By Suzana Talevski – Television fitness presenter and instructor
• Dusting high surfaces works the upper body – particularly your forearm, upper arm and shoulder.
Does the thought of housework or any general work around the house leave you feeling somewhat uninspired? If the answer is yes, then this will change the way you think about your dreaded chores forever.
• Clean your windows. It not only tones your arms and shoulders, but the vigorous action of cleaning can also work your stomach muscles if you brace.
What if I told you it could actually be fun and you would be building lean muscle tone? Well it’s true … and here are some quick examples of how. The first and most important rule is get your favourite tunes out and blast the speakers loud. Now you’re in the mood to work out and remember this advice applies to men and women equally.
• Don't stand around until the microwave dings or the water boils. Do squats and push-ups on the floor or against the wall. • Washing dishes. Forget the dishwasher. While washing dishes do calf raises stopping at the top and coming down slowly. • Ironing – great for your arms but also your butt. How? Squeeze your buttock cheeks together hard for 10 seconds. Do this 10 times.
Sleep well
By Dana Atkin - Professional Kinesiology Practitioner Frustrating isn’t it? When you can’t sleep. You’ve had a big day, you’re tired and you can’t wait to get to bed. You snuggle in at 9.30pm; take a few deep breaths and think “Ahhh … yes. Sleep time.” That is until you roll over (for what feels like the 100th time) and check the clock. 1am – eek! Research says that getting adequate sleep is good for you for a number of reasons. Some of these reasons are: 1. Your nervous system – it improves concentration, mood and memory. 2. Your immune system – when your immune system is well rested, it can defend your body easier and more effectively. 3. Your cardiovascular system –
getting adequate sleep may help to reduce heart rate variability and 4. It’s good for overall body rest and rejuvenation. So, as you can tell from this simple overview, sleep is pretty important for your health and wellbeing. Here are my top five sleep well (or get back to sleep) tips:
1. Routine Creating a routine around bedtime for yourself teaches your body when you’re nearing sleep time. The best way to do this is to think about children and the way we teach them with a routine that it’s almost bedtime. Find a series of things to do that works for you as a bedtime routine and stick with it.
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Tone your body while doing work around the house
• Gardening - Whether hauling mulch, spreading soil, raking leaves, or pulling weeds, you’re guaranteed to break a sweat. That's because gardening works all your major muscle groups. Even something as simple as planting flowers involves squatting, which engages your legs for support, your core muscles for balance, and your arm, legs and shoulders for digging. • Wash your car by hand every week. Grab a sponge, some mild liquid detergent, water and a bucket and wash all areas of the car. Use long sweeping motions to get hard to reach places and squat down to clean tires and the running board. Cleaning your car by hand works work your arms, core muscles, and legs. To incorporate a bit of cardio: • Every time a song changes do 25 jump jacks, just maybe not if you are mopping the floor.
• Plan your housework so you constantly have to run up and down the stairs. For example, empty the dishwasher in the kitchen, then make the bed upstairs, then vacuum the living room downstairs, then clean the bathroom upstairs.
2. Deep breathing
5. No electricals
This one is obvious and we hear it all the time. That’s because it works. Try taking a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Do this a number of times to calm your nervous system.
Yep. That’s no phone, no TV and no computer games in the bedroom. This feeds into the routine factor. If your body is used to watching TV in bed, then you cannot expect that it will want to sleep there if you’ve spent all evening teaching it that it’s actually for being wide awake not sleeping.
3. Aromatherapy Lavender is a lovely essential oil to use for this exact purpose. Be careful with this one though because too much lavender can actually have the opposite effect. Remember, a little to calm, a lot to energise.
4. Meditation This one is important because often the reason we are unable to get back to sleep is that we have all these thoughts running through our mind. Meditation can help us to control our thoughts rather than letting them run away with us and the right ones can also teach us to simply let those thoughts come and go rather than lingering in the first place.
If you must have your phone in the bedroom at night (many people use it as an alarm clock) then put it on to airplane mode to stop the electrical signals from interfering with the electrical signals going on in your body. The long-term effects of a lack of sleep can be dramatic on the body so if you’re not sleeping as well as you would like to be, then give one of the above tips a try - your body will thank you for it. Dana Atkin, Dip. Kin Professional Kinesiology Consultant www.danaatkin.com
APRIL 2014
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