Archive for the 'Wellness' Category

Quadruped Core Exercise Video

November 11, 2011
By Josh Perez

TruSelf Training’s Kyle Hannon Instructing a Quadruped Core Exercise. Great for stability core and strengthening your lower back.

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Prone Row Exercise Video

June 10, 2011
By Josh Perez

TruSelf Training’s Master Level Trainer Fred Caron Instructing an Elevated Prone Dumbbell Row. Targeting your core, back, glutes, balance and stabilization.

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TruSelf Training

April 26, 2011
By Josh Perez

About:
TruSelf Training is a personal training company with the experience and tools necessary to take your fitness facility to the next level. We have the abilities and resources to add additional sales tools to your membership presentations and provide a highly educated fitness staff to complement your fitness facility. We pay you to host our personal training company! The company began with the collaboration of individuals that are enthusiastic and passionate about inspiring and educating others about health and fitness.

The founders, Christine Quilici and Josh Perez, aspire to reach out to as many people and locations as they can to promote fitness and healthy lifestyles. As a result, the company is designed to be installed and operate out of any fitness facility, anywhere! They work closely with trainers that are similar to them – resulting in many satisfied gym members that see results, feel stronger, and have the opportunity to learn about the best way to train their body and ultimately change their lifestyles.

TruSelf Training installs and manages quality and successful personal training departments in any fitness facility including corporations, clinics, and fitness gyms. If you are interested in training with TruSelf Training, retaining your members, or by wanting to supplement additional revenue to your fitness facility, please visit TruSelf Training!

Here’s a list of who TruSelf Training services:

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Self Help Books Suck

March 25, 2011
By Josh Perez

Rodale

Christine Whelan is a student of the self-help movement — literally. This University of Pittsburgh professor did her doctoral dissertation on the self-help industry and what makes something in this genre a best-seller. Her take? She tells me that while the idea that we can make ourselves better by reading a book is perennially popular (who wouldn’t want to improve their lives in 4 hours?) many books fall far short. Here’s why:

  1. The “real people” are made up. Anecdotes are great for illustrating a point. So we learn that “Bob” and “Jane” learned to communicate well and now their marriage is all better! Um, yeah. Real life is messy, and using composite characters, or those with the details changed, are just other words for fiction. Which has its place, but is always suspect in a genre that claims to be true.
  2. They promise that change is easy. “We want three easy steps to overhaul our financial life, or washboard abs in 60 seconds a day,” Whelan says. “But here’s the unpleasant truth: Behavioral change is among the hardest things we can set out to do, and any book that promises you instant changes is selling you snake oil.” Put it this way. If changing our lives was painless, you’d see a lot more svelte, rich and happy people walking around.
  3. There’s probably no evidence. Most self-help writers aren’t in the business of documenting whether their ideas work for the majority of people who try them. “There’s no efficacy data on the vast majority of diet self-help books,” Whelan says. “Who knows if positive thinking actually cures people. But self-help books use rhetoric and repetition to prove their points.”

So which books don’t suck? After wading through more than 300 over the years, Whelan is partial to “books that offer solid advice to guide readers step-by-step toward long-term change. These are books that encourage the reader to get back to core virtues like perseverance, honesty, self-control and thrift — not empty quick-fix solutions.” These include Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” (1937), M. Scott Peck’s “The Road Less Traveled” (1978), Samuel Smiles’ “Thrift” (1876!), Stephen Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (1987) and a few other dark horse ones, including — full disclosure and brag alert — 168 Hours.

For her new book called “Generation WTF: From What the #$%&! to a Wise, Tenacious, and Fearless You: Advice on How to Get There from Experts and WTFers Just Like You” Whelan had her students test drive advice from the books that didn’t suck, and had some interesting, actual real-people results. One student re-established contact with her grandmother a few days before the grandmother passed away. Another analyzed his TV time logs and decided to get more sleep instead. One reduced her text messages from a record 267 per day to 10.

So change is possible. It just isn’t easy. Below is her book:

Thank you Yahoo team for the article!

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Vitamin Facts

August 9, 2010
By Josh Perez

125X125 Vitamin Shoppe Weekly Specials

Your body uses vitamins for a variety of biological processes, including growth, digestion, and nerve function. There are 13 vitamins that the body absolutely needs: vitamins A, C, D, E, K, and the B vitamins (thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin B-6, vitamin B-12 and folate). AAFP cites two categories of vitamins.

Water-soluble vitamins are easily absorbed by the body, which doesn’t store large amounts. The kidneys remove those vitamins that are not needed. Fat-soluble vitamins are absorbed into the body with the use of bile acids, which are fluids used to absorb fat. The body stores these for use as needed.

How Vitamins are Regulated

Vitamin products are regulated by FDA as “Dietary Supplements.” The law defines dietary supplements, in part, as products taken by mouth that contain a “dietary ingredient” intended to supplement the diet.

Listed in the “dietary ingredient” category are not only vitamins, but minerals, botanicals products, amino acids, and substances such as enzymes, microbial probiotics, and metabolites. Dietary supplements can also be extracts or concentrates, and may be found in many forms. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 requires that all such products be labeled as dietary supplements.

In June 2007, FDA established dietary supplement “current Good Manufacturing Practice” (cGMP) regulations requiring that manufacturers evaluate their products through testing identity, purity, strength, and composition.

Fat-soluble Vitamins

  • A (retinol, retinal, retinoic acid): Nausea, vomiting, headache, dizziness, blurred vision, clumsiness, birth defects, liver problems, possible risk of osteoporosis. You may be at greater risk of these effects if you drink high amounts of alcohol or you have liver problems, high cholesterol levels or don’t get enough protein.
  • D (calciferol): Nausea, vomiting, poor appetite, constipation, weakness, weight loss, confusion, heart rhythm problems, deposits of calcium and phosphate in soft tissues. If you take blood thinners, talk to your doctor before taking vitamin E or vitamin K pills.

Water-soluble Vitamins

  • B-3 (niacin): flushing, redness of the skin, upset stomach.
  • B-6 (pyridoxine, pyridoxal, and pyridoxamine): Nerve damage to the limbs, which may cause numbness, trouble walking, and pain.
  • C (ascorbic acid): Upset stomach, kidney stones, increased iron absorption.
    Folic Acid (folate): High levels may, especially in older adults, hide signs of B-12 deficiency, a condition that can cause nerve damage.
  • Taking too much of a vitamin can also cause problems with some medical tests or interfere with how some drugs work.

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Pain Relief Strategies

February 21, 2010
By Josh Perez

Acute pain is pain that is sharp and sudden, and usually is caused by an illness, injury, or surgery. Self-care for pain is often common sense. If you’re working with a doctor to relieve acute pain, you’re most likely taking over-the-counter or prescribed pain medications at appropriate intervals, as well as resting and applying heat or cold to your aches. But you can do even more to heal and strengthen your body on your own through self-care techniques.

Here are some tips on how to manage acute pain:

Don’t do too much: Rest is one of the best treatments for acute pain! Give your injuries time to heal, chances are it will resolve itself within a reasonable amount of time. Some joints can be aggravated by overuse. If you do too much in a day, you might suffer at night. Plan your activities so that you’re not likely to cause yourself pain from straining injured body parts. If you have to undertake a prolonged activity that might cause pain, plan to take breaks along the way.

Start exercising: As long as your doctor, physical therapist, fitness professional approves, you should engage in regular exercise to strengthen your muscles and your cardiovascular system. If you’re in good physical shape, you’re less likely to injure yourself and feel pain from your daily tasks. Muscle fatigue can contribute to injury, which in turn can cause acute pain.

Ask for help: If your pain doesn’t go away within a reasonable amount of time, you should seek the advice of a doctor. Acute pain is often a signal that something is wrong. When the pain persists beyond the healing process or beyond the time expected for healing, it becomes a chronic pain condition and there are numerous modalities to treat that. Options for treating chronic pain include prescription medications, physical therapy, injection or infusion therapies, and complementary and alternative therapies like therapeutic massage and acupuncture, or even sitting in your own massage chair.

Reduce stressors: Studies have shown that stress can exacerbate pain. You may not be able to control the causes of your stress — such as traffic or catching a cold, but you can make improvements by planning ahead. For example, get a flu shot to reduce your chances of getting the flu, or arrange your work schedule, errand-running, and doctors’ appointments so you avoid peak traffic times.

The best way to control acute pain is to keep it from getting worse. If you exercise some common sense and stay in good physical shape, you will find it easier to cope with acute pain.

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Chocolate Misconceptions

February 14, 2010
By Josh Perez

www.hersheysstore.com

Here are some common misconceptions about this Valentine’s Day or any other chocolate loving holiday, along with some facts to set the record straight.

A daily serving of dark chocolate, which contains more antioxidants than milk chocolate, can also help lower blood pressure and improve insulin resistance according to a joint study between Tufts University in Boston and the University of L’Aquila in Italy. The findings do not suggest that people with high blood pressure consume dark chocolate in lieu of taking their prescribed medication, but that the flavor in dark chocolate may have a positive effect on blood pressure and insulin resistance.

Myth: Chocolate is high in caffeine.
Fact: While eating chocolate may perk you up, chocolate is actually not very high in caffeine. A 1.4-ounce chocolate bar or an 8-ounce glass of chocolate milk both contain 6 mg of caffeine, the same amount as a cup of decaffeinated coffee. (For reference, regular coffee contains about 65-135mg of caffeine.)

Myth: Chocolate is loaded with saturated fat and is bad for your cholesterol.
Fact: Stearic acid, the main saturated fat found in milk chocolate, is unique. Research has shown that it doesn’t raise cholesterol levels the same way that other types of saturated fats do. In fact, eating a 1.8 ounce chocolate bar instead of a carbohydrate-rich snack has been shown to increase HDL (good) cholesterol levels.

Myth: Chocolate lacks any nutritional value.
Fact: Chocolate is a good source of magnesium, copper, iron and zinc. It also contains polyphenols (an antioxidant also found in tea and red wine) that have been associated with a decreased risk of coronary disease. An average chocolate bar contains about the same amount of antioxidants as a 5-ounce glass of red wine.

Myth: Chocolate causes cavities.
Fact: Candy alone is not responsible for cavities. Cavities are formed when bacteria in the mouth metabolize sugars and starches from any type of food (soda, candy, juice, bread, rice and pasta) to produce acid. This acid then eats through the enamel of the tooth, causing a cavity.

Myth: Chocolate causes headaches.
Fact: While sited as a common cause of migraines, a study by the University of Pittsburgh has shown no link between chocolate and headaches. The results of that double-blind study of 63 participants known to suffer chronic headaches were published in the neurology journal Cephalalgia. Chronic headaches were once thought to be caused by amines in foods (including histamine and beta-phenylethylamine) such as cheddar cheese, peanuts, cured meats, chocolate and alcohol, but this study eliminated chocolate as a possible headache cause.

Myth: Chocolate causes acne.
Fact: Regardless of what your parents or grandparents may still say, studies in the past twenty years have eliminated chocolate as a cause of acne. In fact, many dermatologists doubt that diet plays any significant role in the development of acne. Acne is now believed to be caused by a combination of high bacterial levels and oil on the skin.

Myth: Chocolate causes weight gain.
Fact: Any food can be part of a healthy diet if consumed in moderation. An average chocolate bar contains 220 calories, which is low enough to be a part of a weight control diet if other high-calorie foods are eliminated. Enjoying the occasional piece of chocolate may reduce the risk of severe bingeing, which can occur when you feel deprived of your favorite foods.

Chocolate’s bad reputation is slowly changing and research now shows that chocolate can be a part of an overall healthy lifestyle, when consumed in moderation. If you keep your portion sizes small and select dark chocolate whenever possible, the occasional treat can be a guilt-free part of your nutrition plan.

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