September 18, 2019 at 05:41PM by CWC When I picture my own personal hell-scape, the song “Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes” loops endlessly while scary cartoon characters dance around me with ritualistic fervor. But I really shouldn’t be so fast to dismiss the lesson at the heart this nursery rhyme. Learning how to use your head, shoulders, knees, and toes as an outline for stretching out your full body each day is something worth carrying well into adulthood, says yoga teacher Lindsay Pirozzi of New York City’s Y7 studio. “Stretching keeps the muscles flexible, it increases our range of motion, protects our joints,” says the yoga teacher. “Both joints and muscles are so necessary in everyday functional movements that we rarely think twice about—sitting down to go to the bathroom, walking up the subway stairs, bending down because we dropped our cell phone, or even lifting your arms to reach something overhead.” When you make head-to-toe stretching part of your daily ritual, everything else becomes that much easier. The same tender loving care also helps keep your mental dashboard free and clear, according to Pirozzi. She explains that in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), skipping physical self-care is believed to lock stagnant, stale energy inside the body. “Stuck energy in the body feels a lot like tension, and tension is the least natural sensation we’ll experience as humans. It’s a sign we have lost sight of our breath, and our connection to self,” she says. Um, no thanks. Below, Pirozzi shares an all-grown-up
Category: Yoga
How long after waking up should you wait to work out?
September 18, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC I may not be a morning person, but I do manage to sporadically conquer before-work workouts (which is saying something). However, sometimes the only way I manage is by rolling out of bed, sprinting to the studio, and going from zero to 100 (“real quick,” to quote Drake). I’ll be honest, I’m not at my best when I don’t give my body time to adjust from being asleep. It led me to wonder just how safe it is to do a really intense workout shortly after waking up, and whether different a.m. workouts might be better on the body than others. “Generally, the important thing is that your body needs some sort of activation—a warm-up period, so to speak, so that it gets ready for a workout after waking up,” says David Geier, DO, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist. “When you actually randomize people doing different workouts at different times, it turns out that the time of day doesn’t have much influence.” Whether you’re doing Pilates, yoga, or HIIT, though, it’s going to likely be pretty tough if you’re just starting cold. “Whatever you’re doing, take 15, 20, or even 30 minutes to get going, have a bottle of water, stretch out, and move around,” says Dr. Geier, noting that this is much easier to handle than waking up and going to exercise five minutes later (oops). According to Paul DiLauro, MS, exercise physiologist and fitness director of Peak Performance Fitness, different workouts
‘Mandala’ yoga deletes all your negative thoughts—these are the 5 best flows on YouTube
September 17, 2019 at 10:37PM by CWC Yoga is near and dear to my heart. It’s the one hour of my day when I can tell my brain to be quiet and actually get it to listen to me. When you’re flowing on your mat, tuning the teacher out for even a second can land you in dancer’s pose instead of downward dog. You have to be hyperaware—especially if the instructor decides to teach a mandala sequence. Last night at a yoga studio in New York City, my instructor kicked off an hourlong vinyasa by explaining that the class would be taught in the mandala style. A mandala is an ornately designed orb with spiritual connotations in both Hinduism and Buddhism. In the style of yoga that borrows from the shape, your body replicates the circular pattern. Meaning, you basically end up revolving around and around your mat. With the right teacher guiding your, mandala sequencing can be fun, dizzying, and exhilarating. Best of all though, it requires so much physical focus that your brain basically wipes all of its current data. (It’s possible! I promise!) Within minutes, you’ll forget about that nail-biting project at work, the fact that you really need to do your laundry, and anything else weighing on your mind. You get swept up in a meditative dance and emerge on the other end like, “What’s a to-do list?” Clear your mind right this minute with 5 mandala yoga flows [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_6eoHDEy4] 1. Do-it-all 40-minute strength mandala flow
The easiest habit to adopt to improve your worst days doesn’t even require speaking
September 17, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC Right now, my life is amid a phase of change—and I’m personally predisposed to hate change. But, waaah waaah waaah, because even if I’m having a bad day, it’s still a day I still have to get through. One way I’ve been trying to make my awful days decidedly more bearable? Being more generous with my internal compliments to others as a means for boosting my own mood. The idea, which came courtesy of a co-worker who swears by it, is to compliment strangers you encounter on your walk to work, ahead of you in the checkout line at the grocery store, in the locker room with you after yoga—really anywhere. Since the compliment is in your head, you can challenge yourself to find something nice to say about every person who passes you without seeming disingenuous by actually vocalizing these rapid-fire kernels of kindness. Think of it as a cousin to a gratitude practice, one that allows you to acknowledge that there’s so much beauty in the world even when you’re having a bad day. And, better yet, there are two big psychologist-backed reasons to support this being a great idea: distraction and redirection. “First, you’re focusing your mind away from your problems and on to something that’s good,” says psychologist Aimee Daramus, PsyD. “You’re noticing what’s good about the people around you. You’re also likely to get some positive energy back, just because your thoughts can change your posture, tone of
We tried 21 days of at-home workouts—here’s how it changed our outlook on fitness
September 16, 2019 at 02:59PM by CWC At-home workouts are pretty ideal for people with busy schedules (so, pretty much every human). You roll out of bed, throw on your activewear, and get straight to sweating. The problem? Finding the motivation to actually power through at your maximum potential. It’s easy to slack off when it’s just you looking down at your sneakers, willing yourself to bust out one more rep, versus having a professional trainer cheering you on IRL. Enter LES MILLS On Demand—the all-in-one fitness platform that features over 800 workouts from HIIT to yoga to dance—that’s essentially an entire boutique fitness studio in your phone. Our editors’ question: Would the at-home format really be as motivational as the studio classes they’re used to? To find out, two editors signed up for the Back To You 21-day challenge, which was created to help people “bring the focus back to their own health after the summer break,” explains Dr. Jinger Gottschall, a former triathlete who works with the head of research at Les Mills to test exercise programming. Because lets be honest, packing your sneakers on vacation takes up valuable real estate in your carryon. Les Mills proposed two workout plans for the challenge: Level 1.0 (for the wellness curious, designed to ease your body back into exercise with fun, short workouts) and Level 2.0 (for wellness fanatics who are ready for an amped-up challenge). Since no workout is complete without the right outfit (duh), our editors sported the
5 exercises a physical therapist wants you to do every day to prevent stiffness as you age
September 16, 2019 at 02:01PM by CWC If you’re already feeling a little stiff, just wait—this is just the beginning. As you age, your joints only become stiffer, and usually that goes hand-in-hand with bodily aches and pains. And there’s typically one thing behind the problem: not being active enough. “Stiffness often occurs when we’re not exercising enough, so the best way to prevent stiffness is by being regularly active,” says Katie Sun Worrall, DPT, physical therapist at Zion Physical Therapy. “There’s a lot of research that shows how sedentary behavior—aka sitting at work all day and not exercising—can lead to a number of health problems: obesity, heart disease, and high blood pressure, to name a few. Whether it’s walking, running, yoga, cycling, lifting weights, or another exercise of your choice, all of it is good for you and your health in the long run.” To help you fight off stiffness in the future, you’ve gotta start now. Here are Worrall’s top exercises to combat stiffness—particularly the kind that occurs in the spine, neck, and back, as they’re some of the most common complaints. A physical therapist’s top 5 exercises to fight stiffness as you age 1. Cat-cow Start on hands and knees in a neutral spine. Inhale, drop the belly, widen the collarbones, open the chest, and arch the spine. Make sure to keep the back of the neck long (often people crunch the back of the neck trying to look up in this posture). Then exhale, draw the belly in,
A chef-turned-CEO shares the secret to activating your inner muse
September 15, 2019 at 09:00PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VKsq7L-cfk] While self care is highly personal in terms of what it means, often it’s built on rituals. Whether that’s a small morning ritual (your 7 a.m. yoga class) or an evening ritual (your five-step, pre-bed skin-care routine), the idea is that you’re carving out some amount of time within the day for yourself. But, rather than sticking to the daily continuum, have you ever considered a seasonal ritual for self care? Well, since the change of seasons is upon us, you can take a pro’s word for its efficacy: In the latest episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series Self-Care Nation, Sarah Ashley Schiear, chef and founder of Salt House, discusses the small ways her go-to fall equinox rituals help her tap into her “inner muse.” “At the beginning of each season, I really like to design a creative ritual for myself,” Schiear says. “The idea behind that is that I’m taking something that is really personal to me and that puts me in a state of inspiration, creativity, and joy.” “At the beginning of each season, I really like to design a creative ritual for myself. I’m taking something that is really personal to me and that puts me in a state of inspiration, creativity, and joy.” —Sarah Ashley Schiear, Salt House founder So what’s on Schiear’s slate for her fall equinox rituals? She first focuses on body movement, and then adds a little bit of exercise to summon those creative forces.
Boost your balance *and* lower body strength with the pendulum lunge
September 15, 2019 at 02:00PM by CWC When it comes to building up your lower body, lunges are all-stars. You only have to do a handful of them to start feeling the burn. But amping things up with a variation of the move could help increase your strength and boost your balancing skills in the process. Unlike a regular lunge, the pendulum lunge involves one foot staying on the ground as the opposite leg alternates between a forward and reverse lunge—the ultimate test of balance as you’re trying your hardest not to fall over. “This movement is effective as it trains strength, balance, and control—muscle acceleration and deceleration—in multiple directions,” says Gideon Akande, personal trainer and founding instructor at Shadowbox Chicago. “The more you perform and perfect this movement, the better your proprioception, spacial awareness, and overall athletic ability will be.” At first, the pendulum lunge can be hard to nail down. Once you do, you’ll be reaping benefits far beyond a tighter toosh and super-toned legs. Here’s exactly how to do one at home, according to Akande. How to perform a pendulum lunge Start with your feet side by side. Step into a forward lunge, bringing your back knee toward the ground. Be sure that your forward knee stays stacked above the same-side ankle. Without lifting your back foot, explode into a reverse lunge with your forward leg. The legs have now switched between forward and back in the transition. Repeat the pendulum motion for 8 to 12 reps per side
3 back extension exercises that whisk away the effects of sitting at a desk all day
September 14, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC I’m surprised that my back isn’t permanently in the shape of a C by now. The majority of the time, I’m hunched over my desk as I type away all day, or I’m curled up on the couch as I binge-watch something on TV. So night-after-night, I turn to back extension exercises to help me counter all of the curved spine sitting I do each day. “Spinal extension is the opposite of spinal flexion, which is curling forward—think crunch or articulation,” explains Helen Phelan, a health coach and Pilates instructor. “In extension, the spine is bending backwards, recruiting the muscles that are responsible for standing, lifting objects, and overall spinal movement like twisting.” If you’re anything like me, pushing your shoulders back to engage the trapezius muscles doesn’t come as easily as rounding them. “Back extension is a movement that’s more limited and comes a lot less naturally,” says Jeff Brannigan, program director at Stretch*d. If you’re not combatting all of that arching with back extension exercises, you’re most likely going to wind up with an imbalanced body. “Spinal extension helps correct this muscular imbalance that’s basically unavoidable in the modern world.” —Helen Phelan “Daily life can encourage the development of imbalances in the front and back body,” says Phelan. “Spinal extension helps correct this muscular imbalance that’s basically unavoidable in the modern world.” Her take? There’s a high chance people aren’t extending their backs nearly enough for good spine health. And “enough”
Why experts say emotional eating isn’t always a ‘bad’ thing
September 14, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC There’s a reason why the phrase “eating your feelings” exists. Whether it’s eating chocolate cake like Miranda Hobbes or a tub of ice cream like Rory Gilmore, everyone at some point or another has engaged in some kind of emotional eating. And surprise—it’s not necessarily a bad thing. The term “emotional eating” has pretty negative connotations. It is usually used to refer to when people crave and eat foods as a direct response to negative emotions, like stress or sadness. That’s not quite accurate; according to Paige Smathers, RDN, CN, it is “eating for reasons other than hunger, such as using food to cope, numb, or deal with a difficult emotion, thought, or feeling.” Many healthy eating experts recommend learning to overcome or avoid emotionally driven eating patterns, especially since most people gravitate towards unhealthier foods during these times. Some researchers have found that emotional eating can become a crutch to avoid or suppress negative thoughts and emotions. Others have proposed that it may be indicative of poor interoceptive awareness, a confusion of hunger and satiety cues with the physiological symptoms associated with emotions. However, some experts say that emotional eating can have a valid place in anyone’s life. “I believe that it is normal to engage in emotional eating,” says Smathers. In some cases it can be effective in the moment—a recent small study found that eating snacks improved mood in people experiencing negative emotions, specifically food that was considered “tasty.” (However,