Find tips to stay healthy while living your best life. I like to help people find ways to improve their daily lives with functional fitness. Everyone has different needs, sometimes fitness just means living pain free.
New Year, New Schedule, Same Big Dreams
This year I invite you to grow with me and make this the year to strengthen our bonds, deeply love ourselves and exist loudly. BeadSquad will begin rehearsals in March but it’s never to early to start getting your cardio on with Buti Yoga and Diaspora Dance Fusion.
You can check out my class schedule and pricing options to find a plan that works for you.
Deadlifts can be intimidating because they require good form and technique to get the benefits and prevent injury, which make them a great part of functional fitness. They engage your entire posterior chain (all the muscles that run along your back side from below your neck to your ankles) and when performed correctly you can pick up dead weight from the floor without hurting your back. I apply the same form of a deadlift to my daily activities like picking up my daughter or packages on the front porch.
Square up to whatever your going to pick up, slightly bend your knees, stick your butt out like you are about to sit on a chair, roll your shoulders back, grab your item and then push your hips forward to stand up.
It’s a simple action but can feel a little awkward at first because in our culture we tend to have pronated shoulders and rely on our back to pick things up. Practicing having a flat back and letting our legs do the work can keep our bodies injury free. I love working on exercises that translate into functional fitness.
Injuries are a drag. In our fast paced world we are constantly exploring more ways to be efficient, we are often thinking about our next move, which can be dangerous. When it comes to exercising it is important to leave that busy mind at the door and take the time to connect with yourself. It’s easy to slip into thinking about our to-do list but when you let your mind wander you might let your form wander too and that is what often leads to the aching back or knee.
Good form is key to a good workout. I workout as an investment in myself. I use it as an opportunity to quiet my mind and be present with myself. When I’m being mindful of my body, my stretches go deeper, my movements are smooth and I feel stronger. As a mom I do a lot for other people so my workout is my time for myself and I try to make to the most of it by focusing on just that, myself.
When I show up for myself, I feel the difference so I encourage you to show up for yourself and invest in your body and well being.
Find Ways to Stay Healthy While Sitting
Many professionals in the health world are now saying that sitting is the new smoking. Sitting is hard on your body in a variety of ways. It strains your low back, doesn’t engage your posterior chain (the back of your legs) and decreases your metabolism.
Here are some tips if you spend a lot of time sitting.
Contact HR, your office manager or whoever may be in charge of ordering office equipment and get a sit/stand workstation.
Take the stairs instead of the elevator, take time to walk to the water cooler or take the long way to your next meeting.
Roll your neck and shoulders throughout the day. Spread your fingers wide apart and squeeze your shoulders blades together. Flex your toes and squeeze your glutes.
Squatting is one of the best things you can do for your health, it relieves your low back, engages your legs, opens your hips and enhances digestion. We were designed to squat. If your hips feel tight, place your heels on a rolled up towel or mat and try to hold the pose for 1 minute.
After work make time to move your body, get your heart rate up and stretch. Make a goal to get your heart rate up for 30 minutes, 3 times a week.
When people find out I am a personal trainer, it is usually followed up with a question about a minor injury they are currently suffering from. My response is most often strengthen your core.
Our core is a complex series of muscles including the abs, obliques, transverse abdominus and psoas. These muscles are most often act as stabilizers to other muscle groups either providing or absorbing force. Increasing core strength can help prevent injury by reducing the strain on other muscle groups.
I had a weak glute and certain activities, including sleeping, would inflame my hip and low back. I began daily exercises to strengthen my glutes and core to stabilize my pelvis.
Core strength comes from more than crunches. You want to do activities that engage our deep muscles like bicycles and leg lifts.
Feel free to reach out to me about your core.
CARB, EPOC and HIIT! I’m fairly confident that fad diets will never go away, at least until the current political structures that subsidize unhealthy lifestyles, like the farm bill and oil wars, are dismantled. Carbohydrates fuel our bodies. But too many carbohydrates can make us sick. And our current system likes to feed us a lot of carbohydrates.
I have food sensitivities so I avoid most breads and baked goods. I don’t deny myself the carbohydrate rich foods I can eat, like tortilla chips. In general I don’t count calories but will sometimes count grams, to make sure I’m getting enough of them.
If you are going to eat carbs try to make sure they’re worth eating. That means whatever is about to go in your mouth should be packed with nutrients and fiber, like whole grains or sweet potatoes. Fiber helps slow down the release of glucose into our bloodstream so our bodies can release an appropriate amount of insulin to transport the glucose. Too much unused insulin can lead to insulin insensitivity or diabetes. Our bodies have evolved over millennia to store carbohydrates as glucose to use fuel our daily lives.
Our muscles have 3 energy systems that come into play at various stages in our workout. They all essentially run on adenosine triphosphate, ATP. A small amount of ATP is stored within our muscles for short burst of energy like catching a falling baby or throwing a spear at a predator. After a few seconds your glycolytic system kicks in and starts cobbling together ATP from stored glucose. This system is also short lived while a build up of hydrogen ions, a byproduct of glycolis, starts to inhibit muscle contraction.
Finally the oxidative system comes into play. Our aerobic system is constantly humming in the background of our daily life, fueling our muscles for basic functioning, like walking and digesting. When we put extra stress on our muscles, especially during exercise our oxidative system goes into overdrive. After just over a minute of intense movement or lifting our aerobic system redirects its efforts to focus on delivering oxygen to our muscles and will continue working well after a workout. This is know as the excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, EPOC. Basically our muscles are still “burning” calories for hours after we’ve completed a workout because they are repairing themselves.
This EPOC effect has contributed the success of high intensity integral training, HIIT. Doing intense activities for short periods of times (20-90 seconds) with short recovery times (10-60 seconds) repeatedly helps our bodies utilize all our metabolic energy systems and keeps us metabolically flexible.
Our bodies most easily use glucose from carbohydrates to fuel our muscles so don’t feel bad about eating carbs, feel good about putting them to use!
From an early age I suffered from chronic stomach aches. As a young teen I discovered I had food allergies and sensitivities. That set me on my path to learning about wellness and nutrition.
After I graduated from UC Berkeley, I moved to the mountains and started a goat and sheep farm. I spent the next several years deeply immersed in the agricultural world. I explored, read, visited and listenined to anyone who had something to say about food or farming. I became an activist for share-holder dairies and contributed to local and statewide legislation.
When California legalized the sales of raw milk from family farms, I felt that my time on the farm was over. I packed up and headed back to city life and started a digestion-centric meal subscription business. But with a new baby, getting into the kitchen was a challenge, so I hung up my apron.
I have always lived an active life. When I finally looked in the mirror after 3 years of devoting my time to someone else, I noticed cellulite forming on my thighs. While I pondered my next professional move, I focused on my self care. I’ve never been a “gym person” but I knew I had to get moving. I signed up for the nearest and cheapest gym possible, after my first zumba class I thought “I could do this.” Buti Yoga was recommended to me as a group fitness class. I found a class 45 minutes away and immediately fell in love. A few months later I became a certified Buti Yoga instructor and started teaching classes.
Buti tapped into my love of dance and movement and gave me a newfound appreciation for the breath work and grounding aspects of Yoga. I followed up with a course on nutrition coaching and a personal trainer certification. When I reflect on the business’s I’ve started and projects I’ve worked on, I see a culmination of this moment. I am here to help others on their journeys to being their best selves through diet, spiritual guidance and exercise. I hope you will let me be a part of your journey to wellness and get in touch.