Archive for the ‘- Exercise’ Category
Message: “There are few fitness programs which don’t advocate exercising. The benefits of strengthening muscles extends beyond just the calorie burning effect of moving more. Weight bearing exercise is important for women who are worried about osteoporosis, and being strong and flexible can have a positive impact on energy levels, and overall well being.” — M. Ball
Longer, Leaner, and Taller: A Review of Pilates
by Maggie Ball
Lesley Ackland is a walking advertisement for the Pilates exercise system. At over 50 years old, Ackland is stunning, and has the sort of body that most 20 year olds would love. Pilates is a low impact exercise specifically designed to ‘elongate’ and strengthen the body rather than build bulk, and Ackland has been teaching Pilates at her Body Maintenance Studio in London for over 10 years. She is also the author of 4 other Pilates books, and is clearly dedicated to this program. The basic premise of Pilates, which is very popular with dancers and models, is to strengthen ligaments and joints, increase flexibility, and lengthen the muscles. The exercises are simple, and not very different from other types of callisthenics, although they draw from Yoga a focus on breathing, and on slow, controlled movements done perfectly, in an attempt to integrate mind and body. The book covers the origins and philosophy behind Pilates, including the use of things like creative visualisation, breathing, control over the specific body parts being conditioned, flow, precision, and coordination.
The exercise program is broken up into segments focusing on balance, breathing, abdominal exercises, side stretches, back exercises, legs, and upper body exercises. Each exercise includes a photo of Ackland demonstrating the technique. Although the exercises are pretty easy, it can take some practice to coordinate the breathing, and get the movements exactly right, and these are key points to the Pilates program, but explanations are very clear, and if you read through each one first, and practice the breathing until it is almost rote, it isn’t hard to do these. The most attractive element of Pilates is that they focus on increasing muscle length through stretching, and avoiding the creation of bulky muscles. This is particularly relevant for women, who don’t want to create treetrunk legs or even super muscled arms. There are suggestions for using weights, and hints on posture, and general tips on gradually increasing the benefits of the movements with weights, and other forms of resistence.
Thorson’s First Directions publish a range of new age type books, featuring popular heath related topics and short, easy to follow formats. Pilates is a small, hardcover book which is easily carried around, and many of the exercises can be done anywhere, with little equipment. If you don’t already have a callisthenic program, and don’t live close enough to attend Ackland trendy (but expensive) studio in Convent Gardens, this book is a pretty good investment.
For more information about Ackland, or Pilates, or to purchase a copy of Pilates , at a discounted price, click here: Pilates
About the reviewer: Maggie Ball is content manager for The Compulsive Reader, Preschool Entertainment, and is the author of The Literary Lunch: Recipes for a Hungry Mind and The Art of Assessment. Her fiction, poetry, reviews, interviews, and essays have appeared in hundreds of on-line and print publications.
Message: There’s always something new to try when it comes to dieting. A good strategy is making small changes and giving it enough time to see results. Only when there’s no results, go make another change. Note that under ‘results’ in dieting we mean any beneficial effects – inches loss, fitness improvement, health and/or mood improvements, etc.
Here are a few changes to consider.
1. If you tried to reduce fat in your diet without any progress, try to increase your fat intake while cutting down on refined carbohydrates (bread, pasta, potato, etc.)
2. If you tried a low carb diet and failed, try to introduce “good” complex carbohydrates like whole grains, legumes, and berries to your daily meals.
3. If you tried to exercise OR to diet separately, try to do these things together: research showed that this is a win-win combination. Not only it’s much more efficient for weight loss, but the health benefits are great even if your scale didn’t budge.
4. If your exercise routine included only aerobics workouts, add strength training: it’ll help to build more muscles thus enhancing your metabolism.
5. If you did too much of aerobics, slow down a little bit: this type of exercise is shown to shift your metabolism into somewhat economic mode.
Message:
Today, we’ll experiment with breathing awareness again (see also). We’ll breathe while standing in the basic posture, controlling position of the rib muscles and diaphragm. We’ll watch how the tiny muscles that move the eyeball influence breathing, making it slow when the eyes are lifted up.
Breathing control, Pranajama, from the very beginning was an important part of the Yoga system. Elsa Gindler (1885-1961) developed a holistic approach to the human body-mind functions via the movement of breathing. Subsequently, she founded a school for breathing and body awareness.
Elsa Gindler wrote “The biggest breathing muscle in the human body is the diaphragm, the lowering of which can only take place when the jaw and the throat are relaxed, the belly is free, and hip joints allow free leg-movement and flexibility in the lower back. When these conditions do not obtain, the body compensates by lifting the shoulders, pulling up the chest bone, and contracting the sphincter muscles in the throat, movements which weaken the muscles which assist the breathing process.”
Exercise
- Straighten the body watching yourself in the mirror
- Lift up the shoulders
- Rotate them back and down
- Keep them as far back and down as you can
- Relax the arms
- Make the neck long and straight, do not pull the head backward
- Make it sure the pelvic is well aligned vertically and does not curl back or forward
- Slowly put the palms to the sides of the rib cage, make it sure that the chest does not work during breathing
- Look up and close the eyes
- Gradually limit the breathing until you feel an endurable lack of air
Message: It is thought that exercising “crossing” and “number eight” movements (e.g., in Tai-Chi) helps to improve the balance between the right and left brains. Here’s an exercise that you can do even if you don’t know how to do Tai-Chi.*
The hemispheres of human brain are asymmetric, operating in difference contexts: the left is mostly logical and the right side is mostly intuitive. It is possible, by exercising inter-hemispheric interaction, to balance these two aspects of one’s cognition.
Read more –> click here
Number eight figure
Basic posture. Extend the right arm in front of you at the level of eyes. Don’t move the head.
- Draw horizontal #8 figure, moving the right wrist. Follow your fingertips with eyes only
- Increase the amplitude of the movement, including elbow, then the whole arm
- Further increase the amplitude in horizontal direction, making steps to the right and to the left
- Increase the amplitude in vertical direction, reaching up and lifting on the tiptoes and down, squatting
- Combine vertical and horizontal components
- Same with both hands, palms directed to each other
- Feel the “body” of the number eight figure between your palms
———
* This exercise is a part of the Therapeutic Movement classes taught by T. Zilberter at the MetroSport Athletic club, Durham NC in 1992-1995
Message: ATM classes are effective in improving health and functional measures (1). It is believed that they are most efficient when the exercises are done in groups. However, next best is doing the basic exercises on your own. For example, here is an exercise combining body awareness and guided imagery. A tip from people’s feedback: Read these instructions aloud, then play it when doing this exercise.*
The healing and educational method “Awareness through movement” (ATM) has been developed by Moshe Feldenkrais, a physicist and the first Judo Master in the West. Dr. Feldenkrais developed the ATM method trying to copy the amusement and curiosity he observed in healthy infants. The ATM method encourages adults to replenish the kind of body awareness they had as infants and thus to create new or forgotten ways to move and behave.
Source:
1. The Open Rehabilitation Journal, 2010, 3, 62-66
Body awareness exercise
Starting position: supine, the arms along the body, palms turned up, fingers comfortably half-bent.
1. Flatten the back, close the eyes and relax
2. Direct your awareness to the toes: feel how they are becoming heavy and warm
3. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but feeling your toes warm, heavy and relaxed
4. However, don’t be anxious about your feelings, simply sign slightly and say internally, ‘Oh well”, then continue the exercise
5. Move your awareness to the ankles: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
6. Move your awareness to the knees, then thighs, hips and buttocks
7. Concentrate on the entire lower body relaxation, watch for a while how the flow of heat and blood pulsation is spreading through the lower body
8. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but feeling your lower body warm, heavy and relaxed
9. Slowly move your awareness up along the spine: feel how the spinal muscles are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
10. Take also under control of your attention the abdominal muscles: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
11. Concentrate on the ribs: they should not move noticeably
12. Move your awareness to the shoulders: feel how they are becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
13. Concentrate on the entire trunk body relaxation, watch for a while how the flow of heat and blood pulsation is spreading through the trunk
14. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but those of feeling your entire body warm, heavy and relaxed
15. Move your awareness along the right arm: feel how it is becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
16. Move your awareness along the left arm: feel how it is becoming warm, heavy and relaxed
17. Concentrate on the palms: feel how they are becoming the most hot part of the body, the total body’s energy flows toward the palms
18. Feel the heat of the palms with your fingertips
19. Feel how the energy exits the palms in a form of rays of light
20. Watch how the heat of the whole body is being transformed into this light
21. Watch how the body continues to generate the energy for the light
22. Brush away any thoughts and sensation but the generation of the light
23. Feel joy and freedom
24. Slowly close the fingers and thus stop the light flow
25. Gradually direct the wave of gentle contraction backward to those of the previous relaxation
26. Rock slightly the head
27. Turn the palms down
28. Open the eyes
29. Arch the low of the back
30. Stretch the total body
———
* This exercise is a part of the Therapeutic Movement classes taught by T. Zilberter at the MetroSport Athletic club, Durham NC in 1992-1995
Message: The sense of balance is important for intelligence
Exercise can help maintain balance, and balance in the elderly has been highly correlated with performance measures of mental abilities such as general intelligence, memory, and reaction time. Balance thus serves as a biomarker of cerebroarterial blood flow and age-related global neurophysiologic status.
Source: Neuropsychologia 2006;44:1978–1983).
Endurance training to improve metabolic profile, which is also good for the brain
In the post Metabolic syndrome and mental health http://agelessbrain.com/2010/04/metabolic-syndrome-and-mental-health/ a problem of mental health dependency on metabolic profile is outlined. Here is one of possible solutions.
It is well known that sedentary life style is one of major risk factors of developing heart disease and diabetes. To the contrary, physical activity has been shown in clinical studies to protect against them by improving, among other factors, insulin sensitivity, which in turn lowers blood glucose and lipid levels.
Out of known training types, endurance training is now considered the most efficient training for abdominal fat control. For instance, in a study conducted by the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, patients were engaged in a regular exercise program over a period of 3 months involving endurance exercises such as biking, long-distance running, or hiking. Subjects were instructed to exercise at least 135 min per week.
During the 3-month training period, physical fitness as assessed by VO2max (maximal oxygen consumption) and resting heart rate, increased
significantly. Insulin sensitivity increased and blood glucose decreased, subsequently improving “good” cholesterol numbers and total
cholesterol readings. Weight loss was not really impressive, but importantly that it was accompanied by waist-to-hip circumference ratio increase indication
that body fat distribution became less harmful.
Sources:
-Diabetes Care. 22(4): 555-61, 1999
-Metabolism: Clinical & Experimental. 48(5):641-4, 1999
-Diabetes Care. 20(10):1603-11, 1997
-Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews. 27:1-35, 1999
Message: This exercise routine is good to fight abdominal fat and metabolic syndrome
In the post Metabolic syndrome and mental health, the problem of mental health dependency on metabolic profile is outlined. Here is one of possible solutions.
It is well known that sedentary life style is one of major risk factors of developing heart disease and diabetes. To the contrary, physical activity has been shown in clinical studies to protect against them by improving, among other factors, insulin sensitivity, which in turn lowers blood glucose and lipid levels.
Out of known training types, endurance training is now considered the most efficient training for abdominal fat control. For instance, in a study conducted by the Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, patients were engaged in a regular exercise program over a period of 3 months involving endurance exercises such as biking, long-distance running, or hiking. Subjects were instructed to exercise at least 135 min per week.
During the 3-month training period, physical fitness as assessed by VO2max (maximal oxygen consumption) and resting heart rate, increased significantly. Insulin sensitivity increased and blood glucose decreased, subsequently improving “good” cholesterol numbers and total cholesterol readings. Weight loss was not really impressive, but importantly that it was accompanied by waist-to-hip circumference ratio increase indication that body fat distribution became less harmful.
Sources:
- Diabetes Care. 22(4): 555-61, 1999
- Metabolism: Clinical & Experimental. 48(5):641-4, 1999
- Diabetes Care. 20(10):1603-11, 1997
- Exercise & Sport Sciences Reviews. 27:1-35, 1999
Related:
The best exercise type to fight metabolic syndrome
Until recently, in order to improve cholesterol profiles of people with metabolic syndrome, doctors usually advised a moderate-intensity exercise such as walking. Now, we have new information indicating that though it’s good enough for weight loss and blood pressure, it may be not enough to improve your cholesterol profile.
Researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim studied how exercise type influenced people with metabolic syndrome and showed that those who was on a high-intensity interval training program had significantly improved HDL -cholesterol levels. Their exercise consisted of four sets of 4-minute high intensity bouts at 90 percent of maximal heart rate (220 minus age) each followed by a 3-min active rest. These people exercised three times a week for 16 weeks.
The control group exercised continuously for 40 minutes at 70 percent of their maximal heart rate three times per week for 16 weeks. In both groups, participants improved their blood pressure and lost weight but only the interval training group showed improved HDL levels. “When we retested the patients at the end of the 16-week study, of those who underwent the interval-training program, nearly half had trained themselves out of the metabolic syndrome, whereas just 37 percent of patients in the moderately trained group did so,” the principal researcher Dr Tjonna said. “While metabolic-syndrome patients could perform more intense exercise, clinicians are reluctant to prescribe it.”
“There is a understandable reluctance to encourage sedentary, overweight middle and older aged patients to exercise at that high a level of exercise because of a perceived greater risk of cardiac events and the likelihood of greater musculo-skeletal injuries.We almost always tell patients to begin with a walking program and go from there,” agreed Dr James Gaulte in his “Retired Doc’s Thoughts” blog.
So where does it leave you if you are not sure whether or not you can start an interval training program? Try this safe and simple fitness test. It can be done at home. On the other hand, strength training may be as important: there are preliminary results of a long term clinical study conducted on 3,233 men, aged 20 to 80 years, which show that people with highest muscle strength had lowest risks of Metabolic Syndrome.
“Muscular strength was inversely associated with metabolic syndrome incidence, independent of age and body size,” the authors write in the article published by the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “Potential benefits of greater muscular strength presumably through resistance exercise training should be considered in primary prevention of metabolic syndrome.”
Sources:
International Symposium on Atherosclerosis; June 21, 2006.
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Nov. 30, 2005.
Message: Working harder might be needed to improve metabolism
Related: Metabolic syndrome and mental health
Until recently, in order to improve cholesterol profiles of people with metabolic syndrome, doctors usually advised a moderate-intensity exercise such as walking. Now, we have new information indicating that though it’s good enough for weight loss and blood pressure, it may be not enough to improve your cholesterol profile.
Researchers at Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim studied how exercise type influenced people with metabolic syndrome and showed that those who was on a high-intensity interval training program had significantly improved HDL -cholesterol levels. Their exercise consisted of four sets of 4-minute high intensity bouts at 90 percent of maximal heart rate (220 minus age) each followed by a 3-min active rest. These people exercised three times a week for 16 weeks.
The control group exercised continuously for 40 minutes at 70 percent of their maximal heart rate three times per week for 16 weeks. In both groups, participants improved their blood pressure and lost weight but only the interval training group showed improved HDL levels. “When we retested the patients at the end of the 16-week study, of those who underwent the interval-training program, nearly half had trained themselves out of the metabolic syndrome, whereas just 37 percent of patients in the moderately trained group did so,” the principal researcher Dr Tjonna said. “While metabolic-syndrome patients could perform more intense exercise, clinicians are reluctant to prescribe it.”
“There is a understandable reluctance to encourage sedentary, overweight middle and older aged patients to exercise at that high a level of exercise because of a perceived greater risk of cardiac events and the likelihood of greater musculo-skeletal injuries.We almost always tell patients to begin with a walking program and go from there,” agreed Dr James Gaulte in his “Retired Doc’s Thoughts” blog.
So where does it leave you if you are not sure whether or not you can start an interval training program? Try this safe and simple fitness test. It can be done at home. On the other hand, strength training may be as important: there are preliminary results of a long term clinical study conducted on 3,233 men, aged 20 to 80 years, which show that people with highest muscle strength had lowest risks of Metabolic Syndrome.
“Muscular strength was inversely associated with metabolic syndrome incidence, independent of age and body size,” the authors write in the article published by the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. “Potential benefits of greater muscular strength presumably through resistance exercise training should be considered in primary prevention of metabolic syndrome.”
Sources:
International Symposium on Atherosclerosis; June 21, 2006.
Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, Nov. 30, 2005.
Related:
If we could delay the onset of dementia by 2 years, we could reduce its risks by as much as 25% — all other things being equal — and one of the most effective and simple ways is physical activity (Am J Public Health 1998;88:1337– 42). Drs Rockwood and Middleton from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, analyzed 7 studies of exercise effects on risks of dementia and concluded that, without exception, 65 to 93 years old men and women who exercise the most have a lower risk of dementia relative to those who exercise the least. (Alzheimer’s & Dementia 3 2007; S38–S44)
Another, large-scale study found a significant dose-response relationship between physical activity and cognitive function was conducted as part of the Nurses’ Health Study in 18,766 women (JAMA 2004;292:1454–61). After about 10 or more years, when the women were 70 to 81 years old, those reporting the most physical activity scored higher on several baseline tests of cognitive function. During the 2 years of additional follow up, there were again significant trends for a dose-response relationship in which those reporting the most physical activity exhibited the least decline in cognitive function (JAMA 2004;292:1454–61).
Even walking was associated with a “dose-dependent” risk reduction: those walked at an easy pace for at least 1.5 hours per week had significantly higher cognitive scores than those walking less than 40 minutes per week.
Higher activity levels might not be necessary for the benefit (Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2004; 18:57– 64) – an increase of 30-minutes aerobic exercise frequency from 3 to 5 times per week did not result in a proportional decrease of cognitive decline in a group of 1146 women 65 years old or older.
However, for those in the higher-intensity exercise group, that worked out at least moderate intensity (more vigorously than walking), or for longer durations each day (Med Sci Sports Exerc 2001;33:772–7.) chances of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s, or all-cause dementia were lower (Arch Neurol 2001;58:498 –504).
Message: Walk!
If we could delay the onset of dementia by 2 years, we could reduce its risks by as much as 25% — all other things being equal — and one of the most effective and simple ways is physical activity (1). Drs Rockwood and Middleton from Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada, analyzed 7 studies of exercise effects on risks of dementia and concluded that, without exception, 65 to 93 years old men and women who exercise the most have a lower risk of dementia relative to those who exercise the least (2).
Another, large-scale study found a significant dose-response relationship between physical activity and cognitive function was conducted as part of the Nurses’ Health Study in 18,766 women (3). After about 10 or more years, when the women were 70 to 81 years old, those reporting the most physical activity scored higher on several baseline tests of cognitive function. During the 2 years of additional follow up, there were again significant trends for a dose-response relationship in which those reporting the most physical activity exhibited the least decline in cognitive function (3).
Even walking was associated with a “dose-dependent” risk reduction: those walked at an easy pace for at least 1.5 hours per week had significantly higher cognitive scores than those walking less than 40 minutes per week.Higher activity levels might not be necessary for the benefit (4) – an increase of 30-minutes aerobic exercise frequency from 3 to 5 times per week did not result in a proportional decrease of cognitive decline in a group of 1146 women 65 years old or older.However, for those in the higher-intensity exercise group, that worked out at least moderate intensity (more vigorously than walking), or for longer durations each day (5) chances of cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s, or all-cause dementia were lower (6).
Sources
- Am J Public Health 1998;88:1337– 42
- Alzheimer’s & Dementia 3 2007; S38–S44
- JAMA 2004;292:1454–61
- Alzheimer Dis Assoc Disord 2004; 18:57– 64
- Med Sci Sports Exerc 2001;33:772–7
- Arch Neurol 2001;58:498 –504
Related:
Exercise during midlife comparing with exercise during late life
Most of the studies into the protective effects of exercise against cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, followed the elderly people starting their 65s and watched the results, which were relevant to the beneficial effects in late life. However, there are some results where a large cohort of 65-79-year olds has been followed-up for around 21 years so information about physical activity during midlife was available. Those who who participated in at least “leisure-time physical activity” during midlife had significantly lower risks of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease comparing with those who did not exercise at all [1].
Another study has suggested that physical activity at even earlier ages (physical activity between ages 15 and 25 years was asked retrospectively) can improve or preserve cognitive ability in late life [2]. This cognitive decline risk reduction is at least comparable to the eisks reduction reported in studies of physical activity in older persons. Thus, midlife physical activity might be as important for preventing later cognitive decline as is physical activity at older ages.
Sources
- Rovio S, et al. Leisure-time physical activity at midlife and the risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Lancet Neurol 2005;4:705–11
- Dik M, Deeg DJ, Visser M, Jonker C. Early life physical activity and cognition at old age. J Clin Exp Neuropsychol 2003;25:643–53
