Friday, July 22, 2016 at 6:11AM Try adding these barbell curl variations to your current training routine:
Looking for a quick routine for your busy schedule?
Try completing 5 sets of the below exercises and
contact us today for customized plans:
5 Barbell Curls (any of the above options)
15 Mountain Climbers
10 Sit Ups
10 Jumping Jacks
10 Squats
Monday, July 18, 2016 at 5:27AM Try adding these pull up variations to your current training routine.
Looking for a quick routine for your busy schedule?
Try completing 5 sets of the below exercises and
contact us today for customized plans:
5 Pull Ups (any of the above options)
5 Push Ups
5 Jump Squats
5 Burpees
5 Split Lunges
Friday, July 15, 2016 at 6:40AM 
Sam Kelts, the saddle bronc rider from the Born to Move video, has shared his physiotherapy story. Raised in a rodeo family and competing in 100 rodeos a year, Sam has seen his fair share of injuries. With the help of physiotherapy, Sam is still able to compete.
Sam's story is the third in a series as Physiotherapy Alberta explores the physiotherapy stories of the people featured in their #borntomove video and others.
Please click the above image to view his story!
Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 9:40AM 
Written by Jane Brown
You might be aware that resistance leads to growth in many ways, but you may not be aware that other factors can also contribute to growth. In fact, massage therapy can aid your growth in ways that you might never imagine.
Massage is usually considered a luxury, an occasional relaxing splurge, but the truth is that massage therapy is a form of alternative medicine that has bona fide medical applications; in most places it even requires practitioners to be licensed by the state medical board.
Massage can do more than just relax you, it can actually improve your recovery time, increase or help you maintain your range of motion, and help you see better results.
How Resistance Training Affects Your Muscles
You might not realize this but you don’t actually build muscle during resistance exercises. Resistance actually breaks down your muscle by causing microscopic tears in the fibers that make up each muscle. You don’t actually start building until the muscles heal, which happens when the muscle is at rest, which can take 48 to 72 hours. This is why you are encouraged to take one full day off before working the same body part again.
While breaking down the muscles, or catabolism, is a direct effect of resistance training, there are also secondary effects that occur as well:
–Your muscles produce lactic acid, a natural by-product of cellular respiration;
–Blood flow to the muscle increases, to deliver oxygen and nutrients, and remove lactic acid and other wastes;
–The muscle is swollen for several hours after the session;
–The swelling in the muscles causes stiffness, and possibly soreness. It also constricts the blood vessels, which can slow blood flow and increase your recovery time;
–The repaired muscle fiber is sometimes contracted, and less flexible than before.
–The process that occurs while the muscle heals is why massage is so important.
How Massage Affects Your Muscles
Massage affects your muscles in multiple ways:
–It helps push blood through the muscle to reduce swelling and encourage blood flow.
–When blood can circulate freely through your muscles, it can deliver the oxygen and nutrients they need to repair, and remove wastes more efficiently;
–Reducing the swelling also reduces stiffness and soreness.
–Massage also acts as a “tenderizer” to keep the repaired fibers flexible and reduce their tendency to contract as they heal.
–Keeping the fibers flexible can help you maintain your range of motion, and even improve it;
–Better range of motion means you can actually contract your muscle more forcefully and use more weight during resistance exercises.
You don’t have to get a massage after every session, but having one as every two weeks can greatly improve your recovery time and overall muscle function. Additionally, the effects of massage are cumulative, which means the more often you have one the longer the effects last.
Thursday, July 14, 2016 at 6:10AM 
By Melissa Leong (Financial Post)
Knowing that stress comes with nasty health consequences such as heart disease and stroke, it makes sense for us to spend money to fight it.
But as our stress levels soar, many of us are reluctant to “treat” ourselves. Even when our company health insurance helps cover the costs, the vast majority don’t fully utilize those benefits.
Great-West Life Assurance Company reports that even the most basic of stress reduction techniques, massage therapy, is only claimed by 27% of its plan members. In 2001, only 10% took advantage of the benefit.
The use of other paramedical benefits such as physiotherapy and psychology services are used by a still smaller percentage of those eligible. Only 4% of members made claims for psychological services in 2011, compared to 2% in 2001.
Thirty-five percent of respondents to a 2011 Sanofi Aventis Canada Healthcare survey said that workplace stress had been so overwhelming that they’d been physically ill in the last 12 months.
“Stress is a reality for most of us and to think that you don’t need to do things to manage it would be a little irresponsible,” Jasmine Baker, president of For The Love of Food, an event planning business based in Toronto. She works out more than four times a week and once a month sees a massage therapist ($100) and visits a spa ($250). “These are things that allow me to physically keep doing what I love. For me, it’s the cost of doing business.”
Nearly one-quarter of all Canadians (23.5%) aged 15 and older reported most days were “extremely or quite a bit stressful,” according to a 2010 Statistics Canada report. Stress rates were highest for 35- to 54-year-olds.
Yet, a number of Canadians don’t even use their allotted vacation time to unwind. Twenty-seven percent of Canadians in 2013 were carrying over unused vacation from the previous year, an Expedia.ca survey said.
So take time off. Save money throughout the year to fund a relaxing getaway. “Getting away from it all helps to put things in perspective,” says Kelsey Matheson, a Toronto resident and one of the owners of the Anamaya Resort in Costa Rica, which ranges from $795 to $1,895 for a week-long retreat.
Or visit a wellness centre specifically for stress. “If I hadn’t it done the investment, what would have been the other option?” says Olympic gold medalist Chandra Crawford who attended the clinic last year to curb stress. “It would’ve been to carry on struggling, carry on diminishing my health and had even more serious consequences in health and lost career time down the road.”
At the least, use your work benefits, including any spending accounts that your company might have for health-related expenses, that’s what they are there for. More than 23 million Canadians have supplementary health coverage for things such as massage and psychological services, the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association says. (The association says stress and mental-health related problems represent 40% to 50% of short-term disability claims in some of Canada’s largest corporations.)
According to a 2006 study for the Fraser Institute, people spent an average of $365 on massage therapy, up from $211 in 1997 — and almost 60% of the cost was covered by insurance.
Some people find spending money stressful and indeed, financial issues are one of the top stressors in people’s lives. In this case, opt for free relief: go for regular walks at lunch, take up meditating and interact more with your social circle.
Another option would be to rejig your budget to cut back on some expenses to make room for more stress-relieving expenses, especially if the stress is having an adverse affect on your health.
Jennifer Podemski says that any extra money she has is going to her well-being.
The 41-year-old Toronto resident was producing a television show and a movie while racing to finish by 4 p.m. to pick up her two and three-year-old from daycare when her stress caught up to her and manifested into a health condition.
One morning in November, she woke up and her legs felt as if they were filled with cement and being pricked by needles. To help de-stress, in December, she purchased a $2,000 infrared sauna for her home.
“These are the kinds of investments that I’m making for my health and my sanity so I’m a better mom, a better entrepreneur, a better person, a better wife.”
