Categories
Stress

Stress Less

We live in a society where stress seems like it is part of our lives. For some, it is not even that they have a season of more or less stress, but that it is part of their every day. From waking up late to knowing that amount of work you are about to walk into, to the new boss that doesn’t like you, these are just a few things that we can carry each day. If you work in a high-stress job, it can be even more. We also tend to take on the stress of the people around us. When your child procrastinated on that school project, you watch them melt down, and you can just feel the tension rise in you. Or when your spouse had a particularly bad day, and unfortunately they are taking their frustration out on you. The stressors of life are plentiful.

We all handle stress very differently. But what you may not know is what the stress is doing to your physical, mental and emotional well-being. When your brain is always sending messages to your other organs with heightened stress hormones, your body eventually fails to respond well in actually stressful situations as well as everyday life. Two of the primary victims of constant stress are your heart and your lungs. Your heart is working extra hard to move more oxygen into your muscles, but in that same act, it is raising your blood pressure. Your lungs are working extra hard, but if you already have asthma this can make breathing that much harder. Your digestive system can also take a hit. Under stress your liver creates more glucose that your body may not need, leading you to develop type 2 diabetes possibly. Most people also have greater heartburn while stressed and where this doesn’t cause ulcers it can affect people who already suffer from ulcers. Stress also affects the way your body breaks down nutrients, meaning that your body is not getting all the nutrients out of your food leading to weight gain, constipation or diarrhea.

 

These are just some of the ways that stress can affect your body. If you want to know about some ways to help de-stress, stay tuned for our next blog.
Categories
Pool

Be a Better You, Play Pool

Anyone can enjoy a friendly game of pool. It’s a game that lends itself to a lot of laughs, some great memories and making new friendships. But did you also know that playing pool has some great health benefits as well?

Categories
Ping Pong

Live Pong and Prosper

Ping Pong has a long history of being a sport that brings a lot of fun into any situation.

 

It’s an easy game for anyone with any skill level to start. It takes little to no time to show someone how to pick up a paddle and begin this easy yet very entertaining game. But there is also a side of ping pong that makes it a sport that can add significant benefits to your health.

 

Ping Pong or table tennis is a relatively easy game to get better at with some practice. You can go from a simple light pass back and forth game to quickly learning how to add spin to your ball and moving at much quicker speeds. Whenever your heart rate is elevated, and you can break into a sweat, there is, of course, some healthy exercise happening.

 

You also grow in your hand eye coordination. Table tennis is often referred to as high-speed chess because when you’re playing at a quick speed, you need to know where you are going to hit the ball, how it will be coming back to you and where you will send it next. You are thinking out your moves ahead of time and making quick decisions based on how your opponent is playing. Many professional athletes will play ping pong to grow their hand eye coordination and quick reflexes to aid them in their sports.

 

Your brain gets a workout in Ping Pong. Studies are beginning to show that the brain gets engaged in many different ways while you play this sport. The prefrontal cortex is involved while you make strategic moves while the hippocampus is also engaged which helps you retain better long term memory. But these are just a few of the remarkable benefits of playing ping pong. There is also the fact that it is just a lot of fun!
Games For Fun