Episode 126: Using Essential Oils in Your Workout Routine and a Look at Cedarwood

doTERRA: Did you know that essential oils can help enhance your exercise routine? They can be incorporated before, during, and after your workout. And today, we’ll show you how.

Welcome back to Essential Oil Solutions with doTERRA, the podcast where you'll hear exciting, useful, and simple everyday uses for essential oils from experts in the field. If you like what you hear today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. We always appreciate hearing from you.

Today, we're excited to talk to Samantha Lewis, a member of the doTERRA product marketing team, about how you can use essential oils to enhance your workout routine. Samantha, we're so glad to have you here with us today.

Samantha Lewis: I'm so happy to be here!

doTERRA: Now, how can I utilize essential oils to help kickstart my workout?

Samantha: There's actually some really cool research around this. Peppermint is a go-to oil for support before a workout to help get you started and give you the motivation to keep going.

You can also use any support oil like Breathe or Eucalyptus to open your airways before you really get into that workout.

doTERRA: During my workout, how can I incorporate essential oils?

Samantha: I use Breathe Touch as well—which actually has some Peppermint in it—under my nose to keep my airways clear and open and push me through that mid-workout slump. You can do a similar thing with Peppermint Touch if you don't love the aroma of Breathe or even bring Eucalyptus with you to the gym.

doTERRA: And after I finished my workout, how can I use essential oils to help?

Samantha: I love this question, and I love essential oils for recovery, whether it's winding down after an intense hit session or soothing my muscles after some heavy weightlifting. Some of my favorites that combine these two benefits are Copaiba, Marjoram, and Lemongrass.

Also, if you were able to get your hands on one of our limited-time oils from about a year or so ago called Cananga, which is a cousin to Ylang Ylang. It's a great addition to add to this group.

As always, Deep Blue and Deep Blue Rub are everyone's best friends post-workout, but I recommend adding in one or even all of the other oils that I mentioned to help while supporting the muscle-soothing benefits of Deep Blue.

doTERRA: Samantha, thank you so much for being here with us today.

Samantha: Thank you so much for having me!

doTERRA: Imagine walking down a path through a heavily wooded forest. There's a crisp wind on your cheek and twigs crunch beneath your feet. A beautiful tree catches your eye, just off the path. You stand under its strong branches and place your hand on its red-brown trunk. Taking a deep breath, you bask in its deep, woody scent and you smile.

Red cedar, Virginian juniper, and aromatic cedar. All of these are names for Juniperus virginiana, the beautiful fragrant tree. The red cedar is native to the eastern United States.

It grows slowly, usually reaching impressive heights between 16 and 66 feet. Its bark is a shade of reddish-brown and lush, needle-like, green leaves adorn its branches. If it's a female tree, seed cones will cluster on the branches. They are a rich blue, making them almost look like blueberries. These seed cones contain one to three seeds and are an important source of food for birds during the winter.

Red cedar is a strong, resilient tree that's able to withstand extreme climates and can tolerate most soil types. It's also what's known as a pioneer species. Now, a pioneer species is one of the first species that returns to a cleared, eroded, or otherwise damaged land. Among pioneer species, red cedar is unusually long-lived with the potential to last over 900 years. In fact, the oldest red cedar reported was in West Virginia, and it was 940 years old.

Because of its rot resistance, the wood of the red cedar is often used for fence posts. Moths also avoid the aromatic wood, so for hundreds of years it has been used as lining for clothes chests and closets—often referred to as cedar closets or cedar chests. If correctly prepared, the wood also makes excellent English longbows, flatbows, and Native American sinew-backed bows. At times, red cedar heartwood has even been used to make pencils. It truly is a tree full of incredible properties and uses.

During the Dust Bowl in the 1930s, farmers were encouraged to plant lines of red cedar called shelterbelts. Shelterbelts protected farms or fields from strong winds that cause erosion. Since the red cedar thrives in harsh and diverse conditions, it was an ideal tree for creating a natural windbreak.

Among many Native American cultures, the smoke of a burning red cedar is traditionally used to drive away evil spirits prior to conducting certain ceremonies. For numerous tribes, red cedar symbolizes the tree of life and is burned in sweat lodges and purification rites. Native American tribes also used poles of juniper wood to mark their hunting territories. In fact, French traders noticed such poles and named one area of Louisiana Baton Rouge, which means “red stick.”

Red cedar has also been used in traditional folk. People would crush the leaves and apply them to the skin. Others boiled a mixture of nuts, twigs, and leaves and breathed in the steam.

With its sweet, woody fragrance, Cedarwood essential oil is the perfect way to capture the beauty and peace of the forest and bring it into your home.

Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you liked what you heard today, rate, review, and subscribe wherever you listen. Also, if you want to try any of the products you learned about, go to doterra.com or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.