All posts in Conscious Living Resources

Keeping the Sinuses Clear

by Lyndsay Murray on January 11, 2012 in Blog, Conscious Living Resources with No comments

Win­ter is noto­ri­ous for increas­ing one’s pre­dis­po­si­tion towards colds, aller­gies, sinus infec­tions, etc.  One of the sim­plest ways to com­bat a nasal drip or mucous build up is through pranayama and nasya.  Nasya is one of the five Ayurvedic purifi­ca­tion treat­ments  used in pan­chakarma ther­apy; but it also stands alone as a help­ful way to pre­vent win­ter from tak­ing a hold on the body.  Nasya can be used in con­junc­tion with a neti pot to amplify its mucous clear­ing properties.

I recently under­went extreme win­ter tem­per­a­ture changes (Texas-Russia), and found the fol­low­ing breath­ing exer­cises and nasal clear­ing tech­niques to be quite help­ful in reestab­lish­ing bal­ance and pre­vent­ing com­pli­ca­tions due to cli­mate differences.

1.  Nasya helps to clear and lubri­cate the sinus pas­sage­ways, reliev­ing acute and chronic sinus prob­lems such as aller­gies, mucous con­ges­tion, dry nasal pas­sage, and snor­ing. Nasya also helps to relieve headaches, migraines, stiff neck, fatigue, insom­nia, and stress related prob­lems. It reduces anx­i­ety, clears and strength­ens the mind, and stim­u­lates the ner­vous sys­tem.  Nasya is praised in yoga because of its effects on con­cen­tra­tion and med­i­ta­tion, as well as its lubri­cat­ing action which soothes the dry­ing of the nasal pas­sages from reg­u­lar breath­ing prac­tices (Pranayama).  Nasya is com­pletely safe for most peo­ple (see con­sid­er­a­tions below for when you want to avoid nasya) and extremely effec­tive due to its rapid absorp­tion into the mucous mem­branes of the sinus pas­sages. The active herbal ingre­di­ents are effec­tive much faster when absorbed through the nasal pas­sage than when taken orally.

Con­sid­er­a­tions:

Make sure you use a high qual­ity oil. You can buy med­icated oils which are usu­ally a sesame oil base with herbs to  increase the med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties of the nasya ther­apy.  Alter­na­tively you can use plain sesame oil.  Choose plain, nat­ural sesame oil – do not use sesame oil that is sold in the gro­cery store for Asian cooking.

It is best to do nasya in the morn­ing or in the after­noon. Do not do a large dose nasya if you have just eaten.

Do not per­form large dose nasya if you have fever, acute rhini­tis, extreme fatigue, or have just given birth. Also avoid nasya treat­ment on days you are fast­ing or have taken drugs or alco­hol.  A nasya treat­ment is not to be per­formed on young chil­dren or on the elderly, but a small dose can be done on anyone.

Nasya works best in con­junc­tion with neti. You may want to alter­nate nasya with neti if you have a lot of con­ges­tion and mucous prob­lems. Be aware that too much neti can cause dry­ing of the nasal pas­sage, so it is impor­tant to per­form reg­u­lar nasya to keep the nasal pas­sage well lubricated.

2.  Ujjayi (vic­to­ri­ous breath). Ujjayi pranayama is the foun­da­tion of proper breath­ing and one of the most com­monly prac­ticed yoga breath­ing tech­niques. In Ujjayi pranayama one must tune the ears and mind to con­tin­u­ally and con­sciously cre­ate har­mony of sound dur­ing inhala­tion and exha­la­tion.  An unsteady breath leads to an unsteady mind there­fore Ujjayi is also prac­ticed to smooth the flow of breath and har­mo­nize the breath­ing rhythms.

Instruc­tions
Find a com­fort­able seated posi­tion. Gen­tly exhale all of the air from the lungs.
Inhale gen­tly allow­ing the air to pass into the body with ease and no resis­tance.
Exhale make a sound with the mouth closed that sounds like “hhh­hha”.
Make the sound the same through­out the exha­la­tion. This will indi­cate the same amount of air leaves the lungs through­out the exha­la­tion. An uneven sound usu­ally indi­cates an unsteady ner­vous sys­tem. This will smooth out dur­ing prac­tice.
A sound that is too loud indi­cates too much inter­nal con­flict. Mus­cles are used in the exha­la­tion and other mus­cles are used in restrict­ing the exha­la­tion and also to cre­ate the sound. Use the mus­cles lightly so that the con­flict of energy within is soft and pres­sure does not exits around the tem­ples.
After mas­ter­ing the above, progress to the fol­low­ing:
Inhale and restrict the air flow to make the sound “sssss”. Keep the sound con­stant and smooth.
Exhale make a sound with the mouth closed that sounds like “hhhhha”.

The “other” fitness pole

by Lyndsay Murray on August 31, 2011 in Blog, Conscious Living Resources, Mindful Movement with No comments

Pole fit­ness classes have made their mark on fit­ness sched­ules across the coun­try. This post, how­ever, is ded­i­cated to the “other” type of pole–the trekking pole–their ben­e­fits and train­ing advan­tages.  Although, I have com­pleted Nordic Walk­ing Instruc­tor Train­ing (along with Zumba, Grav­ity, Power Plate, and a tool­box full of other pop-up fit­ness trends, bands, disks, balls, bells and whis­tles),  this method (as the oth­ers) is in many ways just a cre­ative brand­ing of a time-tested prac­tice.  This post is meant to edu­cate the reader on the ben­e­fit of poles (fit­ness, trekking, etc.) when prepar­ing for long-distance hikes or when going out for a power walk.  I will use the term Pole walk­ing, Nordic walk­ing, and Ski walk­ing syn­ony­mously through­out this post.  Tips for choos­ing the right poles to come!

Ben­e­fits of Pole Walking

(Stud­ies in Europe and the United States have proved the fol­low­ing health ben­e­fits.  More studies/research avail­able at skiwalking.com)

 

  • Nordic Walk­ing burns up to 46% more calo­ries than walk­ing with­out poles. Nordic Walk­ing also reduces knee and joint strain. It nat­u­rally loosens and strength­ens the neck, back and shoulders.
  • Unlike walk­ing, run­ning and bik­ing, Pole Walk­ing works the arms, shoul­der and abs.
  • A study con­ducted at the Uni­ver­sity of Mass­a­chu­setts at Amherst showed that using poles lets hik­ers lengthen their strides, put less strain on their knees, and gen­er­ally feel more com­fort­able. The hik­ers stud­ied did not expend less energy, but the increase in sta­bil­ity made long treks easier.
  • Pole walk­ing pro­vides ALL the low impact ben­e­fits of walk­ing, while reduc­ing knee and joint strain, burn­ing more calo­ries, work­ing the upper body, increas­ing oxy­gen con­sump­tion and pro­vid­ing a more effec­tive aer­o­bic workout.
  • Pole walk­ing improves lymph sys­tem func­tion and boosts the immune system.
  • It helps main­tain joint health and range of motion.
  • 90% of the body’s mus­cles are acti­vated in this form of exercise.
  • Using poles gives an aver­age of 20–25% greater car­dio fit­ness effect than reg­u­lar walk­ing and induces a lower per­ceived feel­ing of exer­tion than like aer­o­bic activities.
  • Using poles pro­motes an upright and bal­anced walk­ing posture.

Staying Hydrated

by Lyndsay Murray on August 27, 2011 in Blog, Conscious Living Resources, Mindful Movement with No comments

Though we have not yet sur­passed the DFW record for con­sec­u­tive num­ber of 100 degree days set in 1980, we came pretty close.  On August 11, 2011, our triple digit weather took a small dip only to rise up again.  The heat is still with us and we may yet set some new records.  All this to say, stay­ing cool and hydrated is a major con­cern for us and all fit­ness enthu­si­asts try­ing to con­tinue their out­door train­ing pro­grams.  And unless you plan to take a trip to the Rock­ies in the near future, we must rec­on­cile our train­ing pro­gram with our cur­rent sit­u­a­tion in a peace­ful, healthy way.  Below are the fluid rec­om­men­da­tions set by the Inter­na­tional Marathon Med­ical Director’s Asso­ci­a­tion for stay­ing hydrated on our group hikes and in your per­sonal train­ing time.

IMMDA’s REVISED FLUID RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RUNNERS & WALKERS
Writ­ing com­mit­tee: Lewis G. Maharam, MD.FACSM (chair),Tamara Hew DPM, Arthur Siegel MD, Marv Adner, MD, Bruce Adams, MD and Pedro Pujol, MD, FACSM
Approved by IMMDA: 6 May 2006. Barcelona, Spain

As Med­ical Direc­tors (IMMDA: Inter­na­tional Marathon Med­ical Director’s Asso­ci­a­tion) of the world’s largest marathons and endurance events, it is our desire to edu­cate and ensure that our par­tic­i­pants con­sume proper flu­ids and amounts of flu­ids dur­ing endurance events to remain healthy and per­form well. Too much or too lit­tle may bring about health con­cerns and/or poor per­for­mance. We there­fore offer the fol­low­ing guid­ance for run­ners and walk­ers at all lev­els to fol­low in their train­ing and com­pet­i­tive events.

What should you drink? The evi­dence on this is clear. If your event or work­out is longer than 30 min­utes you should be drink­ing a sports drink. The added car­bo­hy­drate and elec­trolytes speed absorp­tion of flu­ids and have the added ben­e­fit of energy fuel and elec­trolytes. There is actu­ally decreased ben­e­fit to water­ing down or dilut­ing sports drinks or alter­nat­ing sports drinks with water.

How much should you drink? Drink­ing too much or too lit­tle can be of risk to health and per­for­mance. Hypona­tremia ( low blood salt level due to abnor­mal fluid reten­tion from over-drinking) and dehy­dra­tion (due to net fluid losses from under drink­ing) are con­di­tions eas­ily adverted by under­stand­ing your indi­vid­ual body needs. Just as you have a unique face and fin­ger­print, your body’s need for fluid is indi­vid­ual as well. Body weight, gen­der, cli­mate, sweat rate are just a few vari­ables that indi­vid­u­al­ize your needs. Under­stand­ing that it is nor­mal to lose a small amount of body-weight dur­ing a marathon race: body-weight will re-equilibrate over the next 24 hours through the con­sump­tion of sodium and flu­ids with meals. A weight loss of more than 2% or any weight gain are warn­ing signs that jus­tify imme­di­ate med­ical con­sul­ta­tion and indi­cate that you are drink­ing improp­erly.
We offer the fol­low­ing ideas and guide­lines for you to con­sider as you assess your indi­vid­ual flu­ids:
Try to drink to thirst. This advice seems way too sim­ple to be true; how­ever, phys­i­o­log­i­cally the new sci­en­tific evi­dence says that thirst will actu­ally pro­tect ath­letes from the haz­ards of both over and under-drinking by pro­vid­ing real time feed­back on inter­nal fluid bal­ance. If you are not thirsty, try to refrain from drink­ing. Do not feel com­pelled to drink at every fluid sta­tion nor fol­low the cues of other run­ners: their fluid needs are prob­a­bly very dif­fer­ent from your own. If you are “over-thinking” and feel you can­not rely on this new way of think­ing, exper­i­ment in your train­ing with one of these other ways real­iz­ing each has it’s own cau­tions as well.

APPROXIMATION OF FLUID REPLACEMENT *
*The reader should under­stand that there are indi­vid­ual vari­a­tions: “one size does not fit all”. We endorse thirst as the best sci­en­tif­i­cally sup­ported method for you to use. These alter­nate meth­ods may not take into account changes in ambi­ent con­di­tions, run­ning speed and ter­rain which can all change dynam­i­cally which thirst as a method to use does.
Run­ners and walk­ers who are inter­ested in the endurance “expe­ri­ence” rather than pur­su­ing a ‘per­sonal best’ per­for­mance, must resist the ten­dency to over drink. Runners/walkers plan­ning to spend between 4–6 hours or longer on the course are at risk for devel­op­ing fluid-overload hypona­tremia and usu­ally do not need to ingest more than one cup (3–6 oz: 3 oz if you weigh approx­i­mately 100 lbs and 6 oz if you weigh approx­i­mately 200 lbs) of fluid per mile. Ath­letes should avoid weight gain dur­ing an event.
Some par­tic­i­pants may find that adjust­ing their intake to pace or time is eas­ier for them as shown below but remem­ber­ing thirst is the best method:

Adjust the rate of fluid intake to race pace: slower race pace = slower drink­ing rate; max­i­mum intake of 500 ml/hr (4–6 oz every 20 min) for run­ners with greater than 5 hour fin­ish­ing times (10–11 min/mile pace). Weight mon­i­tor­ing is also impor­tant: if you gain weight dur­ing your work­out or event, you are drink­ing too much!
For a more highly moti­vated runner/walker who desires a numeric “range”, a fluid cal­cu­la­tor can pro­vide an esti­mate of body fluid losses as a gen­er­al­ized strat­egy for fluid replace­ment. Par­tic­i­pants con­cerned about peak per­for­mance are advised to under­stand their indi­vid­u­al­ized fluid needs through use of this fluid cal­cu­la­tor but ALWAYS defer to phys­i­o­logic cues to increase fluid intake (thirst, con­cen­trated dark urine, weight loss) or decrease fluid con­sump­tion (dilute or clear uri­na­tion, bloat­ing, weight gain) while par­tic­i­pat­ing. It is also impor­tant to rec­og­nize that if you use this method in one cli­mate and then travel to a dif­fer­ent cli­mate for your event, the humid­ity will change your sweat rate and there­fore your fluid needs.

Fluid cal­cu­la­tor: to cal­cu­late sweat rate, runners/ walk­ers should fol­low these steps:
1.    Weigh nude before the run.
2.    Run/walk at race pace for one hour.  (One hour is rec­om­mended to get a reli­able rep­re­sen­ta­tion of sweat rate expected in an endurance event.)
3.    Track fluid intake dur­ing the run or walk; mea­sure in ounces.
4.    Record nude weight after the run/walk. Sub­tract from start­ing weight. Con­vert the dif­fer­ence in body weight to ounces.
5.    To deter­mine hourly sweat rate, add to this value the vol­ume of fluid con­sumed (in Step 3).
6.    To deter­mine how much to drink every 15 min­utes, divide the hourly sweat rate by 4.  This becomes the guide­line for fluid intake every 15 min of a run.
7.    Note the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions on this day and repeat the mea­sure­ments on another day when the envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions are dif­fer­ent.  This will give you an idea of how dif­fer­ent con­di­tions affect your sweat rate.

Good luck in your train­ing. Exper­i­ment­ing with your flu­ids can be a fun exer­cise. Remem­ber to keep in mind that the con­sump­tion of bev­er­ages and foods con­tain­ing sodium or car­bo­hy­drate should be guided by the goal to min­i­mize loss of body weight and pre­vent weight gain.

The Inter­na­tional Marathon Med­ical Direc­tors Asso­ci­a­tion (IMMDA) was formed as the Con­sult­ing Med­ical Com­mit­tee of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Inter­na­tional Marathons (AIMS). The pur­pose of IMMDA is to i) pro­mote and study the health of long dis­tance run­ners, ii) pro­mote research into the cause and treat­ment of run­ning injuries, iii) pre­vent the occur­rence of injuries dur­ing mass par­tic­i­pa­tion runs, iv) offer guide­lines for the pro­vi­sion of uni­form marathon med­ical ser­vices through­out the world, and v) pro­mote a close work­ing rela­tion­ship between race and med­ical direc­tors in achiev­ing the above four goals.

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