Active Recovery

In other articles I have mentioned the importance of having a daily warm up and cool down not only for workouts, but also any invested activity (gardening, shoveling, painting, etc.). It helps to warm up the muscles for work and stretch and relax them once finished. On your rest days, either between workouts or while you wait to begin a project or outing (or recover from it), it is a good idea to invest your time in a regular and recurring active recovery routine – it can speed up the healing process, improve overall mobility and increase your resistance to injuries.

An active recovery routine is one that does not leave you breathless or collapsed from fatigue, but rather concentrates on coordinated movements, maximizing range of motion and improving balance. It also shouldn’t require a huge investment of your time – typically 15 to 30 minutes is enough to get the job done. Finally, it should not leave you drenched in sweat, but at the same time require effort and concentration to focus on your form and balance.

You might find examples of both extremes for this if you search online; some of them are more daunting and sadistic than they should be while others are too minimalist. The ultimate goal is to encourage circulation through tight and sore muscles, to stretch muscle and tendon attachments, flex and extend joints – all to improve function and dynamic stability. The common sense approach to adding an active recovery routine to your schedule can be effective and significantly rewarding.

So What Is IT?

There is no single routine, but most effective plans will involve a balance component, a multistep motion complex, a resisted or bracing activity and joint flexibility. There are usually 4 or 5 total actions you perform for 1-5 reps and repeat the process 3-4 times. These routines often look deceptively simple, but the focus is slow, deliberate movements concentrating on proper form and stability through the entire circuit. A commercially available routine I recommend is Mark Lauren’s Mobility Rx routine (see our video link for access to part one of this routine) or check out his website which has programs with multiple levels of difficulty, great instructions and  great examples for active recovery routines.

Again, it is best to incorporate this type of routine as a regular maintenance and recovery plan for your “rest days” and when assisting the healing process. However it can also be a gentle routine to help you recover from excessive soreness or general aches and pains

If you have any questions just let us know.

On The Side: Reach For The Ice

When most people hurt themselves they usually reach for a hot pack, but you should never put heat on a new injury.
 
Heat increases the blood flow to the area resulting in increased swelling. Once the heat is removed, the accumulated fluid remains behind because movement, which is reduced in the case of injuries, is necessary to force this excess fluid out of the region.
 
For this reason, icing a new injury is recommended. This will cool the area and constrict the tissues forcing any excess fluids out. If you feel you must heat an injury, then you need to ice the area immediately afterwards.
 
While icing don’t forget to follow the rules: fifteen minutes on and with a two hour gap before using it again, if needed. Always use at least one towel layer between you and the ice. Finally, you can rest against the ice, but never have your full weight on top of it.

Real. Whole. Simple.

Over the years a variety of diets have been marketed. Where some recommend lower fat intakes, others encourage it. If one insists on reducing carbohydrates you will easily find one that says they are not the culprit. How did bacon suddenly make it to the OK list? Is sugar the new “enemy”? What should you follow?
 
We need to do three things to begin with. First, reset the definition of the word diet. Currently, the word is associated with missing yummy food and following a list of strict requirements. This attitude needs to change. Diet, by definition is the food you eat and not about deprivation. Second, understand that maintaining a wholesome lifestyle isn’t about living longer but giving your best shot at living a healthy and independent life. Any added years are the bonus, not the goal. This means that we need to rethink the philosophy of just enjoying whatever time you have on Earth rather than paying attention to your health or lifestyle. And third, pay attention to the sustainability of the lifestyle you are setting up for yourself. If your steps and goals are not realistic, then the chances of you following through reduce drastically.
 
About the diets. There is no doubt that science has established, through extensive research, the broad concepts we should follow to establish and maintain health. A diet rich in whole foods, full of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans and legumes, is our best bet. We describe this as Real. Whole. Simple. A variety of Real food eaten as close to its Whole state as possible (not refined or highly processed) cooked or put together in a Simple manner. And if you look closely, you will notice that these concepts are a common factor between diets that have been associated with weight loss and other health indicators. DASH, paleo, gluten free, vegan, Mediterranean, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Blood group or pH diets – all of these recommend a variety of whole foods while reducing packaged and refined ones.
 
When we pull away from this big picture and focus on individual nutrients, we start to get confused. Are we getting enough Omega 3s? How about B vitamins? Is saturated fat good or bad? New research will keep working on these details and that is a good thing. These answers are important for people with specific health needs. But in general, the best thing you can do is remember Real. Whole. Simple.
 
Everything in moderation is the recent mantra, which actually is pretty vague. So instead, think about the 90-10 guideline. As long as you eat Real Whole and Simple for 90% of the time, don’t focus on the other 10%. Simply put, your health is affected more by the things you do the majority of the time and less by what you do during the rest. If you remember this, there is no need to worry about “cheating on a diet” because it now doesn’t enter the equation.
 
So to wrap up, remember that the common factors amongst all the diets that have been shown to establish and maintain health are Real. Whole. Simple. Stop thinking about diets as deprivation and keep in mind that your health is more affected by what you do the majority of your time.

If you have any questions just let us know.

On The Side: Putting Out The Flames

People often ask me what are the best anti-inflammatory foods to eat? And my response is to turn that question around and ask: what foods are creating inflammation in your diet?

To answer this question we need to look at foods rich in omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-6 fats contain the precursors to signal the body to "start fires", whereas, the omega-3 fats produce the molecules to "put out the flames".

This is important because the standard American diet has a 15-20:1 ratio of omega-6’s to omega-3’s - meaning we are 15-20 times more likely to start fires rather than put them out. With a ratio that significant, it becomes critical to understand where omega-6 fats come from and what you can do to limit them in your diet. Ideally, we want that ratio to be 6:1.

The list of high omega-6 fat containing foods is long, but here are some of the worst ones that have the highest levels of the direct precursor to inflammation signaling - arachadonic acid.

Peanuts & Peanut Oil. Peanuts naturally have one of highest levels of arachadonic acid. To give you some perspective, one tablespoon of peanut butter has enough inflammatory potential to negate the anti-inflammatory benefits of taking 2,000 milligrams of pharmaceutical grade fish oil.

Corn, Corn Oil and Corn-Fed Animals. This is primary reason why free-range, grass-fed and wild caught meat and eggs are healthier for you.

Cow Dairy & Their Products. Cow's milk natutrally contains high levels of arachadonic acid which become even higher with a corn-fed diet.

Avoiding "Text Neck"

It is all too easy to get caught up in the technologies we have at our fingertips. Whether it is a smart phone, a tablet or an e-reader, these devices place new demands and stresses on our body. With 24/7 access to real-time news, social media, games, books, and the internet, it is no wonder neck and back complaints are becoming epidemic across all age ranges.

These developments come with some alarming statistics: 92% of American adults own a mobile phone (only 65% in 2004) and nearly 75% of teens 13-17 have regular access to one. Furthermore, 50% of the people who use smart phones access online media several times per day and 25% note that they are “constantly online”.

New technology and smaller screens are forcing users into prolonged awkward postures that place tremendous stress on the body and spine. In a normal upright posture, with the head up and eyes on the horizon (zero degrees of flexion), the weight suspended by the cervical spine (neck) is 10-12 pounds. When we change that angle to look down at 30 degrees below horizon that weight goes up significantly to 40 pounds and at 60 degrees (the angle when looking down at a cellphone) the weight on your cervical area is approximately 60 pounds.

According to surveys, mostly teenagers reported greater than than 4 hours of device usage. If you take the previous figures into account, it means a teen using a handheld device for 4 hours per day would undergo 1,680 pounds of additional stress in a week, 6,720 pounds in a month and 80,640 pounds in a year.

Prolonged postures of this nature alter the integrity of the ligaments, discs and muscles of the head and neck leading to early development of degeneration, ligament laxity, chronic pain, headaches, eye strain and eventually disc herniation.
To help reduce this stress and strain you will need to work on your posture and handheld device habits:

Improve Your Posture. Stand and sit with a neutral spine, ears in line with your shoulders and your shoulder blades retracted—avoid “curled-in” positions.

Move And Take Breaks. As soon as you start to feel uncomfortable change your position, get up and move around or move to a different location.

Use Devices At Eye Level. Prop them on tables, knees, or hold them up closer to eye level. Try the “Text Neck Indicator” app to show when the angle is too low during use.

Strengthen Your Neck. Check out our video link this month to see the basic Four-Way Cervical Stretch. To turn this into a strengthening exercise just use one hand to add gentle resistance to the direction you are moving your head.

If you have any questions just let us know.

A Simple Approach To Dietary Fats

Ancel Keys’ research in the 1950s which concluded that a diet high in fat increased your cardiovascular risk caused a seismic shift in our food habits. Unfortunately, instead of relying on whole foods that were naturally low in fat, such as vegetables and fruits, we focused on creating a whole industry of processed low fat alternatives that were rich in sugar and refined carbohydrates. Low-fat versions of everything from mayonnaise to cakes were created and fiber rich nuts and seeds were marginalized.

In the last decade, there has been a one hundred and eighty degree turn and butter has even graced the covers of some of the most popular magazines of our time. The headlines scream about comebacks as we end our “war on fat”. This and the prevalence of the keto diet, which focuses on fat and protein at the expense of carbohydrates, have contributed significantly to the prevalent state of confusion that exists about our dietary needs.

Cardiovascular risk is a difficult outcome to predict because there are so many factors involved – genetics, diet, lifestyle, exercise being just a few of them. And in the effort to bring research to the general public, the fine print is often overlooked. For example, studies might compare high fat and low- fat diets but will often miss what the people eating a low-fat diet are substituting the fats with. If they are swapped with alternatives high in refined sugar, that would affect the conclusions on health. If the studies included participants with a previous history of cardiovascular or metabolic issues, the results might not be applicable to the general population. As always, any corrections published don’t garner as much press as the original article and conclusions get incorrectly interpreted and over-simplified by the media to produce eye-catching headlines.

Biochemically speaking, not all fat works the same way in our body, in fact the same fat might behave differently in different people. The link between higher saturated fat and an increase in LDL cholesterol particles is true. However, it affects mostly the larger LDL particles which are benign relative to the small dense particles which injure our arteries and form plaques. Meaning, not all LDL is created the same.

We now get to the main question – what information should you believe and what can you actually eat?

Overall, we need to stop worrying about individual nutrients and pay attention to whole foods. A mantra we teach our clients is “Real. Whole. Simple.” Eat real food as close to its whole state as possible cooked in a simple manner. This holds true for fats as well – unless absolutely required because of a health condition, don’t concentrate only on saturated and unsaturated fats, omega 3s and 6s, etc. Instead, include a variety of fats in your diet – nuts, seeds, avocados, olive-, coconut-, grapeseed-, sunflower- and safflower-oils, oily fish and eggs. These have a mixture of fats in varying proportions and focusing on just one source is not advisable. When it comes to cooking with fats, it is more important to use the correct oil for the temperature than one oil for everything. Olive oil has a relatively low smoke point and works well for a quick sauté or in a salad dressing. For higher temperatures, it is better to use coconut-, sunflower-, grapeseed- or safflower oils. When fats are heated above their smoke points, they change their structures to create unnatural trans-fats which are the only type of fats that you should avoid completely.

Fats are essential to our well-being and participate in multiple biochemical pathways and structures in our body. It is vital, therefore, to include these in your diet on a daily basis, but just remember that variety is key!

 If you have any questions about this article please do not hesitate to contact us.

On The Side: Something To Chew On...

Healthy eating can have benefits ranging from better blood sugar handling, improved digestion/absorption, reduced stress, appropriate gut flora balance, mood enhancement and much more. There are many diets and lifestyle choices to sort through to set yourself on this path; however, there are other factors that we often overlook that have a big impact on our health. The simple act of chewing, for example.

Yes, chewing your food well is the first step in making sure you are getting the most out of all the food you eat. You can have the best ingredients and a meal prepared to perfection - only to lose out on nutritional benefits because you didn’t chew it well enough. Let’s break this down a little bit more.

Chewing has two phases: a mechanical one and a chemical one.

The mechanical one is easy to grasp - we need to break down the food into smaller and smaller bits. The obvious reason is for swallowing, but they also play an important role in how our body digests the food and can affect the balance within our gut flora.

As we chew, we mix the food in with saliva that is full of enzymes starting the chemical phase of chewing. These salivary enzymes begin the chemical breakdown of food on a molecular level and function to kill any bacteria that may be present on the food.

Digestion of food is a chain reaction of sorts - each step has to occur for the next one to function efficiently. Therefore, both of these interdependent processes are vital in making sure the food we eat is made available for the rest of the digestive process to take place. Any problems with this first step can get magnified later in the gut and cause problems in digestion as a whole.

So then, how many times do we need to chew each bite? Well, that depends on a lot of factors, but research has given us the average range of 20-30 times each bite. Counting each bite would be tedious, so the best way to apply this in practice is to thoroughly chew the texture out of the food. And keep in mind that if you find you have to drink a lot to “wash your food down”, then chances are you are not chewing enough.

How Am I Breathing Right Now?

We breathe an average of 22,000 times every single day, but rarely spare a moment to think – how am I breathing right now? It’s an important question with many far reaching implications.  No one really teaches us to breathe, it is just something we do from birth. However, spending just a few moments to focus on how we breathe can yield improvements in sleep, stress handling, anxiety, fatigue, dental disorders, blood pressure, posture and many other concerns.

When we breathe, we can breathe through our nose or our mouth and, surprisingly, there are huge differences between the two. Breathing through our nose is the most efficient way since it evolved for this function. The nose performs multiple tasks as we breathe - it filters particulates, warms and hydrates the air for our airway and lungs, releases nitric oxide to relax blood vessels and contributes to proper dental formation. In contrast, breathing through your mouth has concerning effects – it makes us more prone to infections, dry respiratory tissues, halitosis, poor postures, decreased lung capacity, sleep issues (notably sleep apnea) and causes overall lower tissue oxygen levels.

There are some occasions where breathing through the mouth occurs naturally. Some examples include when we are congested, have nasal obstructions, suffer from pulmonary conditions or when we exercise heavily. Apart from the presence of actual obstructions, the others should all be short term dependencies and nasal breathing should resume. However, it is estimated that upwards of 60% of adults and up to 25% of children suffer from prolonged or predominant use of the mouth to breathe.

There is a critical change in our physiology when we breathe through our nose - we increase the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our blood, which is a critical step for the efficient release of oxygen to our tissues. This is known as the Bohr Effect and it describes the inverse relationship of how tightly we hold oxygen at different concentrations of circulating CO2. Our CO2 level also affects our central nervous system (CNS); it can either turn on our sympathetic nervous system (the “fight or flight” response when mouth breathing and CO2 is low) or our parasympathetic nervous system (“rest and digest” when nose breathing and CO2 is high). This has a direct effect on our blood pressure, insulin levels, cortisol levels and neurotransmitter function.

Paying attention to how you breathe can help you understand how your body is functioning and give you the tools to modify it. Need to calm your nerves before a big presentation? Try some deep nasal breathing before you get started. Want to increase the oxygen carried in your blood before lifting weights? Take some deep breaths in the nose and out the mouth.

A simple way to check if you breathe through your nose or mouth - Take a small piece of medical tape which has very gentle adhesive and put it on your lips to close them. How long can you keep the tape there? How comfortable are you breathing only with your nose? Many people take that further and use mouth taping at night to combat snoring, sleep apnea, morning fatigue, mouth dryness and improve cycles of deep restorative sleep

So, how are you breathing right now?

 If you have any questions about this please do not hesitate to contact us.

On The Side: Whole Foods vs Supplements

It seems that as soon as a new nutrient or diet is hailed a savior, the internet moves on to tell us exactly why the claim is categorically wrong. This is why nutrition as a subject has remained so confusing for most people.

The biggest issue at hand here is the gap between nutrition research and the way results are presented to the general public; usually via attention grabbing headlines or catchphrases. Any fine print in the study that discusses its practical application or provides disclaimers is left unaddressed. After all, a statement like “Chocolate is good for you” grabs more eyeballs than a headline with disclaimers about the specific type of chocolate used, how it was prepared, or the criteria by which the study participants were chosen.

Research is an exact endeavor where every step is consistent and repeatable. It is easier, therefore, to study the health effects of a single anthocyanin (present in high quantities in a fruit like blueberries) instead of the whole fruit whose composition might change depending on season, growing conditions, etc. The other problem is the never-ending list of supplements which promise the most for the least amount of effort.

We need to remember to step back, look at the bigger picture and focus on introducing the whole food into our diet rather than a new pill. Whole foods eaten in sensible combinations rather than taking processed foods, pills or powders will provide you with all the nutrition you need to maintain a healthy lifestyle. To determine if you need any specific interventions, it is best to consult a healthcare professional so that any treatment or lifestyle modification, if needed, is catered to your specific needs.

Making A Healthier Workspace

For decades research has consistently indicated that sitting all day is correlated with increased risks for heart disease, morbidity, some cancers and a long list of other chronic conditions. The media has dubbed it “sitting disease” and many feel it should be considered an occupational hazard. 
Given our regular long work hours, what small steps can we take to change this situation? 

An article published this year found that just 1 minute of activity (slow walking) every 30 minutes for an 8 hour work day reduced blood pressure by 5 points. They went further to find that walking 5 minutes for every 30 minutes of desk time reduced insulin levels by 60%! Insulin is a key player in multiple metabolic disorders plaguing our healthcare system, so keeping it in check is always a good idea.
For many of us, a 5 minute break every 30 minutes is not realistic. However, the take home message here is that movement is key. Frequent motion will encourage proper circulation, help burn calories and prevent poor postures and tight muscles. These factors are responsible for optimal hormone levels, good blood sugar balance, alertness and even creativity.

The easiest way to accomplish this is to reorganize your workspace to force you to get out of your chair frequently. Place your printer on the opposite side of your room or rearrange the things you use frequently away from arms reach or your desk. Doing so will make you stand and move in your office. It may seem like a hassle at first, but as you get used to a dynamic workstation you will usually see an increase in energy and productivity.

Another option is to walk around your office space or pace when taking calls. Just by standing you burn up to 50% more calories relative to being seated. This is also a great time to do some stretches and exercises if your space allows it.       

Seated exercises that can help move you through ranges of motion are another way to improve health. Here is a simple one to try today - Extend your legs one at a time and point your toes or contract your abdominal muscles, hold and relax repeatedly. Another example includes slowly rotating your lower body while keeping your upper body steady as you sit on a swiveling chair. If you have limited space, you can even hover over your seat and do 10-15 boxing squats to boost your calorie burn.

These suggestions might seem small and insignificant, but they can have a big impact on your overall health. Dr. Giasson is happy to discuss your work space with you and give you personalized tips on how to work more efficiently and improve your at-home or office work station.

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

On The Side: Chronic Low Back Pressure

Find yourself having troubles standing up straight when you first get out of bed or out of a chair? Your not alone - with the majority of our workforce stuck in a seated position for extended periods of time it's no mystery. It's no easier if you are on the other end of the spectrum and are on your feet all day running around, lifting or bending for an eight hour shift.

Both cases cause stress to the primary hip flexor - the psoas muscle. It attaches to the front of our lower spine and connects it to our leg through our pelvis. When we are standing its function is to lift our leg up (think marching in place). Doing repeated lifting, standing or carrying often irritates this muscle. It's finicky because sitting will keep the muscle short and tight making it feel irritated as well.

Getting low back ache just above the belt is the psoas muscle "speaking to you". When it gets shortened it puts pressure on our lumbar spine. This creates "back arching" tension at the spine and upsets the muscles on the opposite side starting a tug of war between the two groups.

So what can you do? Try the stretching out your hip flexor (psoas muscle) when you get low back pain, sit too long or working it too much. It is a simple lunge stretch you can do kneeling or standing. Keeping an upright posture is key to making this stretch work. See how to do it and to learn some variations that will help you get the most out of this stretch by clicking our video link above

Tips For Reducing Food Costs

With current food inflation over 10% – a 43 year high – learning to make some minor tweaks to your food budget is worth the effort. Here are some ways you can save a bit at the checkout counter.

A good first step is to plan ahead and stick to a list. Browse the flyers for your local stores and write down items that interest you after comparing prices. Take that list and create a weekly meal plan adding any items you might need to complete your menu. With this there will be no more questions about what to eat, no last-minute shopping trips, no mindless addition of items to your cart and significantly less food wastage. 

Keep track of the top 10 most expensive items you buy each week and develop a sense of what you should be paying.
Eating foods that are in season/local or buying frozen fruits and vegetables are other ways to save. It costs a lot more to buy foods that need to be transported from afar and frozen foods are picked at peak harvest and go through a quick freeze process – making it a smart choice nutritionally and budget wise since they last longer.

Try to shop on Wednesday. Sounds strange, but most grocery stores restock on Wednesday which means items get marked down to sell before the weekend and fresh produce is put on the shelves. If you can’t make Wednesday work, avoid weekends if you can.
 
A great way to reduce food waste is to understand the difference between “best before”, “sell by” and “expires on” labels. Many people get rid of foods when they are still good. A “best before” label is not a safety date. Instead, it indicates when the food will be at its peak flavor. “Sell by” labels are related with inventory management for the store and, again, not related to safety. On the other hand, “expires by” is a safety label and should be strictly followed.
 
If shopping with your family ends up with lots of extras in the cart, maybe curbside pickup could be the option for you. It will help you focus on the cost for each item and give you a better chance of staying on budget when stocking your online cart.

Since meats are often the most expensive food item added to the cart, it can be helpful to eat meat-free once per week or extend meats by serving them with protein rich beans and legumes. This might seem difficult but searching for a few recipes online or contacting us at the clinic for help can get you started. 

Set some time aside when you bring groceries home to meal prep by cutting or processing all the ingredients on your plan ahead of time. Or you can do a little bit every day. In some cases, you can even cook a couple meals ahead and store them in the fridge to reheat or freeze for future meals. This will reduce the time you spend running your stove and can have savings beyond the food budget.

At the end of your week, have one day set aside to go through the fridge and make an “odds and ends” meal. This could be a stir fry, casserole, pasta, chili or soup that will use up all the bits in the fridge that might go bad otherwise. It serves as a great source for lunches the following week and avoids the cost of eating out.

Hopefully these tips will help you hone your budget, make you more efficient with your time and get you focused on reducing your food waste. If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

Managing Sore Muscles

Some muscle soreness after activities is normal as long as it is not an intense ache and does not last longer than a few days. Here are a couple of easy ways to help reduce muscle aches and pains:

• Ice is the best choice for injured muscles. Use ice packs with at least one towel layer between the pack and your body. Without lying on top of the ice, gently rest it on the affected area for no more than fifteen minutes. This treatment can be repeated every two hours as needed. Be careful if you are diabetic, have any serious injuries or sensory loss in the area. Something as simple as applying an ice pack can be dangerous in these situations. It is always best to consult your doctor if you are uncertain.

• Menthol based pain relieving patches and gels can produce similar results as ice by reducing inflammation and swelling. Be sure to follow the labeled instructions.

• Applying creams with arnica or boswellia can aid in muscle recovery and reduce bruising. These compounds are natural anti-inflammatories and are great for healing. Again, be sure to follow the application instructions.

• Just work it out. A muscle should be soft and springy. If your muscles feel hard try working on them with the back of a spoon, tennis ball, rolling pin or golf ball. Think of trying to iron out wrinkles in a sheet. Be careful to not over work a muscle; if it feels puffy put some ice on it and calm it down again.

• Another option for working out a sore muscle is to do some gentle stretching. Talk with your doctor about which stretches should be done to relieve the discomfort in the areas bothering you. Be careful though, if you stretch the muscle too aggressively, you may make a sore muscle an injured one. Never bounce with stretching and it should not be painful. Mild discomfort is okay—as long as it does not linger for too long once the stretch is complete.

If any of the activities listed above cause you pain – stop what you are doing and seek professional advice before trying them again.

Warming Up And Cooling Down During Your Exercise Routine

This is the time of year that most people start some sort of exercise routine. Whether it is at home or in the gym remember to always add in a warm up and cool down session.

It can seem convenient to omit these steps because they add to your overall time. However, including them will save you time and money in the long run by reducing injury risks and decreasing recovery time if you do get hurt.

To start out with, you should get your heart rate up and get your arms and legs moving. The best activity for this is jumping jacks. You can make this a low impact activity by removing the jump and just going from a narrow to wide stance with your arms at your side and above your head, respectively. Try to do this for 1 to 2 minutes or to tolerance.

Each exercise routine should be paired with specific stretches to prevent injuries to the muscles that will be doing the work. These stretches are the most overlooked aspect of a fitness program. They should be done after the warm up routine and as a cool down at the end of the workout to maintain and increase flexibility.

Here are a couple of stretches that are good for most exercise activities:

Psoas Stretch:

Kneeling on one knee, lunge forward on the other knee. Make sure that you are not twisting and that you don't feel any tension in your spine. Tighten your abs (stomach muscles) and glutes (butt muscles) to feel an increase in the stretch. Hold this position for 10 seconds and return to a seated position. Repeat this 3-5 times on each leg.

Towel/Broom Stretch:

Using a towel or broom reach above your head and dangle it behind your back. With the other hand reach down and behind your back to grab the towel or broom. With your top hand gently pull up to help stretch your lower arm further up your back. Then with the bottom hand pull down to bring the top arm further down the back. Make sure that the palm of your top hand faces forward and the palm of your lower hand faces backward. This can be a great stretch to loosen the rotator cuff muscles and the shoulder capsule.

Feeling mild discomfort during these activities is okay, but you should never feel pain or have the discomfort linger. Please check with your doctor before starting any new routines—especially if you have been inactive for awhile. Also consider working with a personal trainer to help you reach your goals.

Exercise Routine Tips To Help With Depression

Depression affects everyone differently. It is easy to recommend exercise but not always easy to follow through while having a bad day. The steps listed below are useful once you have already reached out for advice from a healthcare professional. Remember, it is possible to have bad days even after following all recommendations, so have a routine in place for when that happens.

Exercise works best if you follow a daily, consistent routine. It is not going to change anything if you introduce it in the middle of an already bad day. Set up a time where you follow a workout schedule every day. Motivation can be a huge problem if you aren’t feeling very well, so it is a good idea to connect a new habit to an already existing one. For example: keep an article of your workout clothing near your toothbrush. This way, when you brush your teeth in the morning, you know your next step is to get dressed to exercise.

If you are too depressed, then it is better to find ways to help yourself out of the feeling first. Reach out to a therapist to talk about what is going on. Is there a friend or family member who knows what happens and how to help in such situations? Are there activities, mental or physical, that support your recovery? If a change in focus will not comfort you, what treatment options do you have in place to support yourself?

Break up a routine into smaller steps and see how many you can complete. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just get up and move around. Don’t want to change your clothes to exercise - can you do it in what you already have on? Are you motivated when you participate in group classes at a gym? If you cannot imagine doing a full routine, can you get through just a few jumping jacks at home? Once you have managed those, can you add on some more or a different exercise? If you absolutely do not want to exercise, can you get up and walk around the house? Maybe put the dishes away, heat food or collect your mail. This achieves two things – the movement usually helps the regular routine kick in and it also breaks the cycle of depression where you feel worse for not doing something simple to help yourself.

Supplements: Yea or Nay?

According to recent surveys, more than half the American population supplements their diet with a multivitamin, an herbal or some nutritional support. Over the past decade, the market has expanded exponentially grossing over $150 billion annually.

This begs the question; do we all really need supplements? The answer is not simple since many different aspects have to be taken into consideration.

First and foremost, if you have a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds and whole grains, there is usually no need for supplementation. The key is to get variety in your meals so you are not eating the same foods all the time. A colorful plate for every meal implies that you get your multivitamins from food rather than a pill. This is always the best option because food, in its whole form, has a multitude of phytonutrients that help us absorb and utilize other nutrients efficiently. It is vital to be aware of how your food is grown and better to buy organic options for the produce you consume the most, especially thin skinned fruits or vegetables and leafy greens.

Supplements are not regulated by the FDA. Thus, the onus of researching their quality and efficacy falls squarely on the consumers. This can get complicated given marketing blasts that promise everything from speedy weight loss to a surge in energy. Understand that not all supplements are created equal and most of the claims are not backed by strong proof or any at all.

When buying supplements watch out for additives including, but not limited to, titanium dioxide, colors/dyes, carnauba wax and silica. Most of these are used to help bind pills together and change their color, but can interfere with how they are processed in our body.

Furthermore, certain forms of nutrients are also better utilized in our bodies. Oxide and carbonate forms of minerals, for example, are poorly absorbed. In some cases toxicity levels need be considered such as the case with palmitate and retinol forms of Vitamin A.

Given how confusing it can be, this is where talking to a healthcare professional becomes important. They should be able to guide you regarding how to choose good supplements and help determine if you actually need them.

A healthy digestive system plays a big role in your ability to get the benefits from what you ingest, so it is important to ensure that it is functioning optimally. We believe that supplements work best when used for a short term to address specific deficiencies when whole foods might be inadequate. Something is not better than nothing, in this case. So, avoid cheap and gimmicky vitamins and marketing campaigns. Keeping the number of pills to a minimum also reduces the chances of any interactions that can occur between supplements themselves or with medications.

And remember, it is supplementation and not substitution – nothing can improve your well being more than a healthy lifestyle.