Stronger Hands = Healthier Heart
A study in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that people with stronger handgrips had more favorable findings on measures of the heart health that those with weaker grips. They found that higher grip strength was associated with lower blood pressure, lower triglycerides (a type of fat in the blood), lower blood sugar and higher good cholesterol (HDL). These findings highlight the importance of regular exercise to maintain strength. In your ArcaRay Fit Kit, the resistance band that comes with the kit have been designed with “Comfort Grip Handles”. This is the perfect tool to improve grip strength. Every single exercise you perform with the ArcaRays and the comfort grip handles on the band strengthens your hands, leading to a healthier heart! Total body workout.
Move of the Month: Calf Raises
What: Calf or heel raises will improve your balance through leg strength and ankle mobility. It will make your calf and ankles more flexible, relieve heel pain and improve balance.
Stand by your kitchen counter or have a tall sturdy chair nearby for support. Raise up onto your toes, then lower your heels back to the ground slowly. Go up and down 8 times or until your feet are tired. Try to perform two to three sets a few times per week. As you get stronger, you can progress to standing on one foot and going up and down. This is an excellent calf and ankle strengthening move that will help relieve the pain of plantar fasciitis, prevent this from occurring AND improve your balance. What a great and easy move!
Benefits of Stretching:
Physical fitness is often categorized into three parts: cardio or aerobics, strength or resistance training, and stretching. Unfortunately, stretching is often an overlooked area. Stretching can help prevent injuries, keep your muscles pliable, and flexible, and increase your range of motion. Stretching can also reduce pain, stiffness, and discomfort.
Want to get started? Here below a quick 2-minute Morning Stretch Routine:
Perform these stretches and movements first thing in the morning. It is a gift you can give yourself to prepare for the day ahead.
2 – Minute Morning Stretch Routine
Resistance or Strength Training: The Fountain of Youth
Good new/bad news. Bad news first: Our bodies change as we get older. After the age of 30, we start losing muscle, 3-5% per decade. This means our body doesn’t need as much energy or food than it used to. Without keeping our muscle mass we have at the age of 30, every year we get older, we will start to naturally begin to put on weight, without doing anything differently. It just happens with less muscle. Now the great news: You can slow and probably reverse this. What’s the solution? Strength or resistance training.
Here’s a fun fact: Muscle burns more calories than fat. So the more muscle you have, the more calories you burn, even at rest. This is called your metabolic burn rate. Resistance training with compound movements is the best way to keep the muscles we have. Every year, your burn rates goes down. The more muscle you have, the more calories you burn. Think of your burn rate like comparing the burn rate of cars; it takes more gas to power a muscle car like a Mustang with a bigger engine than it does to say to power a Prius. (Not trying to rip on a Prius).
Strength or resistance training not only helps you burn calories when training, you continue to burn calories afterwards, so cool! As a simplified example: You workout the first time, then, as a result of your workout, you now have more muscle, your body will continue to burn calories more quickly. Like a 2nd session for free!
What’s the #1 area of focus? Legs.
Why? Since the legs have the most muscles in your body, they burn the most calories.
How? Our legs have the quadriceps in the front,
(Loop Band Squats video), hamstrings in the back,
(Reverse Lunge video) and gluteals (in the buttocks)
(Glute Bridge Progression workout).
Even if you have never been to a gym, or picked up a resistance band or weight in your life, now is a great time to start. You don’t need any equipment to get going and have an effective workout. Body weight exercises are great. (Body Weight Balance & Strength Video) Yet, with the addition of weights, bars, bands, balls, ArcaRays, BOSU, you will get a better and more rounded workout. The equipment allows for bigger challenges, larger ranges of motion, and progressive overload opportunities. They allow you to make the exercises easier or harder, and more effective. The time will fly!
A couple times a week is all it takes to see results. Don’t give up. Strength and resistance training really can and will keep you in your best shape possible. Any style of resistance and strength training will do the trick, just a couple of times a week. It really is the Fountain of Youth.
Plantar Fasciitis – how to prevent AND get rid of the pain.
Our feet and ankles carry a heavy burden, our entire body weight! This daily stress is the most common culprit that causes plantar fasciitis pain. It can happen to anyone at any age. The plantar fascia is a thick band of tissue that connects your heel to the bottom of your foot and supports your arch. The pain is caused when tiny tears in your plantar fascia become inflamed causing a stabbing sensation into your heel. The pain is usually worse in the morning, starting in the heel and radiating into the bottom of the foot. Ouch!
What’s the best treatment? Stretching! with an ArcaRay under the ball of your foot. Here’s how to do it.
How to do THE BEST TWO PART CALF STRETCH with ArcaRay:
- Place one ArcaRay on the ground about 24” from a wall. Step onto middle of ArcaRay with the ball of your foot, so your heel is on the ground like the photo. For this stretch to be effective, keep this heel on the ground and leg straight. Now, step forward towards the wall with the other foot and place your hands on a wall. Bend your front knee. Keeping your back leg straight, lean into the wall. This is the gastrocnemius stretch. Hold this stretch for 30 seconds.
- Now, with heel still on the ground, and still leaning into the wall, bend your back knee slightly, (both knees are now bent). Hold this bent knee stretch for 30 seconds. This is the soleus stretch. This will effectively stretch your Achilles tendon. Don’t forget to stretch both feet and calves.
These stretches will lengthen and stretch the muscles and fascia of your foot, toes and arch. It is a simple solution for runners, walkers, cyclists or anyone suffering from plantar fascia pain or wanting to prevent it from occurring in the first place! Prevention is always preferred to injury then treatment. Wouldn’t you agree?
Can Nighttime Eating Make You Gain Weight?
Possibly: In a study published in the International Journal of Obesity found that eating late is associated with fewer calories burned and lower sugar tolerance.
According to Colleen Rauchut Tweksburyk, PHD. There are a small amount of controlled studies that show eating earlier is better for weight management than eating later. Eating later may slow weight loss. The culprit? Late night snacking is often done in sync with watching television or reading. Mindless eating is related to poor quality of food eaten in that the satisfaction compared with other foods eaten earlier in the day. This can result in an increase in overall food intake. Try keeping a food journal to see if nighttime snacking is an issue, and if possible, shift your snacking to earlier in the day. You got this!