Ikigai Fitness Post

5 Scents to Awaken Your Soul, Aromatherapy in Autumn

Fall is filled with the intense aromas of seasonal change. The cool, crisp air is alerting our olfactory nerves to observe and appreciate the changing of the leaves and a fresh harvest of apples, pumpkins, berries and more. To complement the changing of the seasons, look to incorporate aromatherapy into your next massage spa treatment at Mercedes Club. You’ll engage your heightened sense of smell like never before, awakening a truly soulful experience.

Aromatherapy Massage is an unmatched curation of essential oils and vibrantly natural scents and fragrances, used to enlist and enhance different physical and emotional reactions. You can use one specific aroma oil or combine your favorites into a cocktail of scents and experiences. Massage therapists will incorporate them into massage oils and hot towels to maximize your spa treatment. Here are five of the most popular essential oils, whose properties have beyond wonderful effects:

Lavender | Relaxer

Lavender is the most popular essential oil used in aromatherapy, and rightfully so, due to its all-around, relaxing qualities. Lavender is an adaptogenic (a balancing oil) and does exactly what the body needs it to do. It is a very effective aroma and an effective remedy for issues ranging from muscular pain and insomnia, to anxiety and stress.

Peppermint | Decongestant

Peppermint offers a refreshing, cool blast that clears nasal passages and heightens senses. Peppermint is especially beneficial for sore, tired muscles and feet, used by pro athletes and holistic healers alike. Peppermint can also aid those who experience hot flashes, while working to stimulate the mind, assist in proper breathing and enhancing focus.

Lemongrass | Sedative

Perhaps some of the most important and appreciated medicinal uses for Lemongrass oil are its sedative effects on the mind and body, relieving tension to aid those with anxiety and insomnia. Lemongrass also reduces both inflammation and itching, making it a favorite for those looking to improve the overall health of their skin.

Rosemary | Energizer

Rosemary is an essential oil especially helpful for the ailments that come with the Autumn season. Its fragrance settles the coughs and loosens mucus to relieve the stuffy headaches that live in the chest and facial mask, letting you enjoy your holiday festivities to the fullest.

Ylang Ylang | Uplifter

Just saying the name makes me smile. Aside from its fun title, one of the most popular properties of Ylang Ylang is its ability to fight depression and relax the body, driving away anxiety, sadness and chronic stress. With its uplifting effect on overall mood, Ylang Ylang is notorious for inducing feelings of hope and joy.

Countless scents and aromas have been used to alter and enhance moods for dynasties, and now, you too can experience the near-prehistoric hype of aromatherapy, right here at Mercedes Club. Truly treat yourself, to a massage with aromatherapy, and escape to a most perfect place. Invigorate your body and mind like never before. Let’s start your Autumn off the best way imaginable. Why not?

Running is a great form of exercise. It comes with benefits both mental and physical. I’m personally a huge fan. If you’re trying to burn lots of calories with your workouts, running is a pretty good option. But if you’re looking to maximize your calorie burn or switch up your high-intensity workouts, there are plenty of other options to consider.

Before we go any further, it’s important to note that there are so many great reasons to work out that have nothing to do with burning calories or weight loss, and we’re not suggesting that your goal should be either of those things. If it is your goal, that’s totally fine, but it’s important not to overdo it or exercise compulsively. And if you’ve struggled with disordered eating or compulsive exercising, always speak with your doctor before starting any new fitness routine.

To compare activities based on calorie burn, you first have to understand MET, or metabolic equivalent.

Every type of physical activity has a MET, which is a measure of how much energy it takes to complete. The MET is based off how many milliliters of oxygen a person consumes per kilogram of body weight while doing any specific activity. One MET is roughly equal to the amount of energy it takes to sit still. You can find the MET of over 800 different activities in The Compendium of Physical Activities, a resource provided by The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).

“As the MET value of activity goes up, the ability to burn calories increases,” Pete McCall, an exercise physiologist with the American Council on Exercise, tells SELF. The more intense an exercise—that means everything from running to lifting weights to washing dishes—or the harder you push yourself, the more oxygen your body needs to complete it. Which means the MET goes up, and so does the calorie burn. (Exercising at a higher intensity also increases the amount of calories you’ll burn after you stop working out, thanks to the afterburn effect.)

A variety of factors, including a person’s weight and metabolism, determine how many calories a person burns at different intensities of exercise.

The specific number of calories you burn during a particular workout depends on a handful of different things. A person’s body weight, body fat percentage, age, physical fitness, genetics, and even the environmental conditions in which they’re working out, can impact how many calories they burn, according to ACSM.

It’s nearly impossible to know exactly how many calories a person will burn during a run or other activity. We all have different bodies and metabolisms, and chances are, those above factors don’t always stay constant.

What we can do, though, is calculate the approximate calorie burn of specific activities using METs.

The formula is this: MET x body weight (in kilograms) x time (in hours) = calorie burn. This can give you a good idea of which activities are generally more efficient than others at burning calories, even if the exact number will vary a little bit.

“To compare running to another activity, it would be necessary to define the speed [of the run] and body weight of the specific person,” McCall adds. The MET of running depends a lot on the speed—for example, running at a 10 minute/mile pace has a MET of 9.8, whereas running at a 6.5 minute/mile pace has a MET of 12.8.

With some help from McCall, we calculated the calories that a 150-pound person would typically expend running a 10-minute-per-mile pace: 666 calories per hour. Then, we compared this to a handful of other activities. (Note that you might not do these activities for a full hour, but we used one hour as a standard means of comparison.)

What you’ll find is that the big calorie burners on the list have a few things in common: They use a lot of muscles throughout the body, and they can be really challenging.

Here are some exercises you might want to add to your routine if you’re trying to burn more calories:

1. Indoor cycling: Approximately 952 calories per hour

McCall notes that intensity should be at 200 watts or greater. If the stationary bike doesn’t display watts: “This means when your indoor cycling instructor tells you to turn up the resistance, you do it!” he says.

2. Cross-Country Skiing: Approximately 850 calories per hour

This all depends on your experience as a skier. Slow, light effort won’t burn nearly as many calories as a brisk-speed, vigorous effort will. To really challenge yourself and burn up energy? Try uphill skiing.

3. Rowing: Approximately 816 calories per hour

Again, 200 watts is the benchmark here; McCall says it should be at a “vigorous effort.” Many rowing machines list watts on the display. Bonus: Rowing is an incredible back workout too.

4. Jumping rope: Approximately 802 calories per hour

This should be at a moderate pace—approximately 100 skips per minute—McCall says.

5. Martial Arts: Approximately 700 calories per hour

Other types of martial arts, like Muay Thai, fit into this category too. When it comes to regular boxing, the biggest calorie burn comes when you’re legit in the ring (a.k.a. fighting another person). But a lot of boxing classes also incorporate cardio exercises like mountain climbers and burpees, so your heart rate ends up increasing more than you’d expect. And, hey, you’ve gotta start somewhere before you can get into the ring, right?

6. Swimming: Approximately 680 calories per hour

Freestyle works, but you should aim for a vigorous 75 yards per minute pace, McCall says. This is a little aggressive for a casual swimmer. (Butterfly stroke is even more effective if you feel like getting fancy.)

7. Cycling: Approximately 680 calories per hour

Biking at a fast, vigorous pace gets your heart rate soaring, whether you’re indoors or outdoors. Add in some mountainous terrain and hills and the calorie burn goes up even more.

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Source: self.com

Knowledge about the Paleo diet has spread quickly over the past two decades, but even today there are many misconceptions that are still held–even among some people who have Paleo followers for years!

Before getting fully on board with the Paleo diet, it helps to know some background and interesting facts. Of course the “Paleo diet” is based on how our ancestors or hunter-gatherers ate and lived, but how did the modern-day diet get started, and who’s really behind some of the most widely held Paleo beliefs?

The “Paleo Diet”Is As Old As Time, But Was Created In the 1970’s

Many people attribute the majority of ideas behind the Paleo diet to Dr. Loraine Cordain, but in fact the principles were developed more than 40 years ago. The idea of eating a diet similar to the one hunter-gatherers ate during Paleolithic times can be traced to the work of a gastroenterologist named Walter Voegtlin. Stanley Boyd Eaton and Melvin Konner are two other researchers who picked up his ideas, and some years later the diet became more flushed-out and scientifically backed by Professor Loren Cordain–who wrote his book The Paleo Diet in 2002.

There Isn’t “One” Specific Paleo Diet

The Paleolithic era was a long period that lasted millions of years. It is classified as the time period between 2.5 million years and ending about 10,000 years ago. At the time, humans obtained food through hunting, fishing, and gathering wild foods. They used homemade tools, bones and other means to gather what they could from their environment, but didn’t practice agriculture and trading yet.

What exactly people ate during these years changed according to location, season, food availability and how modernized the humans were. So there isn’t one specific group of foods that all Paleolithic people were eating. Around 10,000 years ago farming was first established and people began to settle into civilizations, plant and harvesting foods, raising livestock and trading instead of simply gathering their food and hunting for it. After this time is when dairy products, grains and other agricultural foods were introduced.

Depending on whom you ask, some of these “modern foods” are included in the Paleo diet that people follow today (like raw milk, butter or ghee or example) while others choose to stick with pre-agricultural foods only.

Paleo Diet Benefits Are Well-Supported By Research

The Paleo diet has shown favorable outcomes for lowering risks for some of the biggest modern diseases facing us today–including autoimmune diseases, metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Some studies have found that when people follow a Paleo-style diet for as little as two weeks they can experience improvements in characteristics of metabolic syndrome, which is related to weight gain and an increased risk for heart disease.

Paleo Followers Do More Than Cross!

Eating the Paleo way will likely result in you having more energy and therefore a stronger desire to move your body–since it’s a nutrient-dense diet and also very low in things that throw your blood sugar into a frenzy, like sugar and refined grains. Less inflammation, a stronger metabolism and more stable blood sugar will increase your stamina, motivation and ability to gain healthy muscle mass. However despite what some people think, not everyone following the Paleo diet is doing CrossFit. These two became exceedingly popular at about the same time, and it’s true they do have many followers in common, but the Paleo-way-of-life is simply about focusing on health in all areas–not about dogmatic rules about which types of exercise you must do.

Some people who follow the Paleo diet simply like to walk outside, run, lift weights, do high intensity interval training, and just about any other form of activity. The goal is to take care of your body in multiple ways, which includes regularly moving in a way that makes you feel good.

The Paleo Diet Isn’t Necessarily High Fat or High Protein

The Paleo diet looks different for every person, taking into account someone’s food preferences and also any current health conditions. For some people, a diet higher in fat is helpful (like those who struggle with insulin resistance or weight fluctuations for example), while for others continuing to eat plenty of unprocessed carbohydrates (like starchy veggies or fruit) is needed.

It’s true that the Paleo diet usually features plenty of nourishing healthy fats and adequate protein–but not in amounts that are above what’s really needed. Just because you’re following the Paleo diet doesn’t mean you’ll need to gorge on bacon, coconut oil, nuts and loads of veggies. The Paleo diet doesn’t recommend any particular macronutrient split. There’s room for adjustment and customization depending on what works best for you.

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Source: ultimatepaleoguide.com