The main wellness message around activity and exercise is invariably "do some" or "do more". And that's fair enough, given that more than half of us are inactive / sedentary. Exercise and activity is one of the cornerstones of healthy balanced living and we are not shy to encourage it. But what about overtraining? [...]
The human body's immune system is responsible for fighting off infection and disease. It is a very complex system that involves skin, gut, blood, specialised white blood cells, antibodies, and more. Nobody wants to be sick and so we have long sought ways to strengthen our immunity. Pandemics like HIV and Covid-19 certainly highlight [...]
Wellness, and health to a large extent, comes down to lifestyle (strictly speaking there's also genetics, age, luck, and some other factors but since we cannot control those factors, we focus on lifestyle, which we can manage). Healthy lifestyles are all about healthy habits. Most of us have a fairly good idea of the [...]
Wellness comes down to lifestyle. Healthy lifestyles build and sustain wellness, and well people live better (with more energy, enthusiasm, productivity, happiness). It's a cycle and it's a circle. So how do we build and sustain a healthy lifestyle? Books and books have been written, an endless stream of online videos can be watched, [...]
Most of us know that exercise helps with fitness, strength, energy, weight-control, health, future health (=health risk), etc. The evidence behind all of these benefits is overwhelming and the benefits are really not in doubt. You knew that didn't you? OK, but let's think about a few less-obvious but very-real benefits associated with exercise and [...]
A lean and toned physique has become the embodiment of health and well-being. There is no shortage of blogs on the ‘net and supplements on the market with advice and claims on how to gain muscle - this advice usually focuses on high protein intake. Is there really a need for so much extra [...]
The Sanlam Wellness Rowing challenge, held recently at head office, was an initiative by the wellness champions and spearheaded by Elaine Kerchhoff and Bevan Louw – actuarial Wellness champions. The purpose of the event was a reminder to staff - in addition to being a follow-up to the Spinning Challenge – of optional ways [...]
We all want to be well, or more well. Perhaps it's more exercise, better sleep, less alcohol, losing weight, coping with stress more effectively, quitting smoking, or something else. But we all have that list in our heads, you know, the "I'd be really well if I could change xxxyyyzzz" list. But we have [...]
Have you ever walked into the gym, had a look around and noticed how seemingly over-prepared some of the patrons are - sports drinks, snack and water… Are you doing something wrong? Do they know something that you don’t? Let's try to simplify when you need to eat, drink or both during exercise and [...]
Remember carbo-loading? Carbo-loading was a popular practice for athletes in days leading up to an event. The idea of starting with a "full tank" was thought to be a good idea, especially for endurance events. But the science behind carbo-loading has evolved... In the 1960’s discoveries showed that: Glycogen (a form of carbohydrate stored in the [...]
