Move Often, Not Just at the Gym

On Dr. Mercola's Web site, Katy Bowman discussed nutritional movement, or moving throughout the day as opposed to being sedentary and going to the gym at times. A masseuse recently told me that muscles "freeze" like meat in the freezer if you do not move. We know that we are usually more stiff in the morning after a night of sleep than throughout the day. I tried to do a back bend in the morning and the physical therapist told me that muscles have to warm up first. That is why stretching is important.

In her discussion, Katy points out how most of us are sedentary at work or in front of the computer and television all day, then spend a specific time at the gym. Instead, it is best to work in housework, walking and other tasks throughout the day to keep circulation flowing, muscles fluid and calories burning instead of just working out a few hours a week.

Dr. Mercola wrote that the interface between active and inactive muscles in your body is where injury happens. To read Dr. Mercola's article and see Katy's video, click here: bit.ly/1XWeM74.

Life Your Leg for Core Abdominal Strength and for Balance

I have been ignorant when it comes to physical therapy. And, in spite of MANY abdominal exercises and Martha Graham dance contractions, my deep abdominal muscles need some work, according to my great physical therapist.

Here is a test to see if your deep abdominal muscles are strong: Stand with feet hip width apart. Place your fingers (one hand for each side) by your top pelvic and pubic bones and monitor if your hips do not shift when you move your leg. This is key.

Simply lift one leg at a time, just an inch or two off the floor, while you breathe. Hold for 30 seconds. Are your hips shifting? This may be a sign of abdominal weakness.

Repeat the exercise with a two-inch mat under your standing leg.

Repeat the exercise with your eyes closed. Try to keep your leg up for 30 seconds. This measures balance!

Repeat for the other leg.

Repeat all variations for each leg equally and as needed.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Physical Therapy Exercise for the Gluteus Medius- Clam shell

I went to physical therapy for the first time this week! And I have done a lot of exercising, dancing and walking! I need the physical therapy to stabilize and strengthen deep abdominal and other core muscles and to soothe tension in my hips and thighs.

The gluteus medialis, I was told, supports the hips and thus takes tension off the knees, which take a lot of wear and tear in anyone's life, especially an athlete's. Here is a simple exercise to strengthen this muscle. 

Lie down on your right side on an exercise mat. Make sure your hip bones are aligned and the lower back is not stuck out or ducked under your spine. Breathe in by expanding your rib cage and belly. When you breathe out, concentrate on your belly muscles contracting around your navel. Bend or straighten your right leg. Open a bent left leg like an opening clam shell (a nick name for this exercise) as far as you can without compromising your hip position. Close the leg so your knees meet. Do this slowly five to ten times. Repeat while on your left side.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

When Men and Women Should Eat Before and After Exercise

I came upon this article. I canot vouch for the veracity. The Web site claims to be the "1 natural health site" of the world. It sounds interesting:

http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2016/01/22/eat-before-exercise.aspx

A Type of Jumping Jacks for Interval Training

You will move your legs as you do in a jumping jack (legs in and out). Your arms, however, will move differently: Keeping your arms straight, bring your arms from out to your sides to almost touching in a clap in front of you. When your arms move closer your legs more apart. Do this "jump" for a minute. Rest for 30 seconds. Repeat the "jump" for a minute. Rest for 20 seconds. Repeat the "jump" for a minute. Rest for 10 seconds. Repeat the "jump" for a minute. Rest for 5 seconds. Repeat the "jump" for a minute. Breathe deeply.

Taps with Plank

You can use your hands and arms to make the plank harder! Get into and stay in the plank position and do one of these variations or alternate them:

1. Hand tap:  Tap one hand at a time with the opposite hand.
2. Elbow tap:  Tap one elbow at a time with the opposite hand.
3. Shoulder tap:  Tap one shoulder at a time with the opposite hand.
4. Hip tap:  Tap one hip side at a time with the opposite hand.
5. Knee tap:  Tap one knee at a time with the opposite hand.
6. Foot tap:  Tap one foot at a time with the opposite hand.

Jump for Your Abductor Muscles

Place a yoga mat on the floor.  Bend your elbows and hold your hands together in front of your chest. Jump from side to side over the thinner part of your yoga mat for four sets of ten repetitions. This works your abductor muscles. It may seem easy when you are doing it, but you will most likely feel it on the side of your hips for days later.

Medicine Ball and Swiss Ball for Abdominal Muscles

This is a tough abdominal exercise. Get a medicine ball that will give you a workout and that you can use for four sets of ten repetitions.
Lie down on the floor. Keep your back flat against the floor. Spread your arms and legs straight above and beneath you. Place a medium-sized Swiss ball between your ankles. Hold the medicine ball with your hands.

Lift your arms and legs straight until they meet above you. You are using your abdominal muscles to squeeze the Swiss ball between your ankles. For an advanced exercise, lift your hips an inch or two inches off the floor when your legs are up. Inhale when you lower your arms and legs and exhale when you lift them. Repeat for four sets of ten repetitions.
 

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Stability Ball Plank Rotations

This is a tough abdominal exercise. Grab a medium-size stability (Swiss) ball. Place your forearms on it. You can grasp your hands together or just keep them close. Stabilize your legs on the balls of your toes. The rest of your body is straight, neck, back, hips and legs aligned.

First, rotate the stability ball clockwise for two sets of ten repetitions (full circles). The rest of your body does not change position. Then, rotate the stability ball counterclockwise for two sets of ten repetitions. If you can, repeat these four sets.

For an even tougher exercise, lift your right leg sideways to a 90-degree angle to your left leg and bring it back to center for each circle of the first clockwise set. Do the same with your left leg for the first counterclockwise set. Then repeat starting with the left leg for the first counterclockwise repetition and then the right leg for the next counterclockwise repetition.

Stretch by hugging your knees for 10 seconds. Then lie down on the floor and stretch your arms and legs straight away fro your center for 10 seconds.

Plank with Triceps

This is an advanced exercise. Get into a plank position. (Search for the original plank post.) Rest on your left forearm and on the balls of your feet. Keep your body straight and off the floor except for your forearm and the balls of your feet. Keep our head, neck, spine and hips aligned. Use a free weight for your right arm that will give you a workout and that lift for four sets of ten repetitions. Keep your right elbow near your right side. Extend your right arm backwards to work out your triceps. After four sets, place your right forearm on the floor and repeat the exercise for your left arm.


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Great Therapy Video on Anorexia and Bulimia

You may want to check out her other videos too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDSVKLJAAh0

Lower Abdominal Muscles with Bench and Free Weight

Sit on the narrow edge of a bench. Hold onto each side. Hold up a free weight that will give you a good workout with the top of your feet (under the circular part of the free weight). Your knees should be perpendicular and your thighs should be parallel to your hips. Exhale and bring your thighs up. Use your lower abdominal muscles to lift your legs about tow inches from being parallel to your hips.
Repeat for four sets of ten repetitions.

Hug your knees for 10 seconds as needed before, in between and after sets.

Abdominal and Glute Exercise

Rest on your forearms and elbows facing the ceiling. Lift your hips. This activates your gluteus maximus. Bend your left leg and rest on the left foot. Extend your right leg, pointed or flexed, and move it straight from in front of you to the right side. This activates your abdominal muscles. Repeat for four sets of ten repetitions. Then do the same with your left leg while keeping your right leg bent.


My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Active Plank

There are several variations you can do with a plank (for abdominal muscles), and you can find some by searching for past plank posts. One simple and effective variation is to get in the plank position, with your head, neck, back and hips in a level position, and slowly bring your hips and buttocks up while keeping your legs straight. Return slowly to the starting position. Repeat for four sets of 10 repetitions, or until you fatigue. 

When you finish, lie on your back and hug your knees for 10 seconds. Repeat as needed. 

Medicine Ball for Lower Back

Grab a medicine ball that will give you a workout (not too easy or hard) With your legs shoulder width apart and knees a little bent, hold the ball tightly over your head. Bring it down in from of you and let it "bounce" about an inch over the floor. [If you let it hit the floor hard while holding onto it, I believe the friction forces will travel up your arm to your spine, skull and brain, and you don't need that.) Bring the ball back up over your head in a moderate speed and about two to four inches behind your head (with arms straight up). Repeat for four sets of ten repetitions if you can.

Art, Thoughts and Health

I just finished reading How Plato and Pythagoras Can Save Your Life by psychotherapist Nicholas Kardaras. One topic he wrote about is how keeping your thoughts high on nature, art, beauty and mathematics can affect you and your health at a cellular level. Everything has a vibration, and keeping in sync with these can boost your mind and health.

Serendipitously, I saw an article about something similar in the Health & Fitness section of the Epoch Times of Sunday February 15, 2015. The article is How Awe and Beauty Can Boost Your Health by Yasmin Amwar. Certainly, you need awe and wonder to learn about your body and take on working out each time. She writes that bad emotions boost the production of cytokines which are associated with inflammation and Type 2 diabetes. A recent study found that depressed patients had high levels of cytokine INF-alpha. The researchers found that the people with these emotions had lower levels of cytokines. Cytokines may boost neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin.

Psychologists at UC Berkeley conducted two experiments of 200 young people, who recorded how many times a day they felt good emotions like awe, amusement, compassion, joy, love, contentment and pride. Gum and cheek samples showed that those who experienced more of these emotions, especially awe, amazement and wonder. 

Psychologist Dacher Stellar, co-author of the study, said that the relationship between the cytokines and emotions may be bidirectional; researchers are not sure which comes first. But who cares. If you feel lousy, take a walk, preferably by the beach, listen to relaxing music, look at your favorite art, paint, dance, or read an inspiring book.

Stretch Your Hips Using a Bosu Ball

I just finished another Martha Graham dance intensive. I felt that my hips and lower back were a bit stiff, maybe because it is winter time and I had not taken such classes since the summer. In between doing sit-ups on the Bosu ball in the gym, I discovered I can use it to stretch my hips.

Place your lower back on the Bosu ball's center. Place your feet on the floor and bend your knees. Move your right knee toward the floor. Do not force your knee. The key is to feel a stretch in your right front hip. Use your right hand, if you want, to get your right thigh closer to the floor. Most likely, your right knee will be outside your left leg. Do what feels right. Hold five to ten seconds and do as many times as you feel are helpful.

Now, keep your left leg bent and bend your right leg the other way: have your right knee point away from your left knee. You may want to use your right hand to "help" your right leg.
Hold five to ten seonds and do as many times as you feel are helpful.

Now repeat the two previous paragraphs for the left hip: substitute left for right and right for left.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Eating Before, During or After Exercise

I am not an expert in this area but found the article Add Sugar for Prolonged Hard Exercise by Dr. Gabe Mirkin in the Health & Fitness section of The Epoch Times of November 7-13, 2014, very useful. Below is a summary.

I follow my intuition on what to eat before or after exercise. When you are in touch with yourself, this is usually a safe bet. I don’t eat or drink anything except for coffee (at times) for half an hour before and after I exercise. When I have run the marathon, I have had a few Power Bars, and one time even a sandwich. This is fine for intense or long endurance workouts.

During exercise, muscles use sugar and fat, and, to a lesser extent, protein. For exercise at a relaxed pace, food and drink is not necessary unless hungry or thirsty. I would add that this is true hunger or thirst, and does not apply to times you may be thinking about pizza while you exercise! For intense exercise periods of more than 70 minutes, sugar should be consumed before and while you exercise. There is no advantage to restricting sugar during intense training, as it will not “teach” muscles to get along with less sugar. Carbohydrate loading, used by athletes mostly in the past, also is not effective. Athletes would restrict their carbohydrate intake for four days to “empty” their muscles of stored sugar or glycogen, and then eat a regular diet with extra carbohydrates for three days, all extra carbohydrates beyond what a muscle can store are turned into fat.

Dr. Mirkin wrote that athletesc an store the maximum amount of sugar in their muscles by eating their usual diet and cutting back on training for three days before a competition. A regular meal should be eaten three hours prior to an endurance workout and the workout should not be started on a full stomach. The meal should not be composed of simple sugars. 

Sugary foods and drinks cause blood sugar levels to rise. The pancreas releases insulin which causes sugar to enter cells. This leads to low blood sugar levels which can cause dizziness or feeling weak and tired, because the brain uses sugar from the blood. Simple sugars are to be added five to ten minutes before and during long endurance competition. Caffeine can also be used at these times, as it speeds up the rate at which sugar enters muscle cells. A combination of glucose, fructose and sucrose is most effective. (Sucrose is a sugar composed of both glucose and fructose.) However, the need for both glucose and fructose are needed during intense exercise. Sugary drinks can be used throughout intense exercise periods of more than 70 minutes. Sugary drinks, according to the doctor, should be used only during or after exercise.

Contracting muscles take up sugar from blood quickly, so there is no danger or high blood sugar levels (for non-diabetics) if sugary drinks are ingested during exercise. This protection (of not having high blood sugar due to contracting muscles) lasts for up to an hour after the workout is completed.

For endurance events of more than three hours, protein, solid foods and salt should also be ingested.

 My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Star Jumps

Star Jumps elevate your heart rate and work your core, gluteus maximus and leg muscles. Lower yourself into a low squat where your hips almost touch the floor and place your arms down by your shins. If you have back or knee issues, go as low as you go and do not be hard on yourself.  Quickly jump in the air and extend your arms and legs out to your sides in the shape of a star. Then move your feet together and land on the floor. Lower yourself back into your starting position. Exhale when you jump and inhale when you return to the starting position. Repeat for five total repetitions. Rest for several seconds before you start another set. Repeat until exhaustion.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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. 

Abdominal Exercise with Weight

Hold an octogonal weight  straight over your chest while laying on your back. Bend your knees to 90 degrees. Subtly bring your lower pelvis off the floor using [mostly] your lower abdominal muscles while doing a crunch. Exhale when you come up and inhale when you go down, your shoulders to an inch or two off the floor, never touching the floor for each set. Repeat ten repetitions for four sets.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on http://www.authorhouse.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.