Reset your body and mind with 10 ‘spring cleaning’ tips

Editor’s note: Dana Santas, known as the “mobility creator,” is a certified strength and conditioning specialist and mind-body coach in professional sports, and is the author of “Practical solutions for the relief of back pain.”

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With the warmer weather, you may be inspired to clean out your closets, wash your windows, and give your home a deep clean and reorganization. A clean environment is not only good for your physical health, but investigation The good feelings you get from having a clean and tidy home have been shown to reduce stress levels and prevent depression.

Imagine how good you’d feel if you took the same spring-cleaning approach to your body: your life and breath at home.

Of course, you should already be signing up for annual checkups with your GP and eye doctor, and you can even see your dentist every couple of years. But how about taking a closer look at how you feed and move your body, and making healthy changes to cleanse those areas?

As a mind-body coach in professional sports, I work with coaches, medical staff, and expert consultants every year during baseball spring training to help players prepare their bodies for the season. In addition to performing annual physicals, we do nutritional and movement assessments to create appropriate action plans.

You may not be a professional athlete, but your body is still the vehicle you use to navigate your life, and the quality of your ability to move and how good you feel in it affects the overall quality of your life.

That’s why I enlisted the help of two experts in nutrition and human movement to provide 10 “spring cleaning” tips to avoid injury, move pain-free, reduce inflammation, maintain a healthy weight, and generally feel better in your life. body.

Important note: It is recommended to consult your doctor before beginning any new exercise program or dietary changes.

You might expect a cleanse to be the #1 tip, but think twice before diving into one of the many popular cleanses advertised. Many of them can “do more harm than good,” according to registered dietitian Angie Asche, owner of Eleat Sports Nutrition and author of “Fuel Your Body: How to Cook and Eat for Peak Performance.” Asche said the cleanses can be dehydrating and contain herbal supplements with potentially negative side effects and contraindications with certain medications. What’s more, some of these regimes do not fulfill his promise, according to the National Institutes of Health. “Most are missing key nutrients that are necessary for your body to naturally detoxify,” he explained.

Fiber, found in plant foods, is the key to safe and efficient cleaning, according to Asche. She advises eating five to nine fruits and vegetables a day for bowel regularity and weight control. “Plant foods like nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, fruits and vegetables not only contain antioxidants,” Asche said, “but the more variety of plants we have in our diets, the better for the diversity of our gut biome.”

With its focus on eating more real, whole foods high in fiber, Asche also recommends limiting ultra-processed packaged foods such as cookies, candy, crackers, baked goods, and fried foods. These foods are full of saturated fat, sodium, sugar, and preservatives and lack nutritional value.

The amount of water you drink affects every function in your body, including your mental performance; a loss of body water of only 1% to 2% can affect cognitive function. Promote good health and weight controlAsche advises drinking at least half your body weight in ounces a day, but said the amount can vary based on a person’s activity level.

Asche said most liquids, including tea, coffee and carbonated water, can count toward your water intake, but notes that alcohol doesn’t count, and should be limited. “In large amounts, alcohol can overwhelm the gut, promote intestinal inflammation and increase harmful bacteria … (which) can lead to a wide range of health problems,” he said.

According to physical therapist Gray Cook, co-founder of functional movement systems.

“Signs of weakness, stiffness and balance problems can be early indicators of arthritis and posture problems, as well as increased risk of injury for athletes and risk of falls for the elderly,” Cook said.

You can get the assistance of a qualified physical therapist or trainer to perform a movement assessment, but a recent study showed that self-motion assessment (using an app Codeveloped by Cook) is valid and reliable for identifying musculoskeletal risk factors.

Whether working with professional athletes or doing my own workouts, I make sure to cover all of the primary functional movements in all planes of motion in every training session. Executing that type of total-body workout sounds more complicated than it is. It is simply a matter of practicing and strengthening your ability to perform the basic movement functions of your body: squatting, twisting, pushing, pulling, rotating, and stabilizing your core.

And, just like the multidirectional movement of everyday life, it helps to exercise in all three planes of movement: sagittal (forward/backward), frontal (side to side), and transverse (rotation). You can easily practice these movements with a bodyweight workout either yoga flow.

The key to the effectiveness of the exercise is consistency. With as little as 11 minutes of exercise per day, you can enjoy numerous health benefits, including increasing your life expectancy. Walking outside is a great way to get those 11 minutes a day, and due to the alternating and reciprocal nature of walking, it offers an opportunity to tune in to your body and self-assess by noticing if there are any any imbalance.

Breathing plays a vital role in how you think, feel and move. In addition to lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and stress response, learning to breathe better will improve the function of the diaphragm and the mobility of the ribs, which can improve posture and reduce back pain. practice taking breath breaks a few minutes throughout the day.

Sleep is essential for overall health. Adults need at least seven hours of sleep each night, according to US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.. If you’re not getting that minimum amount of sleep, it’s time to clean up your sleep routine and start prioritizing rest.

Like the physical and mental benefits of traditional spring cleaning inside your home, these 10 tips will refresh and revitalize your body and mind in remarkably positive ways.