It seems everywhere you look you see a new ‘diet’ out there promises magical weight loss.

Trust me, there’s no magic bullet where weight loss is concerned but many time we need a good road map for weight loss.

I’ve been on the planet long enough to know. I’m a good friend of Rick’s, I’m Shawna K, fellow Canadian and half centurion.

I’ve seen it all.

I’m known more of challenging workouts, you’ve no doubt seen me on Rick’s blog here and here.

I got tired of seeing well-intentioned people making the same diet mistakes, sabotaging their metabolisms getting no results.

How to Have Visible Abs Over the Age of 50

Several people asked how I manage to have visible abs over the age of 50 and I figured it was time to let out my secrets.

I want to share 7 tips to getting visible abs at any age with you.

As well, since you’re on Rick’s blog, I know you may have sustained an injury of some sort so your nutrition is THAT MUCH MORE IMPORTANT.

I know that suffering an injury can be a little depressing. I’ve experienced that feeling myself. Don’t let food be your best friend during your injury.

My solution for dealing with an injury is this:

Control the things that you CAN to help you recover faster and even get leaner in the process.

As for training, you may not be able to exercise in exactly the same way, but you’ll likely be able to do SOMETHING, so don’t give up.

More importantly, you’re in COMPLETE control of your nutrition, so here’s an opportunity to make some positive changes to your diet. Not only will it help your waistline, but you’d be surprised how nutritious eating can help your recovery.

Okay, on with the 7 tips to getting visible abs:

#1 – Lose the cardio

I hope Rick has made it abundantly clear that steady state cardio is actually counter productive to your goal of getting visible abs. According to study after study, ‘traditional cardio’ in the ‘fat burning zone’ is ineffective and simply wastes your training time. It’s even been shown to increase appetite which makes it all the more difficult to stay on a weight loss plan.

*So many repetitive use injuries are associated with steady state cardio like ‘jogging’.

Just stop it.

Rick will fix up your repetitive use lower body injuries, then try something different in terms of training (I have some ideas, stay tuned.)

#2 – Less is More

This statement goes for the equipment you need to train with and the time it takes to train.

Why not spend $15 on a jump rope instead of $1500 on a treadmill?

Or how about spending zero dollars on equipment or gym membership and doing burpees or other body weight exercises instead?

Getting visible abs isn’t about throwing more money or more time at your belly fat problem. It’s not about LONG workouts either; it’s about the INTENSITY in your workouts.

#3 – Where’s the beef?

You need muscle to burn fat and look sexy. Muscle gained from resistance training helps to burn calories and keeps your metabolism stoked to burn off the belly fat. If you have an injury in the shoulder, there’s no reason you can’t focus your training on the core and the lower body.

The idea is, never let an injury shut down your resistance training, in fact, resistance training will get your injured body part back up to speed faster as well as help you burn fat. Rick is the expert on that, he’s helped me with all my aches and pains. He’s NEVER said, ‘Shawna, just go sit on the couch.’ He’s always got me doing SOMETHING to rehab an injury and I’m always working other body parts to stay fit and lean.

#4 – No roller coasters

If you want visible abs, your job is to control insulin spikes since your body will not burn fat in the presence of insulin. The hormone, insulin is released into the blood stream in response to the ingestion of carbohydrates. When you control your carbohydrate intake, your fat loss efforts will pay off. Plus you won’t get crazy energy swings.

#5 – You’re sweet enough: drop the sugar

If you have a ‘sweet tooth’ you just need to stop eating sugar. The saying ‘Eat sweet crave sweet’ applies here. When you say ‘no’ to sugar, your sweet tooth will diminish and so will your cravings. The first few days of dropping sugar are difficult, but after that, if you’re satiated with other nutritious foods, it gets easier.

#6 – Pass (on) the bread

No one needs the calories found in breads and other bread like products, even if you’re NOT gluten intolerant. Abs will be more visible if you replace almost all your starchy carbs with a variety of vegetables instead.

#7 – Treat yourself

This sounds too good to be true, but it is. When you reduce caloric intake, your hormones that help you burn fat can be reduced by 50% in as short as seven days. So to keep those fat burning hormones happy, make sure that you increase your calories with a ‘treat meal’ at least every seventh day. Of course this makes more than just your hormones happy

*Don’t go overboard here, especially if you’re side lined with injury. Typically a ‘treat meal’ can be a slippery slope to excess. This is even more detrimental to your waistline when you’re injured because you can’t necessarily counteract a big meal with a metabolically charged workout. My suggestion here is to PLAN.

Have just enough of the treat food for your treat and then throw or give away the rest of the treat so it doesn’t ‘accidentally slide down your throat

I have lots of other tips and tricks for getting a six-pack at any age. In fact, so many folks have asked me what I do to stay lean, I wrote it all down for you in the ’21 Day Challenge Diet’.

First of all, I need to clear up the name ‘Challenge Diet’. It’s a bit of a misnomer.

The fact is, the nutrition portion of the 21 Day Challenge Diet isn’t challenging at all. Based on what beta testers found when they did a test drive, they said that the nutrition plan was practical, sustainable and they felt full and energized on it. In fact, they lost up to 15 lbs in 21 days.

Now while this isn’t ASTOUNDING weight loss, veteran dieters know that it’s a substantial loss, especially when the weight stays off. The good news is that during the 21 day maintenance phase, beta testers not only maintained their weight loss, they lost even more pounds and inches while feeling satisfied.

No, the challenge is definitely NOT with the nutrition plan for the 21 Day Challenge Diet.

The challenge involves MOVEMENT!

Unless you want to be a skinnier version of your former fat self, you need to MOVE in order to transform your body. So the 21 Day Challenge Diet challenges you to get off the couch daily. Now if you’re injured, your movement will be modified but there’s almost ALWAYS some way to move and burn more calories even if you’re injured.

I have you covered with daily email messages of motivation, inspiration and workouts. No matter what your fitness level is, you’ll be challenged to keep moving with short invigorating workouts.

A bonus to the 21 Day Challenge Diet is the social support you’ll get. Few other ‘diet’ plans have 24/7 support with a network of like-minded people all on the same path. You’ll have access to me (and the entire Challenge Diet community) to help you reach your goals. Studies show that those with social support have the MOST success with weight loss. The support group is like the ‘secret sauce’ of the 21 Day Challenge Diet.

My goal for my clients is for them to NEVER go on a diet again. The 21 Day Challenge Diet plan is created with this in mind. It’s really the ‘non-diet’ diet. You’ll learn sensible eating habits and lifestyle skills that won’t necessarily ‘end’. You’ll feel so good that the changes you make in the 21 days will be ones that you’ll adopt for life.

Imagine how you’ll look and feel as you easily drop those extra pounds while gaining your health and vitality back.

The 21 Day Challenge Diet is not the ‘challenge’ that you think. You won’t be hungry or deprived. You’ll challenge your body to be it’s best. You can check it out here.

Are you up for the challenge?

ABOUT SHAWNA K

Shawna Kaminski is a retired schoolteacher of 20 years who’s found her passion in the fitness industry. She’s parlayed her ability to teach and her love of training into programs that you can directly benefit from. Shawna is almost 51 years old, is a mother of two teenagers and understands how busy life can be.

Her workouts are short and intense and often can be done anywhere. She’s always up for a challenge and shares her fitness challenges with you on her blog Challenge Workouts. Currently she runs her own fitness boot camps and coaches clients in person and online around the world with her amazing ‘result getting’ programs.

Shawna Kaminski

Okay, I am on my way to Orange County for a fitness conference.

It looks like I will be presenting Saturday morning so need to work on my presentation.

Today, I got Travis Stoetzel stepping in with a challenge workout for you.

Enjoy!

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Hey, what’s going? Travis here at TravisStoetzel.com. This is for my man Rick and all his people over there at ExercisesforInjuries.com. I am excited to go over an exposure chaos session here with you taken from my new training system called Unbreakable BadAss Blueprint 2.0.

Before I get into this awesome chaos exposure session here, I wanted to go over something that is very important. I know that Rick being about the injuries and helping you become injury-free, this is really something that I harp on BIG TIME Within my gym and within my programs, that people focus in on in order to get the best results. It is where I like to call my Performance Triple Threat.

Performance Triple Threat (Read this to say injury-free)

In order to get the BEST RESULTS POSSIBLE, you need to focus in on these 3 things and it is progressive in nature:

1. Form and Technique – You always need to focus in on having good form and technique because obviously if the form and technique are not there, you are going to get yourself injured or you are not going to have the best results possible.
2. Being consistent with your form and technique – If you are not consistent with it and your form is only good 50% of the time and your technique is only good 50% of the time, well guess what?, your results are going to be about 50% of where they could actually go.
3. Focus on the Intensity – After being consistent with your form and technique now you can focus in on the intensity, you can now increase the intensity. Getting a little bit crazier with your workouts.

In reality, a lot of people have things backwards where they focus in on the intensity first, maybe being consistent second, and then form and technique last.

When you focus on it the wrong way like that, that’s when you don’t get results, that’s when you get yourself injured, and that’s when you have to go to Rick to say “hey Rick, I got hip problems. Rick, I got shoulder problems”.

We want to avoid that!

In order to avoid those problems, focus in on that performance triple threat: form and technique, consistency, and intensity.

Keep in that in mind!

Let’s go over this awesome chaos exposure session. This is a component to my program within Unbreakable Badass Blueprint 2.0 . And what type of program it is I like to call the C2 Method and it’s a controlled chaos method.

Controlled Chaos Workout with Travis Stoetzel

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

With this, you’ve got your controlled section and that’s going to be your progressive strength training. It is going to be structured, that’s what you always have to do at the start of the session. For the last part of your session is where we have our chaos of the program. This is where I like to add in my Chaos Exposure Sessions. I call them this is because they are a little bit more random in nature. They are a little bit more chaotic and they expose you to a lot of different things.

With this set-up, there are different set-ups that I use, but with this particular set-up I like to call it an Interval Phase Method. We are going to have actual work periods and we are going to have actual strategic mandatory rest periods. The top level set up for this, we are going to do 4 rounds, we are going to do 60 seconds of work with 20 seconds of rest. That’s going to be the top level.

If you are not up to that level, you can regress that down and let’s say we can go down to 40 seconds of work, 20 seconds of rest, or you can actually increase the rest up to 30 seconds so we can go on a 1:1 ratio if you wanted to, 30 seconds on and 30 seconds off. There are a lot of different ways you can modify that to match your fitness level.

For this, we are going to go 60 seconds on, 20 seconds rest. What we got are three different movements. I am going to go with these movements and also go over the regressions.

Again, number one focus is form and technique, consistency, and then intensity.

#1 – Pull Ups

This is not just a normal pull up. We are going to do power repeat pull ups. This is a little bit different. We are going for 60 seconds.
What you are going to do with this power repeat pull ups is you are going to do 1 single pull up at a time. You jump onto the bar. You are going to tighten up your lats and your shoulder blades. You are going to do one pull up and then you are going to drop off the bar. Shake your arms out and then you immediately jump back up, that’s two pulls up.

Pull Up

You are focusing in on being nice and tight, good form, chin over the bar every single time. You can switch up your grip as you want every single rep but you are going for 60 seconds so you can try to get as many reps of those power repeat pull ups as possible in that 60 seconds period.

If you need to regress the movement, you can always do band assisted pull ups as well or you can go for recline rows. For recline rows, you just hit one row, pause for a second. Another row and pause for a second. Just repeat it for 60 seconds.

#2 – Single Arm Snatch

We are going to do a single arm snatch either with a kettlebell or with a dumbbell. For this set up, you will switch arms halfway through. After 30 seconds, you will go ahead and switch arms.

For using a kettlebell, let me go over some form and tips here with you. With the snatches everything is hip driven. It is not that we are pulling it with the upper body. We are simply pulling with the kettlebell and we are using those hips to get that kettlebell up and overhead.

When you grab your kettlebell, you will reach across to grab your kettlebell and you will imagine your thumb is going to point back and when we get overhead the thumb is going to point back again so palm is will be facing inside.

Single Arm Snatch with Kettlebell (front view)

Let me show you here from the side how we work with the snatch with a kettlebell. You are going to drag it into place and imagine it is an explosion with the hips, pull and punch through. It is like a high pull and punch through, real fast movement.

Single Arm Snatch with Kettlebell (side view)

Once we get on top, we simply just going to let the kettlebell fall back down and you are going to hike it again pull punch. You repeat it and go for 30 seconds on one side and 30 seconds on the other side.

Couple of key tips with this: it’s a hip driven movement so we need to push our hip back, tighten up those hamstrings, and when we explode make it sure everything from the hips up, stay nice and tight. Upper back stays nice and tight. Core stays tight. I am not rounding my back over. We stay nice and tight, head to toe.

When I am at the top, I am making a nice straight line with the body. That kettlebell is straight over head, in line with the shoulders, the hips, the knees, and ankles, all that good stuff and then we are going back into our next rep.

If we are not comfortable with kettlebells, we can do the same movement with a dumbbell. For this, we will start from the ground and do power snatch. Everything is the same in regards to the movement with your arms and your hips so there’s an explosion with the hips, high pull punch underneath.

Single Arm Snatch with Dumbbell

Now when we come back down with a dumbbell, it’s a little bit different with the kettlebell. Bring it back down under control into the shoulder back down to the ground and explode. You go for 30 seconds.

#3 – Drop Lunge

We will do 60 seconds lunging. We can either use a kettlebell or a dumbbell, or we can regress that down we use bodyweight. We will just simply go into a drop lunge.

I will demonstrate it with a dumbbell. We will pick our dumbbell up right into a goblet position, elbows in tight, and we simply just step back.

Drop Lunge

Drive into that front heel, step back touch the knee, and we are just simply alternating steps every single time. You are going to do that for 60 seconds. Once 60 seconds is up, you will get that strategic rest for 20 seconds and we are going to repeat that interval set-up for 4 total rounds.

You will be going to all those 3 movements for 4 total rounds. Again, this is what I like to call an interval phase method of chaos conditioning. For all you people there at Exercises for Injuries and my man Rick, go ahead and give this a try. Let us know how you do.
If you want more information about the Unbreakable BadAss Blueprint 2.0, the full system, click here to find out more about that.

Like I always say, got 110% Ham, live aggressive. Travis, I am out!

Travis Stoetzel

I got another interview for you from Las Vegas with Travis Stoetzel.

Travis does really hard core intense training and I got chatting with him about going to max because a lot of times what people do is every time they go to the gym or every time they workout they think they need to go to max and lift their heaviest weight.

I wanted him to chat about what people need to remember and think about when it relates to going to max.

How to Lift to Heavy Without Getting Injured with Travis Stoetzel

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

Travis Stoetzel:

#1 – Does it correlate with your overall goals?

One of the things in regards to lifting heavy is does it correlate with your overall goals. Are you a competitive athlete? Are you an actual powerlifter? That’s what you are going to have to do in regards to competition. Is it going to require you to lift as much weight as you need to? Is it going to transfer over to your overall performance? These are some of the main things that you want to focus in on first in regards to lifting extremely heavy.

#2 – Look at your fitness level.

As you start out, are you going to want to grab a barbell and lift as much weight as you can? Well, it’s something that we all want to do. It’s our natural instinct. If you think about it, that’s probably what a lot of people have done the first time they go into a weight room and that’s kind of the mantra so to speak , “I am more bad ass than you. I can lift more weight than you”. It’s kind of just the overall thought process with people. They don’t know any better.

It’s not really about how much weight you can lift, it’s how much weight you can lift efficiently & effectively in order to get you to your goal that you got in mind.

Again, that is all relative to what you are trying to get accomplished. If it’s relevant to your sport, if you are power lifting, obviously you know as a powerlifter you got to build yourself up to that.

Going to max, how often should you do it? If you are going to be doing it, if you are a competitive athlete, if you are a powerlifter, obviously you are going to be doing a lot more than somebody who is just after general fitness and just looking at getting strong. You don’t have to do it once.

In my gym with a lot of my clients which I call athletes whether they are competitive athletes or not, we typically stay around 3′s. You will go pretty heavy with three reps but you are not necessarily taking that ultimate risk of just putting as much weight on the bar and just cranking out a single rep because that’s pretty taxing to the body and again it’s all about your general fitness level and what your overall goal is.

Do you need to be taxing your body out that much? Because singles, if you are not ready for those, they can mess your body up. As we were talking about earlier, back pain with squatting and deadlifting, if you are not yet ready to do that, that’s when those injuries occur.

Just the basic stuff with the maxing out and do whatever we are doing at the gym, and yes we do it but again it’s all relevant to who is training, what their goal is, and if they have earned the ability to do that. Obviously if they are not efficient with the lift that we are doing, for example deadlifts, overhead press, squats, whatever it may be, they have got to earn the right to max out so to speak.

Rick Kaselj: Where can people get more information about you Travis?

Travis Stoetzel: People can find more information at TrainAggressive.com or you can check out Unbreakable Badass which are the workouts that I do with my clients, that you can do at home.

You can get more details on Travis’ Unbreakable Badass Blueprint 2.0, here: 

Rick Kaselj, MS

I wanted to do a follow up video to the 14 Point Checklist on how to do the Plank exercise.

Numerous people got back to me and commented on the video and the pictures in the blog post. And what I wanted to do was show the plank exercise from a different angle because from the video angle we had the camera in a higher position and it showed that Orsy’s back was really arched.

I wanted to show the from another angle and also get Orsy to go through it at a different time because when we were filming the other time it was well below freezing (Celsius) in the gym and she had been doing the plank exercise for 12 minutes.

As a side note, now what Orsy has is a 12 minute plank joke with her clients. If her clients are not listening or thinks the workout is too easy, she threatens them with the 12 minute plank.

Now lets get to things…

Common Mistake Made when Planking

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

I will get Orsy to go through the plank and I will highlight the points again and show it from a different angle.

Also, I am going to add a 15th point that I didn’t mention when it came to the checklist which is also something you want to look at when someone is doing the plank.

Plank Position

Looking from the side, curve in her back is normal for her. She is strong through the mid back, her glutes were activated and she is in a nice straight line from the side looking at her head, shoulder, hips and the rest of her body. I am going to just highlight the points again, try to go through those 14 points.

You want to look at the following points:

1. Head
2. Neck
3. Shoulder
4. Elbow
5. Wrist
6. Mid back
7. Shoulder blades
8. Low back
9. Core
10. Hip
11. Glutes
12. Knee
13. Ankle
14. Foot

Now I wanted to go through the 15th point that I didn’t mention but I think is also important. Some people will shrug up in the shoulders.

Plank with Shrug Up Shoulders

You want to make sure that people are relaxed in the neck and in the shoulder. You don’t want them to shrug up.

There you go. This is a follow up with that first video so definitely refer to it where I go into the 14 points in a lot more detail and now I showed you the plank from a different point of view.

Think about that 15th point where the shoulders are not shrugged up, they are relaxed or they are in neutral.

Make sure to swing by ExercisesForInjuries.com, enter in your injury or pain, there is a good chance that I have a video, interview, or a blog post that will help you with your injury or pain.

If you are watching this on YouTube, head up above and hit “Subscribe.” What that will do is every couple of days you will get a video like this where I talk about overcoming injury or pain. Plus, I end up having guest videos and interviews with my friends in the health and fitness world.

Lastly, head down below, hit “Like” and leave me a comment or question.

If you are looking for a program to help you overcome your back pain and get you back to pain-free workouts, then check out Fix My Back Pain, here:

Take care and bye bye.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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Lavender, also scientifically known as lavandula angustifolia, is part of the mint family of plants and is widely found in areas such as the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean, parts of Africa, parts of India and other places too. It is a small shrub-like plant with its trademark purplish-blue flowers and slim leaves.

There are different areas where lavender may be used including medical purposes and in perfumery applications. However, there is a lot of emphasis on the healing effects of lavender from an emotional and physical perspective.

Lavender is widely referred to as the healing herb.

The flowers of this plant can be aromatic and the oils derived from the plant are also powerful. Oil from lavender contains a number of compounds including ketones, esters, linalool and aldehydes. Linalool is a naturally occurring alcohol that provides a pleasant, spicy and floral smell. Consumption methods for lavender include use in teas or in a bath. However, there can be other ways to use lavender and benefit from its healing effects. Learning more about these healing effects can be quite useful.

Thus, here are 7 healing effects of lavender:

• Lavender is an antiseptic.

Antiseptics are used to prevent or reduce the occurrence of infection by making it difficult for microorganisms to grow. Hence, imagine the possibilities that could be achieved by using lavender by itself or adding lavender to other ingredients to create antiseptic sprays, creams and lotions. Lavender’s antiseptic properties provide use in treating skin problems, sunburn and bites [1]. The growth of microorganisms on or in the body can be a very bad idea as this could lead to putrefaction, sepsis or decay of living tissue.

Using lavender provides a nice-smelling antiseptic or disinfectant and it is widely used in various products for the home, school, office, hospitals and other areas where microorganism attempt to thrive. You can begin to arrest the growth of harmful microorganisms by using lavender oil or products made with lavender. Due to lavender’s ability to inhibit bacteria, it can also be used to regulate the secretion of sebum which adversely increases the growth of bacteria. Hence, using lavender as a moisturizer could help treat acne and balance secretions.

• Lavender is an expectorant.

The compound known as linalool that is found in the lavender plant also possesses expectorant qualities. Indeed, able to produce a nice-smelling aroma, linalool also packs another punch in its ability to tackle coughs. As an expectorant, this plant is able to address allergy situations related to bronchial passages. The objective is to open up the bronchial track and enable a person breathe adequately and easily.

While acting as an expectorant, lavender can also attack inflammation which may result from an allergic episode. In addition, plants like lavender that contain volatile compounds are known to have insecticidal, antimicrobial and antifungal activities and properties [2]. Hence, you may find that lavender is popularly used as one of the ingredients in cough syrups and also in allergy medication.

• Lavender is an analgesic.

Headaches and pain could be relieved by using lavender. As a potent pain reliever, lavender is able to tackle aches and relieve tension.

Do you have a sore back, sore arms, sore legs or sore muscles?

A bath containing lavender oil may gently help soothe away the pain and discomfort. Lavender oil may also be applied to minor burns, wounds and cuts for immediate relief from pain. Ketones contained in lavender contribute to its pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties.

There are also certain types of pain that could be tricky to handle. For instance, studies show that lavender essence is effective in treating pain such as post cesarean pain which is a type of pain that obstetricians find challenging due to the potential for other medications to interfere adversely with the well-being of the newborn and mother [3]. Hence, lavender could be used as a substitute or a complementary therapy in treating pain these types of pain as well.

• Lavender is used in aromatherapy.

A strong and distinct aroma with properties that can soothe or calm a person is produced by the aldehydes contained in the lavender plant. The use of lavender in aromatherapy is possibly one of the more popular uses of this plant. Its use in aromatherapy could provide relief from headaches and calm the nerves. Inhaling the scent of lavender could also provide a settling effect for the digestive system. Ketones contained in lavender could also help in inducing sleep and may be used in the treatment of insomnia. The smell of lavender could also help soothe a person suffering from anxiety and introduce a calming effect to the nerves and mind.

Disturbed sleep patterns may also become regulated by incorporating aromatherapy into supervised care and there are efforts to study the effect of aromatherapy in the care of people suffering from conditions such as anxiety, dementia and disturbed sleep patterns [4]. It can be easy to simply place lavender flowers and leaves in a bowl and let the fragrance fill a room and alleviate some of the negative conditions mentioned. Aromatherapy could also be the way through which other healing benefits of the lavender plant are acquired. For example, using aromatherapy could help minimize the pain that a person is feeling.

• Lavender is a nervine.

Nervines are related to remedies made from plants or herbs and these substances are able to affect the nervous system. Research studies have linked the therapeutic use of lavender with the treatment of neurological disorders [5]. Plants that fall into the nervine category include lavender, wild oats, catnip and chamomile.

What can nervines do for you?

There are gentle nervine plants that can gradually calm the nerves and entire nervous system. However, there are also other nervine herbs that possess a more potent effect and may be used to stop anxiety, fight insomnia or tackle muscular spasms that originate from nervous system membranes. The reduction of tension and stress relief are great benefits of nervines.

Due to the gentle nature of some nervine herbs and plants, it could be possible to consume nervines intermittently throughout the day or possibly earlier in the day if a calming effect is required as the day starts. Gentle nervines may act as mild sedatives, help address digestive disorders or upset stomachs, reduce gas and bloating, treat infant colic, reduce fevers in children and reduce muscular cramping.

• Lavender is a cicatrizant.

Cicatrizant is an interesting word that simply means the promotion of healing. Yes, this is a good thing and it is great to know that lavender possesses this property of natural healing. Such healing applies to wounds or sores and takes the form of a cicatrix or scar tissue [6]. Esters that are contained in lavender aid in the reduction of swelling and soreness.

These esters could also help minimize scarring. Studies show that wound closures progress more rapidly when lavender is used [7]. Apart from being a natural cicatrizant, lavender is also astringent which provides a powerful combination for treating wounds. Other kinds of natural cicatrizants include sandalwood, myrrh and yarrow.

• Lavender is an antidepressant.

Lavender oil can be used as an antidepressant. As a precaution, it could be beneficial to discuss depression treatment with a primary care physician or related medical specialist especially as a result of possible interactions between the use of lavender and any prescription medication that person may be taking. For instance, there could be sedatives that interact with the usage of lavender [8]. The esters in lavender could contribute to relieving depression or putting someone in a better mood.

There are oils, lotions, teas, creams, salves, soaps, perfumes, bath salts, traditional medications like herbal cough medicines and other products that could be made with lavender oils and flowers. All these could directly have an effect on a person’s state of mind too. It is also possible to dilute lavender oil with other oils such as grape-seed oil. Bowls of dried lavender leaves and flowers could also be used to make a room fragrant or in potpourri bags. These applications of lavender could lift a person’s spirits or moods and help fight depression.

Why is lavender so powerful in its healing abilities?

The simple answer relates to the chemical composition of this plant. The Latin name for lavender is lavare, which means “to wash”. The origins of this Latin name for lavender is as a result of its “clean” aroma. This Latin name seems quite appropriate too, given the myriad applications that the lavender plant provides in relation to healing the body in different ways. There can also be appropriate or suggested ways to use lavender including recommended usage for children [9].

Use lavender to treat bites, burns, wounds, fatigue, depression, fatigue, cramps and much more. Its wide variety of healing abilities makes it one of the most popular plants on earth. These are some of the reasons why adding this plant to your life will change it forever.

If you are looking for other foods to help you with inflammation and joint pain, then check out 101 Superfoods that Stop Your Joint Pain & Inflammation:

Rick Kaselj, MS

References

[1] Natural antiseptics – Natural therapy
[2] Antibacterial activity of essential oils – NCBI
[3] Effect of lavender essence oil – NCBI
[4] Nurses experience aromatherapy – NCBI
[5] Lavender and the nervous system – NCBI
[6] Lavender uses
[7] What are the healing benefits of lavender?
[8] Lavender Interactions – WebMD
[9] Lavender: University of Maryland Medical Center

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Today I have a great article on how fasting can have an effect on chronic inflammation.

Have a read and give it a go.

Take it away, James.

Oh, before I go. I met James Gaida in January while I was in Miami. He knew that I help people overcome injuries and pain. He asked me if I recommend people to look at intermittent fasting for pain and injuries. I had said, “no.” He said he would write an article on why people should think about it and here we are.

Enjoy the article.

Rick Kaselj, MS

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I’m sure you’ve probably heard about Intermittent Fasting or IF. It’s not hard to find articles about it on nearly every fitness or nutrition site on the internet.

I’ve been a coach in the nutrition and fitness industry for over a decade and IF has been the one thing that I am most excited about. In the words of Kenny Bania (Seinfeld)

“Gold Jerry, Gold!”

My excitement comes from the array of proven benefits, not limited to:

• Fast fat loss
• Improved insulin sensitivity
• Huge spikes in Growth Hormone
• Enhancing brain function
• Reducing cholesterol and blood pressure

Fasting is awesome and insanely effective.

For the EFI reader though there is one more insanely awesome benefit of IF: reducing inflammation.

Inflammation as I’m sure you know, is a necessity to repair any damage in our bodies. Ultimately, inflammation is your body’s attempt to protect itself by removing damaged cells and any irritants. It is the beginning of the healing process. After an injury, immediately reducing inflammation isn’t always the best course of action. You want some inflammation to induce healing. As the injury heals though you want to be able to control inflammation and reduce as necessary.

Inflammation is a very good thing and a necessity for healing. However, if it is chronic inflammation that causes concern. Chronic inflammation is long term. It occurs when the body is unable to remove the irritant.

It is in your best interest to keep chronic inflammation under control as it has been linked to higher risks of numerous conditions and diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s to name a few.

But chronic inflammation isn’t only a result from an acute injury. Chronic inflammation is often a result of our lifestyle factors. Things such as poor dietary decisions (too much sugar and processed food), gut health issues, food intolerance, stress, exhaustion and not enough exercise all play a role in keeping you inflamed.

Score another one for eating better and getting more exercise.

Now, enter Intermittent Fasting.

If you’re not aware, Intermittent Fasting is the occasional and intentional skipping of meals in order to put the body in a fasted state, short term. There are many different ways to go about IF but the most popular ways are daily 16 hour fasts (skipping breakfast) or 24 hour fasts (skipping breakfast and lunch) one or two times a week. Most methods come with very similar outcomes so picking one that works best for you is just fine. In a minute I’ll let you know how you can get started with IF.

So, back to IF and inflammation:

Numerous studies have shown that Intermittent Fasting is a great tool to help reduce inflammation. There are 2 recent studies in particular that have made the benefits of IF for reducing inflammation abundantly clear.

A study in 2012 and another in 2007 done on people partaking in a month of Ramadan fasting both came to the same conclusions. The researchers compared the subjects taking part in the fasting to a control group eating 3 meals a day.

The studies both found that the individuals that were fasting had significant reductions in inflammation markers interleukin-6, C-reactive protein and homocysteine. In simpler terms, by partaking in fasting they reduced inflammation in their body.

The other important thing to note is that during the studies there was no difference in caloric intake between the individuals fasting and the control group. When the fasting group was free to eat, they consumed as many calories during the day as the group eating three meals a day. This is important to note, as it wasn’t calorie restriction reducing inflammation is was the periods of fasting.

It is in your best health interest to get a handle on inflammation. So how can you get started with IF?

• My recommendation for my own nutrition clients is to get started with a 24 hour fast. Pick one day this week where you will be free to go 24 hours without food. Most people will eat dinner the night before, fast throughout the day and have a normal size dinner that night. You may prefer to eat breakfast and then go without food until the next days breakfast. Ultimately the timing doesn’t matter, just go 24 hours without calories.
• During the fast it is important to stay hydrated. Try to drink at 2-3 litres of water during the day. Black coffee and green tea (another anti inflammatory) are also permitted. Just make sure you’re not getting calories in your beverages.
• Drinking plenty of fluids will also help you curb waves of hunger which will surface and then go away throughout the day. Respond to hunger by taking in more fluids and it will soon pass.

The 24 hour fast is much easier then it sounds and gets even easier the second time around, when you know what to expect. You can partake in one or two 24 hour fasts each week. Don’t do any more than two per week.

If you’re pregnant or diabetic, fasting in most instances is not right for you. Consult with your doctor before fasting.

To recap, if you are interested in fast fat loss, improved insulin sensitivity, huge spikes in Growth Hormone, enhancing brain function, reducing cholesterol, reducing blood pressure or ridding yourself of chronic inflammation than give Intermittent Fasting a try.

It has made a huge impact in my life over the last couple of years. I am leaner, more energetic and feel healthier then ever. I know it can make a similar impact in your life.

James Gaida Bio:

I am a fat loss expert and certified Nutrition Coach. I have spent more than 13 years coaching clients in both nutrition and fitness. In that time I have also became certified as a Specialist in Performance Nutrition and a Certified Fitness Trainer. I also own many leather bound books and yeah, I’m kind of a big deal!

My baby, 4 Day Fat Loss (4DFL) is dedicated to teaching simple techniques to rapidly burn fat, increase energy and live a healthier life. If you want to find out how to burn fat quickly and transform your body check out the 4DFL Method.

Sources

Ramadan Study 2007: Aksungar F.B. et al. (2007), Interleukin-6, C-Reactive Protein and Biochemical Parameters during Prolonged Intermittent Fasting, Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, April 2007, 51:88–95

Ramadan Study 2012: Farris MA et al (2012), Intermittent fasting during Ramadan attenuates proinflammatory cytokines and immune cells in healthy subjects, Nutrition Research, December 2012 , 32(12):947-55.

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I am a big fan of foam rolling.

It has so many amazing benefits.

I wanted to go through foam rolling one of the thigh muscles that is often overlooked.

That is the sartorius muscle.

The sartorius is a muscle in the thigh that crosses the hip and the knee so it has an effect on the hip and the knee.

Main functions of Sartorius are:

• Hip flexion which is bringing the knee up
• Knee flexion which is bending the knee

Secondary functions of Sartorius are:

• Rotating that thigh out or externally rotating the hip
• Bringing that thigh out to the side or abducting the hip 

A lot of times what people focus in on when foam rolling are the thigh muscles like rectus femoris, the quadriceps, and on the psoas muscle but they ignore the sartorius muscle.

I wanted to go through a foam rolling exercise that targets the sartorius muscle which is important to prevent muscle imbalances and to overcome knee pain.

How to Foam Roll Your Sartorius Muscle

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

You need a foam roller.

What I have here is a 3 foot foam roller. You don’t need something this long. You can utilize a 1 foot foam roller.

Foam Rolling the Sartorius Muscle

Steps to Foam Roll Your Sartorius Muscle:

1. Orsy is going to lie on her stomach.
2. She is going to have that foam roller start right up at the top of her hip and she is going to roll from that top of the hip to the inside of her knee.
3. Then she is going to go back from inside part of the knee to the front of the thigh back to the top of that hip.
4. She is going to go through that 5 or 10 times.

We are following the path of the sartorius muscle so from the front of the hip, along the front of the thigh then rotating that thigh out and going on that inside part of the knee and then back to the start.

We are looking at medium pressure that you are putting on the sartorius with the foam roller and you are following that path of that sartorius muscle as in the picture above.

You might feel sensitive areas right at the top of the hip and you might feel sensitive areas down in the thigh. Those are common spots in that sartorius muscles where there could be trigger points or parts of the muscle that need to be worked on when it comes to foam rolling.

Give that a go and let me know how it goes.

If you are looking for a resource when it comes to foam rolling exercises, then check out Your Foam Roller Exercise Guide, here:

Take care and bye bye,

Rick Kaselj, MS

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I am back today with a few exercises that you need to try.

You can do them right now. You don’t need any equipment and you just need a 3 foot by 7 foot space to do them.

Enjoy them and take it away, Kate.

Rick Kaselj

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Here are 3 exercise variations from the new follow-along Fat Loss Accelerators program coming your way.

These are 3 No Equipment Exercises You Need to Try – TODAY.

Okay, so let’s get to them.

3 No Equipment Exercises You Need to Try – TODAY!

CLICK HERE to watch the YouTube video.

#1 – Sprinting Walkout

You are going to get down into the sprinting start which is down so your right leg’s (back leg) about an inch off the floor. Your hands are going down towards the floor but don’t let your shoulders round. Keep your chest up high. Then you are going to stand, you are going to walk your hands out, drive that right knee to your left elbow. You are going to walk your hands back up, hinging on your left hip to standing, bring this right knee up to your chest and then back down to the sprinting start. (You can see a video demo, here.)

Sprinting Walkout

#2a – One Legged Romanian Deadlift with T-Squeeze

We’ve got a one legged RDL (Romanian Deadlift).

You might think you need weights to do this but you can do some cool bodyweight variations.

I have got two variations of this move that you can try.

You are going to do the regular one legged RDL.

Now you can add in a T-Squeeze to really hit your upper back and your posture muscles.

One Legged Romanian Deadlift with T-Squeeze

#2b – One Legged Romanian Deadlift into a Curtsy Squat

Then the other variation that you can add to that is by going straight into the curtsy squat.

Key thing to remember is you are pointing your toe out and driving that foot back, keeping all the weight here in your left leg (front leg). You are going to feel that right in your glute in the front leg and then you can go back to that Romanian Dead Lift.

You are heating up those sexy muscles in the back.

One Legged Romanian Deadlift into a Curtsy Squat

#3 – T-Rotation Burpee

Alright, Number Three, we have a T-Rotation Burpee.

What you are going to do is you are going to put your hands down on the floor, you kick your feet back and then you rotate up into a T. Again you are opening up that chest, you are rotating the trunk, standing up and then jump up into the air.

T-Rotation Burpee

With this one, you are hitting your obliques but also you hit different planes of motion.

What I try to encourage people to do is to move in different planes. Everyone seems to stay in one plane (forward and backwards) but by going into the transverse you are using more of these rotational muscles that tend to be imbalanced.

There you go.

Give those 3 No Equipment Exercises a go!

If you are looking for other workouts like the above, then check out Fat Loss Accelerators 2.0, here:

Kate Vidulich