Stretching Before & After Exercise

You probably already know about the importance of exercising on a regular basis. Many don’t know that with every time you exercise, proper stretching should be accompanied with your workout.

Importance of Stretching

If you aren’t properly stretching with your workout, you are definitely putting yourself at risk for a serious injury during your workout. It’s always a bad situation when you can’t workout because of a workout related injury that was very preventable – if only you stretched after your workout!

Not only do you prevent injury by stretching, you also become increasingly more flexible,  stronger, bring valuable oxygen to your muscles, and  provide better blood circulation.

Stretching after your workout helps prevent muscle cramps, soreness, and allow for your muscles to loosen up.

Before your Workout

Do you need to stretch before your workout? This topic is very debated, and studies show that stretching before your workout might not be as beneficial as we all once thought. In my personal experience, I find that stretching is very beneficial for my workouts, especially since I have previously injured one of my knees in the past. I notice that I have a lot more range of movement, and my knees don’t hurt at all (or as much) during my workout  compared to me not stretching at all. My take? Listen to your body’s needs and take necessary precautions.

Studies say that having a warm up before your workout is really what helps your body get ready for that good heavy workout your about to do.

After your Workout

After your workout is when you should be stretching, which you will really notice the benefits when your muscles aren’t as tight and sore the next day.

When stretching, be sure to breath in and out slowly and allow yourself to ease into your stretch. Do not “bounce” into your stretch, as this can cause more injury to yourself than not stretching at all.

Stretching Tips

•Ease into your stretches – Be sure to ease into each of your stretches rather than quickly moving into them. Quickly moving into your stretches might cause injury in and of itself.

•Slowly Breathe in and out – Just as Breathing while working out is important, it is just as important to Breathe while you are stretching.

•Keep it in the Happy Medium – Don’t barely stretch where you aren’t really stretching at all, and don’t over do it where you end up hurting yourself. If you aren’t feeling anything, slowly ease more into the stretch until you feel it. If you are in pain, you are over doing it, and ease slowly out of the stretch until you feel moderately. The goal is to find the “Happy Medium”.

Stretches

Here are some stretches that will be helpful for you:

Glute Stretch – While sitting down on the floor, extend both legs in front of you and put one leg over the other and place the foot as close as possible to the hip. Be sure to keep your upper body upright and grab your leg and pull it towards your upper body.

Inner Thigh Stretch – While sitting down on the floor with your upper body upright, bend your knees and press the soles of your feet up against each other. Slowly push your knees to the floor, without bouncing. This stretch is more commonly known as the “butterfly stretch”.

Hamstring – Sit on the floor with both of your legs straight in front of you. Keep your toes up rather than pointed, and reach for your toes with your hands.

Calf – Stand at arms length from a wall, and put both hands on the wall. Put one foot forward and bend it towards the wall while your other foot is straight.

Quad – Stand close to a wall or other support, and with one hand balance yourself. Lift one leg off the floor and with your other hand, grab your ankles (not your toes!) and hold.

Ankles – While standing up, roll one of your ankles clockwise ten times, and then again counter-clockwise. This stretch is important for when you put a lot of weight on your ankles, such as when you are running.

Tags: After Exercise, Before Exercise, muscle, oxygen, post workout, preworkout, Proper stretching, stretch, Stretching, tips, workout

Salmon Pecan Crunch

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons Mustard

3 tablespoons Organic Coconut oil (melted)

5 teaspoons Raw Honey

1/2 cup fresh Bread Crumbs from Ezekiel bread

1/2 cup finely chopped Pecans

2 teaspoons dried or fresh Rosemary

4 salmon fillets

Salt

Pepper

Instructions:

Step 1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees and lightly grease baking pan.

Step 2) In a bowl, combine the mustard, melted coconut oil, and Raw Honey

Step 3) In another bowl, combine the bread crumbs, chopped pecans, and rosemary.

Step 4) Place fillets on baking pan. Season salmon with salt and pepper, Spoon on the mustard mixture to each fillet, then top with the bread crumb mixture.

Step 5) Bake for 20 minutes (or 10 minutes for each inch of thickness, measuring thickest part of the fillet). Salmon should just flake when done.

Notes:

Salmon is a perfect  healthy dinner for you and the family. I always try to season my meats in a healthy way, and that’s why I chose Organic Coconut oil (rather than another oil such as Vegetable oil), Ezekiel bread crumbs, Pecans, and Rosemary.

Enjoy!

Tags: coconut oil, dinner, Ezekiel Bread, mustard, Pecans, Pepper, Raw Honey, Rosemary, salmon, Salmon Fillet, salmon recipe, salt

Get rid of Lactose Intolerance

Are you Lactose Intolerant? Do you know why you are Lactose Intolerant? Here’s some helpful information on what causes Lactose intolerance, and more importantly – how to prevent Lactose Intolerance.

Lactose

Lactose is the natural sugar that is found in milk (and products that have milk in them, like yoghurt and cheese). Our body’s naturally have what is called Lactase, which is an enzyme found in our intestines that break down the lactose and allow us to absorb the nutrients for our body.

Lactose Intolerance

As you get older, lactase is not found in abundance in your intestine like it was when you were younger. When you don’t have enough enzymes to break down the lactase, the lactase passes through the intestine and into the colon carrying extra fluid in it. Bacteria in the colon break down the lactase into gasses and lactic acid, which is a laxative and irritant. Many you have lactose intolerance will suffer with cramping, diarrhea, gas, and bloating.

Those who are lactose intolerant seem to have different levels of sensitivity to milk products. While some might have issues with any milk products whatsoever, others who are still lactose intolerant are still able to digest small amounts of milk products without having digestive issues.

Get rid of Lactose Intolerance

•Lactose Free Diet- If you are willing to do this, it works. If you just stop consuming milk products your symptoms will go away since the lactase in your body was causing the problems all along. Of course, there are other ways for you to consume milk products without having the horrible symptoms of lactose intolerance.

•Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – This is a technique that balances your energy meridians, which can be helpful in releasing your body’s sensitivities to allergies, including lactose intolerance. This is a technique that you can learn how to do yourself. For more information on how to treat your intolerance to milk, check out Carol Tuttle’s website for more information on EFT.

•Drink Raw Milk – Raw milk has the necessary enzymes needed to digest the milk, unlike most milk products which are made with pasteurized milk. Pasteurized milk is heated and kills the enzymes which allow you to digest the milk, leaving you lactose intolerant.

Tags: dairy products, EFT, enzyme, lactose, Lactose Free, lactose intolerant, milk, raw milk

Rosemary

Rosemary is native to the Mediterranean where it has been used ever since 500 B.C., and early on used to help cure ailments of the nervous system. Today, Rosemary is more commonly known for it’s flavor in our recipes than it’s healing properties.

Here are some of the health benefits that come with Rosemary:

Benefits

•Defenses against cancer

•Anti-aging (help prevent wrinkles)

•Inhibits infections from minor cuts

•May help relieve congestion brought on my a cold

•Promotes circulation

•Help arthritis suffers due to the antioxidants

•Diuretic, which helps prevent yeast causing bacteria from growing (bye-bye yeast infections!)

Intake

Dried or Fresh – Season up your recipes! Rosemary is best known for its culinary use.

Essential Oil – Has the ability to help strengthen and heal organs such as the heart, brain, and liver. As healthy and beneficial as Rosemary Essential Oil can be, never use more than 1 drop of this oil at a time.

If you don’t know what you are doing, stop right there. It would be best to ask a licensed professional; Herbologist or Nutritionist. They will be able to help you with your specific needs.

Precautions

Pregnant or Breast-feeding woman should not consume extract or use for medicinal purposes. Pregnant woman can use Rosemary in small amounts for their cooking.

If you have high blood pressure, chronic ulcers, epilepsy, diverticulosis, or colitis, you should not take rosemary supplements or internally for medicinal purposes.

An overdose of essential oil of Rosemary can be very dangerous, and should only be taken as directed and within reasonable amounts.

Tags: anti-aging, antioxidants, arthritis, cancer, circulation, congestion, diuretic, infections, precautions, Rosemary, Rosemary Essential Oil

Gym Etiquette guidelines to follow

Whether you are new to the gym or a seasoned gym rat, here are some common gym etiquette guidelines that you should be sure to follow:

•No muddy shoes on gym floor – you are sharing this gym with a lot of people, and nobody wants a dirty gym.  In most cases, the gym will provide a rug for you to wipe off your shoes.

•Must wear gym shoes while exercising – typically, you will not be allowed to exercise wearing  sandals, slippers or flip flops. This is obviously for safety reasons, and should be followed.

•No gym bags on gym floor – It’s never fun tripping over someone else’s gym bag just after you had an intense workout. Most gyms will have a policy in place to keep gym bags off of the floor, which is for everyone’s safety.

•No alcohol, smoking, or drugs allowed on premises – this should be an obvious, but it still must be mentioned!

•No offensive or abusive language – you are exercising around a lot of people, and should respect the fact that others will not want to hear your offensive language.

• Don’t talk my ears off! – Most people want to go to the gym to exercise rather than engage in social hour. Nothing’s worst than having to listen to someone else’s conversation about anything and everything for your entire workout. Respect the fact that other people are around you and don’t want to hear about your problems. If it’s just you and your friend at the gym, that’s another story. Then again…how can you have a successful workout if you are talking the whole time?

•Before changing TV stations, see if others are watching the TV or not – It’s OK to change the TV channel only
if nobody else is watching the channel that is currently on. If you change the TV channel without prior approval, it’s just plain rude.

•Share equipment – allow others to use the equipment during your rest period. Unless the equipment has your name on it,  you have to share.

•Share the lane – If your gym has a pool, be sure to share the lane with others. Just because you got there first, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share the lane.

•Stop working out on a defective machine – If you are on an elliptical machine that keeps squeaking like crazy, get off and get onto a new machine. This is respectful to those around you who don’t want to hear the squeaking, and respectful to the gym so that they can have the machine repaired for future use.

•Return weights to the racks or plate trees after use – This is necessary for several reasons: 1) Everyone wants a clean gym rather than having weights laying around 2) You are sharing the equipment, and having a standard location to find the free weights makes sense

Now that you know the appropriate Gym Etiquette, you are ready to hit the gym!

Tags: equipment, etiquette, exercising, Fitness, gym, gym rules, machine, share, shoes