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  Breathing deeply can improve blood pressure, reduce stress, and help with chronic conditions. Breathe in. Breathe out.  We do this all day, every day without a thought. Ask yourself this- when was the last time you took a deep breath? Probably not as frequently as you think. I would venture to say only a few times a day. But did you know that deep breathing is one of our easiest, most convenient and natural tools to combat issues like stress and anxiety, reduce pain, high blood pressure and even aide in digestion. This is because when you breathe deeply, it sends a message to your brain to calm down and relax. The brain then sends this message to your body. Those things that happen when you are stressed, such as increased heart rate, fast breathing, and high blood pressure, all decrease as you breathe deeply to relax. When you learn to take deep, slow breaths, your body reacts in many positive ways: Decreases stress, increases calm. When you become stressed or anxious, your ...

  Breath is the essence of life, but we take it for granted. Here are 6 simple breathing exercises that can help you take better care of your lungs and make them stronger. Did you know that the maximum amount of air your lungs can hold—your total lung capacity—is about 6 liters? That is about three large soda bottles. When you are about 20-25 years old, your lungs mature. But there are some natural changes that occur in the body as we age that can lead to a decrease in lung capacity. Muscles like the diaphragm weaken. The lung tissue that helps keep the airway open loses its elasticity, which means the airway becomes smaller. In addition, your ribs will change and become smaller, leaving less room for your lungs to expand. Thankfully we have breathing exercises to keep our lungs healthy! Benefits of breathing exercises Breathing exercises are an important part of yoga, not only because they help calm the mind, but also because they bring many benefits, such as: Improves immunity Cl...

Overall weight doesn’t tell the whole story for endurance athletes. Understanding Body Composition and its impact on performance is an important step in optimizing your training and racing. What is Body Composition? Body composition is the proportion of fat to nonfat-substances in the body and actively improving body composition can make you a faster cyclist. Burning fat will have a positive effect on body composition while burning protein and muscle mass will have a negative effect. Instead of focusing on just losing weight, cyclists should prioritize improving body composition as well. This means that while their weight may fluctuate or stay stagnant, over time they are increasing lean muscle mass and decreasing fat through proper training and nutrition. Body Composition and Power to Weight Ratio Traditionally, cyclists focus on their power-to-weight ratio (W/Kg) as an indicator of performance potential and numeric ranking against other athletes. While increasing your W/Kg should be ...

  Unlock the Benefits of Deep Breathing Exercises With the novel COVID-19 running rampant and affecting patients’ lungs, many individuals are finding themselves more concerned than ever about strengthening their respiratory system. If you are interested in lowering stress levels in your body and managing pain, you would benefit from learning more about breathing exercises. As  physical therapists , we are some of the strongest advocates you will find for the powers of physical therapy. Physical care is one of the best ways to ease pain, help with body function, and overall live a healthier life. It will strengthen the muscles associated with injury and improve post-surgical outcomes. However, it is not the end-all-be-all when it comes to your health, and there is more that goes into physical health than what might meet the eye. Furthermore, even the  best exercises  we teach in physical therapy are not effective if the breath is not working properly. Oftentimes, in o...

Knowing all about your body composition can help you determine the general state of your overall health. Even if you appear to be healthy on the outside and weigh in at a seemingly normal weight on the scale, you may still have an unhealthy or altered body composition. Body composition is the body’s relative amount of body fat to fat-free mass, the latter of which is made up of your organs, bones, muscle, and body tissue. If your ratio of body fat is much higher than your fat-free mass, then you could be putting yourself at risk for severe health problems such as obesity, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, cancer, and more. Although body fat is generally associated with poor health, some fat is actually necessary for overall good health, as it can help protect internal organs, regulate hormones, and provide us with energy. Body fat should typically make up about 5% of total body weight in men and about 12% of total body weight in women. Factors that can lead ...

  Breathing happens naturally on a regular basis. So why should you practice breathing exercises, better known as pranayama? Pranayama comes from the Sanskrit words “prana,” which means breath or life force and “ayama,” which means to extend or expand. When combined together, they mean extension of life force.  On a daily basis, we are practicing unconscious breathing or involuntary breathing. Our brain stem is doing all of the work. On the other hand, conscious breathing is bringing awareness to the timing and location of your breath. By implementing conscious breath, you are engaging your brain more actively. Below are a few breathing techniques and their benefits.. First thing you will need to do is find a comfortable seated position. Sit up nice and tall, close your eyes and relax your body.  Ujjayi Breath   (Oceans Breath or Victorious Breath)   *decrease stress* -With the mouth closed, take a long inhalation through the nose while slightly constricting the...

Many people think that they can judge their health based solely on the number they see when they step on the scale. A lower weight must mean a healthier person, right? In actuality, weight is not the best measure of health at all. Consider two men standing next to each other. One is a body builder and the other is an obese couch potato, but both of them are six feet tall and weigh 240 pounds. This example shows that the number on the scale is not the best depiction of health. Instead of using weight, body composition is a much more accurate reading of fitness. What is Body Composition? Body composition is determined by using fat-free mass and body fat. Fat-free mass includes the weight of a person’s blood, water weight, bones, organs, muscles, and other tissues. The remaining weight of the body is composed of body fat. Many people think of body fat as the extra weight being carried in the midsection or on the hips, but the human body actually needs a certain amount of fat to be healthy...