tips – Page 3 – Personal Euphoria: Pilates & Fitness Classes in CT

Grip Strength

Multiple research shows a correlation between overall health markers and grip strength. There seems to be a particular correlation with cardiovascular health (based on a study of 140,000 people over 4 years). Some researchers think testing grip strength might be a cheap, easy way to assess general heart health.

This matters because grip strength often starts to diminish between the age of 50-55 (I don’t know about you, but that sounds young to me). And Millennials have lost grip strength compared to their adult counterparts from the 1980s. This loss is more pronounced in men than women, but both have lost their grip. (Note: the research on this did not indicate they are concerned this is causing heart issues in adults today, more just that as a population we do less manual labor.)

The real issue is that grip strength has such practical applications in life, so if and when you lose it, you notice it daily. If your grip strength is still good you might take for granted using a fork, pumping gas, vacuuming, lifting a water jug, or opening a jar of pickles, but all these tasks require grip strength.

Grip strength is interconnected with wrist health and forearm strength. So […]

Grip StrengthMaggie Downie2023-09-28T12:46:41-04:00

Movement Snacks

Movement snacks are short bursts of movement throughout the day much like you’d have a snack between meals. They are not meal substitutes. It would still benefit you to get a workout in, but whether you workout or not, adding small bursts of movement throughout the day is vital to health.

If you absolutely don’t have time for a full workout, adding in movement snacks is better than nothing. More and more research indicates that any movement you can make time for is worthwhile. A recent study out of Japan found doing one bicep curl a day increased muscle strength by 6-12 percent. Our body really responds to any movement we give it.

The goal of a movement snack is to figure out how movement can fit into your day. I’ve provided some suggestions below, but really you want to think about what will actually work in your day. Consider what is a new habit you can form. In the video below Taylor Kinzler from NBC CT LIVE mentions how she could fit in a movement snack while her videos are uploading at work. That’s the idea…think like that. But if you need some tips… try some of these:

Wake Up & Pandiculate

Your […]

Movement SnacksMaggie Downie2023-08-29T13:45:18-04:00

Plank Form

I always tell people to KEEP MOVING but one of the best exercises you can do involves no movement at all. I’m talking about planking. Planking may seem like a fad when world leaders are doing it (remember Canada’s Prime Minster Trudeau planking on a desk?) and the world record for longest plank is over 9.5 hours. But the research on the benefits of planking is so significant that the US army swapped out sit ups for planks this year!

Benefits of Plank

What they found is young recruits flinging themselves up and down to crank out as many sits ups as possible were injuring their backs, using other muscles besides their abdominals, and basically by-passing the ab muscles. (I should note: sit ups don’t have to be a bad exercise when performed with proper form, but at superspeed it’s hard to do them properly.)

In plank, no other muscle is going to pick up the slack. Your abs are going to do the work, or they are not. According to research, planks activate more ab muscles and engage them more intensely than sit ups. So, you build strength, definition, and endurance. […]

Plank FormMaggie Downie2022-05-21T23:04:36-04:00

Do You Really Need to Exercise?

Please don’t get me wrong. This is not an article about how you shouldn’t exercise.

It has an important role in our health and wellness, but exercise is not the only way to move and stay healthy. What’s really key is physical activity.

All exercise is physical activity but not all physical activity is exercise. Exercise is the traditional, scheduled, planned, intentional movement you think of when you consider running, weight lifting, and of course your favorite Pilates class (join me through Glastonbury Parks Rec Tuesdays and Thursdays at 8:30 to get your virtual fill of that). Physical activity is any movement that activates the muscles and expends energy. That’s pretty much every movement.

Many large, multi year studies show that the more physically active someone is the less likely they are to die of all causes, including cancer and diabetes. In addition the more physical activity we are the happier we are and the less likely we are to develop Alzheimer’s. And it’s a sliding scale. Add a little bit of physical activity and you’ll live longer and grow happier. Adding more only increases the benefit. That’s where exercise can […]

Do You Really Need to Exercise?Maggie Downie2022-05-03T17:01:20-04:00

Finding happiness

Being in motion on a long hike makes me happy. Here I am at a camp on Mt. Kili.

Figuring out and finding happiness has consumed me lately. I’ve been reading a lot about it. What makes us happy? As far as I can tell, what makes us happy is a series of contradictions. You need a stable government, unless you live in Mexico and then apparently you are happy without one. Earning more than $70,000 per year supposedly doesn’t lead to greater happiness according to statistics, except that in the very specific places where people are the most happy individual income is higher overall. You need freedom, but one of the happiest towns in the United States has a lot of restrictions.

In all my reading and research I can pinpoint four things that seem to truly make people happy—good relationships, volunteering or doing good for others, a sense of purpose, and your perspective.

Here are just a couple tips, using the four points above as a reference, to try and increase your happiness quota:

Get together with good friends at regular intervals. Have a monthly dinner club, or book club, or […]

Finding happinessMaggie Downie2018-02-14T15:58:45-05:00

Previous 234 Next