Health
Back Clinic Health Team. The level of functional and metabolic efficiency of a living organism. In humans, it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self-manage when facing physical, mental, psychological, and social changes in an environment. Dr.Alex Jimenez D.C., C.C.S.T, a clinical pain doctor who uses cutting-edge therapies and rehabilitation procedures focused on total health, strength training, and complete conditioning. We take a global functional fitness treatment approach to regain complete functional health.
Dr. Jimenez presents articles both from his own experience and from a variety of sources that pertain to a healthy lifestyle or general health issues. I have spent over 30+ years researching and testing methods with thousands of patients and understand what truly works. We strive to create fitness and better the body through researched methods and total health programs.
These programs and methods are natural and use the body’s own ability to achieve improvement goals, rather than introducing harmful chemicals, controversial hormone replacement, surgery, or addictive drugs. As a result, individuals live a fulfilled life with more energy, a positive attitude, better sleep, less pain, proper body weight, and education on maintaining this way of life.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
It’s no secret that sitting at a desk all day isn’t good for you. A sedentary lifestyle can lead to weight gain, which may then lead to a host of other issues. Research has shown that sitting too much throughout the day can lead to a number of different health problems, including obesity, heart problems, and diabetes.
However, there are things you can do to offset the health risks of sitting at your desk, such as getting up to take frequent walks. But even if you can’t leave your chair, there are even plenty of movement exercises you can do right from your desk, such as chair yoga. You could also take advantage of the time to work on some mobility training—a form of exercise that focuses on improving your stability, range of motion, and loosening your muscles so you can perform better during any workout.
Frank Baptise, founder of Frankly Fitness, is a big fan of mobility training as an effective way to help promote healthy joints, balance, and flexibility in your body. Here, he demonstrates six simple yet effective moves to try at your desk. All you need is a stress ball and a desk chair!
Don’t have time to watch? Here’s a quick rundown of Baptiste’s go-to mobility moves:
Glute and piriformis: self-myofascial release
Roll and apply pressure. Hold for 5-10 deep breaths.
Peck roll
Roll and apply pressure. Hold 5-10 deep breaths.
Plantar fascia roll
Roll and apply pressure. Hold for 5-10 deep breaths.
Modified chair downdog
Hold for 3 breaths. 3-5 reps.
Modified lunge with rotation
Hold for 3 breaths. 3-5 reps each side.
Figure four squat
Hold for 3 breaths. 3-5 reps each side
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
Feeling stressed? On any given day, you’re likely bombarded with many different stress-inducing situations. Perhaps it’s a challenging project at work, a fight with your partner, or just someone who unapologetically bumped into you on the street.
Life is filled with challenges and frustrations like these. But the good news is there are plenty of smart strategies that can help you refocus your energy so you feel calm and peaceful instead of frazzled. Take meditation and mindfulness, for example—both practices are all about checking in with yourself and filtering stress out of the mind. And if meditation isn’t your thing, exercise is also a great way to help release your daily frustrations and send a healthy dose of feel-good endorphins to your brain.
WATCH THE VIDEO: A 5-Minute Meditation to Help You Find Your Calm Now
Better yet, combine two of these mindful practices: meditation and exercise. Yoga is perfect for this, especially if it’s a calming flow that can quiet your mind while simultaneously strengthening your muscles. By forcing you to pay close attention to your breath, yoga helps stop your racing thoughts.
Watch this video for a calming 10-minute yoga flow from Kirby Koo of Yoga With Kirby. It focuses on the importance of your breath, so you can calm your mind and banish stress.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
Anyone who struggles with back pain knows how distressing it can be. Whether it�s soreness that impedes your sleep or aches that hurt your productivity while you sit at your desk at work, back pain is hard to ignore no matter what position you�re in.
The good news? Yoga can be a surprisingly helpful remedy. In this video, yoga expert and Retox author Lauren Imparato takes you through a 20-minute yoga flow designed to soothe and prevent back pain. Yes, please!
�How you sit, how you sleep, something you ate, how you moved,� can all contribute to upper or lower back issues, Imparato explains. And while treatment options do exist�such as massage and acupuncture�studies have shown that yoga may actually be more effective than these and other alternatives. Research from the Annals of Internal Medicine found that people with chronic lower back pain saw more improvement of their symptoms after a 12-week yoga class compared to those who only received medicine or physical therapy to treat their pain.
RELATED: 4 Surprising Cures for Back Pain
Want to experience the same relief? In this video, Imparato will first help you release tightness and tension in your back by guiding you through classic stretches like cat and cow. Next, she�ll show you how to do a quick, equipment-free flow that works to stabilize the spine and strengthen the muscles in your core that support it. (Hi, toned abs!) Watch the clip above for a yoga routine that not only reduces back pain but crafts long, lean muscle at the same time.
Also check out our sister company: Best Yoga Routines for Sleep. �This is a great article that helps you doze off…. WAY Better…
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
Photo: Twenty20
This is a partial workout. You can find the rest of the moves at Life by Daily Burn.
When you look at a slam ball, leg and glute exercises may not be the first thing that comes to mind. But incorporating this soft weighted ball into your booty routine will work your lower half hard. Weak hamstrings, glutes and hips can lead to knee and back pain. So if you’re looking for a way to strengthen these muscles, while building power, the slam ball can kill two birds with one big, squishy ball.
Gerren Liles, PROJECT by Equinox master trainer and Reebok ONE Elite ambassador likes to use it for a quick leg workout. “The slam ball is a simple tool that allows you to move in multiple dimensions and directions, and can serve as a load to develop strength and power,” Liles says.
In addition to tightening and toning, the slam ball creates an unstable environment that forces your body to work harder to balance weight. (Stability challenge, anyone?) And because you’ll move in different planes of motion, you’ll work your core, legs and arms, too.
“The ball can be used as a prop to challenge your stability, as you’ll see in the Bulgarian squat and soccer tap drill. It can also be used as a form of resistance in the squat with front push and hamstring curls,” Liles explains. Check out just how versatile this space-efficient piece of equipment can be in the six exercises below.
RELATED: The 30-Minute Slam Ball Workout
6 Slam Ball Exercises That Build Lower-Body Strength
These moves will not only blast your lower half, they’ll help improve your ankle mobility, agility and reflexes. Add some intensity, and they’ll get your heart rate up, too, Liles says. Do 8 to 10 reps of each exercise for two sets.
GIFs: Tiffany Ayuda / Life by Daily Burn
1. Bulgarian Squat
This variation of the squat challenges your balance. To keep your foot from rolling off the ball, engage your core so you can move with more control, Liles says.
How to: Stand with your feet together in front of a slam ball. Step your right foot back and place your toes on top of the ball (a). Keeping your weight in your left heel, slowly lower your body into a lunge, bending your right knee towards the floor. Your left knee should form a 90-degree angle to the floor. Be sure your left knee is stacked above your ankle (b). Straighten both legs and return to standing (c).
RELATED: 6 Squat Variations for Total-Body Strength
2. Lying Hip Bridge With Hamstring Curl
Take your glute bridges to the next level with this variation that also strengthens your hamstrings. The lack of surface area on the ball is an added challenge to making the movement slower.
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How to: Lay on your back with your hips lifted off the floor and your calves and heels on top of the ball. Plant your hands on the floor at your sides (a). Draw your heels in toward your butt with control, bending your legs. Your hips should elevate even higher as you squeeze your glutes to bring your heels in (b). Slowly extend your legs back out to the starting position (c).
3. Lying Quad Extension
Your quads, hamstrings and glutes are some of the biggest muscles groups in your body. This simple move fires up all three, helping you torch more calories per workout.
How to: Lie flat on your back and place the ball between your calves with your knees bent. For an added core challenge, you can lift your head off the floor and bring your chin towards your chest (a). Without moving your hips, bring your legs straight up towards the ceiling (b). Then, bend your knees until the ball touches the back of your legs. Remember to press your low-back into the floor throughout the entire movement (c).
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
When your metabolism is running like a well-oiled machine, your body is working for you. Not only can it make maintaining (or losing) weight a little easier, but maximizing your system’s calorie-burning engine will also help you feel more energetic, active, and alive. To figure out how to get it to that happy place, incorporate these everyday eating and exercise habits into your regular routine.
Do more heavy lifting
It’s so easy to glance at the “calories burned” figure on the cardio machine and then add more time to your workout to make the number higher. But if you want your metabolic furnace to burn hotter during the day, you’re going to need to add muscle. “Muscle burns more calories than fat,” says Alissa Rumsey, RD, CSCS, author of Three Steps to a Healthier You. She advises fitting in a total-body strength workout two to three times per week, using a weight that’s heavy enough to make the 10th rep very difficult.
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Eat protein in the morning and afternoon
You already know that cranking your metabolism means filling your dinner plate with quality protein (in the form of lean meats, eggs, fish, legumes, and yogurt). Thing is, it’s easy to get that chicken breast or piece of salmon in at dinner. What’s harder is remembering to eat a high-protein meal at breakfast and lunch, says Rumsey, when you’re typically on the go and too rushed to do much more than grab a piece of fruit or carb-heavy sandwich.
Getting good protein in the a.m. and p.m. “will also help you maintain and build muscle as long as you consume it before and after regular weight training workouts,” she says. Plus, research suggests that your body works harder to break down and process calories from protein than from fat or carbs, resulting in a slight bump in metabolism. And don’t forget, protein promotes satiety. You’ll feel fuller and burn more calories breaking it down. Double win.
Dial back your work stress
No one has to tell you that chronic stress is unhealthy. But stress at work is especially detrimental. One study of women with a history of mood disorders in the journal Biological Psychiatry found that those who experienced extra stress during the workday burned 104 fewer calories in response to a higher-fat meal compared to women who were not stressed. As the researchers discovered in a later study, stress can change the way your body metabolizes fats, even reducing the benefits of eating a healthy meal.
Snack before bedtime
You heard that right—it’s time to consider disregarding all those warnings about not eating after 8 p.m. “Conventional wisdom says that food you eat right before bed will sit in your stomach all night long, which will result in packing on the pounds,” says Cassie Bjork, RD, author of Why Am I Still Fat?. Instead, the right bedtime snack “will actually boost your metabolism by keeping your blood-sugar levels stable, which allows your pancreas to secrete the fat-burning hormone glucagon,” she says.
RELATED: Ultimate Metabolism-Boosting Workout
Hit the sheets early
Sleep may be the last thing on your to-do list, yet it deserves priority status, and here’s one out of a million reasons why. Not getting enough rest has a disastrous effect on your metabolism, prompting you to misread your system’s hunger cues and revving your appetite. As one study suggests, this appetite boost happens when your body calls for extra calories to fuel the additional time you’re awake—and that leads you to overeat. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults snag seven to nine hours of shuteye per night. Give it a try tonight.
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Get up and move—right now
Maybe you put in your 45 minutes of daily heart-pumping exercise on the regular. But if you spend the rest of the day with your butt planted firmly in a chair, you’re keeping your metabolism in stall, says Rumsey. “It’s important to move as much as possible,” she says, not just because movement burns calories but because it keeps your metabolism on high.
So make an effort to get up and stand at your desk, head outside to eat lunch and then taking a stroll, or walk or down the stairs when possible. Moving more during the day, even if you’re just heading down the halls of your office or taking the long route to the parking lot where you left your car, will keep your metabolism running, she says.
Stop counting calories
“People often think that restricting calories boosts metabolism, but this does the complete opposite,” says Bjork. Here’s why: calories are the energy that fuels your body and helps your metabolism run efficiently. Take in too few, and you’ll start to feel fatigued and hangry. Ensuring that you’re filling up your plate with lean protein (like fish or meat), healthy fats (avocado, olive oil, almond butter), and lots of fruits and veggies will deliver high-quality, nutritionally dense calories to your body. That helps your metabolism run optimally, in turn burning calories rather than conserving them.
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
This article originally appeared on Time.com.
Compression tights are the latest in athletic performance wear, and some runners swear they improve their performance by helping them to run longer, faster and even recover more quickly with less soreness. But does science back up those beliefs?
In a study presented at the American College of Sports Medicine�s annual meeting, researchers put the latest compression-wear to the test. In a study funded by Nike, Ajit Chaudhari, from the physical therapy department at Ohio State University, and his colleagues tested two prototype compression tights provided by the company. Nearly 20 experienced male distance runners agreed to run at nearly their maximum ability wearing three different outfits: running shorts, low-compression tights and high-compression tights. The high-compression gear was the most compression allowed before being classified as a medical device (which is how some compression socks designed to treat circulation conditions are categorized.)
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Because compression tights are supposed to keep muscles from vibrating too much�the oscillation is what experts believe causes muscle fatigue and damage to fibers�Chaudhari also measured how much vibration the runners� leg muscles experienced by using special reflectors that could record even the smallest movements. To see how the different outfits affected the runners� performance, the researchers also measured the strength of leg muscles and asked the runners to jump as high as they could before and after the 30-minute run.
It turns out that there were no changes in the runners� jump height or strength whether they wore the running shorts, the low-compression or the high-compression tights. �What we found, when we tested them after a 30-minute high intensity run, was that we don�t see any real effects of the compression tights,� says Chaudhari. �I would say that it�s one strike against expecting improvement in performance from compression tights. We don�t see any evidence that they result in improvement in performance, so for someone who is wearing the tights specifically to try to improve performance, I�d say there isn�t any evidence that they are worth the time or money.�
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In a statement, Nike said: �Our goal is to better understand all aspects of human performance. The effect of compression products on performance is one of many areas we study and an area that is often studied by other researchers. The Ohio State University study, which focused on 17 athletes for up to 30 minutes per athlete, produced an interesting data point that delivered an additional perspective on the study of compression tights. Our role is to take athlete feedback and data from studies like this to develop world-class products for athletes at every level.�
Muscle fatigue is one of the major drivers of injury. As their muscles get tired, runners tend to lose their form, and that�s when joints and muscles get misaligned and injuries can occur. Compression tights were thought to stave off that fatigue by keeping vibrations to a minimum, but that theory hadn�t really been tested.
These latest results suggest that compression tights may not be the answer to reducing fatigue. Chaudhari did document that the compression reduced vibration of the muscles; it�s just not clear that the reduction in vibration had any effect on fatigue. It�s possible, he says, that the 30 minutes of intense running wasn�t enough to bring the muscles in these experienced runners to the tiring point. But that�s unlikely, since the runners did start to breathe more heavily and experience faster heart rates, which indicated they were working harder. (Some of the runners couldn�t run for the entire 30 minutes at the heightened intensity.)
There may also be other reasons why people prefer compression tights. For some runners, the extra support helps them run longer or feel more comfortable, and that�s important to performance. They may also keep the legs warm, which some runners prefer.
�If they make you comfortable, they could help you run further,� Chaudhari says. �But if somebody is thinking, �gosh, I need to set personal records and I�ll use the tights because I believe they will help my performance,� you have to go in knowing that it�s kind of a shot in the dark.�
by Dr Alex Jimenez | Fitness, Health, Wellness
This article originally appeared on Time.com.
It�s not just you: Many people are turned off by the thought of exercise because they think it has to be intense or time-consuming. But the findings of a new study published in the journal BMC Public Health suggests that people could learn to enjoy being active simply by tweaking those beliefs and expectations.
So says the study�s lead author Michelle Segar, director of the University of Michigan�s Sport, Health, and Activity Research and Policy Center, who�s spent years researching what motivates people to get and stay physically fit. (She�s also author of No Sweat: How the Simple Science of Motivation Can Bring You a Lifetime of Fitness.) Too often, she says, people begin exercise programs to lose weight, and quit when they don�t shed pounds right away.
In her new study, she and her colleagues asked 40 women about what really makes them feel happy and successful. Then they analyzed how their views about working out either fostered or undermined those feelings. The diverse group of women were all between ages 22 and 49.
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All of the women�whether they were regular exercisers or not�turned out to want the same things out of life: to have meaningful connections with others, to feel relaxed and free of pressure during their leisure time and to accomplish the goals they�d set for themselves, whether in their personal lives, their careers or simply their daily to-do lists.
The big difference, the researchers found, was that women who were inactive viewed exercise as counterproductive to those things. In order for exercise to be valid, they thought, it had to be seriously heart-pumping and sweat-inducing�the complete opposite of the �relaxing� feeling they wanted from their free time.
They also felt that following an exercise program took up too much time and put too much pressure on them, and that it was too difficult to commit to a schedule and meet expectations, leaving them feeling like failures.
But women in the study who were regularly active didn�t share these views. For them, exercise went hand-in-hand with their desires for social connectivity, relaxing leisure time and feeling accomplished.
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That shift in mindset has to happen for women who aren�t currently active, says Segar. �These women feel alienated by exercise, or feel that they�ve failed when they tried it in the past,� she says. �They have a very narrow definition of what exercise should look like.�
Segar says that definition comes from decades of messaging from fitness companies and older scientific research that suggesting that high-intensity activity is the only way for exercise to be worthwhile. �That�s no longer true,� she says. �The new recommendations for physical activity really open the door for people to pretty much do anything that works for them.�
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services suggests that for �substantial health benefits,� adults should get 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity physical activity, such as brisk walking. It�s true that additional benefits can be gained from more (or more intense) exercise, but Segar says this is a good starting point for many Americans who currently lead sedentary lives.
Instead of thinking about exercise as an alternative to enjoying free time or socializing with friends, she recommends framing it as a way to make those things happen. �Women need to give themselves permission to use physical activity as a way to relax�to get together with friends or loved ones and take a leisurely stroll, simply because being active and outdoors boosts their mood and makes them feel good.�
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While walking is an easy way to squeeze in more movement throughout the day, she also encourages people to get creative. �If you liked biking as a kid, rent a bike and see if it still feels good,� she says. �Play tag with your kids, take a dance class or even just climb the stairs a few extra times while you�re doing chores around the house.�
Most importantly, Segar says, people need to know that any physical activity is better than no physical activity. �You don�t have to do 30 minutes at a time, you don�t have to sweat and you don�t have to hate whatever it is you�re doing,� she says. �You just have to choose to move when you see opportunities.�
