Seasonal Affective Disorder (SADs) makes up about 10% of depression cases and woman seem to be more affected than men1 . Eating a whole foods diet, while avoiding refined foods and sugar can help to alleviate symptoms.
Common symptoms of SADs are: Read More→
Cold and flu season is coming, but that doesn’t mean your family has to get sick! If you’re determined to stay cold and flu free, there are some simple steps you can take that might help you dodge those bugs. Bolster your natural defenses with our practical and tasty suggestions.
Vegetables such as sweet potatoes, butternut squash and beetroot are rich in beta-carotene which our bodies convert to vitamin A. We need vitamin A to keep the mucosal linings in our nose and lungs robust enough to defend against infection. Other foods to include are orange and red fruits such as oranges, mango, apricots and melon.
This amazing family of vegetables contain potent oils that have an anti-microbial action, so they may help protect against bacterial and viral infections. They also support good gut health as prebiotics by promoting the growth of healthy bacteria.
Studies suggest that high doses of vitamin C are most relevant for people exposed to brief periods of intense physical stress such as endurance athletes, or those living in very cold environments.
Eating plenty of fruit and veggies every day should give us enough vitamin C to support the healthy function of the immune system.
Vitamin D is thought to protect against respiratory infections by boosting levels of antimicrobial peptides – natural antibiotic-like substances – in the lungs.
While certain foods such as oily fish contain vitamin D, most of it is obtained through sunlight on the skin! Everyone should “consider” taking supplements during the autumn and winter months to protect against upper respiratory infections.
Try a cup of green tea with lemon and honey. Drinking tea and breathing in steam stimulates the cilia—the hair follicles in the nose—to move out germs more efficiently. Lemon thins mucus, and honey is antibacterial.”
The cold and flu season is no fun. The sniffling, sneezing and headaches add up to a big discomfort for many. By drinking adequate amounts of water, water helps to wash germs and viruses out of your immune system and keeps the body hydrated. Drink according to your size, weight, activity level and gender.
When you exercise, you increase your circulation and your blood flow throughout your body.
The components of your immune system are also better circulated, which means your immune system has a better chance of finding an illness before it spreads. This includes (but is certainly not limited to) seasonal colds and influenza.
Diets that are too low in protein can deplete the immune system. So make sure to get protein-rich foods throughout the day, especially fish, eggs and yogurt.“ Beans are another high source of protein to compliment your diet.
Try and keep your office space clean with a good disinfectant at least once a week. It’s just basic hygiene. Rhinoviruses can live on surfaces for up to 48 hours!
Handwashing is the best way to prevent colds and other respiratory and infectious diseases that are transmitted by hand to mouth or hand to nose and eye contact. Soap acts as a vehicle to trap the germs that are loosened by the act of rubbing your hands together under water. These germs can then be rinsed away by the water.”
Research shows that our bodies need seven to eight hours of sleep in order to stimulate an immune response from our ‘natural killer cells,’ which attack viruses. Sleep is my most reliable defense against infection.”
https://www.readersdigest.ca/health/conditions/10-ways-beat-cold/
https://www.menshealth.com/health/a19530973/10-ways-to-stop-a-cold-in-its-tracks/
By Louis Baker
Lack of good nutrition can be detrimental to brain health and mental well-being. There is a strong link between a high sugar, processed foods diet and impaired memory function and depression.
Scientists are now calling Alzheimer’s Type 3 diabetes! Read more here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2769828/
Prevention is the key to any illness so support your brain health by consuming the above foods on a daily basis.
I always think September feels more like a ‘new year’ than January. The feel of fall in the air, shorter days, cooler evenings, the back to school schedule, new sports teams and activities starting. With all of this comes packing lunches, ensuring healthy snacks are available and often less time to prepare dinners.
Making healthy nutritional choices can be difficult when time and energy are not on your side. Being prepared and recognizing the importance of nutrient dense fuel for the brain and the body can make the tasks a little easier.
Eating healthy should not be difficult or stressful. Being prepared and organized and finding a plan that works for you and your family is the key.
You love biking. To and from work; cycling to the grocery store; it’s your go-to weekend activity and at the gym, the exercise bike is the only piece of cardio equipment you will go on. You love biking. And it’s your way of maintaining your fitness level. Recently though, you’ve experienced a plateau in your conditioning. It’s been weeks since you’ve observed an increase in your fitness level. To top it all off, your biking legs are constantly sore and it’s become increasingly difficult to push yourself to your cardiovascular limits. What’s the solution?
Cross Training.
Ingredients:
1 pint grape tomatoes
1 ripe avocado
2 ears of fresh sweet corn
2 tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped (optional) Read More→
*Adapted from the New York Times article by Gretchen Reynolds
A recent study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology shows that weight training may not just benefit our bodies, it may also have brain health benefits.
The study found that weight training done by rats, using ladders and tiny, taped-on weights, can reduce or even reverse aspects of age-related memory loss.
Many people find that as they approach middle age, things that were easy to remember suddenly begin to elude them; like people’s names or where they left their car keys. Studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise can alleviate these issues. Far less has been studied about resistance training and its effects on the brain.
While researchers know that lifting weights builds muscle, it is not yet clear how, at a molecular level, it would affect the cells and functions of the brain. In this new study, they used rats and ladders to examine it more closely.
The study involved a 100-centimeter-long ladder and bags of weighted pellets gently taped to the rats’ rear ends. The animals received a Fruit Loop when they reached the top of the ladder and soon started climbing willingly, even without rewards. After several weeks, the climbers showed increased muscle mass, indicating that the activity was effective weight training.
Next, to test the training’s brain effects, the scientists injected a separate group of animals with a substance known to induce inflammation in the brain, creating a rodent form of mild cognitive impairment or early dementia.
Half of these rats then began a weekly program of weight training. As the climbing became easier, the mass of the pellets in their bags was increased, just as people progressively add to the weight they lift at gyms.
After five weeks, all of the animals, including an untouched control group, were loosed individually into a brightly lit maze with a single, darkened chamber. Rodents gravitate toward dark places and during repeated visits to the maze, the animals would be expected to learn the location and aim for that chamber.
At first there was no significant change. But in time, the weight-trained animals, despite their induced cognitive impairments, caught up to and in some cases surpassed the speed and accuracy of the controls.
The weight training had “effectively restored” their ability to think, according to the study.
The untrained animals with mild cognitive impairments, meanwhile, continued to lag far behind the others in their ability to find and recall the chamber.
Finally, to better understand how ladder climbing might have changed the rats’ brains and minds, scientists examined brain tissue from each of the groups. As expected, they found signs of inflammation in the brains of the animals that had been injected.
But they also found that the memory centers of the brains in the weight trainers teemed now with enzymes and genetic markers that are known to help kick-start the creation and survival of new neurons, while also increasing plasticity, which is the brain’s ability to remodel itself.
In effect, the brains of the weight-trained rats were remaking themselves to resemble brains that had not been inflamed and impaired.
Obviously this is a study with rats, not humans, so there are variables to consider. The study also doesn’t show whether aerobic exercise has a similar or different effect on the brain, or if healthy people would gain the same benefits as those with impairments. But the study certainly does suggest that resistance training can help.
“I think it’s safe to say that people should look into doing some resistance training,” said the head of the research team. “It’s good for you for all kinds of other reasons, and it appears to be neuroprotective. And who doesn’t want a healthy brain?”
A personal training client wanted to ride his bike to work twice a week and once on the weekend. When I asked how the cycling was coming along, he threw his hands in the air and listed all the reasons why it wasn’t happening:
Sometimes we are so busy solving work challenges we need a little help with solutions for our own health and well-being. Curtis Health Personal Trainers can help with accountability and solutions to help you meet your fitness goals.
Time is ticking. You rushed over to the gym during your lunch break and you are motivated to get a challenging workout in before the hour is over. Your energy level is high and you are mentally focused. You consider skipping your warm up and getting into the intense stuff from the get go.
Don’t skip your warm up. Ever.
What’s the point of the warm up anyway?
The warm up is important because it increases blood flow to the working muscles and prepares the body for intense exercise by increasing breathing rate and lubricates the body’s joints, which decreases the risk of injury. Whether you are a beginner, an avid exerciser or a seasoned athlete it is beneficial to incorporate a warm up before cardio exercise, resistance training or flexibility movements.
How to warm up
Repetition Maximum = W x 1.44
W = This is the weight lifted in pounds (lbs) for a set of 12 repetitions to fatigue
**formula based on Brzycki 12 RM submaximal method
So take 5-10 minutes at the beginning of your workout to prevent injury.
For more warmup guidelines or ideas, talk to your Curtis Health coordinator!
Canfit pro text book 5th edition
Movements occur as a result of many muscles working together. Thus, it makes sense to train movement patterns and not muscles. Movement pattern If we were to only focus on our “problem areas” we would create instability and ultimately injure ourselves because some muscles would become more developed than others.
Movement pattern training, also called functional training, has many benefits including enhanced coordination and balance. It helps to prevent injuries by ensuring that our workout plans are balanced and makes us focus on all major muscle development. This in turn helps with muscle and strength gains over time.
Movement pattern training are multiple-joint movements and include such actions as squatting, lunging, pushing and pulling, which are the most common movement patterns you engage in throughout your day. The following section describes the most common movements typically used along with exercises that fit these patterns.
Push
Pushing patterns focus on pushing weight away from your body which can either result in a horizontal push or a vertical push. A horizontal push is pushing weight away from you horizontally, such as a dumbbell chest press, and typically emphasizes the chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. A vertical push, which is pushing weight away from you vertically, such as dumbbell shoulder press, tends to put the emphasis on your shoulder muscles.
Exercise examples: pushups, barbell shoulder press, dumbbell incline press, military press, and dumbbell chest press
Pull
Pulling motion, which is the opposite of pushing pattern, focuses on bringing the weight in towards you and usually engages your back muscles. There are two types of pulling movements: a vertical pull and a horizontal pull. An example of a vertical pull is a pull-up, which is a very effective exercise for developing your back muscles, and also engages your shoulders, biceps, and even your core. A single arm dumbbell row is an example of a horizontal pulling motion.
Exercise Examples: Pull ups, dumbbell row, seated row, bent over row
Squat
We use squats often in our daily lives such as squatting in and out of a chair. A squat is a movement pattern where both your feet are planted on the ground, chest is up, lower back is straight and you bend your legs to lower your body down. The movement is primarily happening at your hips and knees and a basic squat is a knee-dominant pattern that requires coordination of your knees, hips and ankles with a relatively upright spine to perform the movement correctly. The most common reason why people have trouble squatting is because of tight hip flexors or tight calves.
Exercise Examples: Barbell squats, front squats
Lunges
A lunge is single leg exercise movement that requires one leg to step forward and bend while the other leg remains relatively stationary. A lunge is any time you have a split stance in your movement and occurs even when we do basic movements like walking or running. A lunge requires balance, strength and flexibility. It is a dynamic exercise because you can lunge in any direction with both legs forward, backwards and sideways. To add resistance you can hold dumbbells, barbells or even sandbag on one shoulder to engage the core to a greater degree.
Exercise examples: reverse lunge, forward lunge, stationary lunge (split squat), step up, side lunge
Hope you enjoy the read and try incorporating movement patterns into your workout routines! Contact personaltraining@curtishealth.com to see how a Curtis Health trainer can help you incorporate movement patterns into your routine.
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