Dead Sea Salt and The Benefits For Your Skin

Dead Sea Salt and The Benefits For Your Skin
Our skin takes a beating all year long. We're always looking for new products to soften, nourish, and replenish our skin.
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Healthy Airport Choices for Weight Loss

Healthy Airport Choices for Weight Loss

This week I’m doing something I never thought I’d ever do. I’m taking on a challenge from Princess Cruises http://www.princess.com/ - a seven-day sail aboard the Crown Princess in the Western Caribbean (hello sunshine!) and not gain, or better yet, lose weight. I’ve been gathering tips from friends, family and readers on twitter and have a pretty good plan but what will also be challenging is the journey to the ship.

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Why Backyard Farming Is Not An Answer To Factory Farming

Why Backyard Farming Is Not An Answer To Factory Farming
My Japanese quail, Trevor, joined our family after we found him wandering our backyard in St. Paul, Minnesota. Trevor, like so many other “poultry species", is a victim of the interest in backyard farming. He likely is an escapee from a farmer intending him for the dinner plate, or was dumped when recognized as a “worthless” rooster

© Melissa Swanson

My Japanese quail, Trevor, joined our family after we found him wandering our backyard in St. Paul, Minnesota. Trevor, like so many other “poultry species”, is a victim of the interest in backyard farming. He likely is an escapee from a farmer intending him for the dinner plate, or was dumped when recognized as a “worthless” rooster.

Chicken Run Rescue (CRR) in Minneapolis sees many abandoned roosters. Most are wandering the streets, some in very busy areas, until they are found by Animal Control or Good Samaritans. Often these birds are in rough shape: some have signs of ropes around their feet or necks; many are injured or ill. Untold numbers are never found and succumb to weather, predation or starvation.

Roosters in urban farming, as in commercial farming, are considered “useless”. Most will not keep them as companions or, as in St. Paul, cannot keep them due to bans on roosters. The average layer produces until about only 2 years of age. After that, her production decreases or ceases. She can no longer pay for her feed by feeding humans. These unwanted birds place a burden on groups like CRR, Animal Place and Farm Sanctuary as the number of displaced birds continues to increase.

In backyard farms quite a few animals are kept in pens that are unsafe, too small or inadequately fulfilling the animals’ basic needs. Most coops offer hens bare minimum square footage to keep costs lower and to work within as small a footprint as possible. While they are offered more room than the average battery or free range bird, the hens are still unnaturally cramped. Most coops are made with the ease of the farmer in mind rather than the comfort of the birds.

For example, in our home, Trevor (who is about 1/8 the size of a hen) has nearly 8 square feet to himself and he can run, flap his wings, dust bathe and perform other natural behaviors. For hens, coop size per bird was suggested at 4 square feet with a 8-to-10 square-foot run where they’d spend most of their time. One hen in Trevor’s pen could barely spread her wings and could take only a few steps in any direction. While better than the tight spaces in commercial farming, it’s still inadequate for an active, intelligent bird.

If we respect and love these animals, as backyard farmers profess to, then we wouldn’t abandon or kill them when they cease to give us more than they take. All birds deserve a home where we ask nothing from them except the chance to share their lives and enjoy them as individuals*.

*I also have also on occasion asked Trevor to stop crowing at 4 am so mommy and daddy can sleep. Results vary.

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Improve Your Skin With The Benefits Of Unrefined Shea Butter

Improve Your Skin With The Benefits Of Unrefined Shea Butter
Unrefined shea butter is a natural moisturizer with amazing skin care benefits. Learn about the benefits of shea butter and the differences between unrefined and refined shea.
Source: EzineArticles.com

Change a Bad Habit in 28 Days

Change a Bad Habit in 28 Days

We all have habits we'd like to change.  But it seems nearly impossible to reprogram our daily routines, even when our well-being is at stake.  For many of us, weight loss is essential to improve our blood pressure, prevent diabetes or save a relationship.  According to one author, changing a single bad habit to lose weight takes just 28 days.

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How To Breathe Properly During Weightlifting

Breathing: it’s a very relaxing word. When I think of breathing, I think of yoga classes, meditation. However, breathing can help facilitate many different things…even intense workouts. From increasing abdominal pressure, to increasing recovery time between exercise sets, there are a lot of useful purposes for owning our breathing mechanics. “Breathe In On The Way [...]

The post How To Breathe Properly During Weightlifting appeared first on BuiltLean.com.

Breathing: it’s a very relaxing word. When I think of breathing, I think of yoga classes, meditation.

However, breathing can help facilitate many different things…even intense workouts.

From increasing abdominal pressure, to increasing recovery time between exercise sets, there are a lot of useful purposes for owning our breathing mechanics.

“Breathe In On The Way Down, And Out on The Pushing Phase?”

The general prescription for breathing during exercise is inhalation during the concentric portion of said exercise, and exhalation during the eccentric phase. To give an example using the barbell bench press, inhale before lowering the bar to the chest, and exhale when you are pushing the weight away from you.

However, research does not support any potential benefits doing one over the other. That is, as long as you are creating stability for the spine by using the appropriate abdominal muscles to create a “brace”, there is no research that says exhalation during the eccentric or concentric helps to facilitate said movement.¹

How To Breathe Properly To Create Stability

You can create stability during exercise by inhalation before a big movements, what is called “bracing”. If we are looking to save time and perform an exercise that has the biggest effect on our strength and physique goals, we need to utilize the best breathing techniques in our lifts.

Creating stability by inhaling and bracing our abdominals before the movement will help us move more weight and burn more calories, and therefore look better on top of all that. This bracing maneuver is often referred to as the Valsalva Maneuver. How it works is you take a big breath as you perform an exercise, such as when you are lowering down into a squat with heavy weight. Interestingly, the Valsalva maneuver creates only minimal increases in heart rate and blood pressure.²

PRACTICAL APPLICATION: “DEAD BUG” EXERCISE

Try the Dead Bug movement to fully appreciate how abdominal bracing works. Here’s a video demonstration by strength coach Eric Cressey:

1. Lay flat on your back on the floor, with knees over your hips, and arms out in front of you.
2. From this position, inhale to reduce the normal spinal curvature in your back from laying on the floor – think about pushing your spine to the floor without losing your current position at the neck and upper back.
3. Next, simultaneously extend the opposite arm and leg fully out.
4. The key here is to appreciate what happens at the spine when this movement occurs – do you feel your back come up off the floor? If so, make sure to reposition yourself and imagine your belly button pushing into the floor by exhaling during the arm and leg movement.

How does practicing the Dead Bug help us during real weightlifting activities? By bringing awareness as to where our spine should naturally be during the lifting activity. When we apply this breathing technique to squatting and deadlifting, we can move more weight – and thus burn more calories and get stronger.

How To Breathe Properly To Relax & Recover

As it is a naturally relaxing action, meditation and yoga practitioners regularly practice breathing in an active manner in order to facilitate stress and regulate emotions. ³ Using the application of breathing to relax, we can look at different breathing exercises that are aimed at reducing stress, and relaxing different tight muscles.

If you take a second to examine our breathing, you may notice that you are “chest breathing” – or using different muscles that are better suited to assist in breathing, as opposed to the actual muscles, such as the diaphragm and surrounding muscles of the abdomen.

You can do quick test of this by laying down and placing one hand on your chest and one on your stomach respectively. Next, take a deep breath – which rises first? If it is the chest, you may be breathing inefficiently!

By learning to breathe through your stomach, you can now begin to relax effectively!⁴

At the same time, if you apply this method of breathing to when you are huffing and puffing after doing an intense exercise, you can amplify your recovery time. During high intensity exercise activities such as sprinting or a high rep exercise such as kettlebell swings or squats, we may exhibit hyperventilatory, or rapid type of breathing. To counteract this and increase recovery time during interval activities, breathe via the stomach and take big breaths to aid in recovery.

Considerations About Breathing During Weight Lifting

There are numerous positive benefits from owning our breathing patterns and the practical applications of it. On that same note, however, there are a few situations when these breathing techniques may not be recommended, such as if you have high blood pressure, holding your breath under exertion may increase it dramatically for a temporary time.⁵ Also, if not properly taught, anecdotal evidence shows that using these techniques may increase incidences of light-headedness. Technique may be properly taught in person with a fitness professional.

Conclusion

To recap, here are the benefits and considerations of breathing properly during weightlifting:

Benefits:

• Helps facilitate tonicity or tightness of muscles (think yoga)
• Helps to reduce recovery time between sets
• Increases possible weight used when appropriately used during squats, deadlifts, etc.

Considerations:

• Breathing while lifting heavy weights may require an advanced level of technique (valsalva maneuver)
• Feelings of light-headedness can occur when breathing improperly
• If you have high blood pressure, you should be careful not to hold in your breath too long as you lift weights.

I hope you can now appreciate what we can do by simply being aware of our breathing and learning how we can control it. Now we can use breathing to effectively move more weight within our gym experiences and hopefully relax while outside of the gym as well!

The post How To Breathe Properly During Weightlifting appeared first on BuiltLean.com.

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Lose the Excuses, Lose the Weight

Lose the Excuses, Lose the Weight

This week has been a doozy. On Monday I accidentally scheduled a meeting during my yoga class and Tuesday my daughter was sick and had to stay home from school, causing me to miss my training session with Tomery. Grumpy, tired, and overwhelmed are a few of the descriptions I could use to describe my mood this week. Plus, I feel super guilty for missing my exercise. 

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Tricks to Intensify Your Workout

Tricks to Intensify Your Workout
Get the 10 best tricks to intensify your workout and step up your fat burning capabilities. No matter where you’re at with your training these tricks will take you up a notch.

Tricks to Intensify Your Workout

I’ve always held the belief that you can never get enough from your workout. There’s always room to push yourself further and grow stronger as an individual, both mentally and physically.

Over the years, I’ve had the opportunity to learn some great strategies and tricks to intensify your workout. Not only have I trained countless clients to reach their own fitness success, I’ve also been on my own fitness journey since I was quite young. There are always bumps in the road, but there’s always a way to step it up and improve your gains tenfold.

In this article, I’m going to review some of my best strategies for stepping it up and pushing yourself further. No matter where you’re at, you can reach higher! And you’ll be stronger for it.

Here are my 10 best tricks to intensify your workout…

10 Tricks to Intensify Your Workout

1. Confuse Your Muscles – Muscle confusion is a great way to intensify your workout. The idea behind muscle confusion is that over time, doing the same exercises in the same way results in muscle boredom. For some great muscle confusion techniques, check out my article What is Muscle Confusion?

2. Plan Accordingly – Whether or not you’re a morning person can make a big difference in what you get out of your workout. While working out can be a great way to boost your energy in the morning, you should work out when you can really give it all you’ve got. So plan accordingly and make sure to revisit your goals on a weekly basis at the minimum.  Goals are really a critical component of keeping you focused and on a path to success so don’t push them aside.

3. Get a Good Night’s Sleep – It’s often overlooked, but sleep is one of the biggest factors in energy level. If your workouts aren’t quite intense enough, make sure you’re getting some decent quality sleep the night before.

4. Try an Energy Booster – There are some great pre-workout supplements on the market for boosting your workout energy. Honestly, these are some of the best ways to intensify your workout. Take a look at some of my top picks here – Best Workout Supplements: Pre-Workout.

5. Think about What You Eat – Aside from supplements, you should be thinking about everything you put in your body. One of the easiest ways to get more out of your workout is to eat a balanced diet throughout the day, consisting of whole grains, lean protein, and foods rich in vitamins and minerals.

6. Have a Pre-Workout Shake – Another great way to fuel up and hit your workout hard is to have a solid pre-workout shake. It will keep you going and help you get out that extra pump! Here’s a recipe for my Best Pre Workout Shake.

7. Try Circuit Training – Circuit training can totally up the ante on your workouts, getting you to push harder than before. To try circuit training, simply run through a series of exercises consecutively without resting in between, performing only 1 set of each exercise. Repeat as necessary, and feel the burn!

8. Rest Your Muscles – Muscle recovery is essential if you want to improve your output at the gym. Over time, too little recovery time can actually hinder your performance and your results. I actually recommend taking a 5-7 day break from weight training every 6-8 weeks to allow your muscles to heal fully. Trust me, you’ll come back even stronger!

9. Warm Up with Jump Rope – Jump rope is a great way to kick things into high gear and intensify not only your weight training potential but also your ability to burn fat. Use it as a warm up period, or design a whole workout around it. For some ideas, take a look at my Jump Rope Workout here.

10. Dedicate Time to Stretching – You’ve probably heard it before, but this trick really works. You should be spending 10 minutes at the end of every workout stretching your muscles. Not only will you improve your muscle gains by up to 30%, but you’ll also improve recovery and reduce the potential for soreness and injury.

Have any questions or feedback about these Tricks to Intensify Your Workout? Please leave a comment below…

Substances to Heal Injuries and Aging Signs In the Skin

There exist many natural substances with a healing effect upon injuries in the skin and that also can stimulate a reversal of aging symptoms in the skin. Most of these are found as ingredients in products, but many can also be used alone. Read about some of the most important here. Complete article

Volunteer your time for animals

Volunteer your time for animals
There are so many great animal rights organizations out there – no matter where you live there’s bound to be one near you. I was inspired to make this today’s Daily Action by Liberation BC (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)’s call for volunteers for their upcoming Animal Advocacy Camp. Here are the details: Animal Advocacy Camp

There are so many great animal rights organizations out there – no matter where you live there’s bound to be one near you. I was inspired to make this today’s Daily Action by Liberation BC (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)’s call for volunteers for their upcoming Animal Advocacy Camp. Here are the details:

Animal Advocacy Camp is coming up soon–and we need your help! We are looking for volunteers to help with tasks such as set up and take down, check-in/registration, general cleaning, note-taking, etc. Volunteers get free admission to AAC for the day(s) they’re volunteering, and will be expected to come to a volunteer meeting next Tuesday evening, February 12. If you’re interested or have any questions, please contact Roger at roger@liberationbc.org.

There are plenty of other volunteer opportunities too! Check out this service: Volunteer Match - type in what you’re looking for and your location, and they’ll provide options! (USA only)

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Help ban the import of shark fins into Canada by supporting Bill C380 this February!

Help ban the import of shark fins into Canada by supporting Bill C380 this February!
It’s time to start writing letters, Canadian Friends! Canadian MP Fin Donnelly has introduced a bill to end the international trade of shark fins in Canada. If passed, private member’s bill C-380 would make the import of shark fins—or any attempt to import them—illegal. The House of Commons will vote on this much-needed bill this month!

photo by David Hannan http://www.sharkwater.com/gallery/p7.htm

It’s time to start writing letters, Canadian Friends! Canadian MP Fin Donnelly has introduced a bill to end the international trade of shark fins in Canada. If passed, private member’s bill C-380 would make the import of shark fins—or any attempt to import them—illegal. The House of Commons will vote on this much-needed bill this month! If you are a Canadian citizen, please take the time to find out about this important issue and write a letter to your MP asking him/her to support this bill. PETA has information about the brutal practice of shark finning, and a sample letter here.

Like many people I grew up afraid of sharks – and I can’t say I’d really love to swim with them now. However, they are a crucial part of our ecosystem, and they are incredible creatures who deserve as much respect as any other. I learned a lot about sharks and the incredibly cruel practice of shark finning from the powerful and moving film Sharkwater, by Rob Stewart. Please take the time to share this post today, so that we can get as many people as possible to urge their MPs (Members of Parliament) in the right direction.

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Healthy Monday Tip: Are You a Smart Wine Drinker?

Have you heard of the Calorie Cuvee?  When I first saw the product advertisement, I thought it was a joke.  But the wine glass is a real product.  It comes in stemless and traditional styles and shows the amount of wine and the number of calories you are consuming when you drink.

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Your Healthy Eating Super Bowl Game Plan

Your Healthy Eating Super Bowl Game Plan

This Sunday is the big game, which means a party for most of us. Whether you’re actually there for the game or just for the socialization and food, you should not end the night feeling guilty of the food and beverage choices you made.

Related articles: 

Super Bowl Food Shockers You Won't Believe!

The Sexiest Men of Super Bowl 2013

Best and Worst Beers for the Super Bowl

Top 10 Party Food Ideas Under $10

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Painless and Hair-Free Hair Removal: Know Your Options Here

Painless and Hair-Free Hair Removal: Know Your Options Here
There are many alternatives to painful hair removal. Listed below are the methods that you need to understand when painless and hair free hair removal is concerned.
Source: EzineArticles.com