October 22, 2018 at 09:59AM You know those Insta-famous yogis who can “throw” their legs behind their heads in a pose that is equal parts graceful and admirably bendy? Or that woman sporting Alo Yoga in your HIIT class who practically collapses in half for the seated forward fold at the end of class who makes you wish you could touch your toes? I am neither of those girls. In fact, I am so definitively *not* flexible that I can’t even touch my toes. (TBH I can barely touch my shins without a muscle-warming sauna sesh). The disparity between these (capital Y) Yogi’s flexibility and my own often makes me wonder if it’s even worth the effort to move through a yoga flow if I’m unable to fully participate the poses. In a recent asking-for-a-friend convo I had with yoga instructor Francesca Valarezo, who happens to be leading our next Well+Good Retreat in Miami this December, she said told that, despite not being able to touch my toes, I could still do yoga. “There’s a misconception that you have to be flexible to do yoga, but that’s not the case,” she tells me. Flexibility isn’t a pre-requisite. “In fact, the less flexible you are, the more you’ll actually get out of incorporating yoga into your routine,” Valarezo says. Her reasoning? If you’re already flexible, you probably like yoga because you’re good at it, but if you’re not a Bendy Wendy, she tells me that, “yoga can help lengthen your muscles, open up and create space in your
Month: October 2018
Feel the burn while barely moving with this abs exercise from Chelsea Handler’s trainer
October 22, 2018 at 09:34AM Reps of jump squats and burpees definitely pose the potential of leaving you sore for days, but sometimes it’s the exercises that barely require you to move at all that result in the most serious body burn. Just ask Chelsea Handler, whose trainer recently had her do his favorite abs workout at home. Spoiler: It’s way harder than it looks. Ben Bruno—who also trains Kate Upton—recently posted a video of Handler doing one of his go-to core exercises: hollow-body flies, which requires you to hold a crunch with elevated legs while simultaneously lifting and lowering a dumbbell. They’re so intense, in fact, that Handler tried to negotiate the number she had to do. “I told her to do four sets, but she insisted we only do three sets, so we compromised and did five sets,” he writes. View this post on Instagram @chelseahandler knocks out a set of hollow-body flies, one of my new favorite core exercises. I told her to do four sets but she insisted we only do three sets, so we compromised and did five sets. If you listen, Chelsea gives me a hard time for always losing count, but it’s just because I’m busy counting down the time until the workout is over. A post shared by Ben Bruno (@benbrunotraining) on Oct 20, 2018 at 9:23am PDT //www.instagram.com/embed.js Bruno loves the super-challenging core exercise for a good reason: It fires up your abs like crazy from every angle. To try them yourself, lay
I suffered from 2 traumatic brain injuries—but it took 13 years to get a diagnosis
October 22, 2018 at 09:22AM Amanda Burrill is a Navy vet who served as a rescue swimmer and combat systems officer on two tours aboard the USS Dubuque. She’s also one of the thousands of military service members diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury. While not all TBIs are the same, her experience—shared here in her own words—offers a window into what it’s like, including how difficult it can be to get the right treatment. Keep reading for her story. I pin my race bib to my red Relay for Heroes T-shirt and make my way over to the group of other women on my team. This isn’t about winning. I have to keep reminding myself of that. Honestly, the dozens of races under my belt were about winning—at least beating myself—and that mindset served me well, leading to sponsorships, brand endorsements, and two Runner’s World covers. But I didn’t sign up for this relay, where teams compete to finish as many miles as possible in 12 hours, to win or set a personal record. This one is all about the cause. My cause. Did you know that roughly 400,000 military service members have been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TMI) since 2000? And at least 20 percent of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression, though only half seek some form of treatment? There are also those who tirelessly seek treatment but aren’t sure “for what.” These weren’t statistics I was particularly interested in until I became one
7 friends (total!) is all it takes for a happy life
October 22, 2018 at 09:14AM You know the VIP people in your life? The ones who you’re in constant contact with via the squad group text message, meeting up with for weekend yoga, and gassing the heck out of? Well, according to Bella Zanesco career and life strategist, and author of Smart Girls Screw Up Too: The No-Nonsense Guide to Creating The Life You Want, the quintessential inner circle of besties is composed of just seven personas. You’ll likely already recognize at least a few of these archetypes in your “Favorites” section of your contacts list, so let’s break down Zanesco’s seven paradigms of friendship #goals below. 1. The Catalyst: According to Mamamia Out Loud, an Australian podcast for women, the first Zanesco-approved member of your friend group is the “catalyst”, or the person who inspires transformation and pushes you out of your comfort zone. This individual emboldens you to brave reformer class, ask for a raise at work, or flirt with your crush. 2. The Player: The one you keep around for those occasions when you’re ready to kick back with horoscope-appropriate cocktails, and just laugh for hours. 3. The Nurturer: The caring BFF you call when you need to cry—and your mom doesn’t pick up her phone. 4: The Inspirer: Parting with this person leaves you with a head full of new thoughts and ideas. They spark the occasional existential crisis, and may just convince you to go full-on Marie Kondo on your closet. 5. The Challenger: This tribe member has no fear of testing your opinions, helping you
If sound baths don’t relax you at all (*raises hand slowly*), try 3 other ways to unwind
October 22, 2018 at 08:41AM I recently attended my first sound bath, a ritual that’s been described as sharing Zen space with the yoga and meditation worlds, but in a super-accessible way that doesn’t require knowing how to quiet your mind or contort into crow pose. So, totally ready to slip into what I expected to be the deepest savasana ever, I was ready to listen and unwind. The two-hour process kicked off with a group guided meditation before the main attraction, which was complete with singing cups, gongs, and other noises. I’m always looking for bleeding-edge ways to relax, and anything new-agey is right up my alley, so I already felt late for trying this practice, which has been on the up and up in New York City, where I live, for a few years now. While I was stoked to silence my sound-bath FOMO, the result felt kinda tone deaf to me. But, despite being stoked to silence my FOMO with the sonic exercise, the result felt kind of tone deaf to me. Midway through, my eyes snapped open from a deep, meditative state thanks to the tinging of the singing cups. For the next 40 minutes, I laid with my eyes open—and anyone who’s ever spent a night in bed, inexplicably awake, can probably how this session ended. Sure, when I left, I felt slightly more relaxed than I had when I walked in, but my mind was in high gear rather than blissed out. After chatting
Make the most out of your day with a “won’t do” list—Twitter’s CEO swears by it
October 22, 2018 at 08:35AM Every morning, you probably wake up with a to-do list of everything you need to check off within the next 24 hours, from work responsibilities to things that need attention at home. While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is right there with you, one of his best strategies for success—as well as being more productive throughout the day—is that he also keeps a “won’t do” list. On Twitter—because where else?—he revealed a smart checklist tactic he’s been doing on and off for years—and it’s worked really well for him. (He is the co-creator of—and still runs—one of the world’s most successful social media platforms, after all.) “Every morning, I write a checklist of work I intend to do today, and work I won’t do today. It’s focused on more strategic efforts rather than calendar stuff,” Dorsey writes. “I check off the ‘won’t do’ before I go to sleep, and eventually move them up to ‘do.’” A practice I’ve been using off and on for years: every morning I write a checklist of work I intend to do today, and work I won’t do today. Focused on more strategic efforts rather than calendar stuff. I check off the “won’t do” before sleep (and eventually move them up to “do”). pic.twitter.com/tm5vrqPXvv — jack (@jack) October 17, 2018 https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js On his “do” list, Dorsey has tasks like meditate, work out, and follow-up on conversations. And on his “won’t do” list, he has alcohol (a #SoberOctober challenge he’s doing with
Can a gynecologist tell me once and for all if it’s okay to work out in thong?
October 22, 2018 at 07:41AM I worked out in a thong yesterday. I thought that this was completely normal until my colleague gasped in horror when she learned that I don’t workout solely in “sports” undies. If you’re like me, you’re raising your eyebrows: What are “sports underwear” and since when did people start making (let alone start purchasing) panties specifically made for sweat seshes? Exercise underwear has several burpee-slash-spinning-friendly features: think wedgie-free and sweat-wicking materials like Spandex, lycra, and mesh. Yadda yadda. That’s what your leggings are for, I think to myself as she goes on about them. Why wouldn’t you just hit the gym donning the panties you’re already in? After all, it’s annoying enough to change your entire outfit before working out, so if that means rocking a thong beneath those leggings as you sprint on a treadmill (as I do), so be it. I really don’t see a problem with it, especially if your knickers are cotton (you know, so that your lady parts can breathe)…and neither does a gynecologist. “I recommend working out in organic cotton underwear, as it gives the vaginal area circulation and room to breathe,” says Prudence Hall, MD, gynecologist and founder of The Hall Center. “But yeah, sure, wear a thong to work out in. If it irritates you, wear cotton briefs.” I’m not asking much when it comes to my underwear during a workout, anyways. I just want it to protect my vagina from rubbing against my leggings, and to catch any discharge.
The case for measuring your workout the OG way—with your heart rate
October 22, 2018 at 06:54AM Techy options for tracking your fitness progress may very well now outnumber even the menu options for the ever-versatile avocado. But the truth is, you could totally ditch every piece of gear, save for one all-star accessory you were born with: your heartbeat. Ask a handful of coaches and industry pros, and they might tell you that the old-school method could become your new fave way to stay in touch with your progress. “Heart-rate training gives you objective guidance on whether you’re on the right track, pushing too hard or taking it too easy,” Janet Hamilton, an Atlanta-based running coach recently told The Washington Post piece. Rather than heading out to run a specific number of miles, or sprinting in a SoulCycle class for a certain number of minutes, she recommends shooting for heart rates within your sweat sesh that fall within specific ranges of your maximum heart rate (MHR), or the number of times your heart beats per minute when it’s working the hardest. Why? Because what you get out of a certain workout really depends on your effort level, or how close you come to reaching a super-high heart rate. For example, if you hop on the elliptical (à la Jennifer Aniston), and stay within 60 to 70 percent of your personal MHR zone for 20 minutes, you would burn calories and improve your cardiovascular fitness. If you dialed that effort up to 70 to 90 percent for 20 to 90 minutes though, the exercise would up your endurance
Is alt-milk still milk? Inside the food lexicon debate the FDA has the final ruling on
October 22, 2018 at 05:20AM Pop quiz: What’s the definition of milk? It’s not a trick question; it’s one the Food and Drug Administration has been debating for months as alt-milk (or “mylk”) is surging in popularity, expanding the definition past the traditional cow’s variety. Next question: What’s meat? It’s a term Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods insists on using for their vegan products as well as being sold right next to the “real” stuff. Is lab-grown meat still meat? As the lexicon of meat and dairy alternatives expands, it has policy makers furrowing their brows. Not everyone is so clear on the ins and outs of vegan eats, says the U.S. government, which is claiming that plant-based brands may be confusing consumers by labeling their products with words like “milk” and “meat.” And the way this plays out could have some pretty big implications for the names of your favorite fridge staples. Here’s what’s going down: Back in July, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that it’d be taking a closer look at the labeling of non-dairy milk products, saying that calling them “milks” when they don’t actually come from animals is misleading to consumers. The agency soon added that the definition of yogurt would also be up for review. And earlier this month, the American Butter Institute entered the fray, with a letter to the FDA requesting that plant-based brands not use the word “butter” to describe their dairy-free alternatives. (Nut butters excluded. Phew!) This isn’t totally bizarre—the FDA
We Tried Gisele’s Diet For Anxiety. Here’s What Happened
October 22, 2018 at 12:30AM Luckily, chocolate was part of the menu. Continue Reading… Author Liz Moody | Life by Daily Burn Selected by iversue