Source: http://greatist.com/move/upper-body-moves-cant-do-pull-up?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

It takes more than strong arms to do a pull-up. And if you regularly crush your strength workouts or HIIT routines but still can’t seem to get your chin above the bar—you’re not alone.

“From carrying excess fat to a weak back and grip, there are a number of reasons why even seemingly fit people have trouble with pull-ups,” says Adam Rosante, trainer and author of The 30-Second Body.

Simply put: The move is a tough one. You’re starting from a dead hang and then pulling up your entire body weight. “Pull-ups are arguably the greatest indicator of relative strength,” Rosante says. In other words: How strong are you in relation to your own weight? If you’ve ever tackled other no-equipment classics before—like push-ups, planks, or any forearm pose in yoga—you know using your own body weight can sometimes be the biggest challenge.

So how do you make it happen? “It’s not as simple as ‘do these eight moves, and you’ll be cranking out pull-ups in no time,’” Rosante says. “However, there are moves that can help strengthen the muscles you use during a pull-up.”

The major muscles involved include the large back muscles (your latissimus dorsi and rhomboids), posterior deltoids, and biceps. You’ll also need to engage your core throughout the movement and maintain proper shoulder alignment. That means “packing your scapula”—keeping shoulder blades pulled down and not allowing them to “wing” (poke out of your back) or come apart too far (whic…

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/save-preston-park-cycle-track-ride.html

image source
This morning in Brighton over 200 cyclists of all ages came out in force for the
Save Preston Park Cycle Track ride. As someone in love with cycling who lives just minutes away from the track, this is a campaign very close to my heart and we must do all that we can to save the track.

Preston Park velodrome is the oldest in the country and second oldest in the world – constructed in 1877. One of only nine outdoor tracks in the UK remaining, it has hosted competitive cycling events every year since – apart from this year when British Cycling deemed the track unsafe for racing.

image source<…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/kGxcjkZWdfM/

“When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.” ~Ernest Hemingway

If I’m honest, I don’t think I listened to another person until I was in my thirties. I wasn’t really listening, not completely. It’s not that I’m super selfish or vain; I was just so busy doing the mental gymnastics that I thought I had to do to keep up in conversations that I missed what was actually being said to me.

I grew up in a family where it felt like nearly everything that was said had another, unspoken meaning. I remember feeling really confused as a child, not sure why the things that were said to other people were so different from what I’d heard in private and why what was said was not always what ultimately happened.

There was definitely an element of “do as I say and no as I do” in there, but it was more than that too. It was like there was a hint of secrecy underneath those conversations. Even though I couldn’t articulate it or understand it at the time, I certainly remember that I felt it, and that it had a big impact on me.

I often felt like there was something else that wasn’t being said, and that if I could just figure out what that something was, all the pieces would fit together and everything would finally make sense.

This created so m…

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/tinybuddha/~3/SBqFmPh1jPU/

“When we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” ~Wayne Dyer

I wish my first real boss had read the book Fish. It’s the story of Mary Jan Ramirez, a young widow who took a job managing the least productive and most negative department of First Guarantee Financial, in Seattle, Washington. In fact, the department was referred to as the “toxic waste dump” of the company.

One day she had an epiphany as she observed workers in “Pike Place Fish Market,”—people who had smelly, nasty jobs of cleaning, wrapping, cooking, and serving fish to an overflow crowd.

This team was having a great time and were the reason for the overflow crowd. She found the owner and began a several-month relationship during which she learned how to make the workplace both fun and productive.

My first real job was when I was a student at USC, studying computer science and game/app design and minoring in media communications. I took a part-time job with a small local consulting firm that handled digital marketing campaigns for small businesses—maintaining their blogs and their social media platforms, user testing designs and specific strategies, and so forth.

The owner of the firm was a sour man. He assigned tasks and deadlines to all of us, discouraged …

Source: http://greatist.com/live/sleep-position-nightmares?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=feed_http–greatistcom-

Next time you wake up in a cold sweat, pay attention to your sleep position. This article from Van Winkle’s tipped us off to a series of studies that compared the types of dreams we have with the way we sleep. One small study (63 participants) found that people were much more likely to experience nightmares (and lower overall sleep quality) when lying on their left side.

Another larger study (670 participants) found that people had the most vivid and generally pleasant dreams sleeping facedown (though some of those face-planters reported dreams of drowning or seeing UFOs).

Science hasn’t found one optimal sleep position—and these studies show correlation, not causation. But if you find yourself having nightmares again and again, rolling over can’t hurt.

…

Source: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/12/15/459686854/rebel-brew-what-the-boston-tea-party-and-the-mad-hatter-had-in-common?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=thesalt

Minnie Phan for NPR

This week marks the 242nd anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. On the surface, these two events seem to have very little in common. But if you’ll follow us down the rabbit hole for a bit, you’ll find some surprising links.

On Dec. 16, 1773, the Sons of Liberty in Boston, disguised as Mohawks, stole aboard three British ships and tipped 342 chests of good East India Co. tea into the harbor to protest England’s unjust taxation policy. This dumping of tea leaves was the spark that accelerated the Revolutionary War, culminating in the rout of the redcoats and the triumph of red, white and blue.

The Mad Hatter’s tea party has more idyllic roots. On a “golden afternoon” in 1862, a shy, young mathematics don named Charles Lutwidge Dodgson took the three daughters of his college dean on a boating expedition. Having rowed them up the river Isis, Dodgson, accompanied by fellow Oxford don Richard Duckworth, and the three Liddle girls (one of whom was Alice), disembarked at Godstow and took tea near a haystack. Dodgson entertained his young companions with a story of how an inquisitive and bossy but very l…

Source: http://www.fannetasticfood.com/2015/12/21/weekend-adventures-18/

Hello from the train on the way from DC to Philadelphia! I’m heading up for the day for my annual holiday meet up with my college BFFs, Turner and Kris. Turner lives in Philly, and Kris lives in Paris but comes home for the holidays, so every year for a few years now we’ve done a little pre-Christmas meet up in the city. It’s an easy train ride from DC and I can work on the way there and back, so everyone wins. You can see what I’m up to on Instagram and I’ll be back tomorrow with a recap.

As for this weekend, it was a low key one! Matt and I didn’t have much on the agenda so we were able to get some stuff done around the house, which was nice. On Saturday morning, we got in an 8 mile training run (here’s what we’re training for). I LOVEEEE running in (pre-snow and ice) winter – cold weather running is so much better than hot weather running, in my opinion! (Related post: How to Dress for Cold Weather Running.)

Matt and I decided …

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/tears-tantrums-and-triathlons.html

“Guys, this is an open water triathlon swim, we’re not sending you out to war…”

I wasn’t the only one who stopped hyperventilating for a giggle when the race marshall said that. It was 12:59pm and the Novice distance Diamond Tri competitors were in the water. Some holding onto the pontoon (me), some swearing at the reeds/’terrifying swamp demons’ that snaked around their water-treading legs (me), some calmly bobbing around laughing with friends (not me, I was too busy holding on for dear life). 
Race day came round all too quickly for me this time. Having only started training for this nine weeks ago, not followed a set training plan and *still* not being able to swim the full 400m required distance in one go, my nerves were on another level on the drive up to Eton Dorney from Brighton.

Plan of attack
Those who follow me on Twitter and Instagram will have seen me at various panic-stations throughout last week, flailing about whether Vaseline or baby oil will do for under my wet suit (baby oil worked fine), whether I’d be able to see in the water (sort of), whether there’d be buoys and ‘lanes’ clearly marked out in the lake (yes). Whether I’d actually …

Source: http://www.thefitbits.com/2015/09/tess-tris-take-2-falmer-triathlon-2015.html

Oops I did it again.

After surviving my first triathlon and sailing home on a wave of endorphins, I gave into my FOMO at hearing so many of my friends were racing Falmer tri just a week later and signed me and hubs both up with gusto.

I was slightly out of shape for the hilly bike and run course on this one, and Chris had never done a triathlon, nor trained for one, but is one of those people who can turn up and smash things with minimal preparation, leaving me in a trail of dust.

It’s not annoying at all. (He is a tree surgeon, and I do sit on my arse in an office all day, so I’ll let him off)

Anyway, I got FOMO when I found out half of Brighton was racing, and then he got FOMO when I said I was signing up, and that’s how we came to be standing on the side of the pool at Virgin Active gym in Brighton, shivering in our trisuits not long after 7am on Sunday morning.

One big jolly
One of the last tri’s of the season, and organised excellently by Brighton Multisports, Falmer is basically just one big jolly for Brighton’s massive and wonderful fitness community.

The thing I really love about being active this city is the huge amount of new friends we’ve made and how incestuous it all is (not literally – or it could…

Source: http://www.sonima.com/videos/mudras-in-yoga/

Watch video on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwaPJ_gDg6k

Mudra is a Sanskrit word meaning seal. In yoga, the practitioner seeks to unify disparate elements of the self, and balance the right and left sides of the body, the masculine and feminine energies of the ego. Mudras in yoga offer a unique opportunity to use the creative choreography of the hands to help facilitate union and deeper opening. As John Campbell, Ph.D., a professor of religious studies at University of Virginia, explains in this video, mudras are incorporated into the flowing practice not only for spiritual metaphor but also for physical assistance.

Related: Yoga Mudras to Shift Your Energy in Body and Mind

The post How to Incorporate Mudras in Yoga Practice appeared first on Sonima.

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