Four tips for better sleep

In addition to back pain and problems in the neck and shoulders, poor quality of sleep is one of the things that significantly affect our wellbeing. Some of us find it difficult to fall asleep in the evening, and others fall asleep easily but wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep. Why is sleep important for our wellbeing? How can you improve the quality of your sleep? These are the things we will look at next.

Why do we need sleep?

We have billions of cells in our bodies and brains, which need to rest from time to time to be able to maintain their optimal functions. Lack of rest makes the cells tired and weakens their activity. The better we sleep, the more effective the body is in performing daily tasks. We also need sleep for both our physical and mental health:
With sleep
-the body and mind are refreshed
-we recover from the efforts taken during the day
-energy stores are replenished
-muscles...

Improve your performance in your sport without overstress

Injury is often considered a part of sports and training. Some part of the body seems always to be resisting, when one problem is treated, another one appears. Of course injuries occur in sports from time to time, but when done right, training and practicing shouldn’t break our bodies!

I strongly believe that especially children should practice a variety of other sports in the long term in addition to their main one.

I used to work as a massage therapist in a physical therapy institute where I worked in collaboration with the sports teams in the area. In addition to tests done by physiotherapists, many young future athletes used physiotherapy and massage to treat the areas that were causing them problems. I used to always ask and map how the youngsters who came to have a massage were training.
I can tell you the workload was high; generally, there was training once a day, sometimes even...

The truth about sitting

Sitting and its harmful effects have been a hot topic in the last few years; sitting has even been called the new tobacco. The claim might seem like an overstatement, but when we look deeper into the marks sitting leaves into our body, we’ll understand it better.

Over 80% of people suffer from some degree of back pain during their life. You might have
sometimes noticed how sitting for a long time has made a pain in the lower back worse or increased aches in the shoulders and neck. These are very common problems that can be caused by sitting for long times. Maintaining an ergonomic posture while sitting takes a lot of work from our stabiliser muscles, so our body doesn’t sink forward into a slumped sitting position.

A Norwegian study from the year 2017, on the other hand, showed that the risk for getting type 2 diabetes is 17% higher for those who sit for more than 8 hours a day compared to those who sit for less...

6 ways to avoid overstressing the body

Disrupted sleep, sudden high pulse, training doesn’t feel good or feels forced, constant illness, or losing your temper because of small things? These could all be symptoms of overstress or
overtraining. You might be thinking that overtraining doesn’t concern you because you’re not an athlete. But in reality, overstress, or chronic fatigue can be a problem for anyone from athletes to those maintaining their basic fitness levels.

Overstress isn’t only caused by excessive training, but the whole consisting of exercise, nutrition, stress, and recovery. A very common cause for overstress among people who train is too little rest and recovery combined with excessive activity and stress. In this situation, the overall stress from life grows too large compared to what we can recover from; during overstress, the body and mind can’t recover optimally from the stress they are being subjected...

4 ways to motivate yourself to exercise regularly

Does this sound familiar: you’re excited to start a new hobby, and for the first couple of months you have the energy to stay excited until the number of training sessions starts to decrease gradually? This is a common problem with people. After the initial burst of excitement, the new active hobby doesn’t get you to get moving as often as before; over time, you might drop off exercise completely and return to where you started. Where can you find motivation for regular exercise? I will tell you my tips for finding motivation and at the same time give you a couple of exercises that will help you on your journey towards training regularly.

What is important to you?

The first and most important question is: what is important to you? If we don’t recognise our own real reasons for exercising, motivation is easily lost. Today it’s easy to get carried away by...

Improve mobility without static stretching

Today we spend most of the time we are awake sitting: we sit while having breakfast at the table, on our way to work, at work, during lunch and in the evening on the sofa. Our everyday routines are mostly very passive, which harms posture and mobility. Did you know that when you want to improve your mobility, static stretching is not the most important thing? In this article, we will explore the things you can do to improve your mobility without spending many minutes in one and the same position.

Stretching

There are many kinds of stretches, active and passive, static and dynamic. If we really want to
affect our mobility we need especially dynamic stretches combined with ballistic and contract-relax stretches. Instead of only specific muscles, it is important to pay attention to muscular myofascial chains and their mobility. Some of the points mentioned above are probably familiar to you, but let’s...

Read how to control back problems with your training

As many as 60% of people experience pain in the lower back during their life, and one of the most common causes for the pain is spinal disc herniation. Commonly called slipped disc, these problems are currently very common, both for people who train and for those who don’t. The cause for back pain in everyday life as well as in training is usually the lack of strength and poor activation of the stabiliser muscles as well as lack of mobility in the body.
If our bodies have more strength than stability and mobility, the body won’t be able to withstand the resulting strain. This can be a result of sitting too much or hard training, focusing on too few areas.

You could think of stability and mobility as the basis of good health and fitness. When we have more reserves in these than there is strength in the body, we can train and move safely, knowing the body is capable of handling the...

A strong core and visible abs must be one of the most common goals for people who train. When we set this goal, we often focus on training the surface muscles or the straight abdominal muscle (Rectus abdominis), but that leaves many important areas without any attention. To be able to take on different sports and ways to exercise including gym, ball games, and group exercise classes without risking injury, we must also pay attention to the deep abdominal muscles underneath the surface muscles.

What is the core?

When people use the word core, they usually mean the muscles in the middle of the body including back and abdominal muscles. Anatomically thinking the core consists of different parts of the body including the abdomen, spine, pelvis, hips, and chest. The core takes part in every movement we make during the day, whether it is a daily task like lifting up a pen from the floor or squats with heavy weights at the gym. If the core muscles are not functioning properly, more...

Do you want more energy, to be in better shape and sleep better, without injuries or fear of overexertion? It’s possible, if we take into account certain things in our training.
Let’s look at these in more detail.

STABILITY AND MOBILITY

Stabilizer muscles and mobility form the basis of our fitness pyramid. When the lower part of the pyramid has more capacity than is required to maintain the body’s ability to perform, we stay healthy. If the pyramid is turned on its head, the body experiences additional stress and it causes different injuries and sprains.

Your body is only as strong as its weakest link. In order to be able to train with high intensity without breaking the body, the stabilizing muscles must be in good shape. If the support for our shoulder blades fails, the shoulders are elevated up toward the ears. At the same time the posture gets worse when the muscles that support the shoulder blades aren’t able to keep the shoulders in the right position....

You’ve probably heard the saying “no pain, no gain”. Maybe you’ve thought about this and found it relatable, even if you’re not a professional athlete. The whole body feels stiff, and there are different types of aches and pains. You might even think that this is normal. We shouldn’t, however, have to struggle with a stiff body and pain in our daily life. It’s not a normal state for the body. Exercise shouldn’t be bad for your health when done right. What is it then, that causes the body to react in this way and gives rise to these aches and pains?

One reason is training too hard. Often people think that training hard gives you more energy. It’s true, but only if you can recover from the training that leaves you feeling beat up. Today, most people have poor recovery and training too hard leads to pain and injuries; as much as 80% of people suffer from some kind of musculoskeletal disorder or disease. If you want to relax, sleep...