Wellnessnews, Author at Wellnessnews

Core Strengthening Success

Many popular workouts that aim to strengthen your arms, legs, and abs give short shrift to many of the muscles that form your body’s core (the group of muscles that form the sturdy central link connecting your upper and lower body). Strong core muscles are essential to improving performance in almost any sport — and are the secret to sidestepping debilitating back pain.

Extremely sore muscles a day or two after a core workout means you probably overdid it and might need to dial down your workout a bit. Next time, try to finish just one full set of each exercise in the workout. You might also do fewer repetitions (reps) of the exercises you find especially hard. Once you can do reps without much soreness, build strength by adding one more rep of the harder exercises in each session until you’re doing the full number of reps comfortably. Then try adding a second set.

Delayed-onset muscle soreness is a normal response to working your muscles. Usually, it peaks 24 to 48 hours after a workout before gradually easing, then disappearing entirely in another day or so. But if you experience sudden, sharp, or long-lasting pain, check with yourPhysio; include https://passs.co/-toml9-GJo8 in your iPhone Passbook.

Work Stress – A real solution to a huge problem

Stress is a problem in the workforce, and part of the reason is the posture we assume while working at a desk. The seated position creates compression in the pelvis and the computer posture creates a collapse of the upper body. This dramatically affects the way we breathe, starving the body of the oxygen, the most vital nutrient our cells need to thrive.

The Block Therapy Chair Class is an amazing solution to stress. This 3-day, in office class will give real, transformative results and provide a lifelong approach to health and wellbeing. The results are not only for the individual’s health, but will translate to more efficient, productive employees. The common issue’s related to stress and immobility will be addressed and simple, proactive solutions that can be done in your chair will be the focus.

Book now for this incredible opportunity!

Radical Forgiveness

Here’s a radical thought…

What if the people who show up in our lives have a soul contract to help us learn our lessons? What if our Spiritual Team has placed them there because they know what’s on our list of lessons and emotions that our soul wants to experience in this classroom we call Life and that these other souls are simply playing their part, acting out their role to offer us a chance to look within?

If we take full responsibility for everything that is showing up in our lives and have the attitude that this is happening FOR ME and not TO ME, perhaps it would be easier to forgive the individual, or the event, and focus on learning the lesson presented so that it doesn’t repeat itself on another day, with another person, in a similar situation. After all, the lesson will continue until the lesson is learned!

Health Spotlight: Comfort Keepers

Are you or a loved one looking for help maintaining an independent lifestyle?

Comfort Keepers provides non-medical, in-home services for seniors and other adults in need of a helping hand with day to day activities, promoting a safe and enriched life for those under our care. The cornerstone of Comfort Keepers philosophy is a method we call Interactive Caregiving that promotes active engagement in daily activities. We know that physical and mental stimulation leads to a healthier, better quality of life.

We assist with a variety of daily tasks including meal preparation, light housekeeping, incidental transportation, personal care, errands and many others, while ensuring safety and independence.

If you would like to enrich the life of a loved one, call Comfort Keepers to discuss how we can help, and receive a free in-home assessment.

Financial Well-Being

Have you ever looked at your investment statements and immediately felt stressed? Maybe your portfolio has dipped in value more than you’re comfortable with or everyone around you seems to be growing his or her money while you stay stagnant.

If this is the case, you and your portfolio need a financial checkup. Just like your fitness plan, your investment plan should be tailored to you and your unique lifestyle. This means selecting a strategy that not only helps achieve your goals, but also fits your tolerance for risk and volatility. There’s no need to dread opening your next statement when you and your investments are in sync.

Ask The Coach

Stressed and Confused asks: “I am so busy with life that I sometimes can’t remember things. It feels that if I have more stress in my life, I can’t seem to remember anything! Does this make any sense?”

Coach Gina Responds: “If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Stress is a result of toxic thinking. Your thoughts turn to memories, which are physically built into the nerve networks in your mind. Stress causes the wrong quantities of chemicals to be released into the body and can distort the DNA of the immune cells. With an increased amount of cortisol, your thoughts and memories in the brain shrink. When this stress chemical returns to a normal amount, your memories return. Entertaining negative or toxic thoughts, causes stress and memory loss. Conversely, entertaining positive or creative thoughts causes the proper amount of cortisol to release and calm remains, maintaining memory and encouraging a content state of mind. Guard your thoughts …and keep them! Be Well and ABOUND.

Wellness Tip of the Day: Vitamin A

Vitamin A – helps maintain good eyesight – good for growth and skin properties – promotes normal development of teeth and skeletal tissue. Women need 700 milligrams per day and men need 900 milligrams per day.

Foods: dark green and bright coloured vegetables, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, winter squash, spinach, lettuce.

Bonus Nutrients: most vegetables are loaded with fiber and other vitamins, including C.

Simple Tips: have a salad with mixed greens along with dinner, snack on carrot sticks or red peppers.

Healthy Buddies

When older kids teach younger children about nutrition and benefits of exercise, the little ones seem to lose weight and gain knowledge about healthy living. This program – called Healthy Buddies – was tested in Manitoba elementary schools. It helped heavy kids lose an average of half an inch off their waist and increased their knowledge of diet and exercise.

Younger children pay more attention to messages from older peers says Dr. David Katz, director of Yale University Prevention Research Center. Parents feel powerless to overcome the negative influence of peers eating badly. We teach healthy living skills to older kids and they benefit. They can help pass these skills along to younger kids, both groups benefit. Healthy Buddies has lessons that focus on physical activity, healthy eating, self-esteem and body image.

How’s your posture?

Sitting at your desk reading this right now? How long have you been sitting for? Is your neck or back feeling tight and achy?
Let Prairie Trail Physiotherapy help you with that!

Today’s society involves prolonged postures, which can put stress and strain on certain muscles, leading to pain and tightness. During these sustained positions, some muscles get long and weak, while others get short and tight. A skilled physiotherapist can perform a full assessment, determine which areas may be leading to your less than optimal posture, and develop a treatment plan to enable you to withstand the physical stresses of your work day.

Call or visit prairietrailphysio.ca to book an appointment today.

Learning a musical instrument is good for your health?

Yes, you read that correctly! Learning a musical instrument – whether it a flute, percussion, or voice – is about more than learning to read notes on a page. The process carries along with it many benefits for your physical and mental health. First of all, playing an instrument unites the right and left sides of the brain like no other activity as it activates your auditory, language and memory functions all at the same time. Singing, along with many other musical activities, also involves considerable breath control.

As in yoga, the deep breathing has a great calming effect on the body in addition to supplying oxygen to your cells. And, what’s more, mastering a skill and cultivating the discipline to progress as a musician creates positive habits and develops a sense of confidence that can benefit you in all areas of your life. So, if you’ve never tried it before – and even if you have – consider taking some music lessons or join a musical group for fun. You won’t regret it!

Try MELT®

MELT…the easy, fun, fast workout for your Connective Tissue (CT) and fascia is truly for everyone! Even if you are pregnant, injured, post-surgery, overweight and sedentary, out of shape or have limited mobility, chronic pain, migraines, anxiety, knee or hip replacements, or bone disorders, you can still MELT! MELT is for any body at any age and it’s the best starting point for any wellness program. You can do it at home in 10 minute.

MELTing is easy, affordable and fast. It is collaborative with all other medical treatments and actually makes them work faster and better. Pilates Manitoba is MELT certified so call today to take MELT classes, private instruction, purchase the kits or rollers at our Transcona or River Heights location.