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Natural Pain Relief That Works

Published by superadmin on June 25, 2024 | Leave a response

There are many reasons not to take OTC pain relievers like NSAIDs such as ibuprofen or anti-inflammatories like aspirin. If you take them frequently, they can affect your health. Aspirin can cause Reyes syndrome, liver and kidney problems, and issues digestive issues. Chronic long-term use of NSAIDs can lead to heart and digestive problems. You can opt for natural pain relief that doesn’t involve drugs.

Quick relief can come from heat or cold therapy.

Heat or cold therapy can reduce arthritis pain. Dipping your hands in hot wax is a well-known measure people often take to reduce arthritis and muscle pain. Originally it was in the form of ice baths and ice packs. Recently, whole-body cryotherapy has been used by athletes or in spas to relieve pain after an intense workout. It’s proven to be effective for other types of pain, including arthritic pain.

Exercise is a natural pain reliever.

If you’re in pain, exercise is the last thing you think about doing. However, it can help. One of my clients had a horrible toothache and couldn’t see a dentist until the next day. He spent all night pacing and moving about because it seemed to relieve the pain. It triggered endorphins, the body’s natural painkillers. Exercise also stimulates circulation and can help heal muscle injuries. It causes the joints to lubricate to bring relief.

Drink herbal tea, eat anti-inflammatories foods, or get a massage with essential oils.

Herbs are natural, just as aspirin is, but like aspirin, ingesting them too frequently may cause other health issues. Herbs and other foods with anti-inflammatory properties like ginger, turmeric, berries, avocados, broccoli, and dark chocolate help reduce chronic pain. Cutting out inflammatory foods, like those with added sugar, also helps. A massage with essential oils like peppermint, clove, or lavender can help you relax and reduce pain.

Create a massage cream with hot pepper seeds, body cream, and aspirin. The capsaicin in hot peppers combined with the aspirin and a massage offers natural pain relief. Soaking your feet in Epsom’s salts can also relax muscles to bring relief.
One of the first natural pain relievers used by Native Americans was white willow bark. It contains a substance called salicin that changes to salicylate acid in the stomach. It’s the original aspirin.
Reduce stress in your life and learn relaxation techniques like deep breathing or meditation. Stress exacerbates pain. A cup of chamomile tea can also help you relax.
Go outdoors and walk. If possible, take off your shoes and walk in the grass. Walking barefoot on the ground, not on concrete, can help reduce stress and bring pain relief.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Natural Ways To Fight Aging

Published by superadmin on June 5, 2024 | Leave a response

Most people in Louisville, KY, understand that getting older is natural and desirable. It means you lived another year, month, or day. Aging is quite different. Aging affects the cells, causing physical changes that range from wrinkling to conditions like heart disease or dementia. The harder you fight aging, the higher the probability you’ll live longer and get older. Genetics plays a vital role in how you age, but you can control many forces that promote aging. Here are some ideas to help control both mental and physical aging.

It starts with a healthy diet.

Some people are lucky. No matter what they eat, they don’t gain weight and stay healthy and youthful. You may only see the unhealthy part of their diet. Most of it may be nutritious. Another possibility is they have superior genetics. Choosing whole foods over highly processed food is one way to make a difference. It helps control weight, reduces inflammation, and reduces artery-clogging trans fats. A healthy diet can reduce cognitive aging and help prevent atherosclerosis which can clog the blood flow to the brain.

Stay active.

While a program of regular exercise is desirable, just staying active can help. If you walk frequently, keep your walk as brisk as possible. It increases your heart rate and improves circulation. Walking briskly for an hour three times a week helps lower blood pressure. It boosts cognitive skills. One study followed four groups of people. Two of the groups had the e4 gene associated with the development of Alzheimer’s. Two groups did not have the gene. One group with and one without the gene exercised regularly for 18 months. The other two groups did not change their lifestyle. The group with the e4 gene that didn’t exercise had significant changes in the hippocampus that signaled early onset Alzheimer’s.

Get adequate sound sleep.

Not only do you need to get enough sleep, but your sleep cycle should also be uninterrupted and go through every sleep stage. Lack of sleep can cause heart issues and affect all body parts. Your sleep position also has an effect. If you’re right-handed you’re programmed to sleep on your left side. It leaves your right hand free to protect yourself. Sleeping on your side also helps the brain clear itself of waste and reduces the risk of Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s. When you sleep on your side, you’ll lower the risk of sleep apnea or snoring.

Get out in the sun. Studies indicate that a large portion of society has a vitamin D deficiency. Studies showed that people who are obese, had severe cases of Covid, or have dementia have vitamin D deficiencies.
Develop a social life and smile more. People who smile and laugh more frequently are healthier. Those with a healthy social life live longer.
Find your life’s purpose. If you’re at retirement age, don’t retire if you love your job if that’s possible. Develop a new hobby that makes you feel useful and create goals. Having a purpose in life prevents aging.
Learn ways to lower stress. Meditation, mindfulness, earthing, and breathing techniques can all reduce stress. Learn a technique you can use anywhere.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Is It Better To Eat Veggies Raw Or Cooked?

Published by superadmin on May 25, 2024 | Leave a response

When people think of increasing the veggies in their diet they picture adding more raw vegetables to their salad or smoothie and often ignore cooked ones. Most people feel that cooked vegetables just aren’t as healthy. Is that true? There are a lot of misconceptions about eating healthy but in this case, the answer is both true and false. Cooking may enhance the nutrients you absorb, destroy the nutrients, or make no difference at all. It also depends on the nutrients and vegetables.

Vitamin C is hard to protect.

When you cook vegetables containing vitamin C, like tomatoes, broccoli, and sweet peppers, it destroys it. Vitamin C is water-soluble, so the vitamin C leaks into the water when boiled. Cooking food in a cast iron pan or exposure to oxygen destroys it. If you cut the fruit or vegetables ahead of time cover them tightly and store them in the refrigerator. Steaming food, stir-frying it, or serving it in a casserole can help preserve some of the vitamin C in the vegetables.

Cooking may increase the content of some vitamins.

Even though cooking tomatoes destroys nutrients, most notably vitamin C, it also enhances others. Lycopene, the phytonutrient that gives tomatoes its red color, is one of those nutrients. Lycopene is an antioxidant that protects the body from aging, disease, and death at a cellular level. It offers heart-healthy benefits, can slow skin aging, and promotes eye and brain health. Lycopene supports strong bones, reduces the risk of cancer, and can reduce pain. It is similar to ibuprofen for pain reduction. While you lose the vitamin C in tomatoes, you gain a different potent antioxidant.

Even though the vegetables may contain nutrients, does your body absorb them?

No matter how many nutrients you eat, you won’t get any benefit if you don’t absorb the nutrients. Studies show that cooking vegetables may make nutrients more easily absorbed. One study followed three groups of women. The first group was a control group that ate an average diet. The second group ate a raw food diet, and the third group ate both cooked and raw vegetables based on dietary recommendations. The group eating the raw food consumed more nutrients, but the group eating both cooked and raw vegetables absorbed more nutrients. Cooking made the nutrients more bioavailable.

Some vegetables are better when cooked. Eating raw sweet corn, eggplant, asparagus, or potatoes isn’t as pleasant as eating them cooked, so you eat more.
Heating not only helps release lycopene, but it also helps release the nutrients in carrots. They’re healthier when they’re heated. Cooking destroys the oxalate in spinach. Oxalate binds to calcium and makes it unavailable.
You can eat crucifers like Brussels sprouts or broccoli, cooked and raw. However, the raw version can give you gas or digestive issues if you introduce it too fast into your diet.
Experiment with ways to increase the variety of vegetables in your diet. If you’ve never included Brussels sprouts in a salad, try it or add leftover roasted vegetables. Include vegetables at breakfast by adding them to scrambled eggs.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Should I Push Myself Or Pace Myself?

Published by superadmin on May 15, 2024 | Leave a response

We offer diversified workouts at Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, because everyone is different. Some people like to push themselves. Their program will differ from people who prefer or have to pace themselves. Our programs do both, but we do it in varying proportions based on the person’s goals and preferences. Pushing hard can help you achieve more, but when it’s too hard, it can cause an injury that can set you back months. On the other hand, pacing yourself can improve your endurance or limit your progress if you do it too much.

It’s good to pace yourself when you’re first learning an exercise.

Form is everything. It determines whether you’ll reap the benefits of an exercise or cause you to have an injury. When you’re first learning something new, pacing yourself is best. You can pace yourself for the first few sessions when you’re learning and focus only on form, then start pushing harder each time. The older you are or the more sedentary your lifestyle, the longer you need to pace yourself until you get into shape. You’ll take longer to heal and experience more exhaustion initially.

If you’re half-heartedly exercising and calling it pacing, you won’t get the results you want.

You’re not maximizing your exercise time if you never break a sweat or can sing throughout the workout. Push yourself a little harder to make sure you get into shape. When you do the same number of reps at the same pace as you did several months ago, your body becomes efficient at the workout and burns fewer calories. Constantly change your workout to keep it challenging. Just how difficult it should be depends on you.

Know your body.

Feeling extreme stress or difficulty breathing should tell you to back off a little. If you’re doing strength training, don’t push yourself too much with daily intense workouts. Strength training causes micro tears in the muscles. The healing process creates scar tissue that builds muscle and strength. If you don’t allow the muscles to heal they won’t get stronger. It can affect your immune system, diminish muscles, and cause personality changes and problems sleeping.

If you can still gasp out a few words while you’re working out and don’t feel like you need to quit, push a little harder. If you can barely stand or breathe, give yourself a break and pace yourself.
Give yourself between 48 and 72 hours between tough workouts or strength training on the same muscle groups. You can still do recovery exercises like walking. It’s one way of pacing yourself.
If you can’t push very hard for any reason, especially health, do something. Even if you aren’t maximizing your workout time, you’re still getting exercise. Don’t give up. After a few weeks or months, you’ll be able to push yourself harder.
Pushing too hard during the first week can cause aches and pains that make you want to quit. Unfortunately, it’s when most people don’t pace themselves, and one reason exercise programs end.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Benefits Of Green Tea

Published by superadmin on May 5, 2024 | Leave a response

What you drink is just as important as what you eat when it comes to health benefits. If you drink soft drinks regularly, consider switching to green tea. Don’t add sugar or cream to keep it healthier. If you need a bit of sweetener, add a drop or two of honey. Green tea aids in weight loss and shedding visceral fat—also known as belly fat. Both diet and regular soft drinks increase belly fat. Green tea contains nutrients that can keep you healthier and extend your life.

The antioxidants in green tea provide some of the health benefits.

Green tea contains polyphenols. Polyphenols are antioxidants that reduce inflammation. That can help prevent cancer and heart disease. Green tea also contains catechins. EGCG—epigallocatechin-3-gallate—is a catechin that is also a powerful antioxidant that protects cells from damage. Cell damage leads to serious conditions. It’s also the cause of aging. Studies show that drinking more green tea daily helps you live longer and healthier.

Green tea may boost your metabolism.

You’ll get cell protection from EGCG and a boost in your metabolism. It works with the caffeine found in green tea. Some long-term studies show that people who drank two cups of green tea daily had lower body fat. Other studies show that people taking caffeine and EGCG for 12 weeks had significant weight and fat loss. The EGCG also helped prevent brain damage from diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and dementia. The EGCG can also help reverse damage. Studies show that people who drank three cups a day for years had less cognitive impairment. It also reduced the potential for Parkinson’s by 30 to 40 percent.

You’ll have healthier teeth and gums when you drink green tea.

Green tea helps fight gingivitis, kills germs, and fights tooth decay when you drink it daily. It has antifungal and antibiotic benefits for your mouth and can improve oral health. It’s a good option for improving your breath because of its antibacterial effect. Have a cup after a meal or midday as an oral refresher. Green tea can also help keep bones stronger, especially during perimenopause. For bone strength, use matcha, a type of green tea.

Green tea has caffeine that boosts energy and concentration without causing the shakes. It increases the production of dopamine and contains L-theanine, increasing an anti-anxiety effect.
Green tea boosts antioxidants that help stop LDL cholesterol oxidation in the blood. That can cause arterial disease. Studies show drinking it lowers the risk of heart disease by as much as 31%.
Green tea can help maintain stable blood sugar levels. That can help prevent insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a precursor of type 2 diabetes. It also causes sugar cravings and increases belly fat.
Green tea can fight signs of aging. It also reduces the effects of photoaging. It contains vitamin C, with matcha tea having the most significant amount. Vitamin C can boost your immune system.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Is Yoga Good For Anxiety?

Published by superadmin on April 25, 2024 | Leave a response

Many therapists now use exercises as an adjunct therapy. Studies show that it helps speed progress toward reducing depression and anxiety. Exercise is as beneficial as some medications and has no negative side effects but makes you healthier. It stimulates endorphin production, burns off stress hormones, increases circulation, and boosts the production of beneficial bacteria in the gut that affect mood. Compared to other exercises, yoga may offer even more benefits toward reducing anxiety.

Yoga can help you train your body to reduce the signs of anxiety.

Shortness of breath, heart palpitations, chest pain, and dizziness are all signs of anxiety. Deep breathing exercises from yoga can help you control many signs of anxiety. You can break the cycle of its physical manifestations by using deep breathing exercises. Deep breathing switches the body from the sympathetic nervous system that controls the fight or flight response, to the parasympathetic nervous system that puts your body in relaxed mode. You’ll feel almost instant relief from stress when you focus on deep breathing.

Yoga helps you clear your mind and meditative practices can reduce stress.

One internal manifestation of anxiety is a racing mind. Your body undergoes the same changes from the perceived danger as it would from real danger. Meditation isn’t necessarily part of every yoga session, but quieting the mind often is. In some ways, it diverts your focus from your problems and focuses them on getting into poses. Just changing your focus does a lot to reduce an anxiety attack.

Yoga can improve flexibility and stretch the muscles.

One symptom of an anxious person is muscle tension. While the cause of anxiety is more complex, prolonged stress can cause anxiety and also cause muscle tension. The movements in yoga can help reduce the tension in the muscles. By doing that, it can also reduce the feeling of anxiety. Each stretch and movement can bring relief. It can make you more aware when you’re tightening muscles so you can relax them immediately.

Yoga can help you modulate your stress response and give you tools to help manage anxiety. If your anxiety is mild, traditional yoga classes help, but there are yoga classes specifically to treat anxiety.
Yoga can make you more mindful of your body processes and give you more control. It makes people more aware of the body-mind connection. The practice of yoga can create new neural pathways.
If you suffer from anxiety and don’t have time for an entire class, using breathing techniques can help. Deep belly breathing, alternate nostril breathing, and lion’s breath are three examples that help anxiety.
Yoga can improve your posture and make you feel stronger and more confident. That boost in self-confidence can help you overcome social anxiety.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

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Best Workouts To Build Muscle

Published by superadmin on April 5, 2024 | Leave a response

At Body Sculptors in Louisville, KY, we help people become their fittest and reach their fitness goals. We include all types of fitness, strength-building, endurance, balance, and flexibility. Many clients want to build muscle, and others want to boost their strength. Each goal requires a change in the fitness routine. Building larger muscles requires lighter weights and more repetitions. Building strength requires heavier weights and fewer repetitions. We’ll create a program that’s right for you. Here are some favorite muscle-building workouts that also build strength.

If you want to build lean muscle mass faster, try circuit training.

You’ll work more muscles at one time and build faster by creating a circuit. You can use weights, kettlebells, landmine, or bodyweight exercises. When you do circuits, you do either a specified number of repetitions of each exercise or a specific amount of time for each exercise to create a set. Keep the rest between each set very short. One muscle builder that hits all major muscle groups is one minute of each, body squats, push-ups, chin-ups, flutter kicks, lunges, V-ups, and single-leg hip thrusts.

Add weight to your workout.

Doing any exercise with added weight boosts the difficulty level and increases the muscle you build. Doing squats holding dumbbells in each hand can boost muscle growth. A standing barbell overhead press is excellent for your shoulders, and a barbell bench press will build chest muscles. Most people think of dumbbell curls when they want to build biceps because they work! Use a barbell row for back muscles.

Compound exercises build more muscles in less time.

Squats, lunges, and variations like the sumo squat or walking lunges can build more muscles in less time. Because you’re using more muscle groups, you’re also burning more calories to help burn any fat that can hide them. Many of the best muscle-building exercises mimic daily tasks so they improve functional fitness to help prevent injuries. A military press, parallel bar dip, and bench step-ups with weights are good examples. Deadlifts, squats, bench presses, and shoulder presses are called the big four for strength and muscle building. Always focus on form when doing any exercise, especially ones involving weights.

Building muscles also involves a healthy diet. You need adequate protein to build muscle tissue. Eat a snack before and after working out that contains carbs for energy and protein for recovery.
Never do muscle-building exercises in the same muscle groups two days in a row if your workout is intense. Always give your muscles 48-72 hours to heal the micro tears the exercises cause.
Consider doing battle ropes for building muscle tissue. They work muscles on various planes and at different tensions throughout the exercise. Running stair laps is another muscle-building workout.
Get adequate sleep and hydration. Your body repairs tissue when you sleep. The repair is what builds muscle tissue. Lack of hydration can diminish your progress in the gym. Always check with your healthcare professional before starting any fitness program.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Yoga Benefits You Haven’t Heard Before Now

Published by superadmin on March 25, 2024 | Leave a response

You might wonder why a gym that uses traditional exercises to help people get into shape would include an article about yoga. It’s because we want you to be your healthiest and know there are other options besides bodyweight exercises or free weights. Yoga is also complementary to our program. It provides relaxation and boosts flexibility. Learning breathing techniques can become part of your gym workout to bring even more benefits. Many yoga moves have been incorporated into traditional calisthenics and bodyweight exercises because they work.

You’ll improve your posture with yoga.

That might not be the most surprising benefit, but it leads to other health benefits you might not consider. Good posture makes you look thinner. It boosts your endurance since your body is more aligned and doesn’t have to fight gravity as much to stay erect. Good posture prevents back, shoulder, head, neck, and joint pain. It also helps boost digestion and aids in breathing.

Yoga can be a brain booster.

Yoga works the body and the brain. It helps boost focus and builds mindfulness that translates to other activities. Learning to calm your mind and focus can help when faced with an overwhelming challenge and help kick in creativity to think outside the box. Learning the poses boosts brain power, too. Just like all physical activities it creates new neural pathways. It can help lower stress, help reduce depression, and relieve anxiety.

Yoga promotes mindfulness that can help you lose weight.

Yoga can help you become more mindful and get in touch with your body. When you eat mindfully, you slow your food consumption by savoring every bite. This way of eating provides more enjoyment from each bite and causes you to eat slower. That gives extra time for your stomach to signal to the brain that it’s full so you eat less. It also can help prevent food cravings that can add extra pounds.

As with all types of exercise, yoga can help relieve chronic pain. It can loosen tight muscles that cause pain and build muscles around joints to relieve the pressure. That can reduce pain from arthritis.
You might not realize it, but yoga can build strength. Many of the movements build muscle strength. One example is the Phalak asana, which is known as the forearm plank in Western bodyweight exercises.
Yoga can boost circulation, help improve digestion, and increase the synovial fluid circulation in the joints. It can improve the detoxification of internal organs by relieving pressure on them.
Yoga helps you sleep better at night. Traditional Western exercise programs also help. Yoga takes it one step further by adding breathing techniques that help you relax.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness

Foods You Should Be Avoiding For Weight Loss

Published by superadmin on March 15, 2024 | Leave a response

If your goal is weight loss, you have to cut calories and eat healthier food. That’s why we provide all the information you need to learn how to create healthier meals. Exercise alone isn’t enough. You can’t out-exercise a bad diet. You could jump rope for an hour and still not burn off the calories from a Classic Cinnabon cinnamon roll. Combining a healthy diet with exercise is the best way to take off weight, as it improves your health and boosts your energy.

Some things look healthy, but they aren’t.

Most people know that candy bars are packed with sugar. They often have no redeeming qualities like extra nutrients but are high in calories. A small candy bar covered in chocolate can add 200 to 300 extra calories to your diet. While they satisfy your urge for something sweet, it only lasts a short time and then you need more. Maybe you think eating a granola bar would be a good alternative. You might be right in some cases, but not in most. In most cases, they’re glorified candy bars that masquerade as a healthier option.

Ban fries and chips should be banned from your diet.

French fries, chips, and any fried food should never be part of a healthy diet. They’re high in fat and it’s not the healthy type of fat. There’s a direct link between gaining weight, obesity, and French fries or potato chips. Eating one or two fries or one or two chips won’t hurt too much, but who does that? As far as I know, very few people, if any.

Exclude cookies, cakes, pastry, and food with refined flour from your diet.

You’re probably already aware that these should be cut from your diet. Pastries, cakes, and cookies are loaded with sugar and refined white flour. They don’t provide satiety for long and leave you hungrier within less than an hour of eating them. Foods that contain refined flour include pasta, bread, and bakery goods.

Sugary drinks like soft drinks are high in calories and nothing but sugar water with flavoring. You might think fruit juice is a better option, but it’s not. It’s high in sugar and doesn’t contain the fiber that slows the absorption of the sugar. Some even have added sugar.
Most frozen treats like ice cream are loaded with sugar and high in calories. If you want an alternative to ice cream, cut a banana into rounds and freeze them. Put the frozen rounds in a blender until it’s a smooth ice cream-like substance that’s healthier.
Drink plain black coffee and avoid the added sugar and cream. Steer clear of the fancy Frappuccinos that are more like coffee-flavored milkshakes. The best thing to drink is water. It’s refreshing and keeps you hydrated.
Leave processed meat and fast food off your list of potential dinners. Processed meats contain high amounts of sodium and chemicals. Fast foods, whether pizza or burgers, often are high in calories and low in nutrition.

For more information, contact us today at Body Sculptors Personal Training

Posted in Fitness & Wellness