September 05, 2019 at 12:01PM by CWC If you thought you knew what the perfect sit-up looked like, you’re probably wrong—at least according to the military. The general technique for the U.S. Army sit-up standards are familiar—knees bent, feet on the floor, and a continual up-and-down motion—but a few adjustments make this the move of a soldier. The U.S. Army sit-up is slightly different in that with the military-approved technique the only part of your foot in contact with the ground is your heels and your feet should be 12 inches apart. The standards also require a very specific position body position at the top of the sit-up—or it doesn’t count. The changes might seem small, but once you perform the exercise like a soldier, the difference is very clear. How to perform proper U.S. Army sit-ups Lie down with your legs bent at a 90-degree angle and only your heels touching the floor. Keep your feet 12 inches apart. Lock your fingers behind your head and keep your elbows down. Raise your body up into a sit-up, hovering your elbows above your knees. Don’t allow them to touch. Make sure the base of your neck passes the base of your spine. Lower back down until the bottom of your shoulder blades touch the ground. Keeping your form—and without cheating!—see how many sit-ups you can perform in two minutes. To meet U.S. Army sit-up standards, you must score at least 50 points (as part of the Army Physical Fitness Test
Category: You and your body
Well+Good readers have spoken—these 10 books are total page-turners
September 05, 2019 at 03:00AM by CWC The literary community has a soft spot for summer reading. But me? I find myself so much more smitten with books come autumn. Leggings, chunky sweaters, and really good words just go together—you know? That’s why, now that we’ve crossed over Labor Day and are careening towards autumn, it’s high-time to refresh your TBR (that’s “to be read”) pile. When we asked Well+Good readers far and wide to name the titles they treasured the most in the dog days, they’re picks were straight-up golden. Whether you’re in the mood for a 200-page-long spiritual journey, fiction you can fall right into, or s(h)elf help, they have you covered. Below, find book recommendations that pair perfectly with any and every fall drink. 10 best book recommendations from Well+Good readers All Graphics: Well+Good Creative 1. Mastering Your Mean Girl by Melissa Ambrosini This book is all about learning to how to say quiet to your inner-critic, so if you’re ready to renovate the less positive parts of your mind, this is a must-read. 2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes “I have never loved a character more than I loved Charly Gordon,” read an Amazon review. Now, if that’s not a ringing endorsement, I don’t know what is. 3. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, MD I, too, love this book. It offers a scientific look at trauma that’s neither daunting nor superficial, and reading it taught me so much I didn’t know
Impulse shopping is a mind game you’ll never lose again thanks to these tricks
September 05, 2019 at 01:00AM by CWC It’s a Saturday afternoon and you stop by Target or Costco or some other chain for a few necessary household items, like shampoo, batteries, tissues, laundry detergent, and milk. Inevitably though, you wind up leaving with additional items in your bags that you didn’t intend on buying…like a decorative wall clock, chewing gum, and the entire box set of Frasier. (There’s also a pretty good chance in the midst of all this, you forgot the milk.) Puzzled as you may be as to why this impulse shopping happens…all the time, rest assured that you’re hardly the only victim. What’s come to be colloquially referred to as the “Target Effect” references the phenomenon of retail stores tapping into our psyches, compelling us to buy more than what we actually need. But how, exactly, do retailers pull this off and, way more importantly, how can we, as consumers, avoid the pitfalls of impulse shopping? Below, experts in fields of consumer habits and marketing share their secrets so we can be aware of them and become more mindful shoppers, owners, and people. What causes impulse shopping? There are two main factors that lead a person to fall victim to impulse shopping, says Yanliu Huang, PhD, an associate professor of marketing at Drexel University. The first encompasses situational factors, like a shopper’s time and money (the more time and higher budget a person has, the more likely they are to purchase impulsively), and second includes customer characteristics,
Why you should stick with a skin-care routine for at least 28 days
September 05, 2019 at 12:12AM by CWC We live our lives on a 24-hour cycle. It’s some iteration of wake up, work out, go to work, eat, shower, and then repeat—with a glass of wine or a green juice thrown in every once in a while for good measure. But while our brains and bodies can rest, recover, and revive over the course of that short stint, our skin needs a whole lot more time to undergo the same process. Like 28 of those 24 hour-cycles, to be precise. An adult’s skin regenerates itself over the course of four weeks (sometimes longer), a process that involves a new skin cells forming beneath the surface to replace a matured one, which will eventually slough off. “Think about planting a tulip bulb, and you have to wait until it grows and blooms—you plant them and then over the month they come up and bloom and it smells so good, but you can’t really rush the process,” says New York City dermatologist Ellen Marmur, MD. “The way the skin is made, it has a basement membrane that is like a layer, but it’s where everything comes from, so all the cells called keratinocytes—the skin cells—all come from this basement membrane, and then they grow. As they’re growing, they’re changing and maturing and developing. So they go from babies to toddlers to adolescents to adults, and then at the very top of the skin, they’re as mature and strong as they can possibly be.”
You can buy every fall wardrobe essential you could possibly want on Amazon, and we’ve got the proof right here
September 05, 2019 at 12:00AM by CWC Before you start jumping on the trends of the season (hiya, fall!), it’s important to make sure you’ve got a solid fashion foundation to build on. Not only will it help give your wardrobe longevity—because, let’s be honest, nothing says “forever” like a good leather jacket—but it will also give you few go-tos that will make getting dressed a far easier endeavor… especially on those late-in-the-year mornings when you need to do so before the sun is fully up. What’s more, while you might add or subtract layers as seasons come and go, the essentials are totally season-less and can be worn with ease all 365 days of the year. While building your ultimate wardrobe from the ground-up might seem like a daunting task, we are happy to report that you can one-stop-shop everything on your must-have personal style list on Amazon. The company has upped its game on shoes, apparel, and accessories of late and—might we add—it shows. Not to mention that most of the items below can be ordered through Amazon Prime, which means that you could have a little black dress on your doorstep practically as fast as your take-out sushi order. Below, find your eight ultimate wardrobe essentials, and the pieces of each we’re currently snatching up on Amazon. Leather Jacket Buy Now Mackage Baya Leather Jacket $950 Buy Now Cupcakes and Cashmere Vivica Vegan Leather Moto Jacket $118 Buy Now BlankNYC Moto Jacket, $113 A leather jacket is
Self care is a lifeline for many women—but it’s not enough
September 04, 2019 at 11:17PM by CWC Take a five-minute scroll through your Instagram feed, and you’re bound to find snapshots of women’s toes peeking out from their bathwater, selfies modeling their latest face mask purchase, or a mini-altar decked out with enchanted crystals, candles, and incense—each image stamped with the #selfcare hashtag that’s been used over 18 million times and counting. The term “self care,” defined as taking care of one’s own health and needs, hit a five-year high of Google search interest in November 2016 after the presidential election, and has been steadily climbing ever since. (At Well+Good, we’ve been talking about it since at least 2016.) But the phenomenon has roots in something bigger than just one election. “Our current culture is so focused on productivity that we over-schedule ourselves from the morning till the night,” explains Jessie Borelli, PhD, associate professor of psychological sciences at the University of California, Irvine. “If left to our own devices, we probably won’t just naturally build opportunities for enjoyment or pleasure into our daily lives.” So we create self care moments and calendar appointments to force us to do these necessary actions. “Emotional self care is key in my psychotherapy practice—acknowledging, labeling, and experiencing emotions is a big component to self care,” explains Julie de Azevedo Hanks, PhD, LCSW, therapist and author of The Burnout Cure and The Assertiveness Guide for Women. “It’s simply taking care of and attending to the different aspects of life—social, emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual,” she
How to find your workout equivalent of a cup of coffee
September 04, 2019 at 11:03PM by CWC Hitting the gym before work usually makes me feel like the Energizer Bunny. By 9 a.m., I’ve had two cups of coffee, covered 6 miles of terrain, and feel ready to tackle my to-do list and clear my inbox. Every so often, though, my extracurricular sweat activities leave me more drained than invigorated. Jonathan Leary, PhD, an expert in exercise science and founder of Remedy Place, says there’s a simple explanation. My energy-boosting fitness strategy could use a little fine tuning—and he told me exactly how to do it. “When we talk about exercising for energy, we are focused on introducing strain to the body with muscle activation, which gives us an increased heart rate, and enables the body to release endorphins,” says Dr. Leary. “Endorphins are those feel good hormones that are released as a result of exercise and important components for an energizing workout. They are responsible for keeping you awake and also contribute to positive changes in your mental health.” His simple formula for channeling your inner-Tigger is simple: increased blood flow + endorphin circulation = energy. Increased Blood Flow + Endorphin Circulation = Energy Now that you know the basic principal of fitness that makes you want to go, go, go, here’s what the formula looks like in practice. Dr. Leary says you want to look for workouts “that are going to keep your heart rate up for an extended period of time.” This includes circuit training (with non-stop
With the rise of digital fitness, gyms need to be built differently
September 04, 2019 at 10:12PM by CWC Hot take: the way we use gyms is changing, which means gyms themselves need to change with us. Thanks to the rise of digital fitness, gyms have become a playground, rather than a maze. With coaches in our pockets and on our wrists, we can work out anywhere, anytime, with nothing more than a mat and our bodyweight. We no longer need to schlep to the big-box down the street to get our sweat on—hey, we don’t even need to leave our living rooms or put on pants. So, as physical spaces become less of a necessity, how can those who run them adjust so that they don’t become obsolete? “I think they should build their gyms to look different,” says Brynn Putnam, founder of Mirror Home Gym System. “The era of consumers prioritizing the newest treadmills and the nicest showers is over. Now, they’re prioritizing smart content and great instruction, so resources should be allocated appropriately.” Traditionally, these have been the things that have drawn gym-goers to want to pay a monthly membership to a gym, but now that demand is shifting. “The rise of digital fitness has shown that the consumer is hungry for better quality content and instruction, and they’re willing to pay a premium for it more-so than high-end amenities.” Putnam says she first noticed this when she was building Refine Method, a barre studio in New York City that offered minimum amenities, but poured its resources into instruction.
Put those mushy bananas on your counter to good use with this vegan banana bread recipe
September 04, 2019 at 09:45PM by CWC Here’s my one problem with bananas: Even though I love the idea of grabbing a banana as a snack, it’s nearly impossible for me to use up a whole bunch before they go bad. They just sit on the kitchen counter until they’re completely brown. Thankfully, that’s why we have banana bread. Now, even though bananas themselves are healthy as all hell—Potassium! Fiber! Healthy carbs!—traditional banana breads are, mm, less-than-great. They’re usually made with lots of butter and refined sugar and skew a little far from vegan (see: BUTTER). Luckily, chefs Jenny Dorsey and Mia Rigden created a gluten-, grain-, and refined sugar-free version of the classic treat in a recent episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series Alt-Baking Bootcamp. Gaze upon the OG healthy rendition below, but what final tweak would make for some delightful vegan banana bread? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzRLZdwygNQ] “You should be able to make the banana bread vegan by substituting flax eggs and coconut oil,” Dorsey tells me. Only two changes? Seems do-able. At this moment in history I will be shocked if you don’t have a vat of coconut oil in your pantry; you’ll only need two teaspoons here to substitute the butter or ghee. As for the flax eggs (which helps baked goods bind together like a regular egg), Rigden shares that you can make one by combining one tablespoon ground flax seeds with three tablespoons of warm water, then letting it sit for 15 minutes. For a recipe that
This flawless $44 vibrator promises the most intense orgasm of your life in less than a minute
September 04, 2019 at 08:43PM by CWC The French refer to loss of consciousness during an orgasm as la petite mort, or “the little death.” I wonder what chic name they’d have for the Tracy’s Dog Clitoral Sucking Vibrator ($44), which if Amazon reviews are to be believed, is a veritable Grim Reaper. The five-star accolades make no shortage of references to being beamed up to heaven, possessed by “72 demons from The Lesser Key of Solomon,” exorcised of said demons, or simply “dead.” “This time, my soul left me, and god himself said, ‘Child, it is not your time,’” writes a reviewer of her orgasm. “Mind you, agnostic.” Another woman who claims to have died, been resurrected, and then died again was hit so hard by her orgasm she practically saw stars. “Trust me,” she writes. “Best believe you will never see me frown ever again. My life has completely changed. Have a blessed day.” “It literally felt like a demon was coming out of me,” writes yet another satisfied owner of a Tracy’s Dog Vibrator. “My orgasm was AT LEAST 30 seconds longer than usual and my skin is clear, my eyesight is cured and my anxiety has dissipated.” (The orgasm glow is real, by the way.) So, it’s damn good is my read. Also, back it up, Clitoral Sucking Vibrator? Okay, I’m like, super vanilla when it comes to sex toys. I get a Silver Bullet in an industry party gift bag every three years, and that’s,