Aging Well; My Favorite Secrets To Beautiful

Shayna Robinson

1) Change your diet: Eat anti-inflammatory.

There are certain foods that reduce inflammation and cause positive cell turnover. I try to eat a diet rich in spinach, kale, blueberries, coconut water, olive oil, agave and peppermint. Watermelon and cantaloupe can be great during the summer. The best athletes will also supplement their diet with vitamins and minerals. My essentials include a proprietary blend for liver detoxification (NOW brand Liver Regenerator and Detoxifier), Thyroid health (NOW brand Thyroid Energy), Raw B Complex (Vitamin Code Brand), Undernatured Type II Collagen (NOW brand UC-II) and a hair, skin and nails proprietary blend (Nature’s Bounty Brand).

2) Sweat: Work out hard enough to detox.

Some argue sweat causes breakouts, but that’s only if you don’t shower immediately after a workout. Sweat is your bodies natural detox process, and it also helps maintain body temp and water balance. When you sweat, your body causes your metabolism to adjust to a burning mode. It’s struggling to maintain the internal body temperature, and your thyroid is engaged producing endorphins that make exercise feel easier so your body is more efficient. Sweating should be part of your goals in exercise to maintain healthy organs.

3) Electrolytes: Refuel the right way.

Both muscle tissue and neurons are considered electric tissues of the body. Muscles and neurons are activated by electrolyte activity between the extracellular fluid and intracellular fluid. Electrolytes work to aid the body in transferring water in and out of cells. Without proper electrolytes the ability of muscles to contract is weakened and can cause muscular contractions (such as cramping). It’s important to maintain this electrolyte balance when exercising so that there is proper contraction of muscle and nerve fibers in addition to maintaining the proper strain on the kidneys. In terms of aging, constantly being dehydrated can lead to cell death and a diseased cell turnover. Keeping yourself hydrated results in healthy cell turnover, muscular strength and correct rapid firing of the nerves. I love coconut water for it’s hydrating benefits. It makes my skin glow and unlike other sports drinks, it has a natural electrolyte component, as opposed to synthetically added electrolytes in Gatorade.

4) Regimen: Set your routine.

Your body functions better and more efficiently when it knows what to expect from your level of care. When you nourish your body with good food, exercise, sweat and electrolytes, it responds in the best possible way–glowing skin, a young complexion, a body that rivals a teenager and recovery from the common daily routine. Send your body a positive message in these three ways on a daily basis and it will function better and look better in 4-8 weeks.

 

 

 

Share

The Body You Want

Ever wonder why you can’t change certain parts of your body when you exercise? It may be a lack of body awareness. Research shows that lack of body awareness creates an inability to engage muscle, and this awareness is an important tool in progress changes in your body. If there’s a certain part of your body that is especially challenging and just won’t budge, it may be because you are not activating the muscles that encompass it properly.

Tips for improving body awareness:

1) Start With Pressure; Notice where your body contacts the earth. For example, in this bow pose, my foot is in contact and is supporting my entire (5’10!) frame. That’s a lot of strength in that little foots. It’s all because I am applying pressure evenly across the four corners of my foot, and I am able to do this because I am cognizant of the muscular contractions in my foot.

2) Change Your Posture; Until you feel the proper activation, keep moving your body to a different position. For example, on my body, my left abdominal wall is weaker than my right, so I need a different angle to properly engage all my obliques and anterior abs. If I change the angle I am working in while engaging my left side, I get the same work done as my right.

3) Engage Your Multifidus; Remember those tiny muscles that support your spine I spoke of so lovingly last week? Yep, they’re integral in allowing you to engage all your muscles eloquently. Instead of over using the major muscle groups and getting bigger and bulkier because you lack the foundational strength of the multifidus, try working on pelvic tiles and engagement FIRST before you do any other exercise. I start my day with my multifidus pelvic tilts and ab exercises, then move on to other exercises that engage the larger muscle groups.

Share

#HealthyInspiration; The Beautiful Body Idol

Today I was thinking about who I idolize when it comes to a beautiful body–who is my #HealthyInspiration?

Before I could find that answer (and I’m sure you all have a few thoughts) I began to recognize that my external divisiveness is what tears down my own personal inner strength. My ability to change and grow is stymied by my outward reflection. This year is the year of looking inward not outward. Everybody’s doing it. Why not you too?

20131029-094349.jpg

Share

Creative Success; Why Limitations Are Awesome

Sometimes you don’t reach your #goals, but that’s ok. Your #limitations are often guide you to different ideas of success you otherwise wouldn’t have acknowledged. Feel free to tap into success in a different way today! Happy Tuesday!

20131029-054514.jpg

Share

Lumber Multifidus…What?!

Ever hear me talk about your Lumber Multifidus muscle? Often ignored by personal trainers, this muscle is essential in establishing a solid foundation of support for your lumbar spine, allowing you to progress your training to a higher level sans injury. Let’s talk about why it’s so important and how you can strengthen this integral stabilizer:

1) Without them, our spine would have problems!

The multifidus muscles help to take pressure off the vertebral discs so that our body weight can be well distributed along the spine. Additionally, the superficial muscle group keeps our spine straight while the deep muscle group contributes significantly to the stability of our spine. These two groups of multifidus muscles are recruited during many actions in our daily living, which includes bending backward, sideways and even turning our body to the sides. Studies have shown that the multifidus muscles get activated before any action is carried out so to protect our spine from injury.

2) The key is training your body to breathe while engaging your multifidus!

One of the reasons so many people have lumbar back pain is a result of not taking full breaths using their diaphram muscle in their lower abdomen. So often we take short quick breaths using our upper back and neck muscles because this is the most efficient way to get oxygen to our heart quickly. But when not in quick need, it’s important to contract that diaphram so that the multifidus learns it should be engaged all the time. Taking long sustained breaths in and out retrains your body to use your diaphram rather than your upper neck and shoulder muscles to breathe. You can imagine the tightness and pathology you may sustain by breathing from your neck, shoulders and back rather than from your deep abdomen–The upper extremity muscles get tighter and more bulky (theoretically causing lactic acid buildup and reduced oxygenation). This can result in a compression of the cervical spine and a weakness in the lumber multifidus.

3) Key exercises for keeping this muscle strong:

Cat & Cow Pose: Inhale, look up, pull belly in. Exhale, look down, push shoulders towards ceiling.

Pelvic Bridge: Press back flat into floor, raise hips towards ceiling. Hold for 2-3 seconds. Repeat 10x.

 

 

 

 

Share

A Smarter Snack

A lot of professionals in my arena would tell you to limit your snacking daily… That the calories in and the calories out matter. But not me.

It’s the quality and timing of the snack. Choosing the smarter quality snack will make you a calorie burning machine–but you have to know the factors that make it. Here they are in listed format so you can snack smarter too:

1) 200 Calories or Less : A snack more than 200 calories won’t satisfy you any more than a 200 calorie snack. Often your body is just looking for something to hold you over–a quick burst of energy. Don’t pick something with more calories–you won’t benefit from the extra padding.

2) 0-10g Sugar: No added sugar is best, but if it’s on the ingredients list, just make sure it’s not in the top three.

3) 5g Protein: That’s enough to give you a feeling of fullness–so you won’t be ravenous by the time your next meal rolls around.

4) 1-2g Saturated Fats: No more than 10% of your diet’s calories should come from saturated fats.

5) 3g+ Fiber: The more, the better. Fiber regulates blood sugar, maintains your metabolism and curbs your appetite better than anything else.

Share

Why Mindful Eating Works Better

“The rhythm of life is becoming faster and faster, so we really don’t have the same awareness and the same ability to check into ourselves.” These words are from an unexpected source: a Harvard nutritionist. Dr. Lilian Cheung, with Nobel Peace Prize nominee Thich Nhat Hanh, co-wrote ‘Savor: Mindful Eating, Mindful Life.’ “That’s why mindful eating is becoming more important. We need to be coming back to ourselves and saying: ‘Does my body need this? Why am I eating this? Is it just because I’m so sad and stressed out?’” In this 3-minute video, Dr. Cheung explains how honoring and being mindful of the food we eat makes us healthier. She offers seven practices for mindful eating — simple steps that we can take to maintain a healthier weight and live a happier life. We are what we eat — and how we eat

Video from KarmaTube

Share

Proudly powered by WordPress
Theme: Esquire by Matthew Buchanan.