Hello friends, and welcome to this month’s Joyinmovement newsletter.
As I often do in June, I write about assorted health and fitness topics. Today we’ll discuss diabetes, exercises NOT to do, and clearing out brain toxins. Let’s get started!
1. It is predicted that as many as 1 in 3 Americans will have diabetes. That’s a scary thought. Here’s an easy way to think of what diabetes is. Our bodies need fuel to work. One source of that fuel is glucose, or sugar, that comes from food. The right amount of sugar helps your cells work as they should. Insulin, a hormone made by the pancreas, keeps the sugar balance in your body. If the pancreas doesn’t make enough insulin, or your body can’t use the insulin well, your sugar level gets too high. This causes diabetes.
The symptoms can be hard to notice and often appear slowly over time. Symptoms include needing to pee often, being very thirsty, feeling tired, having blurry vision, or losing weight.
Managing your weight, eating a healthy diet, and being active helps keep your blood sugar under control.
I found a really good brochure on all aspects of diabetes and it includes a great chart on living healthy with diabetes. If you’d like to know where to get it, email me. Let’s do our part so that statistic will read ZERO in 3 Americans will have diabetes.
2. Here are 5 exercises NOT to do! Yes, it’s true. There are exercises to avoid. Maybe you already know to avoid them, and maybe not. Once you read about these exercises, if you don’t know what they are, look them up online and you’ll be able to find demonstration videos.
*** Weighted Situps
Why: These are terrible for the low back and your spine. They compress the discs in your spine and can cause serious low back injuries. It’s better to use a stability ball or power wheel rollout or plank exercises.
*** Triceps Bench Dips
Years ago, if you trained with me I used these dips, but not anymore. Do NOT do triceps dips with your hands on the bench behind you and
your feet out in front of you. These are not good for your shoulder joints and too many people hurt themselves. Here are some alternatives: Close-Grip Pushups, Plank-to-Triceps Extensions, and lying dumbbell triceps extensions.
*** Broomstick Twists
I see people doing them, so that’s why I mention them. In addition, you MUST avoid all of those rotary ab machines at your gym. They are dangerous for your low back. Here are some alternatives: Cross body mountain climbers, spiderman climbs, and side planks.
*** Military Style Pushups – with elbows flared out to the side
If your body forms a T-shape when you do pushups, you’re putting your poor rotator cuff under a tremendous amount of stress. Just like
those triceps dips, you will end up hurting yourself. As an alternative, fix your push-ups by bringing your elbows in closer to your sides so that your upper-body forms an upside-down V-shape when you do pushups.
*** Slow cardio, especially the elliptical machine, if your goal is fat loss.
Why? It doesn’t work for fat loss and research shows that cardio machines over-estimate your calorie burning by 20% for treadmills and up to 42% for the elliptical machine. You don’t have to exercise for a long time. You can get great results with short-burst workouts. A better alternative is interval training or bodyweight circuits.
3. Have you heard the term “brain toxins”? How about how to clear them out? If not, keep reading.
We all know that sleep is important. Restful sleep helps to “recharge” your system, decrease stress hormones, and reduce fatigue, but you probably didn’t know that it’s also vitally important in protecting your brain from toxicity, damage, and even debilitating diseases like Alzheimer’s.
In a recent study conducted at the University of Rochester Medical Center, researchers discovered that it’s DURING sleep that the brain clears out potential harmful waste that builds up during the day.
As you sleep, your brain pumps spinal fluid into the brain to “flush out” waste into the circulatory system and eventually to the liver for removal. Because this process is very energy intensive, it’s difficult for the brain to perform it during the day while we are already over-active and preoccupied with performing everyday tasks.
Instead, researchers found that sleeping brains were able to clear out much more amyloid-beta, the plaque-building protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
The researchers suggest that if you want to keep your brain healthy and free of toxins, strive for 7-8 hours of sleep each night. Nothing new there, but this information just may cause you to make sleep more of a priority!
Keeping this month’s JIM letter short and sweet so we can all spend more time off the computer and outdoors having fun!
Make it a great month, and always remember to find JOY in movement!
shelli
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