The post Mental Wellness Solutions first appeared on TriCore Wellness.

Actionable and measurable change in behaviors that lead to improvements or sustainability in proven standards of health and human performance.

This says it all!

By using a program that drives internal motivation for an employee to WANT to make changes, this is what will drive results and success!

• Some employees won’t need to make major changes to their lifestyle.
• Some are already on the right track but need the next level professional guidance to help them past plateaus.
• Some have unhealthy habits and need a heightened state of awareness to start their wellness journey.

No matter where the employee is, it is important for a program to meet that person “where they are” and help them take the next step.

This is what a true corporate wellness program should be about.

Are there set industry standards in health improvement that companies want to see based on healthcare and insurance costs? Yes.

But without behavior and habit change for the individual, meeting these “industry standards” can be a temporary fix for a temporary budgetary solution.

So, what should employers and employees really be focusing on?

Leadership Excellence

As a business owner or manager, it is your job to help guide people to success for themselves and for the company. Success is largely determined by human moods and emotions. And moods and emotions are a driver to company morale, productivity, stress management, and interpersonal relationship dynamics within a community and sub-community.

At TriCore, we feel that for a company to help its employees improve their moods and emotions, there is one common denominator that everyone can agree upon…. health and fitness!

• Who doesn’t feel more confident when they look good?
• Who doesn’t feel proud when they lose 15 lbs?
• Who doesn’t feel powerful when they achieve a new weightlifting personal record?
• Who doesn’t feel great when they cross the finish line in their first 5k?
• Who doesn’t feel good when the doctor says they no longer need cholesterol medication?

These are real life success stories of TriCore clients under our guidance and programs.

Here are some industry standards of what most corporate companies are looking for in measurable health improvements…

The “6+2″ normals that reduce risk of chronic disease by 80% or more:

• Blood Pressure < 130/<85
• LDL (bad) Cholesterol < 70
• Stress management
• Waist to height ratio < 0.5
• Blood sugar < 100
• ZERO nicotine

Minimizing risk: What a Personalized Performance goal can do!

Data. Statistics. Metrics. These factors are what drive business, economies, sports, marketing, education, and nearly every KPI (key performance indicator) that can gauge whether something is working or not.

Putting a purpose behind a performance indicator, statistic, or a goal can drive someone into focus that can help them get there.

So why hasn’t healthcare and corporate wellness realized this yet?

Giving your employees a purpose for a performance based goal should be THE reason for them to get healthy, stay healthy, and change habits. So why are industries so hyper-focused on prevention and risk management rather than “performance management”?

Race cars are trying to go faster, perform better, be more fuel efficient, and look cooler. This is one of the reasons why NASCAR racing is so popular and has grown significantly in the last 20 years! The game of baseball has also completely changed due to the emphasis on statistics and data as well!

Rather than emphasizing prevention and risk management, using a performance based goal for a client to drive success, is hands down one of the best ways to also simultaneously minimize risk!

As a corporate wellness provider, we make wellness fun for the individual! We focus on what can help them improve in their sport, how it can make them look better, how it can help their focus and energy, and how it can help them sleep better! These are things that people want!

The feeling and perception of fun is different from person to person. So, to really drive adherence and consistency in a program, there needs to be a purpose and a “fun” factor behind it! Goal oriented and competition-based programming, whether for a group or individual, can be a measurable performance driven approach to disease prevention and risk management.

Simply put, marketing and branding something like diabetes management, blood sugar regulation, and preventing metabolic syndrome can be disguised in a challenge, sport, performance goal, aesthetic goal, or life event!

• Training for a Mt. Kilimanjaro Hike
• Winning a Step Challenge
• Running a 5k
• Benching 300 lbs
• Losing weight for a wedding

What do all five of these have in common?  They are performance based goals!

These are also actual goals that our clients have had! And through the process of working with us, our clients have reached these goals AND simultaneously minimized their risk for health-related issues and factors by:

• Developing habit change
• Minimizing their risk of cardiovascular disease
• Improving blood pressure
• Enhancing cognitive focus and wellbeing
• Improving muscle and bone density
• and more!

But how do you accomplish this on a large scale with large volumes of people?

You must have a structured accountability factor as part of the program! And what is the best accountability factor? A real live coach!

This is what sets TriCore apart from all others!

At TriCore, our system of wellness management connects a coach to each client. If they need something, a coach is there. If they reach out, they have a coach to talk to. For their goals, their coach is there to help them develop a plan to achieve it!

Our business model understands 2 things:

1. Accountability and Habit Change are the keys to success
2. Developing a series of performance based goals leads to greater success

We use tools like Health Risk Assessments (HRA’s), app-based analytics software, and advanced clinical and professional programming to develop a complete solution to your corporate wellness needs! And as our coaches develop relationships with employees, these relationships are proven to drive more successful results not only in the employee’s life, but with the company’s business goals as well!

At TriCore, our team is ready to help you and your team perform better and enhance health and performance at the same time!

If you are ready to take a different approach and get better results with an employee benefits or corporate wellness program, then contact us now!

Chris Edwards
Owner & Managing Director
C: 239-233-6178
Chris@TriCoreWellness.com

https://www.chron.com/sports/outdoors/article/6-2-Your-best-you-13227661.php

https://www.staugustine.com/news/20190507/drs-oz-amp-roizen-real-facts-about-corporate-wellness-programs

The post Corporate Wellness Success! first appeared on TriCore Wellness.

Stress

Stress comes in many forms:

• Physical
• Mental
• Emotional
• Environmental
• Social
• Etc.

Each of these avenues of stress can create a host of different responses on the body’s systems:

• Nervous system
• Hormones
• Hydration
• Adrenal
• Musculoskeletal
• Digestive
• Etc.

How a person receives stress and then how their body expresses stress is different. Here is an example: Many times, when I am working with Type A personality clients, they don’t recognize that they are even carrying stress. Being Type A, they have the mental fortitude to be able to power through, only get 5 hours of sleep, not eat much, barely drink any water…but yet they are losing muscle and gaining body fat! They don’t realize the impact on their health because they are so hyper-focused on their job, a situation, or a goal.

It may be a month or so when the impact is felt – when they can’t fit into their clothes or they have a physical stress response. For example, they get very sick, develop a migraine, their blood pressure is high, they start having diarrhea…or their doctor tells them their blood work is way off!

At that point stress has reared its ugly head and produced a physical symptom on their body that of course they don’t like! Now it’s not only taking them away from their lifestyle, but if they have any kind of body composition or athletic performance goal, they are greatly suffering in that area too!

1. How do we identify and catch stress before it’s too late?
2. How do athletes and non-athletes manage stress to perform better in their sport or job?

Let start with Question Number One

How do we identify and catch stress before it’s too late?

Recovery rate from workouts, improving sleep quality to feel rested, healing an injury, or mentally healing from a traumatic experience are all extremely important. Being able to understand when you need to “down shift” or “slow down” or “deload” is important for longevity but also for short term health and performance.

When your body and its different human systems get pounded day in and day out, without getting proper recovery (sleep, stress management, hydration, etc.) something is going to give. The first layer will be your immune system. The immune system is your body’s first layer of defense to stress. It will help to protect you from external viruses and bacteria that try to infect your body. It’s a combination of lymph, white blood cells, and antibodies that help protect against infection. It also helps you rebuild and recover from injuries and tissue damage.

Oxidation & Antioxidant

Have you ever heard of the word “oxidation?” And how about the word “antioxidant?”

“Oxidation is a normal and necessary process that takes place in your body. Oxidative stress, on the other hand, occurs when there’s an imbalance between free radical activity and antioxidant activity. When functioning properly, free radicals can help fight off pathogens. Pathogens lead to infections.” (1)

Although free radical activity helps fight off pathogens, the immune response itself can become inflammatory and cause stress of its own in excess and without a balance of antioxidants.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614697/

One way to identify stress is to listen to your body. Be self-aware. If you start to feel “run down,” take the steps needed to recover. We have all been there…Just a small headache, a little tickle in your throat, sneezing and feeling cold or hot…these are all signs that your body is saying slow down! Listen to it! This is a sure sign that you need to take a step back and rest.

Question Number Two

How do athletes and non-athletes manage stress to perform better in their sport or job?

When your body is under stress from a heavy or hard workout, family issues at home, mental stress at work, or even self-induced anxiety, it can have an effect on your immune system. This in turn will have a direct effect on your recovery! So, is it wise for people to “train hard all the time” or “no pain – no gain” or “never take a rest day”… Absolutely not!

Letting your body heal, rest, restore, and recover will not only rejuvenate your body from any stress, but also BOOST your immune system! Here is a great graphic that explains the documented relationship between upper respiratory tract infections and exercise intensity:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803113/

This study from the Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews (3), shows that exercise, recovery time, and stress management when properly programmed can have an immune boosting effect. OR if mismanaged, can actually have a negative effect. And since exercise is a form of stress, this needs to be considered in the big picture to know when it’s important for you to recover and rest to improve performance, but also to reduce your risk of infection!

Understanding the Factors of Stress

So simply put, a person must understand all of the factors of stress in their lives, and then make educated decisions on what kind of “exercise stress” they need to improve performance, recover, and actually boost immunity. This is yet another reason why it is important to have a Professional Coach, or Health Advisor that understands these scientific principles to help manage stress, recover faster, and boost the immune system.

To expect that the general population know these scientific facts is wrong. This I why there are professionals in fitness, nutrition, and recovery coaching that help clients expedite this process and deliver them the advice and tips they need to be able to manage their health for the short and the long term. We have only discussed the relationship between stress, exercise, and immunity. But there are many factors that can affect your body’s systems and stress level!

• Nutrition
• Blood Chemistry
• Micronutrients
• Antioxidants
• Physical recovery therapies
• Psychology
• Etc.

All of these methods should also be considered to help an individual achieve optimal health and performance.

My Advice

Seek out a professional coach if you are looking to maximize your recovery and boost your immune system. Each individual is different. Their lifestyles are different. Their methods of management and application of specific recovery methods will be different. There is a lot to consider. Seek out a professional that can deliver you the tools needed. Make sure they are using scientific principles, and then using those principles to apply the right methodology to what you need to improve your recovery and immunity.

Ultimately, the connection between recovery, immunity, and health is balance.

Thank you!

Chris Edwards, TriCore Owner and Managing Director

1. https://www.healthline.com/health/oxidative-stress
2. https://www.healthline.com/health/cold-flu/fun-facts
3. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2803113/
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3614697/

The post Athletic Recovery & Immunity – What’s the Connection? first appeared on TriCore Wellness.

Our brain is chemically wired to adapt to changes. Simply making your bed every day sets off happy chemicals in your brain that makes you feel good and leads to wanting to do more and leads to positive change that everyone will notice.

Summer Training Tips

Here are some summer training tips that you can use to start following through on your goals to health and performance improvement:

1. Daily habits – Start small like making your bed, getting up at a consistent time every
day, or drinking a glass of water every morning.
2. Accountability – This is key for reinforcement and keeping you on track. A personal
coach is great for that.
3. Try something new once a week – get outside your comfort zone by trying a new
style of fitness.
4. Learn! – Start by reading some articles that interest you then read a new book or get
a new audio book that helps you learn more about your body and health.

One thing that we promote at TriCore is gaining a heightened state of awareness on your health and body stats. This can help you overcome many mental barriers like the negative emotions many people have about scales and making progress on your health and wellness goals. We use devices like the Withings Body Cardio Scale to help our clients understand that progress happens every single day! And knowing the difference between lean body mass gain VS fat gain is huge to overcoming negative emotions that come from seeing the scale change.

Education
Consistency
Accountability

These are the things needed to help overcome your challenges. Hiring a coach can help you have more mental toughness to stay on track, and that is something some people can’t live without!

Brian Baker, TriCore Coach

The post Summer Training Tips from Coach Brian Baker! first appeared on TriCore Wellness.

Accountability and Habit Change

These are the major factors of a successful health and wellness program. How a corporate wellness provider delivers accountability and habit change, and how the clients receive the message and relate to it – that is the key to a successful corporate wellness program.

At TriCore, we have developed an extremely successful method of coaching and programming that connects professionals to clients/employees, and delivers them premier fitness, nutrition, and recovery programming right at their fingertips.

This process starts with the employee developing a personal relationship with their coach.

Developing Habit Change

There are a lot of factors to consider when helping someone develop habit change.

1. What kind of childhood did they have?
2. How active have they been in the past?
3. Do they have any addictions?
4. What is their relationship with food?
5. Have they damaged their metabolism by living the “Yo-yo Diet” lifestyle
6. Are they coachable?
7. What are their personality traits?
8. How best do they receive information?
… and more!

These are the details a professional coach needs to learn about someone to help them recognize the habits that have gotten them to a poor or suboptimal state of health.

At TriCore, we understand this. Which is why when we develop complete and comprehensive corporate wellness programs for businesses, we highly encourage using our coaching memberships as a key component to their complete program.

The reason: everyone is unique. Using template-based programs and approaches are NOT going to generate habit change and produce significant results.

As a result, TriCore uses scientifically backed habit change principles in metabolic optimization. This results in performance enhancement which will improve the lives of your employees and in turn improve the productivity in the workplace!

People want to talk about themselves and they want to have things personalized for them.

• People want to be heard!
• They want someone to listen to their needs!
• To feel special!

After you have developed the know, like, and trust factor with a coach, this makes accountability much easier to reinforce. The client knows that the coach is providing them feedback that is personalized to them, and they know it will help them succeed.

Marketability to Employers and Employees

Corporate Wellness programs touting disease prevention are simply…boring! Another key factor for a successful corporate wellness program – participation! First of course, upper-level management needs to understand how it can help the company, but ultimately you have to sell the employee on the program for them to really use it in order to create change. They are the ones who are participating, and they are the ones who will determine whether or not the program is successful or not!

Employers who have run other template-based corporate wellness programs in the past, have said it was a waste of money due to the fact that “the employees didn’t participate”. That statement says it all! Participation and adherence to the program needs to happen to see results. Most of the employers that I spoke with had been setup with a traditional “disease prevention” program.

A Program Attractive to Employees

Part of what a successful program does is make it attractive to the employee. They need to have a personal drive behind believing and following through on the program. Here are some factors that make a corporate wellness program attractive to employees:

• Body Composition change (fat loss and/or muscle gain)
• How they look in clothes
• How well they sleep
• Energy levels they have during the day
• Do they feel attractive
• Are they able to perform better in their sport or lifestyle activities outside of work
• Are they able to rehab an injury or prevent re-injury

These factors are more relatable to the everyday person. If the program can market this to employees, then there is a much larger percent chance that the program will be a hit and successful!

Pair this with a personal coach attached to each employee who knows them and their lives intimately and can give them no BS advice to reach their goals and take charge of their life…then you have a REAL CORPORATE WELLNESS PROGRAM!

At TriCore, our program will focus the employee/client on the factors they can relate to in their daily lives…while at the same time educate them on the scientific principles of health and wellness. So, the coach will be protecting them and helping them improve their health simultaneously! The ironic thing…this may also lead to preventing some diseases!* This is how we ensure successful health outcomes.

Technology and Connected Health Devices

Connected health devices are fun! This is why companies like Apple, FitBit and Withings have spent millions of dollars to make their products marketable and attractive to their customer. However, of all the millions of people all over the world who have these devices, most don’t know how to leverage them to help them improve their health! They are not using them to their full potential.

The issues that we see with connected health devices is the “now what?” element. They get the device, walk 10,000 steps…now what? What kind of relationship do they have to those 10,000 steps? Why is this something they should continue to do? Who is supporting them and keeping them accountable to continue this to see health improvement change? What does it all really mean?

This is where having a personal coach comes into play.

Having someone who knows who you are and what your goals are, is crucial for success. When someone relates to you and understands you, you feel good! You feel heard, and it’s comforting to know you have support. So, when a coach says to a client/employee:

“Great job! This is what you need to continue to improve your health so that you can lose body fat and reduce your cholesterol!”

That is the direct feedback and instant gratification that an employee needs to feel good about themselves and support their efforts in changing their habits for long term success!

Utilizing connected health devices, we make our programs and the coaching experience:

• Personalized
• Fun
• Challenging
• Competitive
• Engaging
• Diverse
• Multifaceted

Why TriCore?

There are three differentiators that separate TriCore from the rest when it comes to Corporate Wellness Programs. As a result, we stand by these and pride ourselves on our success with each corporate client we work with. We provide:

1. Customized programming designed specific to the company’s budget and needs
2. Individualized coaching and develop an employee/coach relationship which drives the
biggest rate of success in habit change for health improvement
3. Technology and connected health devices which provide data, analysis, and direct
feedback to drive long term sustainable results.

Our Corporate Wellness programs lead to healthier and happier employees, reduced sick time, greater productivity, and lower healthcare costs to you the employer!

Are you ready for a custom solution for your company? We will show you how we can help deliver improved health and business productivity for your workforce.

In conclusion, we want to find a solution that works for you and your team! So, contact us today!

Thank you,
Chris Edwards
Owner & Managing Director
C: 239-233-6178
Chris@TriCoreWellness.com
https://tricorewellness.com/

The post Real Corporate Wellness first appeared on TriCore Wellness.