FitSugar

Stretch It: Figure 4 for the Piriformis

FitSugar — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:30:00 PDT

Ever feel like you have a sore tight bum, be it from running or sitting for too long? I think being generally tense can lead to over engaging the glute muscles (there’s reason the expression “tight a**” exists).

Here is one of my favorite stretches. It is simple to do and will alleviate some of that deep booty tension you might be feeling. It is called the Figure Four because of the shape of the number with your legs to get into the stretchy. It targets the piriformis, a pear shaped muscle that runs from your sacrum (the back of your pelvis) to the outside of your upper femur (thigh bone).

Here's how to do the Figure 4:

Lie on your back with both legs in the air. Place your right ankle on your thigh above your left knee. See the shape of the number four? It is there, just upside down.an>

Reach your right hand through the open space created by your right leg and grab your left hand that is reaching around the outside of your left thigh. Slowly bend your left knee. You should fee a stretch on the outside of your right hip.

Hold the stretch for 15 to 30 seconds.

Variations:

Try to release your pelvis into neutral, by reaching your tail bone toward the floor, creating a little arch in your low back. This should either emphasize the stretch in a different area, or increase the stretch.

To increase the stretch, twist just the pelvis a bit to the left and the stretch should intensify.

Savvy Links: The 5 Weirdest Office Gadgets You Didn’t Even Know You Wanted

Emily Co — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 12:13:11 PST

The 5 weirdest office gadgets you didn’t even know you wanted - The Jane Dough
10 smart things to do with $25 - Wise Bread
Your tax refund could be delayed - LearnVest
Unique Valentine's Day gifts under $20 - AllYou
4 ways to turn your iPad into a handy kitchen accessory - Tecca
Use this tool to figure out if you should pay off debt or invest - Real Simple
Changing the work-life balance game - HuffPost Women
6 offbeat IRA investment ideas - Bankrate
The professional implications of a “naturally frowny face” - Corporette

11 Rules to Dramatically Increase Your Productivity

Wise Bread — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:35:04 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Wise Bread story here on Savvy!

There's a problem with a lot of productivity advice out there, and it's this - your "rules" for personal productivity are often going to be different than mine. Sure, sometimes there's overlap. Sure, you can always learn from others.

But if you want to see a dramatic increase in your productivity, spend less time reading and memorizing other people's rules, and more time figuring out what your own rules are. You'll be more productive and in a way that works with who you are.

So I'm sharing a few of my personal productivity rules. Maybe some of them will work for you or inspire you to think of your own.

1. Small Daily Movements Become Big Accomplishments

I tend to think that I must have big blocks of time in order to get any forward movement. So I hesitate and procrastinate, waiting for that "open time" when I can really push and get a lot done on whatever the current project is.

Turns out, that's a waste of time. Small daily movements add up. It's just that the movements or steps themselves are so small, I think they don't count. They do.

I have to constantly remind myself that I don't need a whole day or a whole week to devote to some project. I just need to take the 10 or 20 minutes I have here and there and use them. I need to achieve a little bit of forward movement every day. That adds up, and it builds momentum, and pretty soon there's been quite a lot accomplished.

For more rules, read after the jump.

How to Stop Keeping Up With the Joneses

LearnVest — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:15:16 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like there are many money lessons to learn from The Real Housewives.

One spent a season building a $1.8 million mansion and driving around a $1,280-per-month Escalade, only to file for bankruptcy with almost $11 million in debt.

Shortly postbankruptcy, she dropped another $60,000 on a shopping spree so she could continue to fit in with those in her social circle.

Even if you don’t end up with millions of dollars in debt - or have friends who are millionaires - trying to keep up with the Joneses (or the Gorgas, in this case) can not only make you feel lousy about yourself, but also inspire bad spending decisions. We call this phenomenon “money comparisonitis.”

How Having "Comparisonitis" Affects Us

In our own lives, the dangers of gazing enviously at the Real Housewives’ spending sprees, our neighbor’s new car, or that family down the street who can send their kids to private school are not only the fact that it makes us feel bad, but that it literally distorts our view of reality.

In other words, we look at celebrities like the Kardashians or the wealthier people we know, and we try to emulate their spending habits. “You’re not being truthful with yourself,” says Susan L. Hirshman, president of She Ltd., a consulting firm focused on enhancing women’s wealth, and the author of Does This Make My Assets Look Fat?. “As they make more money, that allows them to live a certain lifestyle.” In other words, you have to face facts and spend in accordance with your own budget, rather than feeling entitled to live a certain way just because other people do.

Read on for more.

6 Tips to Start Your New Job Right

Kiplinger — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:08:12 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

I learned some valuable lessons about how to succeed in the "real world" while starting out at my first full-time job, and you can, too.

I never expected my social circle, at age 22, to use the phrase "I feel so old" so much. We know we still have our whole lives ahead of us, but making the transition from college to career can really make you feel like you've aged 20 years. For example, unlike in my college years, convincing myself to go out on a Friday night these days takes almost as much work as getting out of bed on a Monday morning. And I never thought I would be spending my beloved lazy Sundays running whatever errands I didn't get done during the week. Even four internships, including one with my current full-time employer, the Kiplinger Washington Editors, hadn't fully prepared me for this whole professional-life thing.

To help you make the adjustment and overcome common obstacles you might face when you're just starting out, here are some lessons I learned in the first few months of my first job. I hope these tips will help you feel as young as you are. SEE ALSO: Our Quiz on Navigating the First Weeks at Your New Job

Read on for tips.

8 Small Ways to Lose Big Pounds in 2012

Prevention — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:06:22 PST

We are excited to share one of our fave stories from Prevention here on FitSugar!

Quadruple your weight loss by making one easy tweak to your routine per week
By Alyssa Shaffer

If your goal is to lose weight and exercise more, forget the deprivation diet and marathon workouts. New research shows that taking baby steps - not giant leaps -is the best way to get lasting results. A study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine found that participants who made one small, potentially permanent change in their food choices and/or physical activity each week (such as drinking one fewer can of soda or walking five more minutes each day) lost more than twice as much belly fat, two and half more inches off their waistlines, and about four times more weight during a four-month program, compared with those who followed traditional calorie-restriction and physical-activity guidelines.

"When you focus on just a couple of small changes at a time, you begin to ingrain some healthy habits that last for a lifetime, rather than trying an all-or-nothing approach that more often than not fails because it's too hard to follow," says Lesley Lutes, PhD, an assistant professor in the department of psychology at East Carolina University. We've uncovered these simple steps (with proven results) to help you move more, eat less, and look and feel better than ever. Add just one or two a week to your regular routine and you can lose nearly three inches off your waistline and be about 10 pounds lighter come in a few months. Even better: Once these healthy habits become second nature, they'll benefit you for a lifetime.

1. Pick Up a Pen After Every Meal
Mindlessly munching on a bag of chips could result in easily polishing off the whole thing; write down how much you've eaten and you're more likely to practice portion control. Keeping a food log helps control extra calories in two ways: the combination of plain old reality check (I just ate 30 minutes ago!) and awareness that what you're putting in your mouth will soon be recorded for posterity. In a recent study, people who kept a food journal lost twice as much weight as those who didn't. When they combined it with a moderate diet and exercise plan, they lost an average of 13 pounds in 6 months. Journaling also gives you insight on your eating habits, says Lutes. Do you skip meals? Eat the same during the week as on the weekend? Binge when you're feeling stressed? "Knowing your routine helps you figure out what changes are right for you," she adds.

Avoid these 14 "health food" diet disasters.

2. Limit High-Fat Foods to One Per Week
Tag the high-fat/high-calorie foods that are typically your favorites (our top five: cookies, candy, ice cream, potato chips, and fries) and gradually downshift. "If you're eating six of these foods a week, try to go down to five," says Lutes. Each week, drop another until you're at no more than one or two; at the same time, add in a good-for-you choice like baby carrots, sautéed broccoli, oranges, and other fresh fruits and veggies.

Keep reading for more simple tip to help you lose big.

What to Do With Your Year-End Bonus

LearnVest — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 00:15:06 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

You’ve just been informed by your supervisor that you have a tidy bonus coming to you soon for all of your hard work this year. (And, of course, you totally deserve it.)

But whenever a large sum of money falls in your lap, you need to have a plan for it, so you don’t wake up a month or two later and realize that it’s all gone.

That’s no way to reward yourself for a job well done.

What You Shouldn’t Do

Rack up credit card debt in advance of your bonus expecting to pay it off.
Use it to treat your family and friends to oversized Christmas gifts.
Count your chickens before they hatch. Even if you’ve been told how much your bonus is, it will be taxed like regular income. Because of all the factors that play into it, don’t assume you know exactly how much will land in your account.
Plan your finances around the same bonus showing up next year.

Read on for more.

The Best Time Investments You Can Make

LearnVest — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:15:57 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

We all agree that time is more valuable than money.

At least, that’s what we say.

Then we turn around and spend hours watching bad TV we’re not even that interested in. Or 45 minutes on the phone with customer service fighting a $5 charge. Or years in a relationship or friendship we stopped feeling fulfilled by long ago.

But I’m convinced it’s not for a lack of good intent that we often end up treating time as our most fungible asset. (Hey, there’s plenty more where that came from, right? Well, not really . . . ) I think we simply get too busy to think about it, or don’t think we have the resources to make more time in our lives. We do have the resources, though. All it takes is a fresh look at how we really spend our days, hours and moments.

I’ve been thinking about time as a tangible asset not unlike money in many ways, and about ways to invest our time to yield higher returns - better memories, more hours well spent, even minutes that nourish us instead of fly by. After much research, experience and reflection, below are what I found to be the seven best investments you can make with your time. Think of these as blue-chip time investments that can’t go wrong - and that will yield high dividends for a more fulfilled life.

1. Invest in “Life-Extending” Time

Investing time in caring for your health is an obvious one that will certainly yield you more time, literally - in days, months, if not years tacked on to your life. Yet we often take our health for granted until we experience a wake-up call. Proactively invest your time in your health by eating well, exercising regularly, getting plenty of sleep and regularly seeing your doctors. Invest heartily in those non-physical markers of well-being as well: emotional, mental and spiritual health - you will reap many hours of well-lived life from them. Learn the habits of the Blue Zone people, from the regions in the world where people live the longest. Some common lifestyle traits they share? Building in natural movement and activity, lowering stress and being part of a faith-based community.

Read on for more great time investments.

6 Questions to Find the Best City For Generation Y

Kiplinger — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 03:05:51 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

As young adults, many of us enjoy a unique time in our lives when we can relocate wherever we like. We’re often free from any significant ties, such as kids or a mortgage, that can tether us to a certain location. Plus, with the technological advances of the past decade, we need not fear losing touch with family and friends; we can stay connected with the touch of a button - regardless of distance.

So when the world is your oyster, how do you decide in which part to settle? Here are six questions to ask when figuring out which city is best for you:

Will I find good work there?

In today's tough market, Generation Y has had a particularly difficult time finding and keeping a job: While the job market struggles to regain its footing, with the national unemployment rate at 9.5% as of June, 25- to 34-year-olds suffer joblessness at a 10.3% rate, and 20- to 24-year-olds are unemployed at a staggering 15.3% rate. But some areas have held up better against the recession. Austin, Tex., Salt Lake City and Washington, D.C., for example, have experienced lower unemployment than the rest of the country.

Jobs in certain industries are more prevalent in some areas. For example, if you’re interested in politics, the nation’s capital is the obvious choice. Or if you aspire to “make it work” as fashion’s next hot designer, the Big Apple might suit you best. If you have no particular trade in mind yet, look to big cities with opportunities in a wide range of fields. (For career ideas that promise a bright future, see 13 Careers for the Next Decade.)

Read on for more.

Should You Move Your Money to a Credit Union?

LearnVest — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:15:03 PST

We're thrilled to present this smart LearnVest story here on Savvy!

You wouldn’t normally think of credit unions as sexy or hip.

They don’t have glossy ad campaigns and beautiful branches on every street corner. Even their basic definition-non-profit financial co-ops - sounds boring.

But these days, more and more Americans are clamoring to join the club of credit unions because of their low fees, higher interest rates on savings accounts and lower interest rates on loans.

Because they are non-profit, credit unions are the only financial institutions that go out of their way to serve low-income clientele. But you’d be wrong if you think that’s the only group they serve. Anyone can benefit from the low-fee, low-rate products that credit unions specialize in. And in fact, many more people are.

After a furor erupted over new debit card fees announced by several commercial banks in September, 650,000 customers have switched to credit unions, depositing $4.5 billion in new accounts. (That’s the same amount as existing credit union customers across the country had been depositing in an entire month.) Those bank fees have since been rescinded, but the bad taste in many Americans’ mouths remains.

Read on for more.