Are you having trouble connecting with your core muscles? Here are some cues that might help you pull your navel to your spine. Let us know if one helps you understand your body better.
Have you heard others that helped you? Let us know…
New research has shown that willpower is just like a muscle. You have to train it to strengthen it and it can be overworked and exhausted. That means that by the end of the day it’s harder to have willpower since activities during the day have depleted it’s stamina. It’s not just about food choices and fitness. We use willpower to get up in the morning, not gossip at the office, and not speed in the car.
Try and help your willpower succeed. Use these two tips:
1) Get a good night’s sleep
2) Plan and make dinner in advance so that you don’t have to use your willpower later in the day. Having everything already prepared will mean you don’t have to make a decision to eat out or cook something easier and less healthy.
I don’t want to bore you, but it’s good to know the different ways muscles contract, especially since people generally tend to think that one is harder and better for you than the rest. That’s not true. Here are the basics on contracting muscles:
Isometric: That is when you contract a muscle and hold that contraction. Like when you pull your belly button to your spine and hold it there for a set amount of time. It’s one of the reasons that Pilates is proven to be more effective at strengthening the core. When you purposefully squeeze a muscle you are using it works harder.
Concentric: This is the one more people are familiar with. It is what we call the contraction while the muscle is shrinking or tightening. So if you think of a bicep curl it is when you lift the weight up. Or, think of a roll up, your abs are contracting as you roll up. This is the type of contraction people focus on the most, but it doesn’t make it the most important.
Eccentric: This is the contraction when the […]
Do you have a favorite muscle? Since you were a kid you probably had a favorite color, number, animal, and flower. We pick favorites for everything. Why not have a favorite muscle. It might make you think about your body more, plus you might enjoy working it.
You can have any reason for liking a particular muscle. In high school I liked the Latissimus Dorsi. That’s a large muscles that wraps around your side from a large portion of your back up toward your shoulder. We dissected cats; it stood out, and I always remembered it. That was reason enough to like it.
As anyone who takes my classes know, I like to work the butt, so I’m generally a fan of the gluteus maximus. That’s the largest muscle in the body.
My favorite name for a muscle is the sternocleidomastoid. That’s in the neck. I don’t particularly like to work or stretch this muscle, but I sure like to say it.
You don’t have to go do research to find all the funny names of the muscles. There are many you […]