What Nobody Teaches You About Strengthening Your Knees

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Strengthening unhappy knees can seem difficult, because many obvious exercises like squats may hurt, and can feel like they are doing harm (and if your knees are bad enough, maybe they are; it depends on many factors). Here’s a way to improve things:

The muscle nobody talks about

Well, not nobody. But, it’s a muscle that’s rarely talked about; namely, the tibialis anterior.

It plays a key role in decelerating knee motion—in other words, the movement that hurts if you have bad knees. It’s essential for absorbing shock during activities like walking, climbing stairs, and stepping off curbs

So, of course, strengthening this muscle supports knee health.

The exercise this video recommends for strengthening it involves leaning against a wall with feet about a foot away (closer feet make it easier, further makes it harder). Note, this is a lean, not a “Roman chair”.

The exercise involves squeezing the quadriceps, lifting toes toward the nose, and engaging the tibialis anterior muscle. If you’re wondering what to do with your hands, they can be held out with palms open to work on posture, or hanging by the sides. Do this for about 1½–2 minutes.

For more on all this, plus a visual demonstration, enjoy:

Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

Want to learn more?

You might also like to read:

When Bad Joints Stop You From Exercising (5 Things To Change)

Take care!

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    Gambooge: Game-Changer Or Gamble?

    The gambooge, also called the gummi-gutta, whence its botanical name Garcinia gummi-gutta (formerly Gardinia cambogia), is also known as the Malabar tamarind, and it even got an English name, the brindle berry.

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    Simply put: it’s a weight loss supplement.

    Less simply put: least interestingly, it’s a mild appetite suppressant:

    Safety and mechanism of appetite suppression by a novel hydroxycitric acid extract (HCA-SX) ← this talks more about the biochemistry, but isn’t a human study. Human studies have been small and with mixed results. It seems likely that (as in the rat studies discussed above) the mechanism of action is largely about increasing serotonin, which itself is a well-established appetite suppressant. Therefore, the results will depend somewhat on a person’s brain’s serotonergic system.

    We’ll revisit that later, but first let’s look at…

    Even less simply put: its other mechanism of action is much more interesting; it actually blocks the production of fat (especially: visceral fat) in the body, by inhibiting citrate lyase, which enzyme plays a significant role in fat production:

    Effects of (−)-hydroxycitrate on net fat synthesis as de novo lipogenesis

    More illustratively, here’s another study, which found:

    ❝G cambogia reduced abdominal fat accumulation in subjects, regardless of sex, who had the visceral fat accumulation type of obesity. No rebound effect was observed.

    It is therefore expected that G cambogia may be useful for the prevention and reduction of accumulation of visceral fat. ❞

    ~ Dr. Norihiro Shigematsu et al.

    Read in full: Effects of garcinia cambogia (Hydroxycitric Acid) on visceral fat accumulation: a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial

    As to why this is particularly important, and far more important than mere fat loss in general, see our previous main feature:

    Visceral Belly Fat (And How To Lose It)

    Is it safe?

    It has shown a good safety profile up to large doses (2.8g/day):

    Evaluation of the safety and efficacy of hydroxycitric acid or Garcinia cambogia extracts in humans

    There have been some fears about hepatotoxicity, but they appear to be unfounded, and based on products that did not, in fact, contain HCA (and were merely sold by a company that used a similar name in their marketing):

    No evidence demonstrating hepatotoxicity associated with hydroxycitric acid

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    As ever, do check with your pharmacist and/or doctor, to be sure, since they can advise with regard to your specific situation and any medications you may be taking.

    Want to try some?

    We don’t sell it, but here for your convenience is an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

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    The Myth of Breakfast and Snacking

    Here at 10almonds we love addressing misconceptions in the health world.

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    Cynthia Thurlow’s Two Main Points

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    In terms of food choice, she recommends eating whole, unprocessed foods during eating periods as well as staying well-hydrated with water, coffee, or tea.

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  • A Tale Of Two Cinnamons

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    Cinnamon’s Health Benefits (But Watch Out!)

    Cinnamon is enjoyed for its sweet and punchy flavor. It also has important health properties!

    Let’s take a look at the science…

    A Tale Of Two Cinnamons

    In your local supermarket, there is likely “cinnamon” and if you’re lucky, also “sweet cinnamon”. The difference between these is critical to understand before we continue:

    “Cinnamon” = Cinnamomum cassia or Cinnamomum aromaticum. This is cheapest and most readily available. It has a relatively high cinnamaldehyde content, and a high coumarin content.

    “Sweet cinnamon” Cinnamomum verum or Cinnamomum zeylanicum. It has a lower cinnamaldehyde content, and/but a much lower (almost undetectable) coumarin content.

    You may be wondering: what’s with the “or” in both of those cases? Each simply has two botanical names in use. It’s inconvenient and confusing, but that’s how it is.

    Great! What’s cinnamaldehyde and what’s coumarin?

    Cinnamaldehyde is what gives cinnamon its “spice” aspect; it’s strong and fragrant. It also gives cinnamon most of its health benefits.

    As a quick aside: it’s also used as the flavoring element in cinnamon flavored vapes, and in that form, it can cause health problems. So do eat it, but we recommend not to vape it.

    Coumarin is toxic in large quantities.

    The recommended safe amount is 0.1mg/kg, so you could easily go over this with a couple of teaspoons of cassia cinnamon:

    Toxicology and risk assessment of coumarin: focus on human data

    …while in Sweet/True/Ceylon cinnamon, those levels are almost undetectable:

    Medicinal properties of ‘true’ cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum): a systematic review

    If you have a cinnamon sensitivity, it is likely, but not necessarily, tied to the coumarin content rather than the cinnamaldehyde content.

    Summary of this section before moving on:

    “Cinnamon”, or cassia cinnamon, has about 50% stronger health benefits than “Sweet Cinnamon”, also called Ceylon cinnamon.

    “Cinnamon”, or cassia cinnamon, has about 250% stronger health risks than “Sweet Cinnamon”, also called Ceylon cinnamon.

    The mathematics here is quite simple; sweet cinnamon is the preferred way to go.

    The Health Benefits

    We spent a lot of time/space today looking at the differences. We think this was not only worth it, but necessary. However, that leaves us with less time/space for discussing the actual benefits. We’ll summarize, with links to supporting science:

    “Those three things that almost always go together”:

    Heart and blood benefits:

    Neuroprotective benefits:

    The science does need more testing in these latter two, though.

    Where to get it?

    You may be able to find sweet cinnamon in your local supermarket, or if you prefer capsule form, here’s an example product on Amazon

    Enjoy!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: