Motion Health & Fitness

Category: exercise

  • Don’t Fall Prey to Sitting Disease!

    Don’t Fall Prey to Sitting Disease!

     

    The Benefits of Standing vs Sitting

    The Mayo Clinic conducted a 10-year, $20 million research study on nutrition, activity and behavior related to weight management and obesity prevention.
     
    The research determined that sedentary environments are a primary contributor to the rise in obesity that increases health costs and takes a toll on quality of life.
     
    This research supported the value of N.E.A.T. (Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis), which is all the calories one burns while doing normal, non-exercise activity.
     
    Much of our health depends upon adequate, regular movement. In fact, all movement counts toward our health, and non-exercise activity is crucial. Our bodies were designed to move and when we don’t, our physical health deteriorates.
     
    One culprit driving the obesity epidemic is “sitting disease.” Most of us spend 10-15 hours a day just sitting!
     
    No matter how much you exercise, sitting for excessively long periods of time is a risk factor for early death, according to a 2017 study in Annals of Internal Medicine.
     
    There’s a direct relationship between time spent sitting and your risk of early mortality of any cause, researchers said, based on a study of nearly 8,000 adults. As your total sitting time increases, so does your risk of an early death.
     
    The positive news: people who sat for less than 30 minutes at a time had the lowest risk of early death.
     
    Replacing a few hours of sitting at your desk with standing can lead to significant health benefits over time. In addition to the cardiovascular and musculoskeletal benefits, there is also a significant difference in calories burned.
     
    A study by the BBC and the University of Chester found remarkable health benefits of standing versus sitting. Standing caused participants to have a much higher heart rate (around 10 beats per minute higher), which adds up to burning about 50 calories more per hour versus sitting. Over a year, that adds up to about 30,000 more calories or 8 pounds of fat.
     
    There are many documented benefits of standing, such as reducing your risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, certain types of cancer and back pain.
     
    The general rule is to not sit more than 30 minutes without standing or getting up and moving. Set an alarm on your watch, phone or computer to remind you to get up after you’ve been sitting for 30 minutes. Move around or walk for five minutes to help reduce the health risks from all that sitting.
     
    Get in Motion. Stay in Motion.
  • Exercise Can Help Relieve Depression And Anxiety

    Exercise Can Help Relieve Depression And Anxiety

     

    Exercise — it’s good for your mind too.
     
    Depression is widespread, affecting people of all backgrounds. Globally, more than 300 million people of all ages suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, says WHO, and at its worst can lead to suicide.
     
    In the US, nearly 16 million Americans have experienced depression at some point in their lives. Women may be more susceptible than men, though the latter are less likely to report depression to their doctors. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) found that approximately 8.2 percent of women and 4.8 percent of men in the United States are depressed during a 12-month period.
     
    According to the 2014 NSDUH data, depression is most likely to strike adults aged 18 to 25, though there is a second bump in depression rates among the elderly.
     
    Though antidepressant medications are commonly prescribed to treat the condition, research shows that exercise is also an effective treatment. For some people, it works as well as antidepressants, according to Harvard Medical School. Like depression, anxiety symptoms also often improve with exercise, as does stress.
     
    Regular exercise releases feel-good substances — such as endorphins, seratonin and other natural brain chemicals — that can lift your mood and enhance your sense of well-being. Exercise also spurs the release of proteins called growth factors, which cause nerve cells to grow and make new connections. The resulting improvement in brain function makes you feel better.
     
    Though many people begin to feel better after just a few weeks of regular exercise, it is a long-term treatment that cannot be abandoned as soon as you begin feeling well.
     
    Aside from improving mood and reducing anxiety, exercise can have other psychological benefits too. It can make you feel accomplished and good about yourself. No one ever regrets or feels guilty about exercising. But we can experience those feelings as a result of not exercising. It’s easy to have regrets about drinking too much, eating too much sugar or other junk foods or just eating too much in general. But no one ever feels guilty about exercising; it’s positive and uplifting.
     
    Doing 30 or more minutes of exercise a day, three to five days a week, may significantly improve depression or anxiety symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic. More-vigorous activities, such as running or stair climbing, may make a difference in as little as 10 to 15 minutes at a time.
     
    Performing exercises you enjoy, and a variety of them, will make you more likely to follow through and stick with the program. Simply put, enjoyment will lead to adherence and positive outcomes. Make sure to put exercise into your daily schedule, just as you would with anything that is truly important in your life.
     
    Finding a personal trainer can help keep you accountable and dedicated to a well-structured program, which will in turn make you feel better physically, emotionally and psychologically.
     
    If you exercise regularly but depression or anxiety symptoms still interfere with your daily living, see your doctor or mental health professional.
  • Train to Maintain Strong, Healthy, Stable Shoulders

    Train to Maintain Strong, Healthy, Stable Shoulders

    One of the consequences of modern living is that many people have poor posture — most notably, rounded, internally rotated shoulders. This poor posture results in pain, limited movement, and also diminished, shallow breathing, which leaves people oxygen deprived and tired.
     
    Everyday things — such as using a smartphone, using a computer, sitting for extended periods, writing, drawing, cooking, driving and carrying heavy objects (including babies and children) — can all lead to rounded shoulders (aka, poor posture) and poor shoulder function.
     
    Being hunched forward not only affects appearance (ever see a clothing model or a mannequin with slumped shoulders?), it also increases stress on the shoulder joints and can cause pain around the neck and upper back.
     
    A person standing with their arms at their sides has a natural inward arm rotation of about 15 degrees. This is the neutral position of the arm. Problems arise when the arm rotates too far inward, disrupting the shoulder and causing joint pain and injury. Indeed, excessive internal arm rotation is one of the most common musculoskeletal imbalances of the shoulder girdle.
     
    Exercises that focus on external rotation of the arm at the shoulder socket (the glenohumeral joint) can help alleviate rounded shoulders, while building strength and stability in the joint.
     
    The rotator cuff is a very critical muscle group, but it is also very vulnerable. Many middle-aged and older people have very poor shoulder function because they have a faulty rotator cuff. This is usually attributed to weak rotator cuff muscles (particularly the external rotators) and relatively strong deltoid muscles.
     
    In addition to rotating the humerus (upper arm), the rotator cuff is also responsible for stabilization of the humerus inside the shoulder joint.
     
    There’s an old axiom about joints: the more stable they are, the less mobile they are (think of your elbow). Conversely, the more mobile they are, the less stable they are (think of your shoulder).
     
    One of the primary problems with the shoulder is that it is a highly mobile ball-and-socket joint. Another problem is that the internal rotators of the shoulder are much bigger and stronger than the external rotators. Consequently, the external rotators are typically the weakest link in the shoulder joint.
     
    The rotator cuff muscles predominantly stabilize the glenohumeral joint, but also contribute significantly to movement.
     
    The four rotator cuff muscles are:
     
    • Supraspinatus (the most frequently torn tendon in the shoulder)
    • Infraspinatus
    • Teres minor
    • Subscapularis
     
    The external rotators of the shoulder are the infraspinatus, teres minor and posterior deltoid, the latter of which is not part of the rotor cuff. So, just two of the four rotator cuff muscles perform external rotation of the upper arm.
     
    Subscapularis is the main internal rotator of the shoulder. It is also the largest and strongest cuff muscle.
     
    The other internal rotators are the latissimus dorsi (the widest muscle in the human body), pectoralis major (a large, powerful muscle), teres major and anterior deltoid.
     
    So, the internal rotators outnumber the external rotators five to three.
     
    Given the size and strength of the internal rotators, they easily overpower the smaller (and fewer) external rotators. For this reason, regularly strengthening the external rotators is critical to good shoulder health and injury prevention.
     
     
    However, since the external rotators of the shoulder joint are located on the posterior aspect (back) of the body, many people neglect them when training (out of sight, out of mind).
     
    Regular and consistent strengthening of the latissimus dorsi and pectoralis major can result in a shortening and tightening of these internal rotators and, over time, a weakening of the external rotators, particularly if they are ignored. This leads to dysfunctional, imbalanced shoulders.
     
    A sound exercise program should include exercises that strengthen the external rotators, which will create joint balance and lessen the chances of shoulder injury. Ideally, your exercises should stabilize, strengthen and protect your shoulder joints, giving you pain-free movement and healthy, highly functional shoulders.
  • Closed Chain vs. Open Chain Exercises

    Closed Chain vs. Open Chain Exercises

     

    Some of my clients have heard me refer to “closed-chain” and “open-chain” kinetic exercises (kinetic relates to movement or motion).
     
    The “chain” I’m referring to is the kinetic chain of the body. All of your bones and muscles are connected in a chain; therefore the movements you make are also part of that kinetic chain.
     
    Do you remember the song “Dem Bones” from your childhood?
     
    Toe bone connected to the foot bone
    Foot bone connected to the heel bone
    Heel bone connected to the ankle bone
    Ankle bone connected to the shin bone
    Shin bone connected to the knee bone
    Knee bone connected to the thigh bone
    Thigh bone connected to the hip bone
    Hip bone connected to the back bone
    Back bone connected to the shoulder bone
    Shoulder bone connected to the neck bone
    Neck bone connected to the head bone
    Dem bones, dem bones gonna walk around
     
    It’s true! Our bones, tendons and ligaments are just a series of connected links in our human chain, which is powered and pulled by our muscles.
     
    In a closed chain, the end of the chain farthest from the body is fixed. A good example is the squat, in which your feet are fixed on the floor and the rest of the leg chain (and torso) moves. In open-chain exercises, the end is free, such as during a seated leg extension.
     
    During open-chain exercises, your hand or foot is free to move, such as when performing a triceps extension or a hamstring curl. These types of movements tend to isolate a single muscle group and a single joint. In an open-chain movement, the end of the chain farthest from the body — usually the hand or foot, and referred to as the “distal aspect of the extremity” — moves freely and is not fixed to an object.
     
    When weight is added to an open-chain exercise, it is usually placed at the distal portion of the limb, such as the hand or foot. Examples of open-chain exercises include chest presses, biceps curls, leg curls and leg extensions.
     
    In the closed chain, movement at one segment produces movement at all the other joints. For example, during a squat, the movement at the knee joint is accompanied by movement at the hip and ankle joints. In essence, closed-chain exercises work multiple joints and multiple muscle groups at once.
     
    During closed-chain exercises, your hands or feet are in a constant, fixed position (usually on the ground), such as when performing pushups. In a closed-chain movement, the distal end of the extremity is fixed, emphasizing joint compression and, in turn, stabilizing the joints.
     
    As a result, closed-chain exercises are safer for your joints—especially the knee joint—because the force involved is compressive, meaning it actually stabilizes the joint and helps to strengthen it.
     
    In contrast, open-chain leg exercises — such as knee extensions or hamstring curls — produce shear force, which stresses the knee joint (and the ACL) and are more likely to result in injury.
     
    I typically refrain from having my clients use the knee-extension machine. This movement is performed with the thigh fixed to the machine, and the force generated by the quadriceps moves the tibia (shin bone) across the femur (thigh bone). I prefer the squat — a closed-chain exercise — in which the trunk, hip and knee extensors act as prime movers, moving the femur across the tibia, which (along with the foot) is the fixed distal segment. The squat is a safer, more real-world exercise, since it better stimulates motor recruitment patterns of the central nervous system (CNS), compared to the knee extension.
     
    This is not to say that open-chain exercises are neither safe or useful, because they often are. Some therapists will use open-chain exercises for rehabilitation and these exercises are also ideal when training for a sport that requires the use of open-chain activities, such as throwing a ball.
     
    I employ both open-chain and closed-chain exercises in my training sessions, but there is no doubt that I favor the closed-chain variety.
     
    Closed-chain exercises work many muscle groups at once, which means that you can get more return from the energy expended. Closed-chain exercises also better mimic activities of daily living, which means they improve your “functional” fitness. They’re also great for athletes because sports require the movement of multiple joints and muscles all at once. Open-chain exercises isolate joints and muscles in a way that is uncommon in many athletic movements or daily activities.
     
    Examples of closed-chain exercises include pushups, pull-ups, squats and lunges, all of which can be done with or without added weight.
     
    If an athlete, for example, uses an open-chain leg press in attempt to develop explosive strength for sprinting, they will never achieve optimal performance using this alone.
     
    However, alternating between open and closed-chain exercises serves to more fully develop both the CNS and the musculature due to the variety of recruitment patterns needed. An example would be performing both squats and leg presses, pull-ups and pull-downs, and/or pushups and chest presses, in the same workout.
     
    A variety of movements and exercises will achieve the best results, but the closed-chain exercises should comprise the bulk of your workouts.
  • Walking Has Many Benefits, Even for Runners

    Walking Has Many Benefits, Even for Runners

     

    While running is more physically demanding than walking, the latter is still a good form of exercise and a great recovery tool for runners. Running the same speed and distance each day can lead to plateauing. Walking, which is lower impact, can allow your body to recover and enable better results over the long term.
     
    Running will lead to greater cardiorespiratory fitness than walking, as well as more calories burned in an equal period of time. However, walking is a better alternative for people with ankle, knee or back injuries (including recent surgeries), as well as for people who are obese. Walking puts less stress on joints and can reduce the pains associated with running.
     
    Like running, walking can improve heart health, improve circulation and improve posture. Walking can also help reduce the risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease and even cancer.
     
    The key is to walk with a sense of purpose by engaging in at least moderate-intensity walking. Walking can even be a form of interval training. By repeatedly raising and lowering your speed and (if you are on a treadmill) the incline, you can also raise and lower your heart rate intermittently, which is a great calorie burner. You can even intersperse short runs, of say a block or two or a minute or two, into your walks. 
     
    Walking uphill or on an incline places more demand on the body, particularly the leg muscles. You’ll notice it in your heart rate, as well. The higher you set the incline on the treadmill, the more you activate your glutes, quadriceps and calves, and the more energy you use. That means more calories burned.
     
    One common mistake that people make when using a treadmill is holding onto the handrails. This takes away from muscle engagement and the energy required to walk or run at the level you set. Remember, there are no handrails when you walk outside and you manage that quite well!
     
    Like running, walking can clear your mind, improve mood,nd alleviate anxiety and depression.
     
    So, put on some comfy athletic shoes, get hydrated and get in motion.
  • Is Your Weight Training Intensity Adequate?

    Is Your Weight Training Intensity Adequate?

    Through many years at the gym, I’ve often seen women using the same 5-pound dumbbells for a variety of exercises: chess presses, shoulder presses, rows, bicep curls, lateral raises, front raises and more. Since weights should be thought of as tools, this is tantamount to using a screwdriver for every task, when sometimes you need a hammer or a wrench.
     
    For example, the weight you use for a chest press should be heavier than the weight you use for a shoulder press, which should he heavier than the weight you use for a lateral raise.
     
    As you work out consistently, you should grow stronger over time, necessitating the use of heavier weights for each exercise. This is especially true in the early stages of a workout program, when strength gains are most pronounced.
     
    It’s not just women either. I’ve often seen men using the same 25-pound dumbbells for an exercise that they’ve been performing for years. They make no progress because their program is not built on progression.
     
    Your body is a demand-based system. That is, the more you demand of it, the more it will produce. If you don’t steadily, but incrementally, increase the demand, your workouts and your results will stagnate.
     
    Aside from the fact that you shouldn’t be lifting the same exact weight for a variety of exercises, you shouldn’t be lifting the same exact weight for the same exercise, week after week, month after month.
     
    In short, weight training is meant to be progressive. You shouldn’t be lifting the same amount of weight today that you did one year ago. You should have gotten stronger; you should have progressed.
     
    However, sometimes your body needs a break from heavy lifting. Take it easy once a week and work on muscular endurance instead of just strength. Give your muscles a break, while still remaining active in the gym.
     
    How do you know if you are (or are not) using a high enough weight, aka, working out at the proper intensity?
     
    First, let’s define intensity, which is based on the maximum number of repetitions that can be performed with a given weight. The one-repetition maximum (1RM) is an ideal baseline:
     
    • High Intensity = 80–100% of your 1-rep max (1RM); typically 1-5 reps
    • Medium Intensity = 60–80% of your 1-rep max (1RM); 6-12 reps
    • Low Intensity = 10–40% of your 1-rep max (1RM); 15 or more reps
     
    The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA) provides the following guidelines:
     
    • Hypertrophy (muscle growth) = 6-12 RM
    • Strength = 6, or fewer, RM
    • Power = 1-2 RM
     
    In order for your muscles to undergo an adaptation from training (i.e., to grow stronger or bigger), they must be stressed by working against a weight/load/stimulus that is greater than what they are accustomed.
     
    Don’t stop an exercise simply because you have reached 10 or 12 reps. Perform each exercise to the point of momentary muscular failure, whether that’s 12, 10, eight or six reps.
     
    Increasing weight means a reduction of reps. If, for example, you can chest press 40-pound dumbbells 10 times to failure, that means you shouldn’t be able to press 50-pound dumbbells 10 times (if you can, you should be working out with the 50s, not the 40s). It’s likely that you can only press the 50s six times or eight times, or whatever it might be.
     
    If the current weight you are lifting isn’t challenging, you need to increase that weight. Strength training is meant to be challenging, because the whole point is to “overload” your muscles so they become stronger.
     
    Simply put, if you can do more than 12 repetitions, you should increase the weight. Everyone could stand to be stronger. 
     
    If you determine that it’s time to increase your resistance for a particular exercise, do this by adding no more than 10 percent at a time. For example, if you’re currently lifting 50 pounds, you’d increase that by five pounds to 55 pounds. This incremental increase should keep you safe and prevent injury. It’s important to maintain good form with a new, higher weight.
     
    Remember, if you don’t make your muscles work harder than they’re accustomed, they won’t get stronger (which is the whole point). If you train progressively, your muscles will grow stronger in order to meet the increasing demands you are placing on them.
     
    Lastly, recognize that some days you will feel like the Incredible Hulk, while on other days you will feel like a mere mortal. It’s okay; it’s all part of the process. Don’t beat yourself up over a bad training day. We all have them from time to time. 
  • Get Fit in the Gym; Lose Weight in the Kitchen

    Get Fit in the Gym; Lose Weight in the Kitchen

    Exercise has numerous benefits, the least of which is weight loss. Focus on the many health benefits of exercise, not just your weight. 

    Whether it’s a New Year’s resolution, a birthday, or the recommendation of a doctor, most Americans will determine to lose weight at some point during the year. It’s little surprise.
     
    In 2017, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that almost 40 percent of American adults and nearly 20 percent of adolescents are obese — the highest rates ever recorded for the U.S.
     
    In all, more than 70 percent of Americans are now either overweight or obese, meaning that an unhealthy weight has become the norm, with healthy-weight Americans — who have a BMI of less than 25 — now in the minority.
     
    However, while exercise is great for overall health in a multitude of ways, it isn’t the most effective means of weight loss.
     
    A lot of personal trainers may not want their clients to know this, but I think it’s important to set the record straight and to set a framework for reasonable expectations.
     
    The number of calories you burn when exercising account for a rather small portion of your total, daily energy expenditure.
     
    There are three main components to energy expenditure: 1.) basal metabolic rate, or the energy used for basic functioning when the body is at rest; 2.) the energy used to break down food; and 3.) the energy used in physical activity.
     
    Your basal metabolic rate (BMR) is the single biggest source of energy expenditure, responsible for about 70 percent of the calories burned each day. Digesting your food accounts for roughly another 10 percent. The remaining 20 percent, or so, can be burned through exercise.
     
    However, if you’ve ever walked on a treadmill, for example, you may be disappointed by just how few calories you burn.
     
    Your weight and the distance you walk are the biggest factors in how many calories you burn while walking. A rule of thumb is that about 100 calories per mile are burned for an 180-pound person and 65 calories per mile are burned for a 120-pound person.
     
    In other words, if a 180-pound person walks two miles, they would burn just 200 calories. If that person walks at a fairly brisk 4-miles-per-hour, it would take them 30 minutes to burn those 200 calories. That’s a pretty small payoff for that amount of time.
     
    In short, there’s a huge discrepancy between the number of calories you intake and the number of calories you expend while exercising.
     
    The average American consumes more than 3,600 calories daily – a 24% increase from 1961, when the average was just 2,880 calories, according to The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
     
    To make matters worse, various studies have shown that people generally overestimate how much energy they burn while exercising and that they eat more when they work out.
     
    In a nutshell, if you’re trying to burn off all those excess calories at the gym, you’re going to be greatly disappointed.
     
    By far, the most critical factor for weight loss is limiting caloric consumption. It’s as plain as that.
     
    People who decide to reward themselves with food because they exercise — whether it’s larger portions, seconds, dessert, etc. — are setting themselves up for failure. They’re just taking one step forward and then two steps back. All the hard work done at the gym on any given day can be erased with just one excessive meal.
     
    Exercise has numerous benefits, aside from calorie burning: strengthening the heart (your most important muscle) and the arteries; lowering blood pressure; lowering resting heart rate; strengthening muscles, bones, tendons and ligaments; lowering resting blood sugar levels and sensitivity; lowering bad cholesterol, while raising good cholesterol; preventing many cancers; better sleep; improved mood and mental state; stress management and on and on.
     
    Weight training, in particular, is the closest thing to the fountain of youth that humanity has yet discovered. Yes, numerous studies have shown that strength training can actually reverse the aging process!
     
    None of this is to say that exercise, particularly strength training, cannot positively affect weight loss; it just shouldn’t be the primary focus.
     
    Resistance training may significantly increase resting metabolic rate (RMR) by increasing muscle mass. That’s because muscle mass alone contributes about 22 percent to RMR. An increase in RMR will result in more calories burned throughout the day, even when you’re not working out.
     
    RMR is generally depressed during caloric restriction, such as when individuals are dieting. This makes strength training especially important since it can elevate RMR, even when dieting. The problem for dieters who don’t strength train is that they not only lose body fat, they also lose muscle mass. That’s ultimately counterproductive to their long-term goal of maintianing weight loss.
     
    The important thing to remember is that exercise has many, many benefits, but weight loss is not the primary one. Reducing calories is central to weight loss.
     
    The focus of exercise should be the plethora of health benefits, both mental and physical, that can be achieved through a regular, committed workout program.
  • Sleep Vital to Muscle Recovery, Muscle Growth and Weight Management

    Sleep Vital to Muscle Recovery, Muscle Growth and Weight Management

     

    Since we were children, we’ve all heard the advice that we should get eight hours of sleep each night. With 24 hours in a day, that amounts to a third of the day and, ultimately, a third of our lives.
     
    Unfortunately, most of us are missing the mark.
     
    The National Sleep Foundation recommends 7-9 hours of sleep per night. However, it says that around 40 percent of us get less than 7 hours. Moreover, a survey by Gallup finds that Americans currently average 6.8 hours of sleep at night, down more than an hour from 1942.
     
    Life has gotten faster and more hectic at the expense of our sleep and, ultimately, our health.
     
    Scientists are still discovering the myriad of reasons we need sleep and just how valuable it is. For example, in studies on rats deprived of sleep for just five days, the end result was death. Sleep was found to be as essential as food because the rats died just about as quickly from sleep deprivation as from food deprivation.
     
    For athletes and exercise enthusiasts, sleep is vital to athletic performance, as well as muscle growth and recovery.
     
    Protein synthesis occurs when we sleep, provided that protein is ingested prior to sleep. This is why it’s useful to eat some protein, or drink a protein shake, before bed.
     
    Sleep is also the time when our bodies produce growth hormone. In men, 60% to 70% of daily growth hormone secretion occurs during the early stages of sleep, which is typically when the deepest sleep cycles occur. Consequently, poor quality sleep can negatively effect human growth hormone levels.
     
    Additionally, the total amount of growth hormone secreted by men in their 30s and 40s deceases significantly, meaning that sleep becomes even more vital as we age.
     
    Yet, sleep is vital at every age. Research shows that sleep deprivation in otherwise healthy young men can result in decreased testosterone levels and increased spikes of cortisol, a stress hormone.
     
    Furthermore, lean muscle is regenerated in the final couple of hours of sleep each night. During REM (late-stage) sleep, the body undergoes several critical processes, including: restoring organs, bones and other tissues; replenishing immune cells; and circulating human growth hormone. For these reasons, sleep has a significant effect on muscle growth and recovery.
     
    Research shows that being sleep-deprived can actually encourage loss of muscle mass and hinder muscle recovery after a tough workout. Ultimately, sleep is vital in order for the body to grow and repair muscle.
     
    Then there’s the issue of weight management.
     
    Research shows that people who don’t sleep for 7-8 hours a night are more prone to weight gain.
     
    When you’re sleep deprived, leptin (the hormone that signals satiety) falls, while ghrelin (which signals hunger) rises. This combination leads to an increase in appetite. Additionally, sleep deprivation tends to lead to food cravings, particularly for sweet and starchy foods.
     
    Researchers have suggested that these sugar cravings stem from the fact that your brain is fueled by glucose (blood sugar). Therefore, when you lack sleep your brain is unable to properly respond to insulin (which drives glucose into brain cells), so it becomes desperate for carbohydrates to keep going. If you’re chronically sleep deprived, consistently giving in to these sugar cravings will virtually guarantee that you’ll gain weight.
     
    Getting too little sleep also dramatically decreases the sensitivity of your insulin receptors, which will raise your insulin levels. This, too, is a surefire way to gain weight, as the insulin will seriously impair your body’s ability to burn and digest fat. Getting proper sleep is therefore crucial for maintaining a healthy weight.
     
    Several large-scale studies from all over the world have reported a link between short sleep times and obesity, as well as heart disease, high blood pressure and stroke. This indicates that we are not biologically designed for sleep deprivation. In fact, other than humans, there is no other mammal that deprives itself of sleep. This deprivation puts great stress on the mind and body.
     
    Sleep deprived subjects are found to be hungrier, less alert and, most importantly, unable to metabolize sugar effectively, putting them at increased risk for Type 2 diabetes. In one study, in which sleep was restricted to four hours per night for six nights, the subjects ended up in a pre-diabetic state. Consequently, in addition to aging, overweight/obesity and family history, sleep deprivation may be a new risk factor for diabetes.
     
    Research indicates that, aside from proper diet and exercise, sleep must now be viewed as essential to good health. Ultimately, lack of sleep impacts our appetite, our metabolism, our memory and even how we age.
     
    The good news is that napping can help too. Brand new research is showing that long naps, including REM sleep, can even improve emotional outlook, making people less sensitive to negative experiences and more receptive to positive ones.
     
    So, make sure you get about eight hours of restful sleep each night, and don’t worry about sleeping a third of your life away.
     
    Go on, get some sleep.
  • Making Exercise a Habit

    Making Exercise a Habit

    It’s said that old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form. This is especially true with exercise. If you are not in the habit of exercising, maintaining that habit is effortless. To begin the habit of exercising, however, takes a lot of resolve, determination and effort.

    The behavioral patterns that are most often repeated become etched into our neural pathways. For this same reason, the process of repetition allows us to form—and maintain—new habits.
     
    Behaviors eventually become routine, which is what happens for people who exercise regularly. For these people, going to the gym or for a run, for example, become routine behaviors, which in time become habits.
     
    Habits are typically governed by reward. In essence, a habit is something your brain likes. Exercise makes people feel good physically and emotionally. After exercising, people usually feel accomplished and proud. Exercise can make you feel that you’ve done something constructive and beneficial for yourself.
     
    The more consistent an action is, the more likely it is to become a habit. This means that exercising every day is more likely to result in habit formation.
     
    One useful idea is to schedule your exercise for a given time each day, as you would with a personal trainer. Accountability is critical to maintaining your schedule and forming a habit.
     
    If you are planning to begin exercising, start modestly. Don’t take on too much, too soon. In other words, don’t set yourself up for failure. Make it easy for yourself to repeat the behavior. Don’t make exercise so strenuous in the initial stages that it gives you good reason not to do it. Make it easy enough that you set yourself up to succeed. Exercise can become progressively more challenging, or difficult, over time.
     
    Don’t become obsessed with results. Just exercising is the only result you should focus on in the beginning. Don’t concern yourself with high intensities or long durations at the outset. The only result that you should be concerned with at the outset is making exercise habitual.
     
    If your goal is to lose weight, don’t obsess on that. Consider the myriad of health benefits that result from exercise; weight loss is merely one of them, even if it comes slowly.
     
    Be aware of any progress that you’re making. Do your clothes fit better? Can you lift heavier weights? Is your endurance or stamina improving? Are you sleeping better? Do you have more energy? Are your muscles becoming less sore after you’ve been working out for a while?
     
    If you’re a morning person, work out in the morning. Stay true to your nature. If you’re not a morning person, don’t try to force yourself to be one. However, if you plan to exercise after work, bring your gear and go straight to the gym. Don’t go home first because it can only give you reasons to stay home and not work out at all.
     
    Alternating your workouts each day between different exercises (running, swimming, biking and strength training, for example) can be invigorating and motivational. At the least, it can fight boredom and repetition. We’ve all heard the saying, variety is the spice of life. So, spice things up by varying your workouts.
     
    Missing a workout does not mean you have broken the habit formation process or that you have ruined your momentum or rhythm. If you miss a day, don’t go on a guilt trip. Just get going again the next day.
     
    The oft-cited assertion that it takes 21 days to form a habit comes from Dr. Maxwell Maltz’s 1960 best-selling book “Psycho-Cybernetics.” Maltz, who noticed that patients tended to grow accustomed to their surgical outcomes in about 21 days, wrote that, “… it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
     
    Since then, the 21-day adjustment period has been continually repeated as fact. In reality, Maltz wrote that it took a minimum of 21 days for people to adjust. Yet, research suggests that it usually takes significantly longer than that.
     
    For example, in a 2009 European Journal of Social Psychology study, researchers asked 96 people to attempt to forge a single healthy habit.
     
    They found that it took participants anywhere from 18 to a whopping 254 days to fully form their habit of choice; exactly how long it took depended on how big or lifestyle-changing the habit was. However, the researchers concluded that, on average, it takes 66 days to form a single healthy habit.
     
    So, if you can stick to your exercise plan for roughly two months, your consistent behavior should become engrained as habit.
     
    Remember this: Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.
     
    The beauty of habits is that they hold up even when motivation wanes, according to a scientific review from the University College London’s Health Behaviour Research Centre.
     
    Newton’s law of motion is a good metaphor for the habit of exercise:
     
    “An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion.”
  • Exercise Can Strengthen and Protect Your Arteries

    Exercise Can Strengthen and Protect Your Arteries

     

    Through time and neglect (such as smoking and not exercising, for example), your arteries can become clogged, brittle and otherwise damaged. Healthy arteries are flexible and elastic, which help them to push blood to and from the heart. However, over time, the walls in your arteries can become rigid and inflexible, which is known as hardening of the arteries.
     
    Arteriosclerosis occurs when arteries become thick and stiff, which can restrict blood flow to your organs and tissues.
     
    Atherosclerosis refers to the buildup of plaques — such as fats, cholesterol, calcium and other substances in and on your artery walls — which can also restrict blood flow. These plaques can trigger blood clots. Consequently, atherosclerosis can lead to serious problems, including heart attack, stroke, or even death.
     
    Atherosclerosis may start with damage or injury inside an artery, which can be caused by high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, diabetes and smoking. Blood cells and plaques can lump together at the injury site, building up inside the artery. This causes the arteries to harden and narrow, restricting blood flow.
     
    The good news is that atherosclerosis is treatable and may even be preventable. Exercise, a healthy diet and weight management can all treat atherosclerosis and help prevent it. Of course, exercise is known to aid weight loss, but it has numerous additional benefits for the heart and arteries, as well.
     
    As you age, your arteries become stiffer, stickier and narrower. But scientists in Italy found that in people who exercised regularly, age had a much smaller effect on their arteries.
     
    Exercise keeps arteries healthy by lowering bad cholesterol and boosting good cholesterol. Regular low or moderate-intensity exercise can reduce levels of LDL (bad) cholesterol and fat in your blood and arteries. More intense levels of exercise can raise HDL (good) cholesterol, which protects your heart.
     
    Exercise also reduces other risk factors for atherosclerosis and blood clots, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity and stress.
     
    Additionally, exercise has been shown to reduce inflammation in the arteries and to help keep blood vessels flexible and open. Flexible arteries are elastic and able to stretch, allowing more blood to flow when it’s needed.
     
    This enables your body to maintain its blood pressure level at normal levels, even during exercise or stressful events, which eases the pressure on your cardiovascular system.
     
    The American Heart Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend at least 30 minutes of moderately intense exercise almost every day to make sure that your body remains healthy.
     
    Find exercises that you enjoy and then commit to a long term, regular program. Whatever you do, just get in motion and stay in motion.