Sonimaworkout tips – Sonima

What Your Shoulder Blades Can Tell You About Your Health

Leslie Goldman — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 03:30:29 +0000

At 5-foot-10, I have always consciously strove to not succumb to slouchy tall girl stance. So when a physical therapist diagnosed me with an unscientific-sounding condition called “winged scapulae”—which makes me sound a bit like a mystical unicorn but actually meant that my shoulder blades were weak, unanchored and drifting off my spine—my pride was a bit injured. Apparently, years spent earning a living as a journalist had beaten my back and blades up.

But it shouldn’t come as a surprise; busted shoulder blades are endemic among computer users. When we sit at a desk all day, staring into a computer, we’re basically doing the opposite of everything our strong, erect-spined, solid-hipped ancestors did—our shoulders round forward, our back hunches, our head juts out, and our pelvis tilts under. This modern day position inhibits the shoulder blades’ ability to pull back and down…which is where nature intended them to be, so they can create space for the shoulder joint to move as our arms pull, pull, reach, and stretch. That’s why the position of the shoulder blades can be indicative of other dysfunctions happening in the body. To discover what they are, you just have to tune in.

Why Your Shoulder Blades Matter

Your shoulder blades, or scapulae, are a duo of triangular-shaped bones in the back, bookending your upper spine. Each scapula forms the socket of the ball-and-socket joints that are your shoulders. (The head of the humerus, or upper arm bone, is the ball.) Connected to the body by multiple muscles and ligaments, the blades slide along the upper back as you move throughout your day.

“I can tell so much by looking at someone’s shoulder blades,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout platform developed by the experts at Sonima. “The position of the shoulder blades tells me what’s happening in the thoracic spine, the lower back, and the hips.” It’s all connected. Dysfunction in the shoulder blades is an indicator of misalignment in the rest of the body, and vice versa.

The shoulder blades are intended to support other smaller muscles in the back and shoulder. When they are imbalanced and weak, the structure of the body collapses and these smaller, secondary muscles end up compensating. This leads to strain, dysfunction, and a host of physical effects. Slumping over at a computer, for example, contracts your back and collapses your abdominal muscles, which weakens the torso and deactivates the hips.

And it’s all about the hips. “If the upper back, the spine, and the thoracic are out of alignment and creating compensation, it’s because there is a hip problem below,” Bradley says. The hips are like the epicenter of the body. If your pelvis is out of alignment, then your movement is compromised and your upper back tries to take over, which can lead to backaches and overall discomfort. But if you align and activate the hips, you remove limitations from the spine and shoulders, and they can move freely and functionally. Moreover, misalignment can affect lymph drainage, breath, and digestion. All systems are interconnected. “Think about it: You have 32 feet of intestines sitting on your pelvic floor,” Bradley says. “If your hip is out of alignment, so is your digestion.”

What’s more, activating foundational muscle groups increases your metabolic rate. “When you engage the psoas (the deep core muscle connecting the lumbar to the femur), it turns on the rest of the hip flexors, which carries into the spine and up into the neck and shoulders,” Bradley says. “By doing this, you are using your body at full capacity; you are engaging 100 percent of your muscles.” This total-body activation simply asks your body to use more energy, breathe more oxygen, and in turn, burn more calories.

The Key to Balancing Your Shoulder Blades

This isn’t about sitting up straighter or willing yourself into better shoulder position. “Pulling your shoulder blades together is a waste of your time without the link to rest of the body and activating at the hips,” Bradley explains. Your focus should be on working the deep muscles in the thoracic spine, the core, and the hip flexors—strengthening from the inside out.

The move below can help restore balance and strength to your shoulder blades. Of course, one exercise is not enough to keep everyone’s scalpulae happy and healthy; that can only happen in the context of a full-body plan, such as Elev8d Fitness. This new home workout program from the experts of Sonima keeps your four key sets of load-bearing joints—the shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles—properly aligned. But an exercise like the one below can help you connect the shoulder blades to the hips, activating and strengthening the deep core muscles.

Standing Arm Circles

The foot position in this exercise is crucial: pointing your feet straight forward essentially traps your hips to react to the shoulder position. As your upper body moves, your hips work to stabilize. The movement of the arms fires the abdominal wall and the hip flexors and pinches the shoulder blades back.

Begin by standing with your feet hip-width apart, your toes pointed straight ahead. Extend your arms out to your sides at shoulder level, palms down with your fingers gripped flat onto the pads of your hands. Squeeze your shoulder blades together and down, pretending you are tucking them into some imaginary back jeans pockets. Keeping them squeezed and down, rotate both arms forward in small circles (about six inches in circumference). Complete 40 circles. Next, face your palms up and complete 40 backward rotations. If your shoulders begin to shrug or roll forward at any time, take a break, then recommit your shoulder blades to the down-and-back position.

Experience how Elev8d Fitness can keep your entire body healthy and balanced in little time. Check out the 8-Minute Strength Series and the 8-Minute Weight-Loss Series.

The post What Your Shoulder Blades Can Tell You About Your Health appeared first on Sonima.

3 Targeted Moves for a Faster Run

Hailey Wist — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 04:30:11 +0000

Any runner, competitive or otherwise, wants to run faster, longer. There’s nothing better than the feeling of athletic power and unlimited gas in the tank. But we can’t talk about speed and strength without addressing functionality.

Running can be hard on the body, and doubly so if you’re out of alignment. Impact from each stride travels through the body, and if the eight load-bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles) aren’t aligned, you’re asking for trouble. This alone is a good reason to incorporate dynamic warm-ups and cool-downs before and after your runs.

Another common pitfall for runners is driving forward motion from the shoulders rather than the hips. “If you’re running with your elbows winging out and your shoulders rounded forward, it could be because your hips aren’t activated,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts of Sonima. “People are tearing their rotator cuff running because they are overcompensating with the shoulders.” But there’s a way to fix this.

The Shoulder Problem

The shoulders shouldn’t factor into the forward motion of the run. “It’s just not natural for you to drive your gait from your shoulders,” Bradley says. But when the back and shoulders are rounded forward and the hips are tucked under and inactive (and can happen when we sit most of the day), then the shoulders take over for the gait, rotating forward and back. This compensation is a surefire path to injury.

Your body should operate like a well-oiled machine—joints, muscles, and skeleton working in concert. If you have full range of motion in the load-bearing joints and your hips are driving the forward motion, this will naturally take your shoulders out of the equation. A smooth stride and pace is really all about functionality.

In order to be a functional runner, the arms should swing back and forth, and the shoulders should be down and back. If you look at a professional runner, you’ll notice they are upright, shoulders pulled back, upper back relatively still. Their arms swing, but their shoulders aren’t punching forward and back.

A Sequence for Function and Speed

It is essential to set your body into proper alignment before you introduce impact and rapid movement. These three exercises—excerpted from one of Elev8d Fitness’s eight-minute home workouts—free up the shoulders and activate the hips so that you are prepared to stress your system with a cardio workout (or strength training, for that matter).

To improve range of movement in the upper body, you need to free up the scapula, a.k.a. the shoulder blade bone. “The first exercise in this sequence, active cows face, teaches the arm bone how to function correctly in relationship with the shoulder blade. It’s really the same with the relationship between the femur and pelvis,” Bradley explains. This simple movement addresses range of motion in the shoulder, which shifts the mid-back, thoracic spine, and pelvis into better alignment.

Sequence, Bradley stresses, is everything. Only when your shoulders are in a better position, are you ready for the next exercise, mountain climbers. “With your shoulders down and back, you’re ready to load them and fire your deep hip muscles,” he explains. “Your core will stabilize during this second movement.” Activating your core and hips further establishes function in the spine and shoulders.

Finally, the downward dog bent knee requires you load up the torso and the shoulders and hold the very position that was just activated by the mountain climbers. You’ll notice that in this final static position your upper body wants to collapse. It is crucial to pull the weight off your hands by pulling your hips back, tilting your pelvis forward, and firing the front hip flexors.

How Does This Translate to Running?

Once you’ve aligned your joints and activated your hips, how do you optimize for speed? Leg stride is actually the easy part. The key, Bradley says, is the arm swing. “The body naturally knows how to run, your legs know how to move,” he says. “But if you want to be the fastest person, you need to learn to arm pump as fast as you can.” The hips are driving the movement, yes, but the arm swing will take your pace to a new level.

Faster, stronger, fitter—whatever your goal, Elev8d Fitness can help you reach it! Try the Flat Belly Workout Series or the Move Better, Feel Better, Look Better Workout Series and see for yourself.

The post 3 Targeted Moves for a Faster Run appeared first on Sonima.

8 Fun Exercise Games to Make You Forget You’re Working Out

Stephanie Hunt — Mon, 08 Feb 2021 04:30:13 +0000

It’s hard not to categorize life, dividing various aspects into separate spheres. For example, there’s work and professional life, and family and personal life. We spend countless hours and energy trying to create more “balance” between the two.

The same is often true with our physical fitness. Exercise gets relegated to its own corner—a gym, perhaps, or maybe a yoga studio—and is something we schedule around our busy lives, sneaking a workout in before or after work or a day chasing the kids.

“If people thought differently about exercise and moved their body through 360 degrees of range of motion as part of daily life, they would be so much healthier,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director for Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts of Sonima. Instead, most of us sit for the majority of our day. And when we do exercise—or rather “work out”—many of us default to activities that favor repetitive motions, like running, walking, cycling, and weightlifting. These may be good for boosting cardiovascular fitness, but they’re not so great for putting the body through all of its natural motions.

Elev8d Fitness has a radically different approach. Centered around easy, short routines that tap into eight core movements (over, under, around, sideways, rotation, flexion, extension, and push/pull), Elev8d Fitness encourages the body to move in the way that it was naturally designed to move. When done correctly, these eight core movements help re-align the body, creating total-body functionality and fitness.

Even more, moving this way is fun. It turns out that many of the schoolyard games that we played as kids organically incorporate the eight core movements. These workout games don’t require any special equipment, and they cost you nothing. So grab your friends or recruit your kids and get moving in a playful way. Here goes:

Hopscotch

A game that dates back to Roman times, hopscotch is about as simple as it gets. You can draw a series of blocks with sidewalk chalk, or just use sticks or the existing lines and cracks in a sidewalk to create your course. Toss a stone (also called a “lucky”) into one block, then hop/jump on one foot, alternating right and left, skipping over the block where the stone landed. Make it harder by jumping with two feet over several blocks or adding a hopscotch hurdle (i.e., something you have to jump or step over like a brick, log, or tree trunk), using your hands and arms to propel yourself—all of which incorporates the over movement principle in the eight core movements.

Limbo

Have your friends or kids hold a broomstick or small tree limb chest high, then you know the drill. Do your best to gracefully go under it. To use the core under movement, try doing an Elev8d Side Under or Elev8d Front Under—loading your weight on alternate hip joints to duck under the stick. After each successful limbo round, the stick gets lowered. The one who gets cleanly under the stick at its lowest point wins!

Dizzy Izzy Race

This one was always a camp favorite. The objective is for participants to get so dizzy you can’t run straight, which becomes hilarious, if not dangerous. But the Elev8d Fitness version is a bit tamer (and safer). Make a starting line, then about 10 long strides away, place a golf club or softball bat (a tennis racket or umbrella will also do). You and your opponents line up behind the starting line, then run to the object and place your forehead on the top of it. Sidestep circles around it five times in one direction, then five times in the opposite direction. After the “dizzy” circles, drop the object and run (carefully!) back to the finish line. The movement objective here is around, moving your body in a circular motion. (You can skip the “dizzy” part by beginning in a plank, then circling your feet five times around in each direction, racing to see who does it fastest.)

Crab Walk Relays

This one will get you moving sideways and might also cause side-splitting laughter! If you have four or more people, do this as a relay. If not, just do it as a two- or three-person one-way race. Divide into pairs about 15 feet apart from each other. One partner assumes the crab walk position then shuttles/scurries/crabwalks sideways to the other person, who then takes off back to the original starting position. The first crab to cross the finish line wins!

Twister

Bonus points if you have an actual Twister game mat and spinner for this one. If not, improvise using whatever you have on hand in four different colors (bandanas, t-shirts, yard leaves) and two different coins (heads on one = hands, tails= foot; and on the other coin, heads = left, tails = right). Appoint one person the “caller,” who either spins the Twister board or tosses the coins to come up with a color and body part (ex: right hand orange). Then you have to move your right hand to an orange spot. The core movement at work here is rotation. The twistier, the better!

Skipping Races

Want to put an instant smile on your face? Try skipping! It’s almost impossible to skip down the sidewalk without feeling childishly joyful. It’s also a terrific exercise, getting your arms pumping and your hips flexing as your knees come high (incorporating the flexion core movement). So challenge a friend to a skipping race, or do a skipping relay across a lawn.

Reverse Tree Climb

Climbing up a tree as an adult can be a little iffy (some things are best left to the kids), but a reverse tree climb is a great way to incorporate some gentle back bending—tapping into the extension core movement. Find a tree or pole (or a wall will do) then with your back to the tree, raise your hands over your head and reach back for the trunk (or wall). Your body will go into a gentle backbend. Challenge your exercise partner to see who can “climb” your hands down the lowest. Go easy if you have neck issues.

Tug of War

A classic! So easy, so fun, and occasionally useful, if you need to settle a score in a playful way. Tug of War is also a wonderful way to tap into the push/pull core movement that engages upper-body strength. Grab a rope (a beach towel or blanket will also do) and make a line in the sand or yard. Line up your team on one side, and pull and tug to your hearts’ delight. The side that successfully pulls the other over the line wins. Domination at its best!

Discover how much fun working out can be with Elev8d Fitness! Try the classic 8×8 Workout or the 16-Minute Workout Challenge Series.

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The #1 Way to Create a Fitness Habit That Sticks

Stephanie Hunt — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 04:30:37 +0000

Sticking with a fitness program long-term isn’t easy. Life gets in the way, even for those with decathlete-worthy dedication and willpower of steel. Add to that the inexact science about what it takes to turn intention into a lasting habit, and we can end up rolling our eyes instead of lifting our weights.

Some studies say 21 days is the magic number of repetitions necessary to establish a habit, while others triple that and swear by 66 days as the necessary length of time for a behavior to become ingrained as routine. Yet most of us know—by good old unquantifiable but undeniable personal experience—that even with more than 66 days, we’re going to slip.

One way to get around potential habit pitfalls is to focus less on creating and establishing enduring habits and more on mastering small, doable streaks. A four-day “streak” of daily jogging, for example, or a three-week streak of balancing exercises might not be a total fitness game-changer, but it can help elevate and energize stale routines or jumpstart new and more lasting habits. By essentially lowering the bar, these fitness streaks help you achieve some early, easy “wins” that build confidence and lead to bigger payoffs down the line.

Here’s how it works: Pick your activity of choice—jogging, cycling, swimming, walking, yoga—and commit to doing it for a specific, short amount of time or distance during a streak of a specific number of days. The idea is to make it doable and fun.

And here’s the other part: Your “streak” should meet the following acronym requirements. (Disclaimer, this is borrowed and tweaked from the popular Project S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting rubrics.)

Specific

Don’t say I’m going to be “active”. Instead, define the exact activity, as in “I will run one mile.”

Time-bound

Be clear as to how long you will do this specific activity over what period of days, e.g.: “I will run one mile every day for 4 weeks.” You could further set time frameworks for how fast or slow you will do said activity if you wish.

Relevant

The activity should be relevant to your personal goals and to your history. For example, if you’ve never run a mile in your life, don’t make that your streak. Bike to the corner store and back or do 45 jumping jacks every day for five days. Choose something that fits into your lifestyle and your fitness toolkit.

Energizing

Choose a streak goal that will be an uplifting and fun energy boost, not a drag.

Attainable

This one speaks for itself. Don’t set yourself up for failure. Make a streak goal that’s reachable. Shorter is better. Need an easy option? Streak with these eight-minute home workouts from Elev8d Fitness, the new alignment-based fitness method from the experts at Sonima.

Kid-approved

As in, the KISS principle (Keep It Silly, Stupid). Have fun! Be kid-like and make your goal streak-worthy. If it’s fun, then you’ll be happy to do it and will ultimately be a successful streaker.

Start your streak now! Try the Elev8d Fitness eight-minute Sculpted Butt and Hips Workout or the Total-Body At-Home Workout Series.

The post The #1 Way to Create a Fitness Habit That Sticks appeared first on Sonima.

Always Tired? Put Down the Coffee and Try This Energizing Workout Program

Cassie Shortsleeve — Mon, 23 Nov 2020 04:30:04 +0000

Energy: It’s something we all want, especially as today’s fast-paced, high-tech society makes it seem more and more elusive.

Of course there’s caffeine. But many of us prefer to turn to fitness, nutrition, and psychology to find energy. These industries promise us that working out, eating right, and reducing stress are the solutions.

So why is it that those of us who exercise daily, fill up on fruits and vegetables, and have a regular meditation practice still feel tired? There’s another important piece to the energy puzzle.

“The elephant in the room is the body itself,” says Pete Egoscue, renowned anatomical physiologist and creator of the Egoscue Method, who also cofounded Sonima’s eight-minute home workout program Elev8d Fitness.

Imagine, for a moment, that your body was perfectly aligned both vertically and horizontally along your load-bearing joints—the ankles, knees, hips, and shoulders. Your muscles would work effectively. You’d do away with bodily compensation. (Your shoulders wouldn’t be sore from a day at the computer, for example.) You’d feel your strongest.

When you align your body properly, all of your systems work in harmony, Egoscue says, and that means more energy.

A little physiology lesson to explain why: The human body both attracts energy (responding to our environment and the stimulus coming to it) and generates energy at the cellular level, Egoscue explains.

Cells absorb nutrients and give up waste, he says. The faster that exchange happens, the healthier your cells are. And the muscular skeletal system is what fuels this entire process, generating what’s often referred to as the metabolic rate. (The higher the metabolic rate, the healthier your body is.)

The more congruent and balanced you are in your muscular, skeletal, and neurological systems, the more energy you’re using, Egoscue notes. But the healthier the cells are, the more energy you’re generating too.

When your muscular skeletal system isn’t aligned, your body doesn’t have the energy it needs to process hard-to-digest foods, and you might wind up with bowel issues or inflammatory conditions such as diverticulitis, Egoscue explains. If you’re not structurally balanced, fitness might not feel good physiologically. Some exercises might even hurt. And if you don’t have a high energy rate, it’s all too easy to see the world in a negative light, he notes.

So body alignment proves imperative. It serves as the foundation for recruiting the right muscles to absorb nutrients, move through a workout, have enough energy for positive and uplifting thoughts, or sleep deeply through the night.

That’s why Egoscue cofounded Elev8d Fitness. The dynamic workouts (performed four times a week for only eight or 16 minutes a day) are rooted in eight core movements that ensure the load-bearing joints work their full range of motion. These foundational moves also align your joints and bring long-overdue oxygenated blood to areas that need it most, helping you feel energized.

“If you want energy all day, what you think and what you do and what you believe matter,” Egoscue says. “But the most important component of that is the body that’s coming to all of those things.”

Feel more energized after every workout! Try the Elev8d Fitness 16-Minute Energy-Boosting Workout or the entire Elev8d Workout Series for Ultimate Energy.

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8 New Secrets to Ease Muscle Soreness Naturally

Cassie Shortsleeve — Mon, 09 Nov 2020 04:30:18 +0000

Delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS)—soreness that creeps in a day or two after a hard workout—is a double-edged sword. On one hand, tender muscles can be the sign of a workout well done; on the other, aching your way through recovery can be an indicator of dysfunction or too much stress on your system.

The truth is, soreness doesn’t have to be the inevitable side effect of intense exercise. Efficient warm-ups, proper hydration, and natural remedies can have a powerful impact on the human body. Here are eight ways to fight (and prevent) post-workout pain the natural way.

1. Have a dedicated warm-up

Workouts that call for overexertion, like high-intensity interval training (HIIT) and CrossFit, can often leave you aching. But it’s not so much the workout itself that’s to blame. Rather it’s the body you’re bringing to that workout, says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new eight-minute home workout program from the experts at Sonima. If you bring a misaligned, stiff body to fitness, you could be unknowingly welcoming increased muscle soreness and strain.

Fortunately, a little prep work pays off. Just a simple eight-minute workout that brings your body through its full range of motion and aligns your major joints can dramatically decrease soreness. Dynamic movements wake up your deep, core muscles and help correct your posture so that you move more efficiently during the rest of your activity. “You’ll get so much more out of your actual workout because you’ll be able to stand more erect, where your lung tissue and diaphragm can function correctly, feeding your body more oxygen,” Bradley says.

2. Fill up on H20

Soaking yourself in an ice bath can constrict blood vessels and halt inflammation, thus delaying muscle soreness associated with exercise. But simply drinking water can provide relief too. “Many times, people get muscle soreness and a general inflammatory response from being dehydrated,” says Janet Zand, a leading practitioner of natural medicine and Sonima’s naturopathic medical advisor. Research even demonstrates that being dehydrated during a workout can exacerbate DOMS.

If you’re sweating a lot or feel thirsty throughout the day, skip the coffee and sip some pure H20, Zand says. The average person needs about 12 cups a day, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). But that number is higher if you’re active. Also, it’s best to drink small amounts of water over a period of time, as too much at once can disrupt your stomach.

3. Massage with Ayurvedic oils

In Ayurvedic medicine, muscular pain or discomfort is seen as an aggravation of vata energy, which behaves like the wind, says Jayagopal Parla, M.D., a professor of Ayurvedic medicine at the American University of Complementary Medicine in Beverly Hills. When you move your body to the extent that it’s stressed and depleted, that deficiency can be filled by vata, leaving a dryness in the muscles, manifesting as achiness or soreness, he says. Massaging the body with an oil such as Mahanarayana Thailam before or exercise can prevent inflammation and keep vata from reaching abnormal states, Parla says.

4. Try arnica

This potent flower has been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties that soothe sore muscles. One small study of runners found that people who applied topical arnica to their muscles after a tough workout reported less pain and muscle tenderness 72 hours after exercise. Apply it topically or take the dissolving supplement under the tongue every hour for two to three hours, Zand suggests.

5. Soak in a peppermint and rosemary oil bath

Epsom salts are a well-known sore-muscle solution, but there are other bath rituals worth adopting. Zand favors anti-inflammatory peppermint oil. The National Association for Holistic Aromatherapy agrees that the oil can be beneficial for muscle aches and pains. Add it to your bath water for a rejuvenating (and fragrant) soak.

6. Experiment with CBD oil

Cannabidiol (CBD)—one of the cannabinoids found in marijuana (but not the chemical that’s responsible for the drug’s high)—is the latest pain reliever du jour. And research, including a review from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, confirms that cannabinoids can indeed be potent pain relievers.

“For many people, CBD oil works very nicely in relieving sore muscles,” Zand says. As for now, the data is still playing catch-up with the array of products on the market, but some preliminary research suggests topical CBD could be beneficial for pain.

7. Find the right herbal concoction

Certain herbs and spices can reduce muscle soreness and tenderness, Parla says. Turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, and dill seeds are known to increase blood and lymph flow to the muscles, he says. Add these to a meal or steep with tea to sip throughout the day. Parla also suggests Vidarikanda or Kapikachhu, Ayurvedic plant powders to mix into nut milk for a post-workout drink. This can work to pacify vata and prevent muscle soreness, he says.

8. Take a dip in the ocean

You’ve probably heard someone preach the powers of salt water after a long vacation. There might be something to it. “The ocean is replete with all sorts of minerals such as magnesium and iodine, and it’s also typically cold, which can be anti-inflammatory,” Zand says. Consider it nature’s (cooler) Epsom salts bath.

Transform your body without all the soreness! Try the Move Better, Feel Better, Look Better Home Workout Series. You’ll build strength, boost energy, and have better posture without beating up your body..

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A New Exercise Method to Naturally Boost Your Energy

Stephanie Hunt — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 03:30:54 +0000

Folks, we are tired. This is probably not a (yawn!) news flash. The average American gets less sleep than 20 years ago. One-third of us report sleeping less than seven hours a night. And that doesn’t include moms with young kids, for whom anything approaching seven hours sounds like nirvana. Add increasing levels of stress to chronic sleep deprivation, and you get a national fatigue nightmare. No wonder that 15 percent of women and 10 percent of men reported low energy and being “very tired or exhausted” most days of the week in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from 2013.

While there are numerous valid medical reasons for fatigue and exhaustion (thyroid issues, clinical depression, poor nutrition, heart conditions, and medicine side effects, to name just a few), many of us otherwise healthy Americans still feel like we’re running on fumes. So we reach for caffeine (dropping $2.24 billion on cans of Red Bull in 2016 alone), trying to prime the pump. Instead, what we really need is a tune-up.

Work Smarter, Not Harder

So often, our approach to exercise and energy is focused on one thing: burning calories and expending energy. The more, the better, right? Well, not exactly. Sometimes, you just get left behind. I’ve learned the hard way: on a 40-mile bike ride when my quads were spent and I “bonked” (as we say in cycling), which meant I couldn’t keep up with the group and faced a long, lonely, painful trek home. I was far from energized after that ride—and humiliated to boot.

The trick is to exercise your muscles and body in a way that doesn’t leave you zapped and listless, but leaves you pumped and energized. But how?

Elev8d Fitness: A Natural Energy Boost

Created by the experts at Sonima, Elev8d Fitness workouts use dynamic, multi-directional movements to align the body. When your body is aligned, your core muscle groups can fully turn on and work at 100 percent capacity, meaning you fire the larger, deeper muscles in your body, not just the smaller, surface ones.

Consider this: You sit all day at a desk with your back rounded and your shoulders slumped. After work, you head out for a long run. More likely than not, you’re running with that same rounded back and slumped shoulders. And exercising from a place of postural dysfunction means your effort is coming from the wrong muscles.

On the other hand, when you use your deeper, core muscles (for example, the hip flexors and the psoas), it requires more oxygen, which is the fuel for our muscles. And when these large, foundational muscles are oxygenated, you burn energy more efficiently and feel more energetic. Working these larger muscle groups with proper alignment actually recharges your body.

Endurance athletes such as long-distance runners and cyclists tend to overuse one or two muscle groups, and are typically lean and frequently exhausted. Studies have shown that sustained effort over long periods of time can raise cortisol (a stress hormone) to unhealthy levels. And when cortisol gets out of whack, fatigue can result. But shorter, low-intensity intervals, like the Elev8d Fitness workouts, keep cortisol in check.

So, work smarter when it comes to exercise. There is a place for building endurance and many athletes, myself included, enjoy the mental and physical benefits of a long bike ride or run. But to be more efficiently energized, engage your deep, larger muscles in shorter, more focused workouts. The goal should be to get more out of your day and your life, not just your workout.

Get more results in less time with Elev8d Fitness! Try these popular workouts and see for yourself:

8-Minute Total-Body Transformation
24-Minute Fat-Loss Workout
Boost Your Energy Workout Series
Weight-Loss Workout Series
16-Minute Challenge Workout Series

The post A New Exercise Method to Naturally Boost Your Energy appeared first on Sonima.

A Quick Workout to Fix Tight Muscles

Hailey Wist — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 03:30:55 +0000

It’s widely believed that your muscles increase in length the more you stretch them. For example, if you bend down and reach for your toes enough, you’ll eventually stretch your hamstrings to a longer length.

But this traditional understanding of stretching is flawed. Flexibility doesn’t come from stretching the muscles to a more impressive length—flexibility is actually the absence of tension in the muscles. And to get to the root of this tension, you have to address why your body is tight in the first place.

“People always come to me and tell me that they are genetically tight, that their body just isn’t flexible,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new 8-minute home workout program from Sonima. “But this is a misunderstanding.” You’re not inflexible because your muscles are short. You’re inflexible because your body is out of alignment, and that impinges your full range of motion.

How Does Alignment Improve Flexibility?

Proper alignment starts with the pelvis. “The hips are the epicenter of the body, so when you have function in the hips, all the muscles that originate in that area are no longer under tension or restricted,” Bradley explains. The better the position of your hips, the better its relationship with the upper back, mid-back, shoulder blades, and all connected areas of the body.

“When you align the body, the bones where the tendons connect move into a more aligned position, which loosens the tension in the muscle. It’s freeing up your muscles to their full and natural length,” Bradley explains. In other words, you are changing the position of the skeleton where the tendons attach. When you put these attachment points into alignment, the muscles can relax into their full range of motion. As you slowly loosen tension in this or that muscle, the body comes into concert with itself, unifying as one system rather than a collection of disjointed parts. And that, Bradley says, is where real strength and wellness happens.

Elev8d Fitness is designed around this fundamental principle: Align the body so that it can move through its full range of motion, thus balancing and unifying the musculature as a functional, efficient system. “You’ll actually get your body to the point where you don’t feel like you need to stretch,” Bradley says.

A Workout to Improve Flexibility

In this 8-minute workout, Elev8d Fitness co-founder and world-renowned physiologist Pete Egoscue will coach you through a sequence of one-minute movements. As you fire the hip flexors and core, notice a subtle release of tightness is the upper back and knees. Remember, form is critical. In order to align and balance the body, you have to pay close attention to the position of your spine, shoulders, and hips. For example, be sure to pinch the shoulder blades in the Da Vincis and maintain a slight arch in your back when you squat down for the Elev8d Side Unders.

“You’re going to feel some work in these exercises,” Bradley says. “What we’re doing is training your muscles at their full length.” Strengthening your muscles in this state of zero tension or tightness is key—that’s the way to train your body back into its natural and functional alignment.

“This eight-minute sequence is literally changing how each section of your spine relates to your hips and shoulders,” Bradley says. As you work your way through the exercises, your range of motion is increasing exponentially. So much so that if you started the whole thing over again from the top, you would notice a dramatic difference in your flexibility. That’s because you’ve freed up your shoulders, mid-back, and hips, thus loosening the tension in the muscles.

You’re not necessarily going to feel a stretch with this workout, though. “It’ll feel like work and you may start breathing a little heavy. But then all of the sudden, you’ll be able to reach down and touch your toes,” Bradley says.

Transform your body in a little as eight minutes! Try the revolutionary Elev8d Fitness Flat Belly Workout Series!

The post A Quick Workout to Fix Tight Muscles appeared first on Sonima.

Try This One-Minute Energy Boost

Hailey Wist — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 03:15:11 +0000

More than 80 percent of Americans sit all day. We sit at our desks, we sit in our cars, and we sit on our couches. It’s unavoidable. And, as you’ve probably heard, it’s bad for our health. Doctors have even coined the term “sitting disease” for the host of problems that sitting presents. This includes an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and metabolic syndrome.

What you may not realize is that the position of sitting could also be the reason you want to curl up for a nap in the afternoon. Luckily, the right kind of movement can combat these negative sitting effects, and you can do these exercises from your home office or other workplace for a quick pick-me-up.

How Sitting Affects Your Energy

We often don’t realize just how much our posture impacts our health. When your anterior contracts and your posterior is rounded, you effectively constrict the flow of oxygen through your body. In this rounded position, your spine is in a C-shape rather than its natural S-shape, cramping the diaphragm so that you can’t take full, deep breaths. What’s more, the C-shape in the spine tucks the hips under. When your psoas and hip flexors are tucked and unengaged like this, the body essentially collapses forward, crunching the vital organs into a smaller space.

Your energy flags post-lunch because you’ve spent the better half of the day collapsed forward and inert. When this happens, it’s all too easy to turn to sugar and caffeine. But what if there were a healthy, more holistic option?

The solution to activating the hips and improving posture is actually quite simple: Move more. We’re not saying you need to quit your job or stop watching your favorite TV show, just simply get up and move around every 30 minutes. While you’re at it, give your body a quick alignment prompt with the three dynamic movements below from Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts at Sonima. This routine takes less than a minute and does wonders for shaking loose the cobwebs and improving your posture.

3 Moves to Boost Your Energy

The Active Cows Face requires you to stand up and engage the deep muscles around the shoulder blades (the rhomboid muscles, trapezius, and deltoid). This effectively opens up the front of the body, allowing more oxygen into your lungs and more blood flow to your head, heart, and vital organs.

Next, the Downward Dog Bent Knee activates the hip flexors and the psoas while also loading up the shoulder blades. By engaging these deep, core muscle groups, this static position ignites a higher intensity burn. A true total-body exercise, the Downward Dog Bent Knee positions your head below your heart, which brings increased blood flow (and oxygen) to the brain.

Lastly, the Standing Arm Circles strengthen the muscles between the shoulder blades while also requiring static resistance in the core muscles, especially the obliques. This may look like a shoulder exercise, but notice the perturbance in the abdominal wall; you are working your abs too. Hand position is key, and remember to keep your shoulders down and back.

In combination, these three movements reset posture and increase blood flow in less than a minute so you can sit back at your desk with a clearer head and more energy. What’s more, if you make a daily practice of these three movements, your posture will improve in the long run. Give it a try!

Active Cows Face | 15x Per Side

Stand with your feet fist-width apart, toes pointed straight ahead. (You may even pigeon-toe them slightly.)
Reach your arms out at shoulder height with palms facing forward so your body forms a “t” shape.
Raise your right arm toward the ceiling, bending at the elbow so your hand reaches toward the center of your back. Simultaneously extend your left arm toward the floor, bending at the elbow to reach your left hand toward the center of your back, getting your right and left fingers as close to touching as possible.
Return arms to their original position and repeat, moving your arms in the opposite direction to bring the left to the center of the back from above and the right from beneath. That’s 1 rep.

Downward Dog Bent Knee | 30 Seconds

Start on hands and knees, then push into downward facing dog.
Bend your knees slightly, without touching the ground.
Hold this position as you pull the hips back to the heels, keeping the pelvis angled up and the back flat. You should feel this in the hip flexors.

Arm Circles | 40x

Stand with your feet hip-width apart, toes pointed straight ahead. Put your hands in a golfer’s grip: Make a thumb’s up and fold your fingers so the tips are on the top pads of your palms.
Extend your arms out at your shoulders with your thumbs pointed forward, hands palms down, and shoulder blades pinched back.
Keeping your shoulder blades pinched, circle your arms forward 20 times.
Pause, then flip your hands palms up, thumbs pointed backward, and circle your arms backward 20 times.

Transform your body in as little as 8 minutes a day! Try the revolutionary new approach to fitness that helps you achieve better results by doing less. Check out Elev8d Fitness now on Vimeo.

The post Try This One-Minute Energy Boost appeared first on Sonima.

4 Posture Exercises to Do While Sitting at Your Desk

Rachael Schultz — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 03:45:53 +0000

“Between commuting, office jobs, and time in front of the TV, we love to sit,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new eight-minute home workout program developed by the experts of Sonima.

You’ve probably already heard, but this sitting habit is really, really bad for you. According to a 2017 study in Annals of Internal Medicine, even if you exercise regularly, not moving for excessively long periods of time increases your risk for early death. It can also negatively affect your posture by conditioning your body to position itself in an unnatural way.

Unfortunately, sitting is inevitable. But rather than resigning yourself to a sedentary slump, you can train for sitting in order to avoid some of its negative effects, Bradley says. In fact, there are certain movements you can practice while sitting in a chair to improve your posture and overall well-being.

How Does Sitting Affect Your Posture?

The way the body tilts and torques to sit in a chair is in opposition to its natural, functional alignment. When you sit, your pelvis tilts back and your butt tucks under. This deactivates your hips so that they’re no longer supporting the top half your frame or engaging your glutes and core to support your spine. As a result, your spine shifts into one long C-curve instead of the natural S shape. When working at a desk, your shoulders round as your hands reach for your keyboard, and your head juts forward to get closer to the computer screen.

This “desk slump” affects more than just your ability to stand up straight—it may also contribute to your mid-afternoon energy slump. Korean researchers found the posture most of us take on while sitting and typing on our phones actually restricts our ability to breathe properly and efficiently. And a lack of oxygen translates to less energy and lower concentration, Bradley says.

If you think you’re exempt from this biomechanical malfunction, consider this: A 2015 Australian study found when people sat in a position that felt natural to them, they naturally slumped at the lumbar spine. When they were encouraged to correct their position just based on their own intuition, their lumbar angle was still overly curved. In other words: We need directions.

How Can Posture Exercises Help?

“The amazing thing is that we can correct our posture by just moving the body the way in was designed to naturally move,” Bradley says. “To put your body back in the most ideal alignment, you need to use 100 percent of your deep, stabilizing muscles.”

That’s why the experts of Sonima developed Elev8d Fitness based on this straightforward principle. The at-home workouts incorporate a variety of dynamic movements that reset alignment. By adjusting and stabilizing key muscle groups, the exercises create foundational strength and symmetry in the body.

Although daily Elev8d Fitness workouts are the most comprehensive solution for improving posture, you can apply the following elemental movements while sitting at a desk or on the couch to dramatically enhance the quality of your sitting position. Do this routine in the order specified halfway through every sitting session (i.e., a day at the computer, a two-hour train ride). Not only will you find yourself standing straighter after hours spent sitting, you’ll also experience improved blood flow and deeper breathing, which boost oxygen flow for increased acuity and improved focus.

Chair Arm Circles | 40x each direction

1. Put your thumbs up, and fold your fingers forward so that the tips are on the top pads of your palms.

2. Sit in a chair with your feet hip-width apart, flat on the ground, and pointed straight ahead.

3. Extend your arms directly sideways, straight out. Point your thumbs forward, palms down, and pinch your shoulder blades back.

4. Move your arms up and forward in a circular motion 40 times. Keep your shoulder blades pinched.

5. Next, flip your hands palms up, thumbs pointed backward, and move your arms up and backward in circles 40 times.

Cats and Dogs in Chair | 5x each direction

1. Sit in a chair with your feet hip-width apart, flat on the ground and pointed straight ahead.

2. Beginning the movement at the hip, roll your back slowly upward so that it finishes in a rounded position like a mad cat, your head down, chin resting on your chest. The lower half your back should be touching the chair back but your shoulders should not.

3. Then, beginning the movement with the hip, lower your back into an inverse arch, your head and tailbone up, your shoulder blades pinching toward each other. Your low back and shoulders should be touching the chair back but your mid-back should not.

4. Repeat 5 times each direction.

Da Vincis in a Chair | 5x each direction

1. Sit in a chair with your feet hip-width apart, flat on the ground and pointed straight ahead.

2. Make sure to create a small arch in your lower back, reestablishing the natural S curve.

3. Extend your arms straight to the side, your hands palms-forward with the fingers spread wide.

4. Keeping your hips and head stable, bend to one side using just the spine and bend back to the other side.

Cats and Dogs in Chair | 10x each direction

1. Sit in a chair with your feet hip-width apart, flat on the ground and pointed straight ahead.

4. Repeat 10 times each direction.

The post 4 Posture Exercises to Do While Sitting at Your Desk appeared first on Sonima.

A Short Workout to Prepare You for a Day at a Desk

Hailey Wist — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 03:30:59 +0000

If you’re like most people, you sit for most of the day—in your car, at your desk, and on your couch. On average, Americans sit for a shocking 12 hours a day, and studies link prolonged sitting with deleterious health outcomes regardless of physical activity. In other words, it doesn’t matter if you burn it out at the gym at the end of a long day of being in a chair. So what can be done, especially if you are working from home and may not have the best desk setup?

Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, a new, posture-based home workout program from the experts of Sonima, has a different view of things. “Sitting doesn’t have to be bad for you,” he says. “We just have to view it as another form of activity.” In his eyes, sitting isn’t the problem. Instead, the horrifying health statistics are a reflection of how we’re sitting. Most of us perch with compromised posture, meaning the spine is in a C-shape, the pelvis is tucked under, and the chin is jutting forward. This poor sitting form is what is leading to the myriad of problems.

But Why Is Sitting So Bad?

Here’s an example: You sit in front of a computer and use one hand to click and scroll with a mouse. The arm (shoulder, elbow, and wrist) controlling the mouse is moving a lot more than the other, inactive arm. This creates a muscular imbalance. And if you have not fired the deep core muscles around the shoulder blades, this one-arm mouse activity isn’t anchored and can strain the joints and spine. What’s more, an imbalance in the shoulders will inevitably throw the rest of your body out of whack.

The next time you’re in the office or a coffee shop, notice the posture of the people sitting around you. More likely than not, their backs are rounded and their hips are tucked under. This poor posture basically compresses the body, restricting the proper functioning of its various systems. For example, you can’t digest food properly with a restricted digestive tract, nor can you breathe fully with a cramped diaphragm. When you consider it this way, it’s no wonder sitting is linked to so many health issues!

How Can You Correct Your Sitting Form?

To improve your sitting and body, first change your mindset. “People assume that when you’re sitting, there’s no work going on in the body,” Bradley says. “But there should actually be a lot going on. You have to treat it as a sport.”

Before you sit down for a day of work, it is crucial to set your body into alignment. When your hips are engaged and in dynamic connection to your spine, rib cage, and shoulders, you are setting course for more functional movement for the rest of the day.

“With just a few dynamic movements at the start of the day, you can essentially prevent bad posture and all the discomfort that comes along with it,” Bradley says. Imbalances like with the mouse example above can be repaired by accessing and firing the deep stabilizing muscles in the core, from the shoulders down to the hips.

This short sequence designed and ordered by Bradley and the experts at Elev8d Fitness will prepare your body for a day of functional sitting. Each movement increasingly connects and engages the deep stabilizing muscles that are so vital to proper alignment.

The Standing Arm Circles pin the shoulder blades together and fire the mid-back, and they also access the deep hip muscles that are essential to active sitting, Bradley explains. The speed of this exercise is what requires action from the hips, so remember to keep a steady pace.

After you’ve fired up the muscles in the deep hip, the One Arm Bridge loads the shoulder to condition it to stay in the right position. This classic core exercise activates the entire length of the body for 30 seconds on each side.

Last, the Finish Line Abs kick you into high gear with a minute of rapid arm, abdominal, and hip work. The arm swing again requires the deep stabilizing muscles to fire at maximum capacity. “This last exercise is major. It’s setting you up to be able to move [and sit] from the right posture,” Bradley says.

Put them all together, and “these three simple exercises are really prepping you for better positioning to handle whatever activity you’re doing,” he adds.

Transform your body! Try the Move Better, Feel Better, Look Better Home Workout Series to build strength, boost energy, and have better posture without beating up your body.

The post A Short Workout to Prepare You for a Day at a Desk appeared first on Sonima.

14 New Workout Ideas That Will Make You Love Exercise

Leslie Goldman — Mon, 02 Mar 2020 13:00:47 +0000

If you do the same workout day after day, even the most inspiring practice or scenic run can start to feel stale. Not only that, your body becomes conditioned to the movement, resulting in diminished returns in strength, balance, and endurance. With that in mind, we asked experts across a variety of physical disciplines for their favorite exercise add-ons or creative stand-alone workouts. The results include fun spins on traditional movement, permission to swing on the monkey bars, and one killer bear crawl.

Stand on One Foot

“When you stand on one leg and feel that wobble, you are gathering information coming into your feet—neural impulses traveling to your spinal cord and brain, and then a volley of neural impulses coming back into your muscles to tell them how, when, and where to contract. It’s called proprioception, and it’s your body’s sense of where it is in space, designed to keep you from falling over. Proprioception is vital to how your nerves interact with your muscles, and it happens in a fraction of a second! I work on mine every morning by doing balance exercises when I brush my teeth. My electronic toothbrush goes for two minutes, so I balance for one minute on one leg and one minute on the other.” –Stacey Pierce-Talsma, DO, RYT, Chair of the Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Department at Touro University California in Vallejo, CA, and a registered yoga teacher

Bear Crawl Around

“This classic kid move engages the psoas, a vastly under-appreciated muscle that extends from the lower middle spine down to the top of the thighs. When most people do the bear crawl, they do travel across the floor on all fours with the pelvis higher than the head and with the back humped up. Instead, start on your hands and feet, keeping your hips on the same plane as your head so that your back resembles a tabletop—flat with no arch. Now drag the hips back to your heels, creating a straight line through the shoulders, hips, and knees.” –Brian Bradley, Fitness Director for Elev8d Fitness

Just Hang Out

“The next time you are playing with the kids, out for a run near a park, or taking a stroll with some friends, hop up on the monkey bars and just hang for 30 seconds. It’s a fantastic stretch for the upper body. If you can hold it for 30 seconds or longer, now you’re building up strength and creating lean muscle.” –Eric Botsford, Creative Director at ToughMudder Bootcamp and a well-known CrossFit star

Roll With It

“One of my favorite yoga moves is rolling back and forth on the mat. Just as you roll up, you extend both your arms and your legs as wide as you can, and then you roll back. It makes it more fun if you add Lion Pose face (opening your eyes and mouth wide and sticking your tongue out as far as you can while exhaling, making a haaaaaaa sound). It’s fun for balance, a good stretch for your face, and you can’t help but laugh at yourself—or everyone in the room if it’s during a yoga class!” –Pierce-Talsma

Try an 8×8

“There are eight core movements that work the body through a full range of motion, recruit your largest muscles, and help align your eight load-bearing joints (shoulders, hips, knees, and ankles). The movements are surprisingly simple, including “over” (jump over an object, such as a log, fence, or bench, using your hands and arms to propel yourself forward); “under” (step forward or sideways to squat as if under a low doorway or branch); and “sideways” (move laterally, in both directions, in a variety of ways, including shuffling your feet or doing a crab walk.) Elev8d Fitness Powered by Sonima offers a variety of fun workouts derived from the eight core movements. The 8×8 incorporates these moves in a quick but efficient eight-minute workout. You can try it here.” –Bradley

Use Sliders

“These small, slippery discs are great for building strength and balance because they require you to engage a lot of muscles at once. Try them while doing Mountain Climbers for a solid core- and rotational core-strengthening exercise that also helps strengthen the glutes and hip flexors. For something more advanced, try the Alligator Drag: Find an area with enough room to move forward 30 feet or so. Starting in push-up position with your feet on the slides, “walk” forward on your hands as far as you can, letting your lower body drag behind you. Don’t have sliders? Paper plates can work on carpeted floors, and towels or thick socks can work on wood. This move works the shoulders, core, and glutes, and will get your heart pumping, too.” –Rachel Fisher, Fitness Coach at Shift, an integrative health and wellness practice in Chicago

Get High

“Rock climbing provides the trifecta of fitness benefits: Full-body strength, endurance, and mobility. Traversing routes—both indoors and outdoors—develops coordination, grip strength, core stability, and range of motion. You’re also challenging your brain, as you have to think out every move ahead of time, so it’s an organic way to improve your problem-solving skills.” –Fisher

Experiment with the Jumpboard

“This board attaches to the foot-bar of the Pilates reformer to create the simulation of jumping. While lying on the machine horizontally, you can adjust the spring tension and ‘jump’ on the board as if it were the floor and you were standing up. It’s challenging, gets the heart rate up, and is low impact while still challenging your core, legs, and coordination. Like ballet, the focus is on rolling through the feet and landing with control. Clients can also try to hover and find their own ‘hangtime’. It’s a really fun addition to a Pilates reformer class.” –Mary Kate O’Sullivan, Master Trainer with San Francisco-based Pilates ProWorks

Belly Dance

“As an osteopathic physician, I treat a lot of patients with back pain. Most back pain is musculoskeletal and often this pain is due to muscle imbalances and lack of core strength. Often I prescribe belly dancing for my patients who need more core work. It utilizes core strength and core control in order to move the body, and brings a lot of awareness and activation to muscles that don’t get used during other activities, even traditional exercises.” –Pierce-Talsma

Be a Tourist in Your Hometown

“Explore your own city by foot or bike (or canoe, if you’re lucky enough live near water) and check out all the must-sees you’re always suggesting to your out-of-town guests. Visit museums. Join a walking tour. Hike the most scenic trail around. You’ll get your fill of cardio for the day just by moving around, plus you’ll gain a new appreciation for the place you call home.” –Rebecca Scritchfield, RD, owner of a mindfulness-based behavioral change and wellness practice in Washington, DC, and author of Body Kindness: Transform Your Health from the Inside Out and Never Say Diet Again

Try Your Competition

“My husband and I have a quick workout that really gets our blood pumping, and we try to beat each other, which adds some friendly competition. It’s called “The Tens.” You start with 10 burpees, 10 pushups, 10 sit-ups, 10 lunges, and 10 squats. Then you do nine of everything, then eight, then seven, all the way down to one. I like to time myself and see if I can get it done in record time. I enjoy this workout because it usually takes about 10 to 15 minutes, yet I’ve totally gotten a good workout in and strengthened most major muscle groups of my body.” –Pierce-Talsma

Do the Grapevine

“The Grapevine is a multi-faceted movement that can offer fantastic toning. It’s a great warm-up movement that works the quads, hamstrings, calves, glutes, and core all at the same time. It’s not a common thing you see your friends at the gym doing, but just put on your headphones, find 50 yards of open space, and feel the body get itself warmed-up. You’ll be in better shape for your next yoga class because of it.” –Botsford

Inject Speed Work into Your Walks and Runs

“Fartleks means ‘speed play’ in Swedish; you switch up running fast and running slow. I will see something off in the distance and run as fast as I can to get there, and once I’m there, I’ll slow my pace or walk. It’s a great way to build speed and stamina, and it makes running really fun. Similarly, sometimes I put my headphones on and hit shuffle on my music library. If a slow song comes on, I slow my pace or even walk. If a fast song comes on, I run. I often try to keep the pace of the music.” –Pierce-Talsma

Throw a Medicine Ball Around

“A super-fun exercise is tossing eight to 10 pounds or so with a friend, or even two or three friends. You can do them standing, squatting, and with sit-ups. This is a fantastic core exercise that will give you an added boost for the toughest yoga movements.” –Botsford

The post 14 New Workout Ideas That Will Make You Love Exercise appeared first on Sonima.

Feeling Bloated? Try Our Alignment-Based Approach to Better Digestion

Cassie Shortsleeve — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 13:00:10 +0000

Whether you are one of the 70 million Americans with digestive diseases or you simply overate at dinner last night, that bloated, uncomfortable feeling after eating is something you’d likely rather avoid. Dietary choices are fundamental to digestive health, but here’s an idea you’ve likely never considered before: the role of posture in digestion.

The Surprising Ways Posture Affects Digestion

Any kind of misalignment can alter how the organs relate spatially to one another, impacting the digestive processes as a result. The tilt of the pelvis is especially crucial. The pelvis serves as the floor to all the vital organs in the body. If the hips are out of whack, it creates a cascade of misalignment in the curve of the spine, pushing the transverse colon (the longest part of the large intestine) up to the chest cavity, impinging the nerve that triggers the diaphragm, preventing it from helping the colon contract. This can lead to a buildup of waste and gas in the body.

“For good digestion, it is important to have proper body alignment so that blood flow is provided to all of the internal organs, especially those of the digestive tract,” says Dana Ellis Hunnes, Ph.D., M.P.H., R.D., a senior dietitian at Ronald Reagan-UCLA Medical Center.

Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts of Sonima, agrees. “Think about water going through a hose,” he says. “If you scrunch or coil the hose, the water doesn’t pass through efficiently.” Your intestine is the same (all 32 feet of it). When your posture is compromised because the hips are tucked under, the intestine is restricted and waste can’t move through properly, causing bloating.

But remember, everything is connected. You’d think that because the intestines sit in the low stomach that alignment of the hips is the only focus. “But the position of the rib cage is the roof of intestinal protection,” Bradley says. “We’re working from both ends of the house here.” Putting your shoulders into better alignment shifts your spine, then your low back, and so on, aligning from the top down. Once your shoulders are in a better position, you breathe better, and when you breathe better (over 22,000 times a day), your diaphragm drops down and compresses the internal organs. This up and down compression aids peristalsis, the wave-like contractions that push food through the digestive tract.

Acid reflux, an issue caused by stomach acid being regurgitated into the esophagus, can also be triggered by improper posture. “The stomach is angled so the acid lies at the bottom,” explains Pete Egoscue, world-renowned alignment expert and co-founder of Elev8d Fitness. “But if you roll your hips under, it not only changes the position of your stomach but also it shortens the distance between the hydrochloric acid pool and your esophagus.” And, thus, the bile can more easily travel back up to the esophagus.

An Alignment Tune-Up for Better Digestion

Restoring our body’s natural positioning through exercise not only allows gravity to do its job, but it also ensures good circulation and aids in delivering oxygen-rich blood throughout the body, reducing the likelihood of bloating, gas, and acid reflux. Correct posture throughout the day will aid the ongoing process of digestion. And, Bradley points out, movement begets movement. The more you move, the more you stimulate your internal organs. A quick, 8-minute Elev8d Fitness workout and a brisk walk will shake loose the cobwebs of a sedentary workday or a long dinner to help you more efficiently process the food you’ve put in your body.

Transform your body in a little as 8 minutes a day! Try Elev8d Fitness, the revolutionary new approach to fitness that helps you achieve better results by doing less. The innovative Flat Belly Workout Series also helps you burn more calories and build a stronger core.

Embedded photography courtesy of Hailey Wist.

The post Feeling Bloated? Try Our Alignment-Based Approach to Better Digestion appeared first on Sonima.

What Causes Muscle Soreness? And How Much Is Too Much?

Rachael Schultz — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 13:00:22 +0000

We’ve all pushed it a bit too hard and experienced that so-sore-it-hurts-to-stand feeling. It’s called delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, and it’s a sign your body is repairing and building back stronger.

Most of us view post-workout soreness as an indicator of a solid sweat session. But soreness isn’t necessarily a good measure of the quality of the workout, says Carlos Uquillas, M.D., sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles.

What Causes Muscle Soreness?

It’s pretty simple. If you tax a muscle that isn’t used to being taxed, you’re going to feel sore. “Eccentric loads create tension on the muscle fibers, which breaks them down and disrupts certain elements of the muscle cells,” Uquillas explains. Breaking down the muscle fibers initiates a cascade of inflammatory responses, leading to pain, swelling, and soreness.

Soreness and inflammation are mostly attributable to eccentric movements, such as dropping down for a squat (rather than standing back up, which is concentric movement). The soreness response can take anywhere from a few hours to a few days to develop, which is why sometimes you work out and don’t feel stiff or achy until three days later. That’s totally normal and more common when you do unfamiliar movements.

“Soreness isn’t a marker of not being in shape; it just means the exercise is new to your body,” Uquillas explains.

Similarly, soreness isn’t a marker of the quality of your workout. “You can get a great workout—increasing strength, increasing endurance—and not be sore,” Uquillas adds.

When Is Soreness a Warning Sign?

There is definitely a threshold that separates good and bad soreness. Extreme soreness can develop into a condition called rhabdomyolysis—when the muscle tissue is so broken down that the fibers actually die instead of repair, releasing toxic contents into the bloodstream. This will make you crazy sore, but could also potentially land you in the hospital.

Don’t worry—rhabdomyolysis is pretty rare and you’re really only at risk if you’re hitting super intense workouts all the time, says Brian Bradley, Fitness Director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts at Sonima.

The grey area of being just sore enough and too sore is totally a personal thing. “Aside from rhabdomyolysis, being ‘too sore’ isn’t bad for you, except that it dissuades a lot of people from working out,” Bradley says. “Personally, I can’t stand being super sore.”

Uquillas agrees: “If you work out really hard and feel so terrible for two to three days that you take the next two weeks off from working out, then when you try again, you’re going to be sore all over again, and that cycle becomes super discouraging.”

Being over your threshold for tolerable soreness can also inhibit your ability to feel better. “When you’re so sore it hurts to move, you’re inclined to just sit with that feeling,” Bradley says. “If you do a less intense workout, though, you have that satisfaction of feeling sore but also the ability to flush out your muscles and move the next day.”

How to Prevent Being So Sore You Can’t Move

Ease into a new workout gradually rather than going from zero to 60 on something you’ve never tried before. And stay hydrated: “When you’re dehydrated, your muscles are working with beef jerky instead of filet mignon,” Bradley says. You need water to help flush out your system, including metabolic particles that contribute to the post-workout pain and swelling.

You may also benefit from a low-intensity exercise program such as Elev8d Fitness. “The intensity of Elev8d workouts has been perfected to be the minimal effective dose your body needs at the chemical level, creating change so you can move better, be more balanced, and lose weight, without feeling like you’ve worked painfully hard,” Bradley says. So even if you’re sore from yesterday’s new eight-minute routine, you’re not too sore to move again today, flushing out your muscles and allowing you to work out again.

The post What Causes Muscle Soreness? And How Much Is Too Much? appeared first on Sonima.

3 Quick Moves to Jumpstart Your Metabolism

Hailey Wist — Mon, 13 Jan 2020 13:00:20 +0000

Metabolism, the rate at which your body converts the calories you consume into energy, is dependent on several factors. Unfortunately, most are outside of your control: age, gender, genetics, and so forth. But the one metabolic factor you can control is muscle mass. Muscle requires more energy to function than fat, so the more lean muscle you have, the higher your metabolic rate.

One secret to building lean muscle mass is in the deep hip. “An increase in metabolic rate comes from hip-driven exercise,” says Brian Bradley, fitness director of Elev8d Fitness, the new home workout program from the experts of Sonima. “Once you loosen up the hips and establish full range of motion, you tap into a completely different, deeper set of muscles.”

The hips are the epicenter of the body. The strength and range of motion of all the load-bearing joints (shoulders, knees, ankles) depend on the alignment and functionality of the hips. Better range of motion allows your body to better activate your deepest muscle groups, which aids the creation of balanced, lean muscle mass.

Here’s an example: If the shoulder joint is functional and limber, movement in the shoulder will use all the muscles surrounding that joint. But if your shoulder has limited range of motion and is bound forward, you won’t be able to fully access and activate the posterior muscles around the joint. They will be effectively turned off and inactive. Full range of motion removes the muscular and structural limitations that keep us from accessing all our muscles.

Think about it this way: When you move, you should be moving with 100 percent of your body, your muscles functioning like one integrated, fluid system. Bad posture, imbalances, and muscular compensation disconnect the muscles in the body. This disconnect, Bradley says, is the crux of the problem: “If you only move the hip 50 percent of its natural range of motion, then you’re only getting 50 percent of the benefit as it relates to your metabolism. But if you’re moving it through its full natural range, then you’re getting full muscle engagement and full metabolic benefit.”

3 Movements to Activate the Deep Hip

These three dynamic movements are designed and sequenced specifically to access the hip flexors and activate the psoas—the core muscle that connects the lumbar vertebrae to the femur—and re-establish full range of motion in the hip joint.

The first exercise, Elev8d Figure 4, unloads your spine. We spend all day vertical, often with our back rounded and shoulders forward (especially if you sit at a computer all day). “Loading the spine horizontally puts you in mid-back/thoracic extension,” explains Bradley. “And as you cross the leg over and push that leg away, you’re teaching the leg bone how to rotate in the hip joint.” Even if you just did this static exercise, you’d spend the rest of the day with activated hip flexors.

Next, the Elev8d Bear Crawl Sideways focuses on lateral hip motion that you don’t often get in day-to-day life. “When you move left to right, it makes you load one hip at a time,” Bradley says. “And because most people favor one side versus the other—from repeatedly pressing a gas pedal, clicking a mouse, or carrying around a shoulder bag—we need to wake up these deep hip muscles to do the work while the spine is loaded in extension.” In this exercise, be sure to pull back with the hips, keeping as much of the work out of the shoulders and arms as you can. By loading the hips one at a time, you are ensuring that both sides are getting the same amount of work, effectively balancing this muscle group.

Finally, the Fake Jumps target the psoas and low back muscles. Think about this exercise as a plyometric jump that never gets off the ground. “You safely create that movement of jumping up onto a box,” Bradley says. “Swing your arms forward at high speed and then almost push off with your legs.” This exercise is a surprising amount of work. Not only do you drop down into a deep squat, but the sheer force of energy required to spring up will surprise you.

If you can fire up your foundational hip flexor group on a sustained, daily basis, your muscles will be conditioned to stay activated. And the more frequently you access and activate these deep muscles, the more lean muscle mass you will create, thus, raising your metabolic rate.

Craving more? Try the Elev8d Fitness Weight-Loss Workout Series. Each bodyweight workout lasts no longer than 24 minutes and is designed to recruit more muscles, boosting your metabolic rate.

The post 3 Quick Moves to Jumpstart Your Metabolism appeared first on Sonima.