Sleeping IS Working Out

  Well not quite, but it is extremely important when it comes to meeting your fitness goals. Getting a healthy amount of sleep does all kinds of wonderful things for your health: it makes you smarter, keeps you free from depression, less inclined to get cancer, and overall contributes to a longer, healthier life. Napping has also been proven to positively impact brain capacity.

 And when you thought it couldn’t get any better, studies have shown that a good night’s rest makes your body more conducive to losing weight!

There are two influential hormones (called ghrelin and leptin) that regulate your appetite. Ghrelin increases before you eat and decreases after you eat, determining how hungry you are. Leptin, on the other hand, contributes to the feeling of satiation. These chemicals need to be kept in balance so that you don’t go on eating and eating and eating.

If that’s not enough to convince you to pay attention to your sleep habits, here’s a whopping fact: Proper sleep makes you less tired! With more energy, you’ll be more motivated to work out before work, more effective at work, and more likely to go for a run after work!
The average adult requires between 7-8 hours of sleep daily. Start sleeping right and you’ll find the productivity in your workouts will skyrocket. So sleep well and prosper!

Hemp and Reefer…. The Untold Story

Did you know that Cannabis along side Hemp were banned in the 1930’s simply because some dudes that owned a newspaper timber industry, did not want to lose money.

The far superior industry of Hemp materials was going to blown them out the water.

“Hemp is the cousin plant to Marijuana”

They knew the psychoactive effects of Cannabis were not the least bit dangerous. The plant was part of the economy since the 17th century.

So they fabricated headlines such as this one and successfully got the mass public believing this was the Devil’s Plant:

“Most marijuana smokers are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes.”

By the way… Hemp is not psychoactive at all, in fact it is very nutrient dense. It is the most bioavailable source of protein known to man.

On top of that, one of the first cars ever made had it’s body made entirely out of Hemp. It’s creator, a chap by the name of Henry FORD

“Pound for Pound, Hemp’s fibres are stronger than steel”

If you are ever talking about a super extra terrestrial material resource that can help sustain and improve life on Earth… Hemp is as alien as it gets.

http://www.hempcar.org/untoldstory/pmpage1.html

Here are some info-graphic’s on Hemp and Weed.

Disclaimer: I do not smoke myself…I just do Yoga. 🙂

Should You Be Sore After Every Workout?

Some people measure the effectiveness of their workout by how sore they are next day after training. However, the nopain-no-gain principle should not always be your fitness motto.

This soreness (also called Delayed
Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS) is caused by small tears in muscles. This
happens when you train muscles that were previously less used or work out at a greater intensity than usually. Muscles
grow while they are recuperating. This is why rest and recovery are all-important
for muscle build-up.

Muscle soreness can be avoided if you warm up before exercising and stretch and cool down the muscles after your
workout.

If you feel soreness after each workout,
it means that your muscles do not have enough time to heal and you run a risk of overtraining and injury. Muscle soreness can actually hold your advance back if it hurts too much to work out. Consider speaking with your doctor if the pain continues days after a workout.

If you are no longer sore after your
training, it doesn’t mean that your workout is not effective anymore. The routine you stick to helps you maintain your achievements. Just make sure you vary your workout in order to avoid a
plateau.

Instead of measuring the effectiveness of your workout by how sore you are,
Think about the following:

• are you lifting proper weight?

• are you working all your muscle
groups during the week?

• are you diversifying your workout
from time to time?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to all these
questions, you are a getting a good
workout.

Understanding Myofascial Release

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A technique utilized to make muscle tissue that is bound up, unbind. Some muscle tissues in the body begin to develope a webbing called fascia as a result of poor movement. The longer a movement is constricted, the harder it is to move it. Myofascial release is a fantastic technique that can get to the specific origin of where fascia is built up. After Myofascial release is implemented, muscle tissue becomes more pliable and is open for movement.  Tools of choice: 1.) Lacrosse ball 2.) Medicine Ball 3.) Foam Roller 4.) Theracane 5.) Han Bo with rounded end.

Why Do You Need To Stretch?

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If practiced enough with the right strategy, static stretching can become a very useful tool in the re-alignment process. The problem I see most with people utilizing static stretching, is stretching muscles that don’t need to be stretched. For instance, most people who stretch their hamstrings all the time may not understand that the root foundation to their tight hamstrings has to deal with another set of muscle groups called, the hip flexors. Your Gluteus Maximus and Hamstrings are the primary muscles involved in hip extension (opposite to hip flexion). The dominant of the two is the Gluteus Maximus. If you happen to have the habit of sitting a few hours a day, there are these muscles on the front part of your pelvis that are going to become tight. These muscles (hip flexors) constrict the movement of the Gluteus Maximus when they are tight, because they work in the opposite motion. Once this happens, the Hamstrings have to take over and become overworked a tight. So the origins of the Hamstring tightness never had to do with the Hamstrings at all. Now if we wanted to correct this problem with the hamstrings, we could use several static stretches to open up the hip flexors. This would allow the Gluteus Maximus to mobilize, and now the hamstrings wouldn’t have to overwork anymore. If we can understand why we stretch the muscles we are stretching, static stretching can be an immensely useful tool in your arsenal.