May 06, 2019 at 12:56PM by CWC I’m practically religious about doing a butt workout at home on the mat in my living room. Almost daily, I strap on a pair of ankle weights and follow along as a trainer streams instructions through my television. One of my most recent workouts left me feeling the burn more than ever before because of a sneaky little tweak in my foot placement. According to modelFIT trainer Abbey Woodfin of modelFIT Steaming, paying attention to your foot placement increases effectiveness. Not necessarily because of how it affects your butt directly, but because of how it affects your legs, which in turn grants a perkier behind. “For example, when you’re on the mat and you’re doing a leg curl (straight leg then curl into a 90-degree angle), having the heel flexed will help activate the hamstrings, as well as fire up that booty. Then when you keep the 90-degree angle, point the toe, and pulse at then end, this works that part of your bum where your hamstring and booty meet,” she says. “It’s basically an instant booty lift. And as a bonus, that will also activate your inner thigh.” Basically, she wants people to know when you’re told to have your heel flexed versus your toe pointed during class, your trainer isn’t just being controlling. “It’s because it helps work different parts of your bum and thighs, giving you a more comprehensive workout,” Woodfin explains. “The foot placement will change where you feel
Day: May 6, 2019
Dear ‘Game of Thrones’: Sexual assault is not a rite of passage for women
May 06, 2019 at 12:23PM by CWC [Editor’s note: Spoilers ahead for season 8, episode 4 of Game of Thrones.] Last night while watching Game of Thrones, one particular moment almost sent me into a rage blackout. No, it wasn’t when Arya rejected Gendry’s marriage proposal (I actually cheered at that one). It was when Sansa had a heart-to-heart with her former protector, Sandor “The Hound” Clegane. The two characters haven’t seen each other since the end of season two, and the Hound says that he’s heard about what’s happened to his “little bird” since (the death of her parents and two of her brothers; two forced marriages, including one that involved brutal sexual assault and degradation; manipulation and repeated harassment by another powerful man, etc.). He tells Sansa that if she had left King’s Landing with him all of those years ago, she wouldn’t have experienced any of the misery she has been put through in the six seasons since. In reply, Sansa tenderly places her hand over The Hound’s and says, “Without Littlefinger and Ramsay and the rest, I would’ve stayed a little bird all my life.” This might seem like an innocuous statement; Sansa is objectively a different person than she was at the beginning of the show, when we knew her as young, naive teen heading down to the capital with fantasies of a royal wedding (her own) dancing in her head. But the subtext beneath it—that she was weak before, and that surviving countless instances
This Is Why Everyone Should Strength Train At Least Once A Week
May 06, 2019 at 12:11PM Yes, that includes you too. Continue Reading… Author Nora Tobin | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
4 Signs You Are Not Coping With Your Grief & Might Need A Therapist
May 06, 2019 at 12:47AM How to know when those bad feelings become debilitating. Continue Reading… Author Rachel Wright | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
How to tell you’re really in love with your S.O. (and it’s not just hormones playing you)
May 06, 2019 at 12:00PM by CWC Hopeless romantics and helicopter parents who just want to see you settled and married have a stock answer to “how do you know you love someone?” “When you know, you know,” they say. Except, as a rom-com-loving person whose personality skews to the obsessive, I assure there are times when you simply just don’t know. For instance, is it love if you’re willing to go to their great aunt’s memorial service? What if you have a secret 300-pin-rich Pinterest board dedicated to your future—is that love? Suffice it to say many of us do a lot of idealizing (in and out of partnerships) before we can know whether our feelings are real, and in many cases, the romanticization can cloud what’s actually happening. This confusion is especially rife when you’re in the early throes of a blossoming relationship, and you know, intellectually at least, that what’s at play could simply be cuddle hormones and the honeymoon phase. As the philosopher Taylor Alison Swift posited in simpler, pre-“Me!” times, “So it’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames.” And though it could still go down in flames no matter what, rounded up below are a few guidelines to help inform whether your feelings are the real deal and you’re likely in love. Check out 8 expert-approved signs that answer the age-old question: How do you know you love someone? Photo: Getty Images/Nikita Vasylchenko/EyeEm 1. You want your partner to connect with your
The derm-approved plan to ditch “strawberry legs” by summer
May 06, 2019 at 11:56AM by CWC There have been times in my life when I look down at my legs (which are rarely bare, FWIW) and notice that the pores look darker than usual. I’ve always chalked it up to just having larger-than-average hair follicles (cool), but never gave it much of a thought besides just thinking: ugh. Then, I came across the term “strawberry legs” and felt extremely seen. Much to my surprise, strawberry legs are not only super common, they’re also something you can easily deal with. “This happens when the skin of the legs has darker dots in a follicular distribution, so they look like strawberries,” says Purvisha Patel, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and founder of Visha Skincare. “There may also be swelling of the skin and the hair follicles can look slightly indented or raised like the surface of a strawberry.” Board-certified dermatologist Tobechi Ebede, MD, adds that “the darker dots represent hair follicles or enlarged pores that contain a mixture of oil, bacteria, and dead skin or hair trapped in them.” Know that it’s completely normal. “As mammals, we’re covered in hair follicles and pores, and this appearance can stem from any process that increases inflammation of the hair follicle,” says Dr. Patel. “It could be from not exfoliating, so the pores get blocked with oil and debris, shaving with a dull razor, or not moisturizing skin can create irritation.” The different conditions get categorized a bit differently. “If it’s hair follicles mixed with
Why two 20-minute HIIT sessions per week is plenty
May 06, 2019 at 11:06AM by CWC When it comes to fitness, it’s easy to fall into the more is more mentality. Ten push-ups is better than five, 26.2 miles is more impressive than 10K, and—yeah—that gal doing the splits in your hot yoga class makes you want to do the splits, too. Now that we’re living in the era of cortisol conscious workouts, gym-goers are conscious of how their sweat sessions affect their stress levels—including the bodily effects of a HIIT workout routine. Cult on-demand fitness empire Les Mills just advised its digital trainees to cut weekly high-intensity interval training down to two sessions of 20 minutes. Why? Any more and your body simply doesn’t have ample time to reset from fight or flight mode. “We found their recovery was compromised and it was causing problems such as injuries, mood swings, fatigue and disrupted sleep,” Bryce Hastings, head of research for gym Les Mills told The Sun. And fam, this is a big deal coming from the brand that basically specializes in workouts that get your heart racing faster than you can say “gains.” Fortunately, chill spinoffs of the beloved exercise style abound. High-intensity, low-impact (HILIT) workouts are on the rise, as well as cardio weightlifting and low-intensity steady state cardio (LISS) to keep your ticker closer to cruise control. “Cortisol is not particularly a ‘bad’ hormone, it’s just that when it remains consistently high, then it’s sending a stress signal,” says Maillard Howell, owner of Crossfit Prospect Heights in Brooklyn.
We’ve Put One Million Species At Risk Of Extinction, New U.N. Report Finds
May 06, 2019 at 09:35AM “The health of ecosystems on which we and all other species depend is deteriorating more rapidly than ever.” Continue Reading… Author Emma Loewe | Life by Daily Burn Selected by CWC
Get in bed with the sleep hypnosis meditation that’s one of Apple’s top health podcasts
May 06, 2019 at 08:38AM by CWC Oh, sleep. How is it that a single syllable contains so much meaning and causes the human population so much grief? Feeling tired all the time seems to be the collective mood of the 21st century. So many of us are in relentless pursuit of a good night’s rest. And if Apple’s trending podcasts are any indication, sleep hypnosis meditation is the audible solution we’ve all been dreaming of. Being the wellness podcast nerd that I am, I often scroll through Apple’s top 100 podcasts just for fun. It’s there that I first noticed an episode called “Autogenic Relaxation for Sleep,” which has been dominating the list for a few weeks (by my count). The 15-minute sequence was created by Meditation Oasis, and involves drawing attention to how each of your body parts feel from head to toe (e.g., my hips are warm and heavy) as you’re lying between your heavenly soft sheets. Calming music rounds out the listening experience. Autogenic relaxation is a method developed by psychiatrists defined as “a technique which involves progressive relaxation of the extremities, heartbeat stabilization, and maintenance of slow, deep breaths,” according to anxiety.org. If you’ve ever done a body scan in yoga class or tried the U.S. army’s technique for falling asleep, you’re familiar with the mesmerizing process of checking in with each and every extremity. A 2002 meta-analysis of 73 studies found autogenic relaxation useful for treating sleep disorders, as well as hypertension, migraines, and
Nutritionists cut the cheese on whether or not you can eat mold…on cheese
May 06, 2019 at 08:02AM by CWC My entire life, I’ve thought that cheese is a form of mold. But then, last night I adventured into my refrigerator looking for a cheesy snack, only to pull out my fave crumbled parmesan to sprinkle on something. I ate it, and when I was finished and putting the container away, I… saw that there was actual mold on cheese—as in, little blue flecks that I was horrified that I had just consumed. To see whether I was minutes away from dying or not, I immediately sought a nutritionist’s take on the matter. First of all, some types of cheese are meant to be made with mold, according to Lisa Richards, certified nutritionist and author of The Candida Diet. “These include various types of blue cheese, as well as brie and camembert,” she says. Then, similar to mold, it takes several types of fungus to make cheese. “These are mostly from the Penicillium family,” she explains. “For example, brie and camembert are made using Penicillium camemberti. Cheeses made from mold tend to be the softer varieties.” More live stuff lives in cheese too—like bacteria. “Most cheeses are made with bacteria, using live cultures from the Lactococcus, Lactobacillus, or Streptococcus families,” says Richards. “These are more likely to be harder cheeses like cheddar or parmesan.” Fun fact: Some of these probiotic cultures used in cheesemaking are the type you’ll find in your probiotic supplements. But here’s the thing—the types of cheeses made with bacteria