Happy Saturday, my friend!

This week’s Top 6 consists of tips for your upping your physical, emotional, relational, and mental games. I hope you enjoy it!

Don’t Skip Leg Day (more than a T-shirt slogan!)

If I had to choose just one muscle group to train for the rest of my life, it would, without question, be legs. Here are some reasons why, and why I recommend you never let a week go by without training your lower half!:

1. Training legs lends to a more proportionate, symmetrical figure.
2. The benefits of leg day also extend beyond appearance. It assists in reducing injury risk. This is because you are training and strengthening your lower body, which can help you across all other activities, from chasing a toddler and holding a baby on your hip, to playing recreational sports. By incorporating functional leg-strengthening exercises, you’ll be targeting your hamstrings, quads, glutes, and even hip flexors, which are all muscles you use in your everyday life. By regularly training them, you increase stability and endurance.
3. Training legs burns more calories. Because there are several very large muscles in your lower body, like the glutes, your metabolism will also increase as a result of consistent leg days. This is because the body will require more calories to repair the muscles in this area than it would for the smaller muscle groups.
4. Training legs has crossover for other sports.
We derive power from our legs, so training them means we can increase explosive power and injury-preventing, posture-preserving balance.
Just think about how much work your legs do when it comes to running, hiking, cycling, and even getting up off the floor three dozen times a day! (#momlife) We often underestimate how much our legs do for us! By giving them plenty of TLC in the gym, we can improve our athleticism, speed, endurance, and general enjoyment for all sorts of recreational pastimes.
5. Training legs works other body parts simultaneously. Take the squat for example. When you squat, you should also be engaging your core, giving you a solid abdominal workout. When you deadlift properly, you should be working your chest, back, shoulders, biceps and core as well.

So, if you’re ever tempted to skip leg day, or currently don’t train legs at all, I hope this will serve as some motivation to get you going!

Pass Through These Gates

 

Truly Heal

“‘Time heals,’ they said. But they were wrong. Time doesn’t heal. Time harbors. Time creates space between sensation and access. Time burns the bridge between the places within us that burn and the route our brain is willing to travel through the experience of our life. Time only hides the pain in places we no longer remember how to find.

“That’s not healing. That’s avoidance and repression. Attention and inattention through the passage of time heals. Holding and tending to the pain with love, acceptance, and vulnerability as the passage of time naturally carries on allows for processing, release, integration, and growth.

“That’s what heals. Not time.” – @kacisage

Expand Your Vocabulary

Word of the Week:
pareidolia: (noun) the tendency to perceive a specific, often meaningful image in a random or ambiguous visual pattern.

Communicate More Effectively

 

 

Know What’s “SUPP”

Supplements shouldn’t be used to replace a well-balanced diet. However, because most of us are deficient in many essential nutrients, despite the amount of good foods we eat, it’s wise to invest in quality supplements that are proven to contribute to our health and wellbeing. Which of these could you use in your diet? (source: https://www.instagram.com/drjamesdinic/)