The Body Blog
Spring Cleaning Dos and Don’ts for Cleaning Out Your Closets
Spring is the perfect time to do some deep cleaning or organizing you may have avoided over the long winter months. So throw open those closet doors and let’s get things refreshed! When organizing or cleaning out your closets, there is usually lifting and bending involved. Having proper technique is critical to not injuring yourself during this process. Dos and Don’ts of High Shelves High shelves are usually where we put things we don’t need very often. Using proper technique when getting things off of or on to a high shelf is especially important to avoid injury. This is [...]
How to Exercise WITH Your Cycle
Women cycle every month and this affects how they should exercise and eat. Women have times in the month where their energy and hormones are high, and others where they need to treat themselves more gently. Working out and eating WITH your cycle helps to keep your metabolic rate stable and makes your workouts more effective for fat burning and strength building. In this video, Dr. Danielle Litoff, DPT and Functional Medicine Health Coach walks you through the typical 28-day cycle and explains what you should be eating, when you should push yourself, and when you should incorporate rest [...]
How To Make Health Habits Stick
It’s February. Have you stuck to your New Year’s resolution? If not, don’t feel bad. It is so common that there is even a National Quitter’s Day that falls on the second Friday in January. This year it fell on January 13th, 2023. So why is it so hard to make resolutions or new habits STICK? I can speak to health habits in particular and the biggest two reasons are: 1. the person doesn't have a good “why” for the change in habit, 2. or it does not fit into their lifestyle. When resistance is greater than the pleasure [...]
Jump Around, Jump Around (Properly!)
A Three-Part Series on Jumping “I came to get down, so get out your seat and jump around!” So while you now have that ‘92 jam by House of Pain stuck in your head, you can enjoy this article about how to jump properly so you don’t end up in a house of pain yourself! (You see what we did there?) Alright, enough. On to the real information. Jumper’s Knee and Improper Jumping Form Sports like basketball, volleyball, hurdles, and many more require a lot of jumping from the athlete. Jumping incorrectly can cause all kinds of knee problems [...]
How To Build Strength to Do a Full Push-Up
Push-ups are a great exercise for strength and stability and building muscles for good posture. They work the back, your chest and your core. Having strength in these areas helps with overall stability, balance and injury prevention. But it is important that you do not "fake" your way through a push-up. You want to look at different modifications so you can build that strength over time to get to a full push-up with good form. While the whole body has to be fired up and engaged for push-ups, the powerhouse strength comes from your upper body. Push-ups target the [...]
Zone 2 Training and Weight Loss
We are conditioned that workouts should be a grind… Sentiments like, “you should burn more than 400 calories or it’s not even worth it”; or, “that full hour at the gym should leave you sweaty and spent”; and the worst, “push through the pain!” Stop the insanity! High intensity training has its place but should not be the default. Overexercise and overexertion are harmful to the body and can, in fact, have adverse effects on health, weight loss and muscle gain. The magic is in Zone 2 training. Zone 2 training allows the body to recover and access fat [...]
How to Get Strong Enough to do a Full Pull-Up
Many women shy away from doing pull-ups because they can't do one right away. You have to build the muscles and the form up over time to do a proper pull-up. The strength to do a pull-up comes from your shoulders and back, and for most women, even those who are athletes, these can be harder muscles to develop. Compared to men, women have a stronger lower body than upper body. Women can be hesitant to develop their upper body strength because they think it will make them look “bulky”. In reality pull-ups help you build strength and lean [...]
Benefits, Safety and Tips for Exercise During Pregnancy
By Dr. Sarah Martinez, DPT As a physical therapist in Reno who works with many pregnant patients, I often get asked about exercise during pregnancy. The most common questions patients ask are what exercises are safe to do, and what exercises should I be doing to prepare for labor? Patients are also often misinformed that exercise can be harmful to their pregnancy when in fact it can be incredibly beneficial. So, let’s get into the benefits; what to watch out for; and how to stay mobile and active during your pregnancy. Benefits of Exercise During Pregnancy It is ideal [...]
Nutrition for Your High School Athlete
Kids in Washoe County are officially back in school this month. For many families, this means mornings are a lot more hectic to get everyone out the door on time. Oftentimes breakfast and overall nutrition for your teen is overlooked or goes from thoughtful to convenient. And I get it! I am just as guilty of arguing with my daughter to eat something whole as she races off to first period at 7am. But with a little education and a little planning, you can ensure that your high school athlete still gets good nutrition throughout the busy school year. [...]
Swimming Workouts: How to Condition In and Out of the Water
By Dr. Danielle Litoff, DPT I was a competitive swimmer for most of my life. I can tell you first-hand that it is an incredible way to get strong and stay in shape, but I can also most certainly say that it is not the only workout you should be doing. Like any other sport, swimming needs incorporation of other training exercises to keep an athlete balanced. We don’t live in the water, so swimmers need to do things on land as much as they do in the pool. When we are in water, we have an alternate sense [...]
