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Oct 21 2015

Exercise Helps Keep Your Body’s Rhythms In Check

The Power Of Consistent Exercise

There’s no doubt that getting your heart pumping and blood moving through exercise has a long list of health benefits. It controls weight, combats health conditions and diseases, improves mood, boosts energy, promotes better sleep, and more. But many people don’t realize that lack of exercise can disrupt the body’s rhythms. Each of our bodies has circadian rhythms – physical, mental and behavioral changes that follow a roughly 24-hour cycle, responding primarily to light and darkness. It’s why we naturally fall asleep during the night and rise during the daylight. But our heartbeats, hormones, hunger, alertness, digestion, fatigue and other bodily functions are also influenced by our circadian rhythms.

According to a 2009 study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, exercise may affect how and when we move, even when we aren’t exercising. The findings suggest exercise may help our bodies recognize the optimal times to move and be still. Dr. Frank Scheer, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and director of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Brigham and the Women’s Hospital in Boston, oversaw the study along with colleagues. They had a range of people from young adults to older people wear activity monitors for a week and tracked their movements as the volunteers stuck to their normal daily activities. As noted in a New York Times article, “The young people’s bodies seemed to be somehow remembering and responding to what that body had just been doing, whether sitting or moving, and then calculating a new, appropriate response – moving or sitting.

In doing so, the researchers felt, the body created a healthy, dynamic circadian pattern.” But the results weren’t the same for the older people in the study. Their memory patterns were reduced drastically with age and their movements were more random with less movement during the day and more movement at night. However, the researchers wanted to determine if these changes were caused solely by aging. Dr. Scheer and his colleagues, Kun Hu of Harvard University and Johanna Meijer of Leiden University, performed a new study this year. They monitored the movement patterns of mice ranging from six months to two years in age, which is equivalent to human young adults and aging seniors. For one month, they left a running wheel in the mice’s cage and found that the young mice often ran and developed patterns of peaks and valleys in their activity levels. The older mice had similar peaks and valleys, but they were more random. However, when the researchers removed the running wheel, all of the mice started showing more random patterns of movement, and the young mice had activity levels similar to the older mice. Once the researchers put the wheel back into the cage, all of the mice began exercising again and returned to healthy patterns of movements. According to Dr. Scheer, the finding suggests that exercise affects daily movement patterns more than age does.

Although the researchers don’t know how exercise might affect the body’s internal clocks, the study does suggest that exercise improves rhythms. Experts also note that there’s an ideal time of day to exercise based on our circadian rhythms, but many disagree on exactly when that is. Dr. Phyllis Zee of Northwestern University believes that the best time to work out is in the late afternoon because the body temperature is between one and two degrees warmer than in the morning, making muscles in the body more supple and lowering the risk of injury. Working out when the body temperature is at its peak, which is usually about 4pm or 5pm, can help people have optimal endurance, maximum flexibility and heightened injury resistance. However, some health experts argue that working out in the morning will jump start burning calories for the day and help you sustain a higher metabolic rate later in the day. Research has also shown that morning exercisers have a greater degree of consistency since afternoon and evening workouts are more likely to conflict with other responsibilities as the day progresses. But everyone’s circadian rhythm is different, and although there may be an ideal time to prevent injury and achieve peak performance, the most important thing is to exercise consistently.

Whether you need that 6am morning workout to clear your head and get ready for your day, or you prefer to wait until the afternoon because you feel most awake, just make sure you get your workout in. If you do prefer to exercise in the morning, make sure to warm up muscles that might be cool and tight from sleep to reduce the risk of injury. Try exercising at different times of day and use your body clock as a guide to determine what works best for you.
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Jul 23 2015

Personal Training Success Story

Personal Training Success Story – Amy Weyhrauch

“Life is what you make of it. You can be happy or sad. It’s up to you.” Amy Weyhrauch’s dad. No one person epitomizes this phrase more then Amy. She is one of kindest most positive people you will ever meet. She is a mom to 4 kids and, it is this attitude that has propelled her to great accomplishments and the July member of the month.

When I first talked to Amy I found out that she had Ankylosing spondylitis. From the website of Spondylitis Association of America -“Ankylosing spondylitis (pronounced ank-kih-low-sing spon-dill-eye-tiss), or AS, is a form of arthritis that primarily affects the spine, although other joints can become involved. It causes inflammation of the spinal joints (vertebrae) that can lead to severe, chronic pain and discomfort. In the most advanced cases (but not in all cases), this inflammation can lead to new bone formation on the spine, causing the spine to fuse in a fixed, immobile position, sometimes creating a forward-stooped posture.” Amy, has the advanced kind, and she needed to get the right treatment and training otherwise she was in danger of her spine fusing. So I wasn’t too surprised when Amy first came to me moving like Frankenstein with a limp. She had a really hard time turning her neck and she was walking very gingerly. It didn’t take an Osteopath to see that she was in pain. Her number one goal was obvious…get out of pain! She was cautious for good a reason; she didn’t want to further hurt her body. You see this all started when Amy was playing tennis and she fell and hurt her right clavicle. No biggie, except that it wasn’t getting better and she was starting to feel worse all over. So she started the rounds with different doctors and they kept coming up with different diagnoses. There was even a significant amount of time where they thought she had Leukemia. Can you imagine the stress of that! Well it wasn’t that, thank goodness.

To describe in practical terms how the AS affects her I’ll tell you what I tell her. “Everything that you do is magnified. When somebody else doesn’t stretch for a day or so they get a little tight and hinder their healing. When you don’t stretch for a day or two your body starts to lock up. Literally!” And when she didn’t stretch as much as she wanted to she felt it-to the point where if she had just thrown up her arms and succumbed to fait you could have understood, but she didn’t. Amy has epitomized our 3^rd Core Principle “Consistent Steady Improvement.” She has been in private training with us 3-4 days a week for a little over a year and she has made amazing progress. You will hear about it later on in her words, but I am so proud of her for:

Being open to change
Trying her best
And maintaining that amazing attitude throughout the ups and down of her journey.

How Amy Got Personal Training Success

1) What made you decide you wanted/needed to start a program? My Ankylosing was the main reason to seek out help. It just made me feel so bad, and it is really hard to motivate yourself when you don’t feel good. I just kept giving myself excuses as to why I shouldn’t and couldn’t do it. Well I finally got to the point where I felt so bad that I reached out to a friend of mine, Liz Karp, and she recommended you to me.

2) What did you do before? Yoga Tapes, exercise tapes, tennis, hiking, sometimes skiing. I also had this chart that was given to me on stretches I should do for Ankylosing. But I knew I needed somebody to teach me the right way.

3) What results have you achieved since starting your program that you are proud of? Well I have lost 7-8% body fat and around 10 pounds, but what I am most proud of is the fact that I am a happier better person because I don’t hurt all the time. It got to the point where I didn’t want to go out and be social. The weight of that pain on me all day took all my effort and to think about spending more effort on going out was too much. I also LOVE that I now have tools to keep myself moving and feeling great. Not only the stretches and exercises but also the fitness journal you gave me was a big help especially at the start. It is eye opening to look back and see how you really did, not just how you thought you did!

4) Do you have a favorite exercise? Least? What do you like or don’t like about them? I do not like the Mountain Climbers! I love the wall stretch L5-S1, love the hip stretch (Glute Med). Actually I love all the hip stretches and all the spine stretches.

5) What are some challenges or goals you are currently working on? Weight loss is my next big goal along with staying out of pain and keeping my body mobile. I also want to keep changing my habits and keep getting better with the advanced workouts you guys have been giving me.

6) What do you like best about our program/ having a trainer? The knowledge that you guys have is invaluable. I also love that you are flexible. You guys always have a program ready, but if I come in and say I am feeling a certain way, you are able to change the program on the fly to meet my needs. I also really appreciate that you guys push me to levels that I didn’t think I could do before, but you never push me too far.

7) What advice would you give to the other SolCore Fitness members? KEEP IT UP! Keep coming to class. Keep doing your homework. Keep making those small improvements each day.

8) What would you say to someone on the fence about joining our program? I wish I had had somebody who I trusted to push me to start this sooner. Think about how many times you have procrastinated. I waited almost a year from knowing about SolCore Fitness to starting with them. To get better you have to start. So start now!
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Jun 22 2015

The Weight Loss Killer

Stopping this one thing will drastically help your weight loss

Is this stopping your weight loss?

“Just one can’t really hurt too much, can it?”

In his book Eat More Weigh Less, Dr Dean Ornish cites a study that found drinking three ounces of alcohol reduced the body’s ability to burn fat by one third. (Other studies have shown that alcohol can hinder fat burning up to 73%.)

So if you’re looking to get rid of that beer belly or unwanted fat around your midriff, you’ll have the best results if you totally eliminate alcohol from your diet.

If that’s not incentive enough, here’s something else…

A recent study found that men consume an additional 433 calories on the days they drink a moderate amount of alcohol (61% of that comes from the alcohol itself.)

The study also showed that on the days when alcohol was consumed, more meat and other foods containing high levels of saturated fat were also eaten (and less fruit and milk were consumed.)

Quote:

“Alcohol may be man’s worst enemy, but the bible says love your enemy.” – Frank Sinatra

It seems pretty clear that if you have a weight loss goals the first this you must stop/severely moderate is your alcohol consumption.
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May 15 2015

Mindfulness Is The Key To Being Happy In Whatever You Do.

Mindfulness in your exercise program and in your life.

By Maya Cordova

Now that you have begun to move forward full speed ahead into your exercise practice and are advancing in your ELDOAS and Myo-fascial stretching techniques, I want to introduce to you a new technique…one that will help you enjoy your life even that much more. This technique is called Mindfulness! Now…what in the world is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a joyful and easy technique that all human beings are capable of practicing. It is simply the practice of awareness, observation, and acceptance. You have already begun to find awareness in your body by practicing healthy exercises that change your posture, allowing you to move more efficiently in your life. You can tell when your ears are over your shoulders or when your chin is sticking up to the sky…but now, lets take one step further. By using the breath as your guide it is possible to become aware of the sensations in your body, the thoughts that flow in and out of your mind, and the emotions that come along with them…while simultaneously being at peace with them! By experiencing this awareness you can become awake to your life, and empower yourself to make choices to create the healthy life you want to live.

Benefits of Mindfulness

The practice of mindfulness will leave you feeling more productive and energetic in your daily activities and will help you to sleep better at night. You will gain better awareness of your body and how certain foods, emotions, and even thoughts affect your body. Mindfulness allows you to become harmonious with your experiences and helps your stress and anxiety levels to decrease. You will learn to become present, find more gratitude in your heart, feel more joy and peace, and essentially find a greater sense of fulfillment.

The 4 Steps of Mindfulness in Action! How can we be more mindful in our lives?

Step 1: Awareness of the breath!! The breath is the magical key!

It is very common to live our lives thinking about the future. Humans are constantly planning, looking at the clock, rushing from one place to the next, feeling overwhelmed, or feeling anxious when experiencing conflict or other stressful situations. If you find yourself doing these things, remember that you can slow down (even if it’s just for one minute!!) and focus on your breathing. What does the texture of your breath feel like? What does the breath sound like? By focusing on the spaciousness between each inhalation and exhalation you will reconnect to the NOW moment. This will help you find a sense of presence, peace, and acceptance and you become more efficient at the task at hand. You can practice breath awareness during meal times, walking, driving, working, communicating, and exercising. Once you connect to the breath you can SLOW DOWN enough to become aware of your surroundings, thoughts, and feelings.

Step 2: Awareness of thoughts!!

When you connect to the breath, you are able to slow down and actually accept the experience that you are having. This acceptance helps you to realize that IT WILL PASS. While focusing on the breath, you may begin to notice your thoughts floating in and out of your mind. Often times it is easy to get lost in the loops, and sometimes you will be able to come back to the Now moment within the breath. Eventually, you will realize that these thoughts are not actually you but are only a rising and passing part of your present experience…Thank goodness! By being aware you can actually create empowering and positive thoughts that will help you enjoy your day and motivate you through challenging situations (Like your ELDOAS!!).

Step 3: Awareness of emotions!! “What am I actually feeling right now? Whatever it is, it’s OK!!! I am human!”

Humans experience a wide range of emotions! Let them be felt! Once you become aware of what you actually feel, you can practice observing the breath and accepting the feeling that you are having. The breath is present, and the emotion, like everything else, is rising and passing. Know that your emotions, like your thoughts, are not who you are, but they are part of your present human experience. Being aware of your feelings will help you clarify your needs and you can consciously proceed forward.

Step 4: Awareness of Sensations!!

Our thoughts create emotions, and emotions create sensations in the body. At the same time sensations in the body create emotions, and emotions create thoughts! They are all connected! And each one influences how we move in the world: who we think we are, how we respond or react, how we communicate, and how we contribute to the environment around us. Being mindful of sensation in your body will help you understand where you hold tension, stress, and emotion. Experience the rising of sensation and watch as it passes away through each mindful breath.

When you practice mindfulness you may begin to notice things you hadn’t before…the sound of birds singing, the sensation in your belly during a conversation with a new friend, the taste of the incredible spices in your food, and even the beautiful hummingbird as you walk from one place to the next. Awareness empowers you and awakens you to each experience in your life. Enjoy!
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