Adin

Planks can help increase strength and endurance in the rotator cuff muscles and abdominals.  If you are anything like me and find planks cumbersome — throw them in on a chest day by coupling the plank with a single arm cable chest fly:

The exercise above is very advanced and is intended to add a little sensible variety to your exercise program.  What makes the exercise sensible is that you can use the amount of weight you would normally use on a chest fly, while getting the benefits of a plank.  Would I use this exercise when intensely focused on increasing my strength or muscle mass?  Probably not.  Again the intention of this one is to have a little productive variety in your program.

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Many women develop fat around the midsection after menopause.   Estrogen dominance often plays a role in visceral weight gain.

Estrogen Dominance

Many post menopausal women often have a hormone imbalance between estrogen and progesterone.  Estrogen levels can become high, relative to progesterone, which can cause the following symptoms as outlined by Dr. Cristiane Northrup:

• Decreased sex drive
• Irregular or otherwise abnormal menstrual periods
• Bloating (water retention)
• Breast swelling and tenderness
• Fibrocystic breasts
• Headaches (especially premenstrual)
• Mood swings (most often irritability and depression)
• Weight and/or fat gain (particularly around the abdomen and hips)
• Cold hands and feet (a symptom of thyroid dysfunction)
• Hair loss
• Thyroid dysfunction
• Sluggish metabolism
• Foggy thinking, memory loss
• Fatigue
• Trouble sleeping/insomnia

Estrogen dominance can occur in younger women as well, but is more prevalent in post-menopausal women.  Estrogen dominance in younger women can result in part from taking oral birth control pills.  Recently, I had a client who changed her birth control pill from oral form to NuvaRing and dropped 10 pounds of fat in short order.  Oral birth control pills increase the systemic (blood) levels of estrogen while the NuvaRing only affects the ovaries and has no effect systemically.  Most women taking oral estrogen can expect some weight gain alongside potentially developing estrogen dominance.

To detect estrogen dominance and any other hormonal imbalances, you’ll need a blood panel like the below for example:

• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
• Lipid Profile
• Complete Blood Count
• DHEA-S
• Free Testosterone
• Total Testosterone
• Estradiol
• Progesterone
• C-Reactive Protein (High sensitivity)
• Insulin
• TSH
• Free T4
• Free T3
• Sex Hormone Binding Globulin (SHBG)

If your blood tests confirm estrogen dominance, there are a variety of treatment options can discuss with your health care practitioner.  Many women choose to start with over the counter creams such as Pro-Fem to see if their symptoms and body fat improve.  Women that have estrogen dominance should feel better after attaining optimal levels of progesterone.

Additional helpful hormone testing should include the BioSignature method.  BioSignature is a methodology that allows us to measure body fat through calipers and input those numbers in a unique software program.  BioSignature results will tell you which hormones are causing you to develop increasing amounts of fat in certain areas of your body.  Don’t believe me?  Try it.

After adequate testing, using both blood and fat cell testing (BioSignature) — your practitioners will be able to help you normalize levels and take off stubborn body-fat.

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According to the Center for Disease Control:

18.7 million,  8.2%, noninstitutionalized adults currently have asthma

These statistics are staggering.  Fortunately, prescription medications allow most people to control their asthma symptoms.  Unfortunately, many asthma medications have some significant side effects.  For example, inhaled steroids can cause repeated bouts of oral thrush, tax the adrenal glands  and cause irregular heart rhythms (along with dozens of other side effects).  In fact, there are websites dedicated to discussing a whole host of side effects for the drug Advair.  Yikes!

I had been on asthma medications for over 20 years, until just recently.  The list of drugs I needed to take to control my asthma included Advair, Singulair, Albuterol and antihistamines.

In the spring of 2011, I eliminated all of my prescription asthma medications.  Occasionally I still use Albuterol as needed, but generally I do not need it.  I had to visit countless specialists as a child, and I have been to at least 10 different allergy and asthma specialists as an adult and had very little success.  However, I have experienced success in controlling my asthma, and staying alive, through corticosteriod use.

For treatments I had tried everything ranging from acupuncture, hypnosis, pulmonary specialists, asthma specialists, allergy specialists, nutritionists, chiropractors, allergy shots, asthma related drugs, cognitive behavioral therapy and various stress relief techniques.  None of those treatments ever helped any of my asthma symptoms.

I thought I would never be able to come off of my asthma medications, until it happened.  In the fall of 2010, I came back from a continuing education course required to maintain my BioSignature certification.  During the course I learned about a company that makes fantastic traditional Chinese medicine herbal blends called TCM Zone.  The interesting thing about TCM Zone is that the majority of their blends are over 300 years old, yet are “Americanized” in terms of potency and quality.

The founder of the company suggested I try formula T-177 and formula T-165.  First I used T-177 and within 2 weeks I found that my asthma had gotten significantly better.  By week four my lungs felt so wonderful I decided to consult my primary care physician to help me set up and implement a plan to come off Advair.  After reducing the potency of Advair progressively, I was able to switch to only using Flonase, Albuterol and Singulair for asthma control.

A month later, I had eliminated Flovent and amazingly was off all corticosteroids with zero asthma symptoms.  Wow!  I had also noticed that I only needed to take albuterol 1-3 times per week.  Shortly after coming off of all corticosteriods, I eliminated Singulair and even the antihistamines for my allergy induced asthma.  Today I am drug free with only occasionally needing a boost from albuterol and mild nasal sprays like Flonase.

I am not suggesting that herbs will eliminate your asthma, but it certainly might!  The thing I love most about supplements is that it is almost impossible to hurt yourself with them (unless like food, you have some allergic reaction).  For some people, acupuncture can help reduce or even eliminate asthma (I tried this once a week for 3 months and it did not help me at all) — you will have to try a number of therapies and see which one works best for you.  I will say that the results I have seen have also been experienced by 3 of my clients to date.

For all of you who struggle with asthma, it may behoove you to try a number of alternatives to reduce or eliminate your asthma.  Hopefully this article will motivate you to try some alternative methods so you can reduce or perhaps come off your medications.  Of course, please do not come off any medications without help from your primary care doctor or allergist.

What I like about formulas from TCM Zone:

The challenge with herbal supplements is often a purity problem.  I am always very careful and do some extra research on supplement companies when purchasing any herbal products.  For example, herbs can contain many heavy metals and toxins, depending upon where they are located.  In my opinion, the worst way to purchase supplements is to buy them in bulk in an Asian market and then cook them to make tea.

The problem with purchasing herbs from bulk from an Asian market is that you have no idea where the herbs come from and how contaminated they are.  Additionally, making your own blends into tea involves shopping for the herbs, boiling the blends and dealing with the unpleasant smells in your house.  TCM Zone sells their product in both capsule and granule form with easy to consume rip-open sachets.  With herbs, frequency is very important, as you typically need to take them 2-3 times per day.  Most people find it far too cumbersome to boil herbs throughout the day.

If you like this article, please click this link to connect to more of my articles on herbals.

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From an historical prospective, Roger Ekirch (The man who wrote the article Dreams Deferred) points to fact that, “the length of a single night’s sleep has decreased over the years (upward of 30 percent of adults average six or fewer hours), but the quality of our sleep has improved significantly. And quality, not quantity, sleep researchers tell us, is more important to feeling well rested.”

I find the above information to be both comforting and disturbing.  I think it is comforting for most of us to know that we may not be damaging our health by getting only five or six hours a night. The trouble is, many people are experiencing interrupted sleep patterns and getting only 5 or 6 hours of sleep per night.  During preindustrial times, much earlier bed times and longer sleep durations were a buffer to numerous noises and smells that could wake you up at night.  At this day in age, without that eight or nine hour buffer, many people are getting hit with both poor sleep quality and quantity. Reading Ekirch’s New York Times article “Dream Deferred” helped me to develop an awareness of how to coach my clients on improving sleep habits.

The majority of my clientele has sleep deficit problems due to not getting quality sleep. I now tend to focus on fixing quality first and only then fixing the quantity.  As a personal trainer, I have to consider compliance with everything I recommend.  I have found that if I try to coach people on getting more sleep, it often fails and their old habits show themselves after a short while. With my new found perspective on increasing sleep quality, there are several things I do to help people.  Of course, everyone is an individual, but below are some general protocols I have found helpful:

1. Increase magnesium intake.  (Doses may vary greatly from person to person)

2. Eliminate exposure to bright lights (including LED screens) within one hour of bedtime.

3. Eat your last main meal within a minimum of three hours of going to bed.  Having a small, easy to digest night time snack containing some carbohydrates may actually help.

4. With clients over 30 years of age, I find taking melatonin can help you get into the sleep cycle you want to be in — quicker.  A note of caution with melatonin:  Some may be sensitive to it and get some side effects such as excessive sleepiness.  Also, melatonin is a hormone and should only be used for short periods of time to get the body back into sync.  If however, someone is melatonin deficient, regular use may be needed.

5. No caffeinated beverages past 3;00pm

6. If you must, only drink alcoholic beverages at or before dinner time.  Most importantly, do not drink alcohol without food before bed.

7. Avoid watching or reading the news prior to bed.

8. Avoid any and all mental stimulation activities such as starting a work project after dinner and into the evening.

9. Take an Epsom Salt bath (see directions here)

10. Turn your bedroom into a bat cave and make sure it’s near 100% dark.  (See tips here)

11. Possible calming herbal blends supplements such as formula T-170 from TCM Zone which consists of herbs Chai hu, Dang gui, Bai zhu, Sheng jiang, Bo he, Shao yao, Fu ling, and gan cao.   It is typically best to steer towards traditional herbal formulas as opposed to the more modern stand alone herbs that you typically find in a health food store.

12. Have your room and house clear of clutter (See tips here)

If you implement only half of the above sleep protocols, I can assure your sleep quality will improve.  Lastly, those of you working out rigorously will need more than six quality sleep hours to help with physical repair, neurological recovery and optimal body composition.

Source:  New York Times

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