Day: November 13, 2019

November 13, 2019 at 11:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3zgHI8QnqE] Some fun activities that you used to do as a kid actually have incredible merits as workouts (as much as that might shock your childhood self that was merely horsing around). Case in point? Skipping, playing tag, and—of course—jumping rope, which has been popping up in fitness studios all over the place. Returning to the rope may be intimidating if you haven’t done it since you were at recess, but it’s worth revisiting, because it’s the easiest way to spike your heart rate in a flash (while also working your entire body). That’s not to say it’s going to be easy, though. Superstar trainer Amanda Kloots, our Trainer of the Month and creator of the AK Rope workout, says there are plenty of ways to sabotage your jump rope workout, whether it’s through bad form or just not being able to get the rope all the way around you. So she highly recommends practicing everything before you even grab the rope to make sure you can really nail it like a pro. “Practice without it and get into the proper position,” she says. “Jumping rope is a rhythm—the rope hits, you jump. Your foot rhythm and your hand rhythm have to be the same.” Avoid the three most common mistakes that people make jumping rope, explained by Kloots in our latest episode of The Right Way, below. 1. Jumping too high: “You never want to jump higher than the rope is thick,” says

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November 13, 2019 at 10:39PM by CWC After a year-long hiatus from meditation, I’ve finally made my way back to the daily practice of “tuning into my breath.” It now feels like I’m navigating the murky waters of my mind for the very first time. But one recent morning, a virtual instructor cued me through a back-to-basics “body stress release” meditation on the Inscape app. I instantly remembered how powerful a tool the ancient practice can be. From a comfortable sitting position, you slowly begin to tense your muscles one-by-one before releasing them with an exhale. “Progressive muscle relaxation is a deeply relaxing technique used by athletes and shared by psychologists to relieve stress and anxiety throughout the body,” Inscape tells Well+Good. “It is very useful for people who suffer from insomnia, students who have been over mentally stimulated, or anyone who needs to release any stress from the day.” When you  intentionally tense and release a muscle, it breaks up your normal patterns of physical (and, on a deeper level, emotional) tension. “The act of tensing and releasing these muscles brings awareness to specific areas of our body, which helps reach a deeper mind-body connection,” says Inscape. In other words, the meditation for stress relief acts as a way for you to take back the reigns on how you’re feeling. Here’s how to use breathing meditation for stress relief “It’s nice to rest for a few breaths between each tensing,” says Inscape, “but it can actually be done very

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November 13, 2019 at 10:03PM by CWC So you’ve turned your apartment into a greenhouse? That’s cool. If you love the jungle aesthetic and revel in living the life of a plant mom, more power to you. If you’re relying on houseplants that clean the air to remove pollutants, however, don’t hold your breath. Research published in early November in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology reviewed 30 years worth of studies. And the findings suggest that your collection of philodendrons and snake plants doesn’t have any significant impact on air quality in your home. “This has been a common misconception for some time,” said Michael Waring, PhD, an associate professor of environmental engineering in Drexel’s College of Engineering in a statement from the university. “Plants are great, but they don’t actually clean indoor air quickly enough to have an effect on the air quality of your home or office environment.” Your home’s natural ventilation dilutes pollutants too fast for houseplants to catch. You would need between 100 and 1,000 plants per square meter of floor space to match the efficacy of our home’s normal ventilation system, or even just an open window or two. You can blame all the misinformation about houseplants on Bational Aeronautics and Space Administration. Back in 1989, NASA declared that plants could be used to remove chemicals from the air. Unfortunately, the experiment was conducted in a lab and the scientists never looked at how plants interacted outside of that particular environment. Flash

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November 13, 2019 at 07:00PM by CWC When I had my daughter last year, I set out with the intention of breastfeeding her for a full 12 months. I had heard (many, many times) about how my mom had nursed me for a year, and most of my American friends seemed to be on the breastfeeding train. Except I live in France, where moms on average breastfeed to 17 weeks and less than 10 percent continue for six months, according to a 2015 study by Inserm, France’s National Institute of Health. However, breastfeeding was harder than I expected. Getting my daughter to properly latch onto my breast was surprisingly challenging, and I hadn’t mentally prepared for the reality of nursing every two to three hours, day and night, after a 30-hour labor. The first night after delivery, I only got a few short bursts of sleep, and my poor nipples were soon stinging and bleeding from the near-constant feeding. I begged every nurse who came into my hospital room for help. Fortunately, thanks to France’s affordable medical system, I was able to stay in the hospital for a week to get things on track. But over the next few months, breastfeeding became increasingly tough with my work schedule, and my milk supply couldn’t seem to keep up with one very hungry little girl. I faced pressure to add a bottle of formula from my husband and our nanny, who implied that my daughter was too skinny (she wasn’t, our pediatrician

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