Search Weight Loss Topics:

Page 407«..1020..406407408409..420430..»

Home » Page 407

Losing 30 pounds in just a few months? That'sso Raven. Multihyphenate star Raven-Symon has been sharing her weight loss journey with fans, revealing the exact tips and tricks she's employed to lose 30 pounds and improve her overall health over just three months.Now, in a new interview, the actor and TV host reveals the exact steps she took to drop the weight and improve her health in one fell swoopand there are no personal trainers or expensive diet plans involved.

Read on to discover how she shed the pounds. And for more insight into how your favorite stars really slim down, check out Katie Lee Biegel Shares How She Got Back to Her Pre-Baby Weight.

In a new interview with Australia's Today Show, Raven-Symon revealed that she decided to lose weight after having a frightening experience at the doctor.

"My numbers came back and it scared the bejesus out of me. I've always dealt with weight my entire lifesurpassing 200 pounds at some points, going under 150 at other points," she explains. "There was a moment recently where I sat down with my wife and I was just like, 'This has to stop.'"

For more celebrity transformations, check out Sherri Shepherd Says This One Thing "Makes the Weight Fall Off" After Losing 35 Pounds.

In order to shed the pounds, Raven-Symon adopted a "low-carb, high-fat" way of eating that she says keeps her satiated in a way that her previous meal plans didn't.

In addition to her new way of eating, the star says that she's been incorporating "lots of fasting" and low-impact exercise into her regular routine.

Raven-Symon says that, in addition to making over her eating habits, she feels like she "finally understand[s] the science of my body and what it needs in order to be at a healthy weight."

The star says that much of her weight loss has come about due to a seismic mental and emotional change. "I call some of my weight 'hate weight,'" she explains, noting that therapy and her happy marriage have helped guide her transformation. "As soon as I stopped hating things around me and my cortisol went down, I was able to not rely on carbs as much and take away all of those things that were really pushing my insulin levels to the point of no return, creating an insulin resistance in me that is very dangerous for future health."

Raven-Symon says she's not letting the number on the scale determine how she feels about her progress.

"I put away that number, I put away that scale," she says. "What I look at is: Am I able to walk up a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing? Am I able to wake up without inflammation in my ankles and my wrists and all of my injuries? Am I able to digest foods without grumblings in my tummy?I'm not trying to hit a goal number, I'm just trying to stay healthy."

For more insight into how your favorite stars shape up, check out Eva Longoria Shares Her Challenging Butt Workout In New Video, and for the latest celebrity health and fitness news delivered to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter!

Read more:
Raven-Symon Shares How She Lost 30 Pounds in 3 Months | Eat This Not That - Eat This, Not That

Read More..

Buried in the sweetness of a return to some sort of pre-pandemic life is the dread of something less palatable: an uncomfortable date with my scale. I know its going to tell me Ive gained 10 pounds. And with that knowledge, theres a fleeting thought that maybe Im not ready to put on a public face, at least not yet not while Im looking like this.

Before you judge me, know that Im really not a shallow person. Honest. Im at a place in my life where I rarely worry about what other people think of me, because I know how rarely they do. I even teach mindfulness and self-compassion to other healthcare workers, showing them how to handle their negative self-talk with grace and gentleness. So why let a modest weight gain during a planetary crisis get under my skin?

Im hardly alone in my up-a-size boat. A research letter recently published in JAMA suggests that Americans who sheltered in place gained an average of 20 pounds during the pandemic. And perhaps Im primed to be even more sensitive, because like 9% of the population worldwide, I once struggled with an eating disorder. Its a part of my life I consider to be over, the work done to leave it in the past. But even when old habits die, their shadows often linger.

Is a bit of regression really so shocking, in light of everything weve been through in the past 18 months? Weve home-schooled kids, cared for elderly parents, learned to live with fear and uncertainty and, in far too many cases, lost people we love. Its common for my colleagues and I to dutifully say to one another, Well, at least we still have our health.

Or do we? In the spring, I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease. Even though my mindfulness practice gives me meaningful relief, I often wonder what role chronic stress (or asymptomatic COVID-19) could have played in that condition and what role it may have in aggravating my ongoing symptoms and even weight gain.

The deeper truth is that the unrelenting, toxic pressure of living through the pandemic has affected our health in myriad ways.

Those who experienced financial instability, personal illness or loss, complex grief and moral injury will likely show a wide array of physical and mental health effects in the years to come. Some groups have borne some of the worst stress and trauma, especially communities of color that have been disproportionately affected by COVID. Many of us may find we need to tend to old injuries that have suddenly flared up.

But too often, we fail to tend to those injuries at all. We restrict, we repress, we fixate, we berate, aiming a stream of vitriol squarely at ourselves for not being thinner or stronger or tougher or better able to take the blows as they come. I did that for years.

These summer mornings, my extra 10 pounds and I get up early and walk my dog along the shoreline of the lake where I bring my family every year for a few weeks of reprieve. I sit on a bench while my pups fleshy petal of a tongue licks my forearm.

During this COVID marathon, I feel like Im finally coming up for air, a pebble settling in water, no longer clenched like a fist. Im remembering that there is a place beyond this tension, that before the pandemic I found peace in my life, and I will find it in the aftermath, too.

I had a friend in university who loved to feed me. I think of her every time I smell the first hint of garlic spitting in a slick of hot oil: the Indigo Girls on in the background, my friend saying shyly, Id never go to all this trouble just for myself. I always wondered, what did she eat when I wasnt around concrete paste and water? Why did she need me there just to do something nice for herself?

For everyone who has been more tightly coiled during the pandemic, whatever demon you are carrying, may you find a way to do something nice for yourself this summer, something that reminds you that, yes, you are worth a little bit of trouble.

And you know what else? Nobody cares if you gained 10 pounds, or more; almost nobody will even notice if you emerge looking generally like a swamp creature. Of course we should all eventually try to get back to a healthier weight, but Im not going to preach only offer a gentle reminder.

If you think youll finally approve of yourself when you lose weight or write that bestselling book or run a marathon, you have it backward. Start by cutting yourself a little slack. Everything else may just fall into place.

Jillian Horton is a Canadian physician and writer. She is the author of We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing. @jillianhortonMD

View post:
Op-Ed: Why you should forget about that pandemic weight gain and cut yourself some slack - Los Angeles Times

Read More..

Toe and foot pain are no joke they can be very uncomfortable and affect your everyday activities. Gout and turf toe are two conditions that can cause pain and swelling of your big toe and its joints, reducing mobility. Although some of the symptoms may initially show up in the same ways, the underlying causes and treatments are different.

Knowing more about these conditions can help you know the difference between them and lead you to get the best treatment for your pain.

Gout is a general term that describes many different conditions. These conditions are caused by a buildup of uric acid. If your body is not excreting the uric acid, urate crystals form in your bodys tissues, typically around joints. This buildup of crystals causes a type of painful arthritis.

Certain conditions like blood and metabolism disorders or dehydration can cause your body to make too much uric acid. Additionally, kidney or thyroid conditions can make it harder for your body to remove excess uric acid. If your diet is high in purines, the breakdown of these natural chemical components of DNA and RNA can cause a buildup of uric acid.

Gout can be caused by:

Depending on the stage and severity of your gout, it may be treated in different ways. Treatment can include:

Turf toe, or hyperextension, is when you bend your big toe too far toward the top of your foot. It can cause a sprain of your toe or your ligaments surrounding it. Turf toe is a kind of metatarsophalangeal joint sprain, which means that at least one of your joints connecting your toe to the rest of your foot is injured.

Turf toe can happen during any sport or activity when your forefoot is on the ground with your heel up, and then you are pushed into a position of hyperextension of your toe. It most often occurs among football players on artificial grass. This is because the turf is harder and not as shock absorbent. Turf shoes also often have less protection in the forefoot because they tend to be more flexible.

Treatment for turf toe depends on the severity of the injury, which ranges from grade 1 to 3:

At first glance, gout and turf toe dont seem like they would have much in common, but there are several similarities between the two. They can include:

Pain with both may be somewhat relieved by NSAIDs. While gout can be acute, it can also become chronic if not treated and lead to joint damage. If turf toe is not treated, this can also cause lasting damage to your joints.

In gout, the damage to your joint is from internal mechanisms, meaning the uric acid buildup and urate crystals. With turf toe, the injury to your joint is from an outside force that bent the foot in a certain way.

The symptoms of gout are due to the uric acid crystals forming on your joints or around your soft tissue, making it hard to move joints and causing pain. In turf toe, the symptoms are from the hyperextension of your toe and surrounding joints and ligaments.

Gout can be managed with diet, medications, and lifestyle changes. None of these treatment strategies overlap with those for turf toe. Treatment for turf toe depends on the injury and accompanying symptoms medication is solely used to relieve the pain.

If you are predisposed to gout or have multiple risk factors, joint injury may trigger a gout attack. Even stubbing your toe can cause a gout attack if there are enough uric acid crystals in your cartilage already.

If you have gout, its important to take precautions for your feet and joints when you exercise. Continuing to manage your condition over time is important.

Gout and turf toe can both cause similar symptoms like joint pain and stiffness, as well as pain with walking. With turf toe, there will generally be an event that causes the injury because of hyperextension it doesnt just happen out of nowhere. A gout attack, however, can develop without warning.

Although the two have very different causes and treatments, its important that both are accurately diagnosed to get appropriate treatment. Without treatment, both conditions have may potentially worsen and significantly impact your joint health and mobility.

See original here:
Gout and Turf Toe: Similarities and Differences - Healthline

Read More..

With the return to the office at hand, more companies are making the wellness of their people a priority and that includes physical fitness.

Now, some employees have a high-profile workout buddy to help keep them on course. Wayfair, Samsung, SAP, Accenture Interactive and Sky are among the companies joining Pelotons new Corporate Wellness program, which provides employees access to the Peloton app and exclusive benefits onits connected fitnessproducts to support team building and healthy habits.

We heard from partners that they need flexible employee wellness solutions that can meet the evolving demands of a modern workforce, said Cassidy Rouse, global general manager of Peloton Corporate Wellness. Whether youre at home, on the road, or in the office, you should be able to access the physical or mental exercise that fits your schedule, and even team up with a coworker to motivate each other.

Some companies have gone as far as to create dedicated studios equipped with the sleek bikes and technology the brand is known for, but perhaps the timeliest feature of the new program is its portability, considering employers embrace of hybrid work arrangements. We spent a lot of time asking, What does the future of work look like? said Rouse. Everyone agrees that its more flexible and more dynamic. Organizations need wellness benefits that meet the needs of employees where they are.

The benefits are not limited to physical fitness. In a survey of members in theU.S.,U.K.,Canada, andGermany, 83% of Peloton members said their Peloton routine made them feel more accomplished at work while 64% said it made them more productive.

Firms that partner with Peloton, which boasts 5.4 million members globally, can offer their employees subsidized access to Peloton memberships and connected fitnessproducts. Peloton is promoting the program not only as a means to boost employee health and wellness, but also as a tool for employers to encourage employee engagement and workforce retention.

Dan Healey, head of HR for SAP North America, said the last year showed that strategic investments in programs that foster strong employee engagement, teamwork and inspiration can drive positive results that support hybrid working models. Our decision to build on early momentum seen from Peloton exercise campaigns we held last year and join Pelotons Corporate Wellness program reflects this experience, he added.

Peloton has also partnered with healthcare and insurance company UnitedHealthcare to provide members of the health plan with access to thousands of live and on-demand classes via the Peleton app. These will be available starting in September and will be available for up to a year, or members can receive a four-month waiver toward an all-access membership at no additional charge.

Fitbit is another fitness brand looking to build connections with companies and their people. Its enterprise health platform, Fitbit Care, was designed to motivate employees to manage their health and fitness via the personal trackers the company is famous for, as well as in-person coaching support.

Emory University, a corporate partner of Fitbit, reported that 92% of its employees said the service motivated them to be more active, while Robert S. Montgomery-Rice, president and CEO of Bangor Savings Bank, another corporate client, said: Anything we can do to help employees stay healthy is a win for everyone. It means they are more productive employees more engaged with their teammates and our clients.

Of course, company gyms have been a mainstay of big tech firms like Google and Apple forever, while elsewhere, subsidized health club memberships have become a familiar employee benefit. But the reconfiguration of office spaces amid The Great Reopening has inspired more companies (and not just the Googles of the world) to build fitness facilities right in their own headquarters, including workout rooms, yoga studios and walking tracks.

Robin Skidmore, CEO of U.K.-based performance marketing agency Journey Further, said that since COVID-19 the company has made significant investments at all three of its offices based on employee input, including real estate devoted to fitness. Our offices are an integral part of our culture, so it was an important signal to the business that we needed to continue to invest in it, preparing for when we could return, added Skidmore, whose shop has done work for clients like Clos19 and Airtasker. The company now sports space for deep work, HIIT, yoga classes and weight training.

Grace Roberts, global communications officer at the creative agency B-Reel, said that in planning for employees return to the office, it was essential to create a space where they could focus on their physical and mental wellbeing. Its new fitness facility includes yoga mats, Chirp wheels and access to the breathing app State, which was developed by the agency.

Its just the latest fitness initiative at B-Reel, which counts Nike and H&M among its accounts. Wellness Wednesdays are already an established weekly feature of the company, which also offers employees a monthly stipend toward health and wellness activities that serve to help them recharge and refocus.

With employee wellness top of mind, more companies push fitness programs as the hybrid return to the office begins

Excerpt from:
With employee wellness top of mind, more companies push fitness programs as the hybrid return to the office begins - Digiday

Read More..

Intense physical activity may not be as helpful in losing weight as you may hope. Catherine Falls/Getty Images hide caption

Intense physical activity may not be as helpful in losing weight as you may hope.

It's an eternal question: What diet is best for weight loss? Or, what should we eat (or avoid) to stay healthy?

Devotees of paleo or keto will talk your ear off about why their diet is the most sensible. People choosing vegan diets (no animal products, including dairy) make a compelling case for both personal and global health.

Herman Pontzer, an evolutionary anthropologist at Duke University, argues that human metabolism has evolved to the point where how we eat and expend our calories is more important than all of our collective obsession with what to eat.

In his new book, Burn: New Research Blows the Lid Off How We Really Burn Calories, Stay Healthy and Lose Weight, Pontzer breaks down the science of metabolism and shares tales from his work studying caloric expenditure among hunter-gatherer societies.

One of the most startling findings is the notion of constrained daily energy expenditure. This is the idea that the human metabolism adapts to our activity levels to keep our daily calorie burn in a surprisingly narrow range no matter how hard you work out. But don't let that depressing fact hold you back from the gym it's crucial that you still get daily exercise for weight maintenance and overall health.

This interview with Pontzer is adapted from an interview for Public Radio Tulsa's Medical Monday program and has been edited for length and clarity.

In your book you debunk the common metaphor we use for caloric expenditure an engine or a machine. You say it would be more accurate to compare it to running a business. Why is that?

The engine view gets a few things right. We put fuel into our bodies in the form of food. And we do burn it off in all the tasks that our body does, the way that an engine burns fuel.

But an engine, like the engine in your car, doesn't get to decide how it burns the fuel. A car's energy burn is all about how hard you step on the gas pedal. Your body isn't like that. Your body is more like a business, as it has an overall goal like any business does. The overall goal of your body is to survive and reproduce, because that's what every organism has evolved to do. But there are many parts and pieces and departments that are in the service of that overall goal.

In a business you have finance, sales, human resources and security and everything else. It's the same with your body. You've got all these different organ systems that all work together. And like a business, when income is low, you can juggle things around. So you spend less on this or that task. And when things are good, you can ramp up the energy that you spend on different tasks. And so that kind of juggling or prioritization that businesses do is the same that your body can do with how it spends calories.

One fallacy with the engine model of calorie burning is we think, OK, I've got to burn more calories than I take in, either by eating less or exercising more or both. But as you point out, the metabolism adjusts, and it becomes harder to lose weight. So even though exercise isn't really a great weight-loss strategy, it's still very important for your overall health, right?

That's exactly right. If you're more physically active, eventually you don't burn more calories a day, but you change the way your calories are spent. If you spend your calories on exercise, what that means is you're spending fewer calories on other tasks.

And for most of us, that's a really good thing, because if we spend less energy, for example, on inflammation, we reduce our inflammation levels. If we spend less energy on stress reactivity, for example, our cortisol levels don't go up as high and our adrenaline levels don't go up as high, we achieve lower levels of stress response. And it seems that that exercise might also help keep testosterone for men or estrogen levels for women at a slightly healthier level. So that adjustment, that metabolic adjustment that we make is one of the reasons exercise is so good for us.

You've done extensive research with modern-day hunter-gatherers, like the Hadza people of Tanzania to better understand how human metabolism works. What did you learn?

The Hadza, to this day, don't have any domesticated crops or animals or machines or guns or electricity or anything like that. They live in grass houses in the open savanna in northern Tanzania. And every morning they wake up and women are off to get plant foods, such as berries and tubers. The men go off to hunt for a wild game using bow and arrow.

For somebody like me who studies how humans evolved, a community like that is just an invaluable way to ask what hunting and gathering does to our bodies. Because we humans evolved over millennia as a hunting and gathering species. And yes in a population like that, food can be scarce sometimes. And you're always spending lots of energy on physical activity. So your body really has to be good at prioritizing how it spends its calories.

The Hadza walk everywhere they go, and compared to us, are seldom sedentary. I'd assume they burn significantly more calories than we do in a day. Yet surprisingly, your work shows that their metabolism isn't all that different from the average American.

About 10 years ago, we went and measured how many calories men and women in the Hadza community burn every day. The Hadza are so physically active, we'd expect that their total calories burned every day would be much higher than we see in the U.S. and Europe and other industrialized populations. And instead, what we found was that actually, even though men are getting 19,000 steps today, women are getting 13,000 steps a day on top of all the other work they do, they aren't burning more total calories every day than we are in the West.

Physical activity ends up being another one of those things that the body can juggle and adjust. And so in the same way that your body can adjust to changes in your food environment, your body can adjust to changes in your physical activity. So for the Hadza, their "metabolic business" has adjusted so that they spend less on other body systems to make room for that big physical activity workload that they have.

What does this mean for someone who is trying to lose weight today?

If you or I started an exercise program tomorrow, we will burn extra calories from that exercise for a while. But after a couple of months, our bodies will adjust so that we're spending about the same energy every day as we were before we started the exercise. Your body adjusts how it spends its energy to keep the total calories burned every day within a relatively narrow range. It just speaks to how adaptable and flexible our bodies are and how we're not really in charge of our metabolisms the way we think.

You include a section in the book about the TV show The Biggest Loser in which contestants competed to see who could lose the most weight. What was the problem with that?

Contestants went on this show and were put under a brutal routine of intense exercise, coupled with near starvation. You can lose a lot of weight that way. But it's not sustainable. Your body pushes back hard by slashing its metabolic rate. Some of those contestants have been followed for years afterward. The folks that have been able to keep the weight off still have lowered metabolic rates from what they went through. A lot of the contestants gained the weight back.

It goes to show you the way to fix the obesity crisis societally or [to lose and keep weight off] individually is not some big, drastic crash approach. You've got to go more sustainably than that because the body will just push back if you push too hard.

So if your goal is to lose weight, nutrition will offer the bigger impact than exercise. But for maintenance of healthy weight, that's where exercise is essential?

That's right. Let's rethink what exercise is doing. I call it the rhythm section of your body. Exercise keeps everything on the same page, on the same beat, and it helps regulate how your body works. And so once you get to a healthier weight, once you are able to lose weight and get to a set point where you want to be, exercise is really key in keeping yourself there. Exercise changes the way that your body regulates how hungry you feel or how full you feel.

The paleo diet is based on the idea that when we were all hunter-gatherers, we ate a certain way, and we didn't have problems with obesity or Type 2 diabetes or high blood pressure. But based on your study of the Hadza, what is it that the paleo folks get wrong?

If you go out and have a chance to live with a group like the Hadza, you realize that a lot of the stories we tell ourselves about the past, including things like the paleo diet, just kind of fall apart. So there's this idea in the paleo diet world that there's one sort of single natural human diet, and that diet was very meat heavy, hardly any carbs at all and certainly no sugars.

[In reality] the Hadza have a mix of plants and animals in their diets. It changes day to day and year to year, but about half of the calories are coming from plants. And not only that but actually something like 10[%] to 20% of their calories every day comes from wild honey, which is just sugar and water, you know, which it would not be on any paleo diet person's menu. Another big part of their diet is the starchy tubers and these root vegetables, which you often aren't allowed to eat on some version of the paleo diet.

One last thing that stunned me from your book: You write about the metabolic cost of pregnancy comparing pregnant women to Tour de France riders.

You can push the body as in the Tour de France, where riders burn 7,000 or 8,000 calories a day for three weeks. But it also makes sense that pregnancy is pushing the same metabolic limits as something like the Tour de France. They both run your body's metabolic machinery at full blast for as long as it can keep it up. It just speaks to how taxing pregnancy is, for one thing, but it also speaks to how these things are all connected. Our energetic machinery gets co-opted into these different tasks and makes connections that unite all of these different experiences.

See more here:
How Humans Really Burn Calories And What That Means For Losing Weight : Shots - Health News - NPR

Read More..

This article was originally published here

J Med Internet Res. 2021 Jul 14. doi: 10.2196/30709. Online ahead of print.

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, experts in mental health science emphasized the importance of developing and evaluating approaches to support and maintain the mental health of older adults.

OBJECTIVE: To assess whether a group-based exercise program relative to a personal exercise program (both delivered online) and wait-list control (WLC) can improve the psychological health of previously low active older adults during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: The Seniors COvid-19 Pandemic and Exercise (SCOPE) Trial was a 3-arm, parallel randomized controlled trial conducted between May and September 2020 in which low active older adults (aged 65 years) were recruited via media outlets and social media. After baseline assessments, consented participants were randomized to one of two 12-week exercise programs (delivered online by older adult instructors) or a waitlist control condition. 241 older adults (n= 187 women) provided baseline measures (via online questionnaires), were randomized (Ngroup = 80, Npersonal = 82 Ncontrol = 79), and completed measures every two weeks for the duration of the trial. The trials primary outcome was psychological flourishing. Secondary outcomes included global measures of mental and physical health, life satisfaction and depression symptoms.

RESULTS: The results of latent growth modeling revealed no intervention effects for flourishing, life satisfaction, or depression symptoms (Ps> .05). Participants in the group condition displayed improved mental health relative to WLC participants over the first 10 weeks (ES = .288 to .601), and although the week 12 effect (ES = .375) was in the same direction the difference was not statistically significant (P >. 05). Participants in the personal condition displayed improved mental health, when compared to WLC participants, in the same medium effect size range (ES = .293 to .565) over the first 8 weeks, and while the effects were of a similar magnitude at weeks 10 (ES = .455) and 12 (ES = .258) they were not statistically significant (P >.05). In addition, participants in the group condition displayed improvements in physical health when compared to the WLC (ES = .079 to .496) across all 12 weeks of the study following baseline. No differences were observed between the personal exercise condition and WLC for physical health (P>.05).

CONCLUSIONS: There were no intervention effects for the trials primary outcome, psychological flourishing. It is possible that the high levels of psychological flourishing at baseline may have limited the extent to which those indicators could continue to improve further through intervention (i.e., potential ceiling effects). However, the intervention effects for mental and physical health point to the potential capacity of low-cost and scalable at-home programs to support the mental and physical health of previously inactive adults in the COVID-19 pandemic.

CLINICALTRIAL: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04412343, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04412343.

PMID:34280121 | DOI:10.2196/30709

See original here:
Online-Delivered Group and Personal Exercise Programs to Support Low Active Older Adults' Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Randomized...

Read More..

Photology1971Getty Images

You probably have access to some dumbbells, yoga mats, and resistance bands to exercise at homebut if you want your fitness routine to be a bit more involved, try following a training style like Pilates. You don't have to have access to a studio to do Pilatesyou just need the right gear.

Most guys assume Pilates is a workout for womenbut if you're skipping out on it, you're missing out on major benefits. If you don't know much about Pilates, here's a quick history: It was created by a German physical trainer named Joseph Pilates who was stuck in an internment camp on the English Isle of Man after World War I. To stay fit while in the camp, he created his exercise practice, originally called Controlology, which focused on improving spinal mobility, core strength and posture.

There is a misconception that Pilates is only stretching. It actually focuses on both eccentric and concentric contractions of muscles to achieve balanced stretch and strength, Lynda Salermo Gehrman, founder of Physio Logic Pilates and faculty for BASI Pilates, previously told MensHealth.com.

Including Pilates in your workout routine can also help you avoid injury by working on mobility, since a reduction in mobility at the joints can play a role in the development of common conditions such as low back pain, tendinopathies, muscle strains/tears, and plantar fasciitis, Dr. Heather Mims, PT, DPT, OCS, PMA-CPT and Pilates Method Alliance Certified Pilates Teacher at Shift Wellness previously told MensHealth.com.

Many men need to include a better balance of work on flexibility and strength in their exercise programs, said Dr. Mims. "One of the many benefits of Pilates is that it includes a better balance of stretching and strengthening and often works the muscles in an elongated position, offering a long lever arm for the core muscles to work against."

A Pilates Reformer is the machine found in most Pilates studios, but you can also snag one to bring the experience home. Here are our picks for great Pilates reformers.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Merrithew At Home SPX Reformer Bundle

$2,899.99

This Merrithew reformer includes 4 full-tension reformer springsand 1 half-tension reformer spring for tons of resistance options. It also hasextra-thick foam cushioning throughout with3 headrest positions, a padded platform extender and adjustable 4-position foot bar.

Stamina AeroPilates Pro XP 556 Home Pilates Reformer

$829.00 (31% off)

The StaminaAeroPilates Pro XP 556 reformerhasadjustable, 4-cord resistance for customized resistance during your Pilates workout. It also has aunique and patented cardio rebounder to get an added cardio workout between toning with the padded foot bar.It also has built-in wheels for easy transport or storage.

Gratz Pilates Universal Classic Reformer

$4,545.00

You can get this professional gradeGratzUniversal Reformer in an aluminum or wood frame in varying lengths from80", 86", and 89". The straps are made of natural leather with optional 27" extension straps, plus 20" foot straps.

Pilates Power Gym 'Pro' 3-Elevation Mini Reformer

$499.00

This reformer requires no assembly, so all you need to do is unpack it and get practicing. Even though it's a 'mini' reformer, it can hold up to 300 pounds and will fit guys up to 6'4".It has3 incline levels and 4 power cords that willgive you 48 resistance settings.

Lagree Fitness Microformer Fully Loaded Bundle

$2,495.00

This at-home reformer is specifically for theLagree Fitness Method, a Pilates-esque strength studio. This Microformer is a smalleralternative to the Megaformer used in Lagree studios that can be used with aLagree At Homesubscription.

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Read the original:
The 5 Best Pilates Reformer Machines for Men to Use in Home Gyms - menshealth.com

Read More..

Conflict statement: The following opinions are those of the author. He does not receive payment or in-kind gifts to represent any medical equipment, products, or manufacturer.

Newswise Declining health and fitness are commonly known to accompany spinal cord injuries and disorders (SCI/D). Physical deconditioning and weakening of the upper limbs make essential daily activities such as wheelchair propulsion and body transfers more difficult to perform, thus challenging the activity and independence that persons with physical disabilities require throughout their lives. During the past few decades, attention has also focused on so-called cardiometabolic risk factors, including five critical health hazards: overweight/obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, and lipid abnormalities. Evidence now suggests that these health risks appear soon after discharge from initial rehabilitation, tend to cluster, and in doing so represent more severe health hazards. They are also more challenging for stakeholders with SCI/D, their caregivers, and health care professionals to manage within the first year of living with a SCI/D and after that throughout their lifespans.

Current health guidelines designed for persons with SCI/D all recommend incorporating physical activity to a level permitted by their ability. Outdoor exercise is an option to fulfill this need. However, it may expose the individual to temperature extremes and uneven rolling surfaces that risk a fall from the wheelchair and ensuing injury. Thus, recent evidence suggests that home-based exercise is preferred for those with SCI. Home-based exercise also circumvents exercise barriers involving transportation, lack of physical access, and exercising in facilities that serve, have staff trained for, and use equipment designed for persons without a disability.

Equipment that satisfies the broad health needs of persons with SCI/D is challenging to find. Selected specialized exercise systems have used surface electrical stimulation to initiate the contraction of paralyzed muscles located below the injury level. These muscle contractions can be sequenced under microprocessor control to create purposeful movement such as cycling, although generally with poor motor efficiency and coordination. These electrically stimulated devices often exclude persons with injuries below the T10 spinal level and require special medical clearance and ongoing supplies such as electrodes and wire leads. Those with injuries and disorders that spare their sensation often find the electrical current uncomfortable, if not painful. While generally considered safe for home use, there is a need for electrode placement before each session. Risks of use include lower extremity fracture or bouts of autonomic dysreflexia. Importantly, there is limited transfer of lower extremity electrically stimulated exercise to benefit upper limb conditioning. It has long been clear that voluntary contractions of muscles above the injury level result in higher physical conditioning levels, and better risk reduction for cardiometabolic disease.

The arm crank ergometer has been a longstanding staple of upper extremity exercise for those with SCI/D. Essentially a table or platform mounted arm cycle, the device typically uses a rudimentary forward propulsion motion against resistance, with the upper limbs propelling the device while 180 degrees out of phase with one another. Few arm crank devices allow adjustment of the axis of rotation, meaning there is one set length for motion. Even fewer devices allow reverse propulsion against resistance. The continuous forward cranking imposes imbalanced forces that condition and tightens the anterior shoulder and chest while not similarly benefitting the posterior shoulder. The imbalance of the anterior and posterior shoulder actions may represent a cause of shoulder pain for persons with SCI/D. As the upper limbs of persons with SCI/D are essential for maintaining daily activities, the pain caused by cycle ergometry may exceed the benefit of physical conditioning.

To meet the complex needs of upper extremity conditioning without the hazards imposed by standard arm ergometry, the newly upgraded and technologically advanced Vitaglide better serves as an exercise mode after SCI/D. The device is a reciprocating ergometer with the arms moving near horizontally instead of in a cyclical pattern. The movement of the limbs are balanced between a forward pushing motion on one side of the body and a pulling action on the other side. In this way, the device maintains the anterior and posterior muscle balance for conditioning of the chest, shoulders, and back. Its features also permit synchronous rowing where both limbs move together in the same forward and backward direction. Unlike a cycling ergometer, the resistance for each arm can be set independently and spans work intensities that will develop both endurance and strength. The side arms allow the user to determine their preferred range of exercise motion instead of the device.

The Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami Health System has used the Vitaglide for several years as part of our comprehensive SCI/D lifestyle program and has been preferred by our program participants, so much so that they seldom use our cycle ergometers. The individualized resistance adjustment permits us to select optimum exercise intensities when the strength and endurance of the arms may be unequal. We have also found it easier to customize exercise programs and maintain records of performance incorporating time and work performed. Our ultimate goal is to encourage health-sustaining physical activity after SCI/D without injury.

By:Mark S. Nash, Ph.D., FACSM, FASIA Associate Scientific Director for Research, Miami Project to Cure Paralysis, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine

See the original post:
Voluntary Exercise after Spinal Cord Injuries: Equipment and Process that Develops and Sustains Fitness and Health - Newswise

Read More..

Less than 25% of people who start a diet and exercise routine stick with their plans for more than a month, but its a little tougher to skip your jog if your dog is waiting for you by the door. Dogs make wonderful walking and exercise buddies. Partnering with your dog when implementing healthy habits can add motivation and will make you both happier and healthier.

A balanced diet and regular exercise are extremely important for pets, just like they are for humans, and many of the health benefits of a healthy lifestyle are the same, saidDr. Arielle Markley,a veterinarian in theCanine Physical Rehabilitation & Sports Medicine CenteratThe Ohio State University Veterinary Medical Center. Your pet can help keep you accountable because your plan is no longer just about your own health, but also theirs.

Health problems tend to occur more often with overweight dogs. From knee injuries and arthritis issues to chronic illnesses like diabetes, excess weight can adversely affect your dogs health.

Forming a partnership with your dog could be the motivation you need. There are many creative ways to get active with your dog, such as dog yoga, dog agility, and couch to 5K programs, but start slowly as with any new program. Just as someone shouldnt run a full marathon without training, the same holds true for dogs. Its essential to work them up slowly, especially if your dog hasnt been highly active.

Sign up and get the answers to your questions.

Dr. Markley says, when starting a diet and exercise plan with your dog, just rememberPAWS:

Making positive, healthy changes in your life isnt always easy, but if you say to your pet, We are going to go out and walk every day, then youre doing it for them as well, saidLiz Weinandy,registered dietician atThe Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. Making that commitment can go a long way toward keeping that promise and reaching your goals.

Before getting started on any rigorous diet or exercise program, talk to your doctor and veterinarian. Its important to make sure that there arent any other health conditions that might keep either of you from your goals and have a tailored plan to your individual needs.

See the original post:
Your Dog May be the Partner you Need to Stick to Your Health Plan - The Bark

Read More..

While staying safe at a gym took on a whole new meaning during the pandemic, if you're thinking about getting back to a fitness regimen this summer, you'll be wise to consider the more pedestrian dangers involving treadmills and bench presses especially if you're over 50.

Exercise-related visits to the ER topped 107,000 for those 50 and older in 2020, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission and that figure is slightly lower than usual due to fewer people exercising during the pandemic. And speaking of treadmills: Around 20,000 people in the U.S. are treated in emergency rooms for injuries from this piece of equipment alone each year.

"Doing exercises the wrong way can be worse than doing nothing at all, says Jeremy James, a chiropractor and creator of an at-home fitness program designed for older adults or those with preexisting injuries.

The good news? It's not difficult to stay safe and reap the plentiful health benefits of exercise (which include helping you avoid injuries from falls after 50 by building up leg muscles and improving your balance). You just have to keep your focus and follow a few key tips. Here's your first one: Wear that red safety clip when you're on the treadmill to stop the belt if you start to slip or stumble.

Here are other smart ways to avoid common mistakes that can lead to injuries.

It's good to be fired up about working out, but don't let that motivation push you too far, too fast. Often, people jump right into workouts that are not meant for beginners, and they haven't developed the musculature, particularly core strength, to do it with proper form, James says. This is especially risky with strength training, where getting sloppy with proper form to squeeze out a certain number of reps can result in injuries such as rotator cuff tears and lower back strain.

James advice: Only use the amount of resistance or weight and number of reps that you can do with perfect form. The last two to three reps should be challenging, but not so challenging you have to break form.

While stretching (the kind you do standing mostly still and flexing a calf or hamstring) can be done at any time during or after your workout, there is no evidence that it helps prevent injuries. What you should do instead? A warm-up.

As opposed to stretching, a warm-up involves movements similar to your workout but done more slowly. The purpose of a warm-up is to increase blood flow to the muscles, improve tissue elasticity and stimulate the nervous system, says Lauren Shroyer, a certified trainer and senior director for product development at the American Council on Exercise. Think of it as slowly accelerating into your workout. A warm-up is important for avoiding injury, especially as we age and our soft tissue becomes less elastic."

That doesn't mean you can skip stretching altogether. Just save it for after your warm-up (when tissues are warm) or the end of your session. Stretching can reduce the buildup of lactic acid in muscle tissue, which contributes to lingering soreness and aches. The American College of Sports Medicine recommends stretching each muscle group for at least 60 seconds.

"There is no shoe that can prevent injuries, but there are definitely plenty that can cause them in the wrong person, says Matthew Klein, a board-certified orthopedic clinical specialist and founder of Doctors of Running. Shoes that are too narrow up front (the area called the toe box) can hold your feet in positions that may predispose you to a bunion. As you age, the risk of soft tissue injuries that affect areas like the calf and achilles tendon also increases, he adds.

In general, Klein says to look for a shoe that was designed for whatever activity you're planning to do most. Basketball shoes, for example, are designed with side-to-side movements in mind, while running shoes typically are not. Buy from a specialty store where employees have been trained to help guide you (REI is one of the few big-box retailers that does this, Klein says). Because your feet swell as the day goes on, shoe shop in the afternoon or evening for the best fit; you should have half to a full thumb's width between end of toe and end of shoe, he notes.

Excerpt from:
5 Ways to Avoid Exercise Injuries After 50 - AARP

Read More..

Contact Us Today

Page 407«..1020..406407408409..420430..»

Home » Page 407