Body Awareness

Posted on March 16, 2010 by violetquartz

As you progress along healthy lifestyle changes you can not help learning more about your body and build body awareness. Body awareness is not only proprioception (knowing where where your body is in relation to itself in space), emotional state, and frame of mind. This is a useful full tool for many reasons; firstly being body aware in an exercise context will award you greater in gains in stability and proper form. From an emotional standpoint the ability to identify where feelings arise can assist in navigated them more proactively.

A great body awarenss building exercise is as follows:

Sitting on your chair eyes closed, bring attention to your breathing, do not controll it, just observe.

Switch your focus to your buttocks in the seat, feel the chair support you. Feel your cloths on your back, the fabric, the weight of your clothing.

Bring your attention to your heartbeat, feel it pulse through your body, nourishing it.

Choosing a relaxed and peaceful emotional state slowly bring your attention back to your breathing. Count back from 10 and slowly open your eyes.

Remember awareness is what is fostered in meditation, so take some time to tune and and find a moment of inner peace…. every day.

What comprises core strength

Posted on February 25, 2010 by violetquartz

Your core is more than just your abdominal muscles. Indeed your abdominal makes up the majority of the core; with the rectus abdominus, external and internal obliques and the transverse abdominus. Your lower back and glutes; maximus, medius and minimus also contribute to your core stability. DO not forget that the top of your quads and hamstrings also play a part.

There is a difference between core exercises and ab exercises. The former works these muscles in unison strengthening them as they work together (more functionally driven strength), the latter works the ab muscles itself, which is necessary to be able to maintain form in core exercises. Both are important in overall stability and strength.

And example of a core exercises is a plank, where as an ab exercise is a crunch.

With glowing hearts

Posted on February 17, 2010 by violetquartz

The olympics are in full swing we are inundated with snippets from our nation anthem; what an inspiring time. I was fortunate to get to go to the cross country event this week: the phrase “with glowing hearts” form our national anthem kept popping up on the large display. It is interesting because I found that it really speaks to the connection between the mind, body, and soul. If our heart are glowing then our bodies feel strong, we are connected and ready to give it our all. It is a great way to cheer on our athletes. What I have found in my personal training practice is that if our hearts are not glowing, if we are having a difficult day, our bodies are not strong. At such times it is important to listen to our bodies, it is not the time to push ourselves, rather it is the time to heal ourselves. And when it is time to give it our all, our best, go for gold with a glowing heart.

Sometimes laughter is all you need….

Posted on February 8, 2010 by violetquartz

WARNING: the following link is crass, but funny none the less. View at your own risk.

Awkward workouts

Stretching: new research

Posted on February 6, 2010 by violetquartz

A new study (Batista LH, Vilar AC, Ferreira JJA, Rebelatto JR & Salvini TF) has be published on the effect of stretching and it impact on fitness, specifically in application to older adults. Here is a brief overview of the important factors:

Deficits in muscle strength and range of motion are common in older adults but not to exclusive to, due to a decrease in overall flexibility. Reduced flexibility is generally caused by shortening and increased rigidity of muscles. These viscoelastic changes in muscle fibers have deleterious functional consequences, such as aberrant gait patterns, and hampered ability to rise from a seated position, leading to a greater incidence of falls and loss of independence.

Stretching is an exercise performed in clinical settings and physical fitness facilities used to increase range of motion. Research has shown that stretching can cause morphologic change in muscle fibers and connective tissue, ultimately leading to an increase in overall muscle strength.

Previous studies have shown that similar results can occur after a stretching intervention implemented every day for 6 weeks straight. This study showed that flexibility training twice a week for 4 weeks is as efficient as a 6 week training protocol

According to this group of researchers, it is conceivable that stretched muscles are stronger because both passive and active forces add to strength production. Previous research concluded that the increase in stored energy and ranges of motion after stretching is important because it can increase the elastic recoil capacity of a muscle. However, this notion is not completely agreed upon in the fitness industry.

Regardless, stretching is a vital component of fitness, equally so as cardiovascular endurance and muscular strength, which not only has benefits in its own right but improves all component of fitness.

Cardiovascular disease & Risk Factors

Posted on February 5, 2010 by violetquartz

Are you at risk for heart disease or stroke?

Preventative medicine is the key to a long and healthy life. Find out what your risk factors are to see what you can do today to stay healthy and active throughout your life.

Take the heart and stroke risk assessment quiz here.

A few general tips, what can you do to stay healthy?

Get your minimum physical activity requirements; 60 min of moderate exercise every day, or 10,000 steps.
Eat a diet low in saturated fat and sodium to maintain healthy blood vessels.
Get enough sleep; to regenerate your body.
Reduce your stress levels; increased cortisol levels as a harmful effect on your cardiovascular system.

Say hello to your heart.

Posted on February 3, 2010 by violetquartz

Before we delve into specifics about heart health; physical, emotional, energetic, and so on; it is important to understand its structure. Structure defines function.

From an anatomical stand point the heart is comprise of muscle, about the size of your closed fist on the left hand side of your body. For a fantastic diagram of the heart, its chambers, arteries and veins click here.

From an emotional perspective the heart is the seat of emotion; it is where we feel our feelings. Click here for more information.

Energetically the heart chakra is the bridge between the lower physical chakras and the higher spiritual ones. For more information click here.

We will look at all of these and more in greater detail the days to come.

Happy healthy heart!

February is heart month!

Posted on February 2, 2010 by violetquartz

Many causes have designated months to raise awareness about their plights. For example February is black history month, as well as heart month (as per the heart and stroke foundation). This is the one with more relevance to our purposes and a cause close to my heart since heart disease is prevalent in my family.

Check out the Heart and Strokes website, be ready for lots of fun and interesting heart facts this month.

Happy heart month!

Tricking yourself into staying; when motivation is nowhere to be found

Posted on January 27, 2010 by violetquartz

The follow excerpt is from another blog that I follow. I wanted to share it with you because I could not have said it better myself.

Does your training ever leave you feeling like you’re participating in a science experiment with a sample size of N=1? There are training routines to plan and track, data points to be harvested and analyzed, and a constant quest for innovation to reach your personal limits. Sometimes these factors make training exciting. And sometimes they make training seem incredibly boring and like a chore.

When you find yourself fishing for the snooze button on your alarm instead of springing out of bed to assault the day and the training you have so carefully carved out time to execute, you could keep doing the same old thing. But the same old thing is why you’re lying in bed listening to your alarm squawking and cringing instead of rushing full force into an awesome day that you can’t wait to start and a training session that will invigorate you and help advance every area of your life.

Don’t let your training routine be something you dread. When it is, turn it into a game and trick yourself into staying fit even when you’d normally want to bail. There are many ways to achieve this goal, but here are a few of the quickest, easiest ways to keep it fresh and playful.

Unless you’re a professional athlete, remember that this isn’t your job. It’s something you do electively because you enjoy it. Keep that thought in the front of your mind and visualize the moments you’ve most enjoyed in training, the times you’ve overcome your inertia or personal limits and gone to a higher level. That’s fun. That’s the attitude you want to have every day. Cultivate it, visualize it, experience what it feels like and carry it with you so it’s accessible every time you want to just say no to training.

When all else fails, promise yourself a reward. Been dying to eat a bowl of ice cream? Need a new pair of shoes? Want to watch your favorite television show later in the day but feel guilty about making the time to do it? Take anything you’d really like to do and promise it to yourself if you complete every workout seven days in a row or for two weeks or a month or whatever. Write down the reward, what you have to do to achieve it, and make it happen.

Olympic spirit

Posted on January 24, 2010 by violetquartz

The olympics are fast approaching, and the flame will be in Squamish in nine days. It is very exciting to be on the world’s stage; show off our beautiful town and get wrapped up in the energy of the Olympics.

I am very proud to say that Rob will be the RCMP representative greeting the torch when it lands in Lion’s Bay on the 4th.

I encourage you to step out and participate, not only for this event, but also throughout February; it is a once in a life time opportunity to be shared with people from all over the world.

For more information on the torch relay click here.