The Wellness Zone | Other
The Wellness Zone
Phone: +61 439 531 201
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23.01.2022 It’s that time of year again. Time to create your New Year’s resolution only to get a week in and wonder why you can’t stick to the plan you made. Not only is this demotivating, it’s a lot of pressure to put on yourself and promotes an all or nothing mindset. Here’s an alternative solution. Take 5 minutes every day over the next few weeks to reflect on and consider your current values, identity and behaviours. Identify the values and behaviours of someone who embodies... what you would like to achieve (think inspiration, not comparison). Decide on a small action task that is easy, achievable and quick, one that once you make a part of your routine will lead to a higher-impact habit. Have you ever signed up to the gym on January 1st with the goal of starting to exercise only to give up after two weeks? Instead, let’s simplify that and reverse the steps of the process: I will set a timer on my phone at 9:00pm each night to remind me to put my gym clothes on my bedside table. Your gym clothes act as a cue for you to exercise. Once those clothes are on, you’re probably motivated to go for a walk. A few weeks later, you’re feeling good and you now start to value your health. That walk becomes your high-impact habit, with knock on effects for energy, getting vitamin D and time spent in nature. You don’t have to wait until 2021. Get planning now. Who are you now? Who do you want to be? What’s one small change you can make that will have the greatest impact on your life?
22.01.2022 Stress. This is unfortunately one of the most common words we hear people say on a daily basis. Think of the stress bucket as your capacity to handle physical, mental and emotional challenges. A little bit of stress here and there doesn’t seem like much, but these constant stressors add up, we get overwhelmed and stress takes over. Your body doesn’t know how to differentiate between a life-threatening stress (e.g. being chased by a tiger) or your boss sending you a nasty e...mail. Sadly, we don’t have a lot of control over these external stressors. What we do have control of is our response and the tools we use to ‘empty the bucket’. So what can we do? Prioritise sleep. Consistent schedule, cool and dark bedroom, reduce blue light exposure at night and eat your last meal a few hours before bed. Nutrition and hydration. Make sure you’re eating enough food (considering micronutrients as well) and drinking enough water. Organise your schedule and reduce decision making. Write your schedule down so it’s not constantly on repeat in your mind and reduce the amount of little decisions that cost you energy daily. Breath-work & mindfulness. Very simply put, proper slow breathing will help to stimulate the vagus nerve and improve parasympathetic tone and reduce sympathetic (fight or flight) drive. Talk to someone! Book in with a counsellor or a psychologist and have a chat. Your stress is a real and fair problem and deserves to be talked about. Small doses of stress here and there are good for us, it allows us to adapt and grow. However, a constant barrage of stress can have a huge impact on your health. Start to build these daily habits to help improve your stress resilience and empty that bucket!
16.01.2022 Proximal stiffness (or stiffness of the core) requires direct training. Our spines are beautifully flexible and allow a great amount of movement, but require a strong, stable and supportive system when bearing load. We can consider the core to include all of the muscles between the hip and the shoulder. Creating an immovable base (a stiff and stable core) allows for the action of the muscle to be directed towards the distal end (e.g. locking down the proximal/core end of the... hip muscles enhances force production and velocity when running). Your brain senses instability and will decrease motor output and your ability to achieve optimal ranges of motion (e.g. instability through the core may stop you from reaching full depth in your squat). A stable core means that your body will feel safe to move into greater active ROM. We first need to align the ribcage and pelvis so we have optimal length-tension relationship of the muscles and can create the zone in which breathing and bracing can occur. You can develop the awareness of this position through: 90/90 breathing (static). Breathing planks (resisting gravity) Counterbalance squats (in movement). Train the core as its designed to function. Anti-extension (e.g. planks). Anti-rotation (e.g. bird dogs). Anti-lateral flexion (e.g. suitcase carries). There’s nothing inherently wrong with training a muscle action vs. its function (e.g. choosing sit ups over farmers carries), but it’s worth considering WHY you’re choosing a particular core exercise so you can optimise the outcome. Thanks to @dr.daniel.kirkbride for making me aware of this concept in his wonderful mentorship program.
09.01.2022 What if I told you that less was more? Less restriction. Less training. Less self-punishment. We can try and outrun our physiology as much as we like, but eventually all of that overtraining, undereating and over-stressing will catch up with us. ... Eventually, your performance will suffer, you’ll get burnt out, you may get injured and your hormones and metabolism will not be functioning optimally. Your body needs energy to heal. Even just our daily activities require fuel to get us through. Add in modern day stressors and training on top and we need even more! Eat well and enough. Prioritise sleep. Build an aerobic base. Add in some strength training. Be kind to yourself. Give your body what it needs. Less is more.
07.01.2022 WHERE THE MAGIC HAPPENS How you choose to spend the other 23 hours of your day outside of them gym is critical to your success. Giving 110% in your training session and failing to consider nutrition, sleep and stress may be a lesson in futility. Adaptation requires training + recovery. ... Doing quality training paired with good nutrition to refuel, sleep to restore and stress management to rebalance will get you a lot further than adding an extra HIIT class to your schedule. Often this aspect of self-growth and development is the hardest. Eating well and taking time for mental space and reflection can be a lot more challenging than pushing ourselves hard for an hour at the gym, but this is often what we need the most. This picture is a great example of my client Carla (owner of the fantastic recovery centre @ora_recovery) doing some cold water immersion. She consistently works hard at her training but also puts time and effort into nailing these other aspects of her life
