Stiff After Sitting? Before You Stand Up, Do This For Easier First Steps
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Dr. Alyssa Kuhn, arthritis expert, shows us how:
Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…
The answer is as simple as a leg extension warm-up: straighten your knee by kicking your leg out, or sliding your heel forwards, before standing.
This need not be overly vigorous; keep your movement gentle and within a comfortable range, while aiming to get your knee as straight as possible without forcing it. Even a few repetitions before standing can noticeably improve how your first steps feel!
The goal here is modest: just move your joints briefly before standing, rather than treating this like a full workout to make standing feel smoother and easier.
That’s it; that’s the trick!
For a visual demonstration though, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like:
How To Get Out Of Any Low Chair Without Help ← for anyone wondering “but what if it’s a low chair?”
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How Jumping Rope Changes The Human Body
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Most popularly enjoyed by professional boxers and six-year-old girls, jumping rope is one of the most metabolism-boosting exercises around:
Just a hop, skip, and a jump away from good health
Maybe you haven’t tried it since your age was in single digits, so, if you do…
What benefits can you expect?
- Improves cardiovascular fitness, equivalent to 30 minutes of running with just 10 minutes of jumping.
- Increases bone density and boosts immunity by aiding the lymphatic system.
- Enhances explosiveness in the lower body, agility, and stamina.
- Improves shoulder endurance, coordination, and spatial awareness.
What kind of rope is best for you?
- Beginner ropes: licorice ropes (nylon/vinyl), beaded ropes for rhythm and durability.
- Advanced ropes: speed ropes (denser, faster materials) for higher speeds and more difficult skills.
- Weighted ropes: build upper body muscles (forearms, shoulders, chest, back).
What length should you get?
- Recommended rope length varies by height (8 ft for 5’0″–5’4″, 9 ft for 5’5″–5’11”, 10 ft for 6’0″ and above).
- Beginners should start with longer ropes for clearance.
What should you learn?
- Initial jump rope skills: start with manageable daily jump totals, gradually increasing as ankles, calves, and feet adapt.
- Further skills: learn the two-foot jump and then the boxer’s skip for efficient, longer sessions and advanced skills. Keep arms close and hands at waist level for a smooth swing.
For more on all of this, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
How To Do High Intensity Interval Training (Without Wrecking Your Body)
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Broccoli vs Cabbage – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing broccoli to cabbage, we picked the broccoli.
Why?
Here we go once again pitting two different cultivars of the same species (Brassica oleracea) against each other, and/but once again, there is one that comes out as nutritionally best.
In terms of macros, broccoli has more protein, carbs, and fiber, while they are both low glycemic index foods. The differences are small though, so it’s fairest to call this category a tie.
When it comes to vitamins, broccoli has more of vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B7, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while cabbage is not higher in any vitamins. It should be noted that cabbage is still good for these, especially vitamins C and K, but broccoli is simply better.
In the category of minerals, broccoli has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while cabbage is not higher in any minerals. Again though, cabbage is still good, especially in calcium, iron, and manganese, but again, broccoli is simply better.
Of course, enjoy either or both! But if you want the nutritionally densest option, it’s broccoli.
Want to learn more?
You might like to read:
What’s Your Plant Diversity Score?
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Seasonal Affective Disorder (Beyond Sunlight!)
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For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, the time of increasing darkness is upon us again. Depending on our latitude, the sun barely rises before it skitters off again. And depending on other factors of our geography, we might not get much sun during that time (writer’s example: the ancient bog from which I write has been surrounded by fog for two weeks now).
So, what to do about it?
Firstly, we can make the most of whatever sun we do get (especially in the morning, if possible), and we can of course make some use of artificial sunlight. To save doubling up, we’ll link to what we previously wrote about optimizing both of those things:
‘Tis To Season To Be SAD-Savvy
More ways to get serotonin
Sunlight, of course, triggers our bodies to make serotonin, and hence we often make less of it during winter. But, there are other ways to get serotonin too, and one of the best ways is spending time in nature. Yes, even if the weather is gloomy, provided there are still visible green things and you are seeing them, it will promote serotonin production.
Of course, it may not be the season for picnics, but a morning walk through a local park or other green space is ideal.
On which note, gardening remains a good activity. Not a lot of people do so much gardening after a certain point in the year, but in one way, it’s more important than ever to get some soil under your fingernails:
There are bacteria in soil (specifically: Mycobacterium vaccae) that work similarly to antidepressants.
When something is described as having an effect similar to antidepressants, it’s usually hyperbole. In this case, it’s medicine, and literally works directly on the serotonergic system (as do many, but not all, antidepressants).
See also: Antidepressants: Personalization Is Key!
While many antidepressants are selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (i.e., they slow the rate at which your brain loses serotonin), Mycobacterium vaccae increases the rate at which you produce serotonin. So, you feel happier, more relaxed, while also feeling more energized.
^this one’s a mouse study, but we’re including it because it covers exactly how it works in the brain, which is something that the ethics board wouldn’t let them do on humans, due to the need for slicing the brains up for examination.
As to how to benefit: touching soil will get you “infected” by the bacteria, yes, even if you wash your hands later. Growing food in the soil and eating the good (including if you wash and cook it) is even better.
Boost the other “happiness chemicals”
Serotonin is just one “happiness hormone”, other feel-good neurotransmitters that are just as important include dopamine and oxytocin.
Dopamine is most associated with being the “reward chemical”, so it pays to do things that you find rewarding. If you’re stuck for ideas, engaging in small acts of kindness is a sure-fire way to get dopamine flowing and lift your own mood as well as theirs.
See also: 10 Ways To Naturally Boost Dopamine
Oxytocin, meanwhile is the “cuddle chemical”, and can be triggered even if you have nobody to cuddle*. If you do, by the way, make it at least 20–30 seconds, as that’s generally how long it takes to get oxytocin flowing.
*Vividly imagining it has much the same effect, since the brain can’t tell the difference. Alternatively, looking at pictures/videos (your choice) of small cute animals tends to work for most people also.
For more on these things, check out: Neurotransmitter Cheatsheet
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Language Fluency Beats General Intelligence & Memory For Longevity
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And no, it doesn’t have to be a second language, although that helps a lot:
An Underrated Tool Against Alzheimer’s ← you don’t even have to learn the second language to a high level, to benefit
Rather, what we’re talking about today is your first language fluency. So, for most of our readers, English. For the study participants it was German, because this was a German research team using data from the German population.
The Berlin Aging Study
Previous research has linked intelligence to longevity, but intelligence comprises multiple traits. So, what’s most important? Memory? General intelligence? Nope. Language fluency!
Let’s clarify something before we continue: “fluency” does not, in linguistics, mean what most people use it to mean. It’s not about the size of one’s overall knowledge of the language (e.g. vocabulary size), but rather, it is about one’s ability to speak and/or write fluently—literally, fluently means “flowingly”, i.e. without undue hesitation or difficulty.
The study used data from the Berlin Aging Study, which tracked 516 people aged 70–105 from 1989 onwards.
Researchers assessed four cognitive abilities, with two kinds of tests for each of:
- Verbal fluency (detailed description below)
- Perceptual speed (pattern-recognition speed)
- Verbal knowledge (vocabulary size)
- Episodic memory (personal memory recall)
General intelligence, meanwhile, was assessed as “the average of those 8 scores”.
The two tests for the cognitive ability of “verbal fluency” were:
Categories
Participants had to name as many different animals as possible within 90 seconds. Their answers were subsequently rated for correctness by two independent research assistants, to assure that noticed or unnoticed repetitions, wrong categories, and morphological variants were not coded as correct.
Word beginnings
Participants were asked to name as many different real words starting with the letter s as possible within 90 seconds. The named words were rated for correctness by two independent research assistants to avoid considering repetitions, morphological variants, and wrong words as correct.
You can read about these and the other tests for the other cognitive abilities, in the paper itself:
Verbal Fluency Selectively Predicts Survival in Old and Very Old Age ← if you’re looking for the test descriptions, scroll to “Method” and then scroll past the table, and you’ll see the test descriptions
They found that of all these metrics, only the two verbal fluency tests (and none of the other tests) showed a significant link to longevity.
Why this is important
Although the study does not prove causality (it could be that people who are predisposed to live longer for other reasons are more verbally fluent because of some common factor that influences both language fluency and longevity), it seems as good a reason as any to develop and maintain language fluency.
This builds on what was found in “The Nun Study“, that followed a convent of nuns (because they are a very homogenous sample in terms of occupation, location, diet, routine, etc, so a lot of confounding factors were already controlled-for) and made numerous major discoveries about things that impact aging (including the relevance of the APOE4 gene! That was The Nun Study).
When it came to nuns and language…
Based on the autobiographies written by the nuns in their youth upon taking their vows, there were two factors that were later correlated with not getting dementia:
- Longer sentences
- Positive outlook
- “Idea density”
That latter item means the relative linguistic density of ideas and complexity thereof, and the fluency and vivacity with which they were expressed (this was not a wishy-washy assessment; there was a hard-science analysis to determine numbers).
Want to spruce up yours? You might like to check out:
Reading, Better: Reading As A Cognitive Exercise
…for specific, evidence-based ways to tweak your reading to fight cognitive decline.
Take care!
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Chard vs Lettuce – Which is Healthier?
10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.
Our Verdict
When comparing chard to lettuce, we picked the chard.
Why?
In terms of macros, there’s nothing meaningful between them, being approximately equal on fiber, carbs, and protein. So, a tie in the first round.
In the category of vitamins, chard has more of vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, C, E, and K, while lettuce has more of vitamins A, B1, and B9, yielding a 7:3 win to chard.
Looking at minerals, chard has more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while lettuce is not higher in any minerals, making this round an easy victory for chard.
In other considerations, chard also has more polyphenols, especially flavonoids such as kaempferol and quercetin. So that’s another round to chard.
Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for chard, but by all means do enjoy either or both, as diversity is best!
Want to learn more?
You might like:
- What Does Kaempferol Do, Anyway?
- Fight Inflammation & Protect Your Brain, With Quercetin
- 21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them
Enjoy!
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Tight Hips? Stiff Back? These 5 Exercises Improve Everything
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Movement coach Alisa Szyman shows us how:
On the move
These movements address most tight hips, stiff shoulders, and back pain that stretching alone doesn’t fix:
- Inchworm to cobra: this sequence counteracts prolonged sitting by opening your posterior chain during the inchworm and your anterior line during cobra, moving from a forward fold to a high plank, dropping your hips into cobra, pressing back into downward dog, and returning to standing for five reps or 60 seconds.
World’s greatest stretch with arm reaches: this lunge-based movement opens your hip flexors while restoring thoracic spine rotation and extension by rotating your chest towards your front leg and reaching your arm up and back, holding about 60 seconds per side. - Reverse tabletop and drive through: this exercise opens your shoulders and chest while activating your glutes, core, and posterior chain, lifting your hips into reverse tabletop before driving your hips through your arms for about 60 seconds, or holding the tabletop if the drive through isn’t yet possible.
- Cossack squat: this lateral squat restores side-to-side hip mobility often lost from only moving forwards and backwards, shifting deeply into one bent knee while keeping the opposite leg straight, then alternating sides for about a minute or as many controlled reps as possible.
- Deep squat with heel lifts: this movement improves your ankle mobility and strength while reinforcing deep hip mobility, holding your deepest squat with your chest lifted and lifting your heels briefly before lowering them back to the ground, modifying by holding the squat or using support if needed.
The reason they work is because together, these five movements address full-body mobility, flexibility, strength, lateral movement, spinal rotation, and ankle control, which all adds up to a daily routine that targets the areas most affected by modern sedentary habits.
For more on all of this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:
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Want to learn more?
You might also like:
Mobility For Now & For Later: Train For The Marathon That Is Your Life!
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Don’t Forget…
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- Inchworm to cobra: this sequence counteracts prolonged sitting by opening your posterior chain during the inchworm and your anterior line during cobra, moving from a forward fold to a high plank, dropping your hips into cobra, pressing back into downward dog, and returning to standing for five reps or 60 seconds.
