March 13, 2020 at 07:00PM by CWC I’m not sure what genius dreamed up the brilliant idea that we should all sit at our desks for one-third of each day to get paid, but that’s the world where most of us live. The resulting tightness from text neck and rolly chair hips means we need to unwind in more ways than one right after work—and that’s where stretches for relaxing really come in. Chalk it up to the recovery revolution, but now many have learned the benefits of taking time to flop down on your living room and move through a quick yoga sequence. It’s like hitting the restart button on your day—even as the sun sets. Don’t believe me? Try it for yourself. Here are 2 videos full of relaxing stretches to do after work [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-_d5hkoIj8] Post-work Flow 1: yoga for flexibility Reclined hand-to-toe: Start lying down with your strap in hand. Bring one leg out straight in front of you, and extended the other straight up, catching it with the yoga strap and pulling it towards your head. Flex your feet so that they’re perpendicular to the mat. Send your foot out to the side until you feel your hips start to lift. Then twist your air-extended leg over the one that’s flat to feel the stretch in the outer leg. Switch legs and repeat on your opposite side. Cat-cow: Move into tabletop pose. Alternate between cat pose and cow pose. Push against the ground to pull the
Category: Your Healthiest Relationship
This is how your go-to gyms and studios are changing operations during the Covid-19 pandemic
March 13, 2020 at 06:39PM by CWC With rising concerns surrounding Covid-19, fitness studios are doing their part to prevent the community spread of the disease. On March 4, we urged brick and mortars to loosen their cancellation fees to encourage sick people to stay home and keep those in attendance safe from the virus. To their credit, many of them have heeded the call—and then some. Now, brick-and-mortars are taking things one step further and changing their policies, with many of them altering the formats of their classes and some temporarily closing their doors. “The gym is up there in terms of places where you would have the highest risk for the spread of the Coronavirus—it’s not number one, but it’s definitely in the top five,” says Jason Tetro, microbiologist and author of The Germ Files. He points to people breathing hard, in close proximity to one another, as the main reason behind it. According to the CDC, Covid-19 is mainly spread from person-to-person, “between people who are in close contact (within about six feet) of one another, through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes.” These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people nearby, or possibly be inhaled into their lungs. It may also be possible that the disease is spread when someone touches a surface with the virus on it and then touches their mouth or nose, which means you might be able to pick it up from an infected mat or piece
Women’s health has never been a focus in sports, Mary Cain wants to change that
March 13, 2020 at 06:00PM by CWC “By second grade, I was the fastest in my class. By third grade, I was the fastest in the grade. From there, it was just onwards and upwards,” says Mary Cain, 1500-meter finalist in the 2013 World Championships, three-time world junior champion, and one of Well+Good’s 2020 Changemakers. Last year, in a New York Times opinion piece, Cain spoke out against the harmful coaching practices used by Alberto Salazar, her trainer at Nike’s Oregon Project. At the end of her time there in 2016, she left the program, no longer one of the fastest runners in America, but dangerously thin, injured, and longing to fall back in love with the sport she once loved. Now, Cain says she’s determined to reinvent the world of women’s sports so that the pursuit of being the fastest doesn’t come at the high price of compromised mental and physical health. “The reason my story really blew up is because it wasn’t just my story,” says Cain. “It was something that a woman in her 40s could understand. It was a story that a 12-year-old girl could understand.” It’s true: In the wake of Cain going public in the Times piece, athletes at every level have responded with a resounding: Me, too. Olympians Amy Begley and Kara Goucher shared similar stories on social media, and Cain says that high school and college track athletes have flooded her inbox with accounts mirroring her struggles with amenorrhea, RED-S: missed periods and
There are actually 4 types of introverts, and each has its own social strength
March 13, 2020 at 05:00PM by CWC Here’s a fun fact to pepper in at your next dinner party: Not all introverts are the same. Sure, we may share similarities, like feeling drained by social events and parties, but given that there are actually four specific types of introverts, we clearly have our own differences, as well. Generally what sets us apart are the guiding reasons for what makes us introverted in the first place. We came to understand those reasons better as a result of the STAR model of introversion that psychologist and researcher Jonathan Cheek, PhD, developed in 2011 to explain the four introversion subgroups: social introversion, thinking introversion, anxious introversion, and restrained introversion. Each archetype is separated by varying motivations, pitfalls, and ability to thrive in social situations. Below, get a better understanding about what separates each of the four types of introverts. 1. Social introvert The thought of a social introvert conjures someone who is really big on embracing JOMO as a lifestyle choice. This person isn’t necessarily shy, per se, they just prioritize alone time or streamlined social interactions. Social introverts tend to enjoy intimate gatherings above raging parties and one-on-one coffee catchups to bottomless brunches with a huge group. “Social introverts prefer a small group setting and alone time. This can be a strength, as the well-grounded social introvert is often a quiet ‘rock’ in gatherings.” —psychologist Carla Marie Manly, PhD “The social introvert tends to prefer a small group setting and alone time,”
The top 3 myths about immunity that doctors want you to stop believing ASAP
March 13, 2020 at 04:00PM by CWC Having a healthy immune system ready to fight off any nasty germs that come in its path is a top concern for people now more than ever. We are living in a world where washing your hands is being talked about even more than that wild The Bachelor finale. (Still can’t get over Hannah Ann tearing Peter apart, TBH.) With immunity on everyone’s minds—and social feeds—doctors are being confronted with lots of questions from their patients about how to boost their immune system, and have encountered many misconceptions in the process. First, a little PSA: When it comes to anything health-related, it’s essential to get your facts from trusted medical experts, not from randos on your Instagram feed. To help set the record straight, Arielle Levitan, MD, the co-founder of Vous Vitamin and author of The Vitamin Solution, and Erika Schwartz, MD, the founder of integrative medicine practice Evolved Science, correct the common misconceptions about immunity they hear on a regular basis. 3 immune system facts and myths everyone should know Myth 1: If I don’t get regular vaccines Like as the flu shot, I will build natural immunity Despite being backed by decades of very solid science, vaccines have become…controversial. Many people who avoid vaccines claim that they can naturally build their immunity on their own. But that strategy comes with a fair share of risks. “If you don’t take vaccines, you will build immunity but only by getting sick—and in certain cases,
This simple kale salad will actually fill you up—and takes just 20 minutes to make
March 13, 2020 at 03:30PM by CWC [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvGEkr2XEs] Tossing a bag of greens in your cart is an automatic part of your weekly grocery shop. Another mainstay of your meal-prep routine? Throwing away that same bag of greens after letting it sit untouched in the bottom of your fridge all week. In the spirit of Kroger’s Zero Hunger Zero Waste initiative (and to help you clean out your refrigerator before letting your produce go to waste), senior food and health editor Jessie Van Amburg teamed up with cookbook author and recipe developer Rachel Mansfield on the latest episode of Cook with Us to show you how to turn your neglected greens into a filling, nutritious, and delicious meal. Van Amburg challenges Mansfield to make a healthy, vegetarian dinner in 30 minutes or less using three ingredients you’ve likely had left over before: sprouted grain bread, kale, and tahini. This salad proves that you can still make a healthy dinner even when your fridge is nearly bare. Proving that you can still make a healthy dinner even when your fridge is nearly bare (sorry, takeout), Mansfield pulls together a recipe from her cookbook Just the Good Stuff using the challenge ingredients, all of which you can get from Kroger. “I love when a store is stocked up with all of the goods I need to fuel my family and myself,” Mansfield says. “Kroger has so many healthy and organic options to keep on hand at such affordable prices.” And with
Meet the tantric exercise that boosts intimacy in 30 seconds flat, according to an intimacy expert
March 13, 2020 at 03:00PM by CWC A decade ago in 2010, performance artist Marina Abramović dazzled the public with her MoMA retrospective, The Artist is Present. For 736 hours total, Abramović invited any and all human beings to stare into her eyes for as long as they so desired. And, as awkward as it sounds, the practice led to some majorly intimate moments (think: people literally bursting into tears). Abramović isn’t the only one who knows just how powerful eye gazing can be; somatic psychologist and certified sex therapist Holly Richmond, LMFT, recommends it to every single couple who walks through her door for its intimacy-boosting potential. I first learned about this at a recent mindful sex workshop hosted by pleasure brand Dame, where Richmond asked a room full of strangers (myself included) to eye gaze—not in the name of performance art, but as a tantric practice in intimacy. “I have my couples clients do this all the time when they’ve just been disconnected, they’re not having sex, or they’re fighting all the time,” Richmond says. “Do this before you have sex and even after you have sex. Really, what comes up can be profound. You might laugh, you might have gas, your stomach might flip.” “”I have my couples clients practice eye gazing all the time when they’ve just been disconnected, they’re not having sex, or they’re fighting all the time.” —Holly Richmond, LMFT, sex therapist But since this was a mindful sex workshop, though, so it focused on
SoulCycle is my favorite workout class—here are my honest thoughts on the new at-home bike
March 13, 2020 at 02:00PM by CWC I will never forget my first SoulCycle class. I was 22, in the midst of my first “adult” breakup, and I let my friends convince me that spending $36 to cry on a bike would make me feel better. They were right. Riding in a dark, grapefruit-scented studio, alongside 60 other people was the closest thing I’d ever had to a religious experience. Not only did it make me feel better for the first time in weeks, it also helped me to fall in love with exercise for the first time in my entire life. The cycling studio—which launched as a single brick-and-mortar in New York in 2005 and now has 93 locations across the U.S., UK, and Canada—built its brand on sweat as a sanctuary. And this week, the brand announced its first-ever, at-home bike linked to on-demand classes. The only question that remains: Does at-home spin have the same soul? As of today, the bike, with a $2500 price tag, will be available for pre-order in select cities: Austin, Dallas, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago. In addition to the bike, SoulCycle’s parent company, Equinox, will also be launching its first foray into digital fitness through an app called Variis. The additional $40-per-month app—which includes content from a number of Equinox-owned brands—gives users access to on-demand SoulCycle classes through their phone, tablet, or a built-in screen on their shiny new at-home bike. In addition to SoulCycle, Variis also has running
How to make a week’s worth of gluten-free meals using 2 protein-packed staples
March 13, 2020 at 01:00PM by CWC Meal prepping is the not-so-secret hack for making eating healthy during busy weekdays a cinch, but it’s a lot easier said than done—even with the best intentions and a Pinterest board full of ideas. Enter Prep School, Well+Good’s new series that makes meal prep simple. Each month, we’ll focus on a different eating style, with four weeks of different delicious plans to try at home. This month, we’re all about gluten-free meal prep; this week, we’re sharing a guide to making high-protein, gluten-free meals. When Sally O’Neil, aka The Fit Foodie, sat down to write The Fit Foodie Meal Prep Plan, she had two rules for herself: One, that it could be a go-to resource for busy women without much wiggle room in their schedules, and two, it wouldn’t preach any BS diet plans that made mealtime feel more like a hurdle to overcome than a time of joy and nourishment. Mission accomplished. The book is a practical guide, giving thought-out plans and ideas for healthy staples that can be used in a whole slew of different ways, keeping meals from getting repetitive or boring. The key, according to O’Neil, is prepping a couple versatile proteins that are ready-to-eat all week—and planning out what you’re going to pair them with. This not only eliminates the stress of figuring out what to eat, it also reduces food waste because you’re being purposeful about the foods you’re prepping. Here, O’Neil shares recipes to two flavorful proteins, as well as
Does living like a rom-com lead guarantee happily ever after? I tried it to find out
March 13, 2020 at 12:00PM by CWC After watching the highly-anticipated second installment of Netflix’s To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (TATBILB), cheekily entitled P.S. I Still Love You, I started thinking about what makes romantic comedies the satisfying viewing equivalent of biting into a piece of 10-layer chocolate cake. They’re full of predictable tropes like implausible meet-cutes and guaranteed happily ever afters, but they somehow always make you ravenous for more and more bites of the same. And after watching that movie’s bookish protagonist Lara Jean Covey once again find herself in the arms of high-school heartthrob Peter Kavinsky, I started to brainstorm ways to bring that movie magic to my IRL love life. Because I, much like Lara Jean, love love and refuse to believe that it’s “nothing like how it’s portrayed in the movies.” Thus began my off-screen romantic comedy dating experience, led by lawyer-turned-relationship-therapist Rachel DeAlto, JD. DeAlto sent me a list of five rom-com assignments to complete throughout the week (think: sprinkling rose petals on the bed) so I could see just how romantic I felt both toward myself and my boyfriend. Would the clichés of this romantic comedy dating style stand their ground under the harsh lights of reality? I tried it for a week to see what happened. Here’s what happened the week I tried romantic comedy dating to manifest a happily ever after. Task 1: Create a lovesick soundtrack for my life The TATBILB sequel really (and I mean really) leans