The Benefits of Deep Breathing

 

Sometimes, health benefits can be achieved by doing something incredibly simple, perhaps even obvious. Breathing deeply can qualify as one of these things and you might be surprised of the positive impact it can have on your body and wellbeing.

 

One of the most essential components of a healthy body is a healthy blood-stream, and the work that the blood-stream carries out on a day-to-day, minute-by-minute, second-by-second basis is remarkable and essential. The blood-stream transports oxygen and nutrients to the body’s cells as means of nurturing the circulation system so the body can resist illness and disease, and the engine which powers this is breathing.

 

Breathing helps to power the lymphatic system, which is also crucial to health and primarily helps to reduce of the impact of harmful materials in the body, by: staving off invasion from bacteria, viruses and fungi, recycling plasma proteins and expelling waste from lymph fluid.

 

Whilst, deep breathing is essential to these processes, it must be done in a highly systematic manner, for it to be truly effective. In order to breathe deeply in a productive manner you should, breathe in for one count, hold this breath for two counts and then exhale for two counts. With the application of this process, you are enabling time for cells to become fully oxygenated with blood, and for toxins to be expelled. In order to make the best of this process, it’s advisable to complete 10 cycles on a daily basis, which can serve as a means of improving your wellness without too much effort.

 

Categories: Blood, blood stream, body, Breathing, breathing nbsp, Deep Breathing, nbsp, stream

How to Ditch that Beer Belly Without Ditching the Beer

Everyone likes a drink now and then, so ditching drinking in favour of your weight loss wellness can make you jack in your diet altogether. According to personal chef Diane Henderiks, RD, founder of Dish with Diane, your liver processes alcohol before other it does any other carbs and protein, meaning that the sheer presence of alcohol in your body slows down your fat-burning ability. Your wellbeing won’t be ruined if you have stick to one drink a day (that’s five ounces of wine, 12 ounces beer, or one ounce of a spirit) but if you want to drink AND lose weight, you might need to develop a few of the following healthy habits as well:

 

1. Chill Out: Cortisol is the hormone that encourages your body to store fat—particularly in your abdominal region – and anxiety causes cortisol to be produced in spades. It has been shown that deep-breathing exercises help to lower your stress levels, so pause for some deep-breathing time every hour. Set an hourly alarm on your phone and, when it goes off, take five to 10 deep-belly breaths, inhaling for five counts and exhaling for 10 counts.

 

2. Eat Enough: This is good advice for anyone wanting to lose weight, regardless of whether you ditch the drinks or not. When you don’t eat enough food to satisfy your body, it goes into starvations mode, Henderiks warns. This means that, out of fear of not being fed, your body will store extra fat for energy, rather than burning it off and keeping your belly taut.

 

3. Keep Up Your Strength: The more muscle you have, the faster your metabolism is and the more calories you burn all day long. This is because muscle is more metabolically active than fat, and exercise physiologist Tom Holland, author of Beat the Gym: Personal Trainer Secrets Without the Personal Trainer Price Tag, asserts that you need to do two to three total-body strength sessions a week in order to build that quality lean muscle.

 

4. Eat Wholegrains: In a study from PennsylvaniaStateUniversity, it was found that eating wholegrains instead of refined grains helps you lose more fat around your midsection. Moreover, researchers at Tufts University have reported that including three servings of whole grains and less than one serving of refined carbs in their diets every day helped participants lose 10% more visceral fat than those who didn’t follow this diet.

 

5. Work Your Abs from All Angles…: Celebrity trainer Gunnar Peterson, who works with Sofia Vergara, Kim Kardashian, and Vanessa Lachey, points out that there are three planes of motion you need to target when working on your abs. To challenge and define your ab muscles, you need to hit your sagitall plane (front to back and up and down) with crunches and reverse crunches; your frontal movement (side-to-side) with standing side bends; and transverse action (rotational) with chops or twists.

 

6….But Don’t Overdo the Ab Work: While you need to do ab-specific moves to tone your tummy, Holland asserts that these are the “finishing moves” once you’ve removed excess fat via diet and exercise. The majority of your workout should be focused on the rest of your body, and only 10% of your time should be dedicated to abs work. For the other 90% of your workout, focus on strength training and/or cardio.

 

7. Drink More…Green Tea: There is a whole heap of studies show to show that green tea deals with belly fat. This is due to an antioxidant called EGCG which helps boost metabolism and may specifically target abdominal fat.

Categories: abdominal fat, Alcohol, Belly, body, Deep Breathing, drink, green tea, Lose, Lose weight, nbsp, Personal Trainer, Weight Loss

Yogue, Strike a Pose: How Desk Yoga Can Keep You Going

A lot of us spend all day sitting at a desk, but did you know this is wreaking havoc on your mental and physical wellbeing. You may be more concerned about corporate wellness, and so don’t care that you’re sitting and typing away all day. However, no matter how productive all that desk time is, it can cause aches, strain and tension in every muscle in your body, and you may need a hard-earned yoga break. Stopping to strike a pose can help you to relieve that stress, and get your overall wellness back on track to tackle the rest of the long workday. Here are seven yoga postures to get you started.

 

1. Konasana. Also known as the right angle pose, konasana is a simple and effective way to relieve your tight back and legs. It works to open and stretch your hamstrings and calves, elongate your spine and torso and strengthen your arms. With your arms placed on a wall at shoulder-height, shoulder-width apart, slowly walk your feet back until they are directly under your hips (hip-width apart). Bending at your hips, walk your hands down the wall until they are in line with your shoulders again. Your hands should be flat on the wall with your fingers evenly spaced and all pointing upwards. Hopefully, your body is now in a right angle (hence the name of the pose) but if you start to feel contractions or tightness in your lower back or hamstrings, bend your knees and arch your back so that you lift your sit bones up towards the ceiling. This should open up the lower back and sacral area.

 

2. Vidalasana: Otherwise titled the Cat-Cow pose, the vidalasana gently massages your spine, and opens your upper back, chest and shoulder areas. You start on your hands and knees, with the respective limbs directly under your shoulders and hips, shoulder-width/hip-width apart. Throughout this sequence, the tops of your feet should remain flat on the floor, your arms should be kept straight and firm and you should breathe in and out through the nostrils. Move your shoulders back and your sit bones up towards the ceiling, arching you lower back and inhaling as you do so. Then, exhale and round your back up towards the ceiling and bow your head. Repeat this several times, making sure your movement and breathing is synchronised.

 

3. Deep breathing: Ok, this one isn’t technically a poses but as deep breathing frees your mind, opens your senses and gives you a feeling of self-sufficiency, I think we can let that slide. Plus, you can easily do this in the office without getting any funny looks, so you may be onto a winner here. All you need to do is sit upright, cross-legged like a yogi, or just in a chair if you don’t fancy flooring it. Make sure your spine is not compressed by lifting up and lengthening your body. Again you breathe in and out through your nose for this exercise. Simply inhale into your lower belly so that it naturally fills and puffs up a little bit. Using your abdominal tone, expand your ribs and widen your torso. This will already give you a sensation and motion in your breath that you may have never felt. Breathe up into your chest and lungs until the area expands so much that it stretched to your collarbone. Then, exhale deeply down through your body until all of the air is pushed out. If you’re a beginner, just do this for a few minutes, but build up to longer periods of time of this breathing.

 

Categories: body, Breathing, Deep Breathing, hip width, pose, poses, shoulder, shoulder width, sit bones, width, yoga

Phone a Friend: Simple Tricks to Help You Find Instant Calm

Stress seems to be an unavoidable part of modern life, and there are many wellness lifestyle changes you can make to fight it. With plenty of exercise and a balanced diet, you can really guard your mental wellness against stress and anxiety. However, sometimes, you just need something to help you snap out of it, and achieve instant calm, and a few tricks can help you do this.

Firstly, when you get the urge to mentally replay what went wrong over and over in your mind, Henry Emmons, MD, author of The Chemistry of Calm, says shift your focus to your body instead. Sit down in a quiet place and concentrate on feeling the seat beneath you, taking long, deep breaths from your diaphragm. If you inhale through your nose for a count of four, hold for two, and exhale through your mouth for seven, you can deepen your breathing, which helps calm your nervous system. ‘You can even practice your breathing when you’re not stressed, so you know exactly what deep-breathing counts soothe you,’ says Dr Emmons.

When you do this, don’t sit at your desk but, if you can, get outside. Staying in the office can keep your mind in ‘overwhelmed’ mode, but getting outside and breathing the fresh air can be exactly what you need. Let the moment you take outside clear your head of any thoughts about work or what’s bothering you, and you can tackle it again once you go back inside. If there are flowers about, even better! Studies have shown that inhaling scents, such as lavender, reset a stressed immune system to normal levels.

Yet eliminating stress doesn’t have to be something you do alone. When you spend time with your friends, it helps your body to pump out oxytocin – the feel-good hormone – so when you are having a crazily busy day, call a friend to have a chat during your lunch break or arrange to meet up in the evening. Regularly hanging out will give your wellbeing a continuous boost, but as Dr Emmons says, don’t turn your talks into bitch-fests as ranting will get you worked up again.

Finally, take care of your nights as well as your days. Often you can settle in for a good night’s sleep, and all your worries come rushing back and make it impossible. In turn, sleeplessness makes you more anxious, and thus begins a vicious cycle of stress. Instead, Sue Patton Thoele, author of The Mindful Woman, recommends grabbing a pen and paper (you might like to keep them near your bed) and jotting down your negative thoughts or to-dos. Though it seems counterintuitive, by getting your thoughts on paper, you can get them out of your head and put them aside to deal with later.

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Phone a Friend: Simple Tricks to Help You Find Instant Calm

Categories: Deep Breathing, Friends, Instant Calm