Its been a tough year, and I have had to work around the injury, nearly freaking 6 months.

It goes without saying that it is super tough to not workout.

As a result, I have been obsessed with correcting this and getting back to training like before.

One of my most recent obsessions has been my posture. And if you are like many on the computer or using your mobile phone, our postures are suffering and we in turn will pay the price. Trust me.

There are so many advantages to proper posture and the one that probably you all will resonate with is it helps dramatically with you training, and especially with the core area. Albeit the two are interrelated.

How do you know if you even have poor posture?

Well have someone take a photo of you without you knowing in your normal stance from a side angle.

When we are aware that someone is taking a photo we tend to improve our posture but what we are looking for is your day to day posture.

Another great couple of tests are the following:

Here is a great video suiting for those that may suspect shoulder pain is causing and or contributing to your posture/rounded shoulders

In my quest to really understand the mechanics of my posture, I began to study anatomy and physiology. I am currently enrolled in an online course to understand both subjects from the inside out approach. What I have found is that the structural imbalance (anatomy) is by and far the culprit in terms of my limited range of motion/functionality (physiology). The two are interconnected and we cannot ignore one without focusing on the other.

I found a great couple of videos on the neck and this first one in particular was one of the few that really speaks about the neck and the many misconceptions regarding our necks. I was so focused on the extender muscles and more specifically sternocleidomastoid muscles.

Introduction: Neck 101

This is a fantastic video on the neck and was super informative in teaching me to actually place my tongue on the top of my mouth while performing neck and posture exercises.

Beginner: Corrective Posture Exercises

The wall angel is a pretty basic exercise and its one that as a result of my shoulder injure I am having a tough time still doing. Prior to my injury this was super easy. But now it is excruciatingly painful.

Intermediate: Corrective Posture Exercises

I do these exercises twice a day, three times per session, holding the second movement for a 2-5 second count and performing the other two with controlled slow movements.

He recommends to do this for 3 minutes but I have broken this one into 30 second-1 minute chunks.

Advanced: Corrective Posture Exercises

For this party he invited all the eligible young men of the county to meet his daughter. After the party had been going on for some time, he called everyone out to the pool for an announcement. He lined all the young men at one end of the Olympic-sized pool, which he had filled with snakes and alligators, and said, “The first one of you who jumps into the pool and swims to the other end, I will give him the choice of one million dollars, a thousand acres of choice land, or the hand of my daughter in marriage.”

No sooner were the words out of the Texan’s mouth when there was a splash at the far end and a streak through the water. A young man emerged, setting what must have equaled an Olympic record.

The Texan approached the young man and asked if he wanted the million dollars? The man said, “No, sir.” Then he was asked if he wanted the thousand acres. Again the young man said, “No, sir.”

“Well then, son,” said the Texan, “you must want the hand of my lovely daughter in marriage?”

“Thank you, but no, sir,” replied the young man.

“Well then, just what is it that you do want?”

“What I want, sir, is the name of the dude who pushed me in the pool!”

Sometimes in life, we need a little push (P.U.S.H.) to get us going, to get to the other side of whatever it is we want to accomplish.

I experienced my own such event in 2000, that P.U.S.H. ed me.

I met two guys in Toastmasters when I was living in Seattle at the time trying to hone and perfect my public speaking skills.

The guys, John and Greg, had a coaching business where they taught professionals accelerated learning techniques.

For those of you not familiar with accelerated learning, it is essentials skills, tips, tools, and techniques to help someone learn quickly, and to actually retain and remember what they learned in a short amount of time.

Accelerated learning works with how we naturally learn, via auditory (hearing/listening), visually (seeing) and kinesthetic (touch).

In the two-day course we learned a variety of tools and techniques to actually learn and remember what we want to learn.

At the time, I was studying for the MCSE Database Administrator exam. It was a test to get certified to be a database administrator. Without sounding to boring, I basically wanted to run and manage databases.

What I realized during this course was that I had no freaking idea how to learn.

In school we never really learned “how” to learn, we just learned “what” to learn.

I made it my quest to read, take courses, and learn anything and everything that I could get my hands on that would help me learn faster.

I have since read at least a dozen books on this subject along with NLP and a host of other learning modalities.

(Note: I will list some of my favorite books on the subject at the end of this post.)

Here is the Reader’s Digest version on Accelerated Learning:

There are really six main areas when it comes to accelerated learning

1. How the brain works
2. Your Learning Style
3. Your Environment
4. Improving Your Memory
5. Speed Reading
6. Mindmaps

1) How the brain works

• The hemispheres
• Cortex
• RAS
• Brain wave
• Conscious & subconscious

The most important thing worth noting is that we have two hemispheres, the left brain and the right brain, and that each has its own unique function.

The right brain and the left brain have their own unique contributions. Check out this great infographic.

According to Dr. Joe McCullough, in his book, Accelerated Learning Techniques for Students,

“Everything that we see all the information we receive through our eyes get sent to our visual cortex. If you take one up your hands and placed it on the back of your head your hand will be directly above visual cortex. If you cup your hands over your ears this is approximately where your auditory cortex is located on each side of your brain. And finally everything that we do with our bodies all of the information we receive through our tactile senses such as temperature, texture, body position, and pain, gets sent to our somatosensory and motor cortex or the part of brain that deals with tactile/touch/physical senses. If you run one of your hands from ear to ear over the top of your head, your hand will trace out the approximate position effect of your somatosensory and motor cortex.”

Here is a great video if you want to learn more about the brain and the cortex (Time: 8:21):

You don’t need to be a brain surgeon to understand how the brain works.

Just know that we have two hemispheres, and that the brain stores the what, how, when, why, where, who in our brain dependent on how we receive that information. Also note that your emotions play an enormous part and influence how well the information gets stored and how well we will later recall that data.

If something is of really importance to us and it ranks high on our “values” list, we will make every concerted effort to store and remember that. Your values list, are those things that are important to you.

For example, health, is really high on my values list, so if I see, hear and or physically experience something in and around the subject of health I will make sure that I remember it.

This is what is called the reticular activating system (RAS for short).

Your RAS acts as a filter, it focuses on those things that you are most interested in, check out this great video on the RAS:

The next thing to understand is the brain has what are called brain waves.

The human brain has four different types of frequencies: Beta, Alpha, Theta, and Delta. Throughout the course of one’s day a person will go from one frequency to the next depending on the various internal and external factors that he or she experiences.

Beta

• Alertness

• Concentration

• Cognition

• Hand eye coordination

• Visual Acuity

   

When you are in the beta frequency or state you are wide-awake, alert. Your mind is sharp, focused. Your brain makes connections quickly and easily. In this state you are ready, willing, and able to do just about any job that comes your way that involves your full concentration and attention. Beta waves range between 13-40 HZ.

Alpha

• Relaxation

• Visualization

• Creativity

The alpha state is associated with being truly relaxed. Your awareness expands and your creative energy begins to flow. There is a sense of peace, well-being, and deep relaxation. In addition the alpha frequency best known for the Schuman Resonance – the resonant frequency of the earth’s electromagnetic field. Alpha waves range between 7-12 HZ.

Theta

• Meditation

• Intuition

• Memory

The theta frequency is more widely associated with deep relaxation or states of meditation where brain activity slows almost to the point of sleep. In theta you experience heightened receptivity, inspiration, and your long-forgotten memories. It is an ideal state for super-learning, re-programming your mind, dream recall, memory, and self-hypnosis. Theta waves range between 4-7 HZ.

Delta

• Detached Awareness

• Healing

• Sleep

Delta is the slowest of all four brain wave frequencies. Most commonly associated with deep sleep, certain frequencies in the Delta range also trigger the release of Human Growth Hormone that is beneficial for healing and regeneration. Oftentimes the delta frequency is associated with the subconscious. Delta waves range between 0-4 HZ.

So when it comes to learning its best to be in an alpha state. You want to be in a relaxed and confident state.

Another thing to understand about the brain is that we have what is called a conscious brain and a subconscious brain.

The conscious brain is when you are wide awake and alert. In essence you are in charge or at least you think you are. However we also have a silent back seat driver that comes in the form of our subconscious brain.

The subconscious brain is the part of the brain that is on automatic pilot.

Here is a great video, that can better explain it far better than I can (Time: 2:16 minutes):

Here is a great image on the conscious, unconscious, and subconscious mind:

Your Learning Style

Your learning style really depends on what you favor learning modality you favor most.

One great way to find out what learning style you might tend to lean toward, is to observe and take note of the words you use on an ongoing basis.

A phrase such as, “Can you hear what I’m saying?” can provide insight into the very person that is saying this.   A person saying this might have a strong disposition toward auditory words and phrases.  If upon hearing a phrase such as, “It’s clearly obvious can’t you see it?” that such a phrase might show a strong disposition toward visual words and phrases. And a phrase such as, “Can you do this?” might indicate a strong disposition toward kinesthetic words and phrases. Now of course these are all gross generalizations, it does provide one with a good starting point at identifying ones particular predisposition.

And from that you can begin to determine what learning style you favor: auditory, visual and or kinesthetic.

Another great way to determine your learning style, is to ask yourself, among the four mainstream ways to learn: speaking, reading, writing and listening, which two do you prefer the most?

Just choose two. Which ever two you choose can say a lot about your particular learning style.

For example, I love to read and listen, and as such that is my preferred learning methods.

Your Environment

The environment you choose to learn in is critical to your overall success. you want to make sure that you have the proper learning space which would include: location, lighting, organization, temperature, and ergonomics.

If your learning environment is free from clutter and distractions the amount that you actually learn and remember was significantly increase. Choose a place that really motivates you to learn. As each and every one of us has our own unique style, interests, likes, and tastes the environment will vary according. Just make sure that the environment allows you to focus and concentrate on whatever it is you are interested in learning.

Improving Your Memory

There are host of things you can do to improve your memory even down to the types of foods we choose to eat. I’m going to cover just the basics which begins with mnemonics. According to Tony Buzon in his book, Study Skills, ”a mnemonic may be a word, a picture, a system or other device that will help you to recall a phrase, a name or a sequence of facts.”

Students learned music are often taught the phrase Every Good Boy Deserves Favor to help them remember the notes EGBDF.

If you want to improve your memory imagination and Association are extremely important because your brain will remember those pieces of information that are unusual, full of color, and that can connect pieces of information to already existing memories.

For example, if I want to remember a person’s name and let’s say for example his name is Carlos. I will think of the first thing that comes to mind and for me the first thing that comes to mind is the guitarist Carlos Santana. So I might imagine Carlos Santana taking his guitar smashing the face of this person.

It’s not the most elegant nor is it the most politically correct but it works for me and I guarantee you I will remember this guy’s name in the future.

Another great tool I use to help me is what is called memory pegs. Basically a memory peg is something that you will attach a specific piece of information to. usually Normally I like to use a familiar room in my house and I imagine myself entering the room and either from right to left or left to right which is essentially counterclockwise or clockwise I close my eyes and tried to remember all the pieces of furniture in that room. Then for example if I have a list that I need to remember I will in some way using my imagination associate each of these pieces of information to pieces of furniture in the room. It’s a good idea to use familiar rooms because believe it or not rooms in our house we pretty much know like the back of our hand.

So recalling the pieces of information associated with each piece of furniture in the room of your choice will make it super easy to remember and recall.

When it comes to mnemonics and memory pegs you want to make it as outlandish as possible. The images that you are using need to be exaggerated, crazy and wild, assorted colors, and if  you can use your five senses all the better.

Speed Reading

In my opinion speed reading is extremely helpful. The challenge comes in trying to make sense of all the tools and techniques to increase the speed at which you read. probably the biggest concern most people have is that by increasing their reading time the amount of comprehension may decrease. That is actually not true.

Three great tips to help you read faster:

1. Eliminate subvocalization: this is when you say the words to yourself. It is this inner voice that is reading along side of you that is actually slowing you down.
2. Use a visual guide: use your finger or two fingers, or a pen to help guide your eyes. Our eyes have a tendency to drift and is a cause of many slow readers. By using a guide you help your eyes focus.
3. Read in chunks of 3-4 words: This one is common sense. We are taught to read one word at a time when in fact we are capable of reading 3-4 words grouped together, below is a great practice example:

When you read the first line, you read one word, as you progress try to read in groups of 3-4 words, like “to kill two” and then “birds with” .

You might want to start with chunking 2 words then work your way up.

Probably the best analogy I read that really explains why we need a better strategy when it comes to studying and reading is that of a jigsaw puzzle. Normally a personal will look at the top of the box to get a better understanding of the complete picture before one embarks on trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle.

The same strategy needs to be applied when studying and reading a book.

Here is a fantastic strategy to read a book in just one hour, without having to read the entire thing. this strategy is from Sebastian Archer  in his book,” Learning 300% Faster 25 Learning Techniques”

1. Prepare  to work through the book 3 times
2. First time, about 5 to 10 min., read the front cover and back cover. Read the introduction and conclusion. Also read the contents. Just read them all, nice and quickly.
3. Use of colored pen or highlighter and highlight all that interests you.
4. Second time, take about 15-20 minutes. read the first page of every chapter. Only the first page – if you see a story as the first thing skip it get to the meat. What are they saying? most books can say their major points and lessons in just 10 or 20 pages. But they have to make a 200 word book for the publishers to sell it. So they fill it up with stories and repetition. Just find the main point of chapter as quickly as you can. So you’re mostly skimming. Use that colored pen a lot to highlight the good bits of information.
5. Third time, about 30-35 min. Skimming through the whole book only read the first sentence of each paragraph. No more.
6. Stop reading.
7. Write up a few notes – the main lessons from the book. Use a mind map.

Mindmaps

Originated in the late 1960s by Tony Buzan, Mind Maps are powerful graphic techniques that provide a universal key to unlocking the potential of the human brain. The Mind Map can be applied to every aspect of life where improved learning and clearer thinking will enhance human performance. Mind maps take advantage of a skill that is already inherent to most of us. Let me explain by providing you an example. Have you ever asked for directions say for example when you were lost?

(For all the men out there who are reading this, you are free to substitute the word lost with exploring.)

Can you recall the directions that were given to you? Chances are good that the person giving you directions provided visual landmarks as opposed to the actual street names. For example, a person giving you directions may say, “Make a left turn at the stop sign, go straight past two stop lights; and then make a right at the third stop light; on the right hand side there is a gas station and on the left there is a super market. If you past the gas station and the super market you have gone too far.”

Below is a sample mindmap:

Have you ever wondered why that was? Why don’t we give directions like those provided by Google Maps or Yahoo maps?

Well for starters our brain is more complex. Our brain processes a multitude of cortical skills such as words, numbers, logic, colors, images and spatial awareness. Depending on our tendencies each of us may have a stronger preference toward one over the other. Our brains also have a tendency to remember and process colors and images more easily. This is why mind maps are extremely helpful.

In May 2002, a trio of psychologists (Felix Wichmann, Lindsay Sharpe and Karl Gegenfurtner) sought to delve deeper into this phenomenon and learn for themselves the impact that color has on our memory. They conducted five experiments (participants, in order, numbered 36, 34, 31, 20 and 20) to explore color’s role in memory for natural scenes such as forests, rocks and flowers. In the basic experiment, participants looked at 48 photographs, half in color and half in black and white. Then, they viewed the same 48 images randomly mixed with 48 new images, and indicated if they had seen (or not) each picture. Participants remembered the colored natural scenes significantly better than they remembered black and white images, regardless of how long they saw the images.

Mind maps are a more formal way of taking notes. Think of the mind map as being the successor to those infamous and often shunned forms of taking notes called doodles. Although doodles are considered childlike, it is often, that this form of note taking is the preferred choice among those we considered to be geniuses.

(Right) Leonardo da Vinci, Scientist, Inventor, and Artist, 1452-1519 (Left ) Charles Eames, American Architect and Designer, 1907-1978

 So there you have six areas to super charge your learning:

1. How the brain works
2. Your Learning Style
3. Your Environment
4. Improving Your Memory
5. Speed Reading
6. Mindmaps

I hope this posts helps to you to learn anything in the shortest time period possible.

There are precautions that we can take, but to say that you won’t ever get injured or at least a little bit dinged up as a result of working out would be misleading and just downright false. The last 3 – 4 months I have been dealing with an excruciating right shoulder injury centered around my subscapularis and supraspinatus. It has gotten so bad that I can’t even lift my right arm above my head.

For this post,I want to discuss the following:

1. A little bit about injuries
2. Why I think they happen

1. A little bit about injuries

I recently went to get an ultra-sound on my shoulder. The results were quite formal and rather difficult to understand, here are the results:

Ultra-sound right shoulder.  It is observed in the sheath liquid biceps tendon , tenosynovitis bicipital.Tendon to assess clinically subscapularis and infraspinatus unchanged significativas.Se observed slight thickening and decreased echogenicity of the supraspinatus tendon , with no clear solution of continuity , suggestive of tendinopathy . Significant attention supraspinatus tendon entrapment with dynamic maneuver. bursitis.Probables degenerative changes in acromioclavicular articulation with hypertrophy capsula.Se irregularity observed in the cortex of the humeral Cabera of unspecific characteristics are identified, but could not rule out the case of small fissure. A correlate clinically . No other alterations.

As you can see, there are quite a lot of medical terms and if it weren’t for the wonders of Google I would probably be lost. Now granted I had it translated by Google because it was originally in Spanish.

But after taking this to my spanish speaking chiropractor and my Rolfing specialist, they both concluded the same thing:

An inflammation of the biceps tendon and supraspinatus. Suggested I get rest and a physical therapy.

Basically I injured my supraspinatus tendon and as a result negatively effected my subscapularis muscle. The supraspinatus tendon essentially was inflammed as a result of doing too many repititions. Supraspinatus Inflammation. The supraspinatus muscle runs along the top of the shoulder-blade and inserts via the tendon at the top of the arm or humerus bone. It is one of the rotator cuff muscles.

As the supraspinatus inflamed it caused imbalanced movement in my right shoulder, or more so, I caused in imbalance and my subscapularis muscle became inflamed as well. The subscapularis is a large triangular muscle which fills the subscapular fossa and inserts into the lesser tubercle of the humerus and the front of the capsule of the shoulder-joint.

Let’s stop for a second, to examine the most common types of injuries which are sprains, strains, and soft-tissue injuries.

• Muscle sprain,  is a stretching or tearing of ligaments — the tough bands of fibrous tissue that connect two bones together in your joints. The most common location for a sprain is in your ankle.
• Muscle strain, muscle pull, or even a muscle tear refers to damage to a muscle or its attaching tendons. You can put undue pressure on muscles during the course of normal daily activities, with sudden heavy lifting, during sports, or while performing work tasks.
• Soft tissue injury (STI) is the damage of muscles, ligaments and tendons throughout the body. Common soft tissue injuries usually occur from a sprain, strain, a one off blow resulting in a contusion or overuse of a particular part of the body.

Tendon inflammation, or in my case, tendon sheath inflammation is typically the result of injury to the tendon or surrounding muscle or bone. It’s not limited to athletes and appears in patients who perform a variety of repetitive-motion activities, such as assembly line work, weeding, and typing. People working in certain jobs appear to have greater risk of it than others, including:

carpenters
dentists
musicians
office workers

The top seven (7) common sports injuries according to WebMD are:

1. Ankle sprain
2. Groin pull
3. Hamstring strain
4. Shin splints
5. Knee injury: ACL tear
6. Knee injury: Patellofemoral syndrome — injury resulting from the repetitive movement of your kneecap against your thigh bone
7. Tennis elbow (epicondylitis)

2. Why I think they happen

Reason #1 – Listen to your body.

So how did all of this happen?

How is it possible, even after I wrote that great little article all about the beauties of the shoulder?

Well I have my suspicions, and for starters the vast majority of us have been brought up in the formal school system and I believe this a big part of why we just done listen to our own bodies. According to the Center for Public Education, “Most students require between 175 and 180 days of school and/or between 900 and 1,000 hours of instructional time per year, depending on the grade level.”

Now say we are in school from age 6-18.

That’s 12 years times 1,000 hours. That is 12,000 hours of other people telling us when to go to the bathroom, when to eat, when to play, when to get up, when to sit down. 12,000 hours.

Now add that to how many times do you think your mom and dad told you, you can’t or don’t do that, or just plain no?

I would venture to say that that number is in the ten’s of thousands.

And we wonder why we are so externally motivated and not in tune with hearing or trusting our own judgement let alone what are body is telling us.

When I was working out, doing pull ups on the gymnastic rings, I felt for nearly 6-7 weeks a sharp pain in the right shoulder, and I ignored it. I told my body to, “Shut up! I am in charge.”

And I continued on.

Dumb, Dumb. Dumb.

Now I am paying for my own stupidity.

Please do not make the same mistake as I did. Listen to your body.

Reason #2 – Quality over quantity (Mastery)

Another reason I believe I injured myself, was that I was focused on quantity and not quality. I was so freaking obsessed with more more more, that I lost sight of the big picture, and I was not focused on mastery. Check out my fitness log:

Each line was a set.

I was doing 25-30 sets. Averaging 500-600 reps.

Just way too much.

The reason my shoulder got inflamed was pretty clear. And worse of all I continued despite the pain.

Reason #3 – Take your time

The last and final reason, was that I was so intent on my time. I was so intent on speed and watching the clock that I was not focused on taking my time. I would have been better off just practicing negative movements.

I was so fixed on the YouTube athletes that I saw doing these crazy feats that I never stopped to think, that they are different from me and to just be yourself and workout at your own rhythm.

It can be enticing to try to do what we see on YouTube. Trust me, don’t do it. Please don’t do it. You will pay in the end.

In conclusion, listen to your body, focus on quality and take your time. I wish I had actually followed my own advice.

Please please listen to your body. This is not a race. We are all in it for the long haul. Calisthenics is for life.

Oh yeah, and a couple of things that have made a world of difference.

If you are feeling any pain, STOP STOP STOP.

Rest and word around the injury.

If you are thick headed like me and continue on to the point that you can’t lift your arm, then I would advise to see a specialist like a chiroprator and get an x-ray and or ultra sound.

If you are having sleepless nights there are non-toxic medications you can take like:

Arnica as a gel or cream to rub on the effected area

Harpagophytum or Devil’s claw as an alternative to medication, I took the drops as it gets in your system quicker.

In addition, if you like to sleep on your side, don’t do it. Learn to sleep on your back. But if you can’t resist the temptation to sleep on your side than you might want to check out this video:

And give yourself massages two-three times a day, massaging the effected areas.

And one final thing, these two exercises are life savers, here is an excellent video on the two awesome exercises. (Time: 7:49 minutes)

Thank you!!!

The four items listed are in no particular order. They are however super powerful. I use each of these on a regular basis and best of all they won’t break the bank. In other words, they are fairly inexpensive.

I am a pretty simple person when it comes to health and nutrition. I believe in following the basics and not complicating things. That’s probably why I am so passionate about Calisthenics. Because it’s just easy and simple and best of all it works, if you work it.

The same can be said for these four household items. There are no sexy packaging or fancy mainstream commercial advertising. They are things that have been around since, who only knows for how long, but they work, are effective and as I mentioned before, cheap.

A word of caution, I usually try to buy each of these in an Organic form, meaning, not chemically treated and as close to Mother Nature as humanly possible. Again that is just a preference.

The four simple but powerful items are:

1) Baking soda

2) Apple cider vinegar

3) Salt (Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt or Epsom Salt)

4) Coconut oil

Each of these are incredibly helpful when it comes to your health both on the inside and outside of your body.

Baking soda – $3

Baking soda has got to be one of the most under-appreciated household items that exist on the planet.

It can be used as a deodorizer, cleaner, freshener, and scrub, here is a list of some of its uses:

I personally use Bob’s Red Mill Baking Soda, but good old-fashioned  Arm & Hammer baking soda works just fine.

The fact that baking soda is so cheap and you usually only need  a small amount. It’s by and far the deal of the century.

I absolutely love Baking Soda.

Apple Cider Vingear – $3

Another incredible household item, is Apple Cider Vinegar. Nowadays you can find this in just about every mainstream store, supermarket, health store, and even convenience stores like 7-11 or even the local store at the gas station may carry this handy-dandy miracle elixir.

Be forewarned it does smell, but you get used to it, and the health, beauty ,and around the house benefits far outweigh any slight smell.

Apple Cider Vingear is so potent that a little bit goes along way, here are just a handful of things you can do with this great little liquid:

Salt – Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt or Epsom Salt – $1 to 5

In our house we personally use Himalayan Salt, but that’s really because it’s readily available and costs only 3 euros at our local supermarket. But you could just as easily buy sea salt and get 1 kilo for 1 euro or $1. That will go a long way. I use it to help get rid of bad foot smell with a cup of vinegar and 1 cup of salt in hot water. This mixture is also great for sore muscles. Just soak them until the water gets cold.

Salt seems  to have the some cleaning characteristics that baking soda has, here are some great and easy things you

Coconut Oil – $5 to 9

I love coconut oil especially when it comes to cooking. It’s great to replace your traditional cooking oils because it can has a high “smoke point.” According to the website Dr Gourmet,  “The “smoke point” is the temperature at which, when heated, an oil will begin to smoke. The smoke point of coconut oil is actually quite low by comparison to other oils. Unrefined coconut oil smokes in the range of 350° F. That’s about the same as butter or lard. A more refined coconut oil would have a higher smoke point (just above 400° F). ”

Personally I use a coconut oil that I purchase from iHerb.com because its super high quality, well-priced, and ships straight to my door tax-free and they only charge $4 for shipping. The brand I like is made by, Jungle Products, Beyond Organic Coconut Oil, 14 oz (397 g). I like to buy oils in glass bottles, because I don’t want leeching of the container into the oils that I buy. But that’s just me.

There are a ton of uses for coconut oil, here is a small list:

Notable Mentions

Oregano Oil

Oregano oil is one of those little natural health remedy secrets. It’s a natural anti-viral solution, and a little bit can go a long way. All you need is a couple of drops and wow this can help with a host of issues. You might want to Google this as this post is already quite long. But trust me, this can help with so many issues.  I personally use this when I feel a little bit down to boost my immune system. I add 3 drops, along with Grapefruit Seed Extract, Propolis, Echinacea, and Vitamin D oil in a glass. I mix a small dose of water to dilute because oregano oil runs hots and can burn if you do not dilute. Make sure to get mediterranean with a high level of oregano (organium vulgare) not diluted. They sometimes mix with olive oil, which reduces the effects of the oregano oil.

Tea Tree Oil

This is a staple in my medicine cabinet and I use a couple of drops as an everyday mouthwash. Tea Tree oil like oregano and coconut oil are anti-viral. And best of all you can find this in just about any store. If you are going to use this internal make sure you find a tea tree oil that is made for internal digestion.

Well there you go 4 every day household items that are super-charged to help you in a host of issues.