PROTIME-FITNESS HOLISTIC HEALTH AND WELLNESS

UNDERSTANDING THE COMPLEXITIES OF MUSCLE SORENESS  Intense workouts, such as resistance training, stress your muscles and tendons and can cause soreness. This soreness is more likely to occur if you are beginning a new exercise or resistance training program or have had a long layoff. It also occurs among runners, walkers, and cyclists. You probably have experienced muscle soreness after doing hard physical labor, such as moving furniture or gardening, which is feedback that your muscles have worked hard and damage has occurred. Microtrauma inflicted by intense workouts or physical labor causes intracellular calcium loss and inflammation. These two processes are toxic to muscle tissue and occur slowly, which explains why muscle soreness first appears 1 to 2 days after the activity. Not all workouts create muscle soreness, but when the exercise is sufficiently intense, there is a good chance that soreness will occur. Severe muscle soreness will commonly last for more than a week. Th...

  PROTEIN AND FIBER HELPFUL IN WEIGHT LOSS ADEQUATE FIBER AND PROTEIN ARE NEEDED FOR EVERYONE, INCLUDING THOSE ON WEIGHT LOSS MEDICATIONS         A study found that participants in a self-directed dietary education program who had the most tremendous success at losing weight over 25 months consumed more protein and fiber. Personalization and flexibility were also crucial in creating plans that dieters could adhere to over time. At the one-year mark, successful dieters (41% of participants) had lost 12.9% of their body weight, compared with the remainder of the study sample, who lost slightly more than 2% of their starting weight, according to a paper on the study published in Obesity Science and Practice. The dieters were participants in the Individualized Diet Improvement Program, which uses data visualization tools and intensive dietary education sessions to increase dieters' knowledge of critical nutrients, enabling them to create a personalized, safe, and ef...

  CAREGIVERS' GROWING CONCERNS AND HEALTH ISSUES New research from the University of Zurich, based on data from more than 28,000 caregivers in three countries, shows that the longer individuals care for loved ones, the more their well-being suffers, regardless of the caregiving context. These findings underscore the need for policy discussions to alleviate the burden of informal care. The prevalence of informal caregiving continues to rise globally, abruptly changing caregivers' lives. But how does caregiving affect their well-being? Past research offers conflicting views: some suggest it enhances well-being by providing a sense of purpose, while others report declines due to emotional strain. To address this, a new study from the University of Zurich (UZH) analyzed data from 28,663 caregivers who contributed 281,884 observations across panel studies in the Netherlands, Germany, and Australia. The results show a consistent drop in life satisfaction and emotional health, with an...

  SITTING FOR LONG PERIODS IS DANGEROUS EVEN FOR ACTIVE PEOPLE. Approximately 10 hours or more of sedentary behavior per day is associated with a heightened risk of heart failure and cardiovascular death, even in those who regularly exercise. More time spent sitting, reclining, or lying down during the day may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and death, according to a study in JACC , the flagship journal of the American College of Cardiology, and presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2024. More than roughly 10-and-a-half hours of sedentary behavior per day was significantly linked with future heart failure (HF) and cardiovascular (CV) death, even among people meeting recommended levels of exercise. "Our findings support cutting back on...

 BUILD UP THOSE WEAK AND LAGGING MUSCLES WITH THE 100-REP SYSTEM     There are many techniques for building muscle and increasing strength. Depending on your goals and present fitness level, advanced muscle-building systems can help improve the size and strength of specific muscle groups. If you have been progressing in a strength and conditioning program for at least six months, you may be looking to challenge yourself to continue your progress. To take your fitness to the next level, the 100-rep system may be the program that blasts you past your plateau and adds more stimuli for muscle growth and strength. The 100-rep system stimulates a muscle with machines or free weights for 100 reps. The 100 reps or movements can be broken up into multiple sets with no more than a 5-10-second break between sets. Your weight or resistance will be relatively light, around 40-50 percent of your max, or choose a weight that will allow you to lift at a rate of 30-35 reps per set. You wi...