Tuesday, January 31, 2023

What's the Deal with Stretching?

 Stretching is an important part of physical therapy, and many physical therapists will include specific stretches into their sessions. Strength and endurance are both undeniably important; however, stretching is a crucial part of anyone’s exercise regimen, whether you are an athlete or someone coping with aches and pains. Stretching helps in increasing flexibility, which can alleviate pain and make other aspects of treatment easier – even strength and endurance!

What does stretching do?


Stretching has a lot of benefits that we don’t always think about. Some of these benefits include:


Improving range of motion.
Range of motion consists of how well your joints can move in all directions. This influences every movement you make! If you have a constricting condition, such as arthritis or an injury, your range of motion can be hindered. Whether it’s turning your head to see behind you while driving, or bending your knee freely while running, range of motion is crucial for both daily life and for fitness pursuits. Stretching can help reduce stiffness and increase flexibility, therefore improving your range of motion.


Finding relief in unexpected places. Sometimes we forget how interconnected our bodies are. It is obvious that if we experience back pain, we should stretch out our backs. However, sometimes stretching your legs during physical therapy can provide unexpected relief to your back, as well. In fact, your hamstrings, upper thighs, and hips can all play a big part in creating lower back pain relief. Likewise, improving your posture through stretching your torso can provide the kind of support you need to keep your spine from compressing, which helps you avoid shoulder and neck pain. Essentially, stretching different parts of your body can provide relief to places you may not have considered!


Enhancing performance.
This point is especially true for athletes. The more you condition your muscles, joints, and ligaments, the greater advantage you’ll have in your sport. For example, bodybuilders recover from their reps much quicker when they stretch as a cool-down. Golfers can achieve a longer reach by increasing their range of motion in their hips and shoulders. Swimmers can even out their strokes by perfecting their balance through stretching. If you are an athlete, stretching can play a crucial role in your performance.


Preventing injuries.   

When muscles are tight or tense, the likelihood of injury increases. This occurs because that particular part of your body isn’t working at its peak performance, even though you might be. When you stretch, you’re loosening up your muscles, in addition to increasing range of motion and improving balance, which all factor into injury prevention. All of these factors can prevent you from making the types of moves that lead to injury, whether it’s coming down too hard on one foot, twisting your back further than you should, or taking a fall due to lack of balance.


Improving circulation.  

Stretching can reduce stress, but that isn’t the only reason it’s good for your heart and your musculoskeletal system. In fact, stretching plays a key role in almost every aspect of your physical abilities. Tight muscles constrict available oxygen supply, essentially robbing themselves of the nutrients they need. Stretches help reverse the process. When you stretch frequently, you’ll also get the benefit of increased blood flow to your joints and throughout the body.

Monday, January 23, 2023

Why Should I Take CBD?

 How CBD Functions in Your Body

When we take CBD, it interacts with a regulatory system within our bodies called the “Endocannabinoid System”. This system is pivotal in regulating all sorts of processes that affect our day-to-day experience from boosting the immune system, regulating everything from mood to blood pressure to even how we experience pain or hunger! While we can’t always control the variables that cause us stress in our bodies, we can use CBD daily to make the most of our endocannabinoid system. Give this amazing regulatory body the best chance to succeed!


“So... What does it feel like?”
We get asked this all the time. Simply put, CBD feels different to everyone because everyone is unique. The day-to-day needs of each person’s body are unique. This is one reason why you’ll see one person swearing by CBD to help them sleep while another is praising it as an anti-inflammatory. Because their individual endocannabinoid systems are working to help them with their own unique issues, they’ll each “feel” CBD in their own way!


Using CBD Daily
In our many years of working with CBD and our customers, we’ve seen a pattern emerge. While folks often come to us with a specific need in the beginning that they want CBD to address, many find themselves eventually taking it each day and become very used to the routine. When the product runs out and that daily routine is no longer happening, people tell us they really get an idea for how CBD was helping them. It might seem subtle at first, but the continual effect of CBD in our lives can really make a difference!


Find the Method that’s Right for You!
We make a wide variety of products to keep up with the wide variety of people that use them. Do you prefer the tried and true method of a dropper-full of CBD oil? Our Full Spectrum Daily line of oils should fit you perfectly. Do you like to take your CBD on the go in your vitamin caddy? Check out both of our lines of softgels! Maybe you would prefer to add CBD to your beverage of choice instead of taking it straight? We formulated our Water-Soluble Rapid Delivery 150 just for you. No matter the person, we can find the CBD product that’s right for you!

Monday, January 9, 2023

What is a Pood?

 This is common question for folks new to kettlebell, especially if you have been getting your workouts from Crossfit. 'Pood' originated in Russia along with kettlebells and is a unit of measurement for kettlebells in Russia. More specifically it is a unit equal to 40 funt (фунт, Russian Pound). A funt is a Russian pound



What is a Pood in Kilograms and Pounds?
It is approximately 16.38 kilograms. A kilogram is 2.2 pounds. So one pood is also 36.11 pounds.

Often times you will see a Crossfit workout call for 1 Pood, 1.5 Pood or 2 Pood. So, the common kettlebell weights closest to this would be a 16 Kg Kettlebell, 24 Kilogram Kettlebell and a 32 Kilogram Kettlebell respectively.



Bye Bye Pood, Hello Pood

Sadly, the good ol' pood was abolished by the USSR as a unit of measurement in 1924.

The term has had some resurgence as kettlebells have become more popular because it is still used in reference to sporting weights in Russia. That is it! Pretty simple!