Do you often worry about twisting your ankle? Are you experiencing foot pain, balance issues, or decreased mobility as you get older? These could all be signs that your ankles are weak. While you may not notice it as much, ankles are a big part of our balance and strength foundation. They support our movements, whether it is walking, running, stretching, or even simple flexing.

When our ankles grow weak, things and situations start changing, however you may not realize it may be due to your weak ankles. You may be getting into situations like twisting your ankles more often, experiencing pain during normal movements, etc. The Cleveland Clinic explains that weak ankles have a great effect on your knees and hips. They explained that deficient ankles cause more strain on your knees as well as the internal rotation of your hips, ultimately making it difficult to walk. However, it can be improved.

Yoga Poses for Strong Ankles

The good news is that you can actively work to strengthen these crucial ankle muscles and the connective tissues around them. This effort will not only help prevent injuries but also significantly improve your balance and overall movement. Here are some yoga poses you can do to improve your ankle health.

Camel Pose (Ustrasana)

This pose involves kneeling and arching your back, reaching for your heels. It strengthens the front of the ankles and feet while also improving overall stability and flexibility in the lower body. As you press your shins and tops of your feet into the ground, your ankles engage to support the pose.

Chair Pose (Utkatasana)

Imagine sitting in an invisible chair. This pose deeply engages the muscles in your calves and ankles as you lower your hips. It builds strength in the entire foot and ankle complex, improving stability and endurance, which are crucial for preventing ankle rolling during daily activities or sports.

Child's Pose (Balasana)

While primarily a resting pose, Child's Pose can gently stretch the top of your feet and ankles, especially if you sit back on your heels. It helps to release tension and improve flexibility in the ankle joint, which is important for overall ankle health and reducing stiffness.

Cow Face Pose (Gomukhasana)

This seated pose involves stacking your knees. While the main focus is on the hips, the feet and ankles are gently stretched and aligned. It encourages external rotation in the ankles and can help release tension, improving overall ankle mobility and preventing common stiffness that can lead to injury.

Eagle Pose (Garudasana)

Standing on one leg while wrapping the other around it, Eagle Pose is a powerful balance pose that significantly challenges and strengthens the stabilizing muscles around your standing ankle. It builds incredible ankle stability, proprioception (your body's awareness in space), and improves overall balance, making your ankles more resilient against twists and sprains.

Easy Pose (Sukhasana)

A simple cross-legged seated pose, Easy Pose might seem basic, but it's foundational for ankle flexibility. It gently stretches the ankles and feet, improving comfort in seated positions and maintaining mobility in the joint. This consistent gentle stretching helps prevent stiffness that can contribute to weak ankles.

Eight-Angle Pose (Astavakrasana)

This advanced arm balance requires significant core and arm strength, but it also heavily relies on strong and flexible ankles to hook around the arm and support the body's weight. It dramatically builds strength and control in the entire ankle joint, demanding high levels of stability and engagement.

Extended Hand-to-Big-Toe Pose (Utthita Hasta Padangusthasana)

This standing balance pose involves extending one leg forward or to the side. It greatly challenges the stabilizing muscles of your standing ankle. Holding this pose strengthens the ankle's ability to maintain balance and withstand shifts in weight, crucial for preventing common ankle injuries during movement.

Yoga is a great exercise known for reducing stress and improving overall well-being. But can it also help with thyroid problems? The thyroid is a small gland in your throat that makes hormones vital for your metabolism, body temperature, growth, and even brain development in children. When your thyroid isn't working right, it can affect both your physical and mental health. This article explores how yoga can be a helpful addition to traditional thyroid treatments.

Poses You Can Do

While yoga generally promotes overall health, some poses specifically target the neck and throat area, where the thyroid is located. Stretching and strengthening this region might improve blood flow, though there's no definite proof that these specific poses benefit the thyroid more than others.

It's important to only hold poses as long as you feel comfortable. Many of the poses described below are for those with some yoga experience. You can make them easier with props or by practicing under the guidance of a certified yoga instructor. You can try each of these poses at home with a yoga mat.

Supported Shoulder Stand (Sarvangasana)

This advanced pose puts you upside down. Avoid it if you are new to yoga, have high blood pressure, heart issues, glaucoma, or are pregnant. Lie on your back, lift your legs straight up, and push onto your shoulders, supporting your hips with your hands. Keep your body straight and core strong.

Plow Pose (Halasana)

This advanced pose builds core and arm strength, plus spine flexibility. Start like the shoulder stand. Bring your legs over your head to rest your toes on the floor behind you, keeping your lower back supported. If breathing gets hard, slowly stop. A prop under shoulders can make it safer.

Fish Pose (Matsyasana)

This advanced pose stretches your body in the opposite direction after other poses. Don't do it if you have high blood pressure, neck injuries, or glaucoma. Sit, place hands under buttocks, lean back on elbows, and gently drop your head back, lifting your chest.

Bridge Pose (Setu Bandha Sarvangasana)

This pose is great for strengthening your back. Lie on your back, bring feet close to hips. Press palms into the floor and lift your hips toward the ceiling. You can use your hands on your lower back for support if needed.

Cobra Pose (Bhujangasana)

This pose helps make your back and neck more flexible. Lie on your stomach with palms under shoulders. Press into your palms and lift your head and chest off the mat, arching your back. Drop your head back if comfortable.

Boat Pose (Navasana)

Sit with legs out. Lean back slowly, keeping your core strong and back straight. Lift your bent knees, then straighten legs to form a V-shape. Raise arms in line with shoulders. Hold, breathing deeply. Slowly lower arms and legs.

Upward Bow Pose / Wheel Pose (Urdhva Dhanurasana)

This pose deeply stretches your chest, back, and neck. Lie on your back, bend knees, and place hands by your head. Press feet and hands, lifting hips and then your head until arms are straight. Hold and breathe.

Supported Headstand Pose (Sirshasana)

This is a very advanced pose for experienced yoga practitioners, always do it with a teacher at first. Kneel, interlace fingers, and place head on mat. Lift knees, walk feet closer, then slowly lift both feet up, balancing on forearms.

Memory loss is an issue many people believe they will only have to face when they are older. However, diseases like dementia can happen to anyone, while it happens very rarely to people at a young age, the choices you make at these formative years have a great impact on your mind. Studies have shown how people who eat too much processed foods, do not engage in social activities and many other unhealthy habits, increase their chances of dementia and other cognitive degenerative diseases.

Just as some choices can increase the chances, there are also habits that can decrease the chances of you getting these diseases.

One of the best ways to decrease your chances of cognitive decline at an early age is by incorporating healthy habits into your life, like eating more plant-based and unprocessed foods, fixing your sleeping habits as well as exercising

A new study published in the JAMA Network Open suggests that regularly riding a bicycle could be a key factor. Research published recently indicates that using a bike for getting around might reduce the risk of dementia by 19% and Alzheimer's disease by 22%.

How Cycling Helps Your Brain

The study also hinted that cycling might even help increase the size of a brain area crucial for memory. Experts explain that cycling is a moderately intense workout that also requires balance. This need for more complex brain activity, compared to simply walking, might be why it's more effective in lowering dementia risk. It's not just about adding exercise to your routine; it's about making active travel part of your daily life. Choosing to bike instead of drive for short trips can significantly contribute to your well-being.

Large Study Shows the Link

To reach these conclusions, researchers analyzed health data from almost 480,000 people in a long-term health study in the UK. Participants shared how they most often traveled, excluding commutes to and from work. Over an average of 13 years, more than 8,800 participants developed dementia, and nearly 4,000 developed Alzheimer’s.

The findings showed a lower risk for both dementia and Alzheimer’s among those who cycled or who combined cycling with other forms of travel like walking, driving, or public transportation. The research team noted that promoting active travel, especially cycling, could significantly benefit public health by offering an accessible and sustainable way to maintain brain health in middle-aged and older adults.

Cycling's Impact on Brain Structure and Genetics

Brain scans (MRIs) further supported the findings, showing that cycling was linked to a larger hippocampus, which is a part of the brain important for forming memories and learning.

However, the benefits of cycling seemed to be strongest for people without a specific genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's (the APOE E4 genetic variant). For these individuals, cycling was associated with a 26% lower risk of dementia and a 25% lower risk of Alzheimer's. The protective effect of cycling was less clear for those with the APOE E4 gene.

Interestingly, the study also hinted that driving a car offered some protection against dementia when compared to using public transportation like buses or subways. This suggests that even less active forms of travel might have some brain health benefits over passive modes.

Important Considerations and Future Advice

It's important to remember that this study observed a connection, but it doesn't directly prove that cycling causes healthy brain aging. Still, the message is clear: anything that gets you outdoors and active is beneficial for your brain. It's not just the physical movement, but also the balance and the way it engages different parts of your brain. If you're able to ride a bike, it's recommended. If not, walking is still highly encouraged. The key takeaway is to choose an active way to move your body whenever possible.

Whether you are a student, an office worker or simply someone who has to spend long hours at a desk, you can probably relate to shoulder and muscle pain. Although many people believe that desk jobs are not strenuous, that is not true. Spending long hours working in the same position can cause people to develop many bodily issues. These problems do not have short-term fixes; one must take a lot of steps to ensure their back health along with their spine health does not suffer.

It's well-known that spending eight or more hours a day seated at a desk can negatively impact your health. Prolonged sitting often leads to discomfort and pain in the neck, shoulders, and lower back due to pressure on the lumbar spine, overstretching of the mid and upper back, and tightness in the chest and hips.

Why Should You Do Desk Yoga?

Fortunately, simple yoga techniques can help alleviate these common work-related tensions and stresses. To help with this, there are desk yoga poses that you can easily incorporate into your workday to feel more relaxed and improve your well-being. These poses are inspired by practices often experienced on yoga retreats, bringing the benefits directly to your office.

Seated Crescent Moon

Lift arms overhead, palms together. Gently lean to one side for a few breaths, then switch. This stretches your sides and spine, boosting focus. It's a quick way to refresh your mind and body.

Chair Pigeon

While sitting, cross one leg over the other, flexing your foot. Stay upright, feeling a stretch in your upper thigh. Hold for 5-10 breaths, then switch. This opens your hips and chest, bringing balance back to your body.

Sit and Stand Chair Pose

Start seated with feet flat. Use only your leg and glute muscles to stand up, then slowly sit back down. This strengthens leg muscles often weakened by sitting, helping you feel more active.

Standing Seal Pose

Stand with feet wide. Clasp hands behind your back, then fold forward at your hips, bringing arms forward. Keep legs and arms straight. This stretches your spine and legs, opens shoulders, and clears your mind.

Wrist and Finger Stretches

Extend arms overhead, circling wrists. Then, quickly spread fingers and clench fists. Stretch wrists by gently pressing palms up and down. These quick exercises boost blood flow, easing hand and wrist tension.

Desk Chaturanga

Stand facing a sturdy desk, hands shoulder-width apart. Walk feet back, leaning chest diagonally. Lower your body, hugging elbows to ribs. Push back up. Repeat 8-12 times to build arm strength and relax your neck.

Desk Upward Dog

From Desk Chaturanga, keep arms straight and lean hips toward the desk, opening your chest. Keep legs strong to protect your lower back. Hold for 5-10 breaths. This pose opens your chest and lengthens your spine, improving posture.

Eagle Arms

Sit tall, arms at a 90-degree angle. Cross one arm over the other, interlocking palms. Lift elbows, stretching fingers up. Hold for a few breaths, then switch. This pose can prevent carpal tunnel and strengthen arm and shoulder muscles.