5 Things You Can Do To Live a Healthy Lifestyle and Do The Things You LOVE!
By: Tasneem Patla
Registered Physiotherapist, Acupuncture Provider, SFMA Certified
1. Move it!
As health care advocates you must have heard all of us talking about the importance of movement, and by that I don’t mean running, jogging, or high intensity workouts everyday for 5 hours at a time. What I do mean is incorporating simple exercises/workout regimes into your everyday lifestyle. Workouts should be a lifestyle adaptation and should not feel like a job!
KEY WORDS: KEEP MOVING!
2. Make your job involve movement.
Many of us sit at a desk for prolonged numbers of hours without actually remembering to get up, take a washroom break or a drink break. The long-term detrimental effects of prolonged sitting are not news to us. Sitting makes our spine muscles/ligaments and fascia go into a creep, which then further limits the ability of the intervertebral muscles to prevent disc injuries. Shortening of hip flexors, internal rotation of the shoulders, and slouching of the thoracic spine all cause our muscles to become tight. At Emkiro, we can teach you how to retrain your body and use your core muscles to sit upright.
KEY WORDS: TAKE BREAKS, STRETCH, RE-POSITION
3. Eat Healthy.
You are what you eat. That holds true for eating, drinking, as well as avoiding certain unhealthy food and drinks in your lifestyle. Motivating yourself to eat healthy helps you to make healthier choices in other aspects of your life too. Drink lots of water. Eating healthy does not need to be stressful if you follow your basic balanced food groups.
4. Interval training.
Involve yourselves in low to high intensity exercise workouts interspersed alongside rest periods. Alternating between two activities is also recommended as it avoids cumulative injury to your body. For example, if running is the only activity that you do, you might end up feeling good after a workout, but also suffer from tight hamstrings, calves, and hip flexors all the time! Furthermore, if you only love spinning, the tight hip flexors might cause you injury when you sit at work for long hours. What I mean to say is to mix up your workout intensities and degrees of efforts. Get in touch with any one of us at Emkiro and we can plan out a professional treatment plan that meets YOUR lifestyle and workout demands.
KEY WORDS: MIX IT UP! RUNNING, SPINNING, BRISK WALKING, SWIMMING, WEIGHT-TRAINING
5. Set short and long term goals.
S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R ealistic
T imely Manner
Make goals using the SMART acronym. They can be short term goals like stretching 3 times a week or taking desk breaks 5 times a day, or long term goals like running 5K by the end of the year or climbing the CN tower next year. Make sure you have a plan on how to achieve them. As always we are here to help you achieve your goals.