Carrying heavy loads comes with risks for back pain

In 1902 the US Cavalry recommended that horse never carry more than 20 percent of its weight into battle. Current studies confirm that the percentage put the least strain on the animals heart, respiration, muscles and bones.  use that rule of thumb for what you and your children carry, too. Unfortunately, kids regularly tote backpacks that way 22 percent of their body weight or more. A lot of your throw portable computers over your shoulder, haul a weeks worth of veggies home from the farmers market or strap on a baby carrier to tote around a 30 to 40 pound child. Plus, many of you double or triple up. A purse Wayne three to seven pounds shares a shoulder with a shopping bag overflowing with groceries in a gym bag with workout clothes. Then there's the schlepping 40 pound carry on bags for airports. Ouch! You're risking chronic lower back pain, shoulder injury, neck strain, headaches and poor posture. Kids can injure their spine in ways that may call steel lifelong problems.
Here's how to make whatever you're toting safer:
1. Weight backpacks and purses; lighten the load is there too heavy. Always used both backpack shoulder straps. One shoulder carry amplifies the risk of lower back and shoulder pain and restricts blood flow to the arm.
2. Get rolling! Computer cases, kids backpacks, carry on luggage, shopping carts and gym bags come with great invention called wheels. Use em!


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Best Butt Exercises

How to Get a Nice Lifted Butt: The Absolute BEST Butt Exercises (Tone Your Butt Easily!)

Summertime, for the most part, is when many women start to panic. They want to look good in shorts and bathing suits and would like to feel confident as they walk across the beach or even just down the street.

I was searching for the best butt exercises and trying them all myself, and after almost 7 months I have a list of exercises that work best for toning the butt. Now my butt is nice and toned and I’m going to help you get one too!

There are four types of squats that really help with getting in shape and lifting that butt.

The first is the seat squat, then there is the inner thigh squat, lateral squat andsquat jump. These types of squats are much better than regular squats and can really help tone your butt more effectively than anything else!

It will astonish you how effective these four squats are when shaping your butt. Try them and see for yourself how they can really help your butt. I guarantee you will feel more confident and will never worry when putting on a bathing suit or shorts.

My favorite squat is the inner thigh squat. It is a fairly simple procedure. You need to stand up straight and open your legs to a broad stance. From there, you ease down into the squat position and hold for a moment.

Do this about eighteen times. This squat is great for your butt as well as your thighs which, trust me, is where I needed help as well.

The lateral squat is another very effective butt toning squat. It’s not my favorite one to do but it really works. You need to stand up straight, with your feet shoulder width apart. From there, you need to step sideways with one foot and ease down into the squat position. Hold for a moment. Then do the same but with the other foot and easing into a squat. It’s best if you do each side eighteen times. It’s brutal but, in the end, totally worth it.

To work your glutes, the seat squat is the perfect exercise. It’s easiest if you use a chair. In front of the chair, stand up straight and have your feet shoulder width apart. Next, slowly ease yourself down into the chair and stop when you can feel the chair lightly. Then rise back up into standing position.

As all the squats, repeat eighteen times. That toned butt is going to start to show if you keep doing all four types of squats!

The last effective squat for a tight butt is thesquat jump.

Sounds fierce doesn’t it? It is. Keep in mind that you are aiming for a great butt and this will help you get it.  That’s what I always remind myself. For this squat, have your feet shoulder width apart and stand up straight (sound familiar?). Ease down into a typical full squat and then jump and settle into a seat squat. Like the others, repeat eighteen times.

Follow these four squats and you will have that tight, fit butt really fast. If you do them daily – you will see a noticeable difference in TWO WEEKS. You will feel great in jeans, shorts and even your bathing suit. Your confidence level will soar and it will put an extra bounce in your step. Getting in shape and getting a nice, lifted, toned butt has never been easier!

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The Health Benefits of Cold Showers

Cold Showers.

They sound terrifying if you’ve never done one. They’re sound amazing if you’re a veteran.

I talk a lot about cold showers around here. They’ve got a ton of benefits: clarity of mind and fearlessness to name a few. In the past I’ve focused specifically on the mental & psychological aspects of cold showers, but as it turns out, there’s quite a few actual scientifically studied health benefits of cold showers as well.

There seems to be quite a bit of misinformation and folklore around cold showers so I’ve tried to comb through and sort out the scientifically backed evidence from the urban legends. For more information, see the sources below.

The Health Benefits of Cold Showers

Improves Immune System

There are countless studies that first and foremost, cold exposure improves your immunity.

Cold water immersion has been shown to  increase metabolic rates due to shivering and activating the immune system. Those that participated in 6 weeks of immersions showed s a trend to wan increase in the plasma concentrations as well as T helper cells and lymphocytes.

In Sweden, it’s common practice to let small babies take naps outdoors in the cold. They’ve not only shown to be more resistant to diseases, but they also seem to sleep deeper and more soundly.

(Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21537988 & http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514296673/isbn9789514296673.pdf.)

In Siberia, they take it step further and dump a whole bucket of cold water over their heads, in a ritual called Rodnichok or cold springs. They do this year round for ages 2-6. Again, this is in Siberia. Those kids are tough. It’s shown that about 95% of the kids who participate are healthy through the flu season as opposed to 75% of the those children in groups that don’t participate.

Lesson learned: if you want to be healthy – stick to the cold setting in your shower!

Fat Loss

When your body is exposed to cold, it requires more heat to warm you up. To do so, it has to process more energy and in doing so helps you burn more fat, more efficiently. It can also activate “brown fat”, which is a sort of good fat that helps generate heat, increase your metabolism and burn fat.

Improves Circulation

Cold water exposure over time is shown . Since cold exposure causes your blood flow to be redirected to your vital organs, it forces your body to circulate your blood more efficiently & effectively.

Regulates Temperature

Regular cold showers help limit heat loss, decrease core body temperature and regulate overall body temperature.

Relieves Depression

Cold showers have been shown to help relieve depression symptoms. Due to the high density of cold receptors in the skin, a cold shower is expected to send an overwhelming amount of electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to the brain, which could result in an anti-depressive effect. So if you need a pick-me-up, jump in the shower and turn it on blast.

(source: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17993252)

Keeps Skin & Hair Healthy (not dried out)

Cold water helps “close” pores. This keeps your skin looking smooth and healthy while not drying your skin out as hot water showers can sometimes do.  The cold water will help keep your hair look shiny and keep your skin soft, rather than itchy, ashy and dried out.

Increases Testosterone

A 1993 study done by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England showed cold baths to be correlated with high testosterone levels. We don’t have the direct link but try it for yourself and see. We promise at least that after spending 5-10 minutes in the freezing cold water, you’ll feel like more of a man.

Increases Fertility

As you can imagine, an increase in testosterone can lead to an increase in fertility. Not only do they give you energy, but hot showers drastically decrease sperm count. So, if you’re looking to pop out a few mini-me and want to give your little swimmers a fighting chance, stop  make sure to turn your water to cold.

Increases Energy

Besides the fact, that there’s nothing quite like a ice cold water to wake you up out of a daze, cold showers can actually increase energy. When you jump in teh shower, the nerve endings on your skin will stand up due to the ice world you just entered. You heart starts races and you start breathing rapidly as your body starts to adjust. That’s a whole response that the best cup of coffee in the world can’t match.

Lymphatic Movement

The lymphatic system takes waste away from your cells to help fight disease. It’s separate from your blood vessels, but is moved around by the contraction of your muscles. Cold showers cause your entire body to contract and forces the lymphatic system to push the lymph fluids throughout your body rather than pooling in one part of your body as it would if it were compromised or inefficient.

Decreases Inflammation

Ice baths have long been uses by elite athletes to help decrease inflammation after a workout. It can work to help alleviate DOMS by constricting the veins throughout your body and thereby removing toxins in your blood. When you get out, your system is flushed with fresh, nutrient-rich blood that can help repair muscles & tendons.

Breathing

Cold showers can force you to breathe deeper by forcing you to momentarily pause & hold your breath as sort of an automatic reflex when the cold water hits. It helps open up the lungs (similar to doing physical exercise) and helps bring in more oxygen.

Better Sleep

Remember the sleeping babies from earlier? Well, they’re not the only ones sleeping better at night thanks to the cold. Insomniacs are recommended to take cold showers to help aid sleep. It might be because the feeling you get after the initial shock of the shower helps your body calm down & releax.

Personal note: I’ve noticed that I sleep better and deeper when I’m taking cold showers than when I’m not.

Tolerance To Stress

In general, cold exposure gives your body a higher tolerance to stress by purposely exposing it to stress. Over time, this leads to strengthening and hardening of your body and your immune system (as we talked about earlier).

Cold showers have also been used to reduce chronic pain, reduce body aches, improve hair health, kidney function, reduce inflammation and regulate nervous system. Deepen your breathing and help fight fatigue and improve quality of sleep. Whew!

Additional Benefits

One of the main benefits seen throughout all these is the ability to subject the body to a certain level of stress under a controlled environment. By doing this, you teach your body to adapt to the stressors and become stronger. Whether it’s on a respiratory, circulatory or simple temperature regulation, you’ll find your body strengthening and hardening to these small stressors.

Of course, these are just the physical health benefits to cold shower therapy. I personally think the mental health benefits & the psychology of taking cold showers is worth it in and of itself, if you needed to know – there’s a whole suite of reasons why taking freezing cold showers might be the next big healthy thing you start doing.

TLDR: Do it. It might just change your life. 

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Cholesterol Countdown

American's cholesterol levels are moving in the right direction. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently analyzed data from three national health surveys from 1988-2010 and found that total cholesterol levels among adults dropped an average of 10 points, from 206 to 196, while bad LDL fell and good HDL rose slightly. Researchers credit wider us of  statins and, perhaps, fewer trans-fats in our diet  and lower smoking rates. But we still have work to do. Here are three small steps to help get-or-keep your numbers on track. 

Eat Apples. They're a source of soluble fiber, which helps reduce absorption of cholesterol into the blood stream. (Other foods that do this: Oat bran, oatmeal, beans, pears, peas, and barley.) And a small study of healthy, middle-aged adults has found that having one apple a day for four weeks lowered blood levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol (what hardens arteries). Those who took capsules of polyphenols (an antioxidant in apples) had a similar, less significant, effect. More diet tips to help control cholesterol: Focus on produce; choose whole grains, lean meats, low-fat dairy and olive or canola oils; and eat fish at least twice a week. 

Pump your heart. Walk, jog, bike, dance, play basketball or ice skate: Brisk activity increases heart rate, and doing it regularly can help boost "good" HDL by about 5 percent within a few months of starting. Aim for at least  30 minutes a day, five times a week(you can break your daily workout into three 10 minutes sessions.) Plus, new research in The Lancet suggests that if you work out regularly and take statins as part of a cholesterol-lowering plan, you dramatically cut risk of premature death. 

Sleep Longer. Research suggests a link between lack of sleep and weight gain (that's important because excess pounds contribute to high cholesterol). The latest: Researchers studied adults who slept four hours vs. nine; short sleep increased hunger stimulating hormones in men and reduced satiety hormones in women. Both could lead to overeating. 

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