Build-on Series #2 – Morning Warriors
Build-on Series #1 – Surya Namaskara A&B
At the Core of You – The Deep Front Line
We hear the word everywhere – core. Strengthen your core. Work your core. Use your core. Feel your core. But what does it really mean – core?
Many years back I joined a local gym and hired a coach to train me for a while. A few sessions in I asked him what he thought the core was. He was a bit surprised over my question. Obviously, no client ever asked him that before me. People, in general, tend to not question a fitness coach about their general knowledge of anatomy. I must admit, though, this is NOT a basic anatomical question. Most of us believe the commonly connoted idea that the core equals our abdominal wall. Some better informed people throw in the spinal muscles (although not clear on which ones those may be) and may go in deeper detail regarding the four layers of the abdominal muscles. Great! I have no issue with this idea and I am not condemning those who aren’t sure because the core I am talking about is not often, if at all, mentioned in anatomy books and certainly not taught in most reputable personal training courses.
Continue reading “At the Core of You – The Deep Front Line”Gut Health #1
Boosting Performance With Essential Fatty Acids
By Fruzsina Páli and Alexis Louise Reda
There is something of critical importance that is missing in the conversation about essential fatty acids (EFAs), particularly omega-3s. Though the general benefits of omega-3s are very well documented, the correct and meaningful application of them is not, or at least, is only beginning to surface.
Upon scouring the mere observable deductions of research, we find solid evidence of these benefits. The following article will list these prevailing benefits of omega-3s, but then dive into discussing their underlying, oddly more simplistic-seeming effects on the body which produce this plethora of beneficial changes. It is the aim of this article, that after comprehensively conveying these fundamental physiological effects, the importance of correct EFA intake will become more obvious, immediately graspable, and compelling in the face of the burning modern question of omega-3 supplementation: to do or not to do.
But to tackle this topic fairly, we must start from the surface and work our way into its depths.
Continue reading “Boosting Performance With Essential Fatty Acids”Thoughts on Purpose and Fulfillment
By Nora Reda
We come to this world equipped with an arsenal of abilities, an abstract reflected through our soul as we slowly awaken to our consciousness as children. Some of us sense a stronger impulse to do something, to become someone particular, more than others. Yet, only a select few seem to really fulfill their heart’s desire and blossom, often very early on, into something the rest of us look upon as a prodigy. Needless to say, we are all talented in one way or another. Our potential is unlimited also. How is it then that some of us are struggling with finding a true passion in life? Why is it so difficult for us, as adults, to figure out our purpose in life?
Continue reading “Thoughts on Purpose and Fulfillment”The Fallacy of Optimality
By Alexis Louise Reda
Optimality is a measured, focused effort progressed over time – it is not the most output you can achieve at once.
Achieving optimality is not necessarily doing the absolute best and most you can do – that, by definition, is “absolute optimality”. It is great, but it does not correlate with maintaining desired outcomes such as dependable progress mid-term or long-term. We have other functions that demand energy in our lives, you know. Therefore what is more worth caring about is more often “relative optimality”: the most you can do WITH CONSIDERATION of all the other things you must dedicate energy for in your day, in your life. So don’t feel like you have to hurt after your workout or leave the computer with a headache and eyeache and buttache to have achieved something “optimally”, because that’s a fallacy. Even athletes 100% dedicated to their sport know that they cannot be their best by going 100% effort every session. In intelligent weight training, you don’t push to failure more than I’d say 20% of the time – and those events are programmed at very specific intervals in a training cycle (analogous to a life cycle). They will get you to another level, but never in isolation – never without the prerequisite of doing focus-based, quality repetitions relatively much farther away from maximum effort, around 80% of the time. This is focused action that results in providing just enough of a stimulus to get a positive training effect – an adaptation to the skill you are practicing that will make you better over time. Why not consider this for everything else in life, too?
Continue reading “The Fallacy of Optimality”Yoga and the Nervous System
Courtesy of Subtle Yoga by Kristine Kaoverii Weber
THE NERVOUS SYSTEM RESILIENCE BUILDING BENEFITS OF SLOW,
MINDFUL YOGA POSTURES
Slow, mindful yoga posture practice has health benefits (in addition to the usual exercise benefits) that can
help to build resilience in the nervous system. Yoga posture practice can:
Battling Belly Fat
By Alexis Louise Reda
This is a tough thing for a lot of people, because we cannot target specific areas of the body telling it to lose fat predominantly there.
There is an illusion that hovers about in the fitness realm, that if you focus on training that specific region of the body you can “spot reduce” – but what happens to the target region instead, which contributes to this misconception, is that you build muscle in that region, therefore, that new, bigger muscle would show through at a higher body fat percentage than you would need to be at otherwise to see that definition you most likely desire.
You wanna look “tight” a.k.a. “toned”, as some may say, after all, right? That is what you wish to accomplish when you think you want to lose fat?
Continue reading “Battling Belly Fat”My Spin on Meditation
By Alexis Louise Reda
Perhaps what repels people from practicing meditation at all or with a degree of regularity is that they have expectations about what it should be. In other words… You think there is a precise way to do it and you don’t know how; or you fear you won’t get it or that it will be hard or take too much time to get into it; or in that case, you just don’t wanna research it because you’re afraid that even then you can never be certain that you’re getting it right. I know, I’m blabbering on… BUT THIS IS HOW OUR MINDS SOUND LIKE!
Yes. It’s normal.
Continue reading “My Spin on Meditation”