Sit up Straight! (Brawn)

This week's topic is all about posture and healthy snack options. Posture is an essential part of our health. We are usually sitting or standing for the majority of our day. Whether it is at your job, playing in a Magic: the Gathering tournament (or at home), exercising, playing video games, or watching television, having proper posture is needed to prevent future damage.

This article from clevlandclinic.org provides some really great tips on how to sit, stand, and lay with proper posture. They pulled their information from the American ChiropracticAssociation as well as the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. The link to the latter of the two organizations provides some easy exercises you can do to help strengthen the muscles around your spine to assist you in maintaining proper posture. Some basic tips, when sitting, are to keep your shoulders back without sticking your chest out and to keep your feet flat on the floor. Another good tip is to get up and walk around every so often as it is not advisable to sit for extended periods of time. This helps me to reset my posture so that I am not slowly slipping into a slouching posture. Poor posture can lead to many things like arthritis, backaches, and muscular pain. Proper posture can lead to prevention of those aches and pains as well as a confident appearance.

It is sometimes difficult for anyone to resist the urge to just grab a snack from the pantry or grocery store that may not be the best choice for them. I find it hard to resist the temptation of sticking to just one snack. The good news is that there are plenty of healthy snack options and many of them are portable. I feel that healthy snacks are a great way to keep hunger down so you can eat smaller, healthier portions for your main meals. Healthy snacks are also great for work, to keep your stamina and energy up, and other places where you may stay for an extended amount of time like a tournament at your local gaming store. I found this list of many healthy snack options on a blog about reducing dependency on processed foods. Some of my favorite snacks include bananas with peanut butter, or pretty much anything with peanut butter, in moderation of course, cucumbers, and cashews. Some healthy portable snacks that are easy to take wherever you may be for a long period of time are nuts and seeds, as well as whole grain crackers.

Posture is important for everyone to consider because we all sit, stand, and lay. Eating healthier can start with filling your pantry/cupboards or refrigerator with healthy options so you limit your ability to choose the bad things. As with anything in life, moderation is key as well as easing into a new process with confidence and small steps towards your goals.

Journey into Standard (Brainz)

This past weekend I attended the Journey into Nyx prerelease at my local nerd store Gamer's Gauntlet. I ended up choosing the Green prerelease pack (Forged in Pursuit) as Gamer's Gauntlet was limited on the White packs. I opened some great, and some not so great, cards. I formed a deck utilizing two of my deepest colors, Green and Blue. Some of the better cards I opened, in my colors, were Fleetfeather Cockatrice, Prophet of Kruphix, Thassa's Emissary, Kruphix, God of Horizons, Hubris, War-Wing Siren, Chariot of Victory, and of course the Green promo card Heroes' Bane. Those are the cards that really helped to make my decision to construct a Green/Blue deck. They were also instrumental in assisting in my victories.

Some other great cards that I opened, that were unfortunately not in my colors, were Temple of Silence, Nyx Weaver, and Iroas, God of Victory. It is almost as if the Gods of Nyx were teasing me by getting my hopes up of going Red/White. I did pilot my deck to a 10th place finish in the Limited tournament at Gamer's Gauntlet.

Some really good new card that showed up at my prerelease were Godsend (which was pretty much unbeatable unless you had artifact hate), Lagonna-Band Trailblazer (which is surprising but it locked down the early game then became a threat with its heroic trigger), of course Dawnbringer Charioteers (which is the White promo that I wanted to choose), Brain Maggot (which took away threats from your hand until you removed them), Master of the Feast (which, despite its drawback, is a really powerful card), Silence the Believers (great removal spell), Hydra Broodmaster (massive body that can run the battlefield over late game), and Pharika, God of Affliction (which was in a very synergistic, graveyard based strategy).

Overall I think that Journey into Nyx will provide a much needed shock to the Standard format. I am excited to see the new brews that Journey into Nyx will bring to Standard. I am also excited to see what Wizards has in store for the next few sets that will help to define Standard. This week I will be reading all of Conley Woods' set reviews on Journey into Nyx to see what his thoughts are about the changing face of Standard. The single card that I am most excited for is Athreos, God of Passage because I have a deck he would be perfect for. I will leave you all with some cards that I feel will be awesome in the upcoming standard season.

Easing into exercise (Brawn)

Welcome back to Brainz & Brawn. Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. I also hope, since we will be talking about wellness, that you didn't go overboard with eating junk this past weekend. This week we will kick off the first Brawn section of this blog. Talking with my family over this weekend, I have discovered that a few of them have started their own journey to seek the benefits of fitness and wellness. They have taken a big step in becoming well and fit, getting a gym membership.

As the title suggests, this post will be about easing into the exercise process. I'll start by outlining a few very basic things we all should do become more well and fit. The first easy thing we should do is park further away at the grocery store, or any store. This simple task of parking, and essentially walking, a greater distance to your destination will help you burn more calories. Another thing that we should do is to take the stairs more often. Taking the stairs is a great compound exercise that uses many different muscles. Using the stairs whenever possible is a great way to assist in achieving your fitness goals. If you work on the 25th floor of an office building, for instance, I am not suggesting that you climb all 25 flights of stairs. What I am suggesting is that you start by climbing a few levels then take the elevator either the rest of the way or most of the way for a break. Then, once you've taken a break say to the 22nd floor, you can climb the rest of the way on the stairs. This is a great way to start exercising without a gym membership. Another thing we should do, especially pet owners, is to walk our dogs. Not only is this a good way to build our cardiovascular endurance but it also helps us to both bond with our dogs and maintain our "pack leader" status. If you don't have a pet then walking for even 30 minutes or more will help to assist you in obtaining your fitness goals.

For those of us who want a little bit more, we can do simple calisthenics (exercises requiring no equipment) at home. These exercises can include push-ups, sit ups, burpees, and lunges (among others). There are many different variations of push-ups that you can do to train different areas of the chest and arms. I recommend starting with basic push-ups. This usually means that your feet and hands are shoulder width apart. Then, keeping your back straight, lower your body to the floor and just barely touch your chest to the floor. You should keep your elbows near your side. Sit ups are also a very basic and easy exercise. They can be done by yourself or with a partner holding your feet. I recommend putting something soft, but not too bulky, underneath your lower back for some support. To do a sit up you should have your feet shoulder width apart and start with your back and feet flat on the ground. Then, utilizing your core, lift your body up till your chest touches or comes near your knees. Some people cross their arms across their chest and touch their elbows to their knees at the top. This is fine as long as you are not extending your elbows to touch your knees. For burpees, or squat thrusts, I have inserted a video that explains how to do them visually. 

These exercises and tips that I have explained are all beneficial to your health and wellness if performed properly. Always remember to keep whatever muscle you are training engaged. What this means is that the muscle(s) should not rest during the duration of the exercise. One last thing to consider when thinking about exercising or encouraging someone else to exercise is that everyone learns at their own pace. Starting off fresh or getting back into exercising should be a slow process. I can tell you all about the benefits of fitness, wellness, and exercise but it is up to YOU to put these tips to good use. Exercising takes willpower and YOU have to be the one to stick with it. It is in your best interest to be fit and well.