The Hidden Risk of Stretching: Avoiding Hamstring Injuries in Yoga
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What is Yoga Butt
Have you ever experienced a mysterious pain while stretching, or perhaps during yoga? You might be dealing with “yoga butt,” a common—although rarely discussed—injury. In the below video, the Lovely Liv from Livinleggings shares her journey of discovering, and overcoming, “yoga butt”.
Dealing With Yoga Butt
Yoga butt, or proximal hamstring tendinopathy, occurs when the hamstrings are overstretched without adequate strengthening. Many yoga poses help stretch the hamstrings, but often don’t focus on strengthening said hamstrings; this imbalance is what can lead to damage over time.
To help prevent Yoga butt, it’s essential to balance stretching with strengthening. You can look into incorporating hamstring-strengthening exercises like Romanian deadlifts, hamstring curls, and modified yoga poses into your routine.
(If you’re new to strengthening exercises, we recommend reading Women’s Strength Training Anatomy Workouts or Strength Training for Seniors).
Watch the full video to learn more and hopefully protect yourself from long-term injuries:
Let us know your thoughts, and whether you have any other topics you’d like us to cover.
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Test For Whether You Will Be Able To Achieve The Splits
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Some people stretch for years without being able to do the splits; others do it easily after a short while. Are there people for whom it is impossible, and is there a way to know in advance whether our efforts will be fruitful? Liv (of “LivInLeggings” fame) has the answer:
One side of the story
There are several factors that affect whether we can do the splits, including:
- arrangement of the joint itself
- length of tendons and muscles
- “stretchiness” of tendons and muscles
The latter two things, we can readily train to improve. Yes, even the basic length can be changed over time, because the body adapts.
The former thing, however (arrangement of the joint itself) is near-impossible, because skeletal changes happen more slowly than any other changes in the body. In a battle of muscle vs bone, muscle will always win eventually, and even the bone itself can be rebuilt (as the body fixes itself, or in the case of some diseases, messes itself up). However, changing the arrangement of your joint itself is far beyond the auspices of “do some stretches each day”. So, for practical purposes, without making it the single most important thing in your life, it’s impossible.
How do we know if the arrangement of our hip joint will accommodate the splits? We can test it, one side at a time. Liv uses the middle splits, also called the side splits or box splits, as an example, but the same science and the same method goes for the front splits.
Stand next to a stable elevated-to-hip-height surface. You want to be able to raise your near-side leg laterally, and rest it on the surface, such that your raised leg is now perfectly perpendicular to your body.
There’s a catch: not only do you need to still be stood straight while your leg is elevated 90° to the side, but also, your hips still need to remain parallel to the floor—not tilted up to one side.
If you can do this (on both sides, even if not both simultaneously right now), then your hip joint itself definitely has the range of motion to allow you to do the side splits; you just need to work up to it. Technically, you could do it right now: if you can do this on both sides, then since there’s no tendon or similar running between your two legs to make it impossible to do both at once, you could do that. But, without training, your nerves will stop you; it’s an in-built self-defense mechanism that’s just firing unnecessarily in this case, and needs training to get past.
If you can’t do this, then there are two main possibilities:
- Your joint is not arranged in a way that facilitates this range of motion, and you will not achieve this without devoting your life to it and still taking a very long time.
- Your tendons and muscles are simply too tight at the moment to allow you even the half-split, so you are getting a false negative.
This means that, despite the slightly clickbaity title on YouTube, this test cannot actually confirm that you can never do the middle splits; it can only confirm that you can. In other words, this test gives two possible results:
- “Yes, you can do it!”
- “We don’t know whether you can do it”
For more on the anatomy of this plus a visual demonstration of the test, enjoy:
Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!
Want to learn more?
You might also like to read:
Stretching Scientifically – by Thomas Kurz ← this is our review of the book she’s working from in this video; this book has this test!
Take care!
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Exercised – by Dr. Daniel Lieberman
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Surely the title is taking liberties? We must have evolved to exercise, right? Not exactly.
We evolved to conserve energy. Our strength-to-weight ratio is generally unimpressive, we cannot casually hang in trees, and we spend a third of our lives asleep.
Strengths that we do have, however, include a large brain and a versatile gut perfect for opportunism. Again, not the indicators of being evolved for exercise.
So, Dr. Lieberman tells us, if we’re not inclined to get up and go, that’s quite natural. So, why does it feel good when we do get up and go?
This book covers a lot of the “this not that” aspects of exercise. By this we mean: ways that we can work with or against our bodies, for both physical and psychological fulfilment.
There’s an emphasis on such things as:
- movement without excessive exertion
- persistence being more important than power
- strength-building but only so far as is helpful to us
…and many other factors that you won’t generally see on your gym’s motivational posters
Bottom line: this book is for all those who have felt “exercise is not for me” but would also like the benefits of exercise. It turns out that there’s a best-of-both-worlds sweet spot!
Click here to check out Exercised and get working with your body rather than against it!
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Avocado Oil vs Olive Oil – Which is Healthier?
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Our Verdict
When comparing avocado oil to olive oil, we picked the olive oil.
Why?
Avocados and olives are both very healthy foods. However, when they are made into oils, there’s an important distinguishing factor:
Olive oil usually retains a lot of the micronutrients from the olives (including vitamins E and K), whereas no measurable micronutrients usually remain in avocado oil.
So while both olive oil and avocado oil have a similar (excellent; very heart-healthy!) lipids profile, the olive oil has some bonuses that the avocado oil doesn’t.
We haven’t written about the nutritional profiles of either avocados or olives yet, but here’s what we had to say on the different kinds of olive oil available:
And here’s an example of a good one on Amazon, for your convenience 😎
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Eat To Avoid (Or Beat) PCOS
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Polycystic ovary syndrome, PCOS, affects very many people; around 1 in 5 women. It can show up unexpectedly, and usually the first-identified sign is irregular vaginal bleeding. We say “vaginal” rather than “menstrual” as it’s not technically menses, although it’ll look (and can feel) the same.
Like many “affects mostly women” conditions, science’s general position is “we don’t know what causes it or how to cure it”.
Quick book recommendation before we continue:
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World – by Dr. Elinor Cleghorn
…is a top-tier book about medical misogyny. We’d say more here, but well, you can read our review there 🙂
What doesn’t work
Since PCOS is characterized by excessive androgen production, it is reasonable to expect that foods containing phytoestrogens (such as soy) may help. They won’t. The human body can’t use those as estrogen, and in fact, consuming unusually large quantities of phytoestrogens can actually get in the way of your own (or bioidentical) estrogen, by competing for the same receptors but not really doing the job.
But, you won’t get that problem from moderate consumption of soy; the warning is more for those tempted to self-medicate with megadoses, or are opting for dubious supplements such as Pueraria mirifica ← will have to do a research review on that one of these days, but suffice it to say meanwhile, it has some serious drawbacks
See also: What Does “Balance Your Hormones” Even Mean?
What can work
There are some supplement-based approaches that actually can help, and those are the ones that rather than trying to manufacture estrogen out of thin air, work to reduce testosterone and/or reduce the conversion of free testosterone to its more potent form, dihydrogen testosterone (DHT); here are two examples:
- Licorice, Digestion, & Hormones
- One Man’s Saw Palmetto Is Another Woman’s Serenoa Repens ← this one has the most evidence of the two
What will work
…or at least, barring additional confounding factors, what the evidence strongly supports working. Here’s where we get into diet properly, and there are three main dietary approaches:
Low-GI diet: focus on high-fiber, low-carb foods (e.g. whole grains, legumes, berries, leafy greens). Eating this way results in improved insulin sensitivity, lower fasting insulin, cholesterol, triglycerides, waist circumference, and (for women) yes, lower testosterone levels.
See: What Do The Different Kinds Of Fiber Do? 30 Foods That Rank Highest
High antioxidant diet: focus on foods rich in antioxidants (e.g. vitamin A, α-tocopherol specifically, vitamins C and D, and polyphenols) as these lower PCOS incidence.
See: 21 Most Beneficial Polyphenols & What Foods Have Them
Ketogenic diet: focus on high-fat, very low-carb foods (e.g. fatty fish, dairy, leafy greens). This significantly reduces androgen levels, improves insulin sensitivity, and regulates hormones. But… It’s recommended for short-term use only due to its negative health impacts from poor (i.e. narrow) nutritional coverage:
See: Ketogenic Diet: Burning Fat, Or Burning Out?
It is also reasonable to supplement, for example:
❝Omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin D have powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that significantly improve insulin sensitivity and reduce androgen levels in metabolic syndromes like PCOS. A higher intake of omega-3 and vitamin E also alleviates mental health parameters and gene expression of PPAR-γ, IL-8, and TNF-α in women with PCOS.
Dietary supplements, such as antioxidants like N-acetylcysteine (NAC), vitamin D, inositol, and omega-3 fatty acids, and mineral supplements (zinc, magnesium selenium, and chromium) help in reducing insulin resistance. These supplements also enhance ovulatory function and decrease inflammation in PCOS patients.
Omega-3 fatty acid supplements improve biochemical parameters LH, LH/FSH, lipid profiles, and adiponectin levels and regularize the menstrual cycle in women with PCOS. A recent RCT also indicated that probiotic/symbiotic supplementation significantly improves triglyceride, insulin, and HDL levels in women with PCOS.❞
Source: The Role of Lifestyle Interventions in PCOS Management: A Systematic Review
Want to know more?
You might like this book that we reviewed a little while back:
PCOS Repair Protocol – by Tamika Woods
Take care!
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7 Steps to Get Off Sugar and Carbohydrates – by Susan Neal
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We will not keep the steps a mystery; abbreviated, they are:
- decide to really do this thing
- get knowledge and support
- clean out that pantry/fridge/etc and put those things behind you
- buy in healthy foods while starving your candida
- plan for an official start date, so that everything is ready
- change the way you eat (prep methods, timings, etc)
- keep on finding small ways to improve, without turning back
Particularly important amongst those are starving the candida (the fungus in your gut that is responsible for a lot of carb cravings, especially sugar and alcohol—which latter can be broken down easily into sugar), and changing the “how” of eating as well as the “what”; those are both things that are often overlooked in a lot of guides, but this one delivers well.
Walking the reader by the hand through things like that is probably the book’s greatest strength.
In the category of subjective criticism, the author does go off-piste a little at the end, to take a moment while she has our attention to talk about other things.
For example, you may not need “Appendix 7: How to Become A Christian and Disciple of Jesus Christ”.
Of course if that calls to you, then by all means, follow your heart, but it certainly isn’t a necessary step of quitting sugar. Nevertheless, the diversion doesn’t detract from the good dietary change advice that she has just spent a book delivering.
Bottom line: there’s no deep science here, but there’s a lot of very good, very practical advice, that’s consistent with good science.
Click here to check out 7 Steps to Get Off Sugar, and watch your health improve!
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PCOS Repair Protocol – by Tamika Woods
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.
PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) affects about 1 in 5 women, and the general position of the medical establishment is “Oh dear, how sad; never mind”.
…which leaves a lot of people suffering with symptoms with little to no help.
This book looks to address that, and while it doesn’t claim to cure PCOS, it offers a system for managing (including: reducing) the symptoms. The author, a clinical nutritionist by academic background, tackles this in large part via being mindful about what one eats, in the context of the gut and endocrine system specifically.
It’s not just “have a gut healthy diet and eat foods with these nutrients”, though (although yes: also that). Rather, the author walks us through in-depth quizzes and lab testing advice, to advise the reader on how to understand the root cause of your PCOS symptoms, and then address each of those with an individualized management plan.
The style is on the low-end of pop-science, notwithstanding the clinically-informed content. For those who like a very chatty informal approach, you’ll find this one perfect. For those who don’t, well, you won’t find this one perfect, but you will most likely find it informative all the same.
Bottom line: if you or someone you care about (do you know 5 women?) has PCOS, the information in here could make a difference.
Click here to check out PCOS Repair Protocol, and suffer less!
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