A Dynamic Stretching Warm-Up to Activate Your Muscles

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

A Dynamic Stretching Routine You Can Do in Under 5 Minutes

Start every workout with this dynamic stretching warm-up to activate your muscles and take your workout to a new level.

For years, traditional static stretching was the standard that most people follow when exercising. Until recently, only athletes and professionals used dynamic stretching as a way to stretch and warm up for their workouts.

However, dynamic stretching isn’t for athletes only. Here’s how you can benefit from dynamic stretching, and how to do it.

What is Dynamic Stretching?

Unlike static stretching, which involves holding still, dynamic stretching is done with movement. While static stretching is best when performed after a workout, dynamic stretching is meant to warm up the muscles that you will be using during your workout or in specific sports.

These stretches bring joints or muscles through a repetitive motion, moving that part of the body further with each repetition. Warming up the muscles like this will help to prepare the joints and muscles for better movement and activation.

Dynamic stretches should be done after warming up the body for five to 10 minutes with a light jog or other light cardio activity. A proper warm up increases blood flow, raises core body and muscle temperature, and enables the muscles to stretch better.

Here are a few things that dynamic stretching can do:

• Activate the correct muscles. You should dynamically stretch the muscles you plan to use during your workout. For example, if you’re going to do weighted lunges in the gym, a proper dynamic warm up would be walking lunges. This will warm up your legs, hips, glutes, core, and stabilizing muscles before you add additional weight.

• Increase range of motion. Lets take the walking lunges as an example again. Walking lunges require greater range of motion through the hips, and especially through the hip flexors. Adding dynamic stretching before your workout will allow you to get deeper into each movement to get the most muscle engagement for each exercise.

• Strengthen muscles. Dynamic stretching allows you to “wake up” underactive muscles that would otherwise remain inactive, even when performing the exercise with weights. For example, if you warm up with prisoner squats (shown below), you can comfortably get deep into a squat position while minimizing risk of an injury from extra weight.

• Enhance body awareness. When you perform dynamic stretches, you challenge your balance and coordination. This enhances the nervous system and helps improve motor ability. It also forces you to focus and concentrate on the muscles you are using, as well as the workout you will perform.

Start your workouts with this total body dynamic stretching routine that will warm you up in less than five minutes. Remember to warm up with light cardio for 5-10 minutes before stretching.

Arm Swings | 20 reps

1. Stand with your back straight and abs engaged.

• Gently swing your arms out to to the side and then across the front of your body, alternating which arm swings on top. Gradually start making the swings larger so that you can feel a slight stretch in your chest and between your shoulder blades.

• Swing your arms for a total of 20-30 times.

Walking Toe Touches | 20 reps

1. Start standing with your feet together.

• Reach your arms out in front of you. Kick your RIGHT leg forward into the air, reaching to tap it to your LEFT hand. Repeat with the LEFT leg reaching to the RIGHT hand.

• Continue alternating for 20 reps.

Prisoner Squats | 15 reps

1. Bring feet slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and knees and toes slightly turned out.

• Place your hands behind your head and retract your shoulders together to open the chest.

• Squat back and down, as if sitting into a chair, keeping the weight in the heels and the chest open. Power through the heels to come back up to standing, squeezing the glutes at the top.

• Repeat for 15 reps.

Walking Lunges | 20 reps

1. Start standing with your feet together, and plenty of room in front of you. Put your hands on your hips or by your sides.

• Step your RIGHT foot forward far enough so that when you lunge down, your right thigh is parallel to the floor. You should feel a stretch through the front of your left hip.

• Press though your RIGHT heel and power up to bring your feet together and stand up.

• Next, step the LEFT foot forward. Continue alternating for 10 steps, then turn around and lunge 10 steps back to your starting point.

Plank Rotations | 20 reps

1. Start in a full plank position.

• Rotate so that your weight shifts to your RIGHT hand as you lift your LEFT arm up in the air above your shoulder. Lower back down and rotate to the other side, lifting the RIGHT arm up.

• Continue for 10 reps per side. Make sure to keep your shoulders steady and don’t lift your hips too high.

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As you can see, many of the common exercises you do in the gym can be used as a dynamic stretch when only using your bodyweight. Practice this routine and see if you can improve your range of motion during your workouts!

Watch this video – 6 Best DYNAMIC Stretching Warm Up Exercises

Written by Deanna Dorman

Author Bio:

Deanna is an ACE® certified personal trainer, Balanced Body® Pilates instructor, and NASM® Fitness Nutrition Specialist. She is passionate about inspiring others to lead a healthier lifestyle through fun workouts and healthy food. When she’s not creating new workouts and recipes for her blog The Live Fit Girls she enjoys running with her two dogs and traveling.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

5 Sneaky Ways You’re Slowing Your Metabolism Despite Exercising

 

Click HERE to Discover these 80 Keto-Friendly and Healthy Slow Cooker Recipes

5 Sneaky Ways You’re Slowing Your Metabolism (Even If You Work Out)

Are you slow to lose weight, even though you work out regularly? Here are a few sneaky things you might be doing that are inadvertently slowing your metabolism — and how to correct them.

You’re eating right.

Sticking to healthy real foods just like our Paleo ancestors.

And you’re working out, too. Running, lifting weights, doing yoga or CrossFit.

Whatever your thing is, you show up at least a few times a week.

Quick question: Why aren’t those last few pounds coming off?

Your metabolism should be humming like a race car engine. But it feels more like a horse-drawn carriage – too sluggish to get you as lean as you want to be.

Some of us are doing this to ourselves without even realizing it. The way we eat and live slows down our metabolism and makes it nearly impossible to shed those last few pounds.

Keep reading to see why… and how to fix it.

Exercise Boosts Your Metabolism, but It Might Not Be Enough

You’ve probably heard how exercising boosts your metabolism.

It’s one of the first things doctors and nutritionists recommend if you’re trying to lose weight. Just find more ways to move around. Get active.

Exercise affects your metabolism by a process called exercise-associated thermogenesis. Physical activity puts higher energy demands on your body than staying still. Some types of exercise do this better than others, but all of them beat a sedentary lifestyle.

Your metabolism is more complicated than you might realize. Your age, gender, and other factors outside your control all affect your metabolic rate. But getting physically active is under your control. That’s why so many people looking to increase their metabolism (and lose weight) start there.

Exercise is a great start…

But it might not be enough to get you as lean as you’d like. There are other factors at play.

Speeding up a Slow Metabolism

Exercise will ramp up your metabolism much better than relaxing on the couch. But there are other factors under your control – things you might not realize you’re doing – that play a part.

Once you identify them, you can make a few tweaks to your Paleo lifestyle to bump up your metabolism and burn those last few pounds.

So let’s start there. Here are five sneaky things that might be disrupting your metabolism right now:

1. You Don’t Eat Enough Calories

Yes, you read that right.

Wouldn’t you want to eat less if your metabolism is sluggish?

That’s the natural reaction. If you have a few pounds to lose, it’s easy to assume they’ll eventually come off… as long as you cut your calories enough.

But if there’s anything our bodies do well, it’s adapt. Our bodies are constantly working to maintain an energy balance between what’s burned and what’s consumed.

If you’re working hard and getting a lot of exercise, consider adding more starchy carbs and healthy fats to keep your metabolism humming.

When you try to lose weight, you throw that balance out of whack. Eating way fewer calories than before – not enough to meet your body’s energy demands – causes your body to respond by lowering your resting metabolic rate (how many calories you burn just to stay alive).

It sounds counterintuitive, but drastic calorie restriction can slow or even reverse weight loss. You get caught up in a cycle where you eat way too little, your metabolism adjusts, and you try eating even less to overcome it. Then you wonder why you’re starving all the time but can’t lose weight!

If you’re eating the right foods, deliberate calorie restriction usually isn’t necessary. And it’s just as easy to under-eat on the Paleo diet (especially if you’re a beginner) because the foods are so much lower in calories, but higher in nutrients, than processed foods.

Maybe it’s time to take a step back and find out how much you’re really eating. Track your calorie intake for a few days if you have do – the results can be eye-opening. If you’re working hard and getting a lot of exercise, consider adding more starchy carbs and healthy fats to keep your metabolism humming.

2. You Don’t Eat Enough Protein

You might be eating enough calories, but your ratio of fats, protein, and carbohydrates could be throwing a wrench in your metabolism.

The issue?

Not enough protein. Not all calories are created equal, despite what mainstream nutritionists try to tell us. 

Eating carbohydrates creates much different effects in the body than eating protein.

The wrong kind of carbs – grains, processed carbs, sugars – spike your insulin levels, leading to inflammation, diabetes, obesity, and many other health issues.

Eating protein has a much different effect: no huge insulin spikes, just a sustained energy source that keeps you feeling full for a long time.

One study compared two groups of volunteers who stayed at a hospital for 12 weeks.

The researchers deliberately overfed both groups, but their diets were different. One group followed a low-protein diet, only getting five percent of their calories from that macronutrient. The other group got 25 percent of their calories from protein. The groups ate the same amount of calories. The only difference was the source: carbs or protein.

What happened?

The low-protein group lost about 1.5 pounds of muscle and gained 7.5 pounds of fat. But the high-protein group gained over six pounds of muscle. They did gain fat because they were being overfed. But they gained significantly less fat than the low-protein group.

Storing less fat and gaining more muscle is a recipe for a faster metabolism. Eating plenty of protein makes that possible. Also, eating protein stimulates thermogenesis more than carbs or fat.

If you can’t lose those last few pounds, maybe you aren’t getting enough protein. Try to have a high-quality source of protein – like meat or eggs – at every meal. Eaten in moderation, high-protein nuts and seeds (walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc.) make great snacks, too.

3. Your Workouts Aren’t Intense Enough

Working out is a great way to boost your metabolic rates. That isn’t the issue. The issue is how some of us work out.

Fitness enthusiasts will argue all day about which type of exercise is best to kick-start the metabolism and drive weight loss…

But there’s no reason to get sucked into that debate.

Strength training – whether it’s with weights or your own body weight – has been shown to boost metabolic rates by building lean muscle mass, making the sympathetic nervous system more active, and increasing insulin sensitivity.

(Read: 10 Effective HIIT Workouts to Work You into Shape)

Cardio works, too. Studies have found a connection between regular cardio exercise and an increase in resting metabolic rates. How? Researchers suspect it’s due to better insulin response and blood sugar control.

So you don’t have to choose between resistance training and cardio…

But you can make them more effective by cranking up the intensity.

It all comes down to excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, known by fitness types as the “afterburn effect.” This is the limited period of time when your body expends extra energy after you exercise.

More intense exercise regimens produce a greater EPOC effect. Short bursts of high intensity effort, followed by brief rest periods, will help you get more metabolic “bang for your buck” than steady-state activities like jogging.

Take a look into sprinting, interval training, and other HIIT-style workouts. They might be just what you need to stoke your metabolism.

4. You Don’t Drink Green Tea

Did you know that drinking green tea speeds up your metabolism?

It’s true.

It’s actually one of the few foods or drinks that can help. Green tea contains antioxidants called “catechins.” These are thermogenic compounds that affect your metabolism.

One study divided healthy men into three groups and gave one group green tea supplements which contained catechins. The group given the green tea extract burned about 4 percent more calories than the placebo group, as well as the group who got straight caffeine.

The supplements were a relatively low dose, too – nothing more than you’d get from drinking a few cups of green tea a day.

Four percent more calories might not sound like a huge difference. But if you’re looking to lose a few pounds, it could be the tipping point between losing weight or maintaining it. It’s definitely worth a shot!

5. Your Gut Is Unhealthy

More and more evidence is coming out revealing gut bacteria’s incredible impact on our overall health. These bacteria, which outnumber all of the cells in your entire body ten to one, affect everything from how we store fat and handle blood sugar, to how the hormones regulating our appetite function.

An imbalance here – even early in life – can have serious consequences months and years later.

A study published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that differences in gut bacteria in infants let researchers accurately predict whether they’d be overweight or obese when the infants grew up.Leaner people have a greater variety of gut bacteria.

If your gut bacteria are imbalanced, it could very well explain why your metabolism is sluggish. And too many bad bacteria can throw your hunger signals out of control, making it practically impossible to lose those last few pounds.

Leaner people have a greater variety of gut bacteria. One study, comparing sets of twins who were either both lean or both obese, found that the leaner twins’ bacteria profile had many more diverse species than the twins who were overweight.

(Read:  4 Simple Steps to Fix Your Gut Bacteria Imbalance)

Look out for the tell-tale signs of an unhealthy gut. Do you feel hungry all the time? Dealing with chronic digestion issues? Fatigued or even depressed? It might be time to take action.

Start supplementing with probiotics (healthy bacteria) and incorporating more healthy fermented foods – like sauerkraut – into your diet. Healing your gut could be a big step in increasing your metabolism.

Watch this video – Why You Have a SLOW METABOLISM | 5 Things That DAMAGE Your Metabolism & How to FIX It

Your Turn

Physical activity is a great way to increase your metabolism…

But you might need to make a few more adjustments before those last few pounds come off.

Your metabolism isn’t entirely under your control. Following the tips above, however, will help make yours as efficient as possible.

And remember the fundamentals! If your diet’s poor, or if you haven’t been getting enough sleep or managing your stress, start there. Putting those pillars in place will get you 90 percent of the way there. Then you can worry about the final tweaks to lean out as much as you want.

Written by Corey Pemberton

Author Bio:

Corey Pemberton is a freelance writer, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioner, and Paleo health enthusiast. Ever since he discovered the ancestral health movement five years ago, he has explored different ways to incorporate ancestral wisdom into his nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle at large. One of his favorite topics is challenging long-held nutrition myths. Feel free to stop by his website or say hello on Twitter.

A lot of people have gotten results from the Keto diet, and enjoyed the foods that it has to offer. However, many of the people who are following this diet have a hard time finding the recipes that they need, especially ones that are quick and easy to complete.

Fortunately, Kelsey Ale, noticed this problem, and decided to do something about it. She’s found that making recipes in a slow cooker gives you meals which are not only delicious, but also take very little time to make. Mostly you just put a few simple ingredients in the slow cooker, and let it do the rest.

To find out more, click on – Keto Slow Cooker Cookbook

How to Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health

 

Click HERE to Discover How You Can Maintain & Stabilize Your Blood Pressure Naturally

Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health – This Oil Cures High Blood Pressure (no, it’s NOT olive oil)

Some lifestyle changes are very difficult to commit to. Others are decidedly more simple—even as easy as switching out the oil you normally buy.

Today we will look at a study researching the effects of an oil whose popularity is rising at breakneck pace, and for good reason.

A group of scientists in Brazil recently offered up convincing proof that an easy-to-find oil has very powerful effects on lowering blood pressure.

The biotechnologists at the Federal University of Paraiba wanted to see if there was any merit to the recent claims that coconut oil has positive effects on blood pressure.

What they found was clear and convincing. In their study, rats were separated into four groups: those that were fed coconut oil into their diets but were sedentary, those that were given no oil but exercised, those that were fed coconut oil and exercised, and those whose diets and exercise didn’t change at all.

What the scientists found wasn’t altogether surprising. They saw a drop in hypertension (high blood pressure) in rats who exercised, which they knew would happen. They also saw a drop in blood pressure for the sedentary coconut-oil-fed rats.

But the biggest drop—in fact, the cure—occurred when rats were made to both exercise and consume coconut oil at the same time.

The scientists have attributed the positive effects to the medium chain fatty acids in the oil. These act as extremely powerful antioxidants, eliminating the oxidative stress of free radicals attacking heart and blood vessel tissue.

Moreover, scientists found that the rats were more resistant to stress of all kinds in the coconut oil group, leading the researchers to conclude that there was an insulating effect in the baroreceptors in the heart tissue.

Coconut oil, due to its rising popularity, is becoming more easily available on store shelves all over the world. People use it in their salad oils, recipes, and even in smoothies. You can also replace butter in most cases with coconut oil.

With all this in mind, it is highly recommended that you use coconut oil as often as you can.

But how about exercise? How do you use it to double down on the nasty effects of high blood pressure?

The easiest, most effective way to lower blood pressure is by using three easy blood pressure exercises. Thousands of readers have used these exercises to bring their blood pressure below 120/80—sometimes from the very first day.

Learn more about these easy blood pressure exercises and try them out for yourself here to lower your blood pressure and boost health…

These Beans Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health

Beans have long been praised for having various health benefits. But a new study from Mexico shows exactly how one particular type of bean beats high blood pressure with a knockout blow.

Not only does it load your body with antioxidants that lower blood pressure, it also removes dangerous chemicals that cause high blood pressure and other diseases.

Many of the most heart-healthy recipes flying around social media sites recommend the use of black beans.

From hot dishes to cold salads, these beans seem to be almost magical in not only their culinary versatility but also in the incredible health benefits they provide.

Researchers from the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico recently isolated two very powerful proteins in black beans—fasolina and pectin—both of which were found to have extremely powerful antioxidant properties.

Blood pressure increases when the body undergoes any kind of stress. In environmental stress, for example, free radicals from an unhealthy habit like smoking can attack heart and blood vessel tissue. This is oxidative stress. Antioxidants combat the free radicals, stopping the cycle of destruction.

This, in turn, causes blood pressure to drop because the threat has passed.

Researchers also found in computer models looking at the proteins that they also have a chelating effect, meaning that they can remove heavy metals from the body.

These are just two explanations as to why black beans have always been so effective at reducing blood pressure. Experts have for a long time been able to observe their benefits, but hadn’t been able to understand, until now, the molecular processes behind the reaction.

Many health-conscious people already incorporate high amounts of black beans in in their diets because they are an incredible source of delicious protein that doesn’t come with the added calories found in high-protein alternatives such as meat, eggs, or nuts.

You should be able to find black beans in your local supermarket or health food store. If not, most other types of beans also hold tremendous health benefits.

But eating beans may not be enough to completely cure high blood pressure. For that, you need a set of three easy exercises.

These easy blood pressure exercises have been proven to lower blood pressure below 120/80—starting today…

Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health – This Safe Herb Cures High Blood Pressure Better Than Drugs

Stunningly, a cheap, safe, common herb has now been proved to be as effective as one of the leading blood pressure medications, without any side effects.

What’s more, in this double-blind study, the herb also optimized cholesterol levels in participants – whereas the drug had no effects on cholesterol.

Olive oil is famed for its heart health abilities but other parts of the olive tree may be even more effective.

In a study published in the medical journal Phytomedicine, a group of people with stage-1 hypertension were recruited. For eight weeks, half the group received the ACE inhibitor drug Captopril while the other half received 1000 mg of olive leaf extract daily.

ACE inhibitors are the most common blood pressure medications in use. They’re also some of the most dangerous in terms of side effects.

Just a few examples of common side effects are dizziness, headache, drowsiness, diarrhea, low blood pressure, weakness, cough, and rash. More serious side effects are heart attack and stroke, exactly the causes of death that they are supposed to prevent.

After eight weeks, all the subject’s blood pressure was measured, and as expected, the drug group had lowered their blood pressure. However, the olive leaf extract group had also lowered their blood pressure, and by just as much.

But that was not the end of the story.

Researchers also measured the triglyceride levels in all the subject’s blood.

Triglyceride is sometimes called “the third cholesterol” in addition to LDL and HDL cholesterol, and it’s considered the worst of them all.

The oil leaf group had significantly lowered their triglyceride level whereas the ACH drug showed no improvements in cholesterol level.

So, if you have high blood pressure, it’s your choice:

A dangerous blood pressure drug with a long list of side effects; or a safe herb that, in addition to giving the same blood pressure benefits as drugs, also improves cholesterol levels and many other health markers.

The fact remains that with all the side effects blood pressure medications bring, they almost never manage to bring people’s blood pressure down to a healthy level: 120/80. Neither do herbs.

The ineffectiveness of drugs is one of those “secrets” everyone in the medical system knows, but never really admits, in order to fill the pockets of everyone involved.

If you want to heal your high blood pressure, you also need to make some lifestyle changes.

By far the simplest and most effective method I know to heal high blood pressure is a set of 3 easy blood pressure exercises.

Watch this video – Natural Ways to Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health

Follow the example of thousands of readers who have used these easy blood pressure exercises successfully here to lower your blood pressure and boost health…

And if your cholesterol level is too high, learn to bring it down to normal by cutting out this one ingredient you didn’t even know you were consuming…

This post is from the High Blood Pressure Exercise Program. It was made by Christian Goodman Blue Heron health news that has been recognized as one of the top-quality national health information websites. 

This program will provide you the natural high blood pressure treatments, natural recipes to cook healthy meals and useful strategies to build a healthy diet with the aim to help you to maintain, stabilize and get your blood pressure down in minutes permanently and naturally.

To find out more about this program, click on Lower Your Blood Pressure and Boost Health