Spending 15 minutes each morning flowing through some yoga poses can help to improve your flexibility, core strength, and balance – which makes it a great addition to your morning routine.1 Why is yoga in the morning beneficial? Studies have shown that yoga can help improve your physical and mental health, including reducing physical symptoms associated with anxiety.2 Alongside this other studies have shown yoga can switch off your ‘fight-or-flight’ response temporarily, which helps calm your mind.3 How do you get started with a morning yoga routine? Before you begin your...

How often do you spend working away at your desk or sat down generally? Adults reportedly spend more than seven hours a day sitting or lying down, and the older we get, the higher this figure gets (around 10 hours a day or more).1 Why have we mentioned this? Well, sitting down for hours on end can potentially take its toll on our posture and possibly lead to issues with your back muscles.2 What is good posture? If your posture’s good, your body is correctly aligned and being supported by...

Have you ever had a cramp in your feet, toes or your legs? If you have, then you’ll know it takes a minute or two for it to go away. But when it does, it means you can feel your feet, toes or legs again, and you can stand up, wriggle your toes and walk again. When you’ve got cramp, you know about it, especially hand cramps, especially if you’re driving, writing, typing or using your hands at the time. Cramps in hands can happen just as much as cramps...

Cramping in the feet and toes is common. Although it can be inconvenient and painful – it’s usually nothing to worry about. However, if foot cramps are happening regularly, there might be an underlying cause. What do foot cramps feel like? A foot cramp can feel like a tearing sensation along the arch of your foot. Cramps can incorporate the top of the foot too, with pain curling from your ankle to your big toe joint. During a cramp, your foot may feel ‘locked’ into position. You might also feel...

If you have been suffering with painful shins, there is a chance that it could be shin splints. Shin splints are commonly used to describe any sort of shin pain, but shin splints are specifically caused by putting weight on your legs through exercise such as running.1 The good news is that they’re not serious and can be easily treated, with the right help. Fortunately for you – we have put together all the relevant information that you’ll need to help you recover. Over the course of the next article...

If you have experienced a sprained ankle, you’ll need to give it time to heal. Although, it’s also important to strengthen the muscles around the around it to allow it to recover properly and prevent further sprains. Once you have gone through a short rest period it’s thought that you may be able to start exercising a mild sprained ankle after a few days. This will obviously depend on how bad your sprain is – at this stage it’s important to listen to your body. Once you have taken some...

Sprain and strains can both be pretty painful, but what’s the difference? People often use these words interchangeably, but they’re not quite the same. Both sprains and strains are classed as soft tissue injuries, but the tissues they affect are different. What is a sprain? A sprain is a stretch or tear in a ligament, which are the tough bands of tissues connecting your bones together. What is a strain? A strain is a stretch or tear in a muscle or tendon. A tendon is the flexible tissue which connects...

If you’ve ever woken up in the middle of the night with a burning sensation in your chest, chances are you’ve experienced heartburn. This annoying condition, that’s also commonly called indigestion or acid reflux, is caused by stomach acid rising back up into the oesophagus (throat) after you eat. Some people experience it very rarely, while others may have it persistently every day. The symptoms of heartburn can often be similar to that of a heart attack, so it’s important that you know the differences. In general, heartburn symptoms include1:...

Acid reflux – also known as heartburn – is a common ailment that many people experience from time to time. For some people, acid reflux can be caused by something as simple as overindulging. Other people experience acid reflux flare-ups whenever they eat certain trigger foods, which may need to be removed from the diet altogether. Although acid reflux is normal, it can be uncomfortable and embarrassing if it’s concurrent with symptoms like bloating or bad breath.1 In this article, we’ll explain the science behind acid reflux and reveal common...