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STEP IT UP: If you are getting fewer than 5,000 steps a day, you are classified as sedentary! What’s a better goal to shoot for to improve your mood, your cholesterol, your heart health, your weight? 12,500, not 10K, say the American College of Sport Medicine..  And you don’t have to meet your goal all in one outing. Split it up and add some non-walking intervals.

DO THE TWIST!!!!!

The act of Twisting is more than a dance move. And more than just a yoga asana, ((although it is an essential part of the yoga curriculum). Twisting is physical movement which done deliberately and intentionally can change the way everything works in your body--from your outer to your inner geography. Twisting  strengthens those  oblique muscles on the side body, exercises the upper back and the waist, and even helps to detoxify your liver, according to the Yoga Institute.  The action of twisting helps to create inter-vertebral space thus lengthening the spine. This decompresses the vertebral space, and protects spinal nerves. The flow of energy is also improved in a gentle non-evasive way leaving you feeling newly rebooted. Twisting actions stimulate  blood circulation and release tension in abdominal muscles, allowing the digestive organs to experience a fresh blood flow rich in oxygen and nutrients.  Twisting can help you de-stress. opening up the shoulders, chest and back to boost oxygen and decrease anxiousness.  You can do a twist while lying in bed, sitting upright in a chair or cross-legged on a yoga mat or even standing.  Twists --however and wherever youo them  and that’s anywhere from the breakfast table in the morning to your desk at noon or your bed at night-- can affect  the upper, middle and lower back helping to  improve the spinal cord’s range of motion (including  the neck) by  engaging the  supportive soft tissue surrounding the spinal cord.  Everything old feels new again.

Maybe best or all, twists can profoundly affect at-risk backs that slouch at a desk or in a car or train/plane for long stretches, a situation that not only weakens the integrity of the spine, (the center of our being), but ultimately affects what happens in our head space, as well. Think of headaches, fatigue and gloomy moods often following prolonged periods in one position.

Do the Twist!