A couple of months ago we had a free seminar regarding mindfulness practice hosted by Peter Connolly which was an eye opener for me (and others who attended), and I thought I’d share three important things I left the seminar with and maybe, just maybe it might resonate with some of you.

I don’t mind admitting to this, because I don’t think I’m alone but I thought mindfulness, meditation and zen were all buzzwords for a cult like culture, a waste of time, time that could be spent doing other things that actually need to be done…more on the irony of that later.
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I’ll preface this by saying that I’m pretty lucky, in that I don’t suffer from any (to my knowledge anyhow) mental health issues. Outside of relatively normal levels of anxiety, stress and clutter at least. However true that is, I do feel those levels have crept up slightly over the last few years for a variety of reasons. Because of this I lack a true understanding of the suffering those people go through…a population Peter sees on a regular basis, again a pre-conception of mine that those that suffer with such issues are the only ones who can benefit.

We’re almost into another January…a time where we all make that confident public promise – THIS is the year we’re going to finally get into shape.

The statistics unfortunately show that fervour has all but disappeared, even as early as February…in fact some gyms count on that.

This article will attempt to help you from becoming one of those statistics. The real key to changing your body composition is consistency and that means making it well past February, and these are our 3 things that we think de-rail that and what to do instead.

Exercise is important but nutrition is what’s going to make you either happy with your results or frustrated. The problem it seems is, at least from the outset, nutrition for fat loss seems complicated. It doesn’t however need to be and that’s what we’ll try to simplify here in this post.
 
Our main clientele here at Body Health and Fitness come to us for fat loss, or at least changing their body shape. Our very first step in helping with that is to have them keep a food diary to give us a snapshot of current eating habits and timings, so over the years we’ve seen some pretty big commonalities. For some people small incremental changes are all that’s needed, but for the vast majority we try to help them understand that they need to simply feed themselves back to good health. 

​Foam rollers offer many of the same benefits as a sports massage without the big price tag.

The foam roller not only stretches muscles and tendons but it also breaks down soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue. By using your own body weight and a cylindrical foam roller you can perform a self-massage or myofascial release, break up trigger points, and soothe tight fascia while increasing blood flow and circulation to the soft tissues.

How it works
The superficial fascia is a soft connective tissue located just below the skin. It wraps and connects the muscles, bones, nerves and blood vessels of the body. Together, muscle and fascia make up what is called the myofascia system. For various reasons including disuse, not enough stretching, or injuries, the fascia and the underlying muscle tissue can become stuck together. This is called an adhesion and it results in restricted muscle movement. It also causes pain, soreness and reduced movement.

Myofascial release is a body work technique in which a practitioner uses gentle, sustained pressure on the soft tissues while applying traction to the fascia. This technique results in softening and lengthening (release) of the fascia and breaking down scar tissue or adhesions between skin, muscles and bones.

Myofascial release has also been shown to relieve various muscle and joint pains such as IT band syndrome and shin splints as well as improving flexibility and range of motion.

Foam rollers are inexpensive and with a bit of experimentation you can target just about any muscle group. The latest style of foam roller, the Grid foam roller, has a unique design and construction that provides a more targeted trigger point self massage.