Justin G. Walls, Certified Personal Athletic Trainer

Every once in a while (or for some of us, it's every weekday), we're up late and feel the need to eat something, and it's just too hard to say no. Well, fortunately, we don't always have to withhold ourselves from those late night munchies. According to a short article from  Women's Health , the expert advice is to eat something that won't spike blood sugar, make you more hungry, or be too calorie rich. Sorry Jimmy, that just won't do The best snacks are kept to about 100 calories, with no more than 15 grams of sugar, and about 3 grams of fiber. It's also good to wash it all down with a little water (flavored slightly with either lemon juice or another splash of fruit juice flavor- it helps curb the cravings). Some suggestions are: One cut up fruit in a 1/2 cup yogurt or sour cream A cup of berries in that same 1/2 cup of yogurt or sour cream 1/4 cup salsa and about 10-12 corn chips (low-sodium is better)  6-8 carrot or celery sticks with h...

Sometimes I hear people complaining about their inability to hop right out of bed in the morning, or at least get up when the alarm goes off. I have heard (and experienced) of varied challenges ranging from difficulty sitting up, tight lower or upper back muscles, disorientation when arising, and a few others. Not feeling it today... The problem with this is that it makes it even morechallenging to get your day started when it's not starting off correctly. Let's try to examine the most obvious issues: How old is your mattress and is it sinking or sagging? What is your sleep position? Where is the pain? If your mattress is 10 years old, then it's probably a good time to go shopping. When the mattress starts to sag, you will start dragging at opposing muscles and perhaps even alter your sleep position. The sagging is the worst thing that can happen. If your not ready to buy a new bed, just try rolling a towel or yoga mat and slide it either under your lower back...

Now that's an odd title... Yes, it appears that, based on some observational research, these things are related. In some research released today during the International Conference of the Alzheimer's Association, poor walking habits and awkward gait can be signs of cognitive inhibition. There is no longer sensitivity integration between different parts of the brain and the rest of the body. You can read more about this  at USA TODAY But Strength Training... According to another study released at the same conference, major improvements were found in test subjects that engaged in weight training: Participants were tested for cognitive executive functions such as attention, memory and planning. According to [a lead investigator], “the cognitive executive function and associated memory – those are the two traits most linked to dementia.” At the end of the trial, those in the weight lifting group were most improved. So what's the point... The goal is early d...

The Washington Post  quotes a survey that many people, for various reasons, are reporting trouble with getting a good night's sleep. Sleep is an important part of normal biological function, helps with recovery, and contributes to proper metabolic function. Not sleeping enough at night can impact a person's ability to think clearly, perform tasks efficiently, affects focus and attention, and it makes you yawn an awful lot! Sleep- it's good for you! A excellent research project of the NIH in its Sport's Medicine journal chronicals many of the issues related to interupted sleep patterns as a result of shift work ( link for article ). Some negative affects of altered behavioral patterns, such as eating at night (mentioned in section 2.2) have links to obesity because of the low metabolic trends during the night hours. As the paper does note, there was some difficulty in gaining access to enough participants to fully study the effects of nocturnal workers versus th...