Federica Cuni

12.02.2021

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My yoga daily routine


Federica Cuni, Kinesiologist and Personal Trainer


Wellness routine: Yoga & Relax 


Thanks to the lockdown and the inability to run around the streets and parks of my city, I too approached holistic disciplines in March 2020. Creating my yoga and meditation routine day after day. For my physical and spiritual well-being.


Would you be willing to sacrifice a few minutes of your sleep to do some yoga in the morning?

The benefits are so many and my advice is to create your own wellness routine.


That’s why doing yoga has so many benefits and if you can do it even better in the morning!


  • Start the day with energy: how many times do you wake up tired and don’t want to go to work? Don’t worry because it happens to everyone! This is mainly due to the fact that the energy that circulates in the body still sleeps, even if you are awake. To awaken the body and feel more energized, just open the mat and practice some yoga exercises. The energy (prana) will begin to circulate and you will feel much more energetic than before.


  • Feel more flexible: Do you know that feeling of flexibility you have once you finish your yoga class? Well! If you practice yoga in the morning you will experience this beautiful sensation throughout the day. I know very well that as soon as you wake up you feel stiff as a piece of wood, but thanks to some positions the stiffness will give way to flexibility.


  • Calmer and more serene: When the relaxation ends in a lesson, how do you feel? Do you feel calm, relaxed, more peaceful? It is the same thing you will experience at the end of your morning practice, but with one difference: you can carry these sensations with you for the duration of the day.


  • Greater willpower: One of the challenges of yoga is to fight laziness, and it can be done with willpower. Undoubtedly, getting up early in the morning and practicing some yoga requires a good dose of willpower and you will get it over time. The first few times it will certainly be heavy but within a few weeks it will become a wonderful habit and you will not be able to help but wake up early and do yoga in the morning.


  • Various types of back pain disappear. One of the best ways to combat these ailments is undoubtedly yoga and practicing constantly every morning will help you improve the health of the entire spine. Over time, the annoyances will be just a bad memory.


  • A moment to be alone with yourself: we are all super busy all day and hardly have a few minutes to dedicate to ourselves. Setting the alarm clock a few minutes earlier and practicing yoga at dawn is a great way to carve out some time to be alone with ourselves, with our thoughts and with our body.


TIPS:


Create a little corner of relaxation.

Take some time for yourself, for body and mind.

You can use the Ritual Candle and aromatherapy which, thanks to the presence of precious essential oils, will help you relax.


Choose between the Body Ritual or the Face Ritual:

It is important to have a place for oneself, for a small break, the idea of ​​enjoying time to relax, to find peace, to recharge, is essential.


Here is a little exercise routine you can do every morning!

Create your wellness routine with mind and body mindful exercises together with the Ritual Candle by Terra biocare.

Cyclooxygenase, lipoxygenase and the inflammatory process

Cyclooxygenase and lipooxygenase are the two families of enzymes that are commonly involved in the inflammatory process, through a complex of reactions which is called arachidonic acid cascade. This complex of reactions develops as follows: a first enzyme, a phospholipase cleaves the phospholipids of biological membranes, releasing arachidonic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid with 20 carbon atoms (eicosa-5Z,8Z,11Z,14Z-tetraenoic acid ; C20:4; ω-6). The arachidonic acid is then transformed by two parallel enzymatic pathways, that is, by two families of enzymes: the cyclooxygenase which transforms it into prostaglandins and thromboxanes and the lipooxygenase which transforms it into hydroperoxides which in turn transform into leukotrienes .
There are two cyclooxygenase isoforms indicated with type 1 and type 2, briefly COX-1 and COX-2. COX-1 is the enzyme present in most cells (except red blood cells), and is constitutive, that is, it is always present. COX-2 is an inducible cyclooxygenase isoform: it is constitutively present in some organs such as brain, liver, kidney, stomach, heart and vascular system, while it can be induced (i.e. developed if necessary) following inflammatory stimuli on the skin, white blood cells and muscles.
There are various types of lipooxygenase that lead to different products, the most important in the inflammatory process is 5-lipooxygenase, 5-LOX.

Prostaglandins, Thromboxanes, and Leukotrienes

Prostaglandins, Thromboxanes, and Leukotrienes are chemical messengers or mediators, that is, molecules that bring a message to specific cells and activate or deactivate metabolic responses in these cells. They, therefore, have a function similar to hormones, only that, unlike what hormones do, the chemical message is carried only at a short distance, that is, only to the cells that are in the vicinity of the place where the mediators were produced. There are different prostaglandins, different thromboxanes and different leukotrienes that carry specific messages. In many cases these act as mediators of the inflammatory process , therefore they trigger all the events that are involved in inflammation:
– vasodilation with consequent blood supply (redness),
– increased capillary permeability with consequent fluid exudation (swelling or edema),
– stimulation of nociceptive nerve signals (pain),
– on-site recall of immune system cells that attack a possible invader (chemotactic action)
– activation of the biosynthesis of fibrous tissue to strengthen or repair the affected part (even if there is no need)
– generations of free radicals that can chemically destroy an invader (but also damage our tissues, i.e. they just “shoot in the middle”).
Prostaglandins and thromboxanes, however, also play important physiological roles in normal conditions, i.e. in the absence of inflammation. For example, they regulate the secretion of mucus that protects the walls of the stomach, they regulate the biosynthesis of cartilages and synovial fluid in the joints, they regulate vasodilation, hence the correct flow of blood in the various local districts, and more.

Triglycerides

Triglycerides are the main components of most oils and fats. These are heavy, non-volatile and little polar molecules, insoluble in water, made up of glycerol (or glycerin) esterified with three molecules of fatty acids: therefore, it is a tri-ester of glycerin, from which the name derives. Each fatty acid contains 8 to 22 carbon atoms (commonly 16 to 18) and can be saturated, mono-unsaturated or poly-unsaturated. The size of the fatty acids and their saturation determines the physical and sensorial properties of the triglycerides, which can appear as oils (liquids at room temperature) or fats (solid or semi-solid) and can have greater or less greasiness and smoothness on the skin. Unsaturated triglycerides or with shorter fatty acids are more fluid and have greater flowability.

Fatty acids (saturated, mono-unsaturated and poly-unsaturated)

The name fatty acids is commonly used to indicate those organic acids that are found in the composition of lipids, that is, in animal and vegetable oils and fats, both in the free form and in the form of esters with glycerol (e.g. in triglycerides), or they are esterified with “fatty” alcohols, that is, long chain alcohols, to form waxes. Fatty acids are carboxylic acids (formula R-COOH) which have a long carbon chain (R), unlike common organic acids such as acetic acid and propionic acid, which have 2 or 3 carbon atoms in total, respectively. Fatty acids are defined as saturatedif they do not have double carbon-carbon bonds, (called “unsaturations”), they are defined mono-unsaturated if they have only one, they are defined mono-unsaturatedpoly-unsaturated if they have two or more double bonds (see figure). The term omega-3 (ω-3) or omega-6 (ω-3), refers to the position of the first double bond starting from the bottom of the chain of carbon atoms: if the first double bond is encountered after 3 carbon atoms the fatty acid is classified as omega-3 , if after six carbon atoms omega-6 , as shown in the figure. The most common saturated fatty acids are palmitic acid (16 carbon atoms and no double bond, C16: 0) and stearic acid (18 carbon atoms, 18: 0), the most common mono-unsaturated is the oleic acid, typical of olive oil (18 carbon atoms and 1 double bond in position 9, C18: 1; ω-9), while the most common poly-unsaturated are linoleic acid and linolenic acid, progenitors respectively omega-6 and omega-3 (see figure).

Terpenes and terpenoids

Terpenes or terpenoids are a large family of natural molecules, typically containing 10 to 30 carbon atoms, which are biosynthesized from a common “brick”, isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP), containing 5 carbon atoms (see figure). The discovery that the repetitive brick consists of 5 carbon atoms is relatively recent, while it was once assumed that the entire family was created by repeating a brick of 10 carbon atoms, which was called “terpene”. Therefore, the molecules with 10 carbon atoms (such as limonene, see figure) were called mono-terpenes, i.e. composed of a single brick, diterpenes those with 20 carbon atoms (e.g. the cafestol that gives the aroma to the coffee), triterpenes those with 30 carbon atoms (e.g. beta-carotene). Since molecules made from 15 carbon atoms were also found (such as bisabolol), it was thought they contained a terpene and a half, and were called sesquiterpenes (from the Latin semis = half + atque = and). Today it is known that the repetitive unit is composed of 5 carbon atoms, therefore it is easy to understand how mono-terpenes contain two (see figure), sesquiterpenes three, diterpenes four, triterpenes six.