Other important reasons to take care of shoulder health are;
4. Balanced musculature: Strengthening the shoulders helps maintain balanced musculature in the upper body. This balance is crucial for avoiding overuse injuries and ensuring that other muscles, such as those in the chest and back, do not become overly dominant.
5. Rehabilitation, recovery, and chronic condition: Strengthening exercises are often a key component of rehabilitation programs for shoulder injuries. Building strength helps in the recovery process and prevents future injuries. For those with chronic conditions like arthritis, strengthening the shoulders can help manage pain and improve joint function.
6. Aesthetic benefits: Strengthening the shoulders can enhance the appearance of your upper body by improving muscle tone and definition. This contributes to a more balanced and attractive physique.
7. Support for other exercises: Many upper body exercises, such as bench presses, pull-ups, and rows, rely on shoulder strength. Strong shoulders provide a solid foundation for performing these exercises effectively and safely.
Image credit: Generated with AI ∙ July 21, 2024 at 12:19 PM
Ways to Improve Shoulders Health and Strength Through Exercises
Strengthening shoulders is crucial for several reasons as it impacts overall health, functional ability, and balance. It also prevents injury. There are ways to improve shoulder strength – regular exercises, yoga and Pilates poses help shoulders to strengthen and perform better as we age.
There are many reasons why one should consider focusing on improving the health of shoulders.
1. Enhanced stability and mobility: Strong shoulders help stabilize the shoulder joint, which is one of the most mobile and complex joints in the body. This stability is essential for preventing dislocations and other injuries. Strengthening the shoulders supports a full range of motion, making it easier to perform daily activities and sports movements.
2. Injury Prevention and posture improvement: Strong shoulder muscles help protect the joint from injuries, such as strains, sprains, and rotator cuff tears. They also provide better support for the surrounding tendons and ligaments. Strong shoulders contribute to good posture,reducing the risk of developing neck and back pain.
3. Improved functional performance: Many everyday tasks, such as lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling, rely heavily on shoulder strength. Strong shouldersmake these activities easier and more efficient. In sports, strong shoulders are essential for activities like throwing, swimming, and weightlifting. Enhanced shoulder strength can lead to better performance and endurance.
Considered safe even for young children, oats has many health benefits for all age groups. Oats provide high levels of fiber, low levels of fat, and high levels of protein. The list of health benefits that humans is very long.
Studies show oats may reduce asthma in children
It is good for heart and liver – so, good for people who have diabetes- reduces type 2 diabetes
Good for weight loss -oats increase appetite hormones and enhances metabolism
Helps in digestion process, controls cholesterol and blood pressure
It is a very good breakfast item – for athletes, children, young adults and everybody
South India’s popular breakfast item is dosa. Instead of using rice, one can replace major amount of rice with oats and prepare delicious dosa. This is good for diabetic people who are fond of dosa. Try this simple recipe for your loved ones.
Ingredients :
1. Oats -1 cup
2. Rava-1/4 cup
3. Rice flour-2 tsp
4. Butter milk-1/4 cup
5. Green chili -1 finely chopped
6. Cumin seeds-1 tsp
7. Grated ginger – 1 tsp
8. Curry leaves few – chopped
9. Coriander leaves – little
10. Salt – as required
Method
1. Dry roast oats to brown color and allow it to cool.
2. Once it cools, then powder it.
3. Mix all the ingredients (This will remove the sticky nature of oats). Allow it to cool and then powder it finely.
4. Mix all the ingredients and prepare batter. Add water to make a thin batter and add salt.
5. In a tava or heating pan, pour one ladle of batter and sprits some oil (preferably vegetable or sesame oil.) Make sure not to put thick layer of batter. Small holes will form and dosa will start to cook.
6. Allow dosa to cook till the color turns to golden brown. Flip and cook other side too.
7. Transfer it to plate and serve with chutney and sambar.
Hydrogen peroxide is available in pharmacy and sometime in grocery stores in dark bottles. You will see a bottle of hydrogen peroxide in first aid kit too. It is helpful in cleaning wounds and prevents puss formation. It acts like bleach and is an ingredient in blonde hair dye products. Three percent (3%) hydrogen peroxide solutionis useful for many purposes at home.
Use as toilet bowl cleaner: To toilet bowl add half cup hydrogen peroxide and let the bowl soak in the solution for few minutes. Scrub and flush water.
Shower cleaner: Mix hydrogen peroxide to rubbing alcohol in equal proportion. Spray to shower on all sides. Leave it for few minutes. Wash with water twice.
Multi surface disinfectant spray: You can either use full strength or half strength hydrogen peroxide forcleaning various surfaces including countertop (not granite), cutting board, garbage cans, on wall infected with mold, sinks. Spray on the surface and let it soak for few minutes. Wash using water to see clean surfaces
Cleaning toothbrush and hair brush: Soak brush in half strength hydrogen peroxide liquid ( use water for other half). After few minutes clean the brush in running water. You can clean bath sponge, body brush using hydrogen peroxide solution.
It is a good whitening agent. Mix hydrogen peroxide with baking soda at 1:2 ratio. Brush using the mix and rinse using warm water to get white teeth.
Wash vegetables: Mix 1 Tbsp hydrogen peroxide in a liter of water. Use this mix to wash vegetables and give one or two more rinse in water to remove residues of hydrogen peroxide.
Soak foot: To clean toe nail, reduce athlete foot symptoms soak fee in 1:1 water and hydrogen peroxide solution for 10 minutes.
Nail whitener: Mix baking soda and peroxide to prepare paste (2:1 ratio). Apply the mix onto fingernails, leave it for 10-15 mins. Rinse with lukewarm water and apply moisturizer.
Mouth wash:Swish mouth withwater and hydrogen peroxide solution (1:1) for few seconds and spit.
Carpet stain remover: Mix hydrogen peroxide, water (1:1) and add few drops of lemon essential oil. Shake well, spray on the stain. Wait for few minutes, using a dry cloth or rag clean the area!
Yellow arm pit: Use hydrogen peroxide and baking soda mix (1:1) or just hydrogen peroxide solution for this purpose. Apply in arm pit are of white shirt. Leave it for few minutes and wash the shirt.
Do you know, hydrogen peroxide is also a remedy for cracked heel? For 2 cups hot water, add equal amount of hydrogen peroxide. Soak/immerse feet in the solution for about 30 mins. Dry the foot and using a pumice stone or foot file clean the feet to remove dead skin. Wash and apply lotion.
Clean glass stovetops using baking soda and hydrogen peroxide mix. Apply the mix, let it sit for ten minutes, wipe using water.
Tub and tile cleaner: Mix baking soda (1/2 cup), dish soap (1.5 tsp) and hydrogen peroxide (1/4 cup). Mix the ingredients and spray on tile, tub or grout. This removes the hard water buildup and stains.
Old copper vessels: Spray a mix of vinegar, hydrogen peroxide and salt on to your antique copper, brass, or galvanized metal like iron. It gives a fresh look for the antique piece.
Caution: If your skin develops irritation or itches stop using hydrogen peroxide and talk to your doctor.
Dosa is one of the highly recommended protein rich, nutritious, and delicious breakfast as well as evening snack item. Whether it is traditional masala dosa or plain dosa a perfect fermentation of dosa batter is essential for dosa to taste better. Fluffiness and texture of dosa depends on fermentation. Well and perfectly fermented dosa is easy to digest. Generally fermented foods increase the availability of nutrients in the body. Fermentation process promotes methionine an amino acid that elevates protein and, fermentation also brings Vitamin C and B.
If the dosa batter does not prepared properly then it does not taste good.
Why sometimes dosa batter does not ferment well? Here are the reasons:
Not soaking rice, dal for enough time
Not fermenting batter enough time according to seasonal requirements
Your mix does not have proper ratio for the season
Storing batter in fridge immediately after preparing batter
How to get good consistency and fermentation of dosa batter in summer and winter? What are the ingredients and what should be the ratio of the ingredients? Grandma has below recipe for you.
Ingredients:
Idli rice – 3 cups
Urad dal – 1 cup
Channa dal – 1 tsp
Fenugreek/ Methi seeds – 1 tsp
Poha – ¼ cup
Salt – as per taste
Water – for soaking and grinding.
How to make good dosa batter?
Idli rice is available in most Indian shops. It is good for making both idli and dosa. If idli rice is not available, use sona massuri rice.
Combination of idli rice and urad dal is 3:1. During winter and cold season, increase urad quantity to 1.5 cups.
Adding methi seeds promotes good fermentation and adding channa dal gives golden brown color to dosa.
Steps to prepare dosa batter and fermentation of batter:
Wash and soak idli rice, urad dal, channa dal, methi seeds minimum for 8 hours, for best result soak the mixture overnight.
Next day, give one or two more wash to soaked mix.
Soak poha in little water.
Grind the mixture by adding little amount of water.
At the end of the grinding add soaked poha and grind -add water if necessary.
Dosa batter should be not too thick. You should be able to pour the batter on dosa tava using ladle and able to spread it easily using back of ladle.
Add little salt to the dosa batter, mix and transfer to a vessel and close the lid.
Proper fermentation is important to get tasty and crispy dosa. For good fermentation place the batter vessel in a place where sun light hits the floor and temperature is between 82-85F (28-30C). Generally, at this temperature fermentation will complete between 7-8 hours. If you are using oven for fermentation, pre-heat oven at 375F and turn off. Let the temperature drops -8down to 82F. Turn oven light on and keep the batter vessel near the oven light inside.
During fermentation, dosa batter starts keep coming up and gives fermentation odor.
Too much fermentation can causeacid reflux in those who cannot handle sourness.
After fermentation, you can store batter in a box in fridge or prepare dosa and serve with side dishes.
Image credit: Anil sharma from Pixabay & Image by Bishnu Sarangi from Pixabay (CC by 0)
