In the first act of Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote, "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters."
Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Your face shows how you lead your life. In other words, "Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." How can you improve your face?
Healthy exercise and hard work doing good deeds, benefits your face more than the same time and money spent on artificial makeup.
Stop eating sugar and processed flour. Your skin will improve. Stop fried food and soda. Simple healthy nutrition improves your face and skin more than all the money spent on fast food, expensive "health food," engineered supplements, and skin drugs.
The woman hoeing a field in India doesn't use indulgent face peels. Her dignity and honest work polish her face. Genuine laughter does more than corny face exercises and laugh yoga. The life you live of integrity, thinking of others, and lack of self-absorption, shows more on your face than all the facial exercise gizmos and programs.
Actress Lauren Bacall said, "I think your whole life shows in your face and you should be proud of that." Instead of spending on externals, save the money or give it to the poor. Decide how you want your life to look, then go make a face.
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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.
We planted a vegetable garden this Spring in my mother's field. Hard exercise changed a rocky ruined area into beautiful food. It's getting cold now. Readers asked how the garden turned out. Here are stories:
We are harvesting. By afternoon it is dark with a large orange moon overhead lightning our work. The hard work keeps us warm.
When we first cleared the area, we filled the wheelbarrow with concrete slabs, pried and dug from the patch. Paul bent to grasp the wooden handles. When he rose lifting the handles, the barrow was so heavy that both handles snapped, scattering everything. Paul is strong.
We sawed and attached new handles. Much good squatting, bending, rising, lifting, and reloading. Paul bent well (upper body fairly upright, knees bent over heels). At almost seven feet tall, he needed to bend low. When he rose, the wheelbarrow handles were so high in the air, the front of the barrow tipped forward so far that contents spilled everywhere.
Hoeing a field, breaking concrete, digging stumps and rocks, bending and reaching, lifting right, hauling bales of compost, and all the rest that gardening can involve, is more exercise than you can get in a gym. It combines hard natural movement using much of the body at once to give muscular and cardiovascular exercise. To pull weeds, you squat well, both heels down, loosen roots with a digging stick, grasp weeds at the roots, rise pulling slowly. Over and over. Rise and bend. Garden prayer.
We were amused that more grew outside than inside the garden. Outside, tall weedy grasses grew everywhere. Inside, small seedlings grew into low herbs and vegetables. Deer and other animals didn't eat our garden. We had built a 6-foot fence around it, but deer can easily jump that height, and small burrowing groundhogs and rabbits can wiggle through or under. What we had done is leave them a bushy meadow near the garden area, with plenty of food and hiding places. They didn't need to bother the garden. The municipality cited my mother for a violation of some kind for not mowing her "lawn." Sorry Mom! We paid it for her.
Large slabs of concrete lay buried, inches below the surface of much of the area we wanted to plant. We needed to break and remove them. I managed to lift Paul's huge sledgehammer, swinging it with both hands over my head. It came down on the slab and bounced. I tried a wider stronger swing. It was heavier to swing than it looked. It bounced off the concrete each time. I handed it to Paul. He swung it quickly with one arm, splintering the slab. We dug the dozens of new football-sized pieces and made a rock border for the flowers nearby.
We gardened without pesticides or chemicals. We hauled hundreds of pounds of compost that the municipality gives away free at the recycling centers. Thank you recycling center for all the good exercise, compost, and manure. Plants grew healthy and didn't need chemicals to fight insects. They could fight them from their own internal health - people can do the same much of the time from simple good health practices. Plants manufacture their own anti-inflammatories against disease. That is part of why eating vegetables and fruit is good for your own health against inflammation.
The work it took to eak out a few plates of vegetables for each meal reminded us of subsistence farmers - how worrisome it is to have to rely on what you can scratch out of your own soil. If we had to last the winter on what we grew, it would be a long thin winter. Much of the world does not sit around indulgently with fast food in the refrigerator. Many do not have refrigerators. Before spending money on junk food, then complaining you are too heavy, think. Save the money. Improve your health. Refraining from eating does not make anyone fat.
The tomatoes grew tall and long. They grew so much that we could not find the strawberries.
We are saving the seeds from the sweetest cantaloupe, the largest cabbages, and the most wonderful purple peppers and white eggplants for next year.
The wonderful Thai bamboo hoes we brought back with us have shrunk in our colder dryer climate, loosening the heavy metal shovel-heads so they tilt sideways with each overhead swing. We have been fixing them, then going back to hoeing. The ground will soon freeze. Hoeing is more upper back strengthening and work than anything in a gym, even more than all the pushups and handstands that I love. Bend knees, upper back upright, breathe in, swing up, breathe out, swing down. Over and over.
Saturday night was Halloween. The World Series was playing. Paul didn't want to disappoint me by not going out to see the fun going on for Halloween in the city, and would never have said anything. I put on a costume and sat with him to watch the game. It was a great evening. The next day I put on a scarecrow costume and we worked in the garden.
We were just two city kids, who grew up in urban slums. I didn't know about gardening, but we read, worked, learned from mistakes, and sweated under the hot sun and the cold evening air.
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 - 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.
--- 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.
Three years ago, Merlene's closest friend died. Merlene, who is 74, lost all motivation. Because she was not exercising, she gained a lot of weight. This is where Ivy came in...
Ivy from New Zealand, frequent success story contributor, wrote me in August about her neighbor Merlene:
"You will be pleased that I have a new lady under my wing so to speak. I lent her your book "How To Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs Or Surgery." Along with giving her advice she tells me that it has changed her life which pleases me."
I wrote to Ivy to ask her if Merlene would be comfortable telling us more on what she did, so others could try it too. Ivy replied:
"I encouraged her to walk again. At first it was difficult, she had difficulty breathing. I noted that she was walking flat footed and taught her to lift her toes. She complained of back pain - I showed her how to lie on her stomach and lift herself up on her elbows before getting out of bed in the mornings. She has now learnt to put her spine into the neutral position. Re her breathing, I showed her how to breathe deeply. She told me that she rolled her neck every day in a circle - she now does the trapezius stretch plus pectoral stretch instead.
"Instead of bad bending, she does squats and lunges while making the bed, doing the vacuum cleaning, going to the fridge and the like, plus gardening.
I checked in with Ivy a while later to make sure all was still improving, and gave her questions to ask Merlene so I could make sure all was well. Ivy wrote again:
"Today I visited Merlene and asked her some questions. She is stronger, breathing has improved, she is more flexible, can walk further, the back pain has improved immensely. She hasn't weighed herself yet, however, is hoping that there will be a weight loss when she weighs herself next week.
"She finds your books "How to Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery" and your Stretching Smarter book very helpful so I left them with her so that she can refer to them.
"She also tells me that your books along with my help and advice has changed her life for the better. She has lost that negativity and feeling positive about life again.
"Merlene is a very quiet, private lady so I try to treat her in a gentle way. She comes from another country and I gather that life has been very hard. She is so enjoying what she is doing. Most important is the fact that she trusts me plus she is very happy you are doing this article.
"Merlene is happy for you to use her name. Re the photo and title (of the article) she would rather it was your choice. "Hugs Ivy "
How to Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery and Stretching SmarterStretching Healthier, and others, on www.DrBookspan.com/books.
--- 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.
"I had not (previously) successfully implemented healthy movement habits. Your books are allowing me to comprehend the importance of doing so. This knowledge is permitting me to enjoy the benefits that come from less pain. Less pain means a happier Lisa. Moreover, since everyone enjoys happy people, anyone involved with me appreciates my enhanced education.
" You give your readers hope and allow us to strive for healing. You must tire of hearing this from everyone you help.
"I have read many publications regarding stretching and strengthening but none ever caused me to contemplate "living" rather than practicing the "postures." I have stopped many of the exercises and stretches "believed" to be essential to improving back health (they were hurting), and enjoy the exercises and stretches in your books.
"It is enchanting to have the opportunity to thank you for sending me personalized copies of your marvelous publications.
"With Kindest Regards, Lisa H."
There is no need to "live with pain" or try to use varieties of techniques to distract you when it hurts. Instead, fix the source of the pain, then the damage can heal and the pain not return, because you have stopped the daily repeated unhealthy motions that cause them. Healthy movement is for all you do all day - that is fitness as a lifestyle, not doing little repetitions or sets or reps in the gym or during commercials. To get started, click the related posts below. The label "reader inspiring stories" lists reader stories, not as testimonials, but tutorials. Enjoy getting your life back.
--- 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.
Notice general good bending using the lunge and half squat
Notice all the times you can do good bending around the house, the gym, and for good deeds.
Functional exercise is how you bend and move all day. Exercise your legs and spirit while you prevent disc degeneration by stopping bending over for things, and instead, using good bending, for all you do.
--- Questions come in by hundreds. I'm bailing the ocean with a bucket. 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.
Don't let the vast potential of children go unmet. Go to the playground with them. Hang with them. Tumble with them. Play movement games with them. It's gaining priceless skills and health and the best aspects that childhood offers, not losing any aspect of childhood. Ask them to show you things.
Babies have a grasp reflex that allows them to hang with their fingers, with grip equal to world class climbers. Children have the brain elasticity to easily learn many languages without an accent, to move with strength and ability.
Don't strap children into the equivalent of wheel chairs (strollers) while you lift little hand weights. Lift the kids.
I teach many of the moves in this video in my yoga and other classes. Beginners can start them with good success, if they work and try. I have had yoga instructors who come my classes, curse and storm out at the first effort, whining that it is "haaaaaaaaaarrrrrd." They claim yoga makes them strong and loving, then throw tantrums, but that is for another story.
Click the labels children and partner exercise below this post, for Fitness Fixer ideas you can try (using your brain) so that children grow with all the joy, discipline, and strength of real health.
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Questions come in by hundreds. I'm bailing the ocean with a bucket. 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 is an unusual post. Long-time Fitness Fixer success Ivy from New Zealand, continuing inspiration to many readers, wrote me a good-bye and thank you. Her computer is broken. Can anyone help this situation?
Ivy is a Great-Grandmother (pretty darn great, we think). Ivy wrote us years of dedicated Fitness Fixer stories of fixing disabling pain and regaining healthful fun life. Now that her computer is broken, she wrote me she would keep in touch with hand written letters. She wished all of you readers well.
Ivy's 86-year-old neighbor snapped photos for several of Ivy's stories. Both of them laughing as the neighbor pressed wrong buttons and Ivy had to hold poses and try again and again. Ivy sent me fuzzy prints by mail, which I scanned and posted. Follow Ivy's adventures, starting with Inspirational Ivy.
Ivy wrote:
"Just a short note to let you know that my computer up and died a few days ago.
"Actually, I was going to write you a letter (by hand - smile, smile) it being a long time since I have had to do that. For the moment, I am not going to replace the computer, finances being a little tight. Bill, who lives here in the village has kindly offerred his computer to allow me to look up the Healthline web site every ten days or so for which I am extremely grateful. He is aware just how much I enjoy your posts.
"I would suggest that you not send a reply, it more than likely will not arrive.
"I promise I will keep in touch with you be it by a friend's computer or by a "handwritten" letter. "Love and hugs as always to you and Paul" Ivy
If anyone has an old working computer or ideas to get one to Ivy in her little New Zealand village, please comment. Making life great, sharing life's good, doing right and having fun doing it is real health.
Thank you.
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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 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. See class schedules, 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.
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.
All the More Reason To Try - Exercise to Overcome Each Difficulty
Monday, April 20, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
E-mails and questions pour in - "I am weak from a recent bout of flu, will strengthening help me? I never had strong legs, should I bother doing leg exercise? My shoulders do not stay straight, they just become round when I let them, does that mean that I cannot have good posture? My ankles tilt toward each other when I stand up, does that mean that I should not stand straight? My balance is poor, why should I do balance exercise as I will just have a hard time of it. I have multiple sclerosis and it is tiring to stand up, should I try? I am overweight and have health problems from it, will I get any benefit from not eating so much? My toes are all tight from tight shoes, should I stretch my toes?"
These are real inquires. The answer to all is yes, you need the exercise even more than the person without these difficulties. Yes, work to overcome, to change what is hampering you, to regain function.
Hear it phrased this way:
"I earn less than the rest of my office, would getting a raise make a difference?" "My car veers to the left ever since I hit that pothole, should I try to hold the wheel straight, even though it seems so natural for the car to swerve uncontrolled?" "I just have a natural temper, why bother controlling it?"
When things are tough, you need to control it all the more. If you like to run or swim but are slow, you need to work harder at speed, not omit speed work. You have to work to get results. There is a saying "If the sword is not sharp, use a heavy handle." If you are not good at something, you need to work harder.
For inspiration, click the arrow to watch the video of The Thousand-Hand Guanyin, performed by 21 dancers of the Chinese Disabled People's Performing Art Troupe. All the dancers are deaf and cannot hear the music. Lead dancer is 29 year old Tai Lihua, who earned a BA degree from the Hubei Fine Arts Institute.
--- 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. ---
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.
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What magic secret exercise or machine or supplement makes you fitter?
Fitness Fixer reader Jilly wrote in to ask:
" I am a 65 yr old woman and have no strength in my upper body; I cannot push myself up even by 1 inch but just lie floundering on the floor! How do I start rectifying this to be able to do even a straightforward push up?"
How to get better? Just like anything else, Try. Practice. The body responds. Work and you improve. Money should be that easy.
Remember that Olympic athletes are sore for days after workouts. They fall and fail thousands of times, get back up and work more. Like learning a language - start with nothing, and the more you work, the better you become.
Click the arrow to watch this short video that reminds what practice can achieve:
Retrain your body to move in natural ways, not just in one up/down or side-side motion of gym exercises. Use daily life as your built-in all day strengthener. That is the difference between "doing exercise" then going back to weak unhealthy life, and real healthy living. That is what Fitness Fixer is for.
Have a real life and enjoy the quick gains. Proceed safely, and have fun. Send in your success stories. Stay inspired.
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. 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. 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.
A video should appear below of 91-year-old drummer Jerry. Chick the arrow in the center of the movie box or at bottom left of the video box to watch her. You do not need HD to watch it. It is viewable at various resolutions.
Stay active, keep moving, be happy. It keeps you vital, more with each year.
For more ideas click the labels "aging" and "spirit" under this post. Labels give all Fitness Fixer posts about that topic. The label "video-movie" shows all Fitness Fixer posts containing a video to watch and enjoy learning how to be happy and fit.
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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.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right.
Grace didn't have a lifetime of track and field experience. She lived a life of real movement, called functional exercise, raising 11 children and doing chores. She decided to run a race. One month later, she ran the race and broke a world record.
A video should appear below of Grace Foster. Click the small, right-pointing arrow at bottom-left of the video box to watch her straight body positioning, the race, and her happy family.
Grace exercises daily, stretches, eats healthful food. Other racing record holders over age 90 will be featured in future articles.
Get moving, stay moving, be happy. It keeps you vital, more with each year.
Click the labels, aging, running, and spirit under this post. Labels give all Fitness Fixer posts about that topic. The label video-movie shows all Fitness Fixer posts containing a video to watch and enjoy learning how to be happy and fit.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking, 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. SeeDr. Bookspan's books.
When I was in the military, we ran. A lot. Every day. I love to run fast. When we ran, we sang. What did we sing? What they told us to sing - How much we loved to run. How much we loved everything about the military. Why? It kept us from saying what we were thinking. Military cadences have long been used for physical training. These are the Jody Calls.
The origin of the Jody Calls is usually given around World War II, but chanting, sea shanties, group mantras and hymns, and others have been known for centuries. It is generally thought that group unison music reduces perceived exertion, allowing greater effort toward the common goal.
I am a career physiology researcher in extreme environments. That means I spend much time directly testing humans to see what they can do, then how to make them better at it. Doing experimental and research work personally, makes it easier to know if what you hear about fitness is true, or just another of countless repeated myths. Even doctors learn from books that are often not primary sources, just repeated by someone else who learned it in school, repeated from a non-primary source.
In the military, and since then, the Jody Calls interested me. I wanted to know if chanting and singing really make the work of running easier, or just make it seem easier, or perhaps even use more oxygen and is actually more work than running without singing. I did many laboratory experiments on Jody calls.
Some of the experiments I conducted involved running troops on treadmills at different speeds, with specially fitted masks, so that they could chant into the mask, or just breathe regularly for control tests. I collected their expired air (what they breathed out) and analyzed it for oxygen usage and carbon dioxide production, a measure of the work of running. I compared oxygen usage with chanting and without.
Why are U.S. military chants called Jody Calls? There are many stories, usually involving a civilian character named Jody or Jodie, who stayed home when you left… you left… you left… right… left….
Below, hopefully sound file will appear. Turn your computer sound on, and click the arrow to listen to one stereotype call of the U.S. Marine Corps:
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.
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?
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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.
David of Belgium developed and teaches an improved new yoga system. He presented it at a world yoga congress. His system corrects for the widespread pain syndromes from flexion overuse, and reduces the cause instead of adhering to set ritual pose sequences - Getting the Right Yoga Medicine. He continues to translate my work into Dutch, create links for posts to reach world audiences, and make dozens of photos and videos for Fitness Fixer posts.
Dr. Clara Hsu teaches Fitness Fixer methods to patients in her practice, prescribes my website, gives my books as presents around the world, and has offered her office space to hold workshops for our new International Academy - How Doctors Help Patients With Fitness Fixer and How Doctors Use The Wall Stand.
An anonymous reader took time to find a neighborhood association with volunteers to shop and deliver a food order at no extra charge to the blind diabetic widow in - Thank You To Readers - Simple Gifts
Thank you everyone for using my methods for Good. Thank you for writing your stories for others to benefit. Congratulations on your great work.
Thank you readers Mim, Kate, Al, Kathy, Julia, PhatMac, Eddie, Carol, Dave, Tony, Anton, Terry Lee, Airchild, Teresa, Nina, Marina, Wondering Oriental, 9Volt Terry, Alberto (farioreo), Kip, Lee, Ness, Jayakrishnan, Michael LMT CNMT who gives his massage clients the Fitness Fixer and my professional website DrBookspan.com as their homework, and all the others who wrote their success stories in the comments of various posts.
Hundreds more, too shy to have their story online, mailed me the best thanks - that because of these methods, they had their lives back.
Happy New Year
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Be in the Fitness Fixer Hall of Fame. Send me your success story of using these methods for good. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - (trumpet icon) upper right. Find your topics on the Fitness Fixer Index.
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.
Have The Fitness Fixer e-mailed to you, free. Click "updates via e-mail" - Health Expert Updates (trumpet icon) upper right column.
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.
Readers say they enjoy hearing how to do things, but often remain reluctant to try them. Here is a fun story of success trying a wall handstand for the first time.
Reader Liz first wrote how she fixed her lower back pain using Fitness Fixer methods. I enjoyed getting her organized intelligent e-mails showing how she paid attention to why things worked and how to apply them. I asked her if she did the wall handstand - for fun, and to strengthen in functional ways.
Liz wrote:
"I read your reassuring posts about this but it still looks scary. I'm just not used to being physical, being raised to be "Ladylike" although I'm trying all the time to push my boundaries. I liked your description of you leaping up from your desk and doing a handstand. That marvelous description has stuck in my mind. One day I shall try it, you are very inspiring."
"All you do is put your hands like a pushup on the floor and step your feet up on a chair or wall behind you. "The post has a short movie."
Liz replied:
"I shall try it! First I must visualize myself doing it a few times, and watch the video a bit more too. When I watched it I tried to feel my own arms and legs doing the same movements. I find that helps when I attempt something very new. Also I like the idea of trying it on a chair first, or perhaps I'll work my way up a wall, low at first.
"And after all that I just did it. Felt very odd, never felt like that before. My head full of blood, my arms wobbly (working on the upper body strength) all my tummy and thigh muscles working very hard to keep me straight. I had a few false starts and tried it with each leg, very badly. I'm not strong enough to do it very close to the wall, when I get better at it I expect I will be able to."
I was so happy. I wrote to Liz:
"I am thrilled with you (again).
"Thank you for your faith and trying this. Quick, just snap a photo - a camera phone photo e-mailed to me is fine - anything so that I can throw this up on the Fitness Fixer success stories.
"I never knew that so many people were just not trying the handstands. They write, and sigh, that it is for other people, not them. I am writing this all precisely for them - the very people who need it most - to build the strength, body knowledge, and self confidence that modern fitness removes.
"Enjoy this. Grab bunches of photos. I'll do the work of sorting them out."
Liz replied:
"Hello Dr Jolie, "I found a clear spot, in the hall, where my husband could get a clear shot of me doing a handstand. I was concentrating really hard, and my face was bright red from all my blood pooling in my head, so no smiling face for the photo I'm afraid! I did a downward facing dog first to get comfy with the top down bottom up feeling, then up I went and I held it for a good 25 seconds too!
"I'll work on the other photos.
"Hope you can use this, if it's the wrong size let me know and I'll resend. "Happiness, liz."
What a great handstand. Look at that great neutral spine. Feet so high up on the wall. So much so easily and quickly. What a success.
I wrote to Liz that I was proud of her for trying things that build the strength, body knowledge, and self confidence that modern fitness with arbitrary artificial movements and little sets and reps removes.
Liz replied:
"So true, I felt very proud of myself! I'm going to do it again right now!"
Click the label "handstand" under this post for all posts teaching how to learn various kinds of handstands.
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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.
14,000 Miles on a Bike - Herniating and Fixing Discs
Monday, November 24, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Kristin S was run over by a hit-and-run driver while biking home from work. The car's trailer hitch crushed her face, nose, jaw, cheekbones, and eye sockets inward to her sinus cavities. After Kristin's reconstructive surgery, her step-mother, a student in my martial arts classes, asked me to make a house call to get Kristin back to physical activity. When I met Kristin, she had just had the wiring removed from her jaw, was moving slowly and painfully, and could barely open her mouth when she greeted me at the door.
We had a good session. I showed Kristin several of my rehab methods. She was a good listener and applied everything well. She rehabbed quickly and went back to biking, her socially conscious work, and her active life.
Kristin soon designed a bike trip called The EarthCycle Campaign to raise public awareness of ways to reduce common practices that waste and destroy world resources. Her trip extended 14,000 miles (22,530 kilometers) from Fairbanks, Alaska USA to Tierra Del Fuego, Antártida e islas del Atlántico Sur, Argentina.
I donated some of my books to Kristin to raffle along with her other fund raising activity for the trip, then off she went.
Along the 14,000 mile ride, Kristin stopped in villages and cities to exchange information about simple ways that we all can lower our impact on Earth's environment.
Months of biking passed. Kristin's back pain began.
Pain worsened as she rode mile after mile, through villages, open roads, and cities. She tried exercises she found on various web sites and doctors visited in cities she passed through. She did yoga. She stretched. The pain worsened. After one medical evaluation, the doctors told her results showed several herniated discs in her lower back. From there, she was told by every doctor that it was permanent and she had to stop biking. The rehab they gave her didn't help.
I received a short e-mail from somewhere on the road - "Help me, how do I fix this, they said I have to live with pain and have to stop the tour."
I chided her good-naturedly, "Kristin you should have read my books before selling them :-)" I e-mailed her back explaining the uncomplicated way that discs can be injured and also healed.
A herniated disc nearly always bulges (herniates/moves/slips/migrates/extrudes) toward the back of the spine, not the front. What pushes it to the back? You do.
Sitting with a rounded back physically angles the spine bones (vertebrae) closer in front and farther apart in back. The "opening" in back is often mistakenly written about as a positive way to make space for the nerves, but what is missed is that the bones pinching closer in front make unequal pressure, like squeezing a tube of toothpaste from one end. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Contents are squeezed outward to the other side. The discs are mashed and degenerated in front and pushed outward (herniated), little bit by bit, in back. At left (hopefully since we're still having graphics problems) is a graphic of the process from the post: Disc Pain - Not a Mystery, Easy to Fix. Two vertebrae are shown from a side view, as if you are sitting facing right. The right-hand drawing shows how sitting bent forward physically pushes discs (herniates them).
Sitting and standing straight would make space in a healthier way for the nerves.
Disc herniation is a process taking a few years, just like the damage of smoking or eating junk food accumulates until the heart is damaged enough to hurt.
I e-mailed Kristin telling her that a herniated disc is a simple injury, not a condition. It can heal if you understand and stop the bad postures that push the disc outward. In her case, it was sitting bent rounded over her bike, and unhealthful stretching and yoga. Here is what she did to understand and fix it all:
So was her yoga. If you already spend time bent forward and have the usually result of a flexion injury, you don't need more forward bending stretches - Getting the Right Yoga Medicine.
Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives. 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.
Today the United States observes the national and state holiday of Veterans Day, formerly called Armistice Day and Remembrance Day.
November 11 is the anniversary of the 11th hour signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. It is commemorated annually to remember military veterans.
Important to remember, is that by an Act of Congress in 1938, it was intended as, "A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace."
Click the label Spirit under this post for ideas for more peaceful dealings in the world. Peace must be practiced like any other exercise, to make you fit and strong.
To promote a safer healthier world, I will donate signed books as gifts to Fitness Fixer readers serving in harm's way. I have a small supply of the third edition expanded "Ab Revolution™ No More Crunches No More Back Pain," if you can cover shipping. Contact me through the BOOKS link of my web site and let me know your APO.
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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 - prevent a common habit that weakens your character - judging others.
After talking to someone, passing them on the street, leaving a party, interacting with them on a checkout line, meeting, internet site, or telephone, do you inventory their perceived faults? Do you pass your poor temperament to others by retelling the list? Notice if you harm yourself with this habit, and instead, decide to leave an interaction with clean character:
Never think you know someone well enough to judge them.
This truth comes from my black belt student Christopher Emmolo.
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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The Olympics begin this Friday. Reader Mike asked in the comments to the post Not Old for the Olympics Part II that in addition to other performance enhancements, is it fair to have superior inherited ability? In the Star Trek Next Generation episode "Peak Performance," a training exercise between two ships was deliberately mismatched in armaments, crew, and maneuverability. When the first officer chafed at this, asking what was the official's word for "mismatch" the reply was, "Challenge!"
Mike wrote,
"This was a great article pointing out the ethics of performance enhancement. Money, time, altitude chambers, and speed suits are all an advantage when others don't have them. Then, is it a fair race? I was hoping you were going to get to inherited ability … which brings up the issue that even when all food intake, psychology, training, and equipment are equal, genetics wins out, so how much pride can one take in his accomplishments knowing that a good chunk of one's success was a gift over which you can't overcome? After all, you can't make a quality chair if you're given just balsa wood! This reminds me that we shouldn't take ourselves so seriously based on the outcome of our athletic dominance over others. I should just try to improve my own performance against my previous performances."
In martial arts, the win does not always go to the taller or stronger person. Athletic ability needs numerous coordinated skills. If the outcome were always for the bigger or faster fighter, there would be no betting in boxing or any other sport.
Inherent ability doesn't always decide the outcome. It's not a matter of not being able to teach a pig to sing. My carpenter husband Paul can make a solid comfortable chair from balsa wood, paper, (even Jell-O™, he speculates, thanks to Mike's post) by dint of skill and love of his craft.
The "Peak Performance" episode emphasized, "The person in the superior position is expected to win. How one performs in a mismatch is precisely of interest. We don't whine about the inequalities of life."
To learn how to build your spirit and body, regardless of what sport you play, or even if you do no sports at all, try the book Healthy Martial Arts.
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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.
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."
During the part of the year that we live in the United States, we have a luxury - a washing machine. You put clothes in it, and it washes them for you. You come back later, hang out the clothes, and the Earth dries them for you. Luxury.
Recently the old washing machine could not wash any more. I always appreciated the machine, but I rediscovered something else. Washing clothes by rubbing them on a washboard, and wringing water from heavy canvas work jeans and martial arts uniforms is vigorous hand and arm exercise.
Occasionally, sources for arthritis information state that if you have arthritis of the hands or wrists, avoid wringing clothes and instead, purchase a tool that squeezes the cloth to remove the water for you. However, it is not use of the hands or a wringing action in itself that causes arthritis pain. Use of the hands improves function, improves joint health, improves the strength that allows you to accomplish more without strain, and is an important part of arthritis prevention and management.
Good use and exercise of the hands does not mean to move the area no matter how much it hurts. Misuse - bad movement habits - is often the culprit in wear and pressure on the area. Instead of craning the wrist and fingers back and levering the wringing action on the finger joints, wrist and base of the thumb, use the muscles of the hand and forearm, as well as the entire arms to power the wringing action. Start with fun gentle squeezing, let the hands warm through real life use, and continue to improve function through use.
There is no need to keep straight wrists or splint them to keep them straight. Splinting may temporarily reduce pain, but reduces strength and function which often leads to bigger problems. It is not a healthful or useful solution to, "limit the patient to limit the pain." Use your body, have fun, be active, and be able to move for normal daily function. Use healthful body mechanics and the actions will be far more likely to build you than injure.
More posts on strengthening the hands are on the way.
More on distributing weight on muscules of the arm and hand instead of compressing the joints:
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This weekend the United States observes the national holiday of Memorial Day, formerly called Decoration Day, a day to remember soldiers fallen in war.
May we be so strong of body, Strong of spirit, Strong of humanity That none need war, That no soldiers need fall
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:
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Is your arm strong enough to put down the junk food, soda, ice cream, French fries, fast food, cookie, processed sugar products masquerading as sports food, lunch meats, Danish, donut, cigarette, chips, pretzels, recreational drugs.
They are not healthy. They are not necessary. They are a bad habit. They work against you. They reduce your fitness. They create dependence. their production creates extra litter and pollution. It is money that is not necessary to spend that you could put toward healthful good food, or helping the poor.
How strong are you really? Is your arm strong enough to put them back down, away from your mouth?
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.
Equinox - An Exercise in Treating People With Equality
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Today is the equinox. As the earth continues on its yearly path around the Sun, the center of the disk of the Sun passed over the Earth's equator at 1:48 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time this morning (March 20, 05:48 Universal Time). At the date of the equinox, night and day are approximately equal length all over the world (small variations for refractive effects). The Northern Hemisphere begins Spring, while the Southern Hemisphere begins the shorter days of Fall. Each day, for the next three months, days will become a few minutes longer and nights shorter in the Northern hemisphere. Our Southern Hemisphere friends will have longer nights each night until the Solstice in June.
Japan celebrates six days of the Spring equinox (shunbun no hi). Graves are visited during the week to reflect on looking forward and back. The six days are based on the six perfections: giving, observance of virtuous teachings, perseverance, effort, contemplation, and wisdom. Nowruz, in various spellings, is a major Spring observance among many Eastern religions. Nowruz comes from Persian words meaning "new daylight." Observances may date to at least 15,000 years ago. Diverse Indo-European cultures celebrated the Spring Goddess-mother and source of returning life. In the West, many observe the return of Spring and life with symbols of eggs, birth, passing, and rebirth.
The equinox is a fitting time to reflect on equality. That does not mean that everyone must get the same shoe size, but that you consider someone of higher or lower social rank with the same respect.
There is a story that at the end of the final exam of the finest MBA program in the country, was one question, "What is the name of the person who cleans the floors of this building?" Anyone not able to answer this did not get a degree that semester.
Do you say hello to the people who work so hard to make a beautiful place for you to learn and work? Do you care who they are? They are a special human being like you are. Learn their name. Say hello. See the difference it makes to them and to your world outlook.
Valentines Day is for everyone, not just couples. It is healthy to have active fun with family and friends too.
Monday's post Valentine Partner Pushups gives a fun partner exercise idea. Here are more variations for active fun with children and friends of many ages.
Babies and children love to move. They can hold their body weight. Get them started early. Don't let them lose this strength by making them sit still and eat. Get up from the table and play. That is Valentines Day love.
Try these with friends
This man is doing a partner handstand with his young daughter. It is a lot of good exercise and balance for both:
I will cover how to do this partner handstand in a future post. Send in your own photos of fun exercise with family and friends.
Exercising in social ways is healthy. Valentine's Day is this week. This week I will post several ideas for fun active partner exercise. Start with this version of partner pushups, then have fun making up your own.
Pushups give full body physical benefit when done with neutral spine. Here are two posts that explain how to tell neutral spine while holding a pushup position and how to correct an overarching lower back (hyperlordosis) to neutral spine:
Important festivals of new beginnings fall around this time of year. The Lunar New Year began this week. It is a big festival. It is New Year to many people. Lent began for Latin rite followers, and the Triodion that marks the Lenten start for Eastern Orthodox will fall on Feb 17 this year. This past week was marked by wearing ashes in several cultures. Ash is deeply symbolic of endings, transience, and transformation.
Ash begins black with substance and turns white with formlessness, a symbol explained last year in The Story of the Black Belt. Ashes are used to clean bodies and spirits. They symbolize wisdom that remains when all else is burned away. All things eventually become ash. Catholics wore ashes last Wednesday. Hindus used bhasma, the sacred ash, at the recent festival we attended to learn more about wound healing, told in this post - Thaipusam - Exercise of Body and Spirit.
In the North, February is a harsh month. Through the cold and dark, the first plants begin to bud and animals show growing signs of spring births to come. The first signs of returning life inspired the February 1st Imbolc festival of Brigid (the Bride) a Celtic goddess. The Church later replaced this festival with Candlemas on February 2, dedicated to the Virgin Mother Mary. Both festivals are marked by candles and fire, a mark of the coming end of winter and the return of crops. Shinto followers celebrate this as Setsubun Sai.
To help your New Years resolutions (or remind you to start) here is a link to a post with labels that will give all posts on the label topic: New Year's Resolutions Made Easy.
"I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that after suffering for many years from back (scoliosis) and neck (arthritis) pain, it was my good fortune to happen upon your website. I read every word, tried the movements and postures and found an immediate measure of relief from the pain that no doctor, chiropractor, physical therapist or massage therapist has been able to help (I am 56). I immediately ordered a number of your books, read them from cover to cover, gave them to my daughter and son-in-law and then ordered more for my son.
"I took your books with me to New Orleans, where I worked for 10 days as a volunteer building houses, and am happy to report the exercises and stretches allowed me to climb ladders, wield heavy loads and hammer nails without further consequence to my back and neck.
"As mentioned by most people, I found instant relief upon simply correcting the positions of my neck and back. I took the books to New Orleans with me and did most of the stretches, especially the side bending, back extension, hip and hamstring ones. I also took great care with my positioning with the construction work and lifting. "Before I found you, because I was in so much pain, I had stepped up my go-to stretching routine gleaned from years of aerobics and some yoga, which always included toe touching with straight knees and plow and all those exercises you say not to do. I thought it was good that I could touch my toes on the floor behind my head in a plow or my palms to the floor bending forward. Ouch!
"I've also been doing many of the strength-building exercises, trying to work up from the elementary to the more difficult. It's fun stuff and it feels SO GOOD!
"Thank you for putting so much information out there for the long-suffering public! Sincerely, Marla Black"
"PS - my daughter is a triathlete and she and her husband have been doing all the bad stretching and wrong postures. Her neck and back were starting to hurt. I gave them the books and they are already onboard and feeling the difference!"
As you read this, we have been traveling for work and are again on several days of flights back to Asia, with a few errands on the way. For the next two months in Asia, I will check in and post from Internet cafes as we make our way through work and travel on overnight trains and ferries. Here is the link to the post and photos from last year on our way back.
I won't have access to Internet or e-mail for the next week. If you have questions, I won't be able to receive them until after that. Check for posts already here on Fitness Fixer. The post New Year's Resolutions Made Easy gave a list of labels that access all posts with each topic. I drafted a post on long sitting that Healthline staffer Jerry will post for you on Wednesday, thank you Jerry.
If you send photos, send small jpgs so that my e-mail does not fill, and so that I can directly upload them without finding a graphics program to resize them for posts.
Later this month, at the full moon, we hope to be learning more about wound healing at the Thaipusam. Then back to the north to the Muay Thai Monks on Horseback, and training at several places in Thai Boxing.
On our travels through Thailand we hope to see our friends, including an eagle who adopted me.
These ladies are in their 80's and 90's. Last year we all went to the King of Thailand's flower exposition. They wore their best clothes. When friends arrived with their truck, the ladies easily climbed up the tailgate over the side of the truck bed. I thought Paul and I should ride outside and let them sit inside. The daughter took my arm and said, "No. She stronger dan yooou!" They explained that the Grandmothers had sat outside all their lives, and walked before they had rides.
We will stay for some time at a school that has become a home to us. The cook there, named Ahn, escaped from desperate conditions in Myanmar (Burma). Earning a few dollars a day in Thailand, working long days without time off, is riches by comparison. One year I got her a children's ABC book to learn to read English. I was thrilled when she took the arm of another Burmese helper and sat with the book, writing in page after page. She worked on it for days. She proudly presented it to me - translated all in Burmese. She thought I wanted to learn Burmese and spent her only free time to do this as a present for me.
A few years ago, before leaving the US for Asia, some of my students asked if they could donate to help her. About 150 students enthusiastically agreed. They signed a card, that we translated into Burmese. They all put money in a hat, totaling strangely, only about $50. I matched it to make a $100 gift. This is more than a month's salary for Ahn. We could give her much, put her niece through school, with so little.
I put it in a drab little purse and wrapped it as a present. Ahn graciously received the gift of what she thought was an ugly cheap bag. She smiled and thanked us and bowed low. I told her, "Look inside later." The next year, we found that she donated the entire amount to the temple to ask for blessings - for us.
At the same school, the Grandmother there is a feisty funny lady. We came to love her quickly and look forward to seeing her every year. She is in her 90's. I am not sure exactly, but maybe more than 95. She loves to joke and tease. In the photo above she is sitting at lunch that Ahn brought. She sits easily in full squat and rises easily.
Once as we were entering the school, she squatted down fully to rummage through her purse to get her keys. I tried to get her photo. When she saw me raise a camera, she bolted up and ran to a table with Western style chairs, and sat there, upright, with legs crossed and hands on her knees. She said she didn't want her photo "sitting like a farmer." Nothing I could manage to ask in my best Thai convinced her to let me show the world how strong and great she is.
Last year, while visiting them, the subject of Muay Thai came up, a martial art which is the national sport. She once ran a Muay Thai school. The next thing we knew, she was giving us lessons. I trained and competed in Muay Thai in the Netherlands and Thailand, and know that she gave us all a tough training. Then she grabbed her friend, a lady in her late 80's and sat her on the floor for a lesson too. Look how easily they bend and sit on the floor in this photo.
Here is a short movie of the last 30 seconds of her giving a lesson. Click the arrow to play. Watch how easily they both rise to a stand at the end. We hope you feel happy and inspired by her, and try it too. Last summer, she passed away, strong to the last.
Readers have been asking about overeating, drinking, not having time to exercise, and overstressing on the holidays. Is it unavoidable? How can you resist things that are bad for you. Of all times to mark an occasion that is meaningful to you, that marks endings and new beginnings of a new year, celebrates thanks, a rite of passage, a national day of remembrance, a day marking something holy to your highest beliefs, the reflection of a new things coming, that day is the time to be free of baggage. Of all times to do simple, healthful actions for yourself and others, this is the time.
After the fuss of the holidays, then what? After the smiles and gifts, where are happy times? Where are your resolutions? The rest of the year is also the time to check in on loved ones, sweep the floors of a shut-in, and do healthy actions. At a funeral, everyone is there helping. The next week, the survivors sit alone. On Western Christmas, cars stop at the steam grates to give mittens and treats to the homeless huddled to keep warm. The rest of the year, cars pass without stopping.
On Christmas, most of the grates are empty as the city programs sweep up homeless for day-long programs. Each year before and after Christmas I cook thick vegetable soup, bake fresh loaves, pack up, put on my Santa hat, and head out into the weather to the grates.
We know many of the guys. I make food for them the rest of the year, or we go in the convenience stores to pick up things for them when the store won't let them in. My dinners cast steam curls upward. They chuckled, "Heh heh it be Saaaan--tah." We squatted down with them and unpacked dinner. I gave out toothbrushes as presents. They smiled angelic toothless smiles. They asked me the weather report, which called for storms, but I told them it didn't smell like storms. The air smells different somehow when it is going to storm.
The photo is Paul who worked as a Western-style Santa when we helped at a center. Little girls ran to sit on his lap. So did big girls. Many men too. At almost 7 feet tall, Paul has enough knee-space for everyone.
Christmas is not over. Eastern Orthodox Christmas will be in almost 2 weeks, since the Julian calendar date of 25 December is January 7. Armenian Orthodox celebrate Jan 6. On lunar calendars, there are the Festivals of Light of Devali and hanukah. The winter solstice, Yalda, Saturnalia, Karachun, Kwanzaa, Yule, "Mother Night or "Modresnach," and Shinto Tohji-taisai are also celebrated around this time. There are festivals of appreciation, such as the Purnima. Islamic New Year of Muharram will be January 10th.
Be happy, be healthy. Is it not hard. It is not expensive. It is not stressful. Breathe. Stretch. Happy Holidays.
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.
"How good it is to have friends visit from afar" - The first lines of the Analects of Confucius (Confucius is the Western name of Chinese scholar K'ung Fu Tzu)
Every year at Thanksgiving, some of my students are far from home or without a family to visit. We invite them to our little house for a warm meal on cushions by the fireplace.
We tell them the food is vegetarian and we sit on the floor without Western-style furniture. Some suddenly remember an uncle in Boston they'll visit. This year we're pleased that a former student is flying from Japan to visit after studying with us here years ago.
This is the link to last year's Fitness and Health as a Lifestyle for Thanksgiving to help holiday lifting, carrying, cooking, cleaning, and preparations. Here are more easy fun Thanksgiving fitness-as-a-lifestyle ideas:
Sitting on the floor with good positioning is healthier than in chairs, and gives a built-in hip stretch. Done in rounded positioning, it is the same as bad sitting in chairs. Use Quick and Easy Strength and Balance Exercise.
Vegetarian and vegan food makes a full, healthy, good tasting Thanksgiving feast. It does not have to be strange or spartan. Avoid unfermented soy in powdered protein drinks, bars, and textured vegetable protein. It is not as healthy as promoted. Real food gives protein, and is healthier. See Is Your Health Food Unhealthful? and Get Muscles for Christmas.
While standing to prepare food at the counter, put your shoulders back with chin loosely in and hip tucked to neutral - photo example in Fast Fitness - Homemade Sports Food. Then your neck and back will not hurt during cooking.
Even if you need to hurry to prepare and clean, remember to be happy that you are well-off enough to have things to prepare and clean.
Have kids help, rather than stressing to do everything alone while they miss the discipline, good habits, and exercise of helping you. Make it fun to be together.
Instead of hunching shoulders and rushing to get the cooking done, straighten, breathe, and use each stroke of washing and cutting as a meditation.
Get free bending and spiritual exercise by cleaning closets to donate clothing to warm someone in need. Every year Paul and I stand with a clothing bag in city alleys near the shelters. Extra large homeless women take Paul's extra large shirts and jackets. Squirrelly homeless men pick out my small jeans. They smile jagged-toothed smiles at their new clothes. We enjoy listening to their stories and sharing warm home-baked food with them.
Laugh until your cheeks hurt.
"Before eating, give thanks to the food" - Arapaho Native American proverb.
When possessions break, give thanks for having possessions, which is more than much of the world has. When your faucet leaks, give thanks that you have running water. When we lived in Asia, we walked down only two flights to a bathroom then climbed back two flights with a jug of water for cooking. People in many places in the world walk miles just for the privilege of digging for food and carrying heavy water pots back. That gives perspective on Westerners who easily eat much and exercise little, and believe only the most minor contributors to weight gain - Metabolism - How to Lose Weight and Save Money.
There are groups of mountain monks in Japan, who, after going to the bathroom, give thanks because everything worked. Learn to give thanks for all the little things and big things.
Get rid of an enemy this Thanksgiving. Abraham Lincoln explained: "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
We are fortunate to have food, and cushions, and a warm fire, and friends who visit from afar. Thank you readers for using my work to make your lives better. You are my gifts.
More on the exercise of living happily and giving thanks in Healthy Martial Arts.
November 1 is World Vegan Day, and all of November is celebrated as Vegan month.
Vegans are vegetarians who don't eat, and often don't wear, any products from animals. The idea is no more unusual than not wanting to hurt, wear, or eat your pets. Vegan living can be healthier, and vegan diet can fuel both endurance and strength athletes.
Vegans and vegetarians have been found to have lower body fat on average than non-vegetarians, and lower risk of diabetes. A new study by The World Cancer Research Fund making big news as "a landmark study" found that keeping slim is one of the best ways of preventing cancer, and that evidence is stronger than previously realized that eating meat, and processed meats such as ham and bacon, increase risk of colorectal cancer. The report makes 10 recommendations including getting exercise every day, drinking water rather than sugary drinks, and eating fruit, vegetables, and fiber. There is no fiber in meat, dairy, or eggs. Vegan meals can provide enough calcium to prevent osteoporosis. See Exercise is More Important Than Calcium Supplements for Bones and Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures.
Vegans may promote farm sanctuaries and work for better ways than vivisection (hurtful testing on animals). The argument is not if you would rather that a child not get needed medicine rather than test on an animal, the quest is for neither to suffer, and find smarter, healthier ways for all. Significant examples exist of tests based on animal physiology that were ineffective or injurious when applied to humans in need.
Vegan bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams is pictured above and at right. His web site is www.VeganMusclePower.org.
In the tradition of fighting monks, Chris Price is a vegan Muay Thai and mixed martial arts fighter. His web site is http://www.veganfighter.com/
Helpful Book: Healthy Martial Arts - Healthier training for all sports, featuring vegetarian and vegan athletes. Chapters on strength, endurance, speed, balance, nutrition, performance enhancement, injuries, building the spirit and the mind.
Happy Birthday to readers who celebrate their birthday today, October 31. Also those with birthdays yesterday and tomorrow. Everyday too.
One reader with a special birthday today is Ivy who turns 71 - Inspiring Ivy. Ivy has been generously sending in stories for all to benefit, giving ideas for healthy exercise as part of normal daily life.
"I hope I can look as great as Pearl does when I reach 97, she is amazing. You will smile when I tell you that I did this fun test on the internet whereby you have to answer 34 questions re your health, what you eat, if you take medication etc. etc. The answer came back that I really was 45.5 years of age and I was going to live until I was 106.5 years of age.
"I had already told my kids that I am going to live until I am 96 and that it would be pay back time. I have now changed it to 106.5 years of age - my very words being "May God help you." Of course they laughed - I reminded them of the old saying 'Words said in Jest.'"
Happy Birthday! We made everyone delicious Internet birthday party and Halloween party food. Everyone come celebrate.
Happy Halloween and everyday. "Boo unto others" with good happy food, activity, and spirit. Celebrate everyday, by eating, moving, and living with fun, happy, intelligent, good spirit. Here is a Halloween poem to laugh:
Don't yell at us Don't scream and shout 'Cause when we're scared Our eyes fall out!
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?
A special story came in. I had been answering inquiries from a reader who wrote me to ask how to stop her mother's knee pain, and after her mother was better, to help her father. I was charmed by this good daughter who wanted to help her parents. She faithfully taught her mother everything I wrote her, and she wrote back with results. I didn't know where she was from, and didn't ask. In the weeks of letters back and forth, she caringly scanned and e-mailed me copies of lab reports and pharmacy prescriptions. She asked good questions about the medicines and tests and how they could help her parents. The tests and prescriptions had notes in Arabic and distinctive generic names. I wondered if I might wind up on a watch list of people who correspond with people from certain countries. In one reply that I wrote, I headed the instructions on knee pain with, "To whoever else may read this, please use it to stop your knee pain too, for more peace and less pain in the world."
Here is the story of Katayon:
"I belong to Afghanistan and I am very grateful to Dr. Jolie Bookspan. My mother’s knees pain was my biggest concern for a long time. She went to more than six best doctors here in Pakistan. But all she got was medicine for relieving her pain which not always helped her. She was also told not to walk a lot and rather sit on the chair most of the time. My mom is young and still it’s very soon for her to spend her life just sitting. Doctors said the cartilage inside her kneecap has dried and can never be recovered and she will always have the pain. And that the only way is to always use those tablets. This really bothered me to think of her feeling pain all her life.
"After trying the doctors in the city, I selected the option of getting support through the internet. That is where I fortunately found Dr Jolie Bookspan who always keeps telling me that medicine is not the only option. But rather we have to adopt healthy movements. In the first stage, this knowing this thing encouraged and cheered me a lot. She also introduced me to the free articles- exercises related to knee pain and back pain, on her website. I have checked almost a lot of those useful links and currently I am following a lot of those helpful movements, exercises and directions mostly for knee pain. Currently I am also suffering from knee pain which is due to weakness of my muscles as the doctors here have told me. Dr Jolie has been a great help for me and my mother.
"And now I and my mother are feeling much better. I learned not to use knee-bands (bracing) because it further weakens the joints instead of strengthening them. I have shared all what I leaned with my whole family. So we are all blessed with an opportunity of adopting healthy joints movements. Besides a lot of other very useful guidance, I learned these important things: climbing the stairs putting full flat foot on the ground avoiding knees coming forward, so overall moving the knees in a healthy way which should not create pain while walking – I am practically doing this and I really see how useful and pain free it is; while picking something from the ground, trying to avoid knees coming forward and instead making it like sitting on a chair. So all in all, we are following all of the guidance and tips which really are pain free and help my knee joints get strengthened. I and my mother regularly every morning and anytime during the day we find time do the squat and lunge exercise which are very much helpful. Not only this, but I have also shared this exercise and all of the other healthy tips with my office colleagues who are suffering from knee pain.
"I never thought of a way out but only as the doctor said that the only option is to have medicine for whole life, whereas Dr. Jolie changed the whole thing for me encouraging me to have fun and keep walking pain free. I feel very fortunate to have found her. And I appreciate all of her time and efforts that she makes to help the world live without pain. I and my mother are deeply inspired by what she is doing to help the people. And we wish her best of luck and lots of energy to keep on her good job." Katayon Q – Afghanistan
Why is there a picture of a flower with this story? A personal photo was not the right thing. I asked Katayon what photo she thought would represent her story and country. She wrote:
"With this email I am sending a picture to go with my story. I was thinking of something to show relief and happiness as a result of being healthy. And I came up with the idea of selecting flower picture for my story. To me, a flower presents every positive thing."
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Train speed and eye-hand coordination while having fun.
Have you seen martial arts movies where the master catches a fly with his chopsticks? The true master doesn't restrain or harm the lives of others. In the spirit of healthful exercise, World Vegetarian month and higher spirit, try this instead:
Tear a sheet of paper to different size pieces
Throw in the air
Catch as many pieces as you can as they flutter downward.
Want more? Use only one hand to catch. Then switch.
You can play this with children too. Get more exercise and prevent pain by using healthy bending to pick pieces up and start again.
This post tells the Hip Stretch story started with Inspirational Ivy in August. In that post, Ivy tells how she used healthful body mechanics to fix a serious and extended attack of sciatica and foot drop the year before. Several posts since, have given fun updates. Here is the fun that the Hip Stretch started:
Feb 2006, Ivy from New Zealand wrote to me,
"My hips are tight, particularly the right side that being the side I had the severe attack of sciatica. I have worked so hard on my hamstrings and my "dropped" foot, the bonus being that I am winning. Now it is time to put the same amount of work into my hips."
"I am jumping for joy. No, I haven't won a million dollars.
"After having been doing the posterior hip stretch lying down for the past 21 months twice a day, I can now do the same stretch sitting. My hips have always been so tight and there was no way that I could get my ankle across the knee - this has been my goal and I have done it. I have to be honest, I have not got it to perfection, that being my next goal. I wonder if that will take another 21 months. It just shows that a little persistence pays off in the end. I trust that all is well with you."
Twenty-one months - what a dedicated learner. It was a joy to work with enthusiastic Ivy. I wrote back saying it should not take so long, and asked if she did the stretch standing up to put on shoes and socks to make it real life, not an artificial stretch. Ivy wrote back,
"I have tried standing to put my sox on and cannot quite make it YET (note the yet), that will come. I do, however, ensure that I always stand to remove my sox, and the like. Also to put them on except for the sox. I also stand when I moisturize my legs and feet - I do this so as to improve my balance."
I wrote back encouraging putting socks and shoes on and off while standing. The point of stretching is healthy function, not to "do a stretch" just to have a greater range. The benefit is from applying the stretch to ability to stand steadily on one foot and have muscle stretch and length to put on shoes standing .
Four hours later Ivy wrote back:
"Wow, I did it. I have just returned from a 30 minute walk, did some lunges as a further warm up and thought I would give it a try. I cheated, instead of shoes, I used slippers - I thought it would be easier. Tomorrow I will try shoes.
"Dr Jolie, you are my inspiration, you asked if I could do it and that set me a challenge. I must NEVER SAY CAN'T. As you are probably aware, I am a very motivated woman, however, there is no one to spur me along - you have done that and again, I can only say a huge thank you."
The next day this arrived,
"I am very pleased with myself. I just needed that push. As I said yesterday, I must never say can't again.
"Again, all I can say is a huge thank you. A huge hug from me."
Readers, stand with safe balance to dress. Send me your fun photos, mpegs (short computer video) and stories of using healthful range of motion for daily life.
Ivy is a great-grandmother! (and a pretty great person too). She says,
"I guess I am very much like my late father who was a quiet achiever who used to tell me to 'stand tall and be proud of who you are' - I pass this advice on to my kids all the time."
"Vegetarians have the best diet. They have the lowest rates of coronary disease of any group in the country. [T]hey have a fraction of our heart attack rate and they have only 40 percent of our cancer rate." —William Castelli, M.D., Director, Framingham Heart Study, the longest-running epidemiological study in medical history
From my work in sports medicine, I will add to Dr. Castelli's work that I see fairly consistent reduction in joint pain and other pain syndromes when patients stop known "inflammatory foods" including meat and dairy.
October 1 is World Vegetarian Day (www.WorldVegetarianDay.org). The month of October is Vegetarian Awareness Month. The purpose is for a happier, more aware and respectful, and healthier society.
Hurting animals is unhealthy for all involved. In the spirit of healthy body and mind, this post gives four ideas:
Build your own health and benefit your exercise: food and recipes for better exercise training (regardless of your sport), and preventing disease and pain syndromes. Get the book Healthy Martial Arts
Free vegetarian starter kit, free newsletter, with materials in Spanish, to avoid cruelty to yourself, animals, and the Earth, one meal at a time - TryVeg.com
Reduce global warming: GoVeg.org reports on work published in NewScientist.com - It's Better to Green Your Diet Than Your Car (17 Dec. 2005). "You could exchange your "regular" car for a hybrid Toyota Prius and, by doing so, prevent about 1 ton of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year, but according to the University of Chicago, being vegan is more effective in the fight against global warming; a vegan prevents approximately 1.5 fewer tons of carbon dioxide from entering the atmosphere each year than a meat-eater does. The math is simple: You could spend more than $20,000 on a Prius and still emit 50 percent more carbon dioxide than you would if you just gave up eating meat and other animal products."
Feel encouraged. Being vegetarian or making occasional vegetarian meals does not have to involve any strange or expensive foods from specialty stores. You do not need any special pots or food processing equipment. It is a myth that vitamin supplements are necessary. Grocery bills can also be also far less expensive when you don't purchase meat (and don't substitute other expensive food that you do not need).
More Good Stuff:
I will post easy-to-make healthful (real) food for athletes and exercisers, during October vegetarian month, and for Vegan month in November.
Click the label "nutrition" under this article for all Fitness Fixer on healthy smart nutrition, and other labels for all posts on each topic. NonVegetarians are welcome.
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"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
Parcours is pronounced par-core. It is a French word meaning "course" or trail. A parcours is a path with obstacles at varied intervals. You navigate using your body and brain, similar to steeplechase. Some parcours are formally designed municipal parks. Some are impromptu collections of trees, walls, buildings, windows, and rocks. On a rainy day you can make your own in your house.
In ancient times, a course might involve days of travel. Today, several cities around the world have public courses used by people of all abilities and ages. Modern fitness programs use it, with names like freerunning and various brand names, but the idea is not new.
Stations may be a log to walk across, rings to swing on, various height and shape objects to stretch on and around, a place to see how far or high you can jump, something to balance on, a ladder or wall to climb over or under.
To get to the next station, you can walk, run, bike, skate, or whatever you can do. Parcours length varies from a block to miles. Some people make a day of it with picnics and rests between stations. Others go make a quick lunch run over part or all of the course.
In the early 1980s I was the first person to put exercise programs aboard cruise ships. Until then, cruises were associated only with deck chairs and food. I was told exercise would not catch on. I ran exercise, health education, and stretch classes, and led the scuba and snorkel trips. I also led a parcours, taking about an hour, all over the ship, from deck to deck, stem to stern, over and under tables, chairs, hatches, and railings, and through the cha-cha lessons. We ran, we walked, we balanced, we cha-cha'd, we tip-toed very fast to get away, we laughed.
Parcours uses the body in natural ways to build strength, spirit, and balance. It can be healthier, better training, and more fun than doing artificial repetitions of an isolated exercise.
More to come on keeping parcours safe for joints, and preventing injuries.
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Read success stories of these methods and send your own. 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.
Labor Day is an annual national holiday developed over 100 years ago as a tribute to the worker. It is generally less political than May Day, and more a day to renew yourself away from work.
Go away from the computer.
Walk or bike or skate outdoors nearby to somewhere green. Do real activity that you love. Doesn't have to be for long. Eat a piece of fruit instead of candy and soda. Lie with a book and learn something wonderful.
If someone cuts you off on the road or in a line and pushes ahead of you:
Smile, nod, and wave them ahead.
They may be on their way to the hospital. They may have just lost their job, their mother, their child. It may be their last day on Earth. They may be a lump who doesn't know goodness. Show them.
They insulted you? Smile, nod, and wave them ahead. It was never between you and them. It is between you and your Highest Spirit.
Inspirational Ivy II - Beating Foot Drop and Sciatica, and Getting Healthier
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Ivy had serious sciatica with foot drop. She had knee and other injuries. She was in awful pain. In this kind of foot drop, the nerve cannot serve the muscles enough to lift the foot to walk normally. The toes drag. The foot hangs limply and slaps the ground with each step.
Commonly, someone with foot drop is put in a leg brace for life. One surgery done for foot-drop fuses the ankle so the foot is rigid and doesn't hang. Other problems come over years from changes in walking mechanics. For the terrible pain, patients are often directed to drugs and surgery. These are not healthy.
We changed that:
Monday's post Inspirational Ivy told the essentials of stopping the cause of the sciatic pain and nerve impingement, rather than treat the results with unhealthy means. Links to specific methods are there.
Sciatica, disc damage, facet pain, and impingement are results, not the cause of pain. They are not a diagnosis. When you have them, find what is causing them. Then you can reverse the cause: The Cause of Disc and Back Pain
Ivy followed my directions exactly and used her brain to understand how to get the intended results, not just "do a bunch of exercises." When she first began, she wrote,
"Over the past few days, I have been very conscious of my movements and, hey presto, I have not experienced any tingling or pain. I have to take total responsibility for every movement I make. I am constantly telling myself 'Think before you go to the fridge or need to pick up something off the floor - think lunges.'"
I gave her simple gait retraining. Ivy quickly discarded the cane she had used for nearly 7 months.
Ivy went on to teach several neighbors in her community how to fix their own pain. One story is posted in Each One Teach One.
In April 2006, Ivy wrote,
"It is nearly 5 months since I started your wonderful programme so I thought it was time that I gave you an update. I am fit and well, the sciatica has disappeared, if I get a little niggle in that area, I ask myself as to what have I done wrong, my left knee (IT Band) is no longer a problem, my balance has improved immensely and the "dropped" foot is great, in fact, when I go for my daily walk, I no longer hear the plop, plop of which I hated. I can also now wear "normal" shoes.
"Without your help and support and putting me on the right road so to speak, I would still be in constant pain plus making the chiropractor richer. Please note, I no longer go to him for treatment - I DON'T NEED HIM."
At age 70, Ivy is steadily improving strength and range of motion using healthy movement for daily life. She is eating healthful vegetarian food. January 2007 brought this note:
"The reason for this e-mail being that I feel somewhat excited re a remark made by the son of one of my fellow villagers. His very words being, "How did you become the woman that you are now. I have watched you over the past couple of years - when I first met you, you were obviously in a lot of pain, what is your secret?"
"I also sent the photos to my son and daughter-in-law who live in the US, they too, could see the improvement - they thought I looked great. Mind you, over that 2 year period, I gradually lost 20 lbs."
--- 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. ---
In May, blog reader Bill (Lieutenant William Slabonik) sent an inspiring story - Freed From Pain, He Rides Again. Bill had been told by several sources that surgery and disability retirement were his only options. He used Fitness Fixer information to change a future as damaged as x-rays of his spine, to the active life he loves, without pain. He used information from the upper back and shoulder posts, among others, to learn how neck discs, upper back muscles, and other structures are damaged with mal-positioning, and how to employ healthy muscle use so the discs can heal and arm numbness stops, even riding long bike trips, lifting heavy gear, and in his demanding work as a pilot. He fixed low back chronic pain with the simple neutral spine repositioning away from a hyperlordotic (over-arched lower spine) when standing, shown in Prevent Back Surgery and all the posts on neutral spine.
In the May update, Bill told how he fixed the injuries and rode the Pennsylvania State Police Memorial century ride. Last week Bill reported in:
"My goal of riding the 200 km night ride down the Jersey shore was a success. I rode from 10pm 'til 9am with no problems covering the distance of 125 miles. I actually felt like I could go on a lot further. I have also completed a 2-day 200-mile ride to visit my brother-in-law in Maryland. I now can get on my bike on any day and reasonably crank out a hundred mile ride. No serious pain or discomfort noted. Only the usual slight soreness in the rear end and hands and elbows that seems to come with any long ride. The neck, shoulders and back did incredibly well, - I constantly checked my position while on the bike and did some "Healthy Stretching" whenever I was off the bike. Mission accomplished."
Note to readers - I will cover hand and arm soreness with biking in posts to come. I already worked with Bill to prevent local hand numbness from compressive leaning on the wrists, which Bill put to immediate use. I asked Bill to take photos for you of his simple changes in biking positioning to change damaging neck, shoulder, arm, and hand use to healthy ones.
Bill says,
"My son has promised to help me with the photos. I must ride herd on this project and get back to you soon.
"My confidence and health have skyrocketed. My daughters are leaving for college and I am looking forward to an empty house soon. They have thanked me for being there when they needed me and asked me why I just don't go and do something I would love to do. I am applying for retirement this morning and have completed an interview for a job flying in mainland China. I have two other airlines trying to get me to interview. Wish me luck on my next amazing adventure. And thanks for your help and encouragement."
Bill - Free Man
Bill, all hats off to you. Keep flying high. More good things are still to come. Keep us posted.
Today is Independence Day in the United States. The Declaration of Independence was drafted in June of 1776. Signing began by July. The paper itself didn't grant independence - work continued until independence came a few years later. After getting the idea to do something, the next thing is to take action. Here are ideas for a life free from things that are unhealthy - pain, unhealthful food, and exercises that reinforce bad habits:
Freedom from junk food:
Instead of soda, put a red sweet pepper in a food grinder. Cut about an inch of fresh ginger root and add through the grinder. In about 30 seconds preparation time you will have a sweet, cool, red, slushy drink with an exotic tang of ginger. Healthy and good tasting.
Instead of refined sugar sports drinks, put a peeled whole cucumber into the food grinder or low speed blender with a whole kiwi fruit. It will make a sweet, cool, slushy, green drink.
Instead of processed peanut butter and refined sugar jelly, put fresh raw nuts and apple slices into a grinder, mill, or chopper. In less than a minute of preparation time, you have a sweet nut butter that you can spread on fruit slices, carrots, and other good foods. Try walnuts, almonds, other fresh raw nuts, and experiment with different fruit combination to make different sweet creamy fresh nut butters.
Masses of products crowding store shelves claim to fix this and cure that. Millions of dollars are spent. The products seem dazzling, but much is hype and many produce unhealthy effects. Then more dollars are spent on more pills and products for the new problems caused by the medicines. Many prescribed medicines cause new problems that can be avoided. Stop the cycle and save yourself time, money, and unhappiness. If it is not healthy, it is not health care: Teen Dies After Using Muscle Soreness Rub Human Growth Hormone Is Your Health Food Unhealthful? Stomach Acid Drugs Increase Osteoporosis and Hip Fractures
Freedom from physical pain and injuries:
At the Special Operations Medical Association conference two years ago, it was released that 62% of our American injuries in Iraq are "Disease Non-Battle Injuries"(DNBI) - not from combat or supporting operations, but occurring in the gym. At the ACSM conference last month, a research study reported that their American military units had 17% DNBI injuries. I asked them how they kept their numbers so low. They replied that the number was for evacuations - injuries so serious they required removal from the base. Some of the most common exercise and stretching practices are not healthy. It is not that they are not good for some people or that they are overuse or done "wrong" - they are inherently bad movements. The same high injury rate is happening to fitness and yoga and Pilates instructors and students. I wrote about this in Welcome to the Fitness Fixer. Here are some specifics on why and what to do instead: Why So Many Aerobics Injuries? The Stretch You Need The Least Sitting Badly Isn't Magically Healthy by Calling It a Hamstring Stretch Safer Overhead Military Press Are You Making Your Exercise Unhealthy?
Abdominal crunches are a popular exercise, but they are not healthy. This is new and different information, I know. Crunches "work" your abdominal muscles, but not in a healthful or beneficial way, whether done sitting or standing or using a machine. Crunches also train rounded bad posture that you know is unneeded and unhealthy when sitting or standing that way in real life.
The idea that strengthening the abdominal muscles stops back pain is a myth. Many muscular people have pain. They do their crunches, then stand and move in the overly-arched spinal posture that is the hallmark sign that the abs are not even being used, and which creates one major kind of chronic pain: Fixing the Commonest Source of Mystery Lower Back Pain
The simple act of standing and doing all your activities and exercise without letting your lower spine overly arch, and instead keeping neutral spine, uses more abdominal muscle involvement than doing crunches:Using Abdominal Muscles is Not Tightening or Pressing Navel to Spine.
The book No More Crunches No More Back Pain The Ab Revolution explains a healthier better way to use and exercise your abs (114 illustrations 124 pages). I have a number of copies of the new 3rd edition expanded to give to military personnel as gifts. Contact me to send one (free) to someone you know, to keep our guys healthy.
Independence is Healthy: This post included links to a few past posts about being free of unhealthy things. Click the labels below each post for more related posts. Keep the things you do, eat, and think healthy. If a medicine is not healthy, it is not health care. If an exercise trains injurious body mechanics, use the time for healthier exercises that are more fun. There are better, healthier ways. Be free.
The previous post mentioned I am writing from the meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). Yesterday the ACSM ran a blood drive at the conference center. At a blood drive, volunteers donate a small amount of (their own) blood; only a pint. Giving blood is a helpful simple thing to do. Your body will quickly make more and replace the small amount you give.
You can give as often as every two months. Seventy-nine-year-old Lillian Bloodworth from Florida has given 160 times, spread over 40 years. Just giving one time in your life still makes you a hero. The single pint you give can be used to save several sick, even dying, people of any age.
Before donating, donors are screened through questions to make sure they have not engaged in practices that make them more likely to have diseases spread through blood. These practices can be sexual, injecting drugs for recreation or bodybuilding, even receiving tattoos or piercings. A small blood screening is done to assure that you have enough blood iron to make donation safe for you. Then you lie down comfortably while they take the blood from a vein in the inside of your elbow. A good phlebotomist (venipuncturist, blood donation taker) makes the process painless. A common topic in sports medicine is low iron. Medical texts devote much attention to populations with lowered iron levels, considering it a bad thing. Just as important to consider is high blood iron level, which is one intriguing risk factor for cardiovascular disease. High iron levels have also been associated with unusual fatigue, and perhaps cancer. One, of many, reasons to cut back (or eliminate) red meat is high iron content. Conversely, premenopausal women who lose small monthly amounts of iron, and vegetarians and athletes have lower incidence of heart disease than the rest of the population. One of the factors is that these populations often maintain lower iron levels.
High iron is not only an issue with extreme levels, or a genetic disorder of iron metabolism, such as hemachromatosis. Raised iron level from dietary sources may raise cardiac risk, particularly in men who don't have the benefit of monthly blood loss. Understandably, people with iron levels that are too low are turned away from blood donation. Other people donate to benefit their own health by lowering blood iron.
Either way, it can be healthy and kind to donate blood.
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.
Neolithic groups (stone age) worshiped the mother. Ancient Germans worshipped the virgin Hertha holding her child. Scandinavians worshipped virgin Disa holding her child. In ancient Egypt it was Isis with infant Osiris. In India, Devaki had Krishna (also by virgin birth). In Asia, Cybele and Deoius. Chinese holy mother Shing Moo held her child in arms. Christian missionaries to Tibet, China, and Japan found that holy mothers depicted with splendid light around their head and holding a divine child had been worshiped long before they got there.
In Rome, the goddess was Demeter, meaning Earth Mother, wearing wreathes of braided corn in her hair. In ancient Greece, Demeter was called Ceres, the great mother with baby at breast. From her name "Ceres," we get the word "cereal" (grains), "which made man different from wild animals."
In the spring in ancient Greece, celebrations were held in honor of Rhea, the Mother of the Gods. Christian Europe celebrated the spring festival of "Mother Church" who (they believed) would protect them from harm. During the 1600's, England celebrated "Mothering Sunday" on the 4th Sunday of Lent, honoring the mothers of England. All cultures worshiped the divine, the Mother, who gives life and food, compassion and love.
So. How to celebrate this Sunday on Mother's Day? I'm in favor of some goddess worship, probably involving some rocks and food and chocolates and compassion and love. Not so original, but time tested and universal:
Visit Mom (or a Mom) and give her a massage (if she wants one). Neck, hands, feet, back. Good for circulation for giver and receiver. Touch can be healthy. Ask her stories.
Make her (and you) something healthy to eat. For light teas, try cinnamon, cloves, grated orange peel, or ginger in hot water.
For a cold treat without unhealthy junk food, mash a frozen banana with crushed raw walnuts or flax seeds. Use a food grinder or get free exercise by mashing them yourself in a bowl. It will taste like creamy ice cream. Flax seeds and walnuts have been found to be effective to help bone health as vegetarian sources of omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids. Raw walnuts (as part of a general low fat and cholesterol diet) have also been found to have a beneficial effect to decrease cardiovascular disease risk, among other benefits. This treat has fiber and is non dairy, both associated with lower breast cancer risk.
Goddess worship often is helped with chocolate. The primary chemical in chocolate is theobromine. "Theo-" means God and "broma" comes from a word meaning food. The theobromine in chocolate was named for "food of the gods." Theobromine is an antioxidant, weak diuretic, stimulant, and mood booster, opens breathing airways, and relieves coughing. Dark chocolate has more theobromine than lighter chocolate, with flavonoids and phenolics, plant substances that are good for the heart. People who get a kind of vascular headache called migraine do better not to eat chocolate. For others, get plain cocoa, unsweetened, not junked up with sugar. Add the unsweetened cocoa to the frozen mashed banana and walnuts for a healthy sweet wonderful treat that tastes better than you would expect. For exotic flavor and more health benefit, add fresh grated ginger root.
Sit outside in the air and sun to have your tea and frozen banana. Warnings on the dangers of overtanning are important for preventing skin cancer for people who work outdoors, who over-tan for cosmetic purposes, and a few other populations. Another group to consider is those spending too little time outdoors. Sunlight exposure and the Vitamin D it makes your skin produce, is increasingly documented as crucial to bone density, healthy immune function, positive mood, sound sleep at night, relief of symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, MS, Parkinsons, polycystic ovary, diabetes, and other health issues. A nice massage and tea and chocolate outside in the sunlight could be made into a wonderful Mother's Day. Nice excuse to buy a hat.
Make Mom (or a Mom) some homemade healthy skin lotion. Commercial products have preservatives, dyes, and chemicals. Try combinations of grape seed oil, tea tree oil (very small amount), vitamins C and E, ginger, honey, tea, fresh aloe, and fragrances from oils, fruit, flowers like lavender, or leaves like mint. (Don't wear citrus oils like lime out in the sun.)
Help out at a woman and child shelter. Or help at a men's shelter to help the guys get back on their feet to help their own families.
Celebrate Mother Earth - go out and pick up litter. It's good exercise. Bend right.
Make a trip to look around a home improvement center to see about some do it yourself solar projects, even if only to replace a few lights.
Reader Bill Slabonik had sports injuries, motorcycle and bicycling accidents. He was a good exerciser and hard worker, doing all the conventional exercises and ways of lifting during his regular workouts, long hours sitting as a pilot, and vigorous work in the Coast Guard. I know these things because I've seen his x-ray and MRI reports.
Bill writes:
"After two years of waking every couple hours with extreme pain in my shoulders and both hands completely numb, I sought relief from the medical community. Thinking that something was wrong with my shoulders, I was very surprised to find out that I had degenerative disc disease in my neck and spine. I was scheduled for epidural injections and advised that if they did not help, surgery was the only alternative. I was advised that I might consider disability retirement.
Not being pleased with my choices, I was able to get a script from my family doctor for physical therapy. Two months of therapy gave encouraging if small improvements. Back spasms stopped and pain diminished somewhat. Encouraged by this I continued to search online for neck and back pain fixes until I was fortunate to find a website maintained by Dr. Jolie Bookspan. The articles made logical sense to me and I soon ordered her book "Fix Your Own Pain." I noticed rapid improvement as soon as I began to practice her methods. Encouraged by these results I chose to attend one of her clinics held at Temple U.
I have returned to an active, athletic life. Waking due to pain is a thing of the past. I am setting and achieving physical goals that seemed impossible only a year ago. I am hiking farther and riding faster than I could have dreamed of. I am using post-it notes in my car, at my desk and on my flight kit for the airplane as reminders to maintain good position.
The photo is my neighbor Ken and myself taking a break from the year's Pennsylvania State Police Memorial century ride. He is also putting your principals into good use. We rode 50 miles that Saturday morning without pain or discomfort. Ken is 61 years old and I'm 55. The amazing part is that I had over 180 miles for the week without pain. Ken and I have made a goal of riding together on each of our birthdays, the number of miles matching our age, i.e., a 62 mile ride this fall for Ken's birthday. Oh, the ride was from Hershey, PA to Mount Gretna, PA and back. A nice loop through the central PA farmlands. Thanks again for your encouragement and books. I am feeling fantastic today!
Your work has not only provided hope but is putting life into my years. I want people to know that there is help.
I normally shy away from putting myself out on display like this, but if it encourages others to fix their pain then it was worth it. Thanks again Doc. I'm out mowing the lawn by hand.. two hours..no pain...riding my bike to work tomorrow 42 mile round trip.. I'm not going to stop."
Sincerely, LT William M. Slabonik US Coast Guard (Retired)
Fun note: the surname Slabonik means "Free Man." Bill now signs his e-mail updates to me as Free Man
--- 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. Take classes, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
Readers, you are all great people. Feel good about yourselves. I appreciate all the e-mails how you're using the ideas in this blog, my website, and classes to stop years of pain, get back to doing fun things, or try healthy fun for the first time. You all can do extraordinary things even if you don't know it or think you are doing anything right now.
Some of you have written me about your lives. I have notes from people biking across continents and crossing the arctic using my training info. Notes from soldiers stationed in harm's way who stopped their back pain while carrying packs and during operations. Astronauts. Circus performers. Olympic wrestlers. Ultramarathoners. Competitive lifters who went on to increase personal records after being told by top physicians to give up lifting because of shoulder, elbow, back, and knee injuries. Concert musicians. Survivors of cancer and abuse. A runaway who went back to school because of the blog. A student who quit an unhealthy job. A man who could not lift his own children because of obesity, who used fitness as a lifestyle of bending and playing with his children to get to healthier weight. Readers Ivy and Zoe and MMLash let me tell a bit of their triumphs on the blog. Mim, Kate, Kathy, Julia, PhatMac, Eddie, and a few others helped with their success stories in the comments. The rest - too shy to post their stories? I understand that this blog attracts an independent intelligent bunch. It's not boasting, but educating and inspiring and helping others when you write. If you are not sure what to write, just e-mail me telling me what you tried, how it's helping, and we'll develop it.
You don't have to climb a mountain to be featured. Just getting out of bed is an Olympic sport some days. Stopping pain, making your daily life healthy movement, feeling good again (or for the first time), and having your life back *is* climbing the highest mountain.
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.
At the end of January, I posted about the celebration of Thaipusam. Readers have been e-mailing, asking for photos and stories about our work there studying the devotional piercing, and the medicines, exercises, and nutrition practices done to prepare for, and heal from the festival.
Thaipusam is a Hindu celebration of deep devotion (bhakti) and thanks to Muruga (also called other names including Subramaniam), the son of Shiva. Thaipusam is celebrated in many places around the world, with the largest observances in India, Singapore, and Malaysia.
For more than a month before the full moon in the Tamil month of "Thai," the faithful begin mental and physical exercise and preparation. They eat vegetarian food, eat sparingly, pray, do acts of kindness and good deeds, exercise, wash, use medicinal incense, say kind and positive things out loud, refrain from bad action, and from smoking and alcohol. They say that these practices improve their physical and mental endurance, and reduce infection or scarring from the devotional piercings.
This year, in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia where we studied the festival, there were over one million devotees at the Batu Caves. Two nights before Thaipusam, the faithful begin an overnight fire-lit procession from the Maha Mariamman Temple in Chinatown to the Cave, 15 kilometers away, an 8-hour journey. Many carry pots of milk symbolizing purity and life-giving, flowers, fire, and other offerings.
The faithful make an enormous celebration of happy song, drumming, dance, the air filled with the smell of incense and flowers, and chanting "Vel Vel! Vel Vel!" A Vel is a symbol of the lance given to Muruga by his mother, to win in the battle of goodness over evil.
Muruga is regarded as a destroyer of evil and preserver of good. He is usually depicted with a vel (lance). For that reason, in the Thaipusam celebration of thanks to Muruga, silver or steel vel in various sizes are pierced through the skin of the back, cheek, and tongue, a symbol of stopping evil, purifying yourself, and becoming more noble.
As devotees entered the festival grounds, many shaved and painted their head with herbs as a sign of pure thanks.
At Batu, there are 272 steps to the top. On the trip upward, a holy man, dancing each step one by one, turned to me and with three fingers daubed my forehead in a traditional triple stripe of Vibhuti sacred ash from his own forehead as a gift to me. He laughed then "doinked" my forehead with one finger and pronounced that I had a good third eye, and the sacred ash would keep it awake from then onward.
A highly devotional rite is carrying the Kavadi. We took the photo below of a kvadi-bearer, dressed in devotional yellow, pierced back and chest with vels. We have since seen this man's photo in the Wikipedia article about Thaipusam. He was a representational figure, that was certain. We got to talk with him and his family. We didn't want to interfere with anyone during their intense personal prayers, and tried to move out of his way through the packed bustling throng. But he stopped and smiled at us. A young man with him whipped a cell phone from his shorts and took *our* photo, click click! He called to me, "Hello Auntie!"
Many devotees there stopped to answer our questions about their lives, and to ask about ours, and to ask to take their photo with us - the funny tall foreigners.
Many of the faithful perform acts of thanks for a specific blessing received. This year in Penang, a man who prayed to heal an injured leg and recovered, walked the entire way to the festival on shoes made of nails.
The idea is not masochism (or reinjury), but showing outwardly and inwardly that the benefit received was far greater than the self-sacrifice given in return. The piercings aren't meant as a violent act, they are "only by expert hands" and a sign of will power, concentration, and piety. There are tourists who attend for just the festival day and try piercings as a stunt, or sometimes, to better understand the meaning of the festival and the thanksgiving it teaches.
The claims for the sacred ash is that its use prevents pain, bleeding, scarring, and infection. Part of what we found is that it naturally contains a styptic, similar to the shaving pencil that constricts blood vessels to stop shaving cuts from bleeding. It also contains natural local numbing and antimibrobials similar to clove oil. That's as far as we could go in studying that particular ash. Our bags of it were confiscated at the airport by United States TSA agents, along with all my wasabi paste and research notes on that and other work while there. I will post more in the future about these kinds of medicines, which are used in modern day patches and creams for muscle soreness.
More than just the chemical nature of the sacred ash, the weeks of preparing through physical exercise, nutritional improvement, daily mental exercises, and the great kindness of the family and friends supporting the kvadi-bearers go toward quick healing.
Do happy things, praise others, exercise a bit every day, eat things that are good for you and the environment. These things will prepare you to be strong in all you do.
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
Scorn, anger, name-calling. Not good for the heart. The best warrior wins without hurting others or himself.
The Thais call it "jai yen" - cool heart. The secret is to not make anger a negative force. They keep kindness in their voice. Jai yen is central to Thai social and business interaction. It illustrates the mind and body of the experienced warrior. Jai yen is part of Muay Thai boxing training. In Thai martial arts, respecting teachers and elders is foremost. Every fight begins with the Ram Muay, a spirit dance to show respect and thanks to parents, and ask blessings from the Kruu Muay Thai - the teachers. In Japan it is "fudoshin" - unchanging heart. A person with fudoshin is more stable and light-hearted when things happen that they don't agree with.
How do you get good at being heart-healthy? Practice it like exercise. Unlikable things happen every day, so we all have the good luck to get much chance to practice. It's healthy exercise. In the novel Shogun, James Clavell, wrote:
"To think bad thoughts is really the easiest thing in the world. If you leave your mind to itself it will spiral down into ever increasing unhappiness. To think good thoughts, however, requires effort. This is one of the things that discipline - training is about."
Discipline is the mental exercise of self-control to direct your behaviors. With discipline you brush your teeth everyday, and do exercise, and refrain from bad habits, and breathe and smile when someone is rude. The other person may continue injuring their own health with negative behavior, but you won't sadden yourself and injure your body with the unhealthy chemicals generated that can hurt your health and heart. If your kindness and understanding calms and comforts the other person, that is twice healthy. Breathe. Get outside in the sunshine every day. Be happy.
E-mails have come in since I posted that we were on our way to the Monks on Horseback in the northern Thai mountains. Readers wanted to hear about our stay.
We live in Asia part of each year. We traveled north to visit our friends and teachers who are relatives and former teachers of the Phra (monk) Kru Ba Neua Chai who heads the monastery. Our friends live in the village of Baan Mai Kom, not far from there, close to the Burmese border. We took the bus north to there. There is no station - the driver dropped us on the road after dark, and we walked into the cool night to the mountain.
Nearby in Myanmar (Burma), drug traffickers from ethnic and government groups move vast amounts of opium and heroin, and more recently, methamphetamine, into Thailand for local and world distribution. For generations they have torn through villages, murdering adults and forcibly recruiting children into their militias. Drug use in the area further damages and destabilizes families and lives through drug illnesses, kidnapping, prostitution, and land control.
Drug wars, shooting, bombings, terror, international involvement and dollars have not stopped the destruction. The Thai monarchy, caring for the welfare of all involved, started a program for poppy growers to have income from other crops and industries beside opium. Thai soldiers in the region asked local monks to combat the drug menace by taking dharma (duty to behave righteously) to the hilltribe villagers. One monk was Kru Ba, a former soldier and Muay Thai (Thailand style martial arts) champion, known to boxing fans as Samerchai, and graduate of Ramkamhaeng University in Bangkok. To serve his land better, he became a monk. Another Thai man who wanted to do good gave the monastery a horse. Kru Ba took in more horses and orphaned hilltribe boys, and ordained the boys as nen (novice monks). Many of the nen had seen their families murdered by drug guerillas. Kru Ba taught the nen discipline, calisthenics, caring for the horses and other living things, the life of doing and saying good, and Muay Thai martial arts. Soon more fully ordained monks and nuns became part of the monastery. Then Kru Ba started new monasteries. Today he has 10 monasteries in the northern hills. Except during periods when monks observe certain restrictions, they train Muay Thai outdoors, in the jungle, or in their thatched boxing ring each early morning and night.
Khru Ba and the monks and nen ride through local areas to show traffickers and locals they can stop contributing to drug addiction. Khru Ba says, "When we meet the Wa (one ethnic group involved), I try to engage them in dialogue, 'Why do you do this?' I ask them. 'How would you feel if these drugs were being consumed by your own sons and daughters?'" On occasion, Kru Ba has used his Muay Thai to protect his nen and the monastery. As daily training, they incorporate the discipline of doing good into the physical discipline of their training. Kru Ba says, "Boxing for me is something which frees the body and releases the soul from barbarianism. When I box I use every single part of my body and my mind. Buddhism teaches you not to harm or take advantage of people which some may find to be in direct opposition to an aggressive looking sport like boxing. For me, boxing helps me to become a better Buddhist. I learn to control my emotions. I find beauty and peace and stillness in boxing. I get rid of my animal instincts and control them to the point that they become beautiful, an art form for sport, for education, for the discovery of truth. The word "Thai" means freedom and when I practice Muay Thai I feel free - free from my emotions, from anger."
A documentary made on the lives of Kru Ba and the nen has been called, "a heroic undertaking to create a better world." See more on www.BuddhasLostChildren.com. I will post more in the future about our part there.
I have grandchildren - my patients are using what I taught them, to fix pain for others.
Monday's post on Partner Leg Press began the Valentine's week Fitness Fixer posts on sharing health with a friend. Today on Valentine's Day I have a post that best shows this. This story is from one of our own Healthline Fitness Fixer readers, Ivy Griffiths of New Zealand. Ivy writes,
"On Thursday night my neighbour was taken to hospital as she was experiencing pain in her hip which in turn went down her leg. I told her that I thought it was sciatica. X-rays showed that there was degeneration of the spine and that she had a pinched nerve. They gave her the usual drugs and she returned home yesterday afternoon. Her son told them at the hospital that they knew someone who would help that person being ME. Dr. Jolie I just about freaked out so I told them that I could help with the cause but not fix the pain. I went on to show her how to lift herself up on her elbows (face down) before getting out of bed, how to sit straight and squatting instead of bending over and all the advice that I have received from you over the past year. I took her for little walks around the village so that she wasn't sitting all the time. Around 5pm this evening (Saturday) I went to see how she was. To my amazement, she told me that she had been reading your book "Fix Your Own Pain Without Drugs or Surgery" which I had lent her. She had thrown away the drugs and the pain had gone. Believe me when I say that I was blown away."
Ivy, thank you. The world is better because of you.
Readers, keep the intelligent comments coming in reply to posts. Send me your stories and (small file size) fun photos of your progress. Prizes for the best ones. Use a photo sharing service so I can upload directly from your photo link.
Happy Valentine's Day, a day of being good and healthy to yourself and others. That's health and love.
Often the simple act of breathing is made into a complicated ritual. People take classes to learn how to breathe in this nostril and out that nostril and four times slowly this way, and eight hundred times quickly that way. All you need is to remain simple. In. Out. Try a nice breath now. This is often more than many people do. Check yourself when at work, opening mail, putting things away. Do you hunch your shoulders and hold your breath, straining or breathing shallowly and quickly, just to hurry through and get it done? Keep breathing normally in and out.
It was previously thought that lung function declined steadily with each passing year after age 30. It also used to be thought by some in exercise science that respiratory muscles could not be trained, or that the highest amount of air moving in and out with exercise would not change except to diminish with aging. Now it is established that the breathing muscles of the chest and abdomen are muscles like any other. You need to exercise them. You can improve function at any age.
Exercising your respiratory system through healthy breathing is important to reduce many respiratory problems, and is part of staying in shape and able to do normal activities without getting out of breath. How do you do this? To exercise your respiratory system, following are three main things to try:
1. Exercise your whole body with biking, skating, skiing, running, skipping, hiking, dancing, and other fun ways to move.
2. You can exercise your breathing right now while sitting or standing:
Close or purse your lips loosely (draw them together at the sides) and breathe in against the resistance.
Breathe out slowly without resistance. Repeat several times.
Try the above, breathing in more and more quickly.
Allow enough time (a few seconds) between each resisted breath so that you do not become dizzy.
As you get better at this over time, increase resistance by how firmly you close your lips together.
You can buy expensive respiratory muscle trainers in fitness catalogs to provide resistance for breathing muscle training. You can also get the same effect yourself by breathing in through pursed lips or trying to breathe through your sleeve (pressing your mouth against your forearm). Resistance breathing exercises have been long practiced in the martial arts in exercises of "sanchin," yoga, and some forms of chi kung breathing, which tighten the throat (or hold the nose) for resistance instead of the lips. Some scuba-divers and breath-hold free divers practice various techniques, hoping to increase breathholding endurance and underwater time. Not all of these practices are a good idea for divers, to be covered in future posts.
3. Periodically see how much air you can breathe in and out in one breath, both with and without resistance:
See how quickly you can inhale fully.
Then how fast you can exhale fully.
Regularly exercise heavily so that you need to breathe hard for extended periods.
Don't "overbreathe" (hyperventilate) by taking huge breaths in and out while at rest. That changes your body chemistry, which can make you dizzy or cause temporary limb tingling. The dizziness from hyperventilation is often taught in yoga, martial arts, and meditation breathing classes as something healthful. However, it is not physically beneficial.
Healthful breathing patterns are important when not doing strenuous exercise. When chopping vegetables for dinner, do you hunch your shoulders and hold your breath during the knife stroke? Instead, make the rhythmic chopping a meditation and an easy exercise with healthful body positioning. When you hang up laundry or put away groceries, notice if you tense up and hold your breath? When you move during any action, check to see if you tighten muscles and hold your breath trying to get it done. Lower your shoulders. Untense your muscles. Enjoy the task. Breathe.
For healthful breathing during life activities, remember to let your belly expand to breathe in. Don't just raise your shoulders and chest. Don't pull your belly inward when breathing in; let it come outward as air fills your lungs. Take a full breath in now and try it. Relax and feel good.
We are in Malaysia for the Thaipusam. At the first full moon of the Tamil month named "Thai" when the Pusam star is highest in the sky, the Tamil community and others celebrate the festival of Thaipusam.
People fast, wash, pray, and give thanks by various acts of devotion. Simple acts of loyalty and care are to carry pots of milk. Others seek to purify themselves further with the self-imposed discipline and hardship of piercing their skin, tongue, body, or face with skewers.
Men carry altars called kavadis, attached to their bodies with skewers piercing their skin all over their bodies and faces. Fruit are hung from the skin with hooks. The kvadis pulled by pure human devotion range in size up to the enormous vel kavadi, attached by 108 vels pierced through the chest and back.
Some of the extreme piercing practices have been pointed out to be unhealthy and contrary to the intention of the Hinduism and non-Hindu beliefs that wanted to create a spirit of positive blessing to the festival.
There are claims that devotees enter a trance, feel no pain, do not bleed, leave no scars, and suffer no infection. That is why we are here to study. We will let you know what we find - click here for Thaipusam- Exercise of Body and Spirit.
Don't forget to stretch your toes. You need mobile toes for balance, healthy walking mechanics, and foot health.
Every day, take your feet in your hands and stretch your toes apart side to side, easily and comfortably. Make sure all your toes can move apart from each other, and that each one moves up and down. It is not healthy for your toes to remain stuck together and not moving.
Sitting in various ways can be a built-in stretch for the toes. If you sit on your heels, as in the photo at left, or kneel on your hands and knees with toes curled under you, or when you are sitting in your chair right now, see if you can bend your foot behind you and still touch all your toes to the floor - even your little toes. Don't force toes to bend, just gently see if they all reach the floor. After stretching your toes back (toward the top of your foot) bend them all down toward the bottom of your foot. Many people, particularly people who wear heeled shoes wind up with toes that are bent upward all the time. The tendons on the top of the foot can shorten from keeping the toes bent up, and the toes can get stuck in a pulled-up position. Future posts will cover more on stretching your feet for mobility, pain control, and health.
When you sit, as in the photo above, see if you can rise to a stand without pushing off the floor with your hands or bracing your hands against your leg or knee. Just use your leg muscles and get a strength and balance exercise while you get a nice stretch on the bottom of your feet.
The photo was taken when I studied a medicine course in Cambodia. Before and after classes you practice respect, concentration, and self-discipline. While you do this, you get a lot of physical exercise - it is commonplace for people of any age to kneel without using hands for anything except to hold the candles, flowers, and incense, and to rise the same way. The photo was taken in the middle of bowing, so I am not fully straightened yet. The nun is laughing. My Cambodian is so bad that I made her laugh. I think that is good exercise and good medicine too.
The next post will be in a few days (or I will send it for someone to post for me). We won't have internet access. We will be in a remote northern mountain area near the Thai-Burmese border where the monks of the Archa Tong forest monastery ride horseback.
The abbot is a former Muay Thai kick boxing champion. He leads the young monks and villagers to fight opium trafficking with rightness instead of rifles. Many of the young monks have come to the monastery having seen drug henchmen murder their parents and family. Abbot "Khru Ba" teaches the novice monks discipline, horsemanship, monastic ways, peace, humanity, and Thai boxing.
Western boxers and students of many martial arts are often taught to hunch their shoulders and lower their head to protect their neck. Box-aerobics students (and teachers) also often jut their head forward thinking it looks tough, or more authentic. It doesn't protect the neck as hoped, and conversely produces neck and shoulder problems, some immediately, others over time. It also reduces effectiveness of the punching exercise, and to people who know martial arts, it doesn't look tough, it looks weak.
Look at the photo at left. The student on the right is holding his head severely forward (orange arrow). The teacher at right in the foreground is holding his neck and head properly, relaxed and upright (white arrow). The teacher and student in the background also are holding their neck in position that is healthy for the neck and shoulder, and makes punching more effective.
What are some of the problems of forward head angle and hunched shoulder?
Keeping your head forward brings it closer to your opponent, easier to hit.
In case of a head strike, a tilted angle of the neck to the brain and skull is more likely to result in brain injury.
Hunching the shoulder can injure the neck and shoulder muscles
Hunching results in tight, aching neck and shoulders.
When you keep your head and shoulders forward, it rotates the shoulder bone forward. When you raise your arm with your neck forward, the soft tissue of the rotator cuff gets pinched between the arm bone and the shoulder bone. Eventually the bones can saw away at the rotator cuff muscles trapped between them, enough to get a tear.
The same pinching between shoulder and arm bone can compress the nerve(s) that go down your arm, resulting in tingling, pain, numbness, weakness.
All the above problems can easily stop and reverse when you stop the cause - the forward head angle and hunched shoulder. Start with the post Fixing Upper Back and Neck Pain.
The muscles you use to hold your head and neck upright instead of forward are your upper back and posterior shoulder muscles. It is a free upper back and posterior deltoid and shoulder workout by standing relaxed but straight, and exercising that way too.
When you watch movies of Mohammed Ali fighting, watch for his healthy, straight, graceful neck positioning. For doing martial arts and boxing aerobics, you can protect your chin and brace your neck without hunching and injuring your neck and shoulder. For exercise classes and just moving around the house you get more upper back exercise and stop injuring your neck and shoulder all at the same time by using your muscles to hold yourself upright instead of sagging. Stop neck injury from exercise. Exercise is supposed to be healthy.
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Thai boxing (Muay Thai) kicks are among the most devastating and effective kicks in the world. Thai fighters spend hours a day kicking heavy bags and posts, and years toughening their legs and shins for kicks and blocks by bashing them with pipes and against coconut trees. A blow from a Muay Thai fighter's leg is like a blow from a club.
When you practice moves that lift the leg for martial arts training, for self-defense, for dancing, or for exercise in an aerobics class, watch for several bad habits that increase strain on muscles and joints, and reduce effectiveness of the kick. It is not the point to kick someone else and wind up injuring yourself.
1. Look at the photo, above left. The teacher is holding his hip and neck straight. The blocking student is not. The orange arrow at the student's leg shows how, when the student lifts the left leg, the right leg pulls forward instead of remaining straight at the hip. This is a sign of tightness at the hip and poor technique. He needs to stretch the front of his hip and retrain kicking and blocking technique to prevent this common bad habit. Read more on this in the posts, Is Bad Martial Arts Good Exercise? and Common Exercises Teach Hip Tightness When Kicking, Stretching, and on the Stairs.
2. Next, check the white arrow at the student's belt line. It is tilting up in front. The teacher's hip remains level as the leg is raised. Curling the back and letting the hip roll under, as shown by the white middle arrow is another sign of tight hip muscles in the front and back of the hip, and poor movement habits. When you raise one leg to kick, block, prepare to kick, do a knee strike (whatever), check if you curl your hip or round your back. Hold your back straight and upright for more exercise, a built-in hip stretch, and more effective technique.
3. Third, note the black arrow showing how the student rounds the upper back and neck forward, instead of holding straight. With practice, the student will learn to hold the neck straight as the teacher is doing.
For all the exercise you do (kick, block, ascending stairs, whatever is done raising one leg), keep healthful positioning. Yes, rounding the back is taught, and done for fighting, but you will be beating yourself up in the long run. You can still be an effective fighter and at the same time, prevent hurting yourself with common strains from unhealthful technique, plus get more exercise with healthier ways.
See all martial arts articles, or other topics that interest you, by clicking labels under this post.
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Meet your new training partner. This is not box-aerobics. This is Muay Thai, which means Thai boxing. Muay Thai is the national sport of Thailand. It is the devastating "Art of eight limbs" using two fists, two feet, two elbows, and two knees. Muay Thai is considered one of the most physical, strenuous, and directly effective of the martial arts styles. Thai boxers are among the most highly conditioned of all athletes.
We are home in Thailand now, and back to training with the Masters. The government coup continues peacefully and respectfully, as is the Thai way. In Thailand, respect and self-discipline are highly prized and practiced. It follows that their national martial art is not just hitting and kicking. Muay Thai comes from a long tradition of hard work and spiritual values. Typical training in Muay Thai involves not only long hours of physical conditioning and practice kicking and striking heavy bags, practice pads, and sparring partners, but practicing self control, strength of mind, and compassion.
Jai yen, or "cool heart" is part of Muay Thai boxing training. Some people think that martial arts means angrily destroying furniture and retaliating for real or perceived insult. Dramatic movies depict a trainer goading a student into releasing an angry "warrior." But that is not the Thai warrior spirit. Jai yen prevents making anger a negative force or becoming agitated or unkind. It illustrates the mind/body set of the experienced warrior. Jai yen is also central to Thai social and business interaction. It is a good and healthy exercise.
In Thai martial arts, respecting teachers and elders is foremost. The "Wai Khru" (bow or pray to the teacher) is a mark of respect done at every greeting to a teacher and before every training session and fight. Each fight begins with rituals of honoring the teachers, and the Ram Muay, a spirit dance to show respect and thanks, and ask blessings from the teachers - the Kruu Muay Thai, from the ancestors, and the four directions. Thankfulness and respect are strengthening to your own spirit.
Many people come to Thailand to train in Muay Thai. Some are tourists who just want to try it, or say they did it, or as a stunt, or for some exericse. Others study seriously for long periods. This post tells of some of the metal exercise to strengthen the way you live. The next posts will give some of the physical training and how to stay healthy while practicing.
"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
Several readers have e-mailed me saying they have stopped long-standing pain and gotten fitter than from their gym programs by using Fitness Fixer posts. They say they can now exercise where before they were held down by pain and medical treatment. Now they have mobility and fun and hope. Thank you all for being brave and empowered to try.
One reader read the earlier blog post An Exercise in Helping People Get Healthy about the blind woman in Madison Wisconsin who just wanted some fruit and vegetables but there was no public transport to the market, only a bus to the store that sells junk food.
The kind reader, asking to remain anonymous, did a Google search to find a Madison neighborhood association with volunteers from the Regent Market Co-op who will shop and deliver a food order at no extra charge. She e-mailed the information to me and said, "I hope she'll be feeling better soon. Fresh fruits and vegetables may help with that!"
I thank this brave reader for the link to people who will be there, above just a package. We have found that the box of food that we bought here and shipped to her, delivered a week ago Friday, has sat unopened in our friend's house. She has been too sick to open it. This reader may be the one to save this lady's life. The reader replied, "It was a very simple thing for me to do."
Healthful eating is not difficult or expensive. It is cheaper to stop buying junk and convenience food, and it is easier to eat a piece of fruit than to fry food.
Over the holidays, we called a friend in Madison Wisconsin. She is a visually-impaired diabetic widow. She is cheery and fun and wants to be healthy. She can't drive of course. The only available public transportation can get her to a department store that stocks junk food. There is nothing that goes to a supermarket so she can get fruit and vegetables. We checked on cab rates and it will cost more than $30 round trip to get to a supermarket. The local Meals on Wheels turned out not to be healthful food. The services for the blind, paratransit, and various other social services have not worked out to get her to a grocery store. All she wants is some fruit and vegetables. How hard could that be?
Paul and I went to the market and filled a box with nuts, apples, pears, zucchini, cucumbers, berries, broccoli, red peppers, yellow peppers, celery, some other vegetables, some mung beans for her to sprout, tomatoes (that we wrapped in bubble wrap), and a pair warm fuzzy socks, and shipped it to her.
If readers would like to send her broccoli and simple healthful fruit and vegetables, or if anyone lives in the Madison, Wisconsin area and wants to take her to a market so she can purchase her own, e-mail me for her information. It would be fun and in keeping with the spirit of being healthy for the New Year.
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.
I heard a radio program about yoga for senior citizens. The yoga program directors made the usual statements about yoga helping strength and balance. Then they said something that seemed at odds with their goal. They said, "If your balance is poor, do the moves sitting down or hold on to the wall." The very thing that you need to improve your balance is to practice standing and (safely) not holding the wall. If you sit and hold on, you prevent practicing balance.
Balance that helps your normal daily life is easy to improve at any age. All you need is to stand up and balance. Balance is quickly lost with sitting and disuse.
How does balance practice help you? You have receptors in all your joints that sense positioning. They can tell if you are about to fall. They tell your body to send signals to your muscles to steady you. If you don't use your balance sensors with balance practice, they become slow and unable to sense positioning well. You may tip over far enough to fall before your receptors sense it and can tell your muscles to pull you to upright position. Balance practice also improves your muscles. Without balance practice, your muscles become too slow and weak to prevent you from tipping over and falling. If you have let yourself become tight, brittle, and weak from lack of general exercise, you may strain, tear, or break something from a fall that would not have otherwise caused any harm.
Years ago when I left working in the hospital to go into private practice in sports medicine, I found that by making house calls you learn the reasons for people's pain and injuries that you will never see in a hospital or clinic exam setting. It was the first time I ever saw anyone have to sit to put on or take off their shoes. Here are a few quick, functional (real life) ways to improve balance:
Stand up when you put on your socks or hosiery.
Stand up to put on your pants. Lift one leg in front of you, keep your upper body comfortably straight and upright, and slide on each pant leg.
Stand up to put on your shoes. Try two ways: holding the foot in the air front of you to place the shoe, and by crossing the ankle on the opposite knee.
For more balance, after putting on one sock or shoe, remain standing on one foot and do a small squat on one leg to reach the other sock or shoe on the floor.
If you can't stand to dress yourself, and you have at least one working leg, you may be too tight and weak and unsteady for healthy normal life. To get started:
Practice standing on one foot without holding on to anything. If balance is poor stand near a wall for safety to get started and have a skilled friend help. Practice standing for 10 counts without holding on. Increase how long you can balance.
Stand on one foot and swing the other forward and back, side to side, without holding on or touching down. Safely.
If you use a cane, practice walking holding it off the ground. Use your brain to do this intelligently and safely to improve balance and reduce dependence on the cane.
Balance is "use or lose" and can be quickly improved with safe smart practice. You don't need to go to a gym or "do exercises." Use balance skills as part of your daily life.
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.
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Exercise Common Sense Discipline - Turn Down Halloween Junk Food
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Healthline
Martial arts class fell on Halloween night this year. Would students pay lip service to health and discipline in class then go out eating unhealthy junk?
The festival of Halloween, Samhain (pronounced "saow-in") or Summer's end, Hallotide, Saint's day eve (All Hallows Eve), Day of the Dead, and a month earlier as Babye Leto in chilly Russia, is supposed to remember and revere (or at least appease) the ancestors and Saints. The idea wasn't to glorify gore or sickness (or merchandising), but think of those who are gone, just as the life of summer is gone, and thank the last harvests before the coming Winter. Gifts of food, lights, and effigies of those passed on decorate houses and streets.
My students have been learning that self-discipline is a voluntary exercise. To have inner peace, you just stop tensing your body and saying rude things. To stop slouching, you just use your own muscles to move your spine to healthy position. There is no special exercise to strengthen you to do it; you use your muscles to sit and stand straight and that gives you the exercise. There is no special exercise to be able to do the vigorous moves we do in class. You just keep moving and trying, without stopping and without complaining, and that gives you the strength. This week when I came in to teach, students were sitting quietly and comfortably straight. Their equipment was ready and neat. Since class began in September, several quit smoking, at least the day before and of class, to be able to get through class. Two students told me they had stopped binge-and-purge eating because they could not do class as well when they did, even though they had always done it for exercise classes before. They realized a better body and spirit came more from all we do in class than from an eating disorder. Others stopped eating junk because they want to be healthier, and to practice having control instead of acting on every impulse.
Sometimes, people think that training in martial arts means whoever can beat up others the most, or be the most destructive, is the best. The kneeling Zen story before class last night was the story of who is the true master:
Two wizards met on the mountaintop to see who was the greater. The first one shouted, "I control the sun. At the wave of my hand, it burns away all I see. I control the seas. I control the rivers. At my bidding, waves drown villages and destroy crops. I control the beasts of all the worlds to tear apart any who annoy me." He looked at the other wizard and said, "So, what do you do?" The second wizard said, "I eat only when I am hungry. I drink only when I am thirsty. I don't take in anything harmful."
It was clear that the second wizard was the true master - the master of himself. In class, students stayed disciplined to learn rapid hand strikes and jumping kicks. After class I had bags for them of oranges and apples, notepads to write thoughts, sprouted mung beans to mix in snacks, some walnuts to crack for hand strength. When they walked outside in the dark and cold, they seemed to glow like harvest candles, standing straight with warmth and cheer from their hard work.
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My Tuesday night martial arts class students continued transformation to healthy behaviour. Instead of chatting noisily, they sat quietly straight and relaxed. They sat down on the floor without needing to use their hands. Their equipment was neatly arranged. Instead of sitting glumly or chatting idly on cell phones about the usual annoyances from the day, they mentally put them away and were breathing calmly, focusing on what we were going to do in class. Last week we worked on elbow strikes, blocking, and double kicks. This week was triple kicks, faster footwork, and spinning backfist. Each week at the start of class we have a sitting Zen called the zesa or zazen. We kneel and concentrate on a story or parable, a historical lesson, or an inspiration to live life.
This week's story told the story of the black belt. Who wears one? Why? What does it mean? First, who doesn't wear one? Boxers don't. Kickboxers don't. Wrestlers don't. Chinese Kung Fu practitioners wear a black sash from the first lesson, not only when they become accomplished. Some aerobics instructors purchase one to wear like a chef's hat as a costume to look cool for boxaerobics. Anyone can buy one. What does it mean to earn one?
Color belts were not part of ancient martial arts. Dr. Jigoro Kano, founder of modern Judo, applied a system of belt colors in the early 1900's at his school, the Kodokan, in Tokyo. Some say that part of the inspiration was the ranking by color of swimmers in the Japanese military. Dr. Kano wanted to encourage and recognize his different rank martial arts students. The belt color system spread to other martial disciplines. Who wears belts now? Mostly the Japanese arts of Judo, Aikido, and Karate, the several Okinawan Karates, and the Korean Karates like Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, Tang So Do, and others.
The symbolism for transforming from novice to black belt comes from starting white - blank - with nothing. In old Asia, you would not wear white to a wedding, but to a funeral. White is the emptiness. Black is the fullness. We all start with nothing, represented in our belt. As you work and learn and train, your belt turns yellow with sweat, red with blood, brown with your toil in the earth, and eventually black with the richness and fullness of your learning. Then you know enough to begin. You continue your dedication as your belt begins to fray and grey with age and wisdom, eventually turning white again, full circle. Zen.
I told my students that a black belt is much like a college degree. In many cases, it does not mean anything. It can show you passed time, but does it mean you learned? In some schools, some upper students bully instead of help those learning. They smoke and eat unhealthy food after class. In some schools, students advance belts by ritual exercises not sparring. In other schools, students fight continuously to subdue others, never taming their own mind.
The Founder of Aikido, Morihei Ueshiba, envisioned a martial art that would reject destruction and show strength through compassion. His revelation reversed thousands of years of harsh tradition. He named his art "Aikido," or "the art of peace." Honorably doing right is what all martial arts strive for, and is the true black belt.
I took the photo when we lived and trained in Japan. If you look, you can find Paul. See more photos and stories of how to change exercise to health in Healthy Martial Arts
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To many people, fitness means stopping your "real life," changing clothes, driving somewhere else, and doing uncomfortable things without similarity to movement in daily life. Then they go back to "real life" - slouching, bending wrong, walking heavily, sitting rounded, leaning back to carry packages, taking elevators, and avoiding movement.
At the gym, people do squats with a trainer, paying to learn proper form and upright back, then bend over wrong to put the weight down when they’re finished. They do proper lunges for their legs in exercise class, then bend over wrong without using their legs to pick up their things when they leave. They work with weights to isolate arms but never learn how their entire body stabilizes a weight, then hurt their back opening a window at home. They work on a treadmill or elliptical trainer but sprain their ankle when out walking because they haven't trained balance and stabilization. They sit hunched in bad posture waiting for exercise class to start. In modern life, exercise is something you go and specially "do," then destroy and ignore your health the other 23 hours a day. Fitness has become “fast food” – stripped of value, sweetened up, and mass produced, even when unhealthy.
Changing your real life into healthy movement is a big and inspiring area of rethinking and retraining. Instead of sitting slouched then stopping to stretch because your back hurts, sit and stand well so that you do not get stiff and sore in the first place. Instead of lifting packages, babies, groceries, laundry, and everything else wrong all day, then stopping to do back exercises because your back hurts, lift properly. I will show you exactly how in posts to come. You will get built-in exercise, strengthen your knees, and save your back. You don’t need to go to a gym; move, balance, and reach in healthy ways in order to do your real life. Instead of thinking you must stop your life to get health and exercise, fill your life with built-in healthy movement.
Photo: National Cancer Institute, Linda Bartlett (photographer)
A recent injury survey by US military revealed that 62% of American injuries in Iraq are occurring in the gym. The same is happening at home. How can this be? Several things are happening. Just as not every medicine is healthy, not all exercises and stretches are healthy.
Just as smoking "works" for weight loss, but is not a smart or healthy way to do it, many exercises "work" for cosmetic results, but result in long-term injury, and promote bad movement habits. Other common exercises don't work your body the way you need to move in real life, resulting in strains and injuries when going about daily activities.
This Fitness Fixer blog will show you hundreds of simple ways to change your exercises, stretches, and daily movement, to make them fun, healthy, and the way you really need to move for healthier daily life. In my laboratory research in human physiology, and my sports medicine clinical practice, I see patients every day who are hurting and unhappy, despite all the exercise and fitness they do. Many of my patients are yoga teachers and Pilates teachers with back pain, hip pain, and neck pain. I see personal trainers with herniated discs and knee pain. I see body builders with back pain, despite all the abdominal exercises they do. I see patients, including fitness instructors, who aren't getting more flexible no matter how much stretching they do. I see people who are stressed, tired, achy, and not in shape, even though they spend hundreds of dollars a month on supplements and pills, gizmos, equipment, trainers, and classes. The answers are simple, and this regular column will cover many easy changes you can make so that your fitness becomes not only more effective, but fun and healthy.
Photo by Jolieof Paul who does real life not gym exercise
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