DOMS

Beaufort Health: Is Sitting Bad For You

Beaufort Health: Is Sitting Bad For You

Published by on February 6, 2019 | Leave a response

One night with my family over the holidays we were watching a favorite show of ours and my brother, a very active individual, would get up every fifteen minutes to stretch out his legs and get blood flowing to them as he says. We have discussed why he does this before but this time I told myself that I would get to the bottom of it and see if he was really on to something that is truly healthy for you. In theory it makes perfect sense to get up every so often after sitting in a sedentary state for a while to but how much does it really help.

It has been proven that sitting time is correlated to death and disease. In a study done by the American Cancer Society, they found a link between long periods of time spent sitting with higher risk of death from all causes. 1Research done by South Australia Health shows the same correlations between sitting time and being overweight, having diabetes, and a greater chance of heart disease. 2The most likely reasons for this correlation is that the time spent sitting is in place of time spent in an increased heart rate state. This meaning that you are moving but not necessarily exercising vigorously. Time spent looking at and watching screens is ever increasing in our technological society. Usually time spent looking at screens is sedentary. At first technologies like computers and televisions were strictly business use but now there is probably less than ten households in the U.S. that don’t have a device with a screen in them. There is no doubt in my mind that this time spent looking at screens is taking away from our time up and moving around and we now know that this is negatively affecting our health yet we only seem to be creating more of these devices.

Now some of you might be saying that your job requires you to be in a sedentary position for prolonged periods of time. This may be true but there are still ways in which you can break up the time spent sitting. Breaking up the time spent sitting, even if it’s just for five minutes every hour, would be very beneficial to your health.

“Even when adults meet physical activity guidelines, sitting for prolonged periods can compromise metabolic health. TV time and objective-measurement studies show deleterious associations, and breaking up sedentary time is beneficial.” 3This study done by the Exercise and Sport Science Reviews Journal and clearly shows not only that sitting time affects your health but also that breaking your sitting time can help if you have to stay in a sedentary position for an extended amount of time. In a study done by the Center of Physical Activity Research, they find the same kind of results when it comes to breaking up sitting time. “experimental studies provide considerable evidence of the positive effects of breaking up prolonged time spent sitting on metabolic outcomes.” One key part to mention is that it does matter what you break up your sedentary behavior with. If you only break it up with standing and do no other physical activity besides walking and standing then you are still more than likely to be unhealthy.

One must exercise in multiple ways in order to offset the negative effects of sitting. “the type, intensity, and frequency of physical activity necessary to effectively counteract the detrimental effects of prolonged sitting may differ according to the subjects’ characteristics, especially with respect to the subjects’ habitual physical activity level.” 4So now that we know that prolonged sitting time is negative for your health and that breaking it up more often is better for your health, here are a few ways to try to implement this into your day.

Drink more water so that you get up to get more water or use the restroom. This will naturally break up your sitting time as well as make you more hydrated. If you work at a desk for your career then look into getting a standing desk. You can get one that can go from a seated desk to standing so that you can switch between to two. If sitting and watching tv is a part of your day then I suggest getting up after every commercial to move around. If you have a treadmill, walking on it while watching your team play is a great way to watch the game but not get the negative effects of prolonged sitting.

These are just a few things or ways in which you can break up your sitting time more or even lessen the time spent sitting but the best thing to do is just be conscious of how long you are spending in a sedentary state over the course of the day. After realizing this making a real effort to shorten the time spent in that state no matter how you get it done. Hopefully after reading this you want to get up, start moving and change some of the lack of movement habits you may have.

EF Coach Reid

1https://www.cancer.org/latest-news/sitting-time-linked-to-higher-risk-of-death-from-all-causes.html 2https://www.sahealth.sa.gov.au/wps/wcm/connect/public+content/sa+health+internet/healthy+living/is+your+health+at+risk/the+risk+of+sitting+too+much 3https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3404815/ 4https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/ead1/47fcf041cb954f807e04e2ae9e5377a3a5b1.pdf


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Beaufort Health: Nature and it's Benefits

Beaufort Health: Nature and it’s Benefits

Published by on January 29, 2019 | Leave a response

We’ve all been told before to go outside and get some fresh air to calm down, but have you ever wondered why this is a saying? I certainly have. I also wondered why typically people who spend lots of time outdoors in nature seem to be less stressed and overall more healthy individuals. What nature is defined as is debated all over the world but for the purposes of this post when I refer to nature I am talking about green spaces that are more or less untouched by mankind. Today I want to share with you what my findings were and hopefully get you outside amongst nature more often after this.

We all know that exercise can increase your physical health in very positive ways but this is only one of many things you can be doing in order to increase your overall health. I also specify physical here there because total health is comprised of much more than just your physical health. Being outside in nature not only can increase your physical health through the movement you are doing through it, but it also has effects on your mental health. In a study by the British Journal of Sports Medicine, they found that walking in nature and spending time under the canopy of trees causes electrochemical changes in the brain that can lead people to enter a highly beneficial state of effortless attention. 1The results of this experiment showed evidence of brain wave activity indicating lower frustration and higher meditative states when moving into green space and the exact reverse when moving out of it. There is no question this is true in my mind because I feel this every time I visit Manhattan. The minute I step foot out on to the street from Penn Station I feel the difference in energy and how busy people are. Yet when out in nature I feel more relaxed and in a less anxious state.

This brings me to my next point. Now if being outside in nature positively affects your health which is proven by science, well then how much is enough time in nature and how much nature do you really need. Luckily here in Beaufort, we not far from nature at all. The beach is close by as well as a plethora of outdoor green spaces such as swamps or rivers where we can intake all the healthy benefits of being outside in nature. In a study done in 2006 by the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, it was found that “the percentage of green space in people’s living environment has a positive association with the general health of the residents.” This means that the more access to nature you have then the healthier the populations usually are because they are generally spending more time in nature. In the study it is also said that spending time in nature will “enhance worker productivity”. 2So being outside amongst greenery can positively affect your life in so many different ways.

Being in and viewing nature can also lower your stress levels. Tests were done on people to monitor some of the physiological stress responses such as heart rate and blood pressure to see what their responses were when in nature. They found that “people who view nature after stressful situations show reduced physiological stress response, as well as better interest and attention and decreased feelings of fear and anger or aggression.” 3This is yet another reason to go out and experience nature. Lastly you can get a healthy dose of natural vitamin D when outside in nature from the sun. In these days I feel like as a society we have been scared away from the sun’s rays due to skin cancer and other sun expose related diseases. If exposed in moderation, just like most things, it can be very helpful as well as boost your mood and energy levels. 4Studies have been done on depression and how the lack of sunlight and vitamin D affect the depression.  

From the research that I have done it seems as though we should get outside more if being healthy is high on our priorities. You will not only improve your physical health from moving around in nature but also receive the many other mental, spiritual, and emotional health benefits that being in nature gives you. So if you are feeling stressed, take a walk in the woods. If you are feeling sluggish and have a lack of energy, read a book in a park for a bit. These types of practices will help you be a healthier individual in more aspects than one. I implore everyone to make an effort to get out into nature more than you already do and spend that time taking in the nature of this beautiful planet.

EF Coach Reid

1https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23467965 2https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2566234/ 3http://www.naturewithin.info/UF/PsychBens-FS1.pdf 4https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908269/

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Beaufort Health and Fitness: PNF Stretching

Beaufort Health and Fitness: PNF Stretching

Published by on January 29, 2019 | Leave a response

“Hey everyone! Cory from EarthFIT here. Today I am going to talk about PNF Stretching. So PNF stretching is a tool that you can use to get a much deeper stretch. So we do this in a recovery training so I’m going to go through how to do them. It stands Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation. Basically what we’re doing is we are consciously activating the golgi tendon to relax the muscle so we can stretch deeper. All that means is we are going to get a deep stretch and then the muscle that you are stretching, you are going to contract it, and then once you relax it is going to relax even further than it did the first time and the stretch is going to increase. So the big thing here- you want to make sure to always increase the stretch, increase the range of motion; at no point are we going to decrease the stretch.

So as we are doing this stretch we are not going to stretch and relax back and forth like this (please see the video) that doesn’t do anything. So what we are going to do – find where it’s a good stretch and just feel that stretch for a few seconds then you are going to contract that muscle, so right here we are stretching the hamstrings, so you can imagine kicking your leg down to the ground and slightly pointing your toe up, so we are contracting the hamstring here and then we are going to relax so that stretch is going to go deeper.

We’re always going to increase the range of motion, not decrease it, so once more contract the hamstring by kicking down but I’m holding it in place with the strap then when I relax it goes deeper. So you might shake a little bit like I do, that’s alright. So once more big thing when we relax we are keeping tension on the strap, we are not going to relax everything and let it pull us forward, because again, this doesn’t do anything, so keep tension and only relax the muscle that you are pressing.

So I’m going to show you different stretch. We are going to do quad stretch from standing because with any stretch we can do a PNF with it. Some of them require assistance but we can do a PNF with any stretch so if I’m stretching out my quad right here you know I’m feeling a nice deep stretch in the front of the leg. I’m going to PNF by using my arm to hold that leg in place as I kick down, as I’m kicking I’m activating the quad and then once I relax, I relax the quad but I keep tension my arm. You saw how that stretch went a little bit deeper. So if your foot is already against your hips when you do this you’re just going to lean forward with it, pull your leg further back, so once more I’m going to kick to my hand but keep it in place, then I’m going to relax my quad but I keep tension in my arm because we need to keep tension on what’s pulling us deeper into the stretch, so again here my range of motion increased each time. I didn’t relax everything and let it go forward and then pull going back and forth.

So you always want to increase the range of motion getting deeper stretch, you’re picking that muscle, stretching as far as you can, contracting it for a few seconds, and then relaxing it completely pulling that stretch deeper. So that’s what we are doing during recovery trainings and that will help you get a deeper stretch, you always want to make sure that you warm up before stretching, no matter if it’s normal stretching or PNF stretching, and ideally this kind of stretching since it’s deeper you want to be able to do that after a workout. It’s not ideal to do it before you could, but I’d recommend after workout and certainly warm up for it.”

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DOMS Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness

Published by on June 23, 2016 | Leave a response

“Hey! What’s up? Today I wanted to speak to you specifically about Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (Also known as DOMS). This is when your body becomes sore after training.

So typically, the first time that you train your Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is going to be the most severe because the training is like a shock to the body. It is moving outside of homeostasis, there are small microtraumas that happen to the muscles and the body is not prepared for what is occurring.

The good news is that this process is what makes you stronger, gain more lean muscle, and have better brain, mind-body connection. So DOMS typically occurs 24-48 hours after training. It can happen much faster, it can last much longer, but that’s the typical range.

I’ve had soreness that’s lasted me weeks before because I over did something, you know, way way too much. And I’ve also had it hit me real fast and there’s reasons to that, as well, because that’s going to be the next thing I’m talking about, which is nutrition and that’s like if we went to a whole… I could do a totally different video just on nutrition for this, but I’m just going to cover the basics. The more water you have in your body, the more cells you have in the body, the more balanced the cell is with nutrients, minerals, etc. the less soreness you’ll have, and the faster you’ll get nutrients in right after training. You have about a 45 metabolic window of time to get you know good lean protein in with a little mix of carbs so the carbs helps transport the protein to the muscles and helps the repairing process. If you don’t have a lot of water in your body, you don’t get the nutrients you need, you don’t have the nutrients before you train, your soreness will go up. Think of it like, again, not having oil in the car, right? so rusty muscles going against each other. So, the more water you have way before your training the better, the more water you intake after, the better. Your recovery will be much better.

The eccentric phase of the movement is when the soreness occurs, that’s what creates the soreness. So when you go down on the squat, that is the eccentric phase. Right, when you’re walking down the stairs this is something that typically happens: people say, “Oh my calves are sore, it must have been from walking up all the stairs.” Well, actually, it’s from walking down the stairs because as you step your calf has to decelerate the movement and that’s the eccentric motion which creates the soreness. So, anytime you’re doing the eccentric motion, that’s where the DOMS comes from. It’s also where most injuries occur in exercise. So, starting out, you always want to go slow in control movement pattern so you reinforce the proper movement, the connection from the brain to the muscles, etc..

Now we’re gonna move on to the recovery portion. How do I recover faster from DOMS. Well you can increase the rate of recovery. Nutrition we already spoke about so the more water you have inside you before you train and after the better, so after training keep drinking more water but light activity will help increase the process; getting more blood flow, nutrients and oxygen so your blood flows and circulates, right? that’s one of the main reasons for the cardiovascular system is to circulate the blood and clear out trash. So what you can do is something like light jogging, light stretching, or even going into a sauna and then coming out and doing light stretching. This will help flush out some of the trash, the lactic acid that has been built up. It will help get more blood flow, more oxygen and nutrients to the area that has the microtrauma and this is how the repairing process begins. And this is true for injuries like real actual injuries like a bad sprain ankle, right? People say like lifted elevated, don’t move it. It’s actually good to get your heart rate up and get the blood flow circulate through the foot not necessarily using that foot that you injured, right? so I want to make that clear you wouldn’t be walking on the foot you injured but doing others stuff like upper body or maybe the other leg on a bike will get your heart pumping the blood and flowing to help repair that injured area. So it’s the same for muscle soreness.

One of the best parts about training is if you are training and then you get injured or you go into surgery or something like that, your recovery process is about 50% better or faster because you’ve been training and you’ve put that stress on the body. Your body knows how to repair itself faster so when you get an injury or have to go for surgery, it’s much easier and better to recover. So we went over that more oxygen and blood flow you can get to the body by doing things like hot showers, going into the sauna, doing light cardio, some light stretching will help the recovery process and if you’ve seen our video on supercompensation that is specific wher,e you know, you’re going to training your body actually fatigues while training and then you recover and your body recovers at a better state, and then you can train a little bit harder and typically the soreness should go down if you’re adapting the body properly: not too intense, not too fast, not doing things too soon.

Alright, this is Ian Hart. I hope this help. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness is typically happening if you’re training especially the first time and now you know why, now you know what to do how to recover. I hope this helps. Have a great day!”

Ian Hart is a Body-Mind Transformation expert, the creator of EarthFIT Training Systems, co-creator ofBACK PAIN RELIEF4LIFE, and founder of BEAUFORTPERSONALTRAINING.COM andMYBACKPAINCOACH.COM. Ian and his team help people get into optimal shape in the safest, fastest and most effective way possible, using cutting edge science.

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D.O.M.S Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (EarthFIT Beaufort Personal Trainer)

Published by on June 5, 2013 | Leave a response

D.O.M.S Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (EarthFIT Beaufort Personal Trainer)

Ian Hart is the owner of EarthFIT Personal Training facilities http://www.earthfittraining.com :Beaufort Personal Training teaches you about: Description of Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (D.O.M.S) and recovery from it. A great recovery training program that is also great for core strength and back pain relief and prevention click here http://www.backpainrelief4life.com/

“Hey! What’s going on? It’s Ian Hart here at the EarthFIT Blog and what I am going to speak about today is DOMS. DOMS is an acronym for Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and what that means is your body has a delay in when it gets sore from a workout.

So there are a lot of things happen when DOMS occurs, and I’m going to explain to you starting out as if you were beginner. The first time you train, your body is going to have microtrauma, there are going to be small tears and the muscle fibers and the body has to recover from that. So the first time it happens, your body is not used to it so there’s going to be more soreness and there’s going to be more trauma to the body and it happens during the Eccentric Motion which means the eccentric motion of any movement you do so if you do a squat it’s on the downward movement, if you are doing a push up again it’s on a downward movement. It’s not during on the actual working phase of it.

So it happens about 24-48 hours after the workout. So if you workout on a Monday, it’s going to be more intense on the Tuesday and Wednesday, sometimes wednesday is even more intense. So there’s way to recover faster from it and the more you train, and the more frequently you train provided you are not overtraining, then the more your body adapts to the stimulus and the micro trauma to your body, and the faster it recovers, and the more you build lean muscle if you are eating properly and all those things which moves your metabolism, so on so forth…

So that’s a good thing. We want to break down muscle because that’s the only way we can build it back up. So that is the benefit of working out. So when you get sore remember that you are getting the benefit of it. Recovery – people always ask us when they are sore “Should I run the next day?”, “I’m too sore I don’t think I should run or I don’t think I should workout”. There’s specific recovery training that you can do when you are sore and this is actually going to increase the rate of recovery and things like even just sitting in a sauna is actually going to help with recovery but in terms of a workout, doing like a light jog and some light exercises and stretching is going to increase the rate of recovery and here is why… You’re going to get more blood flow and oxygen and nutrients to the muscles that are damaged or to the areas that are damaged.

And this also goes for not only DOMS for working out, this is actually for injuries too. So you get more oxygen, blood flow and nutrients and therefore it flushes out that lactic acid and the trash that is in the muscles that causes some of the soreness and then it helps repair the muscles even faster and that’s why water and eating properly are so important and then when you do something like jogging, it’s going to have more oxygen intake and then it transmits all throughout your body and Boom! you are faster on the next training session and then your body recovers so on so forth… So it is linked closely with the supercompensation video that we showed you and how everything works at that level. So again, this is Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness and if you have any questions about it and anything any comments, go ahead and leave one below.”

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