Touch for a Healthier Brain and Body

Let’s talk about massage. Most people think of it as a way to treat themselves or to help them relax. This is true, and from our brain based perspective there are also other cool things that happen when you get a massage!

According to health experts at the National University of Health Sciences, having regular massage therapy in your health and wellness strategy can:

• Increase Immune Function

  Massage is a powerful way to create movement within the circulatory system. This includes the lymphatic system.

  Your lymphatic system is involved in digestion, white blood cell transportation for bone health, and many parts of our immune responses.

  When you increase circulation, you are also allowing for greater functions of all of these systems.

• Boost Mental Health and Wellness

  One of the many reasons why when you get a hug, or a pat on the back, you feel better, is because of how the brain’s feeding pattern works.

  The feeding pattern of the brain goes from bottom to top, and back to front. Meaning things that live in the top front of your brain will get resources last (things like mental wellness). Compared to things that live in the bottom back that get first pick (things like organ function, and your ability to sense the world around you).

  Imagine a city with only one road in and out of it got hit by a natural disaster, and the responding trucks coming to help had to stop at the entrance to distribute aid and supplies. Likely they will run out of supplies before they can get through to the other parts of the city.

  Which means if you want your mental health to improve, you need to make sure the bottom back areas are being well taken care of and still have plenty of resources to go around.

• Manage Pain

  Our 5+ senses help us identify and respond to the world around us. This is what is called “mapping”, and our brain has maps for everything in our body.

  Stress, disuse, overuse, and injuries will often change our brains ability to detect things accurately.

  Think of the software on your computer. Every now and then it needs an update to make sure all is well. Go too long without updating and things start to slow down, malfunction, or crash all together. Keep things updated and things will likely operate as you expect them to.

  Your body works the same way. Your brain needs sensory updates to make sure it can regulate what you feel and function the way you expect it to.

• Lower Stress

  Massage lowers stress not just because it feels good, but also because it is feeding your brain vital information about your body. Particularly when the type of touch is pleasant, it can calm your sympathetic nervous system, allowing your body to function better.

• Improve Physical Fitness

  As mentioned earlier, making sure your maps are updated and keeping systems functioning well will allow you to be at your best. When you feel good you are more likely to perform better in your physical fitness as well.

  That’s the beauty of how our bodies work. Everything is connected in an infinite feedback loop.

  Feel good -> better brain function -> think clearly -> take action -> feel even better, and so on!

Check out how one of our clients used massage in her health and wellness regimen!

“I started seeing Molly at BioFit for lower back and hip pain. She developed a plan for me to come in monthly for massage and cupping. Now I enjoy more energy, less pain and can get back to exercising comfortably!”

— Sarah T.

Effortless Fitness

When looking at most health and fitness goals, it’s the accumulation of quality reps performed over a period of time that creates long term adaptations. Whether it be shedding lbs, making strength gains, improving balance, or any other desired outcome, long term sustained results require consistency.

“Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast”

You may recognize this quote from a military mantra or if you’ve read the book Effortless by Greg McKeown.

In this book Greg gives exceptional ways to tap into an effortless state. This month we are going to give you guidance in finding your effortless state for your health and fitness goals. 

Start

When starting out on a new goal, most people want a big elaborate plan with every detail mapped out before they begin. Then when something unexpected happens and throws them off their perfect plan they stop all together. Life isn’t perfect. Things come up. The most important thing you can do to accomplish your goal is to start! It doesn’t have to be pretty, long, or drawn out. It just has to point you in the right direction, and along the way you can adapt, expand, and reorganize in order to stay on course. So instead of trying to predict more than reality allows, draw a simple 3 step outline that gives you somewhere to start.

Simplify

Think of a barrier in your way of achieving your fitness goal. Now walk yourself through the very first thing you need to do. Are there things you might be able to do differently that aren’t as hard or complicated? Most of the time, the answer is yes. Make no mistake, it is important to work hard at the things important to you, but sometimes there are ways to make progress without having to make it so complicated. Sometimes the simplest goal can give you the greatest benefit. Things like chewing your food slower so you can pay more attention to it, filling up appropriately so you don’t unknowingly overeat, or once you walk to your car you do 5 squats before getting in. The way we are wired (for survival) the simpler the task, the more likely we are to actually do it. So consider taking your goals and boiling them down a bit. Make it as simple as possible!

Pace

Set yourself up for success by giving yourself reasonable boundaries. Set a lower boundary so that even if everything goes wrong you’d still be able to accomplish it and move the needle forward. Then set an upper boundary. Even if you were really feeling in rhythm, once you’ve reached that mark, you call it a day. These are important boundaries to set so that regardless of what is going on, you are able to maintain advancement on your goals every day. That way you don’t put yourself at risk of not doing enough or, on the flip side, burnout.

To sum it up… Start, make it simple, and pace yourself!

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If you feel like you need help in any of these steps, reach out to us! Our expert trainers can help you organize your information to help you move your needle towards your fitness goals!

Don't Just Eat Less...

Fat Loss

Eat less, exercise more, and you’ll lose weight, right? It works, except when it doesn’t. At some point you can only eat so little before becoming malnourished. Same goes for exercise, too much can cause more harm than good. Most can understand that too much or too little of anything can be counterproductive. 

Make no mistake, there’s absolutely a need for exercise in the right dose and proper nutrition for the individual. This month we are going to talk about a few strategies we recommend including if you’re looking for healthy weight loss and life long sustained health. 

Sleep | Sunshine | Breathe | Sensory

Sleep & Sunshine

If you want to change your body, you have to change your brain. It’s a little oversimplified, but this saying helps depict its importance: “Training is why the brain changes, nutrition is how, and sleep is when.” Particularly during deep sleep, our brain goes through a cleansing or flushing process that allows the room and circulation needed to lay down new neural structures and remove plaque buildup. Know that to get better sleep, what you do during the day will largely affect your night time zzz’s. Sunshine first thing in the morning helps your brain know when to “start the clock.” So being outside for a period of time after waking up can help you reset your circadian rhythm.

Breathe

Breath work can also help you get enough resources in and out of your cells. Just like any other muscle in the body, the respiratory muscles can be strengthened and improved. Try changing how fast/slow you can breath through your nose, then your mouth. Then try holding your breath for as long as you can comfortably while you move. There are many more ways that you can increase your breath capacity. The more fluent you are in breath work, the more your brain has the resources it needs to support you in your body recomp journey.

Sensory

Plateauing is a natural part of the process. Our brain actually has a map of our body, down to the very last millimeter on your waist. When you lose weight, that map must have adequate time to update. Ever finally get past your plateau only to wind up back where you were before despite all your efforts? That’s because change is metabolically expensive, and you have to have enough resources to update your brain’s map of this new space in order to keep it there. There are several ways to help update these maps. Sensory (like 2 point discrimination and deep pressure) and spine movements are a great way to help remap your waistline and keep the progress on the right track.

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Fat loss is one of those things that is extremely individual, and deserves careful guidance not just to the particular goal, but afterwards as well. Behavior change is a crucial part of keeping the weight off. So if you feel like you need that careful guidance, give us a call. We can help you feel empowered to safely get rid of the weight while protecting your body and keeping longevity at the forefront of your mind.

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Need help easing back into the gym? Click the button below for a free guide!

A Different Perspective On Flexibility

Flexibility

Ever catch yourself thinking any of these things?

·       “I have to stretch until it hurts if I ever want to get more flexible.”

·       “Stretching before/after working out helps my body stay flexible.”

·       “If I don’t stretch, my muscles will shorten and tighten.”

·       “I have to stretch so that I don’t have pain when I move.”

If you want to be loose, mobile, and free to move the way you please without feeling limited and tight, we need to talk about where flexibility comes from, and ways to help without causing more problems.

What really happens

Flexibility comes from joints, muscles, tendons, ligaments, nerves, and other tissues sending messages to the brain that in unison say “strength and stability, clear, all systems go.” If your brain does not think you are strong or stable enough to control a joint space, it won't let you. Therefore, making you feel inflexible.

The common practice to try to increase flexibility is to stress tissues enough to where they “let go” i.e. stretch. This is a misconception; at a cellular level, the actin and myosin in our sarcomeres (what make up our muscles) only change position when they are told to do so by the brain via peripheral nerves. Stretching does not increase flexibility by lengthening your muscles. It is simply a stimulus to the receptors that live in the tissue. That stimulus gets sent to the brain like a letter in the mail (only faster, faster than you can blink.) The brain then determines based on both the information it receives and past experiences, if it is safe to go there.

If you’ve ever increased your flexibility after stretching, it is because you (on an unconscious level) learned/experienced enough to perceive that it is not dangerous. This is part of motor learning. If on the other hand you have stretched forever and have seen no change, it is because there was no change in the information coming in, and therefore was still perceived as unsafe for you to go there. 

The Brain Stem

To truly gain flexibility and improve how well you move through a joint range, your brain must determine that it is safe to do so. Remember in last months blog post how we talked about the brain stem? Flexibility is largely controlled by the same area! The midbrain, pons, and medulla work together to control flexor and extensor tone, along with many other autonomic functions like tongue control, bite pressure, how your eyes move, and so on. (Sorry, Colonel Sanders, you’re wrong.)

The brain cycles through receiving information via our sensory systems, interpreting that information and then creating a motor output based on that information. If we want to change the motor output (gain flexibility), we need to create change in either the sensory going in, or the interpretation of the information we receive. This can be done in many many ways, which is exciting because that means that there are infinite possible ways to create change!

Every sensory system can be stimulated/trained to increase specific neural activity. That’s right, your vision is extremely malleable, and vital to your flexibility or the lack thereof. Same goes for your sense of smell, taste, touch, and hearing. Without good quality and accurate information your brain will have to spend more energy trying to keep you safe! Pay attention to the quality of your sensory information. If you notice you have significant deficits and you feel tight, know that this may be playing a very large role, and things can change!

improve your sensory to create change!

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If you found this helpful and want drills and other tips on how to improve your flexibility, subscribe to our newsletter (where we share a tip to improve your toe touch without stretching) and follow us on social media!

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Tone | Beneath the Surface

Tone

- tension present in resting muscles and other tissues in the body.

This month we want to share with you some insider info on how you can improve your tone without dealing with the frustrations of insanity.

Tone is often thought of as being lean or being able to see muscle definition. While this is part of it, tone also directly tells us information about how well your brainstem is functioning. It can indicate why your static posture is the way it is and may point to why you have pain on one side of your body more often than the other. All of these things live next to each other in the brain, and we know based on current research that areas in the brain that live next to each other act on one another. In this blog we will take you through some basic concepts to help you improve your health by looking at:

Muscle Tone |  Posture |  Pain

Muscle Tone

Let’s say one has an aesthetic goal, your left side is not as toned as your right and you want to even them out. In the bodybuilding world, if you have less tone on your left they would say you should do more resistance training on your left. If someone has tried this and it hasn’t worked, they may need to consider a different route. Like we mentioned earlier, in the neurological world, things look a bit different on the inside. Here’s a bit of science. The left motor cortex feeds the left brainstem which controls the tone on the left side of the body. The left motor cortex is fed by complex movement from the right side of the body. Due to varying reasons spanning anywhere from stress, trauma, or overuse, there may be a need to facilitate brain activation in certain areas to help you get past your unevenness problem. Try exploring more complex movements instead of always moving in a straight line. This may activate areas of the brain that could otherwise be dormant!

Posture

Do you ever wonder why some people seem to always have good posture? Most people think the secret is to strengthen your back, strengthen your core, stretch tight muscles, and continuously think about sitting up straight. This rarely creates notable results and leaves people feeling like there is something wrong with them. There’s a better way!  Like we mentioned, the brainstem actually controls static posture - so next time you go to work out, try pressing your tongue onto the roof of your mouth, moving your eyes up and down, or clenching your teeth and see if you notice a change in your ease to stand a little taller.

Pain

We wanted to mention a little about pain while we are on the topic of tone because the brainstem controls pain inhibition. It’s worth noting that if you have pain more often on one side of your body, and you also notice that the tone is less on that same side, your brainstem may need some love. Don’t worry, the beautiful thing about neuroplasticity is that everything can and is changing. What’s even better is that there are ways to target areas directly to help you get out of pain and move towards the best version of yourself!

If you found this helpful and want more tips on how to improve your tone, subscribe to our newsletter!

Each person will probably have to go about what we discussed a bit differently. Need help? Our expert trainers can give you the guidance you need to break past those barriers and get you feeling and looking the way you want!

If you have questions on anything we shared above, click the button below and get connected now!

Neuro Hack Your Strength

Strength

- power to resist force : capacity for exertion or endurance.

If you look at most highly skilled athletes, you’ll notice that their movements just look smooth. They can sense and are in tune with their body. They have the mobility to accomplish their movement task. They coordinate through a well rehearsed rhythm.

We consider these characteristics to be a foundation in which strength is built upon. Without them, it’s easy to plateau, or worse get injured. Here’s the beautiful part. All of these things can be trained no matter where you’re at in your fitness journey.

Regardless of your current skill set, if you can gain better body awareness, mobility and coordination, you will produce an environment primed for increased strength outputs.

This month we will focus on helping you build strength and break this down into 3 simple categories:

Sensory | Mobility | Coordination

Sensory

What do most people think of when they say they do sensory work? Foam roll. Throw on an ice pack or heating pad. Get a massage or grab your massage gun. Scraping. Cupping. Taping. Wearing pressure cuffs of varying kinds. That’s what we think of too! We believe these are all wonderful tools when used appropriately, and you’ve probably been told that there are certain reasons for doing certain techniques in certain instances. And you’d be right!

Here’s what you might not have known: when it comes to your ability to put force into something - i.e. lift, push or pull, you need all of your sensors giving you the green light. Like getting your car maintenanced on a regular basis, it is very important for you to do sensory work often & in every way to maintain accurate system function. Next time you engage in physical activity - bring along multiple sensory tools and prime your motor to turn on all your green lights!

Mobility

To us, mobility is having full control of a movement. That means if you’re doing a hip mobility drill and have to use your arms to pull yourself further into position than your hip muscles can take you, you’re missing a significant opportunity. If your goal is to increase strength, don’t cheat yourself. Remember, jammed joints = weak muscles. When you use your arms to pull yourself past active range you’re turning off the very muscles that you intended to turn on. Mobility is the active capacity to achieve movement through a joint range. When you create better active motor control you will generate better force outputs.

Coordination

You know what this looks like, and you can tell when it’s done poorly. The most common way people try to improve their coordination is to practice the same thing over and over. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work and leaves you feeling like there’s something wrong with you. Good news, there’s a better way! We believe that nothing changes if nothing changes. If you are feeling frustrated because a cue is just not clicking, try changing it up! Use an external cue (push the balloon to the ceiling) instead of always using internal cues (focus on the muscle).

Rhythm also dramatically changes your coordination abilities. Adding a metronome and trying to sync to the beat can create space to flow better (and it activates areas of your brain that create your motor plans, helping them do their job better). Don’t waste reps on poor quality for the sake of doing more reps if your goal is to get stronger. Every rep you do should advance you, so make every single one count!

We’ve covered what we consider to be the 3 pillars in which strength is built upon. Have questions? Reach out to one of our elite trainers!

Want to learn another easy strength hack? Scroll down to the bottom of the page and subscribe to our newsletter to receive extra bonus tips to unlock your full capacity!

Also follow us on social media to learn the 3 simple drills you can try to unleash your leg strength!

December Newsletter

Click here to get a wonderful White Chicken Chili recipe, learn about our new, early morning Hour of Power class, and see our BioFit team dress festively!

November Newsletter

Check out your updates, educational piece and a healthy recipe in our November Newsletter!

Prepare for Success: Back to School Tips

Prepare for Success: Back to School Tips

Have you noticed?  The days are getting a little shorter, store aisles are full of school supplies and you may have seen a school bus or two making practice runs in your neighborhood.  All this can only mean one thing: it’s back to school time!

If you are like most people, you are not quite ready to say goodbye to the relaxing days of summer.  Late nights and lightly-scheduled days are a welcome break after a year of early mornings and homework deadlines.  Those slow days of summer are such a welcome break!

But with the approach of the new school year comes the necessity to ease back into a routine that helps your children succeed.  Changing routines can be tough under any circumstances. But when our routines change from ‘fun and relaxing’ to ‘less fun and somewhat stressful,’ it can be even tougher to pull off!

The best way to lessen the shock of a new school year is to ease your children into their school routine before school starts. Getting a jump start on new schedules and new responsibilities will allow them to adjust before school actually starts and the pace really picks up.

Here are some areas to focus on for back to school prep:

1.  Sleep schedule.  Almost without realizing it, we tend to slip into a different sleep pattern during summer—later nights make for later wake times. This is probably due to several factors, including the fact that the days are longer and the school bus isn’t coming!   When school starts, however, your children need to be on a different sleep schedule, otherwise they will have a very hard time getting up. Try this: a few days before school starts, ease their bed times and wake times back 15 minutes each day. This will help them to painlessly get used to a more school-friendly sleep schedule.

2.  Daily schedule.  Your children have probably grown accustomed to low pressure schedules this summer.  However, when school starts, having a schedule is critical. There are only so many hours each day to fit in school, homework, extra-curricular commitments, church and chores.  Make it all work by creating a schedule that your children can follow.

3.  Chores.  The only way to make a busy household run smoothly is for everyone to pull their share of the load.  Assign each of your children age-appropriate chores to do. Offer rewards for a job well done and give additional chores for non-compliance. Even preschoolers can help around the house by emptying small trash cans and picking up toys and books.

4.  Planners.  Buy each of your children a planner and help them to get used to using it before school starts.  The more familiar they are with their planner, the easier it will be for them to use it when classes and other activities get underway.  Encourage them to write in their class schedule, their homework schedule, their sports and club schedules and even their chore routines.  

5.  Fitness.  It goes without saying that your children need to move. Literally.  Sitting for long hours in the classroom and on the bus hinders their ability to concentrate and also lowers their energy levels.  If your school does not offer a physical education program, get your child involved in some kind of exercise routine. Not only will their grades likely improve, but they will be less stressed in general and will be more able to handle the pressures that school brings.