TWIL with Toby Huntington-Whiteley

Last week we caught up with our friend and trainer Toby Huntington-Whiteley on Instagram Live to chat about muscle recovery, the benefits of staying active, and stretching to help the body stay healthy.

He gave us this great piece of advice, "If I have really sore legs, I'll take a bath with some salts because it helps you absorb the nutrients in those salts and helps to stimulate the blood flow and help to reduce muscle soreness."

Below, he shares some more advice with his top five tips for staying well:

1 - Keeping hydrated is one of the easiest way to become healthier instantly. When our bodies are hydrated our metabolisms can perform optimally.

2 - Add a little more protein into your meals. Yes, you've probably heard it over and over, but it is so important; especially if you have started to exercise. Proteins help repair and rebuild our hormones, immune system and tissue. It may also help anyone trying to lose weight because protein keeps us fuller for longer with fewer calories. 

3 - Eat some fruit after your meals: a lot of us have a sweet tooth after a meal and fruit is better than reaching towards chocolate, ice cream or sweets. You will still get the same sugar fix but it will also include the benefits of all the vitamins, minerals and nutrients of fruits. This will also help in preventing chronic diseases and illnesses.

4 - Go to bed earlier, when we sleep, we recover. When we allow our bodies to rest, we are laying the foundation to work optimally the next day. Good quality sleep helps us to lose fat, gain muscle, repair and recover, regulate our blood sugars, hormones, appetite, and get rid of waste.

5 - Stretch! We as humans have become more and more sedentary, sitting at a desk for 8-12 hrs a day. This has consequences on our posture. When we sit, our muscles are not in the posture they have been designed for, which they will ultimately adapt to. Without stretching, muscles may become shorter and tighter (hip flexors, hamstrings, and our chest muscles) or longer and weaker (Glutes and upper back).

For more on how to be well, check out a few of our favourite books:

Yoga- A Manual for Life by Naomi Annand:
Ideal for total beginners to more experienced yogis, this manual includes everything you'll need to live a more balanced, grounded life, from five-minute life hacks to longer sequences with specific goals in mind.

Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker:
One of our absolute favourite books, it explores research to solve the mystery of why sleep matters. Why We Sleep delves into everything from what really happens during REM sleep to why our sleep patterns change, it hammers in why it's so important for us to sleep and sleep well. 

Plant Power: Protein-rich recipes for vegetarians and vegans by Annie Bell:
Balancing your diet by consuming animal protein is straightforward - a chicken breast, fillet of salmon or lamb chop are nearly pure protein - but there is very little that offers the vegetarian, vegan - or flexitarian - that ease. In Plant Power, Annie Bell shows you how to source plant proteins from high-quality unrefined whole foods.