KINESIOLOGY + WELLNESS COUNSELLING by ERICA OTTO
This is the first time this year I have gone so long without writing my blog, time to get back at it! I do have a very exciting reason why I have been absent recently…. I am opening a fitness and wellness studio in May!!! Get ready for something unlike anything else is Squamish! I will post more information as the big day approaches.
Stay active!
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.
Check out a neat little addition to my website; daily notes on my meditation page… for daily inspiration.
To introduce some of the new techniques I learn while away at my course I am offering a special promotion. The first 4 people to email me who are in the Sqamish area will get a complementary functional muscular and motor pattern imbalance assessment this Saturday.
To find out what that it click here.
violetquartzwellness@gmail.com
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.
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.
Following is an editorial on the effects of emotions, specifically negative ones, on heart health.
Many Emotions Can Damage the Heart
Most people know that anger is bad for your heart’s health, but loneliness and depression affect your heart, too.
Volatile emotions like anger and hostility are bad for heart health. But studies have shown that some of the quieter emotions can be just as toxic and damaging.
“Study after study has shown that people who feel lonely, depressed, and isolated are many times more likely to get sick and die prematurely – not only of heart disease but from virtually all causes – than those who have a sense of connection, love and community,”
Raising Awareness
Ornish, the founder, president, and director of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif., and the author of Love and Survival, points out that today many people don’t have an extended family they see regularly, or live in a neighborhood with two or three generations of neighbors. Many don’t have a job that promises stability or go to a house of worship every week. “These things affect our survival to a much larger degree than people had once thought,” he says.
Unfortunately, says Ornish, “many people think of these as things you do after you’ve done all the ‘important’ stuff,” such as diet and exercise. What winds up happening is people often regard spending time with family and friends as a luxury. “What these studies show us is that this is the important stuff,” Ornish says. “We are touchy, feely creatures, we’re creatures of community, and we ignore these things at our own peril.”
Raising awareness so that people who are lonely and depressed can face these problems is very important, says Ornish. “It’s very hard to get people even to take their medication, if you don’t address these issues. That’s where awareness is the first step in healing. If a physician can spend more time with their patients talking about these issues, these people can begin to make different choices in their lives.”
Depression and the Heart
“The general results of studies are that, for the most part, we believe depression is a risk factor for the development of heart disease,” says Matthew Burg, PhD, associate clinical professor of medicine at Yale University School of Medicine and Columbia School of Medicine.
Burg points out that in people who have already suffered a heart attack that requires surgery to unclog blocked arteries, depression is also associated with poor outcomes, such as an earlier death or subsequent heart attack.
Social isolation and low levels of social support are similarly associated with increased risk for heart disease complications, he says.
Most cardiologists agree these results are important, says Burg. But while cardiologists know what to do about cholesterol and blood pressure, they often don’t know what to do about depression and stress or even how to get patients to reveal how they feel. “It’s not like going to a patient and saying, ‘You have high cholesterol, and here’s the pill,'” says Burg.
Talking About Your Emotions
Not surprisingly, people have an easier time discussing their blood sugar and cholesterol than speaking about their psychological state. “People don’t like being depressed but, in our society, there is a certain stigma about things like depression,” Burg says. “When patients are not as forthcoming about these issues, it makes it that much harder to identify and treat.”
“A person who has suffered a heart attack is likely to say things like, ‘Of course I’m depressed, I just had a heart attack,'” Burg says. “But very often, when we take a closer look, what we find is the symptoms of depression predate the heart attack.
“The depression after a heart attack, which we would call an adjustment problem or adjustment disorder, actually dissipates within a matter of weeks. If the symptoms persist, we’re really talking about a depression independent of the heart disease.” These emotions, when prolonged, “are worth paying attention to, because of the potential effect they’re having on the cardiovascular system.”
For source website click here.
WARNING: the following link is crass, but funny none the less. View at your own risk.
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.
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?