May 08, 2019 at 02:35PM by CWC When I went into Pilates pro Erika Bloom‘s studio on New York City’s Upper East Side, she had me stand up so she could scan my body before we got started. Immediately, she pointed out that I lean into my right hip and also rely too much on my right quadriceps. AKA: My body’s uneven. It’s not uncommon for a body to be unbalanced or off centered. Actually, that’s why one side of your body feels stronger than other in certain classes like yoga or Pilates. “Most of us develop imbalances a we move through life,” Bloom tells me. “This can come from our environments, how we respond to stress, or from injury, imbalanced workouts, activities, or a plethora of other factors.” Now, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing: Bloom notes that the goal isn’t to be perfect—but balance is just a good thing to work on, so that you can “move with efficiency and ease,” she says. On another side of the coin though, one consequence of having one stronger side or being off-balance is that it can affect your posture, and as a result of that, potentially could lead to musculoskeletal issues. This all goes to say that paying attention to your midline in workouts is key to keep the strength on both sides of your body balanced. The importance of finding balance in your body “When our bodies are balanced there’s a healthy relationship between stability and mobility,” says Bloom. “Symmetrical
Category: Yoga
The “Big Three” exercises you need to kiss lower back pain goodbye
May 08, 2019 at 10:06AM by CWC Once I’ve been sitting at my desk without moving for, oh, about five hours, my back starts to feel like it’s made of lead rather than bones, nerves, ligaments, and muscles. As every 9-5er knows, standing up, cracking your back, and performing some ’80s-style aerobic exercises for lower back pain all offer some temporary relief. But what you do at the gym matters, too, according to Stuart McGill, PhD, professor emeritus of spine biomechanics at the University of Waterloo in Ontario. Years of research have led Dr. McGill to recommend the “big three” set of exercises for lower back pain (a trifecta, if you will) designed to stabilize the spine both during and after a workout. “True spine stability is achieved with a ‘balanced’ stiffening from the entire musculature, including the rectus abdominis and the abdominal wall, quadratus lumborum, latissimus dorsi and the back extensors of longissimus, iliocostalis and multifidus,” he tells Ace Fitness. As complicated as the physiology behind the moves may be, these exercises for lower back pain are probably already familiar to you. It’s easy to learn the three moves that form the backbone of maintaining a healthy spine. Kiss back pain goodbye with the “Big Three” exercises for lower back pain View this post on Instagram For those of you who get back pain provoked by sitting here is a couple videos from Dr.McGill himself.. the modified McGill curl up and planks from the Big 3. #backfitpro
I never thought I’d say this but…I’m swapping all my black leggings for candy-hued bike shorts this spring
May 08, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC I’m not super into trends. This whole high-fashion flip flop thing or platform sneakers? Uh uh. And when it comes to my workout clothes, especially, I like to keep it classic and classy—which for me means black leggings. I love a basic, high-waisted version; the most ambitious I normally get is mesh accents. So, color me surprised that I’ve fallen head over heels for an athleisure trend blooming this spring: pastel bike shorts. Bike shorts are already a polarizing trend. And somehow, I managed to skip right over wearing black ones—logically, the way to ease into the lewk—straight to pale blues, hot pinks, heathered grays, and light greens. My workout drawer looks like it went from Reputation-era Taylor Swift to TS7. Maybe I’m going through a period of reimagining, and my new aesthetic is part Hailey Bieber, part Princess Diana, with a dash of Cher from Clueless doing a Buns of Steel workout video with a flannel tied around her waist. How did I become this person? Is a softer, less jaded Allie emerging? Is it because there’s something freeing about wearing a trend that I know I should dislike, given my track record? The heart wants what it wants, and right now I want Crayola-hued bike shorts. Interest piqued, but not sure you want to go full Lady Di? “Start playing with different lengths to see what you’re most comfortable in,” says Ty Haney, founder and CEO of Outdoor Voices, which sells bike shorts
The super sneaky ways that working out can bring on bloating
May 07, 2019 at 11:48AM by CWC After a particularly grueling workout, I usually expect to feel strong and ready to take on the world. But every once in a while, I’ll hop off the mat and instead of feeling ready to go, I sort of feel like I need to take a beat, because I’m little bloated. And I’ve gotta ask: WTF? Can exercise result in bloating? In a word: yes. However, some modalities are more apt to leave you feeling meh than others. “While most styles of workouts can help us reduce our bloating, there are few types that can cause bloating—the biggest culprit is HIIT,” says Ally McKinney, Gold’s Gym certified personal trainer. “As we build in intensity, our breathing can become very forceful. In these moments we can actually fill our stomach, along with our lungs, full of air. Once air gets trapped in our stomachs, it will be retained for some time and cause that post workout bloat.” Another reason why your HIIT workouts could be leading to bloating is because of the stress they cause to your body. “When we reach a new level or try a more stressful workout our body will respond by releasing cortisol, and cortisol loves to disrupt our digestive functioning and can cause bloating,” says McKinney. Take a look at what you’re eating More than what you’re doing on the mat, however, what you choose to fuel yourself with ahead of time can also make a difference. “Are you eating
If my brows and I were stranded on a desert island, this is the only product we’d take
May 07, 2019 at 10:16AM by CWC My eyebrow has a cowlick. Yes, that’s a thing, and no, there is literally nothing I can do about it. It’s on the inner corner of my left brow, and is a smattering of sparse, rogue hairs that stick straight up instead of going in the same direction as all of its other colleagues. It’s been there for my entire life, and while I’ve more or less gotten used to it, it still makes me a little miffed whenever I look in the mirror. I’ve tried trimming it, partially tweezing it, and the next-level extreme of waxing it completely off, until finally I reached the fifth and final stage of grief and just learned to accept it. C’est la vie, amiright? Shortly after I’d resigned myself to my slightly wonky-looking fate, celebrity eyebrow artist Joey Healy introduced me to his namesake Brow Lacquer ($28), and the game was changed forever. Healy has worked on the brows of A-listers like Hilaria Baldwin and Vanessa Hudgens (and, on two of the best days of my life, Z-lister me), and has his own line of products to keep their (and everyone else’s) brows on fleek between appointments. I like to refer to the lacquer as my “triple-threat” brow product, because with one swipe it does all of the things that I normally need three different products to use. It slicks my rogue cowlick hairs in the right direction while defining each hair, and actually holds them
What’s in a work bag? A lot of things, including a message about your personality
May 07, 2019 at 08:07AM by CWC The modern woman has spoken, and she really can’t be weighed down any longer by the accumulation of S’well bottles, journals, or a packed lunch. In what’s perhaps the most functional throwback trend ever, backpacks are officially…back. According to market-research firm NPD, sales for the posture-improving carryall have shot up 28 percent this year, with proponents citing comfort as a main impetus (in conjunction with the rise in ubiquity of sneakers, athleisure, and the general pilgrimage toward self care). Of course, not everyone is ready to re-embrace the trend, back-to-school-style. I, for one, still come into the office every morning with a raw-red shoulder indent. Hey, old habits die hard, and I tend to live and breathe symbols of hyperfemininity, even when they’re problematic—like a classic shoulder bag that might as well be full of heavy stones, weighing me down and keeping me from reaching any ceilings including glass ones. (I know, I know, backpack offerings have expanded since the days of those monogrammed L.L. Bean numbers—and if anyone wants to gift me a sleek Gucci model, I’ll wear it. Until then, let me and my sore shoulder live.) But I digress. Amid this transitional period of the backpack renaissance, I looked around my own office and saw a veritable buffet of carryall options. On the continuum between my old-guard staple and styles so minimalist they could make Marie Kondo break out in song and dance, I quickly realized how many varieties exist. So,
How belly breathing can help you activate untapped energy in your workout
May 07, 2019 at 06:00AM by CWC I was in a Pilates class the other day when my instructor suddenly stopped me and said: “You need to be breathing out of your diaphragm.” It’s something I’ve been told to do before in yoga or meditation classes, but have never quite been able to nail it. As all the pros say, though, diaphragmatic breathing can be incredibly helpful. It differs from shallow or thoracic breathing because it’s all about drawing inhales through your nose and all the way down the stomach. As a result, it has a deeper effect. “When the diaphragm contracts and moves lower, the chest cavity enlarges, reducing the pressure inside the lungs,” says Payel Gupta, MD, a New York City-based allergist and immunologist. “It allows us to inhale and take a deeper breath in. When we take a deep breath, we use our diaphragm even more, and the diaphragm moves down further and allows more room for the lungs to expand and for more air to enter into our lungs.” As a result of breathing more conscientiously and deeply, more oxygen begins flowing throughout your body. Because of this newfound air flow and slowing down of the breath, it has a soothing effect on your nerves. “There’s some thought that deep breathing is a way of interrupting the fight-or-flight response and triggering the body’s normal relaxation response,” says Dr. Gupta—hence why she points out that it’s particularly recommended and useful during a yoga practice, meditation, or simply when
Restless legs keeping you up at night? These home remedies may help bring some relief
May 06, 2019 at 04:00PM by CWC “Restless legs” may sound like a clever name for a running group, but it’s actually a real medical condition that’s anything but cute. It’s marked by tingling, aching, or creepy crawly sensations in the legs (and sometimes arms), and as if that weren’t bad enough, there’s not always a reliable treatment. “Restless legs syndrome is a condition that causes an uncontrollable urge to move your legs, usually because of an uncomfortable sensation. Moving eases the unpleasant feeling temporarily,” explains Christopher Cooke, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist at the Detroit Medical Center. “It typically happens in the evening or nighttime hours when you’re sitting or lying down, therefore making it difficult to sleep.” He says restless legs sufferers (who are more often women than men) also commonly experience fatigue, depression, and irritability because of the sleep loss they experience from RLS. Are there any home remedies for restless legs? Here’s the thing: Doctors don’t know exactly what brings on restless legs, although genetics may play a role. Dr. Cooke says the condition is more common among people with low iron levels, as well as conditions like kidney failure, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes mellitus, and rheumatoid arthritis. It can also crop up during pregnancy, or with the use of some prescription drugs, like antidepressants and antihistamines. The various (and mostly unknown) causes makes restless legs syndrome difficult to treat. If it’s triggered by a specific situation like the ones listed above, symptoms may
The sneaky tweak that immediately makes your booty workout way more effective
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
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.