Keep Calm and Cool Down

While it’s important to warm up before exercising, we don’t want you to forget about your cool down this summer. After exercising, it is essential to help your body return to its normal state before returning to your daily activities. Your “cool down” is an important part of your muscle and tissue repair and helps with your strength building and overall recovery. While it’s hot outside, use these tips to add a cool down to your summer exercise plan:   The Benefits of a Cool Down Your heart is elevated, and after a hot workout, you are ready to throw in the towel. Before you do, you want to help your heart ease back to a normal pace with a cool down routine. If you switch from a high intensity workout to sitting in your car or couch, you are running the risk of fainting or dizziness because of the quick drop in your heart rate. Instead, when you add a five to 10-minute cool down after your workout, you are not only helping your heart, but you are also helping prepare your muscles for your next workout. A cool down removes waste products like lactic acid which, when built up, can cause muscle spasms, cramping, soreness and stiffness. Before you finish your workout, take five to 10 minutes to appreciate your body and reward it for what it achieved with a cool down.   How Do You Cool Down? A cool down should take approximately five to 10 minutes. During your cool down, you’ll want to make sure you stay hydrated. Drinking water is essential when exercising, and especially when the weather is hot. If you complete a cardio workout, make sure to walk for at least three to five minutes to help your blood pressure and heart rate come back down to a normal rate. Whether you are focused on strengthening or cardio, stretching is an after-workout necessity. Not only does it help your muscles recover, it will also help you improve your flexibility, decrease the risk of injury and reduce soreness. Choose stretches that focus on the muscles you worked out and hold those stretches for at least 20-30 seconds. As you cool down, focus on deep breathing to help bring your heart rate down. Once you’re done with stretching, treat yourself to a massage or grab a foam roller to help break up the knots...
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Incorporating Yoga into Your Daily Life...

Whether you are an avid adventurer, extreme athlete or casual exerciser, incorporating yoga into your workout routine can provide many benefits for you. You can include yoga at the beginning or end of your workout, or it can be a standalone exercise. There are many benefits and a wide variety of poses, so we’ve created this short list for you to include in your next gym session:   Increase Your Flexibility When you practice yoga, you are stretching both muscles and joints. Yoga is better than static stretching in helping to prevent muscle soreness and promote faster recovery between your workouts. After going to the gym, your muscles may feel fatigued because of a build up of lactic acid in your muscles. When you incorporate yoga after your workout, you are releasing lactic acid from your muscles into your bloodstream which keeps your muscles loose. Overtime, you will experience greater flexibility from these exercises. One of our favorite poses for increasing your flexibility is the Child’s Pose.   Improve Your Strength Yoga is not a passive exercise because each pose is intended to strengthen a specific group of muscles. When incorporating different poses into your yoga routine, you will start to feel the full body workout. Through yoga, you are putting your body into positions where you have to support your own body weight. Being able to lift yourself takes skill, time and determination, even more so than your typical weight lifting. We encourage you to try the Boat Pose to strengthen your abs and hip flexors by balancing on the tripod of your sitting bones and tailbone.   Solidify Your Balance Improving your balance provides both physical and mental benefits. Yoga strengthens the muscles throughout your body. Based on the poses that you incorporate into your routine, you can improve your balance while strengthening your shoulders and arms or improve your lower body muscles and joints through standing poses. Better balance physically also improves your mental steadiness. It relieves stress and inner tension through increased focus and concentration. We suggest the Tree Pose to start working on your balancing abilities.   Practice Mindfulness Incorporating yoga into your everyday life means finding ways to understand your triggers, take a deep breath and make the best decision for yourself. Yoga promotes mindfulness through meditation and taking time out of your day to let go of the outside world. Finding a...
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Keeping Athletes in the Game

Even low-contact sports can result in acute or overuse injuries that keep athletes from participating in the activities they love. Proper orthopedic treatment can help athletes return to their pre-injury level of function and get back their active, athletic lifestyle.
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Live Your Most Active Life

Pain and stiffness don’t have to hold you back. At Bergen Orthopedics we strive to help patients perform all of the activities that mean the most, from playing with the grandkids to feeling up to taking that trip you’ve always wanted.
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