28 June 2024
We are also launching a project here, which we are very excited to share with you, namely our podcast series “On Protein”!
To build a society that is well informed about its lifestyle, sports and eating habits. A society that lives actively and takes preventive measures for its good physical and mental health. A society full of smiling and happy, healthy people.
Our sports manager Angel Karaivanov and our group coach Samer Makki are in the roles of presenters. They will present current and important topics related to sports, active lifestyle, healthy nutrition, children’s health and much more.
We have invited famous and not-so-famous guests, but all of them are interesting and inspiring individuals, competent in the topics we discuss. You can grab something from each of them.
Our first guest is not accidental and is one of the biggest experts in his field – the psychologist and psychotherapist Alexandra Algafari. Mental health is extremely important and goes hand in hand with a physically active lifestyle. That’s why we chose to touch on this topic in one of our first episodes.
Magnesium is the supplement that helps you relax the most. It is a dietary supplement that helps relax your muscles and nervous system, and you can take it at any time of the day. Many people neglect magnesium, but it should be taken even by pregnant women and people with heart problems. Its absence in the body leads to problems with the nervous system and muscles… The most interesting thing about it is that it is also absorbed through the skin and there are even many oils that are saturated with magnesium.
Alexandra: Magnesium is also very important for the absorption of vitamin D, and vitamin D is a precursor of serotonin. Now what does this mean – it helps break down seratonin in the body. Seratonin is the molecule, the hormone of happiness. When, for example, there are depressive states, one of the things we ask people in the booth as well is if they have checked their vitamin D and magnesium levels. Sometimes there are such physiological things that can be done to improve a person’s condition. Which is so basic! Vitamin D is the sun outside!
Alexandra: Psychophysical therapy means that we work not only with the thoughts, with the mind and with the emotions, it also works with the body. This can look like using different breathing techniques as well as different purely physical exercises. We work with different muscle groups, and the point is that many of our experiences, many of our emotions remain trapped in the body. We usually work by over-exerting certain muscles or muscle groups with the goal that then in the relaxation comes the natural release of the emotional baggage that has been held back.
Alexandra: People, if they moved more, this is the biggest panacea. So, just if they moved their bodies. It may not be training, just walking, something, moving and a lot of problems are solved. Because the body begins to participate, and if it begins to participate, it is grateful to us for what we give it and begins to give us many more signals about how to react, what to do, at what moment, what we need. Most people don’t move, unfortunately…
Alexandra: It is important to create a love for movement, not so much for the sport itself, but for movement in general. Because if the focus is so much on the assessment, the standard that has to be met, there is a chance that many children will give up and say “Oh no, that’s not for me, because I can’t escape it for a few seconds .” But does it matter how many seconds there are? It’s more important to escape it, it’s more important to get it out, if you even have to…
Both our guest and the presenters were of the same opinion on the matter that it is of particular importance that you like the sport you practice and it is not particularly important what it is, because each of us has different understandings and different tastes. That is why in our clubs we strive to maintain a variety of group activities that you can choose from. And if this type of training is not suitable for you, we guarantee that our personal trainers can make miracles out of the training in which you “just lift weights on another machine in the gym”.
Alexandra: We are beginning to realize that going to ask for help is an act of self-respect, of self-love. See what I can learn from some objective person. However, therapy is not always pleasant. Often, you leave the therapy office a little like after the gym.
Alexandra: There is no unified form of what a body should look like. We must have love for our bodies because if we force ourselves to get into a certain shape. This is excessive stress, which has a much greater chance of preventing us from getting into the shape we want to be.
Alexandra: The simplest, most important thing is to exhale longer. We think we can’t breathe deeper, but we’re actually in permanent inhalation. Breathing becomes shallower and the emphasis is on inhaling, because in this way more oxygen goes to the brain so that a decision can be made very quickly where to go and what to do. And the opposite of this stress reaction is exhalation. With emphasis on exhalation, we simply give a signal to the body that there is no danger here and that we can relax.
The practice is very simple – we inhale, counting slowly to 4, hold up and exhale, counting slowly to 5. Thus we gradually increase the numbers as far as we feel comfortable.
These are just a few of all the interesting things that were discussed in our “On Protein” studio. See the whole conversation HERE.