Diabetes affects more than 12 million people and is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. With diabetes primarily affecting the small blood vessels, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been demonstrated to stimulate angiogenesis to help ameliorate compromised blood flow and prevent organ failure. Research has shown that HBOT can lower blood sugar levels by increasing cellular sensitivity to insulin and skeletal muscle reception of glucose. Furthermore, recent reports have provided evidence towards linking HBOT to regenerating pancreatic islets of Langerhans, thus potentially producing more insulin. HBOT is often beneficial in treating osteomyelitis and cellulitis, in addition to preventing systemic toxicity and permanent disability. With chronic diabetes, impaired circulation reduces wound healing capability and promotes ulcerations. HBOT increases the amount of oxygen available to ulcerated areas, leading to increased fibroblast activation.
Studies have demonstrated the benefits of HBOT for diabetes with the following:
Advance Glycemic Control: increases pancreatic islets of Langerhans, improves insulin sensitivity, increases skeletal muscle reception of glucose
Decrease Cardiovascular Risk: promotes long-term blood pressure control, attenuates metabolic syndrome, reduces risk of sudden heart attack due to ventricular arrhythmias
Stimulate Angiogenesis & Reduce Inflammation: improves brain function & reduces risk of stroke, enhances heart function & reduces risk of heart attack, reduces risk of diabetic retinopathy, decreases risk of diabetic neuropathy, minimizes risk of diabetic nephropathy, combats cellulitis
Enhance Internal/External Healing: proliferates epithelialization, promotes closure of non-healing wounds, decreases risk of infection, ameliorates ulcerations, reduces risk of amputation, remediates osteomyelitis
Study: Amputation Rate Decreased with HBOT
A study published in 2008 evaluated the efficacy of HBOT with respect to decreasing amputation rates for patients with diabetic foot ulcer. A total of 184 consecutive patients received an average of 39 HBOT sessions (60 to 120 minutes a day, six times a week with patients’ progress evaluated at 3, 6 & 12 months) as an adjunct to standard treatment modalities for diabetic foot ulcer. Following treatment, 115 (62 percent) were completely healed, 31 (17 percent) showed no improvement and 38 (21 percent) underwent amputation. HBOT’s success was illustrated by the attenuation to hypoxic tissue by the mechanisms of angiogenesis, fibroblast replication, collagen synthesis, revascularization, epithelialization and increased leukocyte bactericidal activity. This study confirmed that HBOT can help to reduce major amputation rates in diabetic foot ulcers by repairing tissue.
This finding is especially noteworthy considering other conventional treatments had failed.
OXYGEN THERAPY SHOWS PROMISE AGAINST A VARIETY OF AILMENTS
By Dr. Patrick Massey for the Daily Herald
A number of years ago, it was believed that doing surgery in large pressure chambers (hyperbaric chambers) would improve outcomes. To that end, some medical centers began to do surgery in hyperbaric chambers.
Hyperbaric chambers were very expensive and the overall results were not positive enough to justify the expense of doing surgery in them. As a result, over the next 30 years, hyperbaric chambers were rarely used.
However, advances in technology have lowered the cost of hyperbaric chambers to the point where physicians and medical centers are using them again.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is done inside a hyperbaric chamber. The patient is exposed to 100 percent oxygen at pressures slightly higher than normal in order to supersaturate the tissues with oxygen. First developed in the early 1900s by Orville Cunningham, hyperbaric therapy was not really used until the 1940s to treat deep-sea divers with decompression sickness. In the 1950s and 1960s, it was used during heart and lung surgery. Later, it was found to be beneficial to treat carbon monoxide poisoning and other medical conditions.
Although hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been the subject of controversy because of the lack of well controlled medical studies, there are a number of medical conditions for which there is substantial evidence that it is effective. These include decompression sickness (scuba diving), moderate to severe carbon monoxide poisoning, prevention and treatment of osteoradionecrosis (radiation therapy-induced bone damage), radiation therapy-induced soft-tissue damage, skin graft healing, enhanced healing after plastic surgery and in the treatment of chronic skin ulcers.
There are a number of other medical conditions for which hyperbaric oxygen might be beneficial but good clinical trials are lacking. Among these are autism, stroke, dementia, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, diabetic skin ulcers and even chronic fatigue syndrome. How hyperbaric oxygen helps decompression sickness and carbon monoxide poisoning is clearly defined. However, for most chronic medical conditions, how it works is less clear. It is believed higher oxygenation of the blood and tissues stimulates the growth of new blood vessels and nerves. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy might also reduce swelling and help acute brain and spinal cord injuries. There is some evidence that it might also help lymphedema, swelling and impairment from damage to the lymph system.
The side effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are often mild and reversible. The most common side effects are claustrophobia and a readily reversible change in vision clarity. The only absolute reason to avoid hyperbaric therapy is a collapsed lung.
Compared to cardiovascular training, weight training or strength training for women gets little attention. With new understandings in the importance of strength training for women it’s beginning to garner much needed acknowledgement. More and more women are beginning to understand overall health (and not just a low calorie or low fat diets that don’t work in the long term) from different types of training. Keeping body fat to a minimum and improving fitness health is what strength/weight training is geared for among a few other things, one of which is building muscle mass.
Here are just a few reasons why strength training is vitally important for women:
Prevents osteoporosis
Even a person suffering from osteoporosis can benefit from strength training by increasing bone density. Weight training has been proven to stop the development of osteoporosis.
Better quality of life
Regular strength training allows women to move about their day more easily and effortlessly. Not to mention the calming effect it has on one’s mental health.
Body Strength
The tendons and muscles become incredibly strong giving the body the extra support it needs on a daily basis.
Aids in the anti-aging process
Don’t like sagging skin? (who does) Strength training prevents just that while enhancing your muscle. The aging process is slowed with training.
All strength, no bulk
Often women are concerned that they will begin to bulk up and look like a body builder. Not so with strength training. The body becomes firm and toned, it leans out the muscles.
Energy levels through the roof
With this type of training you are giving your body, body, and brain the necessary nutrients: oxygen, increased blood flow, and heartbeat during your workouts. You will feel more alive and energize and able to reduce stress not only in your body, but in your life too.
If you wish to start strength training speak with a professional trainer or begin reading up on it. And it’s always important before beginning any training to consult a physician regarding important questions or concerns you might have.
I’m about to share with you the single best exercise for burning fat. But first, I want to explain the number one mistake people are making in the gym, today.
This mistake is leading to some pretty big consequences like:
Causing you to age faster
Breaking down your joints
Causing your body to STORE fat, instead of burn it
Causing your hormones to get out of balanceMost people who want to burn fat and lose weight falsely assume that going to the gym and doing traditional aerobic exercise, like jogging on the treadmill, is the best way to see results.If you’ve been spending hours on the treadmill and not seeing any results, it’s because long distance cardiovascular exercise can decrease testosterone and raise your stress hormone levels like cortisol. Increased levels of cortisol stimulate the appetite, increase fat storage, and slow down or inhibit exercise recovery.The Journal of Sports Sciences found that long periods of aerobic exercise increased oxidative stress leading to chronic inflammation.If you want to see results fast without the negative benefits of cardiovascular exercise, your best option is burst training. Burst training (aka interval training) combines short, high intensity bursts of exercise, with slow, recovery phases, repeated during one exercise session. Burst training is done at 85-100% maximum heart rate rather than 50-70% in moderate endurance activity.Essentially, burst training is exercising like a sprinter rather than a marathon runner.Burst (or interval) training isn’t necessarily new. Elite athletes and Olympians have known this secret to exercising and have been doing interval training for years. The research proves that anybody – not just elite athletes – can do interval training and achieve amazing results, no matter your experience or fitness level.The reason burst training works is because it produces a unique metabolic response in your body. Intermittent sprinting causes your body to not burn as much fat during exercise but after exercise your metabolism stays elevated and will continue to burn fat for the next 24-48 hours!Another study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, April 2007, researched eight different women in their early 20’s. They were told to cycle for 10 sets of four minutes of hard riding, followed by two minutes of rest.Key Benefits of Burst Training
After two weeks, the amount of fat burned increased by 36 percent, and their cardiovascular fitness improved by 13 percent.
Also, chemicals called catecholamines are produced which allow more fat to be burned and this causes increased fat oxidation which drives greater weight loss. The women from the study lost the most weight off their legs and buttocks.
Research from the University of New South Wales Medical Sciences found that burst (interval) cardio could burn more than 3 times more body fat than moderate cardio. The researchers studied two groups and found that the group who did eight seconds of sprinting on a bike, followed by 12 seconds of exercising lightly for 20 minutes, lost THREE TIMES as much fat as other women, who exercised at a continuous, regular pace for 40 minutes.
One of the major benefits of burst training is that it can be done in the comfort of your own home with no or minimal equipment. An easy example of burst training would be going to a track and walking the curves and sprinting the straight aways. Or getting on a spin bike and cycling hard for 20 seconds then going easy for 20 seconds, then repeating that cycle for between 10 to 40 minutes.
Similar exercise methods to burst training include High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) and the Tabata method. With burst and other types of interval training you are getting the same cardiovascular benefits as endurance exercise but without the negative side effects. Also, burst training is the fastest way to lose weight and burn fat fast.
So, What’s the #1 Exercise to Burn Fat Fast?
A recent study in Psychoneuroendocrinology showed evidence of long-term high cortisol levels in aerobic endurance athletes. Researchers tested levels of hair cortisol in 304 endurance athletes (runners, cyclists, and triathletes) and compared to non-athletes. The results showed higher cortisol levels with higher training volumes.
But recent research is proving that long distance cardiovascular exercise is NOT the fastest way to burn fat and lose weight.
The number one mistake is doing way too much cardio.
Can burn up to 3x more body-fat than moderate cardio
After two weeks of interval training, fat burning increased by 36%
Your body will continue to burn fat for the next 48 hours after you are done exercising
You can workout in less time and see better resultsBurst training is exactly what we do at Empower Wellness. We have our own YouTube channel where you can watch and participate in burst training right from your living room; plus you have a real life Personal Training to help you through every aspect of your training.
For most people, this doesn’t happen very often. But we’re now learning that there might be more of a reason for you to start making these types of activities a priority.
A movement known as “grounding” or “earthing” is sweeping the holistic health scene. Walking barefoot outside, with the soles of your feet free to directly connect with the surface of the earth, is the main activity that’s a part of the earthing or grounding practice. While it might sound strange at first — ditching your shoes and digging your toes into the dirt or sand, or strolling across some pesticide-free grass — there’s evidence that this can be greatly beneficial for health by lowering free radical damage (also called “oxidative stress”), stress, inflammation and pain.
How Does Earthing or Grounding Work?
Regularly connecting to the earth’s natural, powerful energy is now known to be healing and vital for all people. This is why “reconnection” — with both the earth itself and our body’s own innate healing abilities — is the focus of earthing. The best part about earthing or grounding is that it’s super simple, completely free and can be done anywhere, at any time. It requires nothing but your bare body and willingness to try something that might seem “a bit out there.”
You might be a bit skeptical about this phenomenon, so let me explain more about the basics of how earthing works:
It is an established, though not widely appreciated fact, that the Earth’s surface possesses a limitless and continuously renewed supply of free or mobile electrons. The Earth’s negative charges can create a stable internal bioelectrical environment for the normal functioning of all body systems which may be important for setting the biological clock, regulating circadian rhythms, and balancing cortisol levels.
Your body is naturally able to absorb electrical charges from the earth since your skin acts like a “conductor.” Your feet, specifically certain points in the balls of your feet, are believed to especially be good at receiving the earth’s electricity.
But because of our modern way of living — for example, always wearing shoes and living most of our lives above ground in our homes or offices that are located several floors up in tall buildings — we’re losing touch with the earth’s natural “electrical” force.
‘The human body is electrical first and chemical second,” according to earthing expert Clint Ober. Our brain, heart beat and neurotransmitter activity, for example, all rely on electrical signals, so when our electricity if off, so can be certain aspects of our health.
The idea is that by being in touch with the planet, the electrical force coming off the earth is able to help lower inflammation and fight free radicals. In fact, the term “earthing” has even earned a patent as a natural method for reducing disease-causing inflammation.
Vitamin G: The Key to Earthing!
Just like our body needs direct exposure to sunlight to produce adequate amounts of the vital nutrient called vitamin D, we also require a certain level of direct exposure with our home planet to produce something that some holistic practitioners call “Vitamin G.”
You might be familiar with vitamin D deficiency and related symptoms, but likely you’re brand new to vitamin G. Being directly in touch with the earth, our body’s own electricity becomes more stable and in line with that of the earth. Think of it this way: You know the relaxing, healing feeling of spending time outdoors in the sun? Well, you can also get a surge of healthy compounds flooding your system by walking in your bare feet on the earth’s soil or sand.
I will talk more about the benefits of barefoot shoes in just a moment, but I also want to say that to reduce stress and energize your system in the biggest way, you should ideally also get outside and go completely “bare,” with no shoes on at all.
Health Benefits of Earthing or Grounding
Up until this point, unfortunately, so much of our current health care model has provided us with very little, if any, research of the importance of the bio-electrical component to our health. But the idea of the earth having an electrical pulse that impacts our body is nothing new. This has been proven and well-understood for many years and is an important aspect of preventing accidents or injuries in fields like radiation, gas, dynamite or surgery.
So much of the information we have about bio-electrical impacts on our health has been done outside of the field of medical science and health-related research. However, even though we only have a few solid studies on the health benefits of bioelectrical impulses, many of us have “experienced” the benefits firsthand. For instance, have you ever experienced a walk on the beach or a stroll in the park letting your bare feet touch the grass or sand and sensed a feeling of peace? I know I have.
The known benefits of earthing have to do with a reduction of free radicals that takes place in our body when it comes into contact with “free electrons,” whether from the earth or foods that have grown from the earth.
According to a 2012 report in the Journal of Environmental Public Health:
Throughout history, humans mostly walked barefoot or with footwear made of animal skins. They slept on the ground or on skins. Through direct contact or through perspiration-moistened animal skins used as footwear or sleeping mats, the ground’s abundant free electrons were able to enter the body, which is electrically conductive. Through this mechanism, every part of the body could equilibrate with the electrical potential of the Earth, thereby stabilizing the electrical environment of all organs, tissues, and cells.
Here is how this process can specifically benefit your health:
Reduces Inflammation
To put it simply, it’s thought that the influx of free electrons from the Earth’s surface help to neutralize free radicals and reduce both acute and chronic inflammation and accelerated aging. Experts on earthing and grounding believe that this practice can help improve circulation, which means you’re better able to distribute nutrients throughout your body and also carry waste and toxins out. In fact, enhanced circulation can have a tremendous effect on the body in many ways — from boosting energy levels to reducing swelling.
According to a report published in Alternate Therapies in Health and Medicine, “Inflammation is now recognized as an overwhelming burden to the healthcare status of our population and the underlying basis of a significant number of diseases. The elderly generally bear the burden of morbidity and mortality, which may be reflective of elevated markers of inflammation resulting from decades of lifestyle choices.”
How does earthing help stop inflammation? Inflammation, which triggers disease for so many people, is largely believed to be caused by a lack of electrons in your tissues. When your body senses that you’re “under attack” or sick, it delivers reactive oxygen species (ROS) to the site of injury, which is another way of saying that it triggers an inflammatory response in an attempt to heal and defend you. When this takes place, some free radicals can leak in to surrounding tissue and damage otherwise healthy parts of your body by increasing swelling, pain, heat and redness.
The reason that we want to eat plenty of high-antioxidant foods is the same reason we want to practice earthing. Antioxidant electrons in your body help ensure that damage from free radicals doesn’t get out of control and lead to high levels of inflammation and faster aging, just like anti-inflammatory foods do. Basically, the free or mobile electrons from the earth can resolve chronic inflammation by serving as natural antioxidants!
The belief about earthing’s benefits is that electrons can be absorbed from the bottom of your feet when they’re touching the ground, and then these can move anywhere in your body where free radicals are forming. The antioxidant electrons help cancel out free radicals and, therefore, halt damage to DNA and other forms of “oxidative stress.”
Helps Reduce Stress Hormones
Chronic stress can kill your quality of life, as you’ve probably experienced first hand. But luckily, time spent in nature can really help reverse certain feelings of stress and anxiety. One double-blind study that investigated the effects of earthing on 58 healthy adults used conductive adhesive patches placed on the sole of each participant’s foot to read their electrical signals. The subjects were exposed to 28 minutes in the unearthed condition followed by 28 minutes with the earthing wire connected. Controls were unearthed for 56 minutes.
After earthing, about half the subjects showed “an abrupt, almost instantaneous change in root mean square (rms) values of electroencephalograms (EEGs) from the left hemisphere of the brain.” These changes are believed to signify positive changes and lower stress reactions.
Nineteen of 22 earthing participants also experienced decreased blood volume pulses (BVP). After considering the effects on electrophysiological properties of the brain and musculature as recorded using EEG, EMG and BVP readings, the findings suggest significantly higher reductions in overall stress levels and tensions results in the earthing participant’s compared to the control group.
Can Help You Sleep Better
A 2007 study published in the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine demonstrated that connecting the human body to the earth during sleep (earthing) normalizes the daily cortisol rhythm and improves sleep patterns. This is because of the effects that stress hormones have on your natural circadian rhythm, energy and ability to sleep soundly.
It’s proposed that the earth’s “diurnal electrical rhythms” set the biological clocks for hormones that regulate sleep and activity. We’ve all had the experience of tossing and turning in bed, unable to fall asleep due to racing thoughts. When our bodies are not in line with the natural rhythms of the earth, including the patterns of light and darkness or “electrical” charges, our sleep and immunity suffers. The indoor-lifestyle that many of us lead might be one reason for rising cases of chronic fatigue syndrome.
One 2006 study published in the Journal of European Biology and Bioelectromagnetics observed the patterns of patients’ cortisol levels before and after grounding. They found that their cortisol rises and dips were scattered and somewhat unpredictable in the adults before they practiced earthing. But after earthing, their levels of cortisol were more in line with the natural rhythms of the earth and sun: They had higher cortisol early in the morning when we naturally need more to feel alert and awake, then they had lower cortisol at night time when we need to unwind in order to fall asleep for the night.
Electrically and chemically speaking, poor sleep is often a symptom of high stress hormones like cortisol. By lowering our reaction to stressful events in our lives, we can fall and stay asleep more easily. And sleep is crucial for healing our body on the most basic level – raising our immunity, giving us enough energy for proper digestion, fighting food cravings or weight gain, and supporting a healthy mindset.
Can Help Increase Energy
Many people have found that earthing or grounding can improve their energy or fight low-grade ongoing fatigue. This can be one side effect of getting better sleep but also be due to improvements in hormones and lower levels of inflammation.
For example, many studies point to the fact that higher cortisol levels rob the body of energy. Physiological stress and cortisol have a close relationship: Stress impacts cortisol, and cortisol can further increase stress responses. This cycle can lead to fatigue and sleep problems, even cravings for low-nutrient foods, sugar and excess calories that further lead to low energy levels.
Can Help Lower Pain
Inflammation is a major source of pain, since it increases swelling, stiffness, reduced mobility and malformation. Inflammation in the joints and tissues are the main cause of pain associated with chronic conditions like arthritis.
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), for example, is an autoimmune inflammatory disease that usually involves pain in multiple joints as well as symptoms like fatigue, fever, weight loss, eye inflammation, anemia and lung inflammation. In someone with RA, the body releases enzymes that attack its own healthy tissue, therefore destroying the linings of joints. By lowering inflammation, its very possible to help combat pain caused by chronic autoimmune disorders, injuries, headaches, menstrual problems and so on.
One 2010 pilot study compared the pain levels of adults who were grounding compared to a control group following intense exercise that caused muscle soreness. The results showed that grounding the body to the earth altered measures of immune system activity and pain. Among the ungrounded men, there was an expected, sharp increase in white blood cells (sign of an inflammatory response) and greater perception of pain after exercise. In comparison, the grounded men had only a slight decrease in white blood cells, indicating less inflammation and experienced shorter recovery times.
How to Start Earthing
There is no such thing as earthing “too much,” and it’s likely that the more we do, the greater benefits we’ll see. At the same time, even short periods of being in contact with the earth directly over the course of the day can help. Some ways to start having more direct contact with the earth can include: walking barefoot to the mailbox, mowing your lawn, gardening without shoes on, barbecuing outdoors barefoot, laying directly on the sand at the beach instead of sitting in a chair, and many more easy, realistic ways. Sounds rough, right?
Several products are now available that can also help us practice earthing or grounding more often, although just being outdoors barefoot is still the optimal (and simplest) way. For example, a type of electrically-charged bed has been created that features silver wires that are connected to the electrical charge of the earth once plugged into an “earthing” port.
These beds basically have conductive systems that transfer the earth’s electrons from the ground into the body. So even when we’re inside, sleeping in an “earthing bed” might be able to help us absorb the effects of the earth’s electricity and normalize our circadian rhythms and sleep patterns. Laying or sleeping in the bed is almost like sleeping outside on the grass, according to Clint Ober.
Other people like to use “earthing mats.” These look similar to small yoga mats and are placed on the floor. They also have a controller and are connected to electrical fields being given off from the earth’s surface. These are an easy way to practice earthing while working at a desk, standing around the bathroom or kitchen, watching TV or talking on the phone. “Earthing bands” also exist, which are placed on the wrists and arms. Some people like to wear these while cooking, working or doing anything else around the house when they can’t be outdoors.
As you follow the secret detox lifestyle (or any ongoing healthy lifestyle), I recommend that you try to get outside while totally barefoot for at least 30 minutes a day. This can truly help you experience faster healing and reduced stress. Of course, it can also help you avoid the all-too-common vitamin D deficiency, too, and maybe also get some exercise.
Not only is this a powerful value to our ability to detox, it’s a resource that everyone has available to them — and it’s a completely free resource! You can’t beat that value.
You already know sugar is bad. I’ve found that learning about the intimate details of sugar, such as why it’s addictive and where it hides in your daily food that you think is healthy—those specific details might help you make better choices and stay free of the addiction. Knowledge is one of my signature strengths according to the tenets of positive psychology, and more knowledge may help you escape the vise too.
What happens when you eat a cupcake or your kid drinks a glass of chocolate milk? When the few teaspoons of sugar land on the tongue, they trigger sugar receptors in the taste buds to send a message to the brain that yells: “MORE!” That’s because the sugar receptors tell your body you’ve eaten something sweet, which activates the reward centers of the brain and produces dopamine, the brain chemical of pleasure and satisfaction. Most of life is about managing dopamine—how to make more of it and how to not become a slave to it.
When dopamine is released, you feel happy and any tension is temporarily eased. That’s why so many women eat sugar to change their emotional state. The problem, of course, is that the benefit is short-lived, and the pattern can become addictive. Feeling happy in response to sugar makes you want more sugar so you can keep feeling good. As the sugar moves through your gastrointestinal system, the way it holds your brain hostage continues: sugar receptors in the stomach and intestines send more feel-good signals to the brain.
The result is that sugar hooks young children and adults into eating more in order to keep feeling good. Corporate food companies take advantage of our wiring to create foods with a certain “mouth feel” that keeps us wanting more.
Artificial sweeteners fare no better. Recent data shows that diet sodas and other fake sugars may be even worse for the metabolism, the rate at which you burn calories, and the microbiome, the set of microbe in the gut and their aggregate DNA.
The best part of mornings is that they’re so full of potential! No matter whether you laced up your sneaks yesterday or overindulged on a co-worker’s birthday cake, it’s a fresh chance to get closer to your health goals. To keep that get-fit momentum going all day long, start your day off right with these morning habits that will motivate you even more.
Get Some Sun Basking in the sun’s rays can help you drop pounds, according to research published in the journal PLOS ONE. Study authors had 54 participants wear wrist monitors that recorded their exposure to morning light for seven days. During that period, participants kept food diaries to track their calorie intake. The people who spent more time in morning light had lower BMIs than those who were in the dark, no matter their age, activity level, or what they ate. Why? Morning light helps regulate your internal clock, which aids your sleep schedule (crucial for weight loss). Morning sunshine also contains higher levels of blue light, which has the strongest effect on your circadian rhythm. You only need 20-30 minutes of morning sunlight between 8 a.m. and noon to get in on these benefits!
Sleep In This one goes hand-in-hand with the previous tip. Spending more time on those precious Zzzs can help you eat less and have fewer cravings than people who skimp on sleep. Researchers at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin tracked the sleep of 10 overweight young adults who were at risk for obesity and who self-reported fewer than six and a half hours of shut-eye each night. For the first week of the study, they stuck with their regular sleep schedules. For the second and third, the study authors had them bump it up to eight and a half hours. On average, they slept around an additional 1.6 hours and experienced a 14% decrease in appetite and a 62% drop in cravings for sweet and salty junk. If you’re groaning each time your alarm goes off, try to rearrange your schedule so you can spend a little more a.m. time in bed.
Get In A Mindful Mood Mindfulness is a key strategy when it comes to weight loss. It’s all about taking a focused, intentional approach to your life by really tuning in to your body and mind. Even better, it can stabilize your emotions, potentially making you less likely to give into stressed-based eating. Researchers at the University of Utah had 38 people between ages 20 to 45 fill out a survey that measured how mindful they were naturally. For two days, participants rated their emotions throughout the day in addition to tracking their physical and cognitive arousal before sleep to measure anxiety. Those who were naturally mindful had experienced less irregular mood swings. Rather than trying to kick-start this habit when faced with your first meal, begin your morning with mindfulness instead: Take a few minutes at the start of each day to sit quietly and focus on the rhythm of your breath.
Change Up Your Commute Driving to work is easy, but it may not be best for your waistline. A study published in the journal BMJ shows that people who walk, bike, and take public transportation have lower BMIs and body-fat percentages than those who depended on their cars to get to work. The University College London team of researchers collected the BMIs and body-fat percentages of more than 7,000 people. Participants then completed a survey about how they usually got themselves to the office. The women who used a method other than a car had a BMI that was around 0.7 less than the others, which is about a 5.5-pound difference on the scale. Note that this doesn’t exclude public transportation! Even walking to the closest bus stop or train station can be beneficial.
Go High-Protein While the jury’s still out on whether breakfast is essential for weight loss, a healthy dose of protein in the morning looks like it can help you drop pounds. Scientists at Biofortis Clinical Research and the University of Missouri department of exercise physiology and nutrition gave 35 women from the ages of 18 to 55 three different breakfasts. One was just a glass of water, while the others clocked in at around 300 calories each (and had equal fat and fiber counts). One of those had three grams of protein, while the other had 30 to 39 grams, which is more than two-thirds of the RDA. Those who had high-protein breakfasts felt less hungry and ate 175 fewer calories at lunch. Protein takes a long time to digest and pushes your body to secrete the gut hormone Peptide YY, which helps increase feelings of fullness.
Work Up A Sweat Obviously, working out at any point is going to be a good thing! But besides giving your metabolism a boost that lasts well into the day, a study in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise found that women who exercised in the morning were less distracted by pictures of delicious food. They had 17 participants with healthy weights and BMIs and 18 obese participants walk briskly for 45 minutes in the morning. Apart from not being as interested in pictures of unhealthy food, study subjects were more active throughout the day, no matter their weight.
Pack The Day’s Snacks Avoid the afternoon dash to the office vending machine with this one: Take just a few minutes each morning to make sure you’ve got enough snacks to take you through the day, suggests Keri Glassman, MS, RD, a Women’s Health contributor. When you’ve just woken up, it’s easy to underestimate how much fuel you’ll need throughout the day and just throw an apple in your bag. Instead, budget extra time to whip up some quick, healthy snacks that will keep you on the road to weight-loss success. Even better, just throw them in your bag after prepping them the previous weekend.
Almost everyone I know has a chronic injury of some sort. Maybe it’s a lower back that needs extra warming up before a long day, a knee that gets stiff on cold nights, or a tweaked shoulder that prevents good overhead positioning. They’re usually not crippling, debilitating, or otherwise serious infirmaries, but they are injuries that can limit quality of life and performance. And all those people, to a degree, got their injuries from training. My understanding is that this is true for most people who exercise regularly. Injuries happen to everyone. They are inevitable.
A recent survey of CrossFit athletes found that 73.5% had experienced an injury during training, 7% of which required surgery. But before the anti-CrossFit crowd starts gloating, realize that this injury rate is similar to Olympic lifting, powerlifting, and gymnastics and lower than contact sports like rugby. Similar polls in runners find that in a given year, 13% of runners experience knee injuries, 8% get Achilles tendinitis, 7% suffer hamstring pulls, 10% deal with plantar fasciitis, 10% have shin splints, 14% report iliotibial band syndrome, and 6% get stress fractures. There’s no way around it: engaging in extracurricular bouts of physical exertion, also known as working out, carries some risk. Not working out carries its own set of greater risks. As many personal trainers and coachd have said, injuries are a matter of when, not if. And some of these injuries can become chronic injuries that stay with you for the rest of your life.
But why single out workout injuries when painters are falling from ladders, people are getting into car accidents, high school basketball players are tearing their ACLs, and desk jockeys are getting carpal tunnel syndrome? Those are unavoidable. Painters have to work on ladders and software developers have to type to eat. High school kids are going to play high school sports. People drive to get to work, pick up their kids, run errands. Accidents will happen.. With training injuries, we make our bed and choose to fall out of it. We try for that extra rep when we know we probably shouldn’t. We attempt the Hardbody Bootcamp WTFs as Rx’d even though we’re completely gassed. We choose to train for a marathon. These are choices that I have made and I feel good about.
There are also regulations in place to protect people as they go about their days supporting the machine of civilization. We want people driving to work safely, so we have road signs, traffic signals, and lane dividers. We have workplace safety legislation to prevent excessive maiming of employee limbs. High school sports have referees and rulebooks. But once you step under the bar or strap on those running shoes, you’re on your own. Whatever happens is up to you alone.
We’re going to work out. We’re going to stay active and move our bodies and challenge our limits, but we don’t want to get injured. How do we limit these injuries? How do we make good choices?
Barring discussion of specific exercise techniques, like “keep your weight on your heels” or “break at the hips, not the back” or “land on the mid-to-forefoot when running” (because those are beyond the scope of this post and would turn it into a book), what can we do? What should we watch out for? What shouldn’t we ignore? What should we ignore?
Trust your gut. You are the Only one who knows YOUR body.
Most of my injuries were preceded by a gut feeling that I should stop the workout. It’s not always a physical signal, and actual pain isn’t necessarily involved. It’s a subtle sensation that something is amiss and proceeding would be a poor choice.
What’s odd is that I can’t remember an instance where ignoring that feeling turned out well. As far as I can remember, it always ends with a tweak, sprain, pull, twinge, failed rep, or worse. It’s never been worth it, and yet I’ve done it so many times. I bet you have, too.
So stop it. Heed those hints we get from our subconscious.
Train the deadlift, maintain the squat.
That’s what human movement expert Gray Cook recommends. Not everyone needs to place a heavy bar on their back, squat down, and stand up. But everyone should be able to squat unassisted and unweighted, whether it’s to poop while abroad play blocks with your kid, or perform a nice morning yoga stretches. The comfortable squat is a good barometer for being human.
Determine why you’re doing what you’re doing and whether it’s worth the risk.
That triple set of 20 burpies performed at the end of a long stressful work week would make a sweet Facebook post. But is it really worth it, or would a few sets of a high knees alternating with squats achieve similar things while drastically reducing the risk you incur?
Do you really need to deadlift 500 pounds? Some people, yes. Most, no. Most would be more than strong enough with a double bodyweight deadlift.
Are you chasing big numbers or fast times or that marathon for a good reason? Get down deep into the nitty gritty and expose your true motivation. You may find that it’s still worth pursuing, but at least you’ll know for sure.
Don’t dread your training.
Mortal fear on the eve of a Tuesday workout is a bad sign, folks. You can certainly approach your training with a bit of apprehension, but all-out existential dread? You might want to reevaluate why you’re doing what you’re doing.
Leave some in the tank.
Not every training session has to be a breakthrough workout. Not every training session can be a breakthrough workout. You can’t go to failure every time.
Just back off. Don’t get the extra rep. Leave one, two, maybe even three in the tank when necessary
Develop a bone broth habit.
Get into the rhythm of making bone broth on a regular basis. Or, make a bunch at once and freeze it for later. If you need a recipe get with me. But even if bone broth isn’t a strong source of bone-relevant minerals, the collagen alone is important for keeping joints pliable, lubed up, and resilient, and the glycine in the gelatin can make your sleep more restorative and counter any potential inflammatory effects of specific muscle meat amino acids. Drink about a cup a day.
If you can’t do the movement unweighted, don’t do it with weight.
This is a pretty simple concept that many people ignore because adding weight can help you force your joints past a difficult spot. That’s just gravity exerting greater pull on you; it’s not evidence of improved mobility, and it’s probably not all that safe.
Learn the difference between pain and soreness.
Training can hurt. It can “burn” during the session. It can lead to extreme soreness for days after as the microtears in your muscle fibers repair themselves. But it shouldn’t cause pain. Pain indicates malfunction. It means danger. It suggests your tissues are rupturing, are about to rupture, or have already ruptured. Get to know pain so you know when to hold back and when to push through.
Don’t train through pain.
Once you’ve encountered and known pain, don’t ignore it. If you get a sharp stabbing pain in the back of your left knee during passive knee flexion, skip squats today. It simply isn’t worth it. There’s always tomorrow (or next month, if the pain’s bad enough).
Incorporate single arm and leg training.
Squats and deadlifts and overhead presses are great, but have you tried lunges, single leg deadlifts, and dumbbell presses? They work many of the same muscles as the bilateral movements while being a bit safer and forcing you to develop balance, mobility, and stronger stabilizer muscles.
Do a variety of exercises.
Repetitive motion breeds injury, whether you’re working at a mouse and keyboard for 8 hours a day, throwing fastballs, jogging the same route at the same pace, or doing the same four exercises for years on end. If all you’ve ever done is pullups, the occasional chinup won’t kill you. And it may even help.
If you’re at all hesitant about your technique, get evaluated by a professional.
Even though I said I wouldn’t discuss technique or form, this is more of a general recommendation. Chances are you’ve spent a lot of your life sitting in chairs, standing in heeled shoes, and doing other activities that impair your tissue’s ability to move freely and fluidly. You may need an expert’s eye before you can expose those tissues to training stressors in a safe way.
Want to do a basic glutes, quads, and hamstrings program but your squat feels off? Don’t just power through it. Get a pro to look at your form and give you some tips.
Today, I want you to take a good long look at the way you’re training. Be honest with yourself: is it worth the risk? Do the rewards justify the threat of injury?
You can have a healthy workout regimen. Just be smart and know your body. Injuries will happen….it’s inevitable. However, it’s YOUR responsibility to stay healthy. If your trainer is pushing you to hard, speak up! She doesn’t know your body like you do. Bottom line…..be the best BEAST you can on any given day!!
So…. Some days I love what I do….but not everyday. Not only do I do nutrition counseling and one-one-training, but I also teach a group fitness class 4 days a week. I’ve had several out sick so we haven’t had a group class in over a week (we’ll be back on schedule next week). So…I haven’t worked out since then. I know. I know. That’s pretty bad huh? I’ve just kinda felt like my body needed a recovery period. Our group class is INTENSE and it’s 4 days a week. Do I feel guilty? Maybe a little. I’m more concerned about how hard it’s going to be to get back in the groove next week. I’ve still maintained my healthy eating habits so it’s not like I’m going to gain any weight from not working out, but still. Sometimes I feel like I’m not setting a good example. It’s sometimes hard to be a leader in the field I’m in. Some days I just don’t want to. It’s not like those days are frequent but I still have them. Maybe that’s part of normalcy. I’d like some feedback about your struggles. Are you able to go and do every time you’re supposed to, or do you sometimes need a break?
Getting up in the mornings has never been my strong suit. As a matter of fact, I hate mornings. I definitely don’t do my best work in the mornings, and I tend to fall asleep and spill my coffee right in my lap. Makes of a rude wake up call. I have found a few things to help my mornings to be a little more pleasant. Maybe these 5 steps can help your mornings, as well.
1. Start your day off with calm energy instead of tension. Don’t begin your
day with high levels of cortisol.
2. Do some type of muscle toning activity within an hour of awakening. This doesn’t have to be intense, just enough to get your muscles to an awake state to make ATP.
3. Expose yourself to bright life. Let your body know it’s going to be a great energetic day.
4. Have breakfast with some high quality protein.
5. Focus on self-regulation rather than self-control.
With these simples steps you can equip your body to burn fat all day long! For more information you can reach me via blog, Facebook, text message, or email. Have an attitude of gratitude and have a great day.
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