3 Stress Reducing Tips Fuelled By Health & Wellness
Stress Reducing Health Tip #1: Breathing – Alternate Nostril Breathing Controlled deep breathing is known to induce calm and focus. Try this exercise to help reduce stress and/or to improve mental acuity before an important task. Sitting comfortably, exhale completely and then use your right thumb to close your right nostril. Breath in slowly and […]
How To Support Your Immune System
How To Support Your Immune System Tara Postnikoff, RNCP/ROHP, Holistic Nutritionist Book An Appointment The immune system is your body’s primary mechanism of defence, responsible for protecting you from potentially harmful invaders. It is made up of various cells, tissues, and substances including the skin barrier, red and white blood cells, microbiota, antibodies, and cytokines […]
Running & Core Strength
We know the “core” to be different muscles that help stabilize the spine and pelvis, but there are specific groups of core muscles that are especially important in running in Toronto and other cities. We call this the “outer unit” or “slings”. Slings are groups of muscles that cross the pelvis to create dynamic stability […]
Registering For a Half-Marathon This Year?
Are you thinking of registering for a half-marathon this year? Wondering what the key elements to a solid half-marathon training program are? Here’s Totum team member & running specialists, Victoria Lavinska’s two cents… Long Runs Goal: endurance – the longer these runs, the more you will work on your endurance, helping you prepare for race […]
The #1 Way to Boost Your Brain Power
The idea of exercise as a tool for brain development should be very attractive to anyone involved in education. A simple way to benefit from this idea is to use exercise as a “primer” to enhance your brain’s ability to function. This is such a simple concept, yet it is rarely utilized in our busy […]
New Season, Better Running
Determined to get back into the swing of things after a busy summer? Ready to hit the trails on a beautiful crisp morning? Inspired to start a running routine before the winter months? Here are my top “return-to-running” tips that will help keep you injury-free: 1. Start slowly! If it has been weeks or months […]
How Is Your Internal GPS?
Did you know that you have an internal GPS? It allows you to orient yourself in space, respond to changes in the environment, and move through life. Running, picking up your kids, lifting weights, balancing, and even resiliency to stress are affected by this mapping function of the brain. Better maps result in better movement […]
New Online Training Resource
In conjunction with Trainer +, a Toronto based fitness tech firm, Totum has developed an excellent resource for exercise selection. The Totum ExerGuide is an app with an incredible selection of exercises from the basics to important post rehabilitation work. It includes: • a library of over 1,000 exercises • hi-def video demonstrations • techniques and common […]
Beat the Bloat: How to Prevent Abdominal Bloating
Summer is in full swing, and that means more barbecues, food festivals and eating out. It may also mean more digestive upset, and in particular, bloating. We’ve all experienced it at some point—when your stomach feels enlarged or swollen and may be accompanied by excessive gas. While bloating can be a symptom of a serious […]
The Stress Response
There are two main divisions to our nervous system: the sympathetic and parasympathetic. There is also a third known as the enteric system, but for clarity’s sake, we’ll leave that division out of this conversation. Fight or Flight? Or Rest and Digest? Our sympathetic nervous system is our “fight or flight” response, which is the […]