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March 11, 2020

Wellness Wednesday: Movement Moment

Active rest at its best!

Greetings WNYMMA community! And those visiting the post 🙂 How are we all feeling today? Comment below and let us know!

Funny question… are you sitting right now reading this?

Coach Hanna here to discuss the benefits of choosing other “resting” positions over the modern day habitual sitting!

Squatting and Kneeling

According to the research, squatting and kneeling (over sitting) are so much more beneficial for our overall well being 🙂

This conclusion was founded by researchers who studied how sedentary behavior has evolved over time. They studied a group of Tanzanian hunter-gatherers called the Hadza with old fashioned lifestyles compared to the Western world✨

They used specific tools to monitor physical activity and resting time which led to their discovery. The Hadza had activity levels 3 times higher than the USA’s federal health guideline yet also had pretty high levels of inactivity as well. Averaging 9-10 hours of sedentary time, why do the Hadza have drastically lower levels of chronic disease?

What makes it possible?

The answer to that seems to be their choice of resting position! They prefer to squat and kneel which involves more muscle activation rather than merely sitting 😎

Using equipment measuring muscle activity in the lower limbs, the researchers concluded more muscles were activated in a squatting and kneeling position versus sitting. Therefore, between the higher activity level and resting positions (that aren’t actually fully resting), this could explain the lower risk of disease😎

The alternative to sitting

“Even though there were long periods of inactivity, the Hadza are often resting in postures that require their muscles to maintain light levels of activity,” explains Professor and researcher David Raichlen, Ph.D. “Being a couch potato—or even sitting in an office chair—requires less muscle activity. Since light levels of muscle activity require fuel, which generally means burning fats, then squatting and kneeling postures may not be as harmful as sitting in chairs.”

Because of this, researchers are hoping sustained active rest postures will become more common. So let’s become a part of the movement y’all and get squatting!

Below is a super insightful video discussing the importance of moving our DNA 🙂

Witness and enjoy!

Thank you kindly for tuning in for another week dose of wellness goodness! I enjoy sharing knowledge with you that we can all benefit from 🙂

Til next week! May life hold you favorably in every way,

Coach Hanna

Life Coach & Pilates Instructor

Coach at WNYMMA

Article by Hannemart Louw / Daily Updates, Nutrition, Pilates, Stretching, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday, WNYMMA, Yoga / Coach Hanna, Fitness, health, Pilates, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday

February 26, 2020

Wellness Wednesday: Movement Moment

Hello there! Here we are together today for another Wellness Wednesday post by WNYMMA 🙂 I hope everyone has had a stellar week so far filled with unexpected good times! Coach Hanna here to converse about a Movement Moment because today is all about wrist mobility!

Why are we discussing wrist mobility?

We use them more than we recognize! Let’s not underestimate this crucial joint any longer and focus on how we can keep our wrists healthy for our physical performance and quality of life in general 🙂

The wrist is the point of transition between the arm and the hand. It is a complex joint full of bone, ligaments, connective tissue, muscles and nerves. It also has multiple ranges of movement being rotation, flexion, extension, adduction and abduction. Keeping all this in mind and creating perspective, it allows one to realize the importance of focusing on the wellbeing of our wrists!

How do we keep our wrists healthy and able?

A major factor in keeping our wrists healthy is utilizing correct technique during exercises including proper hand grip, aligning the body correctly and knowing which muscles to focus on.

Below I am going to share with you 4 movements to get you started on creating deeper mobility awareness in the wrists 🙂

1. Wrist Rotations Interlace your fingers and draw your palms together into a comfortable hug. Keeping this, move your wrists around in every possible direction. Hold any position that feels a little tender/limited for a few seconds then continue rotating. You can repeat this often throughout your day.

2. Prayers Stand up and place your hands together in front of you in a prayer position. Maintaining contact keeping your hands together, lower them as far as you can. The longer you can keep your hands together, the better you’ll stretch the wrists. When you’re at the bottom, reverse hand position so that your fingers are now pointing downward and your hands remain together. Come back up keeping the hand position 🙂

3. Plank push–up position Get into a plank position (elbows fully extended) and turn your hands backwards so your fingers are pointing toward your toes. Keeping a rigid torso, shift your body forward so you have an angle from shoulders to wrists. If you can, hold this position for 20-30 seconds and repeat. If it gets too intense, drop down to your knees and complete the exercise.

4. Wrist walks Place your palms on a wall keeping your arms straight and fingers pointing up to the ceiling. Keeping contact with the wall, walk your hands down the wall. Go as far down as you can without letting your palms come off the wall. Once you reach the point where you can’t walk your hands down any further, turn your hands down so your fingers are now pointing to the floor. Now in reverse, walk your wrists back up the wall as far upward as you can. Feels good hey? 🙂

BONUS TIP

Make sure that when you are working on your computer, you are keeping your wrists in a neutral position when typing. This adjustment works magic on the joint! Beneath is a short video on how to type in a way that puts less strain on our wrists 🙂

So no more ignoring the wrists, WNYMMA community! Let’s keep them young and fresh doing as best as they can 🙂

Til next week, ya’ll – may the rest of the week hold you well!

Coach Hanna

Life Coach and Pilates Instructor

WNYMMA Coach

Article by Hannemart Louw / Pilates, Stretching, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday, WNYMMA, Yoga / Coach Hanna, Fitness, Pilates, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday, Yoga

February 12, 2020

Wellness Wednesday: Movement Moment

The Importance of a Variety of Movement

 

Good day WNYMMA! I hope your day is holding you well 🙂  Coach Hanna here to discuss the importance of partaking in a variety of movement and why you would benefit from doing so.
The main reason? Your body is a machine capable of moving in very diverse ways! From flexion to extension to lateral flexion to rotation to moving forwards or backwards or side to side.
When our body becomes accustomed to one style of fitness or movement, we run the risk of reaching a plateau in our workout performance and training results.

How does this affect us?

 

Like what happens when we aren’t mentally challenging ourselves… if we don’t challenge our physical being in a variety of ways, we will become stagnant in our personal growth and skill set.
One should consider varying their exercise routines for two main reasons:
1) prevent boredom associated with doing the same movements
2) avoid reaching a plateau in workout performance and also training results. Research has shown that creating a diverse exercise program can enhance adherence.

Bottom Line

 

Regardless of other people’s opinions on a fitness style or what you believe you are or not capable of, putting yourself out there to try new experiences is a rewarding feeling.

So if you’re at a gym, challenge yourself to try every single kind of class that has caught your attention. Whether that’s cardio, mind body movement, HIIT, spinning, martial arts, dance style classes… give it a go and your body will be grateful for the challenging experience. Every new style of movement we participate in expands our body’s knowledge of physical motions.
Below is a video of biomechanics expert Katy Bowman discussing the importance of movement 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVRg193Wa-M
Life is too short not to move in all the ways possible.
Mix it up and grow in the process!
And don’t forget, you are how you move 🙂
With that, I bid you a farewell til next week!

Coach Hanna

Life Coach and Pilates Instructor

WNYMMA Coach

Article by Hannemart Louw / Pilates, Stretching, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday, Yoga / Boxing, Coach Hanna, Fitness, health, HIIT, Kickboxing, MMA, MMA Conditioning, Muay Thai, Pilates, Wellness, Wellness Wednesday, Yoga

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