Lift and Close for Your Buttocks

This is a variation on the pelvic lift for your buttocks. Lie down. Keep your arms neutral to your sides. Use your lower abdominal muscles to keep your lower back to the floor.This works out these muscles. Now lift your hips off the floor. At this position, "close" your legs so that your knees touch. This is one repetitions. Do five sets of ten repetitions.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.

Foam Roller

You may have seen foam rollers at the gym. They are about six inches in diameter and one and a half or three feet in length. I love placing them below my back on a mat, lifting my hips, and rolling up and down to give myself a back massage. Foam rollers are used like this in self-myofascial release (SMR). The fascia is a connective tissue that encases muscles, joints, blood vessels and nerves. The muscles and fascia make up the myofascial system. When you work out, muscles, joints, fascia and nerves may feel tense. A great way to release this tension, and save on some massage bills, is to use a foam roller.

This concept of autogenic inhibition is used to improve soft tissue extensibility; the muscle is relaxed and the antagonist muscle is activated. (Gossman et al. 1982) Foam rollers can be used on the back muscles such as the latissimus dorsi, quadriceps, hamstrings, adductors, abductors, calves and gluteus maximus muscles. Soft tissue adhesions and scar tissue are broken down. Flexibility and range of motion may be improved. Iliotibial band syndrome may be alleviated. Press on the tender areas for 10 or more seconds and breathe throughout the movement. Apply more pressure when you exhale. Relax and repeat until pain and tension are reduced. Drink plenty of water after using a foam roller. Skip a day between using it on a particular area. If you have a severe injury, this will not take the place of physical therapist or physician care. Contact a physician before using a foam roller. To view how to use the foam roller for SMR, see http://www.youcanbefit.com/ROLLER.pdf.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories. 

Kick While Lying Down for Your Abdominals

Assume the abdominal crunch position. Place your hands below you or hold onto a heavy piece of furniture or exercise equipment for stabilizatioin if you need that. Straighten your legs without locking your kees. Point your toes. Kick up and down, in a controlled, steady, vertical scissor fashion. Do not let your feet go below half a foot over the floor. Do five sets of ten repetitions. One repetition is your right and left leg both kicking.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.

Horizontal Scissors for Abdominal Muscles

Lie down and keep your back flat on the floor, as much as you can because everyone is built differently. Keep your arms to your side unless you need to hold onto something heavy for support. Raise your legs straight, toes pointed, half a foot from the floor If this is too low, they can be as high as two feet above the floor. Higher is easier. Open and close your legs like a scissor. For added difficulty, move one leg at a time to your side. You only need to move your legs about 45 degrees to each side (angle between your centerline and leg). Do four sets of ten repetitions. You can do the same exercise lying on your belly.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.

Journal Article on Electronic Cigarettes

Yamin, Bitton and Bates reported about possible toxins in electronic cigarettes in an article E-Cigarettes: A Rapidly Growing Internet Phenomenon in the Journal of Internal Medicine. I only read the abstract, and will add to this post if I read the full article.

Electronic cigarettes aerosolize nicotine and produce a vapor that emulates that of cigarettes and supposedly is safer than even secondhand smoke. They are easily found on Web vendors. But new research suggests that they may contain unexpected toxins and devlier nicotine ineefectively, so they may nto even benefit in weaning oneself out of nicotine addiction. Although many coutnries have banned them, they are not regulated as drug-delivery devices by the United States.

Great Books -- Or So They Seem

I am getting ready to leave the New York University Bobst Library. I see next to a computer on a floor I happened to go to to Read the New York Times three books on eating. Although I do not concentrate on that, these books seem interesting:

Eating As I Go: Scenes form America and Abroad by Doris Friedensohn
Food, Morals and Meaning: The Pleasure and Anxiety of Eating by John Coveney
The Year of Eating Dangerously by Tom Parker Bowles

Some chapters in the second one seem especially captivating:

Foucault, Discourse, Power and the Subject

Greeks to the Christians: From Ethics to Guilt

Nutrition Homescapes in the Twentieth Century

An Ethnography of Family Food: Subjects of Food Choice

Abdominal Exercise for Rectus Abdominus and Obliques

Sit down and bend your knees. They do not have to be at 90 degrees. The angle between your waist (upper body) and legs should be about 110 degrees. Grab a medicine ball or free weight with a weight you can do but that is challenging for four sets of ten repetitions. Face forward (ribs forward). Twist to the right and let the weight go to the floor. Face forward again and move backward two to three inches. Now twist again, pick up the weight, holding it in front of your belly, and bring it slowly to your left side (twist to the left). Let it go on the floor next to your left side. Face forward, move backward two to three inches, twist to the left and pick up the weight again. Start your second repetition. This is a great strengthening exercise. If it is too difficult for you to move backward after you face front, skip this step until you are able to do it.

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.
My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.