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The Benefits of Fixing Your Posture

Posture is defined as the position your body maintains while standing, sitting, or lying down. Since childhood, we’ve been reminded to stand straight–with good reason. Good posture means creating the least amount of strain on supporting muscles and ligaments when you move or perform weight-bearing activity.

So, how can you tell if you have good or bad posture? Contrary to popular belief, a good posture does not necessarily mean keeping your spine totally straight. It can be exhausting to keep your back fully straight. By constantly tightening your back muscles, you end up creating stress in the process. Correct posture should feel almost effortless to maintain. The weight of your body should be evenly distributed on your feet, not the heels or the forefoot.

Good posture means maintaining the natural curves of your back, i.e. the curves at the neck, upper back, lower back and hips. Also, when standing with good posture, you should be able to draw an imaginary straight line from your earlobe through your shoulder, hip, knee and the middle of your ankle. Meanwhile, good sitting posture means having your back straight and buttocks at the back of your chair with your feet flat on the floor and knees bent at a right angle.

Aside from greater support, the benefits of having correct posture are numerous. Back and neck pain can be avoided and even reduced for those regularly suffering from such pain. Muscle aches and muscle fatigue can also be prevented. Bones and joints are kept in proper alignment so muscles move more efficiently.

Abnormal wear and tear on joint surfaces lead to arthritis, but this can be prevented with good posture. You can also avoid developing abnormal permanent positions, which can cause spinal disk problems and constricted blood vessels and nerves. You can also prevent other complications like back aches, back pain, pressure inside your chest and poor blood circulation.

Great posture can facilitate breathing, opening the airways and allowing for enhanced oxygen flow. This is why exercises such as yoga, Pilates and meditation place a lot of emphasis on breathing and posture. When you are breathing properly, you increase your concentration and thinking abilities as well. The more oxygen we get, the better.

Lastly, aside from feeling better, you’ll look better. Good posture is one of the easiest ways to boost self-confidence. This helps to make good first impressions as you appear to be sure of yourself and even taller and slimmer.

If you think you have bad posture, here are some tips to help:

Pretend your body is held by a string

Pretend that your spine and head is held up by a string from the ceiling all the time. If you are lying down, pretend the string is held in a direction parallel to the ground.

Get a head, shoulder and back massage

Bad posture can lead to stiff joints, so a massage could help you loosen up.

Get a good quality chair or a back cushion

A firm and dense cushion will provide greater back support. Also, remember to keep your rear at the innermost edge of the chair.

Ground both feet when standing or sitting

You may tend to shift your weight from one foot to another. Keep them both planted on the ground at the same time.

How Much Exercise Do We Really Need?

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We’re continuously encouraged to exercise, but how much exercise is enough exercise? Turns out, exercise doesn’t mean you have to be an exhausted, sweaty pile of limp limbs after your workout. It all really just depends on your reason for exercising. For many people, exercise is the stepping stone to losing weight. For others, it’s to maintain health or rehabilitate from injury.

As with any major commitment, you need to be realistic about your goals as well as your needs. You will also need to be specific about activities, your schedule, and the intensity of your workouts. For beginners, you will want to set a foundation on which to build your routine. Everybody has their own pace, so commit to finding your comfort zone and begin there. Slowly build intensity and variety to increase the effectiveness of your workout and so you won’t get stuck in a rut.

If you don’t know where to start, don’t be afraid to book a session or two with a personal trainer at your local gym. Also, if you have certain needs, weaknesses, or injuries, like high blood pressure or an injury, you should speak to your doctor to make sure your choice of workout will not make things worse for you.

Losing weight and preventing weight gain

Perhaps the most popular reason why people get into exercising in the first place is to shed a few kilos or make sure they stay fit. To get you started, 200 to 300 minutes a week of moderate exercise can help you lose weight. You can mix it up with activities like running, boxing and yoga. If you’ve hit your goal and want to stay there, 150 to 250 minutes of weekly exercise or 20 to 35 minutes of daily exercise can help you maintain your weight.

Improve heart health

One research has shown that people looking to decrease their blood pressure benefitted from 61 to 90 minutes of exercise a week. Another study proved that at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times per week aided heart patients.

Lower risk of type 2 diabetes

Interval training has been found to help lower the risk of type 2 diabetes. Interval training involves a series of workouts of varying degrees of activities and intensity with rest periods. According to one research, the insulin sensitivity of participants improved after completing a 10-minute interval training cycling workout for 12 weeks. Improved insulin sensitivity is important in lowering the chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

Lower risk of cancer

Some cancers can be prevented with regular exercise, such as breast, colon, and endometrial cancers. Experts recommend 150 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous activity per week.

Increase longevity

One study suggests that 150 minutes of moderate exercise each week gives you a 31 percent lower risk of dying prematurely. Another study compares people who exercise three times a week for a total of 450 minutes to those who don’t exercise at all. The exercisers showed to have a 39 percent chance of living longer than their less active counterparts.

Improve mental well-being

Regular physical activity has feel-good benefits, too. Walking briskly for 35 minutes a day for five days a week or 60 minutes for three days a week can improve mild to moderate depression, according to one study. Stress levels are reduced while physical health and vitality are improved. The brain can feel the benefits of your workout as well. One research has shown that 120 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week increases the size of the hippocampus, which is the part of our brain responsible for memory and learning.

5 Easy Ways to Rev Up Your Workout

Isiah Personal Training April 9, 2018April 9, 2018personal trainer, personal training kenmore, weight training kenmore

Tired of following the same upper body-lower body routine week after week? Or maybe just the thought of reviving your old standby routine makes you want to cringe in disgust.

No matter what your reason is for losing interest in working out, only one thing’s for sure — you’ve hit workout fatigue. If you notice, it seems a lot harder to get yourself to hit the gym and maintain your enthusiasm which then reflects on your physical progress.

This doesn’t mean you won’t have any progress at all though. Workouts, no matter how repetitive and boring they are, are still productive. However, this progress won’t last long if you are unable to keep up with your routine consistently. So, what is the solution? It’s time to change things up!

There’s NO need to change your workout routine. Just tweak it a little bit to boost your way to the right path. Here’s how.

DO THE SAME MOVES DIFFERENTLY

Like I said, you don’t need to change your entire routine. Just do a bit of tweaking so you won’t have to let go of an exercise you actually enjoy.

Let’s say you’re bored by repetition. What you can do is change an exercise with a new alternative instead of totally taking it off of the routine. So, change the back squat for a front squat. Same goes with using dumbbells, switch up to barbells occasionally, or vice versa.

TRY NEW MOVES

If you’re getting bored of the same old routine, try adding some new movements to hike up the challenge and keep it interesting. We tend to go back to the things we’re most comfortable with but it’s always a good idea to pepper in some new steps from time to time.

Think of things you haven’t had the chance to try yet: a new sport, a new kind of exercise, or a new workout class perhaps? This will not only improve your workout routine, you may be surprised to find out there are other things you might love.

CHANGE UP YOUR REST

It’s commonplace to maintain a 50-second rest period between sets, especially for hypertrophy sets. This generally likens to 1:1 work-rest ratio enough to aid you to build muscles. The occasional change to more or less rest between sets can be enough to make the training session interesting again.

CHANGE THE TEMPO

The ultimate goal here is to put your muscles under stress. More often than not, we try to do the movement too quickly which kind of defeats the purpose, especially if hypertrophy is your goal.

For the eccentric phase (lowering part of the squat) especially, take more time. If the eccentric phase normally takes you 3 seconds, try doubling it to 6 seconds occasionally. This is an effective way of increasing the time your muscles are under tension while working out.

TRY TO INSERT SOME PAUSES

To ramp up the challenge, try to add in a pause before starting the concentric phase of an exercise, or even try stopping during the eccentric phase of the exercise. This step breaks the momentum, giving your muscles more work to overcome the loss of momentum.

Source: https://www.menshealth.com/fitness/how-to-switch-up-your-workout