October 05, 2018 at 08:47AM If I took a quick poll about everyone’s least favorite part about working out, I’m pretty confident that stretching would end up somewhere on the list. Seriously, when the instructor tells the class it’s time to cool down it feels like a mass exodus. #Wheresthelife “I think for many, it comes down to boredom,” explains Ife Obi, certified pilates instructor and owner of The Fit In Bedstuy. “The stretch is never as fun as the workout. It’s slow, it’s sometimes painful, and the importance of flexibility is not understood by the masses, which all this leaves little motivation to fit it in.” However, the importance of post-workout recovery shouldn’t be overlooked. According to Jeff Brannigan, program director of Stretch*d, stretching “is the behind-the-scenes powerhouse that will help you perform better, recover faster and age gracefully.” He says that the a bulk of his clients often complain about tightness in the hips, low back, neck, and shoulders. So, to combat that, here’s how to minimize soreness post workout. Photo: Stocksy/Jayme Burrows Here’s how to beat post-workout soreness 1. Stretching because…duh: “Stretching is usually an afterthought for most people. And, if you look at our lifestyles, this is understandable—lots of sitting at desks, hunching over laptops and staring down at phones will contribute to these areas of pain,” he explains. “We see lots of clients who are sore from their regular workouts but almost as many who are simply tight or stiff from a sedentary lifestyle. Text neck is real!”
Category: 2019 Health
5 reasons you get the hiccups after eating and how to rid yourself of them ASAP
October 05, 2018 at 08:19AM If you’ve ever gotten a bad case of the hiccups after eating, you know how irritating they can be. But what are these annoying fits in the first place? “Hiccups are involuntary contractions of the diaphragm muscle,” explains, Vincent Pedre, MD, a functional medicine specialist. “They can happen at different rates. As the muscle contracts repeatedly, the vocal cords will contract to prevent the unexpected inflow of air.” This is what causes the hiccuping sound Dr. Pedre says. To put it simply, “a hiccup is basically a spasm of both your diaphragm and vocal cords,” he says. As you let that science sink in, scroll down to see what causes hiccups after eating. Plus, how to get rid of them, stat. Photo: Getty Images/Westend61 What causes hiccups after eating? 1. Eating too quickly You might be familiar with the way that swallowing air causes bloat, but it can also cause hiccups. Often it happens when you eat too quickly. Swallowing air while eating or drinking “distends the stomach rapidly, and can thus irritate the diaphragm muscle,” says Dr. Pedre. “The diaphragm reacts to this sudden distension by contracting.” 2. Eating too much Similarly, when you eat too much your stomach expands and jostles anything in its close proximity. This often includes the diaphragm, which when pushed against, can cause hiccups. 3. Sudden and extreme temperature changes Say you spend a hot summer day outside only to retreat into the AC (or the opposite temp flip in winter) and eat immediately, the
A 5-move, full-body workout you can do with your—wait for it—foam roller
October 05, 2018 at 08:18AM If you think foam rolling falls strictly under the recovery umbrella of fitness, prepare to feel shook. As it turns out, the cylindrical tool you use to massage the knots out of your hammies and calves can also act as a prop for a full-body workout. (Read: It’s twofer!) Yesterday, Aaptiv and CrossFit trainer Meg Takacs previewed a five-move sweat sesh that will soon appear on the audio-guided exercise app. She kindly shared exactly what’s involved so you can replicate the series the next time you’re ready to soak your activewear. To get started, snag a roller and a mat—either at the gym or at your home studio—and pump up the tunes. One round should leave you winded in 10 minutes or less, but as Takacs writes in the caption: “It never gets easier, you just get stronger.” Steal this CrossFit trainer’s full-body, foam-roller workout. View this post on Instagram New @aaptiv Foam roller workout coming soon! – Plyo taps – 5 reps up and down the length of your mat Push ups – 10 (5 each side) 3 hollow rocks and 3 crunches (repeat x2) Overhead squat to a back lunge (x12) – Keep tagging me in your sweaty selfies ! I love seeing hard work being put in. That’s all we do here. It never gets easier, you just get stronger : @squidd614 – #aaptiv #team #bodyweight #coach #mastertrainer #officelife #motivation #movement #creativity #dynamicworkout #strengthtraining #foamroller #workout #hiit #instavid #abs #coreworkout A post shared by Meg Takacs
Gassing is exact positive trend every friendship needs right now
October 05, 2018 at 07:17AM I sincerely wish Accepting a Compliment: 101 were a high school subject, because now I’m a grown human woman and I’m still working to master this seemingly simple aspect of interpersonal communication. But I’ve made progress over the years, most notably when I befriended a gaggle of gay men and started spending an unusually large amount of time at drag-queen-hosted bingo events. These occasions, you see, basically doubled as compliment competitions. It was here where I first experienced the joy of being gassed: applauded and cheered on for doing anything, sometimes simply just showing up. These exchanges tended to skew seriously hyperbolic in nature (being told I look like a young Elizabeth Taylor because I have mascara on, for example), but they helped me feel confident during a time when I was fraught with insecurity. Man Repeller brilliantly coined the term “gassing up” to explain the over-the-top friendly greetings, compliments, or just unsolicited statements of support and encouragement that have finally—thankfully—become a normal mode of interaction between friends. And despite the issues I have with accepting compliments, I couldn’t be happier that gassing is a part of my life. I now commonly find myself on both the sending and receiving end of texts, Instagram comments, and Instagram Story replies with messages the read something like “biiiiiiitch,” with 12 heart emojis and a barrage of exclamation points (!!!!!!!!!). Screeching “OoOoOo, who is SHE?!?” at my friend as we approach each other in the park to gas her up is supposed
A mess-free way to cut cauliflower into florets from Ina Garten that’s genius and easy
October 05, 2018 at 06:58AM If you cook with cauliflower on the reg, you know the struggle of finding little white pieces in every nook and cranny of your kitchen afterward. It turns out working with the veggie doesn’t have to always result in a big mess, though: You just have to switch up your technique for one trained chefs like Ina Garten swear by instead. After a fan wrote to the Barefoot Contessa asking how to cut cauliflower so it doesn’t get all over the kitchen, Garten realized it was time to share her pro tips. “If you cut straight through the top, it gets all over your kitchen,” she said in an Instagram video. So, what do you do instead? Simply flip it over and carefully cut around the core. View this post on Instagram If you’ve been cutting cauliflower through the top and getting little bits all over your kitchen, I have a better way to do it!! And once you’ve mastered the technique, you’ll be ready to make the Cook Like a Pro sneak peek recipe I’m posting next week! #BCprotips #CookLikeaPro A post shared by Ina Garten (@inagarten) on Sep 26, 2018 at 8:50am PDT //www.instagram.com/embed.js Once you’ve made it all the way around the center of the cruciferous veggie, you can break off the florets, which will be in pretty big sections. Then to make them smaller, you cut through the stem and can pull them apart totally mess-free. Now whether you’re turning them into mouth-watering buffalo
One time it’s beneficial to be a little pessimistic? When you’re starting a business
October 05, 2018 at 06:33AM There’s a lot of thought and planning that goes into starting a business. Because your entire world revolves around it, it leads to a lot of excitement and build-up—you can already envision all your hard work turning it into a total success. The only problem is only thinking optimistically when working on your #girlboss dreams could actually set you up for failure. Sure, no one likes to be pessimistic—especially about something you’re putting all your time and money into. But a study published in the European Economic Review found optimistic thinking can be detrimental to your success. Researchers tracked 600 individuals ages 16 to 65 over nearly 18 years as they went from paid employees to business owners, and those with above-average optimism took in 30 percent less profit than those with below-average optimism. The reason why? Their overly-positive attitude basically blinded them from seeing the negatives of their business venture. “As a society, we celebrate optimism and entrepreneurial thinking, but when the two combine it pays to take a reality check.” —Chris Dawson, PhD People who are a little more pessimistic when starting a business, on the other hand, are better able to gauge if the venture is going to be a flop… and can be more open-minded to a better direction to go into. “As a society, we celebrate optimism and entrepreneurial thinking, but when the two combine it pays to take a reality check,” says study author Chris Dawson, PhD. “Optimists are more likely
Redditors are clamoring about spearmint supplements to fight hormonal acne and derms don’t hate it
October 05, 2018 at 03:11AM Ever since I became afflicted (er, cursed) with hormonal acne, I’ve gone down many a rabbit hole on the Internet with the desperate hope of finding a solution for the skin woe. I’ve seen everything, from giving up dairy (which I have done) to using certain topicals to quash the pimples, but among the most bizarre—which I stumbled across in a Reddit Skincare Addiction thread—the idea of ingesting spearmint. According to the various skin-care devotees on the thread, drinking the herb in tea form or taking it as a supplement impacts your hormones, which consequently has an effect on your acne. “I have been drinking one cup of spearmint tea every evening for several months and the results are incredible,” one user writes. “I have not had a single zit which confirms that my acne is hormonal.” It seems too good to be true—something as simple as tea or a capsule works as a magical, hormonal acne-banishing elixir? Before guzzling the minty beverage or loading up on the supplement, I sought an expert’s opinion. “It’s theoretically possible that spearmint tea and/or supplements could be helpful for hormonal acne,” says Robert Anolik, MD, a New York-based dermatologist. “Studies performed in women have shown testosterone levels were significantly reduced over the 30-day period after drinking spearmint tea twice a day. These male-associated hormones are a driving force in some women’s acne, especially adult acne which appears along the jawline in women and which flares during periods.” The thing
Exclusive: MedMen, the “Apple store of cannabis,” launches its first wellness-focused product line
October 05, 2018 at 01:00AM It’s no secret that in the post-legalization (in some states) world, cannabis has become a darling of the wellness industry. The plant’s growing popularity as a therapy for premenstrual syndrome, low libido, anxiety, insomnia, and more has many people who would never have dreamed of “smoking weed” when their bad-influence friends were doing so in high school now spending *all their money* at dispensaries in order to feel better—whatever that may mean for them. It’s this customer, as well as those seeking medical treatment (for things like pain management) and those who just want to have fun, that MedMen seeks to service with a new line of luxury cannabis products called Statemade, which launches today at the company’s newest store in Las Vegas, Nevada. In fact, Daniel Yi, VP of Corporate Communications for MedMen, tells me that co-founder Andrew Modlin says the target demographic’s cannabis goals below in at least one of three buckets: health, wellness, and enjoyment. Courtesy of MedMen As such, Statemade’s products, Yi tells me, are named in order to highlight the effect of the plant rather than the plant itself (so instead of “OG Cush,” you’ve got “joy”). The line comprises seven different varieties, each one aimed at helping you achieve a certain state of mind—happiness, enlightenment, fluidity, activity, rest, balance, and wellness (the last is CBD-only). Right now, Statemade is only available in Nevada because that’s where it’s produced (by MedMen) and federal law prohibits cannabis from being moved between states. This means
Get in on the National Taco Day fun with these keto-friendly cauliflower enchiladas
October 04, 2018 at 01:44PM Today your Instagram feed is likely chock-full of taco ‘grams in honor of National Taco Day. (What, you mean your calendar wasn’t marked?) Well, by dinner time you’re bound to have a serious hankering for some Mexican food. If you’re dialing back on carbs—but really, think twice before cutting them out completely—or following the ketogenic diet, you know taco shells (soft or hard) aren’t exactly part of the plan. But that absolutely doesn’t mean you can’t get in on the festive food action. Mellissa Sevigny of the I Breathe I’m Hungry Instagram account got inspired to create a delish enchilada recipe when a nearly empty fridge forced her to get a little creative. “I was starving and only had a few ingredients in the house to make a tasty keto meal from,” she says. Well, her challenge ultimately benefitted the greater good (i.e., all of us) because it resulted in a green chicken enchilada cauliflower casserole that’s keto-friendly, gluten-free, and will hit the spot. The recipe—along with over 160 others—is featured in her new book, Keto for Life. Scroll down for full instructions, and get ready to straight-up win taco day by thinking outside the shell. Green chicken enchilada cauliflower casserole Serves 6 Ingredients 4 cups cauliflower florets 1/2 cup cream cheese, softened 2 cups shredded cooked chicken breast 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1/2 cup salsa verde 1/4 cup full-fat sour cream 1 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro, plus more for garnish if desired 1/2 tsp
Allergic to your S.O.’s pet? Here are 3 tips to keep you from sneezing out the romantic flame
October 04, 2018 at 01:23PM Allergy attacks don’t quite set the mood for romance, and if your body is exhibiting such signs of uncontrollable intolerance to your significant other’s pet, you can definitely feel me on this. Sneeze fests make it impossible to enjoy whatever you’re trying to watch during your Netflix-and-chill night, and sniffles couldn’t get more in the way of the makeout sesh to which the binge-watching inevitably gives way. Maybe you’re just itchy all over and unable to breathe comfortably, which may not be directly disruptive to your date night, but geez, what a downer! And it’s all because of your love’s furry friend. I experience all of this whenever I’m at my new boo’s place because I’m allergic to his cat. Plenty of couples are tasked with the obstacle of overcoming a pet allergy. I know someone who went so far as to give away their kitty because their S.O. was so severely allergic. But despite the fact that the best way to completely avoid allergy symptoms is to avoid spaces where the pets you’re allergic to reside, some people find a way to coexist—so, since I don’t anticipate a break-up anytime soon, I consulted the pros to figure out how this is possible. “Cat and dog allergies affect 10 percent of Americans, according to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunocology,” says Dr. Purvi Parikh, MD, an allergist and immunologist with Allergy and Asthma Network. “And twice as many people have a cat allergy as a