sex is fine—it is, after all, nature’s perfect sleep aid.
According to Mens Health
Pelleres weighted arm-sleeves are the secret to getting fit fast!These biomechanically designed weighted arm-sleeves are proven to strengthening your core, burning more calories and it events prevents injuries!
This is a great solution for athletes who want to train at an advanced level, but it’s also great for busy mothers who want to lose weight while working around the house.
Here’s how it works:
“By applying weights to the forearms an imbalance is instantly created in the upper body which overloads the body and engages your core. As the core muscles work harder to compensate for the imbalance, the core is simultaneously strengthened and stabilised. When the body is overloaded with weight it is forced to adapt and become more powerful.”
Be sure to start with a weight that’s right for you and to check out the website Here.
Discover other great solutions like this one, or offer your own, at findsolve.
findsolve
Do you treat your cool down in the same way that you treat your post-workout stretching? You know you’re suppose to, but you usually skip it.
Women’s Health Magazine decided to ask their experts if this golden rule was an established fact from science or just the automatic set-up of the treadmill. Here’s what they discovered:
“Cooling down is not a joke according to Adam Friedman, Gold’s Gym Fitness Institute expert.
Though not mandatory, it is helpful to cool down when you’re working at a high intensity—which is at or above 85 percent of your maximum heart rate*.
When you’re pushing hard, your blood is moving quickly around your body to provide nutrients and oxygen to the muscles. When you stop immediately, the blood can sometimes draw back into the stomach area, occasionally leaving you feeling dizzy or nauseous.
But even if you feel a bit woozy, it’s not necessarily dangerous or harmful to your body—just a little uncomfortable.
What about the idea it can relieve muscle soreness?
It might relieve cramping, says Jordan D. Metzl, M.D., sports medicine physician, Hospital for Special Surgery, but it’s a myth that cooling-down can ease muscle soreness.
“When you’re sore, it’s really because you’ve made tiny tears in your muscles,” says Metzl. “Cooling-down won’t help that, and it won’t really help from an injury perspective.”
To sum it up: The next time you hit the treadmill, don’t worry about completing the 5-minute cool-down unless you’ve really been pushing yourself and need that time to catch your breath and stretch out your rubber legs. “
Celebrity fitness trainer, and author of No Gym Required: Unleash Your Inner Rockstar, Jennifer Cohen goes back-to-basics. Her focus on using body weight instead of the latest gadgets, coupled with a clean-living diet to maximize health and strength, has created clear results. In this video, she explains to WatchMojo.com how the most basic exercises are the most effective and how easy it is to stay in shape without going to the gym. For more information click Here
There is still no cure, but there are some methods of prevention that can decrease the risks of breast cancer.
Follow these healthy breast habits today:
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Eat a balanced diet
- Examine yourself
- Know your breasts
Learn more about each step you can towards minimizing your breast cancer risk Here.
I came across this diet that I had never heard of before. It looks simple enough.
No funny science or calorie accounting involved, just a few simple and mnemonic tricks for giving your willpower the upper hand.
There are just three rules and one exception:
No Snacks
No Sweets
No Seconds
Except (sometimes) on days that start with “S”
Yoga and pilates are both great forms of exercise for stress, flexibility and killer abs!
Check out these moves that take the best of both yoga and pilate moves to create yogilates from Women’s Health. The fusion was created when Jonathan Urla, instructor at The Sports Club/LA in New York City realized his yoga class was so much easier after having completed a pilates class right before.
Three Great Yogilates Moves for Your Abs
1. Hammock
Targets abdominals as well as glutes, arms, chest, and shoulders
a) Sit tall with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor; place your hands on the floor behind you at about a 45-degree angle; lean back.
b) Keeping your arms straight, inhale as you lift your hips until the front of your body—knees to shoulders—is in one straight line.
c) Lower your hips to the floor, straightening your legs out in front of you as you come down to a seated position.
d) Place your hands next to your thighs and lean forward, pulling your abs in toward your spine.
e) Then push down through your hands to lift your hips off the floor. Hold here.
Repeat 5 to 10 times.
2. Double leg stretch
Strengthens and tones the abs
a) Lie on the floor, bend and hold onto your knees, and curl your shoulders up off the floor.
b) Keeping your hips down and your lower back pressed into your mat, extend your legs up and out at a 45 degree angle to the floor as you reach your arms straight up (biceps near ears) forming a wide “U” shape with your body.
c) Hold this position, pressing your ribs down toward the floor.
d) Use your abs to bring your legs and arms back to starting position with your knees bent.
Repeat 5 to 10 times.
3. Side twists
Works all ab muscles, in particular the obliques
a) Lie on your back with arms extended out at your sides, knees bent, and feet flat on the floor. Lift your bent legs to form a right angle with your torso.
b) Keeping both legs together and both your shoulders pressing into the floor, twist and drop your legs to the left until they’re halfway or nearly touching the floor.
c) Bring your knees back to center and twist and drop them to the right side without bringing them to the floor. Return to center.
Repeat 3 to 5 times per side.
As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter it’s that much easier for Americans to feel down. While all of us have bad days, one in every 14 americans suffers from clinical depression.
Depression is a complex condition characterized by profound sadness, lethargy, feelings of worthlessness, and a loss of interest in social activities. These feelings can last for two weeks or go on for decades. The difference between the blues and clinical depression is one of length and severity of symptoms.
It’s important to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression so that you can can help a friend or yourself. Here are some tips to battling the winter blues.
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