As a runner, and shoe lover in general, I purchase and go through a lot of pairs. But it doesn’t feel good to just throw them out into the garbage when I’m done with them. Shoes are difficult to recycle and are most often sent to the landfill, but Strathcona County works with Soles4Souls to collect old shoes and keep them out of the landfill.

Soles4Souls collects shoes to distribute to people in need across Canada and around the world. They are a Canadian Non-for-Profit Organization. At Soles4Souls Canada, they accept all styles and sizes of new or gently-worn shoes. Your donation of one pair of shoes helps save approximately 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions released when new shoes are manufactured, and keeps 1.25 pounds of textiles out of landfills.

Shoes are processed at one of their 11 facilities, and then packaged and shipped overseas. One of their international partners buys the shoes and resells them to a local micro-entrepreneur, who can resell them to earn a living.

In countries like Haiti and Honduras, one pair of shoes can provide food, shelter, and education for a family for one day. At S4S Canada, unwanted shoes are turned into opportunity, by keeping them from going to waste and putting them to good use – providing relief, creating jobs and empowering people to break the cycle of poverty.

People are helped by the organization to launch and sustain their own small business selling donated shoes and clothing. This helps protect the environment by putting used goods to good use, instead of wasting away in a landfill. S4S also aims to empower women, ensuring they have the opportunity and recognition they deserve.

When dropping off, tie or bind your clean shoes (in any state of wear) together with elastics and find a bin at any of the following locations:

• Broadview Enviroservice Station, 101 Broadview Road, Sherwood Park, AB, during building operating hours (Thursday to Sunday)
• Millennium Place, 2000 Premier Way, Sherwood Park, AB 
• Ardrossan Recreation Complex, 80-1 Avenue, Ardrossan, AB 
• Glen Allan Recreation Complex, 199 Georgian Way, Sherwood Park, AB

“A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.” Mahatma Gandhi.

After you begin practicing shifting thoughts from negative to positive, positive thoughts come more quickly and easily. The process is similar to how exercise reshapes the body. The more you think positive thoughts, the stronger those neuro pathways become.

Confidence is a thinking pattern, a practice of choosing to believe positive statements about yourself and your abilities. Confidence affects not only how we feel but also how the brain acts. When you believe in your goal, and also your ability to achieve it, the systems of the brain fall in line. The opposite is also true:  start with doubt and the brain will give you reason to doubt.

Every time you catch yourself thinking negatively, replace the negative thought with a positive one.

Writing down the steps you’ll take to achieve your goal not only gives you a road map to success, but it also lets you see that the goal is possible, planting the seed of belief in your mind.

Write down at least four reasons why you believe you will reach your goal. Adopt a growth-mindset. A growth-mindset is one in which you believe that your abilities can improve through effort and experiment. We have the ability to choose what we believe.

1. Visualize your dreams/goals 2. Write them down 3. Take steps to make them real 4. Start even if you are unsure – you have to start 5. Take care of your body and mental health (you are gifted and a beautiful thing) 6. BELIEVE! 7. Tell fear – to go knock on someone else’s door!

Inventing your dream is the first and biggest step toward making it come true. Post a reminder of your goal where you’ll see it every day.

We are born with optimal joint mobility but we lose it due to repetitive stress and/or injuries. As children we all have optimal joint mobility (unless there is a congenital condition), but as we age our mobility can be decreased by multiple factors. For example, our lifestyle and daily habits can have a huge impact on our mobility over time such as sitting at a desk or in a car, repetitive movement patterns, such as construction workers or sports, or maybe you’ve suffered an injury.

All of the external stresses that have been placed on an individual’s body over their lifetime will influence how they currently move and feel. Their genetic predispositions, past injuries, repetitive activities, such as sitting or swinging a baseball bat, stress levels, nutrition, medications and surgeries, if applicable, must also be considered.

Self myofascial release, or SMR, is an intervention technique used to improve mobility and recovery of soft tissues. It improves gliding of the body’s structures including skin and fascia. It affects the nervous system through interaction with mechanoreceptors. SMR are techniques that are performed by an individual on themselves with a tool rather than by a clinician who is performing manual therapy on them.

SMR opens up a window of opportunity to improve mobility. It creates a mechanical stimulus that initiates a number of potential neurophysiological effects from the peripheral and central nervous systems, including increased parasympathetic activity (in charge of our rest, digest and recovery), enhanced blood flow, decreased blood pressure and a rise in serotonin and dopamine levels.

Joints do not have direct blood supply and, after childhood, rely on free movement to move fluids and nutrients in and out of the joint spaces to stay healthy. Long-term joint fixations are a primary cause of reduced mobility as calcium deposits develop. SMR increases blood flow and reduces inflammation; improves muscular range of motion; reduces muscle soreness; promotes quicker recovery; helps get you mentally prepared to move and perform; and, reduces arterial stiffness which is conducive to cardiovascular well-being.

Myofascial release and all related synonyms (foam rolling, trigger point release, fascial release, self massage) are interventions that work on the skeletal system, muscles and fascia of the body to help ease mobility and pain. The practice has become increasingly popular for improving mobility, preventing injury, augmenting performance and aiding recovery from exercise.

If you perform SMR and it’s so painful that you can’t breathe and your body clenches up, you risk exciting the flight or fight response and this is the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.Find the sweet spot between pleasure and pain roughly a 5 out of 10 intensity level. Move slowly and consciously.

Contraindications include staying away from bone; staying away from nerves or any sensations that feel sharp, shooting or radiating; and, avoid swollen tissue (acute injury).

Being proactive and consistent is the key to success. Schedule your active recovery and mobility time. This time will also be a time of de-stressing. Incorporate mobility drills into your daily routine. Ten minutes each morning, during your lunch break at work or 10 minutes before bed.

Wearable technology: People use wearables to measure their physical activity, sleep patterns, heart rate variability and overall wellness. They are becoming more powerful, cheaper, smaller and more comfortable. While fitness tracker rings have been around for almost a decade in their earliest forms, 2023 is set to experience a boom in new technology that’ll remove your tracker from your wrist and onto your finger, into your clothes, or around your ear.

Home gyms: These continue to thrive post-lockdown. Home gyms are also going high-tech; Peloton is probably the most famous recent example of high-tech home fitness equipment.

Rise of the e-bikes: The way we move has changed for good post-pandemic and our daily commute has certainly become part of that change. Twenty-six per cent of cyclists in older age groups are opting for an e-bike.

The great outdoors: Gyms, swimming pools, and sports centres may be open again, but that doesn’t mean the boom in outdoor fitness is going anywhere. Biking, running, and hiking trips allow people to feel refreshed and boost their vitamin D levels, which improves their mood and keeps them motivated during the darker months. Training outside has many benefits, not only is it a cost-effective way to work out, but it’s also greener and comes with many additional health benefits. Taking part in outdoor boot camps and fitness, from yoga in the park to low-maintenance exercises, such as running and cycling, makes fitness much more inclusive. It also provides people with the opportunity to mix up their routines and get outside in the fresh air as well.

More mobile fitness apps: First were activity trackers, another type of growing fitness app is the guided workout app. And a final fast-growing fitness app category is, diet apps.

Consumers focus on flexibility and functional strength: A focus on pure physical performance and strength through a full range of motion. Gymnast-like flexibility (to be able to go through more ranges of motion in the first place) as well as proper form and posture are important this year. Mobility training works to improve your ability to safely move a muscle or muscle group through a range of motion within a joint. And it’s about so much more than just being flexible, developing your mobility helps improve functional movement, prevent injuries, reduces pain, and more. In fact, you can expect to see prioritizing post-workout recovery (through stretching, low-impact activity, and yes, those high-tech massage guns) as another form of self-care this year. Case in point: Pinterest has seen a boost in searches around phrases such as mobility stretches, knee mobility exercises, and hip mobility exercises.

Posture workouts: As more people experience the side effects of weak postural muscles (think: tech neck and dowager’s hump), they’re seeking exercises to improve posture for a comfortable, pain-free daily life. Posture workouts train and strengthen the muscles that support your spine (such as the erector spinae, transverse abdominis, and pelvic floor) and lumbopelvic hip complex (your lumbar spine, pelvis, and hips), which are key in keeping you upright. Standing ab workouts improve posture more effectively than supine (lying face up) movements. They engage more muscle groups (think: glutes, lower back muscles, and even your upper body muscles), and prevent injuries related to pore balance. You can add kettlebells or dumbbells to challenge your core even further.

Primal movement: crawling, lunging, reaching, pushing, and more like adding squats, deadlifts, bear crawls, and farmer carries to your workouts.

Exercise as a mental health tool: more and more people are turning to movement as a way to protect and enhance their mental health. Exercise has been proven to reduce stress, help with depression and anxiety, improve sleep, and even improve brain function. You’ll continue to see people using exercise as a way to connect with others, enjoy much-needed alone time, work toward personal goals, and build confidence, all of which are crucial in maintaining mental health.

Holistic training will expand beyond the body: It’s not just about taking an hour in the gym and watching what you eat anymore—the mind and soul will be integral to fitness in 2023, too. Mental health, physical health, and  fitness. Using meditation as part of a fitness routine isn’t exactly new, but expect the practice to become more common in 2023. Fitness studios are merging meditation with muscle building. More than anything else, 2023 will see people making their fitness practice an integral, interconnected part of their everyday lives, not just something they do for an hour when they remember to go to the gym. A refocus on metabolic health and metabolic dysfunction is in our power to change. Like eating nutrient-dense whole foods, exercising every day, getting enough quality sleep and reducing stress fall into this category. So much of what we’ve accepted as ‘normal’ in our everyday lives, like energy crashes, poor sleep, hormonal imbalance, weight gain, and inflammation, does not have to be our normal experience of being alive. If we all make even small lifestyle changes, we can set ourselves and our society up for a more positive future.

New diets emerge: More and more people are turning plant-based, whether for health reasons, ethical reasons or environmental concerns. Carbs are making a comeback. With the rise in popularity of carb-friendly diets such as the Mediterranean and DASH diet, carbs are no longer the enemy and whole grains are finding a place on plates again.

Whatever new fitness trend you dare to take part in, find something that you enjoy and can stick to to make 2023 your healthiest year yet.

Physical activity is considered one of the main components of healthy living. In addition to the functions related to the prevention of excess body weight, systemic inflammation and chronic non-communicable diseases, a potential benefit of physical exercise in reducing communicable diseases, including viral pathologies.

Some ways in which exercise contributes to an healthy immune system include: exercise stimulates cellular immunity; exercise raises body temperature; exercise helps you sleep better; exercise decreases risk of heart disease, diabetes, and other diseases; exercise decreases stress and other conditions such as depression; and, exercise reduces inflammation.

The practice of physical activities strengthens the immune system, suggesting a benefit in the response to viral communicable diseases. Thus, regular practice of adequate intensity is suggested as an auxiliary tool in strengthening and preparing the immune system for COVID-19.

During and after physical exercise, pro-and-anti-inflammatory cytokines are released, lymphocyte circulation increases, as well as cell recruitment. Such practice has an effect on the lower incidence, intensity of symptoms and mortality in viral infections observed in people who practice physical activity regularly, and its correct execution must be considered to avoid damage.

Studies indicate that the modulation of the immune response related to exercise depends on factors such as regularity, intensity, duration and type of effort applied.

Moderate-intensity physical exercises stimulate cellular immunity, while prolonged or high-intensity practices without appropriate rest can trigger decreased cellular immunity, increasing the propensity for infectious diseases. According to the International Society for Exercise and Immunology (ISEI), the immunological decrease occurs after the practice of prolonged physical exercise, that is, after 90 min of moderate- to high-intensity physical activity. Prolonged high intensity training — especially without appropriate rest between sessions — can suppress your immune system. This is an important consideration if you’re a competitive athlete or are training for an endurance events like a marathon. In those cases, take extra care to give your body ample recovery time.

Furthermore, different studies suggest that regular physical exercise is directly related to decreased mortality from pneumonia and influenza, improvements in cardiorespiratory function, vaccine response, metabolism of glucose, lipids and insulin.

There is an improvement in immunovigilance, as well as a reduction in the systemic inflammatory process, factors that corroborate that regular physical activity helps to improve the immune system, while helping to prevent respiratory diseases and thus protect against infections such as COVID-19. Regular exercise of moderate intensity has already been associated with a reduction in respiratory infections compared to sedentariness.

For the elderly population, physical activity is even more essential, as these individuals generally have greater comorbidities and, in relation to the new coronavirus, are more vulnerable to contracting the disease.

Despite being one of the main strategies against COVID-19, social isolation has been related to behavioural and physiological changes, including the increased prevalence of sedentarism and eating disorders, resulting in negative consequences for metabolic health, such as weight gain, growth of fat tissue, hyperglycemia and insulin resistance and loss of muscle tissue. Since this condition can harm the body’s defences and contribute significantly to the reduction in individuals’ physical condition, functional and health loss, the adoption of healthy habits and an exercise routine can help in maintaining health.

Physical activity is considered a non-medication practice for the prevention and treatment of diseases of psychological, physical and/or metabolic origin. Regular physical exercise should be encouraged during social isolation as a preventive measure for health, given that exercise is essential during the period of fight against the spread of coronavirus.

The World Health Organization recommends that asymptomatic and healthy individuals should exercise at least 150 min per week for adults and 300 min per week for children and adolescents. These times can be distributed during the days of the week and according to the person’s routine.

In social isolation, the home environment has become the ideal and necessary place for physical activity. Activities that are satisfactory and that allow better exploring the home space should be sought. Activities of daily living such as organization of spaces, cleaning and maintenance also help in coping with COVID-19. In environments with children, playing and exercising with them is a great way to promote energy expenditure, thus leaving the beginning of sedentary rest. Meditation, stretching and relaxation are allies in combating a sedentary lifestyle. It is important to avoid long rest periods; but rather, alternate with active practices.

Options for aerobic activities to be performed at home include walk briskly around the house, up- and downstairs, dancing and jumping rope. When possible, walking or running outdoors, cycling, gardening work and family games are interesting alternatives, as long as infection prevention measures are maintained.

Recommended strength exercises include squats, sit-ups, push-ups, lunges and yoga, which can also help in anxious states. Resistance exercises to be performed at home, including exercises involving the muscles of the lower body, upper body and limbs, and lower limbs, which can be adapted for beginners in physical practice or experienced people.

Activities that make use of the individual’s own body weight, associated with resistance training as well as the use of elastic bands, provide excellent health results, results similar to those achieved by traditional gyms. Thus, objects such as backpacks, books, shopping bags and water bottles can be used as an auxiliary tool in resistance physical activity.

In general, exercising at a moderate to vigorous intensity for 60 minutes or less is optimal for the immune-boosting benefits of exercise. If you do this daily or almost daily, your immune and metabolic systems continue to strengthen, building on previous gains.

Yoga provides a gentle, natural means of supporting the immune system on a day-to-day basis—, no matter how hectic your schedule might be. Yoga helps lower stress hormones that compromise the immune system, while also conditioning the lungs and respiratory tract, stimulating the lymphatic system to oust toxins from the body, and bringing oxygenated blood to the various organs to ensure their optimal function.

Inverted postures or forward bends will focus the immune system on the sinuses, ultimately helping to ease congestion. These particular types of poses also work to prevent the complications of secondary infections by draining the lungs, opening the chest and preventing pneumonia. 

Since both colds and flu attack the bronchial passages, it makes sense that conditioning the lungs and maximizing one’s breathing capacity through pranayama (breathing practices) would build resistance to preying organisms. Nasal wash and alternate-nostril breathing will increase the resistance of your sinuses.

Finally, meditation also reduces the incidence of infectious ailments by de-stressing the body and mind. Ample research has shown that just 20 minutes of meditation a day increases endorphins, decreases cortisol levels, and fosters positive states of mind to promote better health.

Meditation and yoga increase a practitioner’s vagal tone, part of the body’s parasympathetic nervous system. The vagal tone regulates the body’s stress response, making them effective treatment options for stress-based trauma and inflammatory-based diseases.

Various mind and body therapies have been known to work as an adjunct treatment. Yoga and meditation-subsets of mind-body therapies improve immunity and provide protection against respiratory tract infections. Specific exercises of yoga and meditation are known to improve respiratory health and immunity; both are needed for protection against the current pandemic virus. There are many studies that highlight the result of yoga on communicable and acute condition diseases. 

Moreover, the beneficial effects of these traditional Indian interventions are not only limited to improved immunity but also have a positive impact on overall physical and physiological wellbeing and quality of life. So, in order to bring a control or subside the condition from deteriorating one needs to boost one’s immunity for which yoga can be used as an adjunct therapy not only as curative measure but also as preventive measure.

So are you incorporating some form of exercise most days of the week and taking movement breaks throughout the day? Above are even more reasons why you should be exercising in some way, shape or form to stay healthy all year round.