Weighted Blankets: Latest Fad or Do They Really Help Anxiety?
One thing’s for sure: If a weighted blanket helps reduce anxiety, this sure beats using drugs and alcohol. And just how can a weighted blanket improve sleep?
Certainly there’s no risks from using a weighted blanket at night when you go to sleep.
Insomnia can lead to anxiety and make pre-existing depression worse.
The weight of these therapeutic blankets will vary depending on the user’s desires – obviously, children will require a lighter pressure.
How does a specially weighted blanket work?
“How it works is that the pressured weight from the blanket causes a therapeutic effect by triggering the nervous system to release a hormone called serotonin,” says Sashini Seeni, MD, a family medicine practitioner with DoctorOnCall, an online doctor and pharmacy.
“Serotonin helps your body and mind to calm down,” continues Dr. Seeni.
“Also, it helps to lower your heart rate and breathing which helps a person to calm down and fall asleep faster.
“One of the tricks of falling asleep is lying still, and a weighted blanket could stop you from moving around before sleep.”
The second we get positioned in bed for the night, our minds are no longer distracted by activities.
Instead, our minds are then prone to roaming — and usually the roam heads straight towards stressful areas, causing anxiety and often difficulty falling asleep.
In addition to the release of seratonin, the blanket can produce a calming effect due to the blanket’s mimicking of a cocoon or of being held in a firm embrace.
Enclosure within the blanket may subconsciously trigger memories of being swaddled as an infant – when everything was secure and everything was taken care of for you.
And, with an increase in the serotonin comes an increase in the hormone melatonin, which aids sleep.
So why not just layer some regular blankets?
Laying two or three common blankets will not result in the even weight distribution that the “weighted blanket” provides.
Throughout the course of the night, the user’s movements may throw off the distribution of regular layered coverings even more.
A single blanket that offers the extra pressure is more convenient; there’s no layering to hassle with, and the pressure will always be evenly distributed.
Weighted Blankets and Autism
Some autistic people like weighted blankets because the deep pressure they provide can be calming and help regulate sensory input. This can ease anxiety.
This type of pressure can mimic the feeling of a hug, promoting a sense of safety and comfort.
For individuals with sensory sensitivities or anxiety, the steady weight can reduce overstimulation, improve focus and support better sleep.
Weighted blankets may also help with body awareness, grounding an autistic person in their physical space.
While not everyone with autism finds them helpful, many use them as a soothing tool to manage stress and feel more relaxed in overwhelming environments or during rest.
DoctorOnCall is the largest digital healthcare platform for citizens of Malaysia, allowing patients to consult doctors for advice, book appointments and place orders with local pharmacies.
Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.
Must Women Lose Weight Before Beginning Squats, Leg Presses?
Just because being obese or moderately overweight may hinder a woman’s ability to perform squats and leg presses doesn’t mean she needs to first lose weight to effectively do these exercises.
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How to Rid the Odor of Stinky Weightlifting Gloves – Yuck!
Peeuuugh! Weightlifting gloves will eventually stink if they’ve been getting good use at the gym.
The stench of sweat, grime and old leather just don’t mix well.
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Is High Rep Weight Training True Endurance Training?
Endurance is sustained activity.
If you’re using light weights for 20 repetitions, this may seem like endurance when you compare it to heavy weights of the same routine that you can only do eight reps for. (more…)
Why Doesn’t the Body Positive Movement Include Muscular Women?
Where are the muscular women in the body positive movement?
All we see are women ranging from moderately overweight to morbidly obese.
The body positive movement has excluded muscular women, creating the illusion that there’s just one continuum — one that begins with the bone thin or “anorexic” body and ends with the very obese body and everything in between.
On this continuum the dress size begins at zero and goes well past 26. There’s a glorification of bodies that are so overweight that mobility is impaired.
The body positive movement encourages overweight and obese women to love their bodies just as they are, rather than work them at the gym to get fitter and more toned (dare I say muscular?)
They encourage women to celebrate their plus size body; there is no mention of muscles or replacing jiggly legs with sculpted strong legs.
Instagram is full of muscular women in all sorts of attire including bikinis.
BUT … the “Every body is beautiful” campaign EXCLUDES muscular women. Is this because muscularity is a choice and obesity isn’t?
Shutterstock/AXL
Though it’s a choice to overeat, it’s a safe bet that few women enjoy the outcome of too many calories.
I wonder how many obese women just went “Ughhh!” upon viewing the bodybuilder above.
Where do muscular women fit in on the continuum that’s been defined by the body positive movement?
“The ‘body positive movement’ focuses on women’s body sizes who have traditionally been marginalized in our society, such as those who are overweight,” explains Linda Centeno, PhD, clinical psychologist, and assistant director of the Koch Center in NJ that specializes in eating disorder treatment.
She continues, “Muscular women are not marginalized in the same way and, in fact, there has been a shift over the last 20 years, with sports companies (like Nike) marketing the concept that it is cool (and attractive) to be a strong female athlete.
“It would be ideal if our culture respected and welcomed all body types.”
Body positive influencers think in a one-dimensional fashion: A woman is either skinny, fat or somewhere in between (slender, medium, plump, pudgy, chubby, husky).
Though the muscular body isn’t marginalized like the obese body is, many muscular women DO get unfavorable comments from the people in their lives, as well as from strangers.
We should see muscular women in all of those photos of women who are part of the body positive movement campaign.
Dr. Centeno works with adolescents and adults. In her private practice her specific clinical expertise also includes anxiety and panic disorder, depression, relationship issues and sexual abuse.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified by the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained clients of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Artem Furman
Image 2 & 3: ShotPrime Studio; Dmitri Ma
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Should You Lose Weight Before Starting Yoga?
Though being overweight will make yoga more challenging, this doesn’t mean you must first lose weight before taking your first yoga class.
Keep in mind that many yoga poses are done while seated on your mat.
Yoga is not about jumping drills, pushups, climbing ropes or other actions that are notoriously difficult for plus-size people.
It’s actually quite irrational to believe you must lose weight before taking up yoga, being that this discipline is very easy on the joints.
Some moves even involve lying on your mat.
Don’t let images of yogis twisted into pretzels while they balance on their palms scare you away. These are highly advanced practitioners.
Like any physical discipline, yoga is on a continuum: from very easy for beginners to very difficult for the advanced.
The idea of losing weight first originates from the belief that obese people can’t do the yoga moves. However, there are endless positions.
Freepik.com, rawpixel.com
And what may seem like a brutally hard position can actually be very fluid, in that it can be modified to fit the level of even the most poorly conditioned practitioner.
“There are several yoga studios that cater to students with weight issues,” says Susan Rubin, Anusara instructor and former owner of Sage Yoga in Armonk, NY.
“For people who have too much weight to participate in an open class these classes can be amazing,” continues Rubin.
“Students feel success and many yoga studios promote a healthy lifestyle and judgement free atmosphere.
“If a student attends a class that moves quickly from pose to pose they may get frustrated.
“But yoga is an amazing tool in getting healthy and feeling better physically and mentally.
“The style of yoga and the teacher you choose is key to finding your way.”
If the gym that you have a membership to offers yoga classes, check them out.
Never assume that the poses will be too difficult for you must because everyone in the class — that you’re looking in on — is a size 6.
This is just a coincidence and not necessarily indicative of the difficulty level of the movements.
“Everyone who does yoga comes into their first class uncertain if they will be able to do the postures,” says Rubin.
“Rarely does anyone, even the most flexible or athletic student, walk into a class and not find it a challenge.”
How Do Obese People Begin a Yoga Class?
Freepik.com, prostooleh
Rubin explains, “A teacher that is experienced will offer a variety of adjustments to the postures with the use of props which will help students experience the effects of yoga even when facing challenges in a class.
“Iyengar was the first to bring in a variety of props for all different body types so that a newer student or less mobile student could experience the benefits of postures that their body was unable to do without the props.”
Classes for overweight people may also “move more slowly between postures. A beginner Iyengar class is a good starting place.
There are many classes/YouTubes and tapes that specialize in larger bodies.”
But even if you can’t find a class nearby that’s just for obese or special populations, and you prefer a class environment rather than a solitary home environment with a video, then just walk into a mainstream yoga class.
If you belong to a health club, chances are it has yoga classes on its group class schedule.
If you feel that you’re “too fat” for a mainstream yoga class, ask yourself why.
Freepik.com/shurkin_son
• Is it because you don’t think you’ll be able to keep up?
• Is it self-consciousness, fear of being the only “fat” person in the class?
• Is it because you don’t think you’ll be able to get into most of the poses?
Do not decide you’ll lose weight first before pursing yoga. It may be a long time before you lose the weight you want.
And during all that futile time, you could have progressed in yoga!
Solutions for Not Being Able to Keep Up
As for not being able to keep up, there’s an out for this: the child’s pose.
Instructors will encourage students to assume this pose when they need to rest.
Freepik.com
Secondly, whom would you be trying to keep up with? If you look around in a yoga class, the students are NOT all in perfect synch with each other.
And in order for someone in the class to notice that you’re not keeping up, they’d have to be interrupting their own posing to keep track of you.
Go ahead, try it: Try to stick to the instructor’s directives while simultaneously visually following a targeted student.
Even if that student is right beside you, you will not be able to visually follow them while doing your poses, what with all the changes of direction, plus movements that make it difficult to turn your head up so that you can watch someone.
So the idea that someone ELSE in the room is tracking you is just plain impossible – unless they’re on prolonged pause mode.
“As a practice yoga offers students a new outlook – as they focus on breathing and range of motion their circulation is improved,” says Rubin. “They experience more energy.”
This is important to overweight people, especially the obese.
Instead of thinking that you should first lose weight before starting yoga, think in terms of how this discipline will HELP you in your weight loss journey.
Susan Rubin currently owns One Ocean Yoga.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Shutterstock/Reshetnikov_art
Is It True that Most Women in Any Yoga Class Are Skinny?
Where on earth did this absurd idea originate that yoga classes are full of skinny women?
I was inspired to cover this myth after reading an article about a plus-size yogi.
In her article was a quote that went something like this, in reference to yoga classes:
“Half the class has an eating disorder and the other half are gymnasts.”
I’ve taken around 12 yoga classes so far. This doesn’t make me an expert in yoga, but 12 classes are enough for me to legitimately comment on the myth that yoga classes are full of anorexic-looking women.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Freepik.com/yanalya
I’ll admit that it’s rare to see a full-figured woman or “fat” man in a yoga class.
But this doesn’t mean that the participants, collectively, weigh 105 pounds.
In my first class the woman next to me was very large; she’d be considered fat.
In my second class I noticed a woman with what very much appeared to be anorexia nervosa.
She must have been 78 pounds soaking wet. I am not exaggerating.
Being malnourished will undermine one’s ability to perform their best yoga.
So to ascribe an “eating disorder” to half the class is just plain ridiculous.
Don’t base your perception on the models whom photographers choose for their images depicting yoga.
It’s no coincidence that some (not all) models who look undernourished are never photographed in advanced poses!
A weak scrawny body is not compatible with advanced yoga, though yoga will strengthen any body.
Yes, collectively, yoga practitioners are far from fat. But advanced yogis are built like athletes, not anorexics.
It is far from accurate to describe even the average yoga enthusiast as skinny.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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Top image: Yoga Freepik.com, senivpetro
Which Burns More Fat: Yoga, Walking or Water Aerobics ?
Ever wonder if yoga, water aerobics and walking can actually burn a lot of fat?
Many people question the ability of yoga, water aerobics and walking to burn off a lot of fat.
So let’s compare these three exercise modes as far as their fat burning potential.
I’m really big on high intensity interval training (HIIT).
High intensity interval training cannot be applied to yoga or “water aerobics” (though it can be applied to lap swimming), but HIIT certainly can be applied to walking.
The Fat Burning Potential of Yoga
Can yoga burn a meaningful amount of fat? It depends on the moves and how much you’re putting into them.
Freepik.com, yanalya
When I took my first yoga class, I pushed myself and made no excuses despite the newness of this discipline to my body.
It just so happened that the sequences were not for beginners, though beginners could work around them and self-modify.
Because I was already fit, I was throwing myself at the moves and keeping up with the flows, wanting at several points to just rest in the child’s pose but refusing to.
My heart rate and breathing were elevated, but not to where they get when I’m briskly walking up a lengthy uphill mountain trail.
I noticed that some people in the class were rather lackadaisical, not really pushing themselves.
Yoga, like walking, will burn more fat the harder you work — the harder you go after the challenging poses.
At the end of the class I felt that I’d had a good workout. If you don’t have good fitness at the time of your first yoga class, you’ll only be able to do so much, and this will minimize the fat burn potential.
The woman next to me was obese; her movement range was limited. Her transitions were slow. The fat burn will be reduced.
However, this same woman, if applying HIIT to a walking session, would burn significantly more fat — simply because she’s already able to walk. It would be just a matter of speeding up and adding inclines.
But it was impossible for her to keep up with the yoga flows and get deep enough into many of the poses to burn a lot of fat.
As you get better at yoga you’ll be able to throw yourself into the poses more–and hence burn more calories.
But yoga is not a high fat burner when compared to hill dashes, parking lot sprints, heavy bag workouts and intense strength training.
How Much Fat Can Walking Burn?
When HIIT is applied to walking you’ll get a fierce fat burning result. HIIT involves alternating very brief segments of all-out effort with a few minutes of casual pacing.
An example would be walking a 15 percent incline at 4 mph on a treadmill WITHOUT HOLDING ON for 30-60 seconds, then slowing the speed to one mph and walking this for a few minutes to recover, and repeating this alternation eight more times — NEVER HOLDING ON.
This concept can be applied on hilly outdoor terrain and will blast the fat if done truly at HIIT level.
Freepik.com
HIIT walking workouts on hills or treadmill inclines burn way more fat than yoga, though a yoga class to a beginner will be far more “difficult.”
Sustained hard walking up a lengthy hill or on a high treadmill incline (hands off) that gets you breathing hard will also burn more fat than the same amount of time doing yoga.
Water Aerobics: Poor Fat Burner
Water aerobics is a good medium for certain populations, but for fat burning, it sinks. I’m referring to the typical water aerobics group class, rather than strenuous lap swimming.
A water aerobics class, given at a rec center or health club, is ideal for very poorly conditioned people, the elderly, people rehabbing from injuries and those with mobility challenges.
However, water aerobics also attracts more able-bodied folks. It’s refreshing and some people just love being in water.
But sorry, the fat burn is below the radar. Don’t rely on water aerobics for burning fat.
If you’re obese or have some kind of orthopedic issue, you may still be able to do HIIT walking and certainly yoga (self-modified).
Of course, you don’t have to choose; this article was meant to just compare three popular exercise modes: yoga, walking and water aerobics.
Do all three if you like these forms of exercise, but in order of fat burn potential, it’s: 1) Walking (HIIT) or sustained brisk incline work, 2) Yoga and 3) Water aerobics.
Lorra Garrick is a former personal trainer certified through the American Council on Exercise. At Bally Total Fitness she trained women and men of all ages for fat loss, muscle building, fitness and improved health.
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