Fast Fitness - Which Books to Get for Holiday Shopping Black Friday
Thursday, November 26, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - quick, inexpensive holiday gifts, easy to get, helpful to have. Many readers asked which books to get. Thank you everyone who sent me great notes and success stories how the books made their lives strong, fun, and pain free, and requests for more for friends. Here are descriptions and ways to get books and other fun:
All my books have different information. If you get them all you won't go wrong, or repeat the same stuff.
Limited personally signed copies to you or someone else are possible. I can write something special, with different signing for each person on your list. I can mail them all to you for the same postage, or to different people separately. You can also order straight from retailers instead of me. Links follow below (or click items).
A reader wrote a comment, angry that his e-book did not print, and that it hurt his back "sitting at the computer pasting screenshots into into MSWord" to print his e-book on fixing back pain. He must have thought it was "Reprimand your way to my heart" day. E-books don't print. That is why they are called "E" (electronic) books. The book company lawyers told me his pain was divine punishment for copyright violation. Also for not following book instructions on healthy sitting. I am working on getting new editions of e-Books complied and uploaded (buggy slow software is keeping me at the desk many days overtime). New e-books should be ready for Christmas orders. New editions will soon be available for Kindle and other readers. The e-books already on my web site download directly to your computer. For portable print books, get the print editions.
If you can only get one book:
Top choice for athletes is Healthy Martial Arts. It is a treasury for all athletes. It teaches how to live and move and be healthy during all action of body and mind. For regular exercisers, or those who want to start and just be healthy and have fun, a good choice would be Health & Fitness THIRD edition - How To Be Healthy Happy and Fit For The Rest Of Your Life. It's an all-in-one book with thirty-one fun chapters of fitness, nutrition, health, disease prevention, fixing back and neck pain, joint pain, functional exercise, "green" fitness, emotional health, brain health, stretching, and fun facts about the body. (Or as they say, "if you only read one book this year, you should read more...")
Best Combo:
With either Healthy Martial Arts or Health & Fitness THIRD ed., add Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery.
"Thank-you for your considerable research and explanations regarding neck and low back pain. Have recently checked out the Stretching Smarter... book you wrote to see if it is better than other posture books. It is infinitely better. Want to buy some books with photos next.
For scuba divers and diving medicine people on your list:
Diving Physiology In Plain English - all my career work and research in the field of decompression and diving science and two books summarizing the entire field of Hyperbaric and Diving Medicine.
All books and descriptions - on my web site BOOKS page.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Fast Fitness - Contest: What Does It Take To Sit Upright?
Friday, October 16, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a Contest!
Conventional beliefs about posture include that you must do certain exercises or stretches or strengthening to change your posture. Is that true?
Look at photo 1 and 2 and answer the simple question below:
Photo 1
photo 2
Submit Your Answer:
What muscle strengthening or stretch is required to change from first (unhealthy rounded) to second (upright) sitting?
Name the muscle(s) and action needed - don't just name a muscle, say which way it needs to pull.
Explain why the same people (with the same tightness or weakness) who sit with the lower spine rounded forward (flexion) often stand with the lower back overly curved inward (hyperlordosis) - just the opposite.
Disregard the leg position in the two photos - the question is not how to move the leg, those were just the two photos I could find. Focus on describing how to change yourself to upright sitting without moving the leg (why? if you need to move the leg, then you are too tight for basic health. This question is how to restore that basic).
Use your brain. Partial credit applies. I will post answers, explanations, and winners.
Hint for success:
Sit and try it yourself, don't go only to anatomy books.
Read inspiring success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more (answer to this quiz too) in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Teachers, coaches, parents, babysitters, trainers, and others have asked me for retraining drills to do with their sports teams, exercisers, and regular school classes.
I will start a series of short articles, one topic per article.
Each will have short instructions that work for group training.
Teams can practice them before each training session, or incorporated into their other exercises.
These will be retraining exercises that school teams and athletes can use to reduce sprains, knee pain, back strain, and other common musculoskeletal issues that arise during the team season.
Each topic can be taught in a short lecture, hopefully within 1-5 minutes, then everyone can try the drill.
This new curriculum is part of the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (AFEM)'s Youth Division programming. If your team is changing to healthy ways, you can be a part of this program, which includes certification, awards, teacher training, and other fun - click Academy. There is no charge to participate. This is for health.
Send in your ideas for a name for this program. Trainers, send in your stories of how you use them in your program.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Here is Fast Fitness Friday - quick resource for reforming your health care - the Fitness Fixer Index:
Reader David from Belgium first helped me program the index last July (2008). Since then, I have manually added posts and maintained the index on my site.
Fitness Fixer index is now alphabetized to find specific topics more easily, and expanded with more topics.
Image currently the masthead of Dr. Jolie Bookspan's Fitness Fixer - a work in progress. Send in your funny healthy additions. Stay tuned for improvements.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fast Fitness - Save Money, Fix Pain, Do More Exercise, Get Fit Faster - Strengthen Personal Responsibility
Friday, June 19, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Reduce reliance on gimmicks, medicines, potions, expensive paraphernalia, and repeated treatments for the same problem.
How long does it take to stop slouching, or stop herniating a disc, or stop paying money to eat food that is bad for your health? It takes as long as you want to continue injurious ways.
Reader Paul J wrote:
"A few days after you left for your conference, something in the news caused me to start thinking you should be in the news…….
"In other news today, scientist Dr. Jolie Bookspan is prescribing doses of Personal Responsibility and Activity for various joint pain conditions. Her work along with regular doses of PR & A will result in curing many forms of back pain, knee pain and foot problems. She has also gone so far as to suggest its off-label use may cure non joint ailments as well.
"Since PR & A is neither a pharmaceutical nor a medical device, companies that normally engage in the distribution of free pens have not found the financial benefits of PR & A.
"Many doctors have not seen PR & A in their patients or on pens, and therefore are not familiar with its indications. "
Paul J.
It is up to the person's view of their own body - do they want to stop damaging themselves and do beneficial things, or must they have others change them with constant treatments, sessions, therapies, adjustments, "somatics," (etc). Get free exercise of body and mind by taking personal responsibility for your own slouching. How are you sitting right now? Do you slouch waiting for your pain treatments or back exercise class?
Instead of causing common health problems, then spending time and money on drugs and treatments, stop causes and do good instead. Ongoing treatments are not short cuts, but a long, indirect route.
If you throw trash, it is no mystery when the place is trashy. Stop doing unhealthy things and you feel better.
Click for More:
Faster Improvement in Strength and Health With Personal Responsibility:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Class schedules, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Get Certified, Learn With Fitness Fixer Personally In Colorado USA in July
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
In July, I will be back at the annual conference of the Wilderness Medical Society in Snowmass, Colorado to teach three workshops. Six actually. By demand, I will be giving each one twice to allow more people to learn.
My classes are eligible for certification through the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (renamed from Functional Fitness Medicine) - www.DrBookspan.com/Academy. Certification counts toward Academy Fellow requirements - FAFEM. Fellow status is a distinguished degree.
The Wilderness Medicine conference is open to all who want to learn.
1. Prevent and Fix Injuries Fast moving, jam packed, hands-on workshop. Learn how to recognize, fix, and prevent conditions that cause sprains, bad arches, knee, disc, shoulder, upper back, lower back, SI joint, and mystery back pain. I will teach this workshop twice (one session each): Monday July 27, 2009, 7:40-9:40 am OR Tuesday July 28. 1-3pm.
2. Not The Same Old Stretches - Why Well Known Stretches Aren’t Stopping Injury and What to Do Instead. Come relieve conference aches on the spot. Discover why conventional stretching promotes flexed (aging) postural habits and degenerative forces on joints. Take home effective new and innovative techniques. Same class offered twice: Tues July 28, 2009, 3:20-5:20pm, OR Wednesday July 29, 7:40am-9:40am.
3. Functional Core Training - What's Hot and What's Not No crunches or forward bending that pressures discs and teaches bent over "old" posture. Learn fun, quick techniques to straighten posture, fix lower back pain from hiking and backpacks, and functionally strengthen, from simple moves to the toughest you can get. Bring a backpack (optional backpack training). Same class offered twice: Monday, July 27, 2009. 10am-12pm, OR Wednesday July 29 10am-12pm.
This year, my workshops are free with conference admission. In the past, they were extra charge, payable to WMS, but you did not need to pay for the conference separately.
You don't need to attend the whole conference to take the workshops, although the conference and the people who come to the meetings are fun and interesting. With free admission to my workshops, class size is limited. I will give preference to those seeking certification so that they may learn better. Certification is extra fee. Dedicated students are allowed to take the same workshop twice at no extra fee. Even when there was a class fee, this allowance was always offered. Learning is more important than fees.
Read success stories of people using my methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Mr. Jim Morris won the Mr. Universe title in 1977, was inducted into the Physical Fitness Hall Of Fame with Bill Pearl and Jack Lalanne in 1978, won Mr. Olympia Masters in 1996, and other awards.
He continues bodybuilding at age 73, able and active, encouraging healthful nutrition and exercise practices, and responsible living.
For his ongoing positive teaching, he has been appointed as a Practitioner of the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine. The Academy is the teaching arm of my practice, which works for a smart healthy world.
Mr. America write to us:
"Dr. Bookspan,
"I am so thrilled to be so honored.
"The Academy is the “missing voice” in the litany of exercise noise. The goal of improving daily life should be foremost in our priorities. Just as an athlete perfects a movement we should continually be looking to better those things we do constantly. As always you are at the forefront of thinking and implementing. Congratulations on the new Academy and the best of luck with it. I am honored to be placed in so exalted a position and shall cherish it.
Jim"
Mr. Morris was first featured in Fitness Fixer in:
The Academy has classes, fun activities, cool t-shirts, certification for teaching and health professionals, fellow advancement opportunities for physicians and researchers, and other opportunities. Click the Academy link for more about Functional Exercise - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
---
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Comments, A Medical Conference, New Findings on Discs
Monday, May 25, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
By the time this post comes out, we should be halfway out West to a medical conference. I'm presenting a study, which took years to do, and which found something unexpected.
I am a medical researcher. I find out the things that doctors (with any luck) then learn and put into practice. A research career has all (and more) of the medical schooling, but without the burden of the medical salary. In previous studies, I found that chronically overdoing the inward lower spine curve pinches the lower spine. It forces the spine joints, called facets, backward against each other, eventually wearing them out, and compresses surrounding soft tissue. After long periods of standing, exercise, and lifting with too much inward curve, lower back pain is not a big surprise or mysterious to fix. In the work I am presenting, I found that although it is known that the main factor to injure vertebral discs is too much bending forward, that overarching backward can hurt discs too. This is a new proposed mechanism of disc injury.
There is supposed to be a small inward curve to the lower spine. With the (very) small normal inward curve, spine bones line up on top of each other like stacks of cups so that there is equal pressure on discs from front to back. That is called normal lordosis (inward curve). Chronic bending forward manages to unequally load the discs so that they push out in back. Overarching also unequally loads the area. It seems to pinch already protruded discs, and may even factor in the herniation process. I will be presenting on years of my work that lead to this finding.
I made a diagram showing the disc injury coming from overarching/ hyperlordosis/ hyperextending the spine that is so common in pop fitness. The Healthline blog software is still not loading any new photos of my own. Stock photos or those from other people's sharing sites appear, but I the blogger is not letting us get my own diagrams and student photos to you, for now. I mailed the image to Healthline.com staffer Jerry, who said he could upload it for you. It should appear here, below this paragraph, so you can understand better why hyper-lordosis, although common, and often taught, it not neutral spine and can make unnecessary pain. The damage and pain can be quick to fix when you know how. Click the labels "facets" and "lordosis" for posts explaining this issue.
I have to pay the travel to get to the conference, pay the conference fee, essentially, pay to work. I have to bring a computer and projector to give my own presentation (or pay an AV fee to the conference) but won't have Internet access to see or answer questions. Leave fun comments but hold questions for the next two weeks.
Photo is me, taken on the way on the way to a previous medical conference, out for some barefoot climbing.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply to certify throughDrBookspan.com/Academy.See Dr. Bookspan's Books. ---
Back pain from lifting and carrying babies and young children is common. Rehab and PT programs commonly have people spend time (away from their children and other important things they need to do) to lift weight to strengthen back muscles.
Here is an idea - if weight lifting helps, lift the kids. Just lift them right, so that you do not get the back pain in the first place. It is not the lifting that causes the pain.
Good Kid Lifting:
Prevents pain,
Strengthens your muscles,
Gives built in exercise (functional exercise the way your muscles work),
Increases contact with your young kids, important to their development,
Improves ability to keep time with your children fun, healthy, and happy.
Readers asked me to make reminders for them about how to lift and carry their young children.
I created several different reminders on good lifting, bending, carrying. Fun T-shirts for kids are available in several colors and fabrics. There are bibs, singlets, and shirts for babies, and fun Back and Neck Saver reminders for grownups too.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
On Saturday May 16th 2009, I will be offering an opportunity to learn many techniques in one day, and pursue certification.
I will teach two different workshops. Come learn to fix injuries for yourself and others.
Optional certifications in each course will be available by arrangement. The certifications are authorized by the International Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine:
Fix and Prevent Injuries - Ankles, Arches, Discs, Knee, Back, & Neck 9am-1:30pm and Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier 1:30-4:30pm.
Both workshops are held on the same day, Saturday May 16th, in downtown Philadelphia at Temple University Center City campus, 1515 Market Street, across the street from historic City Hall.
People fly in from all over the world to attend this double workshop in one-day format.
The Academy has been in process of renaming to "Exercise Medicine" instead of the previous "Sports Medicine" for the wider application outside of sports. New developments are listed on the Academy site:
---
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Readers, patients, and students have asked me for years to write down for them about good lifting and bending over babies and children. I wrote articles and books. I did experiments in the lab. They still said they couldn't remember. So I made something for all of you. You can give these to everyone in need for Mothers and Fathers days, coming up, and all year.
Here it is, quicker and easier than reading the books:
If the photo does not appear (blogger is having troubles) click this link.
I designed singlets and one-piece suits for infants, T-shirts for toddlers and children, various sizes and colors.
One student had asked me to write down and hang the information around her neck so she would have an easy way to remember all the time. So I made a bib too - for the baby - so she could see it each time she bent to feed and lift.
I was surprised people wouldn't just remember on their own to live in a way so important to their health. But they kept coming back asking for me to tell them again. I am drawing the various concepts and putting them on daily items as funny reminders. I will show them in future posts if readers are interested.
Click the photo or go to this site for all the educational gifts designed so far - http://www.cafepress.com/AcademyGifts. Send your requests for other ways to have fun health built in to daily memory.
---
Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and send your own. Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. RSS feed currently not working, so click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Health Homework Becomes AntiObesity Chronic Disease Reality Check
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Jeff & Sabrina sent me an e-mail that their 7th grade son was given a school assignment about the "proper amount of calories to have a normal weight" but with junk foods listed in the menus.
They made a video of the events, explaining,
"Could it be that our schools are actually Suspect Number One in fostering obesity and chronic illness?"
This is not a surprise. I have taught at medical schools and attended medical conferences that serve unhealthy foods. I was on a national committee to determine nutrition consensus statements where the box lunches served had cookies, sodas, processed bread, cured meat and cheese sandwiches, "sports bars" which are candy in an expensive wrapper, and gloppy fatty dressing. I have received many letters from doctors and fitness instructors that they can't be expected to eat right, or even exercise enough given their busy schedules. This is not fitness. Fitness is not appearances, or being unhealthy while giving medical advice to others, or taking stimulant drugs to stay awake to work extra jobs to support a spending habit, or doing repetitions of artificial exercises 10 times, then returning to slouching and bad bending to pick up your gym bag. Fitness is how you think, move, act, and help the world be better.
We need some role models. Click the arrow to watch the video.
If the video does not appear on your screen, click their link
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Beside your Fitness Fixer post each day, what else is here for information and fun?
Down the right-hand column of your screen are several categories of links:
First is "Health Expert Updates" where you can subscribe and have each new Fitness Fixer post sent to you free.
Under "Health Expert Updates" is "Recent Posts." Recent Posts lists the ten Fitness Fixer posts before the one you are reading in the main screen. If you are reading an older post, you will not see current posts.
Under "Recent Posts" come the "Archives." Clicking an archive link gives all posts from that month. I have been writing Fitness Fixer since 2006, so there are many months in the archives. Archives may not look interesting, but a month of posts at t time lets you quickly skim for short interesting reads. Try one.
Under the Archives is "Who We Read." Here is where I can share with you sites I personally use:
Bonkers Institute, in the guise of comedy and with a deft hand, exposes serious medical scams. I introduced it in the post Technical Difficulties.
New Scientist generally has a variety of well-done and interesting science articles
Scuba Doc is a massive wealth of scuba medical and technical information, put together by my dear colleague and friend Dr. Ern Campbell, MD, FACS. "Scubadoc's Diving Medicine Online" has an open Scuba Clinic Forum where you can find many diving questions and answers by topic, and interact with other divers and interested people. The Tenfootstop Weblog is a lovely helpful scuba blog. The FAQ is a considerable collection of scuba answers. The "Site Map and Table of Contents" gives a huge list of articles.
TruthOrFiction calls itself "Your Email Reality Check" by checking veracity of "rumors, inspirational stories, virus warnings, hoaxes, scams, humorous tales, pleas for help, urban legends, prayer requests, calls to action, and other forwarded emails."
Any time you want to see the most recent Fitness Fixer post, click the blue underlined "Fitness Fixer" link under the Healthline.com menus, to the left of my name. It is (so far) always just above the title of the top post in the main screen.
---
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right. Find your topics on the Fitness Fixer Index, and seeDr. Jolie's books on her website.
Certification Workshops in Healthy Exercise and Fixing Injuries
Monday, March 02, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
I will be running three Spring workshops. Come learn to fix injuries, and to identify and teach healthy therapeutic exercise. One of several top features of the workshops is that medical and health professionals learn together with those who attend to fix their own pain and injuries.
These workshops have certification option through the International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine (IAF Sports Medicine). Certification counts directly toward fellowship advancement with IAF.
March
Medical Breakthroughs in Neck and Back Pain
This is an intensive class divided over 3 weeks, March 21, 28, April. 4, 2009. 9 am-11:30 am each week.
Held at Temple University Center City, in downtown Philadelphia.
Both workshops are held on the same day at Temple University Ft. Washington campus, Fort Washington, PA.
Fix Pain 10am-1:30pm and "Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier" 1:30-4:30pm.
This Ft. Washington campus is a suburban location an hour north of Philadelphia, with free parking. People come in from all over the world to attend this double workshop in one-day format. Note - not easy access by public transportation. See May workshop, next, in downtown Philadelphia.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. Before asking more if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
The target Feb 17th date for changing to digital television signal in the U.S. has moved to June. Numerous informational broadcasts have been made to prepare the public. Would you have been ready?
--- Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
First Winner - International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine Logo Design
Monday, February 16, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
In January 2008, we announced the Logo Design Contest for the International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine. We are honored to announce the first winner, Alessandro Schiavone, Creative Director from Ravenna, Italy.
Sig. Schiavone's design will grace our awards division. His logo will appear on International awards each year to top people.
The International Academy gives annual awards to thank, recognize, and support those who help the world. Awards are conferred for those deserving special recognition for work, humanitarianism, teaching, developing programs, writing, and so on. It has been pointed out that awards each year will be called the Academy Awards :-)
Grazie Sig. Schiavone! Many good things behind the scenes are coming from this.
Other Academy logos still need to be designed, including Certifications, Fellow Advancement, and the main logo for the Academy itself. Contact us and send your designs and ideas to be included in this exciting and far-reaching project. See the Academy website for information.
---
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right. Read Fitness Fixer success stories send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
"Hi Dr. Bookspan: I would love it (as I'm sure countless others would) if you would produce and make available workout DVD's for healthy and safe weight lifting, cardio and yoga workouts. Since reading your material I've been dismayed at how many fitness DVD's are in my library that have potentially injurious exercises. Just a suggestion, and thank you for your time Sincerely, Sandra Kimble"
Hello Sandra, thank you for your nice idea. Be part of it. Using my methods, make a short mpeg video - 30 seconds is fine, showing how to change one injurious move to normal healthful movement, and how your use it for functional movement in real life.
Readers, come be a part.
I will post it as a success story on Fitness Fixer, my educational site that is available to all at no charge. My site is a large "wiki" DVD. It is available to the many in the world who cannot pay for DVDs. It is more than just a collection of random exercise videos, but explains the real science, with links to related articles, and how it is not just exercise but real function and better life.
Instead of getting a longwinded DVD of just old me, and having to pay, you get all the real-life successes - the real people who learned, were inspired, and made their lives better. You have no production or hosting costs, entry fees, and get your DVD without having to pay. I will do the work to put it all together and give you the credit.
It is fun for you, and a benefit to the world.
Check my Fitness Fixer for other movies so far - here is the link for all posts with movies: video/movie.
---
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, and archives at right.
Last month, President-elect Barack Obama named four scientists to lead his science and technology team. I listened to his December 20, 2008 radio address. I heard words I waited all my life to hear.
When I was a small child, when people asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I told them, "A scientist!" I always knew.
I wanted to know how things worked and didn't work, and most importantly, why? Three men fall in freezing water. One dies. One is fine and warm and swims to safety. The third, shivering and miserable. Why? How? As a military scientist, my work was to find why standard operations and techniques didn't work. How to change them to make them effective, safe, sleek, powerful, good, and replace the wrong. Thankless work, what a surprise. I found why specific widespread medical practices weren't working, and what worked better. People using the changes began being able to do things previously hampered by injury and poor training methods.
When medicine and science aren't healthy, we find healthy ways, and do them instead. That is the best meaning of the word "health care," because it is finally healthy, and because we care how it affects people's lives. It is not health care if it is not healthy.
It is not a crusade, just doing what is simple and right, something anyone can know and do - not to sell products, hype, surgeries that you don't need, medicines or exercises that fix one thing and hurt six others, for profits and glory. Support what is true, not what you wish is true, or to repeat what "everyone" says, blind dogma, right or not.
At his December radio address, President-elect Obama said,
“The truth is that promoting science isn’t just about providing resources—it’s about protecting free and open inquiry. It’s about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology. It’s about listening to what our scientists have to say, even when it’s inconvenient—especially when it’s inconvenient. Because the highest purpose of science is the search for knowledge, truth and a greater understanding of the world around us."
We are currently in Thailand. From abroad, we will be watching the inauguration. We are looking forward to returning to a healthier country.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
The International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine was formed to provide:
Evidence-based education in functional physical medicine, training, sports medicine including diving medicine, and rehabilitation,
Internationally attended sports medicine congresses,
Certifications for physicians, allied health, physical therapists, fitness instructors, massage professionals, and the public,
Fellow advancement opportunities for physicians and researchers.
We are non-sectarian and dedicated to peace and health of all. We accept no advertising from unhealthful "health and sports" products. Part of course tuitions go to medical research, charity, and elderly help.
We are holding a contest to design the Academy logo. Winning logo will be seen internationally with credit to the designer. Logo designs should be simple, incorporate the concepts of brains and functional strength. Other concepts and ideas welcome.
If you are interested to help through your logo design submission, or other good ideas and talents, or be part of this organization, let me know. Be prepared to have fun and use your brain. To see how, the new Academy web site is www.DrBookspan.com/Academy.
---
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from selected ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links,labels under posts, and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer - Click "updates via e-mail" (trumpet icon) upper right.
New International Academy Using Jolie Bookspan's Methods
Tuesday, November 04, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Physical therapist George Nakhlé from Lebanon runs sports medicine and physical therapy training seminars using my research and methods. He will be joining the efforts of the new International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine where students can earn certification in several methods.
Mr. Nakhlé wrote me:
"I live in Lebanon and I have ordered many of your books. I am sure that your ideas are the true ones.
"I told the Order of Physiotherapists in Lebanon about you and I gave them your biography. They were VEDDY VEDDY happy to have you teaching us your lovely methods.
"The (first) seminar was titled "Muscular Functions and Training" for 15 hrs and focused on the training of the major muscles... Before one week of the seminar, I studied and even memorized "Health and Fitness 3rd edition" and I was able to explain and answer almost all of the questions even though the participants were well educated.
"There was a 4th-year physical therapy student between the participants and he was amazed about the information given. All others were also amazed from the information especially those about metabolism .. "Health and Fitness 3rd edition" was my strongest weapon in this seminar which took place in Beirut on 13-14 Sep 2008."
Photos are still not loading. Please check back soon to see Mr. Nakhlé and classes.
In the photo (coming soon, we hope), Mr. Nakhlé demonstrates a "forward head" (and so does the model) so you can recognize it. The forward head is an often-missed cause of upper back, shoulder, and neck pain, sometimes called upper crossed syndrome. It is not a medical problem, but a bad posture that is easy to fix without drugs, surgery, or treatments. Start by clicking this link and click the links in that post for more. His seminar students will be pictured below (soon).
Mr. Nakhlé continues:
"I always read the Fitness Fixer index. I have managed a seminar for fitness trainers from 3 weeks, I relied mainly on your books. I gave the trainers a certificate of attendance signed from me but their are many others who prefer a foreign certificate. Can we do something like that in the future?"
Since then, Mr. Nakhle has joined the International Academy of Functional Sports Medicine (IAF Sports Medicine). Planning has begin to run World Congresses with internationally attended sports medicine seminars, and certifications in several training and rehabilitation methods for medical personnel, allied health, physical therapists, fitness instructors, and the public. I have taught these classes for many years. Now there are opportunities for certification. A Fellow program is available to physicians and researchers.
The organization is not for profit or personal gain. It is non-sectarian and dedicated to peace and health of all. I will be donating time and resources for classes and help to elderly and children of the world.
If you are interested to help through your good ideas and talents, or be part of this organization, let us know. I hope to post more about the Academy and certifications as we develop it.
They are recruiting experimental subjects who have experienced immersion pulmonary edema to participate in studies to investigate causes of this condition. The studies concentrate on effects of cold-water facial and body immersion on pulmonary arterial pressure and pulmonary arterial wedge pressure. It will also analyze subjects' DNA to see if people who have experienced immersion pulmonary edema (IPE) may have a genetic predisposition.
DNA Analysis Study Subjects over 18 years old who have experienced immersion pulmonary edema are needed to donate a small amount of blood for this DNA analysis. This will involve one blood draw and a review of past medical records. Subjects will be paid $50 for participation in this part of the study.
Immersion and Exercise Study A small group of subjects will be studied more extensively to investigate the effect of cold water immersion on pulmonary arterial and pulmonary arterial wedge pressures. Subjects will exercise underwater on a cycle ergometer (bicycle) modified for use in a pool inside a hyperbaric chamber. Subjects will be monitored with arterial and pulmonary artery catheters.
Subjects must come to the laboratory about 3 hours before the immersion and exercise study for a physical exam, an exercise test, orientation, and scheduling for the experimental day. The experimental day (about 8 hours) takes place at least three days later.
Subjects involved in the immersion and exercise part of the study will be paid up to $350 for participation.
Subjects undergoing immersion and exercise must be 18-40 years of age, physically fit (regularly exercise at least twice a week), and have no physical impairment that would prevent them from participation.
Immersion Pulmonary Edema Immersion pulmonary edema is a sudden accumulation of excessive fluid in the lung air spaces during swimming or diving. It is characterized by cough, shortness of breath, decreased blood oxygen levels, and coughing up blood. This condition has caused death. Its cause is unknown, but it can occur in swimmers and divers who are usually young and healthy, including military recruits. It may occur in swimmers or divers who have experienced similar conditions before without any problems.
To Participate Contact: For more information, please contact Dionne Peacher at IPEdivestudy@notes.duke.edu or 919-668-0001.
--- I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - learn a long-known, little talked-about world crisis encompassing health, politics, economics, pollution, and human rights. See the movie Flow to quickly learn several global practices that improve your health to know:
Water is the third largest global corporate-profit industry after electricity and oil, leaving surprising pollution, disease, graft, and social destabilization in its wake. Corporations seize local waters for resale, leaving the world's poorest without access to unpolluted water to drink and bathe, and frequently without any water at all. Over 1 billion people do not have safe drinking water, resulting in millions of sicknesses and deaths per year, including several millions of children and infants. Even Westerners are affected. Possibly 116,000 human-made chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and hormones are already identified in public water supply, consumed in the West through drinking and through the skin in washing. Known health effects range from stomach illnesses frequently mistaken for "flu," food-poisoning, or bowel problems, and breathing difficulties.
Be aware that you can turn on a tap and get water. An average American uses 150 gallons of water per day. Billions in developing countries walk miles and still cannot get more than five gallons. Staggering numbers of people around the world have total income averaging $2 (two American dollars) a day, and are being charged to travel distances and lift and carry water that was once available to them without charge.
When you buy expensive bottled water know that it is frequently ordinary tap water resold in deception, various pretentious "fitness waters" are not as healthful as eating ordinary fruit, and the bottling results in avoidable large scale pollution.
By the time this post comes out, we hope to be making our way across Colorado. We are on our way to teach Fun Workshops in Colorado in July.
I won't have e-mail access to get or reply to comments for the next two weeks. Enjoy the posts that will come over the next weeks, and click the links in the posts for more. With close to 400 Fitness Fixer posts already on-line, your questions may already be here in the posts and the many comments. At any time I may be writing replies to comments that regularly come in on any of the posts.
David from Belgium is a talented computer programmer who donated his time to fix my new Fitness Fixer Index. Keep your browser window wide for best results, and check back often for updates.
Paul and I will be backpacking until reaching the conference in Snowmass Colorado. A reader asked (for some reason) if I use rolling luggage. Gee, no. I wear a backpack I got at a garage sale for $15. Sometimes Paul and I share one pack, since beyond a spare t-shirt and jeans and one shared comb, there isn't much more we need, and food takes up most of the bag space and weight. We don't carry a tent and I don't usually use a ground cloth. I am happy enough sleeping on the ground. Paul is so tall that one pair of size 17 sneakers and 38" inseam jeans take up most of the pack. The rest of the time, Paul carries what we call the neutron knapsack. In his giant hands, he rolls and compresses a pair of jeans and some t-shirts into molecule size to fit in a regular small pack. We have to supply our own computer and projector to teach at the conference (or pay rental fee) so pack them in ourselves. The heavy pack may have conference equipment and books to teach the courses, plus a t-shirt for the 2 weeks :-)
Some ideas on making simple personal care items like toothpaste, hair care, and sunblock for travel:
For the next 2 weeks we will be away attending the annual meeting of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). The post Exercise and Medicine Underwater and at High Pressure tells about the UHMS, the fun people, and the meeting. My friends and colleagues who attend are scientists and flight surgeons, SEAL team captains and commercial divers, submarine and aircraft personnel from navies of many countries. As we like to say, the rest have paying jobs.
I won't have computer access to see comments. Healthline will be changing format for answering reader comments and requests. Before you write with questions, check the hundreds of Fitness Fixer posts already here and all the replies already given to comments. If you still want more, click this post which gives a list of labels. Clicking a label will give all posts on that topic.
I will be posting as always, even on the road. Posts to come while I am away will cover swimming and other topics. Here are posts that cover some of the subjects we study at the meeting:
I am a career researcher in human performance in extremes of environment. That means extremes of heat, cold, altitude, exercise, injury, submersion, crimes (forensics) breathing different gases at different pressures (hyperbarics, see above), different g-forces, sometimes all at once. Many years of my work was spent on immersion physiology. If you are interested in scuba, diving medicine, clinical hyperbarics, wound healing in a hyperbaric environment, check my books page and scroll down toward the bottom for three books on these topics.
Mr. Jim Morris is the 1973 AAU Mr. America and 1996 Mr. Olympia Masters Over 60. He is now 72. Mr. Morris is a vegan bodybuilder who reminds people that body building involves selflessly looking outward to do good, rather than focusing only on appearance and commercialism. He urges real nutrition through healthy food, rather than artificial chemically produced supplements, and healthy movement rather than harming yourself to gain physical looks or heavier lifts.
Mr. Morris looked over my Ab Revolution book, and wrote to me that he wanted to order several copies for his clients. He wrote, "You are the first person I know of to finally get it right."
Later, after reading Health and Fitness in Plain English Third edition, he wrote, "I have a copy of "Health and Fitness in Plain English" I just received and every page I open to, I say, 'I wish I said that,' and then add, 'I have been saying it for years.' Glad someone finally put it all into print and in one volume. Thanks, Jim Morris."
In July, I will teach three workshops at the annual conference of the Wilderness Medical Society in Snowmass, Colorado. The conference is open to all who want to learn.
Prevent and Fix Injuries Fast moving, jam packed, hands-on workshop to prevent and rehab sprains, bad arches, knee, disc, shoulder, upper back, lower back, SI joint, and mystery back pain. Same class offered twice (one session each): Sunday July 27, 2008, 3-5pm or Tuesday July 29 3-5pm.
Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier: Why Well Known Stretches Aren’t Stopping Injury and What to Do Instead. Come relieve conference aches on the spot, and take home effective techniques. Same class offered twice: Sunday July 27 2008 1-3pm, and Tues July 29th 1-3pm.
Functional Core Training for the Outback No crunches or forward bending that pressures discs. Learn fun, quick techniques to straighten posture, fix lower back pain from hiking and backpacks, and functionally strengthen, from simple moves to the toughest you can get. Bring a backpack (optional backpack training). Same class offered twice: Saturday July 26 2008 10am-12pm, and Monday July 28 10am-12pm.
You don't need to attend the whole conference to take the workshops, although the conference and the people who run the WMS and come to the meetings are fun and interesting.
Articles intended for yesterday and today could not be posted. Blogger is having technical difficulties. No photos or graphics are uploading to Fitness Fixer. The scheduled posts that describe healthy use of kettlebell weights would not be as fun or understandable without seeing the photos. They will come, hopefully soon. Until then, try this remarkable site www.bonkersinstitute.org.
Bonkers Institute was sent to me by reader Dr. Ern Campbell, a good man, who runs the immense resource of the Scubadoc diving medicine site and forum, scuba-doc.com. I am one of the site's diving medicine advisors.
The Bonkers Institute site, on the surface, seems to be funny stories. Look closely to realize how they intelligently expose critical topics. From their "about" page, they explain that they bring to light "shameless disease mongering and unprecedented pharmaceutical profiteering."
"...Our mission is to expose fraudulent medical pseudoscience wherever it is found… We march into the field of battle armed with a powerful weapon: our sense of humor. Fighting pseudoscience with pseudoscience…"
Dr. Auerbach of the Wilderness Medicine blog wrote an important post for the many requests we get for personalized medical replies. Internet articles are not intended as a substitute for care from your own providers. We don't diagnose, treat, make medical claims, persuade or dissuade anyone about seeking medical attention. Dr. Auerbach's post was so well said, I echo it here for readers of Fitness Fixer: A fair number of comments from readers of this blog come in the form of clinical questions, in which someone asks for a response to a personal medical question. While I would like to be able to answer most of these, it is difficult to do that without more complete information, and in the absence of being able to examine the patient(s).
When a question or comment raises an issue or point of interest that is important for everyone, then I will try to address the topic in a separate post, rather than as an isolated answer to a question. In this way, more people can benefit.
Thanks for being a reader, and for your understanding.
Healthline has been nominated for Best Health Website for 2008. The "Webby" Awards are called the "Oscars of the Internet." Readers decide winners through on-line voting. Voting is only open until the end of April. Healthline has asked us (the Health Expert columnists) to mention it. Here is what and how:
To win the People's Voice Webby, cast your vote for your favorite health site (hopefully Healthline):
Once logged in as a registered member, choose Healthline from the drop down menu "Select a nominee" at the top right hand side of the page.
Voting is only open until the end of April. Vote now while you are thinking about it.
Webby Award winners will be announced May 6, 2008, and honored at The 12th Annual Webby Awards in New York City on June 10th.
According to Wikipedia, the Webbys are famous for limiting recipients to five word speeches. In 2006 Cute Overload said, "Not bad for posting kittens" and TripAdvisor said, "Because some hotels really suck." At the 2007 awards, David Bowie's speech was, "I only get five words?
What should be ours?
The Webby Award nomination and voting is for all of Healthline, not just the Fitness Fixer. Vote: People's Voice Webby Awards
Non-Plastic Non-Aluminum Sports and Fitness Food Carriers
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Readers were excited by the post Green Water which tells some of why the fitness craze of bottled water isn't healthy or necessary. You don't need that much water, and the containers are unhealthy in themselves in many ways. My student Lily found a site for us - KleanKanteen.com with stainless steel containers. This is an alternative to aluminum containers.
See what you can do to reduce litter and unhealthful packaging. It's cleaner for your spirit and the world. For travel, lunch, healthy things to eat after work and exercise, I pack everyone food wrapped in grape and banana leaves, and make edible little transportation boxes easily out of large leafy greens, sealed with a toothpick or just folded.
See Lily demonstrate healthier hip positioning for lunges and anterior hip stretch in the post Lunges and Beans, and see her quick healthy good tasting recipe for beans.
The long-awaited new third edition is now available of the sold out book Health & Fitness in Plain English - How to Be Healthy, Happy, and Fit For The Rest Of Your Life. I have been working on it for years.
The third edition has important changes and additions. The new third edition has a front cover photo of three people playing at the beach. Includes:
Exercise - Abs, stretching, weights, improving balance, functional lifestyle exercise, healthy body mechanics, how to get started, exercising with your children and family, what works & doesn't for healthier brain, spirit, and body.
Health - Heart, cholesterol, diabetes, digestion, osteoporosis, body fat tests, weight loss, mental and emotional health.
Nutrition - Vitamins, health foods, diets, supplements, drugs, healthy eating, performance enhancing food and products both good and bad, getting started changing nutrition habits to healthy ones.
Reduce Pain & Injury - Full chapters on back and neck pain, leg cramps, and headaches. Shorter sections on knee pain, shoulder, and ankle sprains.
Fun Facts and an A-Z GLOSSARY
If you recently got an earlier edition, see if you can return it for the new third edition. The third edition is the book to get if you want to learn healthier ways to exercise your body and spirit, learn functional movement, have better health of your heart, bones, and other systems, and fix neck or back pain. Functional movement is how your muscles really work during actual movement, instead of doing artificial repetitions of isolated movement using equipment.
Next Workshops on Healthier Stretching and Fixing Neck and Back Pain
Thursday, March 06, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
I will hold 2 different fun, fast moving workshops this March and April.
"Fix Your Own Back Pain - Medical Breakthroughs in Non-Surgical Treatment" will be given at two locations, one in downtown (center city) Philadelphia, and one in a northern suburb.
Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier will be given at the suburban location along with the fix pain workshop.
Both workshops are a combination of fun and fast-moving audiovisual lecture and non-strenuous physical practice.
The "Fix Your Own Back Pain" workshop in Center City Philadelphia is one class divided over two sessions. It will be held at Temple Center City Campus on two Saturdays, March 29 and April 5, 2008, 9 am-11:30 am.
Saturday April 12, 2008, I will run both workshops in one jam-packed Saturday at the Ambler/Ft.Washington Pennsylvania campus of Temple University. You can learn how to fix your pain from 9 am-2 pm, then continue on with the stretching workshop from 2:30-4:30 pm, the same day. For this big one day double workshop, we already have two people registered from India, two from England, and more from California, Massachusetts, and several of the United States.
In the Fix Pain workshop, I show how to stop the causes of the pain, not just do a bunch of exercises or treatments for symptoms. We practice how to fix the source of neck pain, upper and lower back pain, certain hip pain, disc herniation or bulging, impingement, sciatica, SI joint pain, and more. The workshops are suitable for the out-of-shape as well as the athlete. Wear comfortable ordinary clothing. If you have to change your clothes to fix pain, how are you supposed to have an ongoing normal life without pain?
We have been traveling for the past 2 months in Asia and are on the way to the chilly Smokey Mountains of Tennessee USA to teach medical students for a week during their rotation elective in Wilderness Medicine. This is the third year I will teach there.
I will teach the entire curriculum of diving medicine and physiology, plus a workshop on why commonly prescribed stretches are not healthful, and what to do instead. Several members of the Knox County Sheriff's Office from Knoxville TN have requested to attend my lectures, and several readers made the effort to find the class information on my web site and make arrangements to travel to the camp to attend.
As a physiologist, I design the techniques that physicians use. I spent many years as a military and university researcher in environmental physiology, which is how the body functions in the heat and cold, at altitude and underwater, breathing different mixtures of gases, doing different forms and intensities of exercise. It's important to understand why things work. If you don't understand, then you can't think for yourself, and all you can do is repeat the mistakes of the generation before you, who also were just repeating what they learned in a book from teachers who just were repeating what they had heard.
This problem occurs with some of the exercises and stretches given as physical therapy. An introduction to the problem is in the post What Does Stretching Do? In the past two years teaching at the camp, we encountered young students who were not interested to change bad stretches, and made a point of showing me after my lectures that they will keep doing their rounded bent forward toe touches, since "everyone knows" that is how it is done. However, Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch.
The problem can occur with medical treatments that are in the books, even though wrong. In my diving physiology lectures, I try to show that if you understand the physiology, you will know why certain treatments do not work or are not needed. Immersion in water, for example, creates many interesting effects such as distributing blood volume more out of the limbs to the body. This is similar to the effect that occurs in space, described in Collapsing Astronaut Gives Healthy Reminder. Recently, during our travels, Paul wound up in the hospital with a swollen leg. The doctor who was Chief of Medicine of the hospital, announced that the treatment was bed rest. Paul was told he must lie flat in bed for at least three to fours days with the leg elevated to drain the fluid. We understand that bed rest is often listed in books as a treatment for this, but it is wrong. I asked the doctor if going in the water could help. The doctor said that standing in the water meant the leg would be "hanging down" and the leg needed to be elevated to drain. If you understand immersion, then you know why immersion can more effectively treat limb edema and water retention than medicines and lying in bed. Extended bed rest is unhealthy, and reduces muscle and bone health so much that it is used to study the damage to the body from floating around during space travel. We escaped the medical care and went into the water. I will post more on immersion, edema, and health soon.
I will not have Internet access for the next week to read or reply to comments. Enjoy the posts. Start taking and sending in fun photos of your successes using all the fun techniques.
The International Academy Of Functional Sports Medicine was formed to provide:
Evidence-based education in functional physical medicine, training, sports medicine including diving medicine, and rehabilitation,
Internationally attended sports medicine congresses,
Certifications for physicians, allied health, physical therapists, fitness instructors, massage professionals, and the public,
Fellow advancement opportunities for physicians and researchers.
We are non-sectarian and dedicated to peace and health of all. We accept no advertising from unhealthful "health and sports" products. Part of course tuitions go to medical research, charity, and elderly help.
We are holding a contest to design the Academy logo. Winning logo will be seen internationally with credit to the designer. Logo designs should be simple, incorporate the concepts of brains and functional strength. Other concepts and ideas welcome.
If you are interested to help through your logo design submission, or other good ideas and talents, or be part of this organization, let me know. Be prepared to have fun and use your brain. To see how, the new Academy web site is www.DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Fitness Fixer is one of many medical weblogs (blogs). Each year a competition collects nominations, then opens to voting for awards.
The Fitness Fixer was nominated for three categories by readers and accepted as finalist by the competition sponsors for two:
Best Medical Blog
Best Clinical Sciences Blog
The semi-finalists were announced earlier this week. Fitness Fixer is not in the voting. Readers, thank you for making life happy and fit. You are already my award.
For all the things you look forward to doing in the New Year, here are the links for all Fitness Fixer posts so far.
The system does not yet keep a sidebar or other list of all post labels, so I made one for you as a holiday gift. You can bookmark or permalink this post to use in the future. Let me know links that need fixing, and missed labels. Any posts I add with these labels should automatically become included.
Look for labels with your New Year wishes. Click the label and all posts with that label will come up at once. Print and take with you
There will be new posts on new topics too, with new labels. A great New Year.
Thank you for the many e-mails. I am sorting through the piles. Readers are sending success stories, long and short, of improving their lives and fixing injuries and the moves that produced them. They changed their mindset so that exercise is not something you change clothes and go "do" - if you can make time - but all the ways you sit, bend, reach, lift, and move all day in real life, using muscles to hold the positioning that prevents body aches and joint wear and tear, and comfortable easy movement. They are now getting fresh air, sunshine, balance, and real exercise going to work or grocery shopping on a real bike or walking on real ground, instead of driving then rushing home or to the gym to "do" exercise, illogically spending money on an artificial machine, exercise cycle, or treadmill. Instead of thinking they have to lose weight first to try things, they are using daily movement to be able to exercise for the first time without injury. They are saving money and health, eating real food instead of processed unhealthful "sports food."
Yoga instructor David from Belgium first asked about fixing knee pain and fallen arches in the comments of the post Thank You Grand Rounds 3.51. Since then, he quickly applied the posts I recommended and fixed his pain, no longer needed shoe orthotics, sent photos of new progress, asked about other injuries from yoga, changed how he teaches yoga, given his students my techniques, started making short mpeg movies for us (see the first here), and is translating my work into Dutch for his web site and students. I look forward to more collaboration. Watch for wonderful posts to come.
There have been a small number of e-mails from readers applying techniques in ways so "unclear on the concept," that some posts may turn out to be Readers Inspiring Stories of What Not To Do. All for the greater good, learning, and health.
If I can't get to everything in the comments I will make posts for you, don't worry. I read and want to get to them all. The top number of requests for posts, so far, are how to stop shoulder injury from swimming, baseball and weight lifting; low back pain from swimming, baseball, and golf; separating truth from advertising in orthotics and shoe inserts; more healthy sports food; rowing; sports drugs; hamstring injuries (often from the usual bad stretches); plantar fasciitis; knee pain from rowing, yoga, and walking; wrist pain from pushups and handstands; healthy sitting; and many requests for martial arts and self defense for body and mind. If you have other requests, let me know. Until I post each specifically, start with:
Shoulder - use for all overhead reaching and lifting
Lower back - learn the concept and apply to all sports
Fitness has become unhealthy. Healthful natural, comfortable body movement has become foreign as more people think that exercise means artificial sets of repetitions on a machine or using equipment. How are you sitting right now reading this? Pull chin comfortably in, instead of jutting forward or down. Stand up, breathe a grateful breath, and walk away from the computer for a few minutes contemplating a new, healthy fun life of natural movement. Print out a post of something that will make your own situation happier. Lie face down on a comfortable surface, propped slightly on elbows to read it. If you can't lie comfortably that way, that signals tightness that makes daily movement unhealthy and uncomfortable. I will post about that too.
This week is the 20th annual Eastern USA International Black Belt Hall of Fame event. Hundreds of martial artists and instructors will attend from all over the world. Soke John Kanzler and Kim Harper work all year to prepare each event. In the best spirit of the martial arts, they make a welcoming and healthful atmosphere of friendly learning. My husband Paul and I were honored to be inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame several years ago and have had the privilege to attend each year as teachers.
Seminar teachers come from all over the world. In the past there have been fearsome Russian techniques and calm Chinese ones. This year a grandmaster from Iceland will present on the national martial art of Iceland - Glima. The post Black Belt Hall of Fame - Black Belts and Black Tie tells about some of the seminars and events. The post International Martial Arts Association Weekend tells more about the Hall of Fame and their work.
Paul and I will be teaching The Ab Revolution core training, an entirely different concept in use of core muscles from conventional ab exercises. It uses no forward bending, which reinforces bad posture and is hard on the spine, and instead retrains all body movement using the abdominal muscles the way they actually function during movement in daily life and exercise.
A friend of ours will teach a seminar of a martial art that he developed. Sean Martin has developed a style he named Kagedo-Essensu, (Shadow Essence). Kagedo is a surprisingly effective new technique that does not require specific poses and positioning to master. I am a 4th degree black belt and spent years trying to understand some of the martial arts that claim to be "the weak over the strong," but when I try them I find they only work well if you are strong, or have no injuries, or learn painstakingly exact techniques. Master Martin has synthesized a highly workable system that, so far, anyone can apply quickly. For information about learning this effective technique, contact him at EPallack@gmail.com.
--- Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
On Oct 20 and 27th 2007, Temple University Center City (TUCC) Campus in downtown Philadelphia will hold a fun, fast moving workshop, "Fix Your Own Back Pain - Medical Breakthroughs in Non-Surgical Treatment."
The class is a combination of fun and fast-moving audiovisual lecture and non-strenuous physical practice.
You will learn how to fix and prevent the causes of neck pain, back pain, sciatica, herniated and degenerating discs, stenosis, lordosis, facet pain and other problems right in class. You will learn how to not get stiff and sore in the first place:
The class will be held over two Saturdays Oct 20 and 27, 2007, each class 9am-11:30am. This is one 5 hour class divided over two sessions. Plan to attend both days.
Information about this class and others is on my web site page for CLASSES along with links to free readings. To register e-mail Kevin Wood Director, or call (215) 204-6565. The class is suitable for the out-of-shape as well as the athlete.
Beginning next Friday, I hope to post a fun technique each Friday that you can read quickly and use right away in a busy healthy lifestyle. Regular full posts continue the rest of the week.
For the next two weeks, I'll have uncertain access to Internet, mail, or messages, to read or answer comments. I stored some fun posts for you. New Healthline staffer Leigh is scheduled to put them online while we make our way 'out West' during the week before the meeting. Thank you Leigh.
With each trip out to this part of the US, we work to document and preserve various martial arts systems of Native American Indians, as much as they want us to have. Will also make our way through the Rocky Mountains.
For going off-trail, we don't carry a tent or sleeping bag, let alone a computer. Simpler. There are still things to carry. The post Healthier Backpack Carrying to Get Better Exercise and Stop Back Pain explained the role of using abdominal muscles to prevent one kind of back pain from carrying backpacks. It is not by tightening the ab muscles, but using them to position the lower spine forward enough to reduce an overly large lower back arch, and stand with neutral spine. Strengthening exercises, whether for abdominal or back muscles do not make the spine attain neutral position in place of overarching. That is why strengthening core muscles does not stop this kind of pain. You get better and more functional core exercise by preventing overarching when carrying loads than by doing crunches or exercises for any specific back muscles. When you hold neutral spine, a small inward curve remains, just not the large one with the "backside-stuck-out-in-back" tilt that damages the lower back.
The post Throw a Stronger Punch (or Push a Car or Stroller) Using This Back Pain Reduction Technique gives a quick effective way to feel how to move your hip and lower spine using your abs away from arching to neutral. This Friday's post should cover preventing upper back and neck pain when carrying backpacks. In pretty much any terrain, we don't wear hiking boots or fancy cross-training shoes. I wear roomy, cheap (ten or fifteen dollar range), discount store sneakers (usually in tatters). A shoe should not be what holds your foot in position - it is better when your own ankle, leg, and foot muscles do that. For me, shoes are more to avoid hookworm, other parasites, tetanus, and bites. The posts Arch Support Is Not From Shoes and Which Shoes Help Exercise, Fall Prevention, and Ankles? show how to hold healthy foot and arch position, and give ideas for better gait and balance. In technical climbs, tight shoes are often worn. I'm not much of a climber, but decline tight climbing shoes for bare feet, and enjoy feeling the rocks. For daily wear, tight shoes are not healthful: See, Are Your Shoes Too Tight? My near-seven-foot-tall husband Paul does the same, in his size 17 sneakers or flip-flops (approx size 52+ European).
We don't bring "sports food," commercial hydration drinks, or energy bars and drinks. Refined sugar is not health food. Unfermented soy in many of these products is increasingly documented to promote unhealthy over-estrogenic effects for both men and women. The post Is Your Health Food Unhealthful tells hidden dangers to avoid. The posts Healthy Mother's Day and Independence Day for Fitness give a few quick, good-tasting, healthy foods and drinks to try instead. If you don't have a blender, mash ingredients by hand for arm exercise. Dehydration is important to prevent, and can be done with healthy food and drink.
We hope to arrive in Snowmass by Saturday for the toxicology symposium before the meeting. Then interesting lectures, my two workshops (come take them) and other workshops. The WMS will present the first Fellows of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine. I have been advanced to Fellow, along with Wilderness expert and Medicine for the Outdoors blogger Paul Auerbach, and others in the field. Dr. Auerbach could have easily been "grandfathered" to Fellow status for his stack of achievements, but he went through the exacting point system along with the rest of us. You set the bar high Boss, wow, thank you.
I will try to get to the conference Internet café during the meeting. For the week after, will again be outback without access. If you comment or e-mail, I may not have access to reply. Check existing replies to posts for answers already there. Look for fun posts until then. Hope to see you at the meeting.
"Utility is when you have one telephone; luxury is when you have two, and paradise is when you have none."
Get Fit in Colorado at the Wilderness Medical Society Meeting
Friday, June 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Check your calendar for a healthy trip to Colorado. The Wilderness Medicine Conference and Annual Meeting will run July 21-25, 2007, in Snowmass, not far from Aspen.
I will teach two fun workshops at the meeting on July 24. You don't have to be a member of the Wilderness Medical Society (WMS) to attend the conference, and you don't have to attend the meeting to take my workshops, although it's a great meeting with several days of fun, interesting lectures with good people in a great location. The WMS calls it "Education, inspiration, recreation, relaxation, renewal, and community."
I'll be teaching The Ab Revolution™ Core Training method, and Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier, both on Tuesday July 24th. You can take either or both, one after the next. The Ab Revolution™ retrains your core muscles with no forward bending which promotes disc trouble, neck pain, tight posture, and other troubles. It can provide more ab exercise than conventional abdominal exercise, and shows you how to keep your spine position healthy during any ordinary daily life, even when not exercising. You'll also learn to fix one major source of back pain right there on the spot. The Stretch workshop is packed with new, fun techniques that work better, faster, and don't hurt. You will learn how to not get stiff and sore in the first place. Fitness is healthiest when it is fun movement that trains good body mechanics in the way your body needs to do real life activity.
The rest of the conference will have interesting lectures on lightning, altitude sickness, hiking and expedition injuries, diving medicine, aerospace, heat, new research, and favorite wilderness topics of parasites and diarrhea (some medical conferences have whole day seminars on diarrhea which is a serious world health issue, especially in babies and children). Healthline blogger and wilderness expert Paul Auerbach will lecture on marine envenomations. There will be workshops in photography, GPS, survival, and other fun hands-on opportunities along with my two fast-moving workshops. Snowmass is at a moderate elevation. The yearly Run for Research leaves you more breathless than usual.
Class info about both workshops is on my web site page CLASSES. To register, contact the WMS - Wilderness Medical Society by e-mail or phone (800) 627-0629. Workshops are filling up fast.
If you can't make my workshops this time, find the books with complete text and illustrations of everything we will do on my BOOKS page.
Pack a bag. Come get healthy out in some clean air and sunshine.
Exercise and Medicine Underwater and at High Pressure
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
For the next week, I will be at scientific meeting of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). My colleagues attending are flight surgeons, SEAL team captains, commercial divers, submersible and submarine craft personnel from navies of many countries, and scientists from all over the world who study the science of what happens to the body when working under different pressures, temperatures, and breathing gases - at altitude, underwater, and in the specialized dry compartments to build bridges and structures deep underwater. There are also physicians, technicians, nurses, and aerospace scientists and astronauts who use hyperbaric chamber technology to prevent or treat specific non-diving conditions. Allied health workers, divers, and non-divers also attend.
Originally, we were the Undersea Medical Society (UMS). As use of high-pressure oxygen chambers to treat illnesses other than diving climbed, more sessions on how hyperbaric oxygen works (and doesn't work) were added. Wound healing increased in focus. In 1986, we became the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS). Forums, sometimes strangely heated for brainy, cool-headed scientists, are held about which conditions legitimately respond to hyperbaric oxygen treatment and which are felt not to have evidence (no matter how much we wish it would work and alleviate the suffering of the patients).
Some of the established benefits of hyperbaric oxygen and some uses that are not shown to be effective are explained in the post and comments of Does Hyperbaric Oxygen Help Exercise Ability?
The meeting will cover many interesting topics in decompression bubbles that are thought to cause (or be part of) decompression sickness, or "the bends," and mathematical and empirical models of decompression. Decompression theory and bubbles were my research area for many years along with the effects of too much oxygen on the body during exercise underwater and in dry habitats underwater. The meeting will have many sessions in clinical hyperbaric oxygen therapy for several specific conditions (abbreviated HBO, HBOT, HB02 and other), chamber equipment, and wound treatment. There will be a session of The Veterinary Hyperbaric Medicine Society. Animals get problem wounds that need help healing, too.
The national board exam for hyperbaric chamber nurse and technician will be administered. There is also a board exam for physicians in hyperbaric medicine held each fall through the American Board of Preventive Medicine & Emergency Medicine. I wrote the study guides for both exams. I tried to make them fun, user-friendly, and packed with understanding, not just lists of facts and equations to memorize. The guides cover the entire contents of both areas and are a nice review or compendium for anyone interested I the field. Info is on my web site books page.
I won't be staying at the fancy conference hotel but at a backpacker's hostel. Over the next week, I will try to get to Internet cafes to post on some of the interesting topics and research at the meeting - and swim and go underwater for real. That is good for a researcher in underwater exercise and medicine to do.
Hello from the annual meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), held this year in New Orleans. The meeting is attended by thousands of researchers, physicians, allied health, trainers, educators, scientists, and others.
Sports medicine is more than studying and treating movement-related injuries, or using movement to repair injuries. It includes chronic diseases, physical challenges, nutrition, and extreme environments. The College states its goal as "Advancing health through science, education and medicine."
I'm at the conference to learn all I can from others, and present some of my research on identifying lumbar hyperlordosis (too much lower spine arching) and how it produces lower back injury. A few posts describe some work from past years:
and others. Click the label "neutral spine" following this post to bring up a screen with most past posts on the topic.
I will try to get to Internet cafes over the next week to post some of the interesting studies and presentations at this conference from researchers and practitioners from all over the world.
During and after the conference week, a group of ACSM members will assist the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) to gut homes and prepare for rebuilding to help reconstruct New Orleans. Work is scheduled June 2 - 6, 7:30 a.m.- 2:30 p.m. Kristine Clark, Director of Sports Nutrition at Penn State U is coordinating the mobilization. To participate, e-mail or phone (814) 863-8107.
A new first aid training course has been developed by NAUI. The National Association of Underwater Instructors (NAUI) is one of several scuba diving training and certifying organizations. The first aid course is open to divers and nondivers.
Each of the different scuba training agencies has different approaches and philosophy. NAUI stresses "Safety through Education." Similar to discussions on which university or car is best, there are spirited exchanges by divers from different organizations on which scuba organization is "best." I did my training to become a scuba instructor with NAUI and have been active to help develop some of their textbooks and training courses. I was one of three fact-checkers in developing the new course text. NAUI did a nice job of keeping it clear and simple.
The new First Aid Training course includes all standard first aid, plus first aid for aquatic life and diving injuries, CPR (including professional rescuer), defibrillators, blood-borne pathogens, and emergency oxygen administration. The NAUI First Aid course meets International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) recommendations. Effective June 1, 2007, the course also meets acceptance of the United States Coast Guard. We received a letter from their Training and Assessment Division stating our course "meets or exceeds the standards of the American Red Cross Standard First Aid and Emergency Care or Multimedia Standard First Aid and will satisfy the first aid training requirements of 46 CFR 10.205(h)(1)(iii) for a merchant mariner license."
NAUI Vice President Jed Livingstone said, "For the first time in the emergency responder training market there exists an international consensus on what constitutes effective CPR and First Aid skills and the training methods and content needed to educate the general public and professional rescuer communities."
NAUI offers several diving courses from skin diver (using no air tanks) to scuba instructor, and specialty courses such as rescue, Nitrox, and technical diving. Their certification is accepted internationally.
Here is the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) list for the first aid course More information on this and other diving books on my web site
The new expanded third edition is now available of the training manual, The Ab Revolution™ No More Crunches No More Back Pain.
The Ab Revolution™ is a groundbreaking core training method. It has two components. The first is to learn how to consciously use your core to reposition your spine away from injurious positioning and into healthful position for back pain control during everything you do. The second component uses the new healthy positioning during innovative exercises for fun, healthy, exercise that works your muscles more than conventional core training and works them in functional ways - training them in the way they need to work in real life.
The Ab Revolution™ uses no forward bending which pressures discs and reinforces the rounded upper spine that contributes to pain syndromes.
I rearched the method over many years in the lab and in real life with several thousands of students, patients, and participants, testing combinations of established and proven sports medicine rehabilitation techniques and physical training methods, then integrating them into real activities. I will present some of the research next week at the meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The Ab Revolution™ is in use around the world at top spine centers and by athletes and military. SEAL teams say, "We use it - (we can't tell you our names, we'd have to kill you with our bare abs)."
Reuters News India reported that yesterday in the eastern state of Bihar, the driver of a stalled electric train asked passengers to help get it moving again. We call this a G.O.P. car (get out and push).
The train had stopped in an electrically neutral area between wires. Hundreds of passengers pushed for more than half an hour to move the train until it connected with the electric contact overhead to supply power again (different distances, time, and why the electric connection to overhead wires was lost, according to different news sources).
In the 1970s and 80s, I often worked as a scuba instructor and dive guide in the Caribbean Islands and Mexico. There were strange tides one day, and the boatman accidentally ran the old wooden dive boat (with no radio) aground, far from shore. It seemed reasonable enough (to me) to put everyone out in the waist deep water, decreasing the weight and draft (distance from the waterline to the bottom of the hull). All the paying passengers and I got to enjoy a yo-heave-ho of functional exercise in the water pushing the boat free under the shining sun. The boatman stayed onboard to steer. I also put the two children on the trip with us off the boat to help, although the shorter one rode on my shoulders, excitedly pushing with both hands and feet.
For many years, it has been an interesting question whether exercise will increase or decrease risk of decompression sickness after scuba diving. Exercise seems to affect evolution and dissolution of bubbles from the dissolved nitrogen absorbed and released during and after scuba dives. It is turning out that exercise can both increase and decrease risk, depending on the timing of the exercise, to be covered in future posts. It is a topic for divers from military operations to vacationers trying to adjust their risk factors, and divemasters and scuba instructors who haul anchors, gear, and passengers up and down boat ladders (and G.O.P. boats).
Going back to trains, at least 30 years ago, my mother and I came up with the idea that in addition to dining cars, rail lines should have an exercise car, instead of passengers being confined to long sitting. We envisioned stationary bicycles and other simulators hooked up to generators that would run lights (or television), or record the distance traveled, with windows or screens showing passing scenery like a nice bike trip or race. Participants could race with or against each other. (Originally, Mom thought the cyclists could power the entire train.) Ideas flowed, like having proceeds help set up exercise and health programs that develop body and spirit in poor neighborhoods passed though. We came up with several names like "Training" and other variations, and thought it would be a new exercise craze and sure-sell for the rail industry. We made inquiries and didn't hear much back. You heard it here first - now date-stamped in this blog as our fun idea.
I was one of the first people to develop fitness on cruise ships, back when cruises were thought of as only deck chairs and buffets. Let me know if you want stories (or to set up a fitness cruise). Rail lines, are you interested? I will develop it for you as a fun fitness "Training™" program.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
---
Photo (unrelated to the Bihar train this week) by Prince Roy
Better Use of Core and Healthy Stretches That Don’t Hurt
Monday, April 30, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
In May we are offering two workshops at Bally Fitness 15th and Walnut streets in downtown Philadelphia:
On Saturday May 12 2007 we will run The Ab Revolution™
Saturday May 19 2007 will be Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier
Both workshops run from 2 to 3:30pm. May 12th may sound far away, but it's less than two weeks away
The Ab Revolution™ developed over many years in the lab as I studied how abdominal muscles work during real movement and what they specifically do for the back (and don't do). It's called a revolution because it is a different way of thinking - using your abs the way you really need them when standing and doing all you do. Lying on the floor and curling forward or tightening doesn't automatically make your abs work the way you need then when standing up. The Ab Revolution™ uses no flexion (bending forward) motions that promote disc trouble, neck pain, tight anterior posture, and other troubles. The new innovative exercises give you more ab exercise than with conventional exercise.
In the stretch workshop, you will learn techniques that work better, faster, and don't hurt. You will learn how to fix pain and not get stiff and sore in the first place.
Unlike our university and conference workshops, I will not have the luxury of computer-projected visuals. So theory will be short and practice will be the bulk of the class.
More class info about both workshops is on my web site page for CLASSES. Illustrated books covering everything we do in class will be available at the class, or you can get them ahead of time to be ready for class, or in case you can't make the class.
The director at BallyFitness downtown just changed so we are not sure who to register with. We will cope. As far as I know right now, to register contact Debbie Gregor by phone 610-337-3005 x235 or e-mail. Out-of-towners can have a fun Saturday in class and stay to visit Philadelphia on Sunday. Scenic city, beautiful in the Spring. Tourist info at www.goPhila.com.
Fix Pain, Get Stronger and Healthier (and Stop Leaks) in One Day
Monday, April 09, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
On April 21 2007, we will run three workshops in one full, fast-moving day at Temple University Ambler/Ft Washington campus in Ambler, Pennsylvania. The first two are "Fix Your Own Back and Neck Pain: Medical Breakthroughs in Non-Surgical Treatment" and "Stretching Smarter Stretching Healthier."
Fix Your Back Pain will run 9:30am to 2pm. Stretching Smarter is 2:30 to 4:30pm. In the fun, active fix-pain workshop, learn to get rid of neck, back, and hip pain and keep it from coming back. You will learn to stop the causes of neck pain, back pain, sciatica, herniated and degenerating discs, stenosis, lordosis, facet pain and other problems right in class. You don't need to stop your favorite activities to stop the pain. I show how to get stronger and do more than before. In the stretch workshop, you will learn innovative techniques that work better, faster, and don't hurt. You will learn how to not get stiff and sore in the first place. The workshops are a combination of fun and fast-moving audiovisual lecture and non-strenuous physical practice. Both are suitable for the out-of-shape as well as the athlete.
For family or friends traveling with you who don't want to take these workshops, there is one more. My husband Paul is teaching a fun seminar in do-it-yourself plumbing the same day at the same campus. Learn how to avoid problems and save money. Paul is a licensed contractor and loves plumbing. He makes it interesting, useful, and fun.
More class info about all three workshops are on my web site page for CLASSES. To register, contact Rhonda Geyer, Director, by email or phone (215) 283-1304. Out-of-towners can have a fun Saturday in class and stay to visit Philadelphia on Sunday. Tourist info at www.goPhila.com.
The new 5th edition of Wilderness Medicine has been released by Elsevier Press. Wilderness Medicine is considered "the" reference book for outdoor medicine.
Wilderness Medicine is by prominent wilderness medicine pioneer and Medicine for the Outdoors blogger Dr. Paul Auerbach. The new 5th edition is 2336 pages - a colossal range of health and medical management topics for health providers, athletes, rescuers, adventurers, and travelers in wide-ranging environments.
Dr. Auerbach honored me by having me contribute the chapter, "Exercise, Conditioning, and Performance," covering developing physical strength and skills to survive and adapt to exertion in heat, cold, at elevation and underwater, improve training level, avoid and rehabilitate injury, and use of performance-enhancing drugs, food, and devices.
We're just back from teaching the medical school elective in wilderness medicine. Each year I teach there, working over my birthday. Same food as last year. But the creek was thinly iced - good for ice swimming.
Before lecturing, I worried that my information on health - stand up straight, eat right, exercise, "and all that," would be so known and obvious to the bright young medical students that it would bore them. Instead, it was called, "Out of the box." When did health become out of the box?
I spent years of my career in a lab as a serious, intensely number-checking research scientist. I worked to ensure that we knew what truly worked, and what was hype, unrelated, or just wrong. I made certain that what I discovered and developed for patients was squarely right, practical, and in the best interest of the patient (and fun too, which is health). All I pursued was The Truth. Matt Cartmill once said, "As a youth I craved factual certainty, and I thirsted for a meaningful vision of human life. So I became a scientist. This is like becoming an archbishop so you can meet women."
Why is bypass surgery, angioplasty, stents, obesity, diabetes, and medications with uncomfortable, unhealthful side effects considered normal, while eating a vegetarian diet is labeled wacky and extreme when it is medically documented to stop and prevent heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other prevalent conditions that rob people of joy in life?
In my diving medicine lectures, I wanted students to see how the information worked and how it relates to many things in and out of diving, not just dictate lists of conditions to memorize. I showed slides, asking them to identify why an accident would happen on the way down versus up and why. I told them that if they understood, they would not have to memorize. I just wanted them to think. As my father once enlightened me, "Jolie, you're asking a lot!"
In the orthopedic lectures, I taught the same principles I tell in this Fitness Fixer blog of gaining great physical improvements without making pain and injury in the first place. After one of my lectures, students scattered for personal time, while a few stayed in the lecture hall, bent over laptops. They sat hunched, rubbing sore shoulders. Eventually one nudged the other, "Get the doc, she's right here." After some indecision, one student asked me to give him stretches to fix the pain of working at the computer. I told him you can sit and work without getting pain in the first place, and why didn't I show him that, instead of a stretch as an "antidote." He protested that the computer made his neck hurt. I agreed that the way he was sitting would do that, and repeated that you can easily sit and work in a way that doesn't cause the pain in the first place. More protests came, that as students they had to work on the computer long hours.
Medicine is not supposed to consist of allowing bad things to happen so that you can do a cool procedure to try to reverse it. Readers, do you want to try what I showed him and get a free house-call right now?
I moved his chair in close to the table where he was working. Move yours in close now.
Standing behind him with my hands on his shoulders, I gently pulled his upper body up and back to rest against the chair back. At home you can feel me guide your shoulders and upper body back.
Next, keep the chin gently in, not jutting forward.
We moved his computer back from the front edge of the table to make room to rest his forearms while using the keyboard. If you use a "below-desk" keyboard tray, it is often better to move the keyboard back to the desk. Don't crane your wrists, making a new problem. Relax and breathe.
I told them that at my own desks, I raise computer on a shelf, block, or book about 10 inches higher than desk level, and use a cheap external keyboard. Even without these helpful changes, you don't have to round forward over a laptop.
The seat back of the lecture chairs were concave - shaped to curve like the letter "C" so that you sat rounded forward. This is a common problem in many chairs, even some called ergonomic chairs. Another of the students mentioned he had a commercial lumbar roll at home. It was expensive and he didn't use it much because it was uncomfortable. I showed them how to use a small soft roll, which can be your gloves or light sweater, nothing fancy or expensive. Nestle it in the small inward curve of the lower back, then press your upper back, not lower back, against the chair back so that you can sit straight and lean back, instead of rounding forward. Pressing the lower back against the lumbar roll is a common way to make it useless and uncomfortable.
It turned out that most of the young, active, outdoorsy, academically talented medical students had muscle and joint pain. So did many of the top ranked physician faculty. Several told me they thought their pain was normal from their activities, from studying, their fallen arches, or body structure. They regularly took anti-inflammatory medicines and thought they needed special shoes.
You probably heard not to slouch since you were a child. That easy medicine hasn't changed. You heard to eat vegetables for health and an apple a day to keep the doctor away. I think only a few of the medical students I was teaching caught on, and will help others with what they learned. It can be so easy. As for the rest? Who is the one who is out of the box?
Are you doing unhealthy sitting without realizing it, during work, play, and exercise?:
All-in-one resources for healthier pain free life:
Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery. Chapters on fixing each kind of pain plus patient stories in every chapter tell how things work, why, and why not.
Health & Fitness THIRD ed - How to Be Healthy Happy and Fit For The Rest of Your Life. Exercise, food, health, fixing pain, functional built-in healthy life, family, mental, it's all here.
Healthy Martial Arts. Top level book for any athlete or those who would like to be.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
This spring I will be offering two opportunities to learn breakthrough techniques in person to fix pain, and get stronger and more flexible. People come from all over and have a fun time.
The spring workshops are "Fix Your Own Back Pain - Medical Breakthroughs in Non-Surgical Treatment" and "Stretches That Help, Stretches That Harm."
In the fun, active back pain workshop, learn to get rid of neck, back, and hip pain and keep it from coming back. You will fix the causes of neck pain, back pain, sciatica, herniated and degenerating discs, stenosis, lordosis, facet pain and other problems right in class. In the stretch workshop you will learn about the many common stretches that harm your joints or don't improve flexibility, and innovative stretches to do instead. You will learn how to not get stiff and sore in the first place:
On April 21 2007, we will run both workshops in one full, fast-moving day at Temple University Ambler/Ft Washington campus in Ambler, Pennsylvania. Fix Your Back Pain will run 9:30am to 2pm, and "Stretches That Harm" will run from 2:30 to 4:30pm. Contact Rhonda Geyer, Director, by email or phone (215) 283-1304. Out-of-towners can have a fun Saturday in class and stay to visit Philadelphia on Sunday. Tourist info at www.goPhila.com.
For a slower pace, come to Temple University at the Center City campus in downtown Philadelphia to attend just the Back pain workshop, held over two Saturdays March 3 and 10, 2007. Each class is held from 9am-11:30am. This is one class divided over two sessions. Plan to attend both days. To register e-mail Kevin Wood Director, or call (215) 204-6565.
Links to register for both classes on-line plus more class info are on my web site page for CLASSES. Both workshops are a combination of fun and fast-moving audiovisual lecture and non-strenuous physical practice. Both classes are suitable for the out-of-shape as well as the athlete. Wear comfortable ordinary clothing. If you have to change your clothes to fix pain and move and stretch in healthy ways during normal life, how are you supposed to have an ongoing normal life without pain?
Last weekend we were packing up to drive to the New York Chapter American College of Sports Medicine conference on aging. It was early and cold. At the corner where we parked, an elder woman waited at the bus stop. She stood straight as a penguin; her things hung over her walker. We were late getting on the highway. I had to get to the conference to give my lecture. I was already going to miss the first lecture given by an expert on metabolic changes of aging. This was an important conference where we would learn important ways to help older people.
She was standing alone. I thought that if she had family she would not be standing alone at a bus stop early in the morning. There was no telling where she needed to go. I wouldn't get all my required continuing education credits if I did not attend all of the meeting. We had to drive all the way to New York, and at this rate I was not even going to be on time for my own lecture. The answer was simple. We opened the door and asked her, "Where can we take you?"
We bundled her into the truck, and asked her name. "Dottie!" she said, pointing to a mole on her forehead. My husband held out his big hand and said, "I'm Paul." Dottie looked at Paul, nearly seven-feet tall, squashed in his seat with his long legs bowed around the steering wheel and his hair brushing the ceiling. She sang, "Tall Paul, he's my all…" and Paul replied, "Annette Funicello," recognizing the old song and singing it along with her. Dottie was on her way to religious services across town. We enjoyed lively conversation with her all the way there. We passed a Greek restaurant. Dottie said, "You won't believe this but I used to belly dance there." My own Grandmother studied belly dancing into her 90's so I believed Dottie. I said, "Belly dancing is good for the hips." Dottie winked, "Belly dancin' is good for lots of things."
We dropped Dottie off at her destination and made sure she had her hat and scarf and gloves and some of our food and a hug. We gave her our number and said, "We won't be passing by in time to take you back home. Call us to go somewhere else sometime."
We met heavy traffic getting to the Lincoln tunnel. I won't get all my continuing education credits from the conference that was supposed to teach us about how to help old people. In posts coming soon I will tell about the lecture I gave on improving musculoskeletal health for older people. Although it is a common misconception to think that ruinous losses of bone density, strength, balance, and flexibility are unavoidable with aging, it is not the case, and at any age, even advanced years, you can still get stronger, faster, more flexible, and better balance through easy daily activity. You can also improve the most important aspect of helping aging people - by helping.
The Wilderness Medical Society will run the next wilderness medicine elective from February 5 to March 2, 2007, in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. Three of my students from last year, Neeta Abraham, Yvonne Chow, and Joey Brunkhorst, are pictured at left. I didn't do that to them. They were preparing for scenarios that simulate locating and rescuing injured adventurers.
I'll be at the elective again in February to teach three units of underwater physiology, scuba science, and diving medicine, some fun seminars in orthopedics, and a workshop on stretches that harm and how to change them to stretches that help. It's good for future doctors to know which of the traditional stretches and exercises are adding to injuries or are not effective, and what to do instead.
The wilderness elective is designed for 3rd and 4th year medical students, residents, and allied health profession students from accredited schools. The elective includes a 48 hour Wilderness First Responder Course and ends with a 4-day overnight field trek through the mountains, with the itinerary planned by the campers. In between are plenty of lectures, hands-on practice, and practice in outdoor rescue scenarios from first aid to advanced life support. It is directed by Dr. Tom Kessler, a wilderness medical society member, global doctor, volunteer physician for Native American reservations, exceptionally knowledgeable practitioner, and kind teacher with an on-target sense of humor.
The Wilderness Medical Society has extended the application deadline, which normally closes in August. Space is available for only 24 students. Check the WMS elective site for information, or e-mail Dr. Tom Kessler at tkphs@yahoo.com.
Conference on Aging Dec 2, 2006 in Midtown New York
Friday, November 24, 2006
Healthline
The Greater New York Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) will hold a conference on aging on Saturday, December 2nd, 2006 at the Flatotel, 135 W. 52nd Street between 6th & 7th Avenue, in New York City.
In one fast moving day, there will be nine lectures by authorities on metabolic changes of aging, cardiovascular changes and the benefits of exercise, exercise in older patients with heart failure, neuromuscular training for the older population, psychosocial aspects, physical training for older clients with special conditions, and nutritional needs of older populations. I will be giving a lecture called "Three Quick Techniques for Three Musculoskeletal Problems Confused for Aging."
Many of the declines that come with doing less are often confused with aging. A stiff and rounded upper back, for example, is not necessarily aging, but practice. Are you sitting rounded forward reading this right now? Do you spend your day rounding over your desk and steering wheel, then go to the gym and bend forward for crunches, leg lifts, Pilates, and toe touches? Do you bend your neck down to do biceps curls? No wonder it's hard for you to straighten out. How long will you practice unhealthy bent forward position before you get stuck that way? There is no need to exercise in the very way that is not healthy when you do it sitting at your desk. There are better ways.
Much of the loss of strength and balance over the years is from disuse not aging. Many people do not use their legs for the hundreds of times each day they need to bend. They bend wrong, throwing their weight on their spine. Their back hurts and their legs and hips tighten and weaken. Eventually they find they are unable to sit comfortably on the floor, and more worryingly, cannot rise from the floor, or even from their chair without using their hands. This is debilitating weakness, and a dangerously unhealthy cycle of use or lose. It is not aging. In cultures where sitting and rising from the floor is a daily activity, people of 90 have the strength and balance to do it. They do not suffer the rates of falls, osteoporosis, arthritis, and cardiovascular disease of less active populations.
My lecture will cover three easy techniques to maintain and improve spine health and muscle strength. Come say hello. The meeting is designed for allied health practitioners, but is open to the public, with reduced registration fees for members of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) New York Chapter. Contact Felicia D. Stoler, MS, RD (732) 946-4436, or e-mail fstoler@att.net
Black Belt Hall of Fame - Black Belts and Black Tie
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Healthline
This past weekend, the Eastern U.S.A. International Martial Arts Association held their 19th annual Black Belt Hall of Fame inductions in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Martial artists traveled from nearly every state in the United States and more than 50 countries overseas to attend the weekend of awards and seminars.
The atmosphere was fun and healthy. Top Grandmasters and martial arts legends mixed easily with attendees. Guests at the host hotel enjoyed the site of dozens of martial arts teams going by, each in the distinctive uniform of their martial arts style. The black belts of many of the participants were heavy with stripes of rank, and ragged from years of training.
During the three-day event, there were seminars on teaching skills and specific techniques in Kendo, kickboxing, Jiu-jutsu, and others. Students were flying in all directions as they tried each training exercise.
I taught a seminar of core training that I developed called The Ab Revolution. It is a method of exercising your abdominal and back muscles the way they work in your real life. It uses no forward bending. The forward bending commonly used for core exercise trains unhealthy bent-forward posture, pressures the spine and discs, and is not the way your muscles work when you stand and move in real life. Click here for a synopsis of The Ab Revolution including sample exercises.
Soke Sean Martin, pictured at left demonstrating with his assistant Christopher, taught Kagedo-Essensu, (Shadow Essence) a style that he developed. Kagedo is a devastating defense technique. It does not require strength and conditioning or years of specific poses and positioning to master. For information about learning this effective technique, contact EPallack@gmail.com.
The Saturday afternoon awards ceremony was held for kyu ranking (not yet Black Belt) and youth black belts. Saturday evening saw the banquet for new inductees to the Black Belt Hall of Fame and members of the Hall of Fame receiving distinguished awards (photo, left).
Organization founders Soke John Kanzler and Kim Harper are already at work on next year's 20th year anniversary event. Contact them at the International USA Martial Arts Association, toll free at 1-800-456-3872, or e-mail EUSAIMAA@verizon.net.
--- Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For more - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
The Healthline Site, its content, such as text, graphics, images, search
results, HealthMaps, Trust Marks, and other material contained on the
Healthline Site ("Content"), its services, and any information or material
posted on the Healthline Site by third parties are provided for informational
purposes only. None of the foregoing is a substitute for professional medical
advice, examination, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of a
physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may
have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice
or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on the Healthline
Site. If you think you may have a medical emergency, call your doctor or 911
immediately. Please read the Terms of Service for more information regarding
use of the Healthline Site.
If you can only get one book:
For the Most "Bang for the Buck:"
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=610d355a-3112-4df8-847c-01d9bffc852c)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=7ed8892c-d40b-4a35-9c5f-9c50a93d0ea6)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=9c0a5692-6cf3-4294-8943-e443be03f7b4)
through amazon.com
