On the 12 days….

On the first day of the holidays the candy and cookies start to build, try some fruit.  I believe the partridge will give you a pear from his tree.

On the second day of the holidays avoid the dove bars, burn some extra calories by parking further from the mall you will also get a cardio workout.

On the third day of the holidays the French hens suggest drinking plenty of water and eating a balanced meal before heading out for your holiday party.

On the fourth day of the holidays you have a calorie burning opportunity by decorating the outside of your house.  Climbing up and down on the ladder stringing lights is how the calling birds stay so fit.

On the fifth day of the holidays my true love gave to me five golden rings.  I laid them down on the ground and set up a tire run for an excellent agility training workout.

On the sixth day of the holidays get together with all your little geese and walk a mile or two to sing carols at a hospital, nursing home, or your neighborhood.

On the seventh day of the holidays the swans can’t swim because it’s too cold, but check out a local ice rink and take a twirl on the ice to burn some calories.

On the eighth day of the holidays try small portion sizes of seasoned nuts for a healthy treat. The Maids need a break from milking to make all the butter for the cookies.

On the ninth day of the holidays march to the beat of your own drum and take the stairs to go to different floors in the mall instead of taking the escalator or elevator.

On the tenth day of the holidays the stress builds as the piper pipes.  Relax! Don’t add extra pressures on yourself.  Take time to laugh and enjoy (Laughing actually burns calories and tightens up the core).

On the eleventh day of the holidays host a holiday party using a gym or park to do activities putting a seasonal twist on them or just join the ladies dancing.

On the twelfth day of the holidays the lords are leaping!  Give yourself a day to eat and drink as you please. Enjoy the holidays as a special time for family and friends.  

Have a wonderful holiday filled with peace, joy and health for you, your friends and family.

 

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What is your Salt intake?

A study released in 2010 by Stanford University shows a 10 % reduction in sodium in a person's diet could help many Americans avoid heart attacks and fatal strokes. Sodium is essential in small amounts. Your body needs some sodium to function properly because it helps maintain the right balance of fluids in your body, helps transmit nerve impulses, influences the contraction and relaxation of muscles. Your kidneys naturally balance the amount of sodium stored in your body for optimal health. When your sodium levels are low, your kidneys essentially hold on to the sodium. When sodium levels are high, your kidneys excrete the excess in urine.

According to a study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American adult consumes about 3,300 milligrams of sodium each day. That is at least 1,000 milligrams more than people should be eating. If for some reason your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium, the sodium starts to accumulate in your blood. Because sodium attracts and holds water, your blood volume increases. Increased blood volume makes your heart work harder to move more blood through your blood vessels, which increases pressure in your arteries. Such diseases as congestive heart failure, cirrhosis and chronic kidney disease can make it hard for your kidneys to keep sodium levels balanced.

 Oftentimes, foods high in sodium do not taste salty. The foods that are the biggest sources of sodium may be surprising. According to the U.S. CDC, bread and rolls are the top sources of sodium in the American diet, followed by cold cuts, pizza, poultry and soups.

Great ways to eat less salt and sodium:
*Check food labels before you buy and choose foods with less than 400 mgs of sodium per serving.
*Fill up on fruits and veggies. They taste great and are low in sodium.
*Use spices, herbs or lemon to flavor your food instead of salt.
*Look for "unsalted," "low-sodium," or "no salt added" options for deli meats, cheeses, soups and snacks.
*Limit consumption of pre-made sauces and condiments.

MORE BENDABLE, LESS BREAKABLE

Be more bendable and you will be less breakable. What a fantastic visual flashes in my head! That statement applies to so many areas of our lives.

If you ever suffered from a sore back or a stiff neck you might agree that a more bendable spine would be a good thing. If you ever suffered from a hamstring or groin pull you might agree that having more flexibility at the hip and surrounding muscles would be beneficial. In the exercise perspective, the more we create three-dimensional mobility (“bendability”), the better chance we have of not hurting ourselves. Flexibility also creates greater ease of motion. If the body bends, it chances are it won’t break.

This theory can also apply to the mind. Getting locked into a set thought pattern runs the risk of not “bending” your mind to any other possibility. This could set us up for damage to egos, relationships and future successes. I suggest our challenge this month is to work on improving the “bendability” of your body to reduce the chance of breakage, and to open our minds up to new possibilities…

GOLF CONDITIONING:

Are you ready to improve your golf game?

Sixteen per cent of Americans are actively participating in golf.  These individuals (including you??)  spend billions of dollars each year in the pursuit of the perfect game.  A set of clubs can cost upwards of $4000.  The technology in golf keeps improving every year, but the average handicap for men and women has not decreased in over 15 years.

A good set of clubs is wonderful, and when fitted properly can make a great improvement in your game.  But what happens when they fail to live up to their expectations?  Many blame the clubs and begin the quest for the perfect set.  What some people forget is that no matter how good the clubs are, they are only as good as the individual swinging them and the swing is only as good as the ‘Swinger”.  Therefore, to improve the golf swing, the first step is to improve the golfer (YOU!)

At this point, most golfers turn to a pro.  The golf pro can help improve your stroke and teach the correct swing by addressing the five factors that control ball flight: clubface alignment, swing path, angle of attack, hitting the sweet spot, and club head speed.  As the pro observes your swing, he can identify the aspects that are causing the problem and attempt to correct the faulty mechanics.  Often, more than one of the flight factors needs to be addressed.  The pro will introduce swing modifications that may include stance, swing amplitude, hip/shoulder rotation, grip and so on.  These “corrections” are often necessary to compensate for imbalances in the musculoskeletal system.  An experienced pro can often supply the golfer with an alternative and help the player “correct” the swing fault.

Unfortunately, many times the real problem is not being addressed.  Often, it is a biomechanical issue that will be compensated for, but may cause more problems down the line.  A better alternative might be turning first to a conditioning specialist to improve your game.

There are five neuromuscular factors that affect the golf swing: muscular balance, flexibility, static and dynamic posture, strength and power.  Most golf pros can recognize the faults of a golf swing, but only a few are able to connect it to the underlying physiological factor.  This has motivated many golf pros to team up with conditioning specialists to work in a combined effort and make permanent corrections to swing faults by establishing the connection to the neuromuscular system.

Muscular balance, flexibility, and static and dynamic posture have the greatest influence on the golf swing.  These will effect the golf face alignment, swing path, angle of attack and ability to hit the sweet spot.  By identifying any deficiencies in these three factors, improvements in joint mechanics, muscle recruitment and consistency of movement can be made.  Once these issues have been addressed, strength and power can be worked on to improve club head speed.

As you may have guessed, most individuals begin a conditioning program by first focusing on strength and power development.  Often times, this increases the imbalance in the musculoskeletal system and although they may see improvement in club head speed, it is the main cause of poor and inconsistent swing mechanics.  (Now your slices and hooks go 250 yards out of bounds, instead of 200.)  Therefore, our goal is to improve the player, not the club.

Has Breast Cancer Touched Your Life?

Are you currently a breast cancer patient? Or a survivor? Do you know someone who is? Or someone who did not survive?  Chances are everyone reading this will answer yes to one of these questions. 1 in 8 women developed some form of breast cancer.   The good news is that the survival rate has been improving each year since 1990, thanks in part to early detection and improved treatment techniques.

Exercise is one of the improvements in treatment. Doing regular exercise will cut down your risk of developing the disease, as well as preventing its return, if you're a survivor.  Three to five hours weekly (30-40 min a day) of moderate activity has been shown to give protection from breast cancer.  Physical inactivity may contribute to the breast cancer. Women who are overweight produce and store more estrogen in their bodies. Exposure to estrogen is linked to breast cancer. Obese women have a greater amount of breast tissue, causing it to be more difficult to detect breast tumors, which often times results in late detection.

As a cancer survivor performing regular exercise can help return you back to normal function.  It has been shown that beyond the benefits of weight management, reducing the risk of recurrence and improving range of motion at the surgical site, exercise can aid in a multitude of “symptoms”.  Exercise has been shown to improve mood, raises your self-esteem, and gives you a better body image. Exercise improves muscle tone, strength, and endurance.  After the trauma of surgery, exercise can help reincorporate the body back into a whole. Up to now the focus had been on the breasts.  By performing integrated whole body exercises, postural distortions and muscular compensation can be improved and even reversed. Research has shown that exercise can even help the dreaded “Chemo Brain”.

At Morton Plant Hospital we have a program called Power.  It provides a continuum of care from diagnoses through recovery. A team of individuals including surgeons, oncologists, nurse navigators, counselors, physical therapist and exercise physiologist work together to ensure each patient is getting the optimal treatment.

GET OUTSIDE AND PLAY

We live in one of the most beautiful places in the world with many opportunities to get out and explore our environment.  But many hide in the air conditioning and never take advantage of all the great opportunities.  This inactivity does not go unnoticed by our children and other young people in our lives.  It is time for ourselves and those we love to get out and PLAY!

The rise in childhood obesity is frightening, which is why teaching healthy behaviors at a young age is essential. Behaviors involving physical activity and nutrition are the cornerstone of preventing obesity in children and adolescents.  Physically active children have fewer chronic health problems than kids who are sedentary.  It is also evident that fit children do better in school, have greater self-confidence and higher self-esteem. The childhood obesity trend is not only producing unfit children but promoting a society of individuals with a myriad of health issues. Get your kids moving!  You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on teams and sporting equipment, just get your kids outside, running, jumping, biking – just playing.

As parents, friends and teachers we can not only help ourselves improve our fitness levels and lose those extra pounds, but we can be good role models to the current youth and help them see that fitness and a healthy life style can be fun and a central pillar in our pursuit of happiness!

Pelvic Floor

With summer upon us and swimsuit season in full swing, we will discuss the forgotten core muscle, the pelvic floor. This muscle group, spoken about in hushed tones by some and not at all by others, is an important muscle group that needs to be considered.  

The pelvic floor is comprised of a group of muscles that make up the floor of the body's core.  It is important that they work in an integrated fashion with the other core muscles (abdominals, low back, etc.). If all of these muscles are not working together correctly, pain can be experienced all over the body (groin and low back for example).

The Kegel has long been touted as “THE” exercise for the pelvic floor.  While I agree the voluntary pelvic floor contraction of the Kegel exercise  has some benefit in improving muscle strength, I would argue that it has very little value in returning the pelvic floor to normal function. The more important action to work on is restoring a subconscious contraction that would happen in a normal situation.

When dysfunction occurs, the normal reflexive nature of the pelvic floor is inhibited, which is where the troubles begin. You should not have to think to contract your pelvic floor, rather you need to create an environment where the pelvic floor will contract on its own.  The proper contraction should occur naturally, like walking across the floor  or breathing - you do not need to think about each step and breath you take.

In formal terms the whole system discussed here is named the Pelvic Core Neuromuscular System (PCNS). Now lets explore exercises that will stimulate the whole core to work together while sparking the neurological system to do what it was meant to do.  

When dysfunction of the PCNS occurs, the normal reflexive nature of the pelvic floor is inhibited. As a result, you may experience incontinence, testicular pain and/or low back pain to name a few. There are traditional exercises for the pelvic floor, the Kegal exercise for example. However, the PCNS must be exercised in such a way that it will be trained to turn on automatically, so that it supports the core and does the job it was meant to do. Ninety-nine percent of everyday bodily function is subconscious. Consequently, if you have to think to contract your pelvic floor, the reflex may not be there when you need it.

In order to activate the pelvic floor muscles during exercise, hip rotation must be included. The exercises below produce subconscious activation of the PCNS. Perform all exercises in sets of 10 repetitions.

Mini Squat With Cross Punch

Stand with feet neutral (shoulder width apart, feet facing forward). Perform a mini squat and roll knees inward. Cross punch in the air (alternate arms) at various levels (up, down, to the side, back, diagonal, etc.).  Perform with toes turned inward and with toes turned outward. Repeat whole series with knees rolled outward.

Squat With Hip Mobility

Stand with feet neutral (shoulder width apart, both feet facing forward). Perform a mini squat and roll knees inward, then rotate your hips in clockwise and counterclockwise directions.  Perform with toes turned inward and with toes turned outward.  Repeat whole series with knees rolled outward.

Pelvic Floor Squats

Thoracic Spine

3D Lunges

Core Planks

May Challenge: Rest and Rejuvenation

Here we are in May, month 5 of our monthly challenge. So far we have learned to listen to our bodies and have made sure we are training at an appropriate intensity. We then set some SMART goals to keep us on task. Last month we learned to make sure we were working our Mind, Body, and Spirit. This month we are going to learn the importance of rest and rejuvenation.

 When you are in optimal health all the systems of your body are in balance. When you experience inflammation, problems losing fat or gaining muscle, moodiness, problems sleeping through the night, or muddled mental clarity, your body is out of balance,

Living in this hectic society, dieting, and adhering to a demanding workout schedule can lead to a body that is out of balance. Do you feel stiff, or have you hit a plateau in your weight loss? There is a good possibility you may be overtraining or simply in the need of some rest. How do you regain your body’s state of balance? One way is rest and rejuvenation.

The first step is to ensure an adequate night’s rest. Optimally, you should have 7 to 9 hours of sleep. If you are sleeping less than that try to get to bed an hour or two earlier than you are now. Next, make sure you are taking rest days from your workouts. Additionally, to aid in rest and rejuvenation, you might participate in relaxation exercises, which can include breathing exercises, meditation and even gentle yoga.

Your challenge this month is to ensure you are getting adequate rest and performing rejuvenating exercise.

Is the hectic pace getting to you? Have you tried Meditation?

If stress has you anxious, tense and worried, consider trying meditation. Spending even a few minutes in meditation can restore you to a state of balance.  Even a 3-5 minute respite can help re-energize and help get your day back on the right track.

Anyone can participate in meditation. It's simple and cheap. All you need is YOU! You can meditate wherever you are. Even sitting in the middle of a crazy meeting, when you are out on a walk, or waiting in line at the store.

Meditation is considered a type of mind-body-spirit connection. Meditation tries to produce a deep state of relaxation and a tranquil mind. The focus is to take a jumbled brain, a fatigued body and spirit and focus them to aid in rest and rejuvenation. Meditation can give you a sense of calm, peace and balance.  The best part is these benefits don't end when you stop the meditation. When you meditate, it is your body’s way of clearing out all the extraneous clutter.

The emotional benefits of meditation are numerous. Gaining a new perspective on stressful situations allows you to refocus your energies and build self awareness.  It allows us to focus on the present, reduce negative emotions and have a clear thorough process. This can help to alleviate, not only stress from our day, but also depression, fatigue, high blood pressure and sleep issues, to name a few.

There are many forms of meditation that can be short or long, active or passive. Each one has its own technique and can be better suited for different individuals, but all work on helping to give an outlet for stress.

Some of the most common forms of meditation are:

Mantra meditation is the type of meditation where you silently repeat a word that has no emotional effect on you.  Like a color or object. Just keep repeating this word as you exhale; this helps to remove any distracting thoughts.  This can also be done sitting, lying or while taking a walk.

Guided meditation, also called guided imagery or visualization, form a mental picture of something you find relaxing. Try to incorporate as many of your senses as possible, focus on really being in the image.  Often times this is done with an instructor but can be done alone in a restful position or while taking a walk.

Yoga is one of the most popular forms of meditation offered today. By performing a series of postures and controlled breathing exercises you promote a more flexible body and a calm mind. It is guided by an instructor to take you through a series of specific poses that require balance and concentration. This allows you to disengage form you busy life and spend a period of time focusing on the moment.

Tai Chi is a form of gentle Chinese martial arts, which also combines movement with the breathing and mental clearing.  Tai Chi, is a self-paced practice of movement in a slow, graceful manner while practicing deep breathing.

Qi gong moves more into combining movement with the mental activity. This practice combines meditation, relaxation, physical movement and breathing exercises to restore and maintain balance. Qi gong is taught by an instructor and is part of traditional Chinese medicine.

Different types of meditation may include different features to help you meditate. In all of these paths to relaxation it is important to do what is best for you. Don’t stress out because you think you are doing it wrong, that just adds more stress. We are all individuals’ and different forms of meditation will suit each individual differently.  To ensure the most successful meditation make it your own. Focus your attention and limit distractions.  Focuses on your breathing, make it purposeful. Find a quiet setting where your will not be barraged by external stimuli and get into a comfortable position whether sitting, lying or walking (or even running).

April Challenge: Is Your Workout Affecting Your Mind, Body and Spirit?

“No Pain, No Gain”!  This mantra is repeated by individuals of all ages and fitness levels when talking about their workouts. Exercise enthusiasts believe that if they don’t feel pain, they must not be working hard enough.  Similarly, when you finish your work out and feel like a wet noodle all you can think about is “I had a great work out, but I am going to be sore for the next few days”, because you have trained every muscle to exhaustion. Folks who hold to these traditional thoughts on work out results have their heart in the right place, but the exercises they do are not always the right blend of movements. Instead of working out until sore, your workout should be one that benefits the mind, body and spirit.

There is definitely a feeling of accomplishment when you successfully finish an intense work out, and that can give you a mental lift. But does the workout also affect your body and spirit in a positive way?  Generally, an intense workout isolates a muscle to failure, bringing extreme fatigue which can last for days.  Additionally, the movements themselves are unlike any we perform in our normal day to day life. Biomechanically and neurologically, this is not giving the body what it is ideally looking for.  Spiritually, it is a mix; some people thrive on the intensity and get a lift from the accomplishments while others feel beaten down by the stress and may have to miss work outs to recover from the previous one.

The new mantra needs to be “More is not always better, sometimes more is just more”; or “Bigger is not always better, just bigger”; and my favorite “With Pain there is NO Gain”.

Is there a workout beyond the traditional training that stimulates the mind, body and spirit?   YES!  Functional Training.  When you feel pain it is your body’s way of telling you something is wrong.  Functional Training is based on the individual’s functional needs. Instead of going for pain, we can use the pain to direct us to a successful path where we can then improve function.

Functional training focuses not only on melding the mind, body and spirit, but it also works on stimulating the neurological, muscular and skeletal system.  This will simultaneously enhance strength, power, endurance, speed, flexibility, coordination, cardiovascular health, and balance.

So start exercising your body in the way it was designed to move by performing motions that enhance your biomechanics.  This way the body walks away feeling stronger and functioning better, the mind is in tune with the body and the spirit is refreshed.

MARCH Challenge: Make SMART Goals

It is March, time for Challenge Number Three in our 12 Months of Fitness: SMART goals.

People often set lofty, general goals such as “I want to lose weight” or “I want to be in better health”, especially this time of year. By setting goals, you take the opportunity to sort through what is important to you and focus on what matters most. Unfortunately, these goals often fall short because there is no specific plan to make them happen. 

So what is the best way to achieve an objective? Be SMART! Smart goals can be just that, intelligent and clever, but in this case, "SMART” defines the steps to take to be successful:

S – Specific

M – Measurable

A – Attainable

R – Reasonable

T – Timed

This functional little formula was designed by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  He encourages goal-setting to achieve your full potential and help you on stay on target.

Start by creating 2 to 3 SMART goals. Be sure you feel confident that you can achieve them but don’t be afraid to challenge yourself.

Example Using SMART

Goal: Lose 50 pounds in 7 months

·                       Specific:  Lose 1.6 pounds each week till loss of 50 pounds in 7 months

·                       Mesaurable: Weigh in weekly

·                       Attainable: Yes, reasonable weight and can weight in weekly

·                       Reasonable: Two pounds a week might be difficult - more reasonable for a 1.6 lbs per week

·                       Timed: Weekly weight loss with an end goal of 7 months.

Analysis – Losing 50 pounds in 6 months equals a loss of 8.3 pounds per month, or an average of just over 1.93 pounds per week.   A 50 pound weight loss in 7 months equals 7.14 pounds a month, or about 1.6 pounds a week

Off to Challenge #3 go set some SMART goals!

February Challenge- EXERCISE INTENSITY

One month into the New Year and we are ready to take a look at our next challenge: Exercise Intensity.

We can all agree that exercise is beneficial. In fact, any form of energy expenditure provides benefits, and there are piles of scientific evidence to prove it. Understand, however, that not all exercise is created equal.

The American College of Sports Medicine(ACSM) currently recommends 30 minutes of moderate activity at least 5 days per week (a minimum of 150 minutes per week), or 20 minutes of vigorous activity at least 3 days per week. It is important to periodically reassess your our current routine to determine if we are working out at a high enough level of intensity to suit your specific needs and health concerns.  At some point most individuals will reach a point where they need to move on to the moderate to vigorous intensity levels.

To illustrate, let’s compare walking and running.  We know that to lose one pound of fat we must burn 3,500 calories.  Based on this, and the metabolic equations from ACSM – for a 150-pound person to burn one pound of fat, he/she must walk at 4 mph for 8 hours and 45 minutes or 35 miles or run 8 mph for 3 hours and 42 minutes or 29.5 miles. That is only a 5.5 mile difference, but a whopping time savings of 5 hours and 3 minutes. Granted many people can’t jump from walking 4mph to running 8 mph, but we can gradually incorporate intervals to up the exercise intensity.   As an added bonus, research out of Beaumont hospital in Michigan shows that working out at a higher intensity can over time give us a cardio protective benefit-( limit our risk of a heart attack).

So next time you think about just moving why not pick up the intensity you will not only get more benefit out of your time but provide a better bang for your heart health.

Doing anything is always better than doing nothing, but America is experiencing a health epidemic and lack of exercise intensity and duration contributes greatly to this crisis.

JANUARY CHALLENGE!

Start your new year with good health and fitness!  Over the next 12 months I will offer 12 challenges designed to help you make small improvements in your mind, body, and spirit for lifelong health.

The purpose of each challenge is to simply increase your awareness of your healthy, or unhealthy, food choices and exercise habits. Every decision and every movement you make is driven by both conscious and subconscious triggers. How often do think about the “why” behind your decisions of when and what to eat or how you exercise.

Many of us are multi-taskers, juggling our time between work, school, parenthood, and life in general. But what really happens when we juggle all these obligations? We tend to neglect our health, mindlessly eat, skip the workout, or just go through the motions at the gym. It is impossible to care for yourself if you don’t take time to listen to your body.

And that’s your January challenge! LISTEN TO YOUR BODY!

·         Acknowledge your hunger! Know when you are truly hungry and when you are full. Grazing all day when you are not hungry or starving yourself to lose weight will never lead to a healthy relationship with food.

·         Take the power away from food! There are very few truly BAD foods and no PERFECT food. Food can be pleasurable, but it also needs to power the phenomenal engine that is your body. Eat a variety of foods to meet all of your nutritional needs.

·         Respect your body! You were born with a specific genetic code giving you a unique body type. There are always ways to make improvements and changes to it, but respect the one you were blessed with and make it the best it can be.

·         Honor your health! Make choices that honor your overall health. There are many fit people who are not healthy! Make conscious choices in what you eat and do exercises that will help make you feel better. The goal is to feel good and to have the mental and physical ability to do the activities you choose to do. You do not need to be perfect. You will not suddenly be nutrient deficient or gain weight from one snack, one meal, or one day of less than healthy eating. Missing a workout or two will not cause your body to become weak.  It is consistency over time that matters.

Life is a marathon, not a sprint! Good luck with January’s challenge!