Anton, Alberto (farioreo), and others have asked how many "sets and reps" of exercises and stretches will help. The answer is in a story my Mother told me when I was small:
A young boy in school always made the same mistake in English. Instead of the proper, "I have gone…" he said, "I have went." The teacher told him to stay after school and write 100 times on the chalkboard, "I have gone, I have gone, I have gone…" The boy wrote "I have gone" the required 100 times. When he finished writing, he saw the teacher had stepped outside. He left her a note, "Dear Teacher, I wrote "I have gone" 100 times, and now I have went home."
The answer is that repetitions are not the entire answer - you have to understand and use the result. I am asked the question so many times of how many "reps" (repetitions) of a rehabilitation or training exercise are needed, that it has become a "light bulb" joke - How many (whatever) does it take to change a light bulb?
Readers ask:
Q. How many sets and reps of upper back exercises does it take to straighten rounded forward posture? A. None, you just straighten up right then and hold it. A2. Or you can say one repetition is enough. Then use that one all the time. A3. Or until you actually use it - Note the person slouching (photo right) to measure posture.
Q. How many sets and reps of back exercises does it take before my disc pain stops that I got from bending over wrong to pick up things. A. None if you stop bending wrong to remove the cause. A2. A whole lot more than if you stopped bending wrong.
Q. How many sets and reps of good squats with heels down does it take to get enough stretch in the Achilles tendon to be able to squat well? A. Doesn't matter, if you use good bending in your ordinary day, you will get hundreds of Achilles tendon stretches throughout the day and it will be built in for you. You aren't supposed to stop your day to do a number of repetitions, then go back to heel up squatting, or bending over wrong.
Q. How many sets and reps of squats does it take before I can squat right to bend right? A. Until you do it right.
Q. How many sets and reps of your exercises on Fitness Fixer should I do? A. Until you remember them.
--- 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.
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Photo of slouching while measuring posture by Neeta Lind
Fast Fitness - Exercise Involvement In World Health
Friday, October 30, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - shed unhealthy petty feelings of maltreatment because you had to wait in line for your luxury items, or didn't get them in your color.
We have things to be extremely grateful for.
More of the time, it is not necessary to gain them through harming others or the Earth.
Lead by example. Teach children and others not to litter, pollute, harm others, do harm for money, do harm for power, harm themselves.
Check Simple Ways to Get Started:
My Academy- the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (AFEM) teaches people and communities how to be healthy in body and actions. Readers who use my work have been teaching their groups simple healthy bending and movement for daily life instead of injury producing habits, good food instead of disease causing food, healthy training for high level athletics and military, healthier medical practices for sick, injured, preventive medicine, "green" fitness, and healthier mindset. Come join us by doing simple things in your home and community - click AFEM.
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, free. 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.
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Images sent to me by Dear Colleague Dr. Ern Campbell - ScubaDoc
Halloween - the time when I take off my lab coat for work, and others put them on for costumes. A time when we dress as groups who pledge: "An it harm none, do what ye will" also stated as, "First, do no harm." Who are these groups? Read on.
The Wilderness Medical meeting where I have been teaching certification courses held a costume banquet last year. Medical professionals and students dressed in costumes depicting wilderness medicine. One couple was wearing outdoor clothing. I looked again and their faces were covered in red face paint. Except around their eyes, strangely pale. Also long thin white strips from eyes to ears. Sunglasses were propped on top of their head. They were sunburn. (White areas were those unburned, shielded by the glasses.) Another student was wearing regular clothing, except there was a large bat attached to his chest. Look closer. His face had strange white around the mouth. Rabies! Professors of envenomations wearing suit jackets covered with plastic bugs and snakes. Another wearing a giant falciparum, a protozoan parasite that causes malaria. Many others, simple, intelligent, and fun. When a solution in medicine is brilliant and simple at the same time, it is called "elegant."
For other events, one year I wore black jeans and sweater, and held up a black card with a white circle enclosing a black 8. People shrugged, "Oh, an 8-Ball."
I flipped the card. It was a black card with a blue triangle that read "I am The Magic 8 Ball" which got some laughs. Flipping over the cards got them another blue triangle that read, "You May Ask Your Question Now" I came ready with cards and never had to say a word. They flocked over. Lots of questions. Funny how they can all be answered by the Magic 8 Ball. A couple walk over together: 8 Ball: "I am The Magic 8 Ball." He: "Will I get lucky tonight?" 8 Ball: "Doubtful" She: "Will *I* get lucky tonight?" 8 Ball: "Outlook Good" He: "Hey!! Not fair, how do you know that?" 8 Ball: "I am The Magic 8 Ball" She: "Hey, you thought of a good costume" 8 Ball: "My Sources Point To Yes."
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, free. 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.
Forward Air Head Syndrome - Doing Sets and Reps and Missing The Point of the Exercise
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
After the article Help Yourself last Monday, I received many notes from readers. Almost a dozen the first few hours. Notes saying that that once they understood how my method changes "doing" exercises into stopping causes of injury, they tried to help their friends who had pain. The friends turned their generous help back into the party line of doing sets and reps of stretches and exercises, then returned to habits that recaused their injury. They missed the greater point of using the retraining after the reps stop - during actual real life.
One reader wrote how he explained to his friend about the cause of degenerating discs and vertebrae of the neck. His friend was constantly jutting the neck forward - a painful posture called a "forward head." The friend protested that he had a disease of the facets, the joints of the vertebrae. The reader explained that damage to the facets was caused by the bad posture called a forward head. The friend insisted he had disc deterioration and bulging. The reader explained the cause was simple bad posture called a forward head. The friend agreed to try my method, did a few stretches mentioned in part of one of my articles, then went back to their forward head posture, and complained that the method didn't work because pain returned. He wanted to know exactly how many and which other exercises to do and how long it would take for the exercises to work.
Check some of the comments to certain Fitness Fixer articles. Some commenters miss the point that the stretches or exercises may help you feel better for the moment (and if they don't then you are doing them wrong) but you must change injurious movement habits. Prevent tilting your hip and use neutral spine instead when you stand and walk, to prevent lower back and SI pain. Stop craning your neck. These are voluntary actions that need your brain to work.
Reader Paul J wrote this accurate assessment:
"The Department for Silly Syndromes has determined that Forward Air Head Syndrome is closely related to Cerebral Detachment Syndrome that occurs in patients that read the writings of Dr. Bookspan.
"The patient knows how to read and understands words; however after reading Dr. Bookspan’s writings, a detachment in the cerebral cortex seems to occur often affecting the patient’s ability to think and type. The patient exhibits some of the following symptoms:
Writing questions to answers already given in the original text,
Writing questions to answers already given in previous articles
Writing questions that are not congruent.
In mild forms, the patient will read some of the information, do some stretches, and expect complete results.
"The recommended treatment for those suffering from CDS is to watch the movie* ‘What About Bob?’ This may not cure CDS however it should temporally delay the effects of CDS."
(*In the movie, a psychiatrist gives his nice but overanxious patient a book, to understand and solve his own problems. Instead, the patient drives the psychiatrist insane with repeated unneeded questions (and did his previous doc in with the same).
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, free. 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.
Want mind and body? ChessBoxing is a sport from Germany that combines "the number one thinking sport with the number one fighting sport." Fighters go 6 rounds of chess and 5 of boxing in 11 alternating rounds. ChessBoxing decision is by checkmate or knockout.
Competitors must have an ELO chess rating of 1,800 or above and have fought a minimum of 20 real boxing matches. (Elo rating, named for creator Arpad Elo, is one of several chess rating systems.)
Click the > arrow to watch a short video of ChessBoxing.
ChessBoxing origin is attributed to cartoonist Enki Bilal from his 1992 novel Froid Équateur. Dutch artist Lepe Rubingh was inspired by it to hold a live tournament
ChessBoxing spokesman Bill Schneider says, "The most difficult part of the game is making the transition from the ring to the board. “Your pulse is not a problem, but the adrenaline certainly is. It makes you want to play a far more attacking game of chess than you ordinarily would, and that often leads to mistakes.”
--- Before asking questions, see if your answers are already in labels and comments under posts, links in posts, archives, and the Fitness Fixer Index. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. 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.
Fast Fitness - Somebody Please Do My Personal Responsibility For Me!
Friday, June 26, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
A couple was buying a house. The real estate agent told them a problem with the house was that it was near the train, rumbling noisily by every night. It would take the first two weeks to be able to sleep through it. "No problem, said the couple, we'll spend the first two weeks in a hotel."
An opening line of last Friday's Fast Fitness was, "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."
The letters came in. Some missed the whole point, hoping for magical externals to do it for them: " Can I use a posture brace until it works? … Is it until my shiatsu starts working? … My body worker says it takes 6 weeks for massage to make me aware of my body… My yoga teacher said the pain has to be worked through so I bend wrong to get used to it… OK, bending right does fix my pain, but every time I go back to bending wrong the pain comes back. I do the exercises 10 times. How long until the exercises work?... "
The "martyrs" blamed externals: " It is not possible to control how I stand or sit, I am fat/ weak/ large chested/ too thin to have muscles/ old/ young/ a person of privilege… You're wrong, the slouching just comes back by itself. … You're wrong I have gone to a chiropractor three times a week for years and I have to go or the pain comes back, that proves he is helping me and I can't change the pain…Another blog said to get a thousand dollar mattress and that will fix it… "
Some of the whining was comical: "You can't expect me to actually try to remember that… You're wrong, my body FORCES me to slouch… I have read all your posts and you didn't mention posture or answer readers when they asked (for new readers, you can fall over laughing at that)… Don't you know that it hurts my back to sit at a desk to read your book on fixing pain?..."
Excellent readers sent the brains: "You expect me to actually get free exercise using my muscles to make my own life better?? Congress will hear about this!… I can move my own body? Shocking!… Burn more calories, free, and be healthier and stop disc pain by sitting so that my back does not hurt? I won't, I won't, I WON'T!!!..."
The moment you bend right, you will stop injurious forces on the discs and knees. Keep good habits, and they can heal. Stop tensing your body and it will not be tight and tense any longer. Relax does not mean slouch. The moment you change to healthier sitting habits, you will be able to sit more comfortably.
No exercises, no séances, no pills, no mattresses make you bend right and stand in the kitchen preparing meals with healthful stance, breathing not grunting, shoulders back, not hunched, smiling and contented instead of poisoning your body with stress chemicals that you generate yourself through hurtful behaviors.
The method you choose to fix your injuries depends on your view. If you don't like to have it free, quickly, and in a way that uses your own body to get exercise as part of your life, then of course go to another method and comment there about your pain. It seems to be a 'sign of the times' to do pills and blame. Time for change to something healthier (if you want). This Fitness Fixer and all my other methods are for people who would be embarrassed to whine, and want direct, intelligent ways to get their own life back. Be prepared to have fun and use your brain.
Where to Start (if you want to, no one is making you):
www.DrBookspan.com/books. Read the descriptions if you want the right book for your injury or life goals. Up to you.
--- 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. LimitedClass spaces for personal evaluation. Top students may apply for certification -DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more with Dr. Bookspan's Books,
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.
Fast Fitness - Quick Refreshed Perspective Every Day
Friday, May 22, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - strengthen appreciation. Appreciation increases happiness, lowers blood pressure and stress chemicals, and reduces resentment, an unhealthy state of mind:
When you turn on a water faucet, notice that you get water. This is more than several millions of people have. Real people, as deserving as everyone else, walk miles and pay criminally inflated prices for water that is sometimes too dirty to drink.
When you turn on an electric light, notice that you get light and have electricity. In every room. At all hours. In many part of the world, even in major cities, they do not have electricity more than a few hours and sometimes, none in non-public areas.
If you are reading this, you may have a computer or other electronics. Even if it is in a library and you waited in line, you have these luxuries to browse for life enhancing ideas.
Right now, there are people carrying loads and walking miles just to dig for food and water, or carrying all their belongings on their back and living in tent refuge cities to escape persecution, sieges, physical attacks and worse, and have been for years. Not complaining doesn't mean to not change things. Do something about it:
It is fantastic bounty to have water and electricity. Try to notice it, and be happy for it. It is also true that Western water is full of unnecessary chemicals, and destructive pharmaceuticals. We can reduce polluting and taking unnecessary drugs. Don't pollute and litter without thought. Work to change the lives of all the many without basic rights and privileges. Show children that you appreciate, and don't destroy. Lead by example.
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.
Fast Fitness - Pro-Social Behavior Improves Health of All
Friday, April 24, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Doing selfless good is not only for the benefit of the receiver. Move your body and brain to make a happier world, passed on like a game of tag.
Lily is one of my martial arts students. She writes:
"In my Psychology class called “Child and Adolescent Development” my teacher asked each of us to do simple acts of kindness throughout the semester.
"Pro-social behavior is the opposite of antisocial behavior. The ideas behind doing simple acts of kindness are as follows: behavior is contagious, we model behavior for others, and we become what we do. Acting in kind ways toward others is positive behavior that we model for others. It is valuable to model this kind of behavior for children. (The Behaviorists say that behavior is learned). It is important to teach children about kindness, because children’s brains are developing, and experiences hardwire the brain.
"Each week at the beginning of class, my teacher would ask her students to please share a simple act of kindness. Examples (some are mine, some are others'):
“I held the door for someone.”
“I gave a friend who doesn’t have a car a ride to school today.”
“I cooked my mom dinner.”
“I helped my mom stretch her legs in ways she normally could not, to help relieve her pain.”
“I helped a stranger change their tire.”
“I was about to pull into a parking spot, but let another person, who was obviously in a rush, have the spot. They thanked me.”
“I e-mailed a classmate the homework assignment when they had missed class.”
“I helped a very drunk girl find the bus stop and gave her a token to get home.”
“I helped my little brother with his homework.”
“I call my grandmother regularly now, just to talk, when before I only called her if there was a specific reason.”
“I helped someone fix their printer, even though I was initially unsure how to.”
Try some. Move your body and brain. Make health contagious. Send in your own successes doing small things that pass happier ways on. Click the label 'spirit' for Fitness Fixer ideas.
Lily's Posts:
Lily demonstrates a better lunge stretch and gives a no-cook delicious recipe: - Lunges and Beans
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.
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.
Fast Fitness - Recycling and the Movie "Garbage Dreams"
Friday, April 10, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Recycling trash is honorable and beneficial for people and Earth.
The word 'Zabal' is a person who collects trash. The Zabaleen of Cairo are class of people who for generations, have collected the city's trash by hand, with devotion and honor, and the certainly that from their sweat, they do important work for their community and the world.
The Zabaleen recycle 80% of all they collect, all by hand. They build and run their own school to educate their children in literacy, manners, good and honorable conduct, studies, and recycling techniques. The city decided it was progress to be modern and great like the West, and change to using trucks and companies to collect the trash, mostly dumped into landfill. The livelihood of the Zabaleen is dwindling. The movie Garbage Dreams shows their members visiting a landfill, incredulous that anyone would throw such literal treasure into a hole. One exclaimed that trash, and the possibilities and materials it possesses, is a gift from heaven, not to be wasted at cost to the Earth.
The movie tries to appeal to audiences by making it a drama of the decisions of three of the teen Zabaleen, but I hope the greater message the teens make is not lost. It is not progress to look down on classes of people. It is not progress to waste. It is not progress to be made to feel you are not good because you work to clean the world.
See the movie Garbage Dreams.
Learn a long-known, little talked-about world crisis encompassing health, politics, economics, sweat-of-the-brow work, pollution, and human rights.
Notice litter on the ground. Stop littering. Know that it is good and honorable to pick up trash, not something beneath your values. Pick up trash today (be prudent what you reach into). Thank others who do this work.
Garbage Dreams was supported by a grant from the Sundance documentary film program. It won several Film Festival awards.
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Read success stories of Fitness Fixer 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.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
Use you brains and hand motor skills to install it on your bicycle wheel with your kids, or family, or a friend, or alone.
Get more exercise pushing against the generator while making the power for your bike headlight or safety light.
Beside powering a light for your street bike, think of exercise machines. It seems wasteful to use treadmills and stationary bicycles that require electric power to operate. Encourage manufacturers to make equipment of all kinds that run on self-generated power, and gyms to stock them.
Use shaker and wind-up flashlights instead of battery flashlights, hook up a bike to run the television, or a treadmill to power a capacitor to run lights - power to and from the people.
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 success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
Sunlight deprivation has been found in a clinical study to cause profound negative change to portions of your brain associated with depression.
Further, "neurons that produce norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin, which are common neurotransmitters involved in emotion, pleasure and cognition, were observed in the process of dying."
Study source - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences March 25, 2008, vol. 105 no. 12 4898-4903
In the Northern hemisphere of the Earth, February brings deep wintertime, with short days, and greatly reduced light. For the last 30 years or so, each summer has brought warnings to stay out of the sun, practically zero tolerance for light exposure, urging hats, sunscreens, dark glasses. There also seems to be a sharp rise since then in incidence of serious diseases usually not seen in the young - soft and porous bones, depression, chronic body pain (fibromylagia and related), diabetes, and others. Sunlight seems to have several effects, one of which is helping the body produce Vitamin D. Lack of Vitamin D is now known to be directly linked to higher risk of lung cancer, Parkinsons disease, diabetes, high blood pressure. Vitamin D is available in food sources, however you can also take a prudent approach to getting the several different beneficial effects of the sun, many of which cannot not be gotten though a vitamin supplement.
Last summer Scientific American published a survey finding, "Americans are losing interest in going outdoors." As health providers, we need to see if part of that is telling people that staying out of the sun is necessary for health. We also tell kids to finish everything on their plate and sit still, two more practices, that on examination, translate into, "Practice and learn to be sedentary and overeat."
Try to get outside every day, even if cold (within reason). Bundle up, if you have to.
Get light in your eyes. This does not mean to stare at the sun and induce cataracts, but to get sunlight in healthy ways for the several different crucial mental and physical benefits.
Melanoma skin cancer is not confirmed from lack of use of sun screen - NYTimes article. For a post on balancing needed benefits of sunlight and stopping unwanted negative effects, click Junk Food Through Your Skin?
Click the label "sunlight" for posts that tell more of the benefits of sunlight.
--- 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.
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.
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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.
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How do people from Thailand celebrate their birthday? Traditionally they give gifts to others.
Young Thai children are thrilled when their birthday arrives, so that they can give gifts and do good.
They will give extra food and gifts to monks (right).
Many holidays are celebrated around the world this time of year. Doing good returns merit and goodness. That gives health to celebrations and holidays.
By generosity and thanks to others you can overcome personal fear and selfishness:
Take children with you to volunteer at shelters and community centers.
Spend time with your family instead of rushing away in isolation to shop and wrap material things that are not needed in the first place.
For babies and toddlers, wrapping paper and the box it comes in are fabulous treasures. For smarter older ones, too. They don't need video players television, or computers, and will develop better without them. They need the 3-D world and you, face to face.
Instead of expensive so-called fitness trainers involving imaginary motions and swatting the air, try a playground instead.
To go high tech with an electronic game, try active games like Hyperjump from wildplanet.com: Place the targets at a distance, and race, alone or with friends, to tag whichever target momentarily lights. Tag with hand or foot, according to the voice command given by the game at the moment. Or give the money to charity and use your brain making your own game, using a real person, named "it."
For an electronic game of stamina, eye-body coordination, and cardiovascular health everyday, try Dance Dance Revolution. www.DDRgame.com. I found this gem over 15 years ago in Asia. You quickly move your feet to targets to visual cues and music. Difficulty is graded from slower and easier to faster and more complex as you practice. In Asia, some kids even manage this on their hands. Good music has been scientifically shown beneficial for health and the heart.
Go dancing for real, with real people. In your living room, if nowhere else.
If you can't do good works face-to-face, give fruit orchards and beehives to impoverished villages to develop self-sustaining economy and healthy food sources through Heifer.org (those are the vegetarian choices, along with options to send livestock to subsistence farmers who then give offspring to others to continue healthier cycles of independence).
Go outside. The graphics are better. Fresh air. Sunlight in the dark winter months is needed and healthy. Click the label "sunlight" under this post for Fitness Fixer articles listing physiologic benefits of sunlight.
Best gift for children? Your good example of healthy simple ways, joy, love, knowledge, and self-discipline. They need caring leadership.
Consumerism and debt are not stable or healthy ways to live. Invest in simple happy ways. In the Kingdom of Bhutan, the "Land of the Thunder Dragon" in the eastern Himalayas, the government says their plan is to create "Gross National Happiness" grossinternationalhappiness.org. Their health system does not focus on medical potions, surgeries, and treatments, but healthy respectful human interaction, making a healthy base, and preventing much harm in the first place. Click the label "spirit" for ideas.
"Santa Claus has the right idea. Visit people only once a year." - Victor Borge
Happy Holidays to my readers serving country, stationed all over the world. Happy Holidays to all.
--- 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. For personal evaluation take a Class. Top students may seek certification -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 and archives. Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
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Fast Fitness - Reduce Holiday Driving Stress, Increase Human Connection
Friday, December 05, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Instead of cursing crowds, delays, weather conditions, and other drivers, spend your commuting and errand time every day in the car learning with audio books:
Find your local library.
Check the audio book section.
Find audio books that teach you valuable things you would enjoy.
Children in the car can become engaged in listening and learning instead of withdrawing to personal video games, and texting devices. From the content of the audiobooks, you can restart dialog and develop skills of talking to each other.
Large numbers of interesting audio books can be checked out on line.
Click the labels for more ideas in each topic. Add your suggestions here.
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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.
Sedentary Lifestyle Linked to Teen Emotional and Behavioral Problems
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
A study of physical activity in more than 7,000 teenagers found that inactivity is associated with emotional and behavioral problems.
Teens with less than one hour of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week had more symptoms of anxiety, withdrawal, depression, sleep problems, rule-breaking behaviors, attention problems, and somatic complaints (body pain).
Study author Marko T. Kantomaa stated in an American College of Sports Medicine news release, "Negative mental and emotional effects brought on by physical inactivity does not help young people ease into adulthood. Physical activity could be a highly effective and relatively easy way to help that transition and could, in addition, lead to establishment of lifelong healthy habits."
The study was published in the October issue of Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise - Kantomaa MT, Tammelin TH, Ebeling HE, Taanila AM. Emotional and behavioral problems in relation to physical activity in youth. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2008 Oct;40(10):1749-56.
Increase in physical activity is known to reduce incidence of depression and anxiety in both adolescents and adults.
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.
Beijing Olympics & Martial Arts Class Teach Common Sense Cooperation
Monday, August 11, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
The opening ceremonies of the Beijing Summer Olympics were a quiet, powerful reminder of mutual cooperation as path to strength, beauty, and peace. Thousands danced in metaphor for healthy society - that we cooperate to create a masterpiece, and each individual is significant. Responsibility and support flow both ways.
Paul and I were in China in 2001 for a martial arts competition. I hope to post training stories with some of the motivating photos from there. Discipline and eagerness to do good were all around us. We haven't been back to China yet, although we live in other areas of Asia for part of each year. In many places where we live there, human, animal, and machine-powered vehicles of every description overflow the roads, in all directions at once, often with no traffic lights or signs to guide. Both lanes may flow in either or both directions at once. Turns occur any place needed at the moment. Problems are infrequent because people are taught cooperation from early age. It is an Eastern philosophy, way of life, discipline, and virtue. Words are not needed. Westerns who are not aware that cooperation and thoughtfulness is taking place mistake this highly evolved order for disorder. When tourists see someone coming their way, they may not not cede way or cooperate, but insist that others are in their way. Traffic accidents frequently involve tourists.
When I teach martial arts classes in the US, I teach beginning students something that startles them. If a blow is coming toward you, don't stand there and get hit. Move out of the way. Some students first insist on trying to bat my arm/leg/head out of the way with theirs. I tell them not to do that. If two arms hit each other, whose will win, theirs or the other person's? You don't know? Better to get out of the way instead. What if it is an incoming baseball bat. Or weapon. Or an opponent you have gravely misjudged,even if they only seem to be an old lady. In Zen the concept is called, "Don't be there." In common sense it is called "duck." Some beginners insist the air is theirs to stand in and they want to meet an incoming object with their body. Instead of ducking, or at the least, deflecting it without damage to any party (or maybe training some discipline and arm hardening techniques), they throw their arm up to meet mine, then depart class cursing and exaggerating to administration that they broke their arm, and that they were right to deliberately disobey the teacher who was teaching a valuable lesson called, don't hurt yourself or others. In class, I give the students a moving drill. They practice a specific footwork drill to keep them moving. I walk around the class - right in their way, one student at a time. They are confused. Some try to push or hit me to get me out of *their* way. Some try to stand still to resist, but get deflected off balance. This continues until one student remembers the point of the lesson. They get the smart idea to go *around* me. The message - polite, cooperation. No confrontation. No hitting someone in your way, or believing no one owns the ground but you. Just smile and say excuse me. It seems to be a titanic message to some.
Click the arrow to watch group traffic cooperation in this short movie from a street in Vietnam.
Paul and I are comically (to locals in the street) co-occupying a tiny front basket of a bicycle rickshaw. Locals routinely travel by pedicab, but our height and Paul's epic shoulders blocking the driver's view and feet at the same time caused so much merriment by on-lookers that it won us many new friends that day. The driver looked to weigh no more than 100 pounds (45 kilos), pedaling a steel bicycle weighting at least 200 pounds (90kg). In another post I will tell of Paul's and my ride on an Olympic bobsled on an actual competition track. A professional driver took first seat of the 4 man sled, and we put Paul in second seat, as it was the only place for his long legs. For new readers, Paul is almost 7 feet tall (2 meters, 13cm). We were supposed to have a 4G ride (4 times the usual pull of gravity on earth), but Paul's giant feet, it turned out, prevented the driver's elbows from moving enough to steer the 15 sharp turns. We got quite an extra ride - the wildest the driver said he ever had. To be continued in a future post on g-forces.
China posts to come - Athletes are afraid of the squat toilets, why some Chinese citizens wear masks, Eastern societal practices that promote physical health through advanced age, answers to reader questions that pile in, and more on Olympics and human potential.
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Here is Friday Fast Fitness - learn some Chinese for the Olympics.
The Olympic ceremonies start at 8:08 p.m. on the 8th day of the 8th month in 2008. Eight is an auspicious number for the Chinese. Whether you agree or disagree with politics in the world, use learning about someone's language as a step to peace:
Listen to native pronunciation of the Word of the Day in a list of languages.
The same page has a free registration link, or clickwww.travlang.com/wordofday/register.html to e-mail you the Word of the Day each day it comes out. Choose as many languages as interest you from the list. Change your free subscription any time.
Speaking and learning language, exercises several brain centers and widens world view and skills.
The summer Olympics will begin this August. The Olympics are an international cooperative athletic contest held every two years, alternating winter and summer Games. Before 1992, the summer and winter games were held in the summer and winter of the same year, so that four years passed between each Olympic year, called an Olympiad.
Estimates on the date of the first recorded Olympic Games in ancient Greece vary around the early 800's BC, with indications of regular games held far earlier. The first events were foot races. Soon wrestling and the pentathlon (five events by one athlete) were added. More events followed.
The games and ceremonies emphasized reverence to heaven, ability of body and mind, plus nakedness and deliberate gore for the ratings (popularity). Olympics continued in Greece every four years for about a thousand years. After the Romans gained power in Greece, Emperor Theodosius I outlawed the Olympics in the year 393 AD because they (the Games) weren't Christian.
Fifteen hundred years passed. In 1894 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) was founded to rekindle the Olympic games. In 1896, the first modern Summer Olympics was held in Athens Greece. Fourteen nations participated track and field, fencing, weightlifting, rifle and pistol shooting, tennis, cycling, swimming, gymnastics, and wrestling. No women were allowed to compete. The IOC director stated that including women would be, "impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic, and incorrect."
The following Olympics in Paris in 1900 allowed eleven women to compete in lawn tennis and golf. This August, it is projected that athletes will compete in 302 events in 28 different sports. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin Italy there were 84 events in 7 sports. Currently, 203 countries participate in the Olympics. This is higher than the 193 countries who presently belong to the United Nations.
There are debates whether countries or heads of state should boycott Olympics to make influential political statements. Several boycotts have been held by various countries over several Olympics. In many Olympic years, different political topics from war, to the interpersonal war of apartheid, to the status of the country of Taiwan, have been focus for boycott. This year it is position of the country of Tibet in relation to the host country of China. As one of the swimmers who felt the impact of the 1980 boycott because of events in Afghanistan, I know it is a difficult thing to decide either way. Consider this: today, Olympics are boycotted over wars. In ancient Greece, wars were postponed and ceasefires called to observe and honor the Olympics.
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Remember freedom for all people and for Earth on America's Independence Day.
Reduce toxic waste from discarded batteries. Jacqueline Meier of Switzerland is creator of the Clean Planet Association. Part of this work is the Clean Kaïlash Project.
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…"
The post How Strong Is Your Arm? - Readers Find Out tells how true fitness does not mean doing a bunch of exercises, then returning to slouching, criticizing, smoking, harming others, and putting damaging things in your body. Fitness is making the many aspects of your life clean and healthy. A reader (who I know to be a good person) wrote:
"Something that I find helpful for people around me and for myself, is to start with setting a milder goal. Like promising yourself you'll only eat sweets during weekends. Many who plan to stop cold turkey can't live up to that and end up feeling bad about themselves all of the time. That's not healthy either. ;-)"
I would not say the same about heroin or binge drinking or hurting the weak. I would not teach a child that it is ok to have unsafe sex or drive drunk, as long as it is "only a little" or only on weekends. Doing something you know is damaging or wrong (not just eating some sweet fruit or small amounts of jaggery, or honey if you are not vegetarian, but junk food that is damaging to body and environment) is not solved by limiting it to weekends.
"Feeling bad 'all the time'" because of it is also not a healthful strategy. Knowing something is not right is useful to change your behavior. If you feel bad and do not change your behavior what are you accomplishing? Don't use it as an excuse to continue unhealthful things just so you don't feel badly.
A useful plan is to think. We teach children not to drink automobile coolant, no matter how sweet it tastes. Pools of coolant on the ground have poisoned many animals who come to drink the sweet stuff. It is sweet as a sugary drink, but damaging to put in your body.
Posts on how to strengthen your health as daily mindset:
Readers have been writing in since the post How Strong Is Your Arm? They wanted me to know that they first thought they were strong because they lifted weights or went to exercise class, then realized for the first time that they thought they can't improve what they say, do, think, or eat, and were not strong as a human being.
Reader Dean e-mailed that he had previously thought that stress made him eat, and that it was "just natural." Then he realized that he was eating on purpose because he was angry, and thought it was his only way of showing he could do anything he wanted. Then he realized that doing that wasn't strength and control, but lack of it.
"Once again, I am back at the farm house/animal sitting for a few days. Little did I know that my "strong arm" was going to be put to the test. Last night while preparing my evening meal, I opened the pantry door and what do I see but a chocolate/rocky road cake covered in M & M's. I quickly shut the door then, after a few minutes, temptation took over. I decided that maybe I could have just a little wee bit, knowing full well that one piece would not suffice, I would want more - once a chocoholic, always a chocoholic. Who should come into my mind but you Dr Jolie and your post "How Strong is Your Arm" plus the fact that I had (replied to that post with a comment) telling the world that my arm is strong. Needless to say, the cake stayed where it was. On reflection, I still cannot believe that, after all this time, I would even consider eating such food. I would like to assure you and your readers, that should I have given in to temptation, I would be standing up and saying that my arm is not as strong as I thought."
Ivy had also written me in the past asking what to do when people insist that you should eat their unhealthful cooking at get togethers or give her gifts of unhealthy junk food. When Ivy politely refused bad food and explained she wanted to be healthy, the people were not understanding or enlightened, but disrespectful and insistent. I e-mailed Ivy that she could try accepting the bad food with a smile and a sincere thanks for caring to give a gift, and give it away to someone who wanted it. Ivy sent this update:
April 4 "I thought this little story might interest you. It is amazing how ones life can change.
"Marrianne, a friend of mine has just phoned to tell me that she has become a vegetarian. She is a little younger than me (note - Ivy is 71) and has not long returned from a trip to Nepal. She told me that while there she ate with the people and you would be aware that these people are vegetarian. Since returning to New Zealand she made the decision to change her way of life. She now appreciates the difficulties I have come up against these past two and half years, by that I mean re well meaning friends who make negative comments etc. I gave her the piece of advice that you gave me re being given food that you don't want to eat - accept it gracefully and give it to someone in need.
"I was also able to pass on advice re foods she needs to eat to keep healthy which pleased her. As I mentioned to you a week or so ago, healthy food has become my passion.
"Tomorrow we are having a get together here in the village. It is to be held out doors so hopefully, the weather will be kind. No doubt there will be lots of cakes, muffins and scones to eat plus wine to drink. I am going to make up some snacks of walnuts, raisins and blueberries. As I said to Marrianne, one has to harden up when people make rude comments re what one eats. I, personally, make no remarks re what others eat, I would like to think that others give me the same respect.
"Finally, over the past few weeks, on two separate occasions, women who I have not seen in over a year, have made remarks just how well I look. One of them said and I quote "Ivy, you exude health." This, of course, pleases me."
This e-mail arrived after the get-together:
April 5 "There were 27 residents at the get together and not one of them tried my walnuts and blueberries. Instead, they ate the pastries, cakes, pavlovas, desserts etc.. In saying that, I will say this "no wonder we have such a high obesity problem in this country." "Hugs Ivy"
Then this:
April 9 "I truly believe that I have beaten my addiction to chocolate. This morning I am feeling a little distressed re the news that my dear friend Joan who will be 87 in a couple of months time, had a fall. She will be fine, her only injuries being bruises plus a grazed elbow. One of my neighbours called by to give me a couple of chocolate cookies her words being, "You will be feeling upset about Joan and I know how much you love chocolate." I took your advice and thanked her then, (did not eat them).
"In the past, those cookies would have gone straight in my mouth. Even though I was tempted to eat chocolate cake a couple of weeks ago, I truly believe that I have the addiction under control, in fact, I am patting myself on the back. Just had to share my little story."
Fitness does not mean going to a gym, then going out slouching, smoking, to eat unhealthful food, and thinking unkind things about other people. Fitness means making the many aspects of your person clean and healthy. Don't harm yourself with bad thoughts, deeds, actions, and taking in unhealthy things in your body.
If you want self control, exercise it to become strong.
--- 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, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
Reader Mike sent this flawless Canadian commercial showing lack of exercise as a mindset. Have a laugh:
The commercial is for a company that sells products, but the message is right. A few years ago I was attending a major sports medicine conference. In the Grand Hall, was an escalator next to stairs. Both went to the same place. An easel with a plainly marked notice stated that a study was going on of exercise habits. Even with the written notice, by the end of the study, which consisted of a student sitting and counting, few took the stairs. Sports medicine professionals were overwhelmingly taking the escalator on their way to major presentations on disease consequences of sedentary behavior, and exhibit halls selling pedometers.
Fitness as a lifestyle isn't going to exercise class a few times a week. Check your mindset, and how you bend, lift, and move all day:
-- 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 - instead of eating junk food and playing violent video games, try a fun game to build your English vocabulary and help impoverished areas.
For each correct definition, FreeRice donates 20 grains of rice to the United Nations World Food Program.
If your definiftion is correct, the next word is harder. If incorrect, you get an easier word. In this way, FreeRice adjusts to your vocabulary level.
According to their site, FreeRice runs the site at no profit. The rice is paid for by the advertisers, and distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). They give this warning: This game may make you smarter. It may improve your speaking, writing, thinking, grades, job performance...
Put down your junk food. Feed your brain and the hungry.
Healthy Youth Parties - Fun Exercise, No Junk Food
Monday, February 25, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Mike is a Fitness Fixer reader who fixed many injuries - impinged shoulder, hip pain, radiating pain down the leg, and bad nutrition from sports food that is really junk food in a sporty label. In December, he sent us his reader success story that I posted in A Whole Big Fix. In the comments of a follow-up post on the December 28 2007 Fast Fitness - Dynamic Partner Balance Challenge, Mike wrote,
"I'm going to use some of your partner exercises as breaks for my students. They will get blood moving, muscles exercising and coordinating, and they will probably giggle. These will be a nice break from sitting so long. Mike."
Mike kept his promise and sent this update:
"This whole year we have not had food at our class parties, with no complaints from students. We just play games involving social interaction. I have tried to have "healthy food parties." In the past, parents send boxes of food-like substances that say, "whole grains" on the sides but still are very processed, loaded with sugar, and have a lot of the nutrition processed out (like granola bars, sports drinks, and "fruit" roll-ups). So, it's easier just to not allow any food.
"The kids still have a blast instead of just sitting and stuffing their faces with cupcakes and cookies (I have 3 ten-year-olds who weigh over 135 lbs). We are taking exercise breaks. Mike"
Mike couldn't send photos of actual kids because of privacy and other issues, so I asked Mike if he would share some of the fun activities they do. He wrote:
"We just had our Valentine's Day party with cut up fruit. They were only allowed to put candy in the individual cards if they chose to, so we didn't have mounds of cup cakes and cookies. We had pineapple, apples, kiwi, two kinds of grapes, and oranges. No one complained. The kids played board games only, no electronic solitary games. They played games like Cranium, Jenga, Life, and Yahtzee, which encourage lots of dialog.
The same day we did an analysis of "Vitamin Water," which shows 13 g of sugar on the label. The whole bottle has 6.5 teaspoons of sugar in it, so I spooned 6.5 tsp. of sugar into a similar sized glass of water and dropped a multi-vitamin in it to show what they are paying for."
Readers, have fun getting ideas throughout the Fitness Fixer column, and send in your stories, and photos where appropriate.
--- 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.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.
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.
The solstice is here. The word solstice means "sun (sol) standing still."
Since the September equinox, the earth and sun have moved so that the sun now appears at the southernmost point it will reach. The northern hemisphere has the chilly shortest day of the year, and the southern hemisphere sees the longest day of summer. There it "stands still" before appearing to turn northward again.
Shinto and others celebrate the highest deity, the Goddess who is the Sun. Cultures around the world have traditionally marked this day with observances. It seems a good time to start a nice family activity of learning to read a map and the sky to find your way.
We live in the city and frequently see obvious out-of-towners who need directions. I enjoy stopping to tell them about the sights, sometimes guiding them where they need to go, or taking them to see fun things they didn't know about. One time, the two adults and young children didn't have the usual baffled look, just a map, a compass, and fingers pointing at the map and the air. When I asked them where I could help them get to, they replied they were locals working on spatial direction skills and map reading with their children.
They were teaching the children how to locate where they were and how to go to locations on the map. Then they walked to each place together, enjoying the sights and a day outside, developing their minds and bodies together. Intelligent, happy, active family interaction. That is fitness as a lifestyle.
All children (and adults) should know where they live and how to get back in case of emergency. They should know where help is, and where key people and places are.
Some locations to find using this key mind and body skill with your kids:
Free library
Police station
Firehouse
Local favorite museums
Fruit market
Shelters and project locations for volunteer work
Finding their own home during any trip, near or far.
Readers, post your comments on beneficial places people should know how to get to, and family ideas. Many Fitness Fixer readers are pilots, navigators, military, search and rescue personnel, law enforcement, and the combination of all of those - parents. Let us know healthy ideas to find our way.
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.
The third harvest is here in the Northern Hemisphere. The Hunter's Moon is bright in the sky.
The last harvest of fall is a time of endings and beginnings. More than a commercial holiday of destruction and gruesome death, the approaching winter was historically a time to reverently mark departure of the living and life-giving fields, and be thankful for the harvests they gave. Revering of elders was observed in analogy.
The first and most important precept of thousands of years of yoga and martial arts is ahimsa. Ahimsa means non-violence, non-harm, non-destruction. Ahimsa was reaffirmed in recent times by the Mahatma Gandhi, and in the West by Martin Luther King, Jr. In all the classes I teach, I remind the students that ahimsa is something you incorporate in all your actions. Don't harm yourself by sitting in injury-producing bad slouching. Don't harm yourself with bad exercise. Don't harm yourself by destructive thoughts and actions. Don't harm yourself with unhealthful food and drink. Don't harm yourself by hunching your shoulders to stress through preparing meals, when you can relax your shoulders, straighten your back, breathe, and use each stoke of washing, cutting, and preparing food as beautiful meditation in the same amount of time. Don't harm others with spiteful words, deeds, and thoughts. Don't cause others fear or pain. Don't cause yourself fear and pain.
In many of the countries where we have traveled and lived, lovely short public service announcements occur daily with kind messages of doing good. Television and radio commercials are paid for with no other purpose than to give specific positive examples of helping each other for a better world. Where we have lived in the US, continuous messages of spiteful and worse behavior are common as entertainment.
Several centers in your brain process self-control. They need exercise like anything else. Studies of imaging these brain centers in people who overeat, showed that with retraining, the centers changed in level of activity when pictures of food were viewed. "Exercising self-control" is more than an expression.
Children, and even adults, need consistent positive examples. It is good and crucial exercise. It is easy to destroy, and takes (but also gives) energy to be good. Instead of "Mischief Night" tonight, do good. Instead of spending money on destroying property with thrown eggs and toilet paper, have fun learning a healthful recipe that you can enjoy for years to come. Learn to stand on your hands safely. Paint or draw a picture of a good wish. Talk about how it can come true. Design and construct inspired homemade costumes. Help the community. Volunteer at a shelter. Exercise your spirit. Develop a fun, beautiful positive public service announcement for your home, or a commercial project, that reminds to uplift spirit and behavior. Teach a child something. Don't wait until they are already doing bad. Teach them consistently, before they know to do either, so that they will more often know to choose good and why.
The average American spends nearly $15 on Halloween candy - more than $1 billion total on unhealthful refined sugar and hydrogenated fat candy - just for Halloween. This is not parental love. It is the same as giving them cigarettes or addictive drugs. Change that. Parental love is giving them beautifully functioning self-control brain centers. Halloween story and ideas in Exercise Common Sense Discipline - Turn Down Halloween Junk Food.
Positive behavior is too important to leave up to only the schools, the entertainment industry, the government, the Internet, the home. We all add ahimsa.
Many chapters of ideas for happy bountiful living are in the book Healthy Martial Arts.
Photos of Paul Creating Good on Halloween. Can you find Jolie in the photos?
"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." ~ Lou Erickson
Involve children in gardening at any level. Getting outside to dig, bend, stretch, think, and create in the fresh air is health as a lifestyle - improving physical skills, knowledge, confidence, cooperation, discipline, caretaking, and purposeful activity.
"What this country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." ~ Will Rogers
A few weekends ago, the Philadelphia City Gardens Contest ran final judging. Husband Paul and I are judges. I don't know much about horticulture, but Paul does, and I am good at holding the clipboard and getting dirty.
Each judging team travels to gardens all over the city, grouped according to garden purpose. There might be community vegetable gardens in the city's most blighted areas, flower gardens grouped according to size, or mixed use individual or group gardens. Gardens are judged for many points including health and variety of plants, whether natural or inventive bug and weed control is used, and interesting use of materials. In past years we visited a garden in one of the most difficult areas of the city, which had made neat container gardens from tires dumped in the area. Another garden gleaned trash from the street to help clean the neighborhood, including a bathtub and vacuum cleaner, reborn in the garden with painted smiles, streaming vines of flowers, posed like characters at a tea party. We met 90-year-old ladies who tended their garden in dresses and church hats, teaching neighborhood children self-respect instead of vandalizing, and to reap what they sow, and share what they harvest for healthier neighborhoods.
"Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar." ~ William Wordsworth
Last year we judged the city's Children's Community Gardens. Here are some of the stories to give ideas and inspiration for yourself or community:
Miss Vanoka Morris Smith and the kids of the Blaine School Strawberry Mansion were a shining example of showing kids how to be fit in body and mind, with teamwork and love. There were no treadmills or artificial exercise. All the kids involved got real fitness as a lifestyle. These inner city kids were well-behaved, disciplined, and educated. Each knew every plant, and information about them. The all-organic garden used heirloom seeds, vegetables, pollination by bees and butterflies, rotating beds to promote soil health, and complementary plantings to combat harmful bugs. They painted garden scenes on plant beds, picnic tables, and the tool shed. They learned discipline and got exercise and dignity by keeping all the areas clean.
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~ John Ruskin
At the Urban Nutrition Initiative in West Philadelphia, Debbie Harris's high school students created a health and life-enhancing school-wide program of cooking and nutrition that they call "personal and social change through food." Students get to keep the proceeds from their Farmer's Market, learn healthy social structure, get a high amount of functional physical activity, and the educational message that "Vegetables are cool."
"The philosopher who said that work well done never needs doing over never weeded a garden." ~ Ray D. Everson
St Paul's Church on Stenton Avenue began reclaiming a garden from a neglected site to encourage children to have reflection and contemplation outdoors. The garden joins their columbarium (low wall containing parishioners ashes), along with physical activity – a "prayground." They plan to incorporate garden plants and themes with their Sunday school teachings: kids will plant their prayers, and they will build small climbing apparatus with 'eight fruits of the spirit' on each of the eight rungs. Like life, their garden space is a work in progress.
"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~ Mirabel Osler
At the Beacon Summer Program at St. Sulzberger School, Crystal Martin teaches 8th graders botany using the garden and microscopes to see leaves and bugs. Built in a flood prone area, the garden is divided into three distinct "watershed" systems - country, suburban, and city - with different drainage systems. The different drainage clearly teaches the effect on the garden – three distinct garden looks and conditions result. Corresponding wall murals teach the crucial message of balancing need for water and drainage.
"Gardening and laughing are two of the best things in life you can do to promote good health and a sense of well being." ~ David Hobson, The Mad Gardener
Get inspired and think how you might like to get started. Young children can learn responsibility by having their own area near your shared area. Babies can sit with you and play in the dirt. On a small level, children can start with sprouting mung beans on a plate (posts to come will show how) and plant a windowsill of seasoning herbs for healthier cooking. Older children can grow healthful chemical-free food and flowers for the table and instead of unhealthy offerings at bake sales. They can learn that good posture during movement is healthy, natural, and good exercise. Get library books on composting, small building projects, organic gardening, and beautiful use of space. Learn the simple elements of a Japanese rock garden or Zen garden, called karesansui. Use healthy bending with one foot in front of the other (how to lunge) and feet side by side (how to half-squat and why it is great). Breathe. Smile.
"We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all." ~ Dorothy Day
--- 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.
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Urban site before reclaiming photo 1 by jared CityGarden 2 photo by stu_spivack CityGarden 3 photo by davidsilver
A woman walked up to an old man rocking in a chair on his porch. "I couldn't help noticing how happy you look," she said. "What's your secret for a long happy life?" "I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day," he said. "I drink a case of whiskey a week, eat fatty foods, and never exercise." "That's amazing," the woman said. "How old are you?" "Twenty-six," he said.
There is a Buddhist saying that laughter is the language of the Gods. Like every other skill, your sense of humor needs exercise to be healthy and be strong. Exercising your sense of humor also seems to be key to keep you healthy and strong. Increasingly, medical studies show positive medicinal effects of humor and laughter. In reading them for this post, many were numbingly humorless. I looked around some local medical fitness programs and gyms where people are exercising for health, and everyone looked miserable. Then you have people like my Mom, a professional dancer. One of the classes she teaches is tap dance for senior citizens. She named one of her lively groups, "The Clogging Arteries." Another is "Tapaholics Phenomenous - We Do More Than 12 Steps." Josh Billings (pen name of humorist Henry Shaw) summed it up, "There ain't much fun in medicine, but there's a heck of a lot of medicine in fun."
Exercise your sense of humor to reduce unhealthy stress and daily troubles: Don't argue with an idiot; they'll beat you with experience. Don't stress to be punctual; there may be no one there to appreciate it. Be like Santa Claus; only visit people once a year. Reduce stress on the road by peacefully ceding way to others. Joe Louis, boxing heavyweight champion, explained why he did not hit a motorist after the motorist abused him following an accident, "Why should I? When somebody insulted Caruso, did he sing an aria for them?"
Earlier this month, the Health Observances blog from our HealthLine editors posted April is National Humor Month. Before April is over, see how you can make your life, your home, and your exercise healthier with genuine fun. For a post on helping your heart with happiness, see Healthier Heart.
"Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine."- Lord Byron
Read success stories of Fitness Fixer methods and send your own. 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 by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. 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.
The BBC news reported this week that, Kickboxing 'causes brain damage.' The news story stated that a recent study showed: "Kickboxing can cause damage to the part of the brain which controls hormone production." However, it is not kickboxing, but receiving blows to the head.
Recently I posted about the fun exercise training in the movie Rocky IV - Rocky IV and Healthier Exercise. After training to become healthier and stronger, the movie depicts Rocky sustaining severe head strikes as a symbol of determination or disciplined fighting ability. It is higher fighting skill not to receive these hits. It is hopefully not a surprise that it is also healthier not to get hit in the head.
The Turkish study that the above news item was based upon compared pituitary hormone function in twenty-two kickboxers who had boxed in national and international championships (16 men, 6 women) compared to controls of the same age who did not box. Levels were lower in the kickboxers (Tanriverdi F, Unluhizarci K, Coksevim B, Selcuklu A, Casanueva FF, Kelestimur F. Kickboxing sport as a new cause of traumatic brain injury-mediated hypopituitarism. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2007 Mar;66(3):360-6). A previous study by the same group found the same results in eleven actively competing or retired male boxers (Kelestimur F, Tanriverdi F, Atmaca H, Unluhizarci K, Selcuklu A, Casanueva FF. Boxing as a sport activity associated with isolated GH deficiency. J Endocrinol Invest. 2004 Dec;27(11):RC28-32).
Studies like these, that compare groups, cannot tell if boxing lowered the hormone levels without measuring a "before and after" or including number and severity of head strikes sustained. Without more information, these studies would not be able to conclude if the boxing caused the low levels, head strikes caused the injury, or it was the case that the people started out with low levels then became successful competitive boxers. However, it is documented in the literature that head blows that lead to traumatic brain injury produce anterior pituitary dysfunction (Agha A, Rogers B, Sherlock M, O'Kelly P, Tormey W, Phillips J, Thompson CJ. Anterior pituitary dysfunction in survivors of traumatic brain injury. J Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2004 Oct;89(10):4929-36). The previously mentioned Turkish researchers had earlier reported on a case study where they observed a boxer who received a head strike then suffered specific anterior hormonal effects (Tanriverdi F, Unluhizarci K, Selcuklu A, Casanueva FF, Kelestimur F. Transient hypogonadotropic hypogonadism in an amateur kickboxer after head trauma. J Endocrinol Invest. 2007 Feb;30(2):150-2).
Previous studies looked at neurophysiologic and neuropsychologic function and did not find long term damage in these areas (Haglund Y, Eriksson E. Does amateur boxing lead to chronic brain damage? A review of some recent investigations. Am J Sports Med. 1993 Jan-Feb;21(1):97-109) so it is new and helpful to localize that hormonal damage may be occurring from head blows.
Growth hormone is one of the hormones affected. The post Human Growth Hormone shows how it works and how to boost your own levels naturally and safely.
Aerobic kickboxing is not the kind of kickboxing where the studies are finding brain damage. The issue is strikes to the head and subsequent brain damage. Blows to the head can happen in any contact-style martial art, not just kickboxing. Head injury is also an in issue in motor vehicle accidents, falls, and domestic violence to family members of any age.
I will write soon about avoiding head injury in boxing and fighting arts, and other exercise. I am glad that the top competitors I faced in the ring didn't manage to land any head blows during my own full-contact martial arts and kickboxing bouts (or none I remember :-). To their credit, they managed other worthy hits. It is still not known what damage choke holds may produce, and is a topic of ongoing investigation.
The idea of the martial arts is to get out of a fight not into one. Fighting arts, as sport or entertainment, can be done, and won, without permanent damage to the other person, if all understand and fight for a greater good.
"To win one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the highest skill. To subdue the enemy without fighting is the highest skill." - Sun Tsu, The Art of War
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