News

October 3, 2011 In Fitness, News, Spotlight, Uncategorized, Workouts By Vancouver Health Coach

A Personal Trainer’s Guide to Exercise Design

The benefits of exercise are heard everywhere.  Lose fat, gain muscle, improve cardio, look good, feel good, improve sports performance and so on are all reasons as to why people workout.  Many of us will go to the gym with the best intentions but arrive and stare at the large building like a deer in headlights.  For others, they want to get started but don’t know where to start.  How do good coaches help their clients to reach their goals?  Consider the following guide to help you along your journey. 1. Know what your goal is. This seems like a simple concept. ...

September 23, 2011 In Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Lisa Virtue

Colon cancer cold spot: Africa

Present day North America, unfortunately, is a hot spot for a variety of diseases - no need to depress you with names you know too well. Luckily, there are places in the world that can teach us how to reverse such sickly trends, as they are disease “cold spots.” Enter Africa: cold spot for colon cancer, with only 1 case in 100,000 (1). African Americans are affected at 60 in 100,000 (1), with Caucasian Americans not far behind at about 50 in 100,000 (2). This is a disease of the West, affecting all ethnicities, ironically though hitting the people of...

September 14, 2011 In Ask The Expert: Health & Fitness Advice, Fitness, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Elbow pain causes, symptoms and treatment

Ask The Expert is a health & fitness advice column. If you have a question for one of our Fitness Goop experts, please email [email protected].   Lately, I have had a few people ask about pain that has developed on either the inside or the outside of the elbow. Their symptoms were pretty common such as tenderness on the inside or outside of the elbow and pain during any grasping, pulling or pushing of objects such as the following: Shaking hands Writing Lifting objects Holding objects Steering a car etc. Depending on the location, those people were suffering from either Golfer’s Elbow or Tennis Elbow.  Golfer’s Elbow (also known...

August 24, 2011 In Fitness, Food and Recipes, Green & Healthy Living, News, Spotlight By Lisa Virtue

Fruitarian athletes are thriving and breaking records

It’s a challenge keeping up with vegetarianism these days; there’s ovo-vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, vegan and pesca-vegan. To add to these options, we also have fruitarianism. Like the title suggests, followers of this diet eat fruit. Some fruitarians eat a fruit only diet, while most also enjoy plenty of leafy greens, some vegetables and small quantities of nuts and seeds. Take note: tomato, peppers, cucumber, zucchini, avocado, okra and eggplant are all botanically fruits! It is also implied that the food be consumed raw. Thus the terms: fruitarian, raw foodist, and raw vegan are sometimes used interchangeably. To mainstream western society, this...

August 19, 2011 In Fitness, News, Spotlight, Yoga By Vancouver Health Coach

Journey into grace with Anusara yoga

In 2007 a profound betrayal and subsequent loss of my best friend plunged me into the darkest years of my life. Despite my anguish, I somehow mustered up the strength to make the bold (or arguably stupid!) decision of moving across country to Los Angeles, in part to fight for love, only to find myself rejected and abandoned, jobless, friendless, and completely alone. The years that followed can only adequately be described as a truly “dark night of the soul”. After almost a year of endless tears, sleepless nights and an inability to eat much of substance, almost as an act...

August 1, 2011 In Fitness, News, Spotlight, Supplements, Workouts By Vancouver Health Coach

Building Muscle Without Supplements? Part One

The supplement business is a multi-billion dollar business. From your local vitamin shop to your local grocery stores, there is at least one isle that contains some sort of supplement. All of these pills and powders help to promise lean looking muscle, a longer lasting “pump”, weight loss or weight gain. Some may work while others will not and cause adverse side effects. Many people can cash in on the supplement business because of  the fact that the government deregulated the sale of all of vitamins and pills you see over the counter today. Because of this deregulation, anyone can...

July 11, 2011 In Fitness, News, Spotlight, Yoga By Vancouver Health Coach

Handstands for Energy

Yoga is primarily associated with calming the mind and inducing relaxation, but your mat is also a good place to turn when you need a boost of energy. Three o’clock rolls around so you resort to a shot of caffeine to get you through the last couple hours at work. A few hours later, you’re on the couch and coming up with excuses why you should just stay there for the rest of the evening instead of hitting the gym. Energy spikes and plummets throughout the day are very common with the “normal” high-caffeine, high-refined carbohydrate diet to which we’ve grown accustomed...

July 6, 2011 In Fitness, Food and Recipes, News, Spotlight, Supplements By Vancouver Health Coach

Does Total Calories Lead to Muscle Growth? Or Is It About Protein?

The concept of taking massive amounts of protein to gain muscle and weight has been going on for years.  There are arguments for and against the total amount of protein you would need.  On one end, there is the argument that large amounts of protein will help build muscle.  On the other end, there is the argument that it is all about the total amount of calories.  Both arguments make sense.  But to understand the arguments, one first has to understand where protein is coming from. All proteins are composed of something called amino acids, which are your basic building blocks...

June 22, 2011 In Holistic Health, News, Spotlight By Vancouver Health Coach

Homeopathic Travel Vaccines

Many people in the alternative health world are now seeking out alternatives to conventional vaccines. Homeopathy offers a safe, effective alternative to conventional vaccination. Homeopathic vaccines have been used for hundreds of years to prevent epidemic disease, and a number of studies prove their effectiveness. Cuba Uses Homeopathic Vaccines to Protect 2.3 million people from Leptospirosis In 2007, a homeopathic vaccine was administered to 2.3 million people in 3 provinces of Cuba to protect against Leptospirosis. A significant decrease in disease incidence was observed in the intervention region, whereas no such decrease in disease incidence was noticed in non-intervention regions (regions where...

June 20, 2011 In News, Spotlight, Yoga By Vancouver Health Coach

Backbending Safely Through Your Yoga Practice

Backbending is a natural range of motion for the spine. Over time the spine gets a lot more forward bending flection from everyday activities. It is important to balance all the daily forward bending with a few backbends. Backbending yoga postures can help counteract pressure from the spine. When doing these back bends safely you can experience a sense of freedom. Practicing back bends also involves an element of courage; it is not always easy at first. A few beginner backbending yoga poses to start with are Ustrasana (camel pose) and Bhujangasana (cobra pose) it is important to be cautious when...