Category Archives: Core Exercises

Break old habits to fix an achy back

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Healing a sore back requires breaking some old habits and forming some new ones, says Dr. Stuart McGill. If you’re living with an achy back, getting your swagger back, as McGill, the most recognized spine researcher in the world, states, is different from a knee or shoulder problem. The knee and shoulder, particularly in the early stages of rehab, both do well with full range of motion exercises—think of arm circles. Fixing your low back pain is different and more nuanced, as your spine needs stability, not excess motion. This means that you don’t want excess curves in the spine. A goal for a healthy back is to maintain a neutral spine position during your prescribed program, as well as in daily activities.

The emphasis throughout the day and during workouts is to focus on proper spine stability, rather than more movement in the lower back. Do you slouch when you sit or have too much curve in your lower back while standing? Do you bend over to lift a large object, which is problematic for the posterior back disks? Poor movement habits, repeated throughout the day, can result in a sore back. Stretching and strengthening are important, but not the whole answer. A key to a healthy back is retraining how you position your back during activities, lessening excess spine curves.

Move mindfully with the abdominal brace

McGill likens the abdominal brace as a mild contraction of the abdominals as though you are preparing to get punched in the belly. But it’s not in extremes, like “sucking them in.” Like a dimmer switch gradually adjusts light levels in a room, the abdominal stiffness during your activities isn’t an on/off switch, but works in relationship to what you are doing. You would use less ab bracing during walking and more for lifting a heavy object, for example.

Wall test for excess low back curve

Photo by Connie Aronson
Try the wall test to check for excessive lumbar curve

The abdominal muscles connect your ribs to hips along the front and sides. When you use your abs, they pull the ribs and hips closer. When you stand up, for example, and don’t use your abs, you allow your ribs and hips to be too far apart, creating back sway. Over time, this can contribute to movement flaws, soft tissue stress, or disc problems.

If you can’t stand back with your back against a wall with your heels, hips, upper back and the back of your head lightly touching, without arching your back, you probably have weak abdominal muscles. Remember, our goal is to reduce the excess curves of the spine. Try this test at home.

• Stand with your back to a wall, with heels, butt, shoulders, and head comfortably touching the wall.

• Keep your feet in a neutral position and legs straight.

• Have a friend place a hand behind your low back, or use your hand.

Results: If you can put your whole hand behind the space in the lower back, you have too much back sway.

Ideally, if you know how to brace your core, you wouldn’t be able to put your hand behind lower back !

If you can only get the first knuckle in your hand behind the lower back, congratulations, you have excellent abdominal bracing skills!

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-break-old-habits-to-fix-your-achy-back/article_b0a8b022-b336-11ed-9db5-5b0e14ef4dc1.html

Quick fixes for your squats

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All winter sports require strong leg muscles, good balance and core support—all benefits of doing regular squats. The squat is one of the most common and basic exercises performed in strength training and offers a tremendous bang for your buck.

There are many reasons you should be doing squats, if you aren’t already doing so. Getting out of a car, climbing stairs, skate or ski, all depend on strong legs. Squats strengthen your leg muscles, especially the quadriceps, glutes, and core, burn calories and help prevent injury. The inner thigh, hamstrings and calves are all challenged. Additionally, the erector spinae serve as stabilizing muscles in a squat. They help strengthen your core and promote good posture.

Form is so important in squats, and there are four common problems you often see; excessive forward lean, low back arching, low back rounding, or a lateral hip shift. Muscle imbalances, like tight hip flexors and calves, or weak core support, are often the culprits here. Lacking the mobility in your hips or ankles, forgetting to use your core muscles, or weak gluteal strength all contribute to problematic squats.

A fun and humbling test to improve your squat would look like this: Crawl on the floor for a few paces, rock forward, and without using your hands, stand up. This effectively demonstrates ankle and hip mobility, and core and lower body strength needed to transfer your weight up into standing. This drill exemplifies strength and mobility, important qualities in a squat.

Let’s look at two quick fixes to improve your squat technique.

Hip hinge with Dowel

The hip hinge is one of the most important cues to think of when you perform a squat. Hinging at your hips, in any type of squat, saves the spine stress and strain, as the motion is focused on the hips, not the back. The dowel teaches you to maintain a tall spine, without the head falling forward, a common mistake. The dowel exercise also helps correct excessive forward lean, or the lower back rounding.

Hip hinge with dowel
Photo by Connie Aronson
The dowel must remain in contact with these 3 points throughout your hip hinge range.

• Place a dowel, or broom stick on the base of your skull, the thoracic spine –your upper back, and the sacrum.

• The dowel must remain in contact with these 3 points throughout your hip hinge range.

• Think of sinking your hips backwards, and return to start position.

• Your legs can be straight or a slight knee bend.

• Do 8 x, slowly.

Squat with heel lifts

If your calves are tight, or you lack ankle mobility, try placing gym plates or a wedge under you heels in a squat. This will help you bend at the ankles (ankle dorsiflexion) an action that brings the shin over the foot. Improving your ankle flexibility will also help you flex into your ski turn more dynamically!

Squat with weight
Photo by Connie Aronson
Squat form: Squat down by bending hips back while allowing knees to bend forward, keeping back straight, knees in line with toes. Descend until thighs are parallel or just past parallel. To rise back up, contract glutes and pressure through whole foot. 
Perfect squat form ( with overhead arms )

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/fitness-guru-quick-fixes-for-your-squats/article_118dc396-9cdf-11ed-ac22-6babf844dcdc.html?fbclid=IwAR2w_aB0sjZrmDfKmS_PnBv4Rlz5oPKQ99yz3u1YrxdOMyVse5pkaAIcRbc

Five everyday movements you need

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Good habits contribute to optimum health. When it comes to your health, preventing injuries in any sport or activity you enjoy is crucial. No one likes being injured. With a New Year fast approaching, here are five injury-preventing moves to help you get fit without getting hurt. Whether you are a seasoned athlete, or just want to stay in shape, incorporate these moves into your day.

Activate the Core

Include daily core exercises! The core muscles help stabilize the spine and support movement. The following 2 core exercises activate the core in different ways to help initiate all movement, and contribute to strength capacity.

Side Lying Hip Lift

Side Lying Hip Lift -The core muscles help stabilize the spine and support movement.

• Lying on your right side with knees bent (or straight for advanced variation), place right elbow under right shoulder. Push shoulder away from ear to engage shoulder girdle ) .

• Avoid letting rib cage slump toward floor; maintain natural curve of spine.

• Exhale and lift right hip off of floor, and hold for 3 counts.

• Slowly lower to start. 10-12 reps. Switch sides

Heel-on-Toe Crunch

• Begin with your legs straight, left heel on top of right foot.

• Bring left hand behind your head for support, and lift right arm straight up from shoulder.

• Curl up, raising head, neck and shoulders blades off mat, tightening abdominals.

• Slowly return to start position. 10 reps. Switch sides.

Stretch tight hamstrings

Stretch tight hamstrings -Photo by Connie Aronson

Tightness in the back of your legs may be a sign of instability in your core, causing the leg muscles to overwork and shorten. As well, hamstrings are an important muscle to stretch if you have back pain, as they attach to the pelvis, which attaches to the back. An excellent move to ease the tension and strengthen your torso is the inverted hamstring stretch. This move engages your core muscles to help keep you balanced.

• Stand on your left leg with your arms extended to the sides.

• Extend your right leg behind you while hinging your torso forward, keeping your back straight, and slowly return to standing.

• Do 5 reps each side

Foam Roller Alignment

Foam Roller Alignment- Photo by Connie Aronson

We’re all guilty of bending forward while scrolling on our phones, resulting in a “forward head.” For every inch that your head is forward there’s 10 more pounds of pressure on the neck. Reset your alignment by lying on a foam roller.  Lengthening the lumbar erector spinal muscles helps encourage neutral alignment.

• With your knees bent, lie on a roller, head supported and neck in a neutral position.

• Tighten the abdominals.

• Gently roll side to side for 20-30 seconds

The Sock Test

Losing your balance as you get older is no joke. Research has shown that the ability to stand on one foot drastically decreases after the age of 60, along with a rapid increase of falls and injury. The ability to stand on one leg is imperative for gait and function.

The sock test takes the move a step further, and is a fun challenge to build strength capacity and balance.

• Holding a sock, stand on one leg, knee slightly bent.

• Bring your leg up towards you as you put your sock on

• Lower the leg to the floor and repeat with your left foot.

Include these movements, everyday, if you can, to stay fit and supple. Happy healthy New Year!

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-five-everyday-movements-you-need/article_35aaaaf4-86d3-11ed-83e5-6b842192aaff.html

Add single -leg squats to your training

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  • Early fall, ski-teamers are working on quad strength for their upcoming competitive season. You should be, too, if you are planning to ski this winter. Even if you’re not doing any type of physical activity, you should at least train your legs to keep them strong. As an exercise, squats strengthen your leg muscles, especially the glutes and quadriceps, and your core, burn calories and help prevent injury. If you’ve been avoiding squats because of knee pain, you are not alone, as over 50% of people experience knee pain on a regular basis. It’s likely that you might not have sufficient ankle, foot or hip mobility to squat well. With specific massage, stretches and exercises you can fix this common muscle imbalance.

The squat is a movement that we do throughout the day, from sitting into a chair or car, to lifting up a child or parcel. It’s also a foundational movement where the feet, ankles and hips have to be working correctly. Leg machines such as the leg extension and leg curl machine are useful, but you could be missing out on building more dynamic, full-body exercises that burn more calories and are fun. A ground-based exercise, the single leg squat, puts high loads on the leg without the need for additional weight.

Consider that in walking or any ground-based activity, the ankle needs to roll in, bend, and absorb weight as you transfer your weight from the right foot to the left. Similarly, the hip should internally rotate as you step forward. Together, there is an accepting and transferring of weight through the entire lower kinetic chain. For example, if the hips aren’t internally rotating in a back swing, stresses may affect the knee, shoulder or back. The knee simply doesn’t have the same mobility that the ankles and hips are capable of, as the knee mostly bends forward and back, with limited movement side to side and in rotation. Without the feet, ankles and hips working correctly, the knee is compromised. It’s important to note that the knee and foot’s (and spine’s) primary function is stability.

The TRX Lunge (photo 3), a single leg exercise, will strengthen your leg muscles and is a great way to dynamically stretch the hip flexor muscles of the rear leg.

Corrective exercise sequence to target the hip flexors

1. Tennis ball rolling on the hip flexor. Justin Price, creator of the BioMechanics Method, likens tennis ball or foam rolling to blowing a big bubble. You first have to chew the gum to prepare it to be pliant enough to blow a bubble! You can use a baseball or any other ball you have during the self-myofascial release portion. Hold each sore spot for 20-30 seconds, for a total of two to three minutes on each side.  

 

Tennis ball on the hip flexor

2. Kneeling hip flexor stretch. Hold for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side 

  

Kneeling quad stretch- engage the gluteals and core

3. Single leg  lunge. Aim for about 90% of the weight on your front leg.

TRX suspended lunge

Printed in the Idaho Mountain Express October 12, 2022

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-add-single-leg-squats-to-your-training/article_00966ace-443e-11ed-9418-67966173447a.html

Why you need to stretch your hamstrings

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Tight hamstrings are all too common, as is forgetting to stretch

Does it feel awful when you bend over to touch your toes? Many of us also become acutely aware of tight hamstrings when they cramp, hurt or when we experience back pain. Tight hamstrings are all too common, as is forgetting to stretch. Even if you are devoted to daily hamstring stretching, you still feel as if you’ve made little progress. Quite often the culprit can be attributed to weak gluteals, or “gluteal amnesia.” Gluteal amnesia is when your glutes aren’t firing, and the hamstrings have to work overtime, causing further cramps or strains. Any weakness in the gluteus max can contribute to common dysfunctions such as lower back pain along with knee pain.

Use a two-part plan in stretching your hamstrings. First, strengthen your glutes, followed by stretching your hamstrings. The hamstring group (semimembranosus, semitendinosus, and the biceps femoris) starts at the butt bone and runs down the outside and inside of the leg and attach to the lower leg. These muscles have two important real life functions. First, they help side-to-side alignment of the knee, as these muscles are like a guyline from the base of your pelvis, down the back of the leg, and knee. When you touch your toes, the hamstrings stretch, but more specifically, the lengthening under tension controls the inward or outward rolling of the knee. The hamstrings also act as a big crane to slow down your trunk as you lean forward to touch your toes, thus sparing compression forces on your lower back.

Incorporating both glute strengthening exercises, and isolated hamstring stretching into your routine can help make the way down to touching your toes feel good, as well as combating pain and cramping issues. Here is a daily sequence to incorporate:

Butt lift over ball- a great gluteal strengthener
Standing hamstring stretch. Place your right leg up on a chair or bench, keeping your leg straight and both feet aligned straight. Pull the right side of your pelvis back and away from the right foot. Flex your foot. Rotate the torso to the right by reaching the left hand over the right knee, and vice versa when stretching the left leg. Tip: Actively contract the quadriceps throughout this stretch to release the hamstrings. Hold for 20-30 seconds. Repeat 3-4 times.
Doorway stretch. This is a great home stretch, as you perform it lying on the back, even as you watch TV. Place your foot up on the corner of a wall or on a door- frame. While in this stretch aim to keep the leg straight.
This is a great home stretch for your hamstrings
PNF stretch with strap. Lying on your back, place a yoga strap or stretch strap around your leg. Straighten your leg up toward the ceiling. While in this position contract the hamstring by attempting to lower the leg back toward the ground as the strap resists the motion. Then relax the hamstrings and apply a 10-second stretch by using the strap to pull the leg closer toward the chest. Repeat three times and end with a 30-second static stretch. Tip: Ideally, your leg should go vertically upwards without pain for good flexibility.
PNF hamstring stretch with strap

Published in The Idaho Mountain Express 9/9/2022

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-why-you-need-to-stretch-your-hamstrings/article_9bee2960-2f05-11ed-8cc5-3729101fea72.html

Power breathing

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When you breathe deeply, you refresh your mind and improve your lung function.

Think of a time when you felt anxious and stressed. Stress is impossible to avoid; bills, job demands or challenging relationships all contribute to taxing your nervous system. But the easiest and quickest way to calm your mind is to simply breathe in and out.

When you breathe deeply, you refresh your mind and improve your lung function. The simple act of inhaling and exhaling decreases the sympathetic nervous system response and leaves you feeling more relaxed.

Worry and stressful situations can trigger a cascade of stress hormones that make the heart pound and muscles tense, known as “fight or flight.” The National Cancer Institute describes it as a group of changes that occur in the body to help a person fight or take flight in stressful or dangerous situations. This is the body’s way of helping to protect itself from possible harm. During fight or flight, certain hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, are released into the blood. This causes an increase in blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing. Other changes include an increase in blood sugar, alertness, muscle tension and sweating.

Fight or flight served us well on the savannah, but on a daily basis we can’t be continually running from tigers. The simple act of breathing with focused intent can help you relax and feel better.

At rest we only use about 20% of our lung capacity and barely utilize the muscles of our breathe. The American Lung Association indicates that when the diaphragm is not working at full capacity, the body starts to use other muscles in the back, neck and chest for breathing. This means that there is less reserve for exercise and activity, and lower available oxygen levels.

So, how do you take a deep breath?

Although many people feel a deep breath comes solely from expansion of the chest, chest breathing (in of itself) is not the best way to take a deep breath. To get a full deep breath, learn how to breathe from the diaphragm while simultaneously expanding the chest.

Yoga teaches that by breathing this way: a vertical extension, a horizontal expansion and a circumferential extension of the rib cage, chest and lungs shows that the lungs are being filed to their maximum capacity.

Breath is life. Yoga teaches that breathing is a prayer of gratitude we offer to life itself. B.K.S Iyengar, one of the most influential yoga teachers in America, compares leaves moving in the wind to how our mind moves with our breath. When your breath is regulated, there is a neutralizing effect on the mind. Activating the deep breath will decrease your parasympathetic nervous system and leave you feeling more relaxed and in control of your emotions.

It’s not only yogis who know the benefits of remaining calm and focused by practicing breathing. Navy SEALS use controlled breathing techniques in their military training programs as a valuable tool for their soldiers. Facing crisis, high pressure and uncertain circumstances, one of techniques the SEALS use is easy to learn and powerful, called box breathing.

Box Breathing

Sometimes referred to as square breathing, box breathing is a practical technique to start with. You can practice it anywhere and at any time; however, it’s best to sit in a comfortable chair with your feet on the floor, or lying down, to learn. Try to tune out extraneous sounds, as you close your eyes and listen to your breath. Notice the natural rhythm of your breathing for a few cycles. Now you are ready to begin your box breathing.

  1. Breathe out slowly, releasing all the air from your lungs.
  2. Breathe in through your nose as you slowly count to four in your head. Be conscious of how the air fills your lungs and stomach.
  3. Hold your breath for a count of four.
  4. Exhale for another count of four.
  5. Repeat steps 1 to 4 for three to four rounds.

For visualization, while you are box breathing, imagine as though the box is being traced by a colored crayon or imaginary marker. For each of the four lines you draw, switch colors of the box’s outline. For meditation, you can add an affirmation, such as “I am relaxed,” as you breath by syncing it with your breath, rather than counting.

Continue practicing your breathing technique whenever you think of it. Your breath is always with you, as is life itself. 

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-power-breathing/article_936765b2-d77c-11ec-bc26-ff6932a5d3ee.html

Ankle flexibility for better balance and sports

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The feet and ankles support and cushion the entire weight of the body and are crucial to keep your body balanced. Anyone that has to be on his or her feet all day knows that they bear a lot of pressure while standing. The foot includes 26 bones and 33 joints, all helping you simply stay upright. Added to that are 12 muscles involved in movement of the foot, plus to 19 intrinsic muscles, which support the arches and toes. One of the most important functions of your feet is that stress is distributed correctly though these structures and upwards throughout the entire body.

When it comes to better sports performance—and all weight-bearing activities such as walking and running—you can’t talk about the feet without including the ankles and lower legs. Two big muscles on the back of the leg, the gastrocnemius and soleus, provide movement, and are often tight or stiff. Both of these muscles attach to the heel via the Achilles tendon. These muscles play a big role when you flex your ankles. A limited range of motion in your ankles can affect your sports performance, balance and good squatting and lunge form.

The ankles have to bend. Dorsiflexion involves being able to bring the lower leg over the foot. It occurs anytime your foot hits the ground. If you were lucky enough to watch the Beijing Winter Olympics, consider a figure skater performing loops and axels or an alpine skier’s competing in the slalom or giant slalom events—all demonstrated stunning foot and ankle mobility and function.

Touch the wall test

Touch the wall test

A simple and objective way to see if you ankles aren’t tight is to do the “touch the wall” test.

Find a wall and place a ruler or measuring tape out from the baseboard. Place your foot at approximately 5 or 5.5 inches away from the wall. Be sure to have your foot straight. Keep your heel down as you try to touch the wall with your knee. If you can easily tap the wall, you have good ankle mobility. If you cannot, repeat this movement slowly for 15-20 times. Check your range after you include the following two stretches.

High-step ankle stretch

High step ankle stretch

Place your foot on a high chair or gym box. Be sure to have the foot in neutral alignment. Slowly flex the knee forward to increase the stretch. You should feel it in your ankles and calf. (This is a more advanced stretch.) Repeat 10-12 reps.

BOSU Calf Stretch

The BOSU calf stretch

This is an incredibly effective gastrocnemius and soleus stretch taught by Justin Price, one of the top musculoskeletal assessment and corrective exercise experts in the world. Stand on the round side on a BOSU ball with one leg in front of the other. (Place the BOSU against a wall for safety.) Push the heel of the back foot down into the BOSU, as you stand erect. Keep the heel down and rotate the back leg outward. Hold for a few seconds. Next, bend the knee of the back leg and rotate the leg inward (heel is still down). Perform 6–10 repetitions on both sides.

Published in the Idaho Mountain Express

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-ankle-flexibility-for-better-balance-and-sports/article_5451e3a4-ab01-11ec-b25d-f733ba813780.html

Add power to your workouts

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Consider plyometrics for improved performance

  • Even if you visit your gym frequently, plyometric moves might be new to you. If you want to improve your overall fitness and burn calories, look to plyometric exercises for improved performance and power.

Power is the ability to produce large amounts of force quickly.

For every sport, unless you’re an equestrian athlete, or kayaker, your skill starts by your feet pushing into the ground or firm object that returns force back through you.

Plyometric is a quick powerful movement involving pre-stretching that activates the stretch shortening cycle. Plyometric exercises are also referred to as reactive training. The ultimate goal of reactive training is to increase the reaction time of the rate of force production. An explosive tennis serve, better basketball, golf swing, or a faster running gait are all examples of sports in which you could benefit from this type of training. It can also enhance how you react to ground surfaces throughout the day in simple daily activities. Quickly responding to an unexpected change, like ice, when stepping off a curb or rapidly changing direction when walking your dog on a leash are both examples of daily encounters when you’ll want to have better reaction time.

We all need vigorous levels of physical activity to maximize bone mass throughout our lives. Incorporating plyometric exercises is also extremely valuable in post-rehab and for a safe return to play.

Plyometrics, in its purest form, are meant to be all-out, quality efforts in each repetition of an exercise. Although commonly thought of as only muscular activity, the nervous system is intrinsically linked. The exercises heighten the excitability of the nervous system for improved reactive ability of the neuromuscular system, a benefit for both pro athletes and the rest of us.

Before incorporating plyometric exercises into your training, it is important to have good flexibility, motor control, core strength, and balance capabilities. If you can’t do it slowly, you can’t do it fast!

Be proficient in exercises such as step-ups and different kinds of squats before practicing, and start with plyometric exercises that are low intensity. Bounding or footwork patterns are a good place to start. Like hopscotch, they are fun and challenging.

Before any kind of jump, know that landing strategies are crucial. You should land in a partial squat. A partial squat is a position with feet shoulder-width apart and the bodyweight centered over a stable base of support. Bearing weight symmetrically, a stable base of support means that the trunk is relatively upright over the legs (or leg) with slight flexion of the ankle, knee, and hips.

The exercise selection is vast, as you would start with moves that are easy to complex, stable to unstable, body weight to loaded, to activity specific.

Plyometric training isn’t only limited to lower body training. Moves such as wall throws plyometric push-ups, or jump-squat with a chest pass are other examples.

Photos in article below~

As published in The Idaho Mountain Express- Fitness Guru

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-add-power-to-your-workouts/article_5f9b3a20-52b5-11ec-b485-87eadcee070c.html

To sleep better, add Yoga Nidre to your nighttime routine

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Yoga Nidre, a meditation technique, is a proven antidote to help with anxiety and sleep

We need sleep and it’s best in moderation, like most things in life. According to studies recently published in the journal Brain, there is a middle range to keep the brain sharp over time, and most adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night. The study shows that too little or too much sleep is associated with worse cognitive performance. Good sleep improves your brain function, immune system, mood, and health. Sleep is so important for our overall health that having just one night of sleep loss can significantly impair your daily functioning. More than one-third of U.S. adults sleep fewer than six hours per night. So what really keeps you up at night, and how can you make sleep a priority?

Sleep can be so elusive some nights. Worrying, tension, cluttered thoughts, family concerns, and work-life balance dilemmas can keep us up, although we crave sleep.

Caffeine, bright lights, and room temperature

• For most people, the sleep signal happens after 12-16 hours of being awake. A chemical called adenosine accumulates in the brain during the day. Caffeine, however, blocks and inactivates adenosine receptors, and tricks you into feeling alert. Coffee in foods such as dark chocolate and ice cream, as well as some medications, are also sources of caffeine.

• A laptop screen, smartphone or tablet has a very real impact on your melatonin release, interfering with your natural ability to wind down from a busy day.

• Try turning off half of the lights in your home in the last two hours before bed, and keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet.

  • A colder bedroom helps the body’s core temperature drop by 2-3 degrees Fahrenheit, ensuring a better nights’ sleep.

Let tension go with Yoga Nidre

When you’re trying to sleep, our bodies can be holding tension that we are not even aware of. Yoga Nidre, a meditation technique, is a proven antidote to help with anxiety and sleep. The roots of Yoga Nidre go back thousands of years, but many of today’s yoga leaders have adapted the teachings to make them more accessible to Westerners.

Seated meditation isn’t for everybody, as it is difficult to try to clear your mind and bring your focus back to your breath. Because Yoga Nidre is always guided, it promotes deep rest and relaxation. It can be as short as 10 minutes, or as long as an hour. The focus is to cultivate multiple levels of well-being.

Use a meditation app such as Insight Timer or Calm. Once you find a sleep meditation that appeals to you, and because it is guided, you’ll need headphones. ( Be sure you don’t start scrolling ! ) Lie and rest comfortably in your bed. You are encouraged to move around and get as comfortable as you can as you begin.

While you practice Yoga Nidre, you’re often asked to choose a samskara. Yoga teaches that samskara is the sum total of all our actions that conditions us to believe in a certain way, a habit or thought that is ingrained in us. It can be something positive that you’d like to work on. Through your meditation, you can create this belief to help you live less out of habit and more out of a desire to grow as a person. Ultimately you’ll drift off to sleep.

Sleep, you deserve it.

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru/article_e605884e-3ccc-11ec-93f0-5f914f01f24d.html

Fitness Guru- How to build muscle and lose fat at the same time

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The best way to keep your fat cells a healthy normal size is to do a resistance training program at least three times a week.

Like it not, we’re stuck with 25-35 billion fat cells, for life. Our immune system breaks down around 10% of fat cells every year, but otherwise all our fat cells are busy expanding and shrinking in size during weight gain and loss. We need fat, as without it, we would freeze. Fat cells are also our fuel tanks, holding on to fatty molecules called lipids, and releasing them as a source of energy for the body. Fat also cushions our vital organs, stores crucial supplies of certain vitamins, and helps us have a functioning immune system. 

If you struggle with fat, turning to “gut-busting” diets and fat-burning supplements won’t “burn” fat. Fat cells don’t go away, as they are stored properly in fat cell layers under the skin. Where they are not intended to be is around organs, like the kidneys or heart, or even inside organs.

The best way to keep your fat cells a healthy normal size, and your body weight under control, is to do a resistance training program at least three times a week. Building more skeletal muscle mass and losing fat mass is one of the main reasons athletes and avid exercisers lift weights.

Within a resistance-training program, intensities, volume, and exercise selection all stimulate muscle growth. Your baseline body composition also factors in to the rate of muscle gain and fat loss.

In the first few weeks of training, newcomers to weight lifting see changes and definition in their biceps and butts. New research shows that trained individuals, not just beginners, can continue to build muscle and lose fat at the same time with two key factors: progressive resistance training and evidence-based nutrition strategies.

Mix it up

Recent studies published in the Strength & Conditioning Journal show that trained individuals can get stronger whether you train two days a week or four. In another study, there was no difference in training frequency of three times a week versus six times a week. Using a volume matched power-lifting program, both groups similarly gained a significant amount of fat-free mass and lost fat mass. It was noted that participants didn’t alter their normal nutrition habits for these particular studies.

A little more protein

Typically, to improve athletic performance it’s common practice to eat less for fat loss, and eat more to maximize muscle mass. But studies show that your post workout snack could be key to improve body composition. The authors of the resistance training studies found that approximately 70% of the subjects improved their body composition with a high-protein diet.

In one study, female collegiate volleyball players, all receiving guidance from a sports nutrition/registered dietician, added 25 grams of whey protein immediately after each power-oriented, full-body workout or a strength workout. Whether working to maximize power output, or participating in workouts specifically for strength, all athletes in each group gained muscle and lost fat. Although approaches to diet can vary with each person, the authors noted that a moderate protein intake and a more balanced nutritional approach came out at the top of the list to keep those fat cells where they need to be, no more, no less.

Connie Aronson is an ACSM Exercise Physiologist and Corrective Exercise Specialist (TBBM-CES) Follow her at www.conniearonosn.com and [email protected]

https://www.mtexpress.com/wood_river_journal/features/fitness-guru-how-to-build-muscle-and-lose-fat-at-the-same-time/article_bf38694e-27a4-11ec-8266-b7268e71e762.html