While a lot of people workout to look better or perform better, some train just to feel better. Feeling fit and healthy is just one possible definition of wellness; others include an absence of disease, good mental health, being the right weight for your height, or generally feeling happy and having great mental health. Whichever way you define wellness, if your current workout and nutrition program leaves you feeling tired, sore, and beaten up, maybe it’s time to try something different? This workout and supplement advice is designed to help you move better, improve your ability to perform everyday activities, and address common muscle imbalances. It’s not a bodybuilding routine and you won’t develop huge strength gains, but it will leave you feeling healthy and energized! WELLNESS STARTS FROM THE INSIDE Before jumping straight into training, you need to make sure that you're giving your body the right fuel and nutrients. This is important as any aches and pains you have in your joints, injuries, bloating, or stomach pains will impact how often and to what intensity you can train. Firstly, focus on inner wellness, and this begins with nutrition. Make sure you're eating high quality protein sources, healthy fats, wholegrain carbohydrates, and a mix of fresh fruits and vegetables - check out this blog for more information specifically on nutrition. Everything starts with the gut, so if you've been experiencing an upset stomach or are feeling bloated after meals, you might need to start with a detox. DETOX YOUR DIET Detoxing can help expel toxins and cleanse your organs, improve your gut health, support your immune system, aid digestion, restore or maintain healthy bacteria balance, improve weight loss and stabilize your blood sugar and cholesterol. Remember, detoxing is a process; it doesn’t happen overnight, it takes time. It will help a little bit each day, and over a month those bits add up to a much healthier digestive system. Detox Cleanse for Women, and Detox Reload for Men, use a combination of various prebiotic ingredients, and probiotics to support the immune system, maintain healthy gut bacteria and improve the pH balance in the intestines. This helps with better digestion and absorbing nutrients better from your food, which also helps to decrease bloating. SETS AND REPS Do as many reps as it takes to feel the target muscles working but not so many your efforts become labored. Your technique should remain unchanged from start to finish. Rest a moment between sets and do as many as you feel you need to do. The aim of this workout is to put energy in and not take it out of your body so listen to the signals your muscles are sending you and stop before you accumulate too much fatigue. 1. YOGA - SUN SALUTATIONS The yoga sequence called sun salutations is a perfect way to warm up and mobilize your whole body. Start off slowly and then move a little quicker as you muscle and joints loosen up. Do five to ten unhurried laps making sure you breathe each time you change body position. This is a simplified version of sun salutation series so don’t worry if it’s not the one you have seen in yoga class. 2. GOBLET SQUATS If you lose your ability to squat, you lose your ability to get out of bed or stand up from a chair! Squats are a fundamental exercise that everyone should do, but a lot of people avoid them due to knee or hip pain. If you've been avoiding squats for this reason, Joint Flex for Women, or Joint Repair for Men, might be able to help as it promotes healthy joints and helps to reduce joint inflammation. Once you're ready to start your Goblet Squats, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your toes turned slightly outward. Hold a weight in front of your chest and under your chin. Push your hips back, bend your knees, and squat down until your thighs are roughly parallel to the floor. Stand back up and repeat. Try not to round your lower back. Keep your chest up throughout. 3. SINGLE-ARM DUMBBELL CHEST PRESS This exercise works one arm at a time which will help develop coordination and core strength. Lie on a flat exercise bench with a dumbbell in one hand. Your arm should be straight and the weight directly over your shoulder. Bend your arm and lower the weight to your shoulder. Keep your core tight and legs braced to prevent you from rolling to one side. Push the weight back up and repeat. Do the same number of reps on each side. You can also do this exercise lying on the floor. 4. FACE PULLS Modern living can lead to poor posture, especially if you spend a lot of time slouched over a keyboard. This exercise is the perfect antidote. Fix a rope handle to a chest-high adjustable cable. Hold one end in each hand. With straight arms, step back to tension the cable. Adopt a staggered stance for balance. Bend your arms and pull the handles to either side of your head. Try to keep your wrists straight and envisage leading with your elbows. Extend your arms and repeat. 5. WALKING LUNGES Lunges develop lower body balance and mobility and are a good way to strengthen your legs one at a time. Walking lunges add an extra coordination element making them even more valuable. Stand with your feet together and your hands by your sides. Take a large step forward and then bend your legs. Lower your rear knee to within 3cm of the floor. Step your back leg in and move into another repetition. Keep going until you have performed the required number of reps on each leg. 6. DUMBBELL PULLOVERS This old-school exercise works your chest and back and is also a fabulous shoulder and upper back mobilizer. Hold a single dumbbell in both hands and then lie on your back on a flat bench. Press the weight up and over your shoulders. With a slight bend in your arms, lower the weight overhead until your biceps are roughly next to your ears. Pull the weight back over your chest and repeat. If you have stiff shoulders, reduce the range of movement to whatever is comfortable. 7. PALLOF PRESSES This unique exercise is like an anti-rotation plank that works your obliques and deep core muscles. Stand sideways to an adjustable pulley machine set to chest-height. Grab the handle in both hands and hold it in front of your chest. Keeping your feet firmly planted and your abs braced, press the handle away from you, fighting the temptation to turn your upper body. Bring your hands back to your chest and repeat. 8. GLUTE BRIDGE Sitting down all day can wreak havoc on your glutes making them weak and saggy. This is more than an issue of aesthetics and could lead to hip, knee, and even back pain. The supine hip bridge exercise is a great solution. Lie on your back with your legs bent and feet flat on the floor. Push your hips up toward the ceiling, clenching your butt hard at the top of the movement. Lower your hips back to the floor and repeat. 9. PILATES Pilates is known to benefit flexibility and mobility while preventing, and often helping to recover from injuries. This is because Pilates takes us through a full range of movement in multiple directions, giving us a balance of both strong and long muscles. Pilates is a very low-impact way of training that you can do basically anywhere, and although you're still improving strength and endurance, you're also keeping your joints safe. COOL DOWN Cool down with a couple more laps of sun salutations, holding each stage for a few seconds to stretch your muscles. Whether you are looking for a long-term workout to improve your wellbeing or just need an active break from your hard workouts, this is the plan for you. Treat it as therapy and make sure you leave several reps in the bank at the end of each set. You should leave the gym feeling better than when you arrived and that means looser joints, more mobile muscles, and more energy! BLOATING & WATER RETENTION Bloating can make you feel really uncomfortable, and can be caused by numerous things. If it's directly after a meal, it could be from eating too much, perhaps it's the foods you've eaten as things like Brussels sprouts or high-fiber foods can often cause bloating, or could even be from eating something you have a mild intolerance to. Regardless of how it happens bloating is not fun, but if it's occurring outside of meal times then what you're experiencing is probably water retention. Water retention, like bloating, has many causes. Common causes include menstruation, exercise, certain medications, and large amounts of sodium. The good news is, H2Drop can help with water retention to drop water weight. H2Drop works by helping to flush out extracellular water (water between cells) without affecting intracellular water (within cells) so you remain hydrated, but remove excess water and bloating. To find out more specifically about bloating and water retention, check out this article. Another thing that also plays into bloating, is the actual health and elasticity of your skin, which is where collagen comes into play. Skin Firm for Women, and Skin Tight for Men, have been created to help with skin tightening and also provide the vitamins and minerals to help you 'glow'. This can help with bloating as fluctuations are normal so having healthier skin means you can bounce back faster, as well as if you've been on a weight loss journey since this can cause loose skin. RELAX & SLEEP The most important part of wellness is sleep. If you're not sleeping well, you won't recover as fast, your hormones aren't at their peak levels, your appetite and cravings will work against you, motivation will be lower, and you definitely won't be feeling your best. If you're having issues sleeping, a sleep supplement can be helpful as once you start sleeping better and get into a routine (circadian rhythms), you keep sleeping better. OxyRem for Men and Women was created to help you relax and ease your body into a natural feeling of sleepiness so once you do fall asleep it allows for a deeper and more restorative sleep. WANT TO KNOW MORE? Now that you have your training sorted, find out how to manage your nutrition to improve your overall health and wellbeing here.
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