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About Trishala Chopra

Dr Trishala Chopra believes in fitness not because she is a lifestyle coach but because she has personally got into a fitness regime when she was constantly being ridiculed for being on the heavier side with extreme acne issues. The ridicule and criticisms were the tipping points for her to change herself and today she is glad she has reduced by more than 50%. By qualification she is a Doctor of naturopathy/alternative medicines, a post-graduate in Nutraceuticals and both these degrees has helped her gain extra knowledge about all fields in the Health Care industry. She has additional skills in the areas of Therapeutic nutrition and Ayurveda. Her fitness mantra is practice what you preach. She believes that for a healthy lifestyle, it is very important to have a healthy body and mind. This according to her can be attained through balanced nutrition and proper exercise. As a lifestyle coach, she helps individuals achieve their targets with respect to nutrition and exercise.

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Ice Therapy or Heat Therapy: Which One Should You Use?

heating-pad-heat-therapy-joint

Whether you run a marathon or go for a trek, you come back with some amount of soreness of the muscles. There’s a possibility of soreness even after a strenuous gym workout. When some of my players experience minor aches and pains, I often tell them to “drink lots of water and stretch“. Apart from drinking water and stretching, there are 2 routes which are commonly used for pain relief:

  • Cryotherapy or Ice therapy
  • Thermotherapy or Heat therapy

Which therapy you use, depends on the situation and the kind of pain/injury. Let’s go over some markers which might be useful to you.

Ice Therapy: What Happens When You Do It?

Our body has skin receptors which pick up different sensations that include touch, pressure, pain and temperature. If you look in to these skin receptors, you will find out that the body has more cold receptors than heat receptors.

When you use ice therapy or apply ice, your skin activates the cold receptors and they block the sensation of pain. After an injury, the area might be red and swollen. Applying ice will help in reducing or preventing the inflammatory response. Ice causes vasoconstriction (narrowing of blood vessels) which reduces blood flow temporarily.

How Do You Use It? 

  • Ice packs (frozen packets): These are the best and most portable option as it will adapt and mold to the body part accordingly
  • Ice in a towel: You can also hold ice in a towel and apply it on the injury. The towel will provide additional compression
  • Using a light cloth: If you have sensitive skin, keep a barrier between the skin and ice. A thin cloth or light cotton one can help

When Should You Use Ice Therapy 

You can use ice therapy under the scenarios mentioned below:

1. If the injury is sudden and acute: Ice therapy will help in preventing swelling and will provide relief from the pain by reducing the blood flow to that area.

For example: If you sprain your ankle during a marathon, trekking or while working out in the gym, apply a pack of ice to reduce the swelling. The sooner you apply the ice, the better.

2. Soft tissue injuries: Applying ice after a strenuous workout will help in relieving the muscle soreness and aid the recovery process.

Try using ice therapy 4 times a day for 2 days. If the pain persists, you should visit your doctor or physiotherapist.

When Should You Avoid Using Ice Therapy?

“Ice is good, but not always!” Below are scenarios where ice therapy might make your situation worse.

  • Avoid applying ice on open wounds
  • If you are a high B.P patient, avoid ice therapy on the shoulder and near the neck region. It will raise the systolic and diastolic pressure because of decrease in blood flow
  • Do not apply ice before a workout but if your workout consist of stretches, then apply ice for healing the acute injury
  • If you have issues with blood circulation
  • If you have stiff joints, applying ice will increase the stiffness
  • If the pain becomes chronic i.e. more than 72 hours, it is not a good option as now ice is not needed to stop the blood flow
  • If you have a persistent lower back pain, ice therapy won’t work.

How Long Should You Continue With Ice Therapy?

You need to be careful about the icing duration as excess of icing might cause pain due to lack of blood flow. If you have sensitive skin, applying ice directly to the skin might not be a good option.

  • For a minor post workout injury, 15min is the most optimal time
  • To deal with acute soft tissue injury, 10min session is optimal
  • Deeper the injury, longer the icing time. For example, hamstring injury might need longer icing time then an injury on the finger

Heat Therapy: What Happens When You Do It? 

Like Ice therapy, heat therapy is also used for relieving pain and aids the healing process. When you apply heat to the injury, unlike ice therapy which first causes vasoconstriction and then vasodilation, heat therapy directly causes vasodilation which increases the blood flow to the injured part.

How Do You Use It? 

  • Whole body heat therapy: This includes steam, sauna or a jacuzzi which can be used to relax your entire body
  • Heat packs: Applying a heat pack without direct contact to the injured part is a great way to aid the healing process.

When Should You Use Heat Therapy?

  • You can use heat therapy for chronic pain. After 72 hours, once the injury has crossed the acute stage and the inflammation is reduced, heat can be giving to aid the healing process.
  • Heating can reduce your stiffness as well because it increases the blood flow to the stiff part making it more flexible.

When Should You Avoid Heat Therapy?

  • Do not apply heat to a fresh injury. This can cause increase of blood flow which can increase the inflammation.
  • Never apply heat to the places where it is swollen. Only ice should be used till the swelling reduces.

How Long Should You Continue With Heat Therapy?

  • 18-20 mins is the most optimal time for a heat therapy session. Please note that this doesn’t remain the same for all as it entirely depends on the type of heating method used.
  • It is advisable to keep a barrier between the skin and the heat pack to avoid direct contact and feel a burning sensation.
  • Comfort level is very important in heat therapy sessions. You should get optimal heat, excess of it might make you uncomfortable. 

These are the basics about Ice and Heat therapy. It should help anyone who is working out or running a marathon or goes for a trek very often. So, the next time before reaching out to any painkillers or pain relief ointments, reach out to the things mentioned in this article! But if you are not sure about your injury, it is always better to speak with your coach, doctor or any physiotherapist.

If this article helped you, let us know your thoughts in the comments below. Find more articles on fitness here.

Still not sure whether you should use ice therapy or heat therapy? Speak to one of our experts by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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Effects Of Different Medications On Exercise

Effects of Different Medications on Exercise Either you or somebody you know might be on some kind of long term medications! I am not talking about somebody who takes an aspirin or a paracetamol or some antipyretic. When I say long term medications, I am talking about cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar lowering drugs. When a patient usually gets on any of these drugs there are high chances that they are on them forever!

Each one of these medications has a tremendous impact on the body which comes as a blow if you’re an exercise person! Every medication has a different set of action, so here are some points for you to keep in mind.

1. Cholesterol Medications

The most commonly used cholesterol medication is statin. The generic names of these drugs available are usually Rosuvastatin, Atorvastatin, Fluvastatin, Lovastatin, Pravastatin, Simvastatin and Pitavastatin.

Note: To check which statin is your medication, check behind the tablet. If it is not mentioned, check it on the company’s site

Effects Of Cholesterol Medications On Exercise 

Statins deplete CoEnzyme Q10 in the body, which is very important for muscles to produce energy. This will affect your strength training routine and your post strength training recovery will be slow. It might also lead to rhabdomyolysis which means muscle death – it is definitely not good.

What Can You Do?

  • The first thing which you should always try is getting off statins as soon as possible with some changes in your diet and exercise routine. You can ask your coach to help you with this! Let your doctor change your medicines and your coach can guide you with the diet and exercise routine.
  • While you are on a statin, you should always try a gradual progress. Do not rush into any kind of exercise routine. Give your body enough time to get adapted.
  • Take longer recovery time. Instead of having a 1-day gap between your strength training schedules, you can take a 2 day gap which will give your muscles more time to recover. You can do light workouts on the day when you don’t plan to do strength training.

2. Beta Blockers

This is a group of medications is used to lower high blood pressure. The most commonly used beta blockers are atenolol, bisoprolol, propranolol and metroporolol.

Note: To check which beta blocker is your medication, check behind the tablet. Salt name is always mentioned. If in case it is not mentioned, check it on the company’s website.

Effects Of Beta Blockers On Exercise

People who are on beta blockers see that their heart rate is always less no matter what form of exercise they do. Maintaining a proper heart rate during different activities is very important for having good cardiac health. People taking beta blockers witness that their heart rate after a sprint and after moderate jogging is exactly the same. In fact, this shouldn’t be the case. It has to be more while sprinting than jogging.

What Can You Do?

  • Instead of checking your heart rate for your exercise progress, start checking your exertion timing
  • If you start panting very soon, note that time. Work on your stamina and then go ahead. Beta blockers will always keep your heart rate low.

3. ACE Inhibitors

These are another set of medications which are used to lower high blood pressure. The most commonly used ACE Inhibitors are fosinopril, lisinopril, quinapril.

Note: To check which ACE Inhibitor is your medication, check behind the tablet. Salt name is always mentioned. If in case it is not mentioned, check it on the company’s website.

Effects Of ACE Inhibitors On Exercise 

There are 2 types of people – One who has high blood pressure and is not taking any medication and another one who has high blood pressure and is on either a Beta Blocker or an ACE Inhibitor.

If the person without the medication exercises, his blood pressure will come down automatically post exercise. This is called as post exercise hypotension.

This even happens with someone who is on blood pressure medication, but then it can go really very low! That’s the reason people feel dizzy, shaky, nauseous, and experience blurred vision post exercise. Sometimes, the person can faint as well.

What Can You Do? 

  • For obvious reasons, you cannot skip the medications and neither can you skip your workout but you can definitely manage it
  • For people on BP medications, you should cool down a bit longer than an average person. Instead of a 5-minute cooldown, do a 10-minute cooldown
  • Use your tracker effectively. For example, if your heart rate is 140 beats per minute- Post workout it can drop to 110 which is ok. After another minute it might fall further to 90. Hold on. Breathe it. Stretch yourself. Your targeted heart beat should be only 10% more than your RHR (Resting Heart Rate) which is around 60-70 beats per minute.

4. Blood Sugar Lowering Medications

There are different blood sugar lowering medications which affect the body in different ways. Either they increase the insulin function or remove excess sugar out through urine or they decrease the amount of carbohydrate absorption in the body.

For a non-diabetic person, while exercising, there are different hormonal fluctuations which happen. Adrenaline is released followed by a surge in cortisol levels and these hormones raise blood sugar levels. To bring this down, pancreas secretes another hormone called insulin which brings the elevated sugars down. So, the fluctuation is not seen, whereas this is not the case in people with diabetes.

Some medications can cause hypoglycemia (Blood sugars below 70) in diabetics.

What Can You Do? 

  • In this case, nothing can be done apart from monitoring
  • Check your blood sugar levels before exercising, middle of the exercise and post workout
  • Keep half a glass of fruit juice or 1 glass of milk with you always! If the sugar drops, please consume either of the two.
  • Do strength training, reduce your carbohydrates, add enough proteins to your routine and ask your doctor to reduce your medication.

If this article helped, let us know in the comments below. You can find more articles on fitness here.

If you need help or have any queries regarding the information above, drop us a comment or speak to a certified expert directly by subscribing to GOQii’s Personalised Health Coaching here.

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Tips to Help You Sleep Better!

sleep better

Sleep! You might have already read so many articles about this especially when you’ve not been getting quality sleep. Before we go deeper into how you can sleep better, let us first understand how we define sleep! As per the world’s sleep research, William Dement (Author of promise of sleep) defines sleep as the ‘Moment when the brain starts producing theta waves’.  

Too technical! What exactly are theta waves? I don’t want to get too technical, so I will talk about medical jargon in the most simplest way possible.

The Brain Produces ‘Waves’ All The Time!

While you are awake (concentrating), your brain produces beta waves. When you are daydreaming, relaxing or lying around, your brain produces alpha waves. While your body is in the transition from relaxing to sleeping, that’s when your brain starts producing theta waves. When your body is in deep sleep, your body produces delta waves. sleep better

During this period, your body starts producing growth hormones. I always tell this to my patients. Your body undergoes repairs when you enter deep sleep which is very crucial for overall well being. When I was learning more about sleep, the one question that often came to mind was, “How and when do we get dreams?”

After theta waves, there is one interesting thing which happens. It is called as REM Sleep or Rapid Eye Movement Sleep. This is when your eyes are moving with closed eyelids. You might be dreaming but you will not remember your dreams completely the next day. According to me, these are just basic things about sleep which everyone should be aware of (and with good reason).

Do you ever get a feeling of waking up tired after sleeping for almost 9 hours? When I ask this question to my patients, they say, “I am tired all the time!” This is called as Sleep Deprivation.

How Do You Know That You Are Sleep Deprived?

I read a lot! One of the books that I read on sleep is the Promise of Sleep. The book spoke about a very cool way of figuring out if we are sleep deprived or not. Check out the steps below:

  • Go to bed with a spoon in your hand
  • Your hand should be in a position where the spoon is over the floor and not over the bed
  • Note the time when you plan to sleep
  • As soon as you fall asleep, your hand muscles will relax. Once this happens, the spoon will fall on the floor and the noise will wake you up.
  • Note the time when you wake up. That’s your own sleep latency.

There are many other sleep tests which are done as well to figure sleep deprivation out.

Now that we understand what happens when we sleep,

Follow These Tips to Sleep Better

As always, we go back to our basics: Sleep Hygiene

  • Restrict Tea/Coffee/Green Tea and other caffeinated drinks. Caffeine circulates in the system for at least 7.5 hours. Taking caffeinated drinks close to bedtime can mess your sleep schedule.
  • Make sure you create a sunset kind of environment post sunset with yellow dim lights so your body realizes that it’s the time for you to relax, rest and sleep. Same thing goes for the gadgets! Blue light from your devices block the sleep hormone production. If you have long screen hours, try using blue blocking glasses post sunset.
  • Make sure that your room temperature is around 19-20. Usually, our body temperature tends to fall when we sleep. This will help you in maintaining an ideal body temperature when you wake up.
  • Try to avoid exercising, watching exciting/horror movies which will keep your mind active for a long period of time.

Apart from the basics,

Try the Sleep Restriction State Method

  • If you think you sleep 4 hours per night, then sleep for 4 hours only
  • Go to bed at 1 AM and set your alarm clock for 6AM. You’re not allowed to go to bed earlier than 1AM, or wake up later than 6AM.
  • You will be tired the following day. Extremely tired! That’s a good thing. You will be wondering, what is good in being tired but this will drive you to sleep earlier the next day
  • The next day, you add ½ hour to the sleep time. You go to bed at 12:30AM instead of 1 AM and wake up at 6AM.
  • Keep increasing your sleep window by ½ hour per day till you feel the sleep debt is paid off.

Why are we doing this? It’s because during this time of the sleep window, you won’t be allowed to use stimulants to keep yourself up. No coffee or any kind of caffeinated beverages. We are doing this so that your body starts building up the fatigue, drowsiness and eventually you will end up sleeping. This will help in recovering your sleep debt.

Sometimes, stiff neck muscles will decrease the blood supply to the brain, which results into fragmented sleep. Getting a physio evaluation for the same will also help in improving sleep quality.

We hope these tips help you sleep better! Do type your thoughts and queries in the comments below!

To read more on sleep, check out Healthy Reads. To get these tips directly from your GOQii Coach, subscribe for personalised health coaching here.

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Why Does Sweat Smell Bad After Certain Activities?

sweat

We all sweat. Sometimes, your sweat has a horrific stench post-workout as compared to your sweat during normal hours. Have you ever experienced this and wondered why? Truth be told, your sweat has no smell. So where does the smell come from? Well, there is a scientific reason behind it!

The horrific stench after a workout comes from bacteria that live on your skin. These bacteria break down the components of sweat resulting in smell.

What is the Smell About?

Your sweat comprises of water in large amounts along with trace minerals, fatty acids and skin cells that your body sheds. Your bacteria break these down further causing odour.

There is an endorphin (This is a hormone which is produced during exercise to ease your pain and make you calm and happy!) rush when you exercise which leads to a lot of perspiration or sweating. When you work out, your body produces cortisol along with endorphins which are hormones that affect the sweat glands on our skin.

There are two types of sweat glands which are eccrine glands and apocrine glands. Sweat glands in the armpits, groin and other smelly areas are called apocrine glands which produces a pheromone-like substance that provides energy for skin bacteria and leads to the horrific stench. Whereas eccrine glands are all over the body and don’t cause extreme sweating as compared to apocrine glands.

Why Does Everybody Sweat Differently?

You might have noticed that sweating levels are different for everybody. Why does this happen?

Factors which affect the rate of sweating:

  1. Environment/Weather/Climate: Our body needs to maintain the normal temperature irrespective of climatic conditions. Body, has its own thermostat and how much you sweat completely depends on how your body is trying to cope with the weather change.
  2. Your Fitness Levels Matter: The more you workout, the more you sweat. Your body tries to cool your body temperature so that you are ready to make the workout more intense!
  3. Genes: Apart from the temperature regulation, some people tend to sweat more than others due to their genetics (somethings cannot be changed).
  4. Could be a Medical Condition: Hyperhidrosis is a medical condition in which a person sweats excessively. Body tends to work hard to maintain the usual thermostat

5 Ways to Deal with Smelly Sweat: 

  1. Maintain Hygiene: It is important to wash the smelly areas frequently especially post-exercise. Washing these areas will help you in removing the dead cells from the skin, keep the skin healthy and reduce the smell eventually.
  2. Use deodorants and antiperspirants to keep underarms stench free!
  3. Wear Proper Clothes During Workout: Prefer sweat-absorbing workout clothes. Go for material which lets the body breathe rather than trapping the sweat instead leading to excessive sweat
  4. If the sweating is excessive, see a dermatologist.
  5. Work on your Diet: Certain food items are responsible for smelly sweat. Onions, garlic, cauliflower, alcohol, and coffee can lead to excessive sweating. Cutting back on these can help you with the reduced smell from the sweat

Home Remedies to Manage Smelly Sweat 

  1. Wheatgrass Juice: It works as an excellent detoxifier. Try 1 tbsp of wheatgrass juice with water early in the morning on an empty stomach for 2 weeks and then once every alternate day for 3 months.
  2. Baking Soda: It works as a natural water-absorbing agent. Mix 2 tbsp of baking soda with water and apply it on the underarms for 30 minutes. Please do not keep it beyond 30 mins. It might act as an irritant for your skin. Wash it with ice cold water and apply 2 drops of glycerin as a natural toner.
  3. Potato/Potato Juice: It acts as a quick water-absorbing agent which works as an antiperspirant. Cut Potato into thin slices, keep it in the refrigerator for 10 minutes and rub it on armpits. This will work as a quick antiperspirant.
  4. Apple Cider Vinegar: It has astringent properties. If you suffer from excessive sweating, take 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar with mother culture early in the morning on an empty stomach.
  5. Lemon: Citrus fruits work as natural deodorants. You can apply fresh lemon juice on your armpits and wash it after 45 minutes. You can try doing this every day to get best results.
  6. Black Cohosh: Research has shown that supplementing your diet with 80mg of Black Cohosh helps in reducing overall excessive sweating and hot flashes.

Now that you know everything you need to about sweat and body odour, you can take the necessary measures and be odour-free!

Was this article helpful? Would you like to know more? Let us know in the comments below! For more articles like this, check out Healthy Reads or get advice from certified GOQii experts by subscribing for personalized coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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