Recharge
REST. RECOVER. RECHARGE.
Stressed?
Tired?
Sore?
Sounds like you need a Recharge!
Get your free two weeks of Recharge
Schedule in your next Recharge
What is Recharge?
For many of us, our work and our lives leave us feeling stressed, tired and sore. We live fast paced lives and by the end of the week are exhausted and stress-out.
Recharge uses scientific, evidenced-based techniques to help rest, recover and recharge the body and the mind. It uses a mixture of joint mobility movements, self-massage, restorative yoga and meditation to help you feel more rested and recharged and less stressed every Sunday to help you conquer the week ahead.
Joint Mobility
For many of us, we spend most of the day hunched over in a sitting position. We wake up and sit to eat breakfast. We sit in the car/bus/train, We get to work and sit at our desks. We sit to have lunch. We sit back at our desks again. We sit on the way home. And when we get home…yep, we sit on the couch exhausted from a day or sitting.
Because of all this sitting, our body adapts to a hunched over position. Our shoulders are curved forward, our hip flexors (the muscles that left our knees up) get short and weak and we end up curved over.
Even when we move we tend to move in the same ranges of motion. We move our legs and arms in front of us back and forth. We reach for the steering wheel, we type with our hand in front of us. We open and close doors. We lift our kids. All in front of us. We forget and our bodies forget that our joints, especially our shoulders and hips) are designed to move side to side and in ‘circles’ too.
Joint mobility exercises encourage us to move our joints in those other ranges of motions and to help increase our range of motion helping to improve our posture, move better and feel better.
Self-Massage
Self massage (aka self-myofacial release (SMFR)) involves using foam rollers and massage balls to massage our muscles and fascia (the tissue that surrounds our muscles and organs).
While scientific studies have shown that it helps our muscles to recover after exercise, research has also shown that has physiological benefits in relieving stress.
SMFR has been found to improve blood circulation, reduce heart rate and blood pressure, calm the nervous system, reduce stress hormones and increase pleasure hormones.
All this adds up to feeling less sore and less stressed.
Restorative Yoga
Yoga also helps the body and mind to recover. Restorative yoga involves sitting in postures and letting the mind and body relax over time. It is not designed to be strenuous or strength building like a ‘flow’ class. It is designed to help the body and mind to rest and recover.
Psychologically, yoga has been found to increase mindfulness which improves focus, increases awareness, improves emotion regulation and increases relaxation.
Physiologically, yoga also reduces stress hormones, decrease heart rate variability and reduces stress reactivity by calming the nervous system .
Meditation
For some out there, you may have tried meditation but were not ‘able’ to do it. Others may think it is hippy nonsense.
While these are common and completely understandable viewpoints, we urge you to give it another go.
For those who love meditation, we welcome you to increase your understanding and continue to explore different techniques with us.
Many scientific studies are demonstrated the benefits of mediation on the mind and body. It has been found to increase attention, body awareness, emotion regulation and reduce stress.
Neuroimaing studies have actually shown that differences in the brain in people who meditate. Particularly these differences have been found in the anterior cingulate cortex; which is like the brain’s spam filter. It detects distractions and returns focus to the task at hand. This part of the brain has a greater activation in the brains of those who meditate.
Additionally, mediation has been found to calm the nervous system, reduce heart rate, blood pressure and breathing rate, reduce stress hormone levels, reduce muscles tension and reduce the stress response.
Let’s Recharge
Find us:
In the Waterford Reserve between the Tennis Courts and the Waterford Lake.