Fitness also means ensuring that as and while you workout, you also take enough rest and know how to col down. This means you must release the tension from your muscles to reduce soreness or tightness so your next workout session could be fruitful and without a pain. This where foam rollers can help you. They are cylindrical tools, that you must have seen in gym corners, used for self-myofascial release (SMR). This is a form of self massage.

So, what is the science behind foam roller?

Foam rolling focuses on myofascial release, targeting the fascia—a network of connective tissue covering your muscles. When fascia becomes tight due to physical trauma, inflammation, or scarring, it can restrict movement and cause discomfort. Foam rollers apply pressure to these tight areas, helping to:

• Reduce adhesions and knots
• Improve blood flow
• Break down scar tissue
• Enhance and range of motion

Is it really that effective? The effectiveness of foam rollers has been debated, but research offers some insights. Studies have shown that foam rolling:

Increases flexibility: Short-term gains in flexibility are noticeable, especially when foam rolling is part of a warm-up. Long-term improvements are also possible with consistent use.

Reduces muscle soreness: Rolling after workouts can ease delayed-onset muscle soreness (DOMS).

Enhances recovery: Post-exercise foam rolling accelerates muscle recovery compared to passive methods.

A study published in the Journal of Athletic Training highlighted that foam rolling post-workout improves muscle strength and proprioception (awareness of body position), making it a valuable recovery tool.

ALSO READ: Kickstart 2025: 10 Fitness Resolutions You Can Actually Keep

Benefits of Foam Rolling

• Increased Blood Flow: Promotes circulation, delivering oxygen and nutrients to muscles.
• Improved Flexibility: Prepares muscles for movement and enhances overall range of motion.
• Faster Recovery: Eases soreness and helps muscles recover faster after intense exercise.
• Mobility Enhancement: Improves joint function and movement.

How to Use a Foam Roller

Proper technique is key to reaping the benefits of foam rolling. Here’s a step-by-step guide:

• Target Tight Areas: Slowly roll over muscles, pausing on "hot spots" (tight or tender areas). Use gentle pressure.
• Breathe and Relax: Avoid tensing up. Let the roller do the work while you focus on relaxing.
• Small Movements: Focus on small, incremental movements instead of rolling the entire muscle length repetitively.
• Avoid Joints: Stick to soft tissues and avoid rolling directly over joints.
• Listen to Your Body: Foam rolling should not cause sharp pain. Adjust pressure as needed.

Choosing the Right Foam Roller

• Soft Foam Rollers: Ideal for beginners but less durable.
• Firm Foam Rollers: Provide deeper pressure for advanced users.
• Textured Rollers: Mimic hands-on massage techniques.
• Vibrating Rollers: Offer added intensity and can help with deep tissue release.

Prices range from as low as $5 to over $200, depending on features and build quality.

Where Foam Rollers Fit in Your Fitness Regime

Before Exercise: Improve blood flow and flexibility during warm-ups.

After Exercise: Speed up recovery and reduce soreness.

Daily Maintenance: Keep muscles and fascia in optimal condition, even on rest days.

Work can get very hectic at times, and often people do not have time or the energy to go do intense exercises. The best option for such times is yoga. Not only is yoga more movement and energy efficient, but it also restores your energy instead of draining it. There is a style of yoga called restorative yoga. The Cleveland Clinic explains that this form not only benefits your mind, but it also helps you calm your thoughts and release the tension in your body.

Aspects of Restorative Yoga And Calming Poses

Some aspects of this yoga form include living more mindfully, improving your self-esteem, strengthening your core, improving your flexibility as well as stretching out your muscles. These poses give you a period of complete relaxation and mental restoration.

Cobra Pose

Inhale slowly and lift your chest and belly off the mat by pressing your tented fingertips into the floor. As you rise into your version of Cobra Pose, press through the tops of your feet, distributing weight towards the pinky toe side of each foot, allowing your inner thighs to gently move away from each other. Breathe into any comfortable degree of backbend.

Half Frog Pose

Keep your left leg extended straight behind you as you bend your right knee out to the side, flexing your right foot into Half Frog Pose. Maintain the flex in your right foot as you gradually lower your upper body towards the mat, with your forehead being the last to arrive.

Half Frog Cobra Pose

Inhale and lift your chest and stomach from the mat once more into Half Frog Cobra Pose. Keep your right knee bent and your right foot flexed. Feel free to keep your elbows bent as much as needed, lifting your chest only to a comfortable height for today.

Half Frog Sphinx Pose

Place your palms and forearms flat on the mat in front of you, with your elbows slightly ahead of your shoulders. Inhale and press into your forearms to lift your chest into Half Frog Sphinx Pose. Actively draw your elbows back towards your toes as you guide your heart forward.

Thread the Needle Pose

Exhale and transition into Supine Twist using Thread The Needle. Come onto your right hand as you slide your left arm underneath you, resting on your left shoulder and the side of your face.

Supine Twist

At the end of your exhalation, fully unwind into a Supine Twist by extending your right arm out to the left and allowing your right shoulder to lower towards the mat. Rest on your left hip while keeping your left knee bent. Gaze upwards or towards your right hand. Pause here for a breath, expanding your wingspan while ensuring both shoulders remain grounded.

Tented Fingers

Begin lying flat on your stomach with your forehead resting on the mat and your feet positioned as wide as or wider than your mat. Tent your fingers on the outer edges of your mat, slightly ahead of your shoulders.

Aging gracefully is something we all want, but what if science said it told you that you don't just have to look and feel younger based on skincare or supplements—but maybe actually starts in the weight room? A new study out in the journal Biology shows that doing a mere 15 minutes of strength training, three times a week, can make your biological age drop up to 8 years.

While exercise has been widely championed for keeping us healthy and robust, this new study illuminates its underlying impact on cellular aging, presenting a strong argument for adding short, intense workouts to your routine.

Carried out on almost 4,900 American adults, the research investigated the connection between strength training and telomere length—those little protective caps on our chromosomes that naturally get shorter as we get older. Telomeres are one of the most precise indicators of biological age. The shorter they are, the older your body feels and acts.

Scientists discovered that those who took part in frequent strength training had much longer telomeres, independent of considerations like age, sex, race, income, smoking status, body size, or other physical activity levels.

Here's what was surprising:

• Each 10 minutes of strength training per week was linked with slightly longer telomeres.
• Those who worked out 90 minutes of strength training per week had biological ages almost 4 years younger.
• Those who trained for 180 minutes per week experienced a decrease equivalent to 8 years of biological aging.

The moral? Only 45 minutes of strength training over three days a week can reverse your body's clock.

How Strength Training Affects Biological Age?

The benefits of strength training extend far beyond defined arms and better posture. On a cellular level, this type of exercise actually works to repair and rebuild your body. Researchers say resistance exercises can even slow the aging process by:

• Lowering risks for chronic disease (such as diabetes and heart disease)
• Increasing resting metabolic rate
• Encouraging fat loss and muscle gains
• Enhancing cardiovascular function and insulin sensitivity
• Increasing overall strength and mood stability

As muscle mass loses strength with age—a phenomenon termed sarcopenia—strength training acts as an antidote, postponing or mitigating the process.

Why 15 Minutes Can Have Such a Difference?

You don't require prolonged visits to the gym or elaborate apparatus to enjoy the benefits. The study highlights consistency as superior to intensity or frequency. Three visits per week to the gym of 15-minute duration can tally up to radically different results, provided muscle stimulation and technique are the areas of focus.

This leaves the door open for working professionals, parents, and seniors to gain benefits without radically changing their routines. The message is straightforward: a little does a lot.

Current Physical Activity Guidelines: Are You Doing Enough?

The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans suggest:

• A minimum of 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity per week
• Two or more days a week of muscle-strengthening activities

This study not only confirms those suggestions but stresses that strength training, even in brief intervals, is a key factor in cellular youthfulness and disease prevention.

Ways to Fit in 15 Minutes of Strength Training Daily

You don't have to go to a gym to turn back your biological clock. Here are realistic ways to incorporate strength training into your daily routine:

• Bodyweight exercises: Squats, push-ups, lunges, and planks
• Resistance bands: Inexpensive and portable
• Home dumbbell sets: Compound movements such as rows and shoulder presses
• Step-ups or stair climbing: Leg strength with a boost of cardio
• Pilates or barre class: Core strengthening and increased flexibility
• Guided online workouts: Utilize free or paid platforms for formatted 15-minute sessions
• Mini circuits: Alternate 3–4 strength exercises with brief rest periods

This research contributes to the mounting evidence that aging isn't all about genetics—it's about lifestyle. Small, regular habits such as strength training for only 15 minutes a day can do more than make you look fit—they can actually make your cells feel younger.

So whether you're 30, 50, or beyond, now's the time to grab a resistance band, drop into a squat, or lift a weight—and start turning back the clock. By doing just 45 minutes of strength training a week, you're not only changing your body, you're updating your body's inner blueprint. And that's an investment in fitness worth making.

Videos of heavy lifters often go viral on social media; the sheer power and endurance is not something people can achieve easily. One thing that a lot of them do before they proceed with the lift is smell something and immediately go in for the lift. Those are smelling salts. Smelling salts are products that have a strong ammonia smell and have been used to wake people up after they faint. Lately, some athletes have become interested in using them to feel more alert and perform better. However, do they actually work? Another thing to consider is how something that has such an immediate effect on a person can be safe.

How do Smelling Salts Affect Someone?

According to the National Capital Poison Centre the ammonia that these salts contain has a pungent smell that can cause irritation to the lungs. It can also lead to changes in the breathing patterns. This change in breathing causes people who have fainted to become conscious. These have been present since the 13th century to treat lightheadedness and fainting. The strong odor temporarily increases the heart rate of a person and blood flows to the brain. These symptoms remain for about 15 seconds after inhalation and then subside withing a minute or so. So why do lifters use it when they are fully conscious and do not need to be more alert?

Why Do Gym-Lifters Use Smelling Salts?

Athletes commonly use smelling salts to get a quick boost before or during competitions, hoping it will give them more energy, make them more alert, and speed up their reactions. Unlike many other stimulant drugs, the ammonia in smelling salts is allowed by the World Anti-Doping Agency. You'll often see powerlifters using them, especially right before their final lift, the deadlift. The International Powerlifting Federation even lets athletes inhale ammonia as long as they do it privately. However, even though athletes might feel like smelling salt improves their performance but there is no evidence of it. According to a British Journal of Sports Medicine 2006 article, there's no real proof that they actually make them stronger or more powerful. In the past, smelling salts were sometimes used to treat athletes with minor head injuries, but they probably didn't actually help in those situations.

Smelling Salts Can Go Badly For Anyone

Smelling salts haven't been studied well for use as performance-enhancing supplements, and they aren't approved by the government as stimulant drugs.

The US Food and Drug Association has even warned people about using certain smelling salts that were being advertised to make people more alert and give them energy, even though they hadn't been approved for these uses. They had also received reports of people having problems like shortness of breath, seizures, migraines, vomiting, diarrhea, and fainting after using these products.

National Capital Poison Control provided an example of a female powerlifter who had used smelling salts right before competing. After inhaling, she developed severe symptoms like a runny nose, eye redness, dizziness and a headache. These symptoms got worse over the hour leaving her gasping for air. It was later diagnosed that she was allergic to smelling salts and was treated as such.

Note: If you are thinking about using smelling salts, it's best to talk to a doctor first to see if they are right for you. They can also tell you how often you can use them, if at all, and which products might be best. Keep in mind that smelling salts are not a good idea for everyone. For example, if you have conditions like asthma, allergies, bronchitis, emphysema, or other lung problems, smelling salts might not be safe for you.