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Six Immune Boosting Tips

Six Immune Boosting Tips

Top 6 Immune Boosting Tips

Need some every day things you can do to help boost your immune system? Right now pretty sure we ALL do! The six things below are great EASY ways to help. And the best part is most of us do these things already.

1 – Hydrate and add some Vitamin C

Hydration is something we should ALL focus on each and every day regardless of a pandemic situation. Hydration keeps our cells healthy. It helps our digestive system our circulatory system our stress response our bodies ability to filter things out (aka bad stuff). It helps with our metabolism function too. Vitamin C is also showing some promising ability to help fight coronavirus and rightly so. It has always been known to be a immune boosting supplement and something we all need to stay healthy. It helps reverse and decrease inflammation within us due to its potent antioxidant compounds. You can find some facts on that here.

Something that helps you get both HYDRATION AND VITAMIN C is Liquid IV and it is something I use everyday. Find out more about it here.

2- Sleep

We all know sleep is important. However do you realize how important it is for our immune health? Sleep is the time when our body recharges and detoxes the most. You know how when you are sick you tend to sleep more? It is because your body is fighting inside of you to knock down the illness. That is the time when you really want to rest because it helps your immune system do its job and you are not taking energy from it by doing other things. You actually do a reset if you will when you sleep. You want quality sleep though as it is not all created equal. Aim to get 7-8 hours a night. Right now should be a rather easy time to get it done too. I mean lets be honest, most of us do not have a whole lot on the to do list right now. It also helps decrease stress which in turn decreases inflammation which can help us ward off invaders if you will. 

More on sleep? You can read about that in my older blog – Don’t skimp on sleep

3- Wash your hands

If you have not heard recently the importance of this you may be living under a rock. But washing hands is the prime way to protect yourself. Warm water. 30 seconds or sing happy birthday or abc’s one or two times through. Washing hands also helps not eliminate ALL bacteria (remember some is good for us) unlike alot of hand sanitizers do as they’re harsher. https://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/show-me-the-science-hand-sanitizer.html

4- Eat Real Food

Real food = organic (if you can) fruits, veggies, non farm raised fish, grass fed/organic meets and eggs. Real food is more packed with nutrients and vitamins our body needs. The vitamins and minerals help our immune system stay strong and fight off things we are worried about right now. These foods nourish our bodies vs. cause inflammation and harm most processed ones do. When our body is able to work at optimal capacity we are able to stay strong and fight off “invaders” better. 

Here are some facts on inflammation fighting foods in an older blog I did. Inflammation Fighting Foods

5- Exercise

Exercise keeps us healthy! This does not mean we have to go all out and super hard with workouts. Simple movement can help too. It just depends on you. A rule of thumb I like to tell clients is that working out should make you feel better not worse. If you are taxed for a day or two after a workout you went too hard. Find something you enjoy, or find someone that can help you. 

If you are interested in learning more about working out and inflammation fighting check out this blog – Key to lowering inflammation through your workouts. 

You can also tryout my four week at home program and save $10 with code CHANGEUP at check out. (head to the link below)

6- Add in quality supplements to fill in the gaps

Supplementation is exactly that. Supplement your diet, supplement your body and add in what you may be missing. Quality is key here though. The best ones for immune health tend to be Vitamin C, Zinc, Magnesium, Daily Nutritional Support (with all vitamins you need) , Glutamine is great, Elderberry and Oregano Oil. 

Here is a list of my faves. Favorite Supplements for Immune Health. 

 

 

 

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Our Core aka Our Bodies Foundation

Our Core aka Our Bodies Foundation

IT’S MORE THAN JUST A SIX PACK! When you think of your core what do you think of? Those pictures of models with rock hard abs then you find yourself  thinking you could never achieve that? Do you classify it as the worst part of your body? Where you used to be small, but now not so much? Or do you consider it your foundation, the trunk, the stability portion of your body….?

If you chose the last one then this post isn’t for you because you already know the deets :). However if you didn’t then keep on reading, (and no shame in that! I defintely was there early on in my career, all I wanted was rockhard abs and did 1000 crunches a day…. Seriously ).


Today I want to shift your  mindset so you can understand how truly important our core is to us.. I will try to make it simple and not get too complex with all the big words :).


To start lets talk about what our core really is:

Bottom line it is our foundation. Its the area that provides stability for our ENTIRE body, its support for when women have a growing baby inside, essentially its where we can and want to be really strong (with that said though when I say strong I do NOT mean tense all the time). It consists of essentially over 20 muscles that help stabilize the lumbo-pelvic- hip complex and provide the FOUNDATION to our spine and help our kinetic chain move properly. One way to think of it is by asking, “ would you build a house without its foundation first?” Didn’t think so!

It is made up of multiple layers starting with-

  • Transverse Abdominis,

    • or TVA – it acts a sheath to our spine and provides a foundation to our spine. This is an area we can work when we are doing stabilization activities, breathing exercises, etc.

  • Diaphragm

    • its is a skeletal muscle that is located at the base of the ribs and top of the abdomen. It is actually a major component of respiration and in creating abdominal pressure, filling our lungs and helping us relax.   It is located under our ribs and works with breathing to engage and strengthen some core muscles as well as our pelvic floor. It also benefits us by helping us relax. It works along with the abdomen and pelvic floor to apply pressure and strengthen the abdomen and supporting muscles of our spine.

  • Internal obliques

    • lie right above the TVA and are part of the abdominal wall. They have two major functions; helping with respiration as they act as the opponent to the diaphragm by compressing the abdomen muscles during exhalation helping reduce air in the chest. As well as helping us bend and rotate working with the external obliques.

  • Multifidi

    • are also part of our abdominal wall or cannister if you will providing support to the back. They help support the joints that support our spinet. They are deep and help reduce pressure on our spine so our weight can be distributed evenly.

  • Spinal erectors

    • help us stand straight and also assist when we bend our spine (think touching our toes). They work along with pelvic muscles, glutes and hamstrings to bring us back to standing.

  • Pelvic Floor

    • It consists of multiple muscles and is essentially the bottom of the cannister working with the diaphragm to help with releasing and controlling pressure within the abdomen. It also provides the base to our spine.

  • Rectus Abdominis

    • This is the one we see and think of with a six pack.  They helps us bend and stand straight (support in the front).

  • External obliques.

    • N outer layer of our core on the sides of the rectus abdominis, but work with our internal obliques to help us bend and rotate.

  • Serratus Anterior

    • Although this may not be thought of as a “core muscle” as it is located under the shoulder blade it is vital in posture which in turn can help support the spine. So training it is important too!

  • Glutes and Hamstrings

    • Just like the serratus these muscles work with the pelvis, spine and hips to help with movement so they need to be strong in order to have a well balanced kinetic chain to help with functional movements and provide spinal stability.

Bottom Line :

As you can see there is alot more to it than just the muscles we see. Due to the importance of all these muscles and their roles in our foundation and movement patterns we can see why if some are weak and some are strong we have problems that run through our kinetic chain (which means our muscles head to toe) out of balance. This can also lead to injuries. We need to train it all in various ways to improve movement patterns and our pain and stiffness.

This is also  why we cannot go by all the workouts, all of the stuff we see online. We need to build our bodies from the inside out if you will and THEN we can do all the cool workouts without having to worry about injury.

How to train it:

Literally start breathing as step one – deep breathing that is. This engages our diaphragm, our ribs, our TVA, internal and external obliques, our multi fidi, and our pelvic floor. Those are some of the most important and neglected muscles. This simple exercise can be done anywhere and anytime of day. Not to mention it helps us relax and get out of that stressed out shallow breathing pattern many of us do day in and day out.

One of my favorite exercises to work your core- Check it out!

 

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