Recovery!

 This month has been very interesting, my dad took most of the month of May off for our vacation and we were hoping to plan some big trips but my younger brother has baseball practice and games throughout the week, my older sister works and has Drivers Ed and then I was working, So that time ended up being spent cleaning out the back yard,weeding and getting the garden planted ( it looks much better now) but we did get to take a few short trips after all our hard work outside.

We went to the beach and stayed at a friend's house which was pretty awesome, played in the water, made sand castles and took quite a few walks along the beach, its amazing to stand at the water line and just watch the waves come in and the breeze blow on your face. Our next little trip ended in a couple of doctor appointments for me, We went up to visit my grandma who lives about 4 hours away, in a place which I guess you could call it a farm/ ranch type of thing, she has cows,chickens a mini horse and two big horses, One of my favorite things about going up there is riding her horses mostly because I'm a city slicker and don't get the chance anywhere else, my grandma has a new horse that is rebellious and just wants to run. Being the dare devil that I am, I decided to ride her even though I am just learning how to ride and lets just say I got my ride ;) I fell off and landed on my hip weird so that it got twisted out of place thankfully I landed on sand so it broke my fall a little bit, my dad ( He's from New York, even more of a city slicker)  ran out and picked me up, yelling the whole way "What are horses even for!?! I knew something was going to happen!! Lets just shoot the horse!!" (gotta love my dad!) I was able to walk, it was just very painful, so once we got home and settled in my mom took me to get my hip adjusted. I thought "I go in, get adjusted and walk out a new person, maybe go back one more time to make sure everything is on the right track and then get right back into my exercise routine"  I was so wrong. It'd be more like 5 appointments, I did not walk out feeling like a new person, I felt the same as when I had fallen and I wouldn't be able to do any high impact exercises for about two weeks, What I had neglected to remember is that healing takes time, this is called  "Recovery time" and my recovery time might seem pretty short, I mean, two weeks thats not bad but if you're like me it seems pretty long to not be able to move like I was used to, since I am a swim Instructor and Lifeguard it was very difficult to do my job well when you can't really keep up with the kids you're trying to teach to swim and guarding is very hard when you can't bend down to assist a child out of the pool,and also since I love to exercise It was especially hard not being able to exercise when I was in recovery time. So to make sure I didn't fall to far behind ( and go crazy!)I started trying different exercise move that I could do with out using my hip as much, I found that I could do Plank, wall sits, Pushups,walking, and the exercise bike not to much but enough to keep me moving, Now about two weeks later I'm just beginning to be able to jog and I have more of a selection of exercises that I can do. I want to encourage you to keep moving! It's important to exercise even if you don't feel like you accomplished much. Smaller,consistent times of exercise really go a long way. Also I wanted to encourage everyone to take recovery time more seriously, A good thing to remember is P.R.I.C.E I had learned R.I.C.E   Rest,Ice,Compress,and Elevation, but I guess now it is P.R.I.C.E, Protection, Rest, Ice,Compression and Elevation (Protection would be to protect yourself against any further injury) following P.R.I.C.E can hep you recover from an injury faster and take away some pain that you might have.

Whats the biggest injury you've ever gotten? I Love to hear your story!

Have a Beautiful weekend!
 xoxo Cameron Ashleigh

Swiming!

Hi! 

So I wanted to do a post on the benefits of swimming because one, I'm a lifeguard and swim instructor and I have to be able to swim at least 200yds (I get to swim for free because I work at a pool) and second is because its one of the greatest ways to work out and the health benefits of swimming are almost unmatched by other sports.

 Have you ever watch a professional swimmer and seen how lean and toned they looked and wished you could get that look?I know I've always admire swimmers, how they seem to move though the water so easily and yet seem so powerful at the same time, well a couple of reasons why swimming is so great is because swimming works your whole body, improving cardiovascular conditioning, muscle strength, endurance, posture, and flexibility all at the same time. Your cardiovascular system( what gets your blood system going)  in particular benefits because swimming improves your body’s use of oxygen without overworking your heart and you don't have to be a professional swimmer to swim either which is really good. Some additional health benefits of swimming would be....

Whole body conditioning: Swimming tones your upper and lower body because you’re using almost all of your major muscle groups. The best strokes for all-over body toning are the freestyle, breaststroke and backstroke.

Low-impact exercise: So many people can reap the benefits of swimming. Pregnant women benefit from swimming because it helps strengthen the shoulder and abdominal muscles, which can be strained when carrying a baby. The elderly, women who have had a mastectomy and those recovering from an injury often turn to swimming or water aerobic exercises because it’s low impact, helps relax stiff muscles and isn’t weight-bearing. Swimming also increases circulation. 

Improve blood pressure: Studies have shown that a workout routine that includes swimming can help reduce and possibly prevent high blood pressure, which lowers your risk for heart disease and stroke. 

Stress reduction: You don’t have to be a water sign in the zodiac to feel the meditative and healing properties of water. Swimming is extremely relaxing because it allows more oxygen to flow to your muscles and forces you to regulate your breathing. It’s also a great way to relieve stress. Our bodies are made up of about 60% water so it’s no wonder why some feel such a draw to the water.

 

 So to get started...

Start slowly, especially if the pool feels like foreign land. Experts recommend that beginner swimmers start with 12-20 minutes of swimming, and once your strokes become more efficient, your ability to swim longer will also. For exercise purposes, the best stroke to use in the pool is freestyle, where your arms are moving in a windmill motion while your body is pivoting and you’re breathing on the side of the arm that’s out of the water.

To keep your swimming routine fresh, try mixing up you strokes, freestyle stroke with other strokes, such as the backstroke or breast stroke. Not only will using a variety of strokes save you from boredom, but you’ll be working different muscles for a more effective workout every time.

If laps aren’t your thing, there are plenty of other good swimming exercises. Try walking or running in water, which many people find easier to do than on land. Tread water –  and I'll tell you right now it exhausting but will really help tone your legs and arms or even (my favorite) playing a game of tag in the water, so much fun!
Good luck with swimming! 


XOXO
Cameron Ashleigh