Categories
Exercise

Pilates roll down

STRENGTHENING YOUR CORE WHILE  STRETCHING YOUR SPINE  :

Use this Pilates roll-down exercise to stretch and strengthen your core muscles. Leaning against a flat wall to perform the move helps you hold and maintain a C-curve shape to your spine.

Grasp a light dumbbell in each hand and stand with your back against the wall. Your shoulders and hips should touch the wall. Walk your feet forward, bend your knees slightly and firmly press your back into the wall. Let your arms hang below your shoulders.

Tuck your chin in toward your throat and begin to roll down until just your lower back and the back of your pelvis remain in contact with the wall. Pause at this point and focus on pressing your navel toward your spine as you move your arms in small circles six times. Pause and reverse the circles, keeping your arms loose. Roll up slowly, one vertebra at a time, and return to the start position.

Source :Los Angeles Times

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Exercise

Exercise Can be a Dose of Good Medicine

[amazon_link asins=’B00EN537S0,B002SQGW4M,B01N2ZZ6QE,B01MG89R3O,B01N7KG895,B00BKTEHKY,B01ADTKR1Y,B01N4VSL8W,B01LWE2SMS’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’c849b9d6-7aba-11e7-9741-b1adb6c55a59′]

Fitness programs are beginning to augment traditional disease treatment

On a recent Wednesday night, Cindy Gerstner, 42, strapped her feet into a rowing machine and began gliding back and forth with all the energy she could muster. This wasn’t just a workout for Ms. Gerstner, whose stage IV breast cancer has spread to her brain, lungs, bones, and liver. It was a 40-minute dose of medicine.

“It’s part of my treatment plan,” said Ms. Gerstner, a member of Recovery on Water or ROW, a crew team made up of breast cancer patients and survivors who believe exercise is a powerful tool to help keep cancer at bay. “It’s almost as important as chemotherapy in helping me stay on this earth as long as possible.”

Once relegated to health clubs, exercise is muscling its way into a wide variety of disease prevention and treatment plans. Physical fitness programs are already a staple of cardiac care. But though research is still in the early stages, there’s encouraging evidence that consistent workouts can help with everything from cancer, autoimmune disorders, and Parkinson’s disease to alcoholism.

University of Illinois scientists recently received funding for a study that looks at whether riding a stationary bicycle during treatment can help dialysis patients.

The burgeoning “exercise is medicine” movement is championed by dozens of organizations, including the American College of Sports Medicine, the Chicago Park District, and cancer support groups. New national cancer guidelines urge both patients and survivors to exercise during and after treatment for 150 minutes per week, the same advice given to the general public.

Some big questions remain unanswered, such as what type and how much exercise is needed for what illnesses. In many cases, working out appears to relieve symptoms, but its impact on the natural course of the disease isn’t known. And many physicians are cautious about prescribing something that can stress the body, especially for patients in the throes of a life-threatening illness.

“There’s still a prevailing attitude out there that patients shouldn’t push themselves during treatment,” said Kathryn Schmitz, an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania school of medicine and lead author of the new guidelines.

Ms. Schmitz acknowledges that exercise is a stressor on the body but said resting too much also can have adverse effects.

If exercise isn’t already a habit, of course, it can be intimidating. It’s harder to do when you don’t feel good. And “some people would truly rather take a pill,” said Holly Benjamin, an associate professor and pediatric sports medicine specialist at the University of Chicago.

“But once they do it, so many people feel so much better.”

In the past, breast cancer patients who had undergone surgery were told not to lift more than 15 pounds for the rest of their lives, fearing that strenuous effort would slow treatment or exacerbate conditions.

But Ms. Schmitz’s groundbreaking work, published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, reversed decades of cautionary advice by finding that slow, progressive weight lifting wasn’t just safe; it could prevent lymphedema flare-ups.

Exercise can help people being treated for cancer cope with the side effects of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation, including fatigue and the loss of muscle mass.

“It helps them get through treatment in better form,” said David Nieman, director of the Human Performance Labs at Appalachian State University and the author of several textbooks on exercise as medicine.

A handful of observational studies, meanwhile, have suggested that exercise could result in a 40 to 50 percent reduction in the risk for recurrence of breast cancer, said Ms. Schmitz, though randomized controlled trials would be needed to prove a benefit.

For a few conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, there’s hope that exercise can affect the illness itself. In animal studies, exercise improved symptoms and increased the level of brainderived neurotrophic factor, a chemical that protects cells.

“Exercise may modify disease by slowing the primary process of cell loss associated with Parkinson’s disease,” said Cynthia Comella, a neurologist at Rush University Medical Center, who is currently investigating the effects on Parkinson’s of regular exercise with a personal trainer.

For treatment of pediatric rheumatic diseases, “exercise has been overlooked,” said Bruno Gualano of the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil.

Traditionally, children with inflammatory diseases have been treated with drugs that can have side effects. But certain types of exercise can be safe and effective treatment for symptoms including muscle wasting, osteoporosis, insulin resistance, pain, and fatigue.

Exercise’s greatest strength may be that it can work on both physical and emotional levels.

If some health advocates had their way, exercise would be the most widely prescribed “drug” in the country.

In Chicago, for example, any resident with an exercise prescription from a doctor for an obesity-related disease — including diabetes, high blood pressure, and asthma — can receive a free three-month membership to Chicago Park District fitness centers.

And for the past several years, the Erie Family Health Center, which provides care in Chicago’s medically underserved communities, has encouraged providers to prescribe physical activity.

But research on whether the prescriptions are effective is limited and mixed. A study of Australian women between the ages of 40 and 74 found that exercise prescriptions increased physical activity and quality of life over two years, though falls and injuries also increased.

Choosing specific goals — such as reducing blood sugar by 20 points or improving blood pressure — or setting someone up with a personal trainer was also found to be more effective than just telling someone to go exercise.

“People who aren’t regular exercisers need a lot of guidance,” said Dr. Benjamin.

“You have to empower the patient, give them concrete benchmarks and provide follow-up and feedback,” Dr. Benjamin said.

Despite a burgeoning “exercise is medicine” movement, physicians remain more likely to refer someone to a specialist than to a health club, in part because they may be unfamiliar with fitness and not sure how receptive patients will be, said Indiana University physical activity expert NiCole Keith.

“Unless physicians themselves are athletes they’re not always well educated in this, and it’s a big barrier to effectiveness,” Dr. Benjamin said.

Source:toledoBlade.com

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Exercise

Does Music Make You Exercise Harder?

[amazon_link asins=’B074X9SC1C,B0742LG1ZT,B076HV4H3L,B019BQNTL0,B01BJ8NJZO,B06XFRWFDN,1583335811,B01NAG5BAG,B01CFV920U’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’b1a55d88-fe51-11e7-9a02-c53d86b29919′]

For a study published last year, British researchers asked 12 healthy male college students to ride stationary bicycles while listening to music that, as the researchers primly wrote, “reflected current popular taste among the undergraduate population.” Each of the six songs chosen differed somewhat in tempo from the others.

During one session, the six songs ran at their normal tempos. In other sessions, the tempo was slowed by 10 percent or increased by 10 percent. Their activity changed significantly in response.

When the tempo was slowed, their pedaling diminished in rate, their heart rates fell, and their mileage dropped. When the tempo was increased, they produced more power with each pedal stroke and increased their pedaling rate, and their heart rates rose.

The New York Times reports:

“The interplay of exercise and music is fascinating and not fully understood, perhaps in part because, as a science, it edges into multiple disciplines, from physiology to biomechanics to neurology.

No one doubts that people respond to music during exercise … Just how music impacts the body during exercise, however, is only slowly being teased out by scientists.”

You may click to see : Does Music Help Exercise Endurance

Resources:
New York Times August 25, 2010
Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports August 2010; 20(4):662-9
LifeHacker August 30 2010

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Exercise

Two Phases of the Half Moon

[amazon_link asins=’B00FO9U46W,B01LP0VBDI,B00PWY0PWM,B00DG9KIE0,B00R3MZSB4,B01CTRKNVC,B010MVAJZ2,B072MYSSGW,B016CKO30Y’ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’5ba71460-8acb-11e7-949e-edc440386845′]

 

This classic yoga pose, called half moon, is excellent for stretching your back and hip muscles. It also strengthens your legs and ankles while helping you develop balance. At first you might need to use a yoga block under your hand, but as soon as you get more limber and feel stable enough, you can rest your fingers on the floor and straighten your bottom leg.
CLICK & SEE
With a yoga block, stand upright with the block in front of you, hands on your hips. Bend your right knee and place your right hand on the yoga block approximately 1 foot in front and slightly to the right of your right foot. Shift your weight onto your right foot as you slowly raise your left leg up to hip level. Your left knee and toes should be turned out, and your shin should be parallel to the floor. Pause for three to six breaths. Lower your left leg, stand and repeat on the other side.

Without the block, stand upright to begin. Bend your right knee and place your right hand on the floor approximately 1 foot in front of you and slightly to the right of your right foot. Shift your weight onto your right foot as you slowly raise your left leg up to hip level. Straighten your right leg. Turn your left thigh, knee and toes outward, shin parallel to the floor. Reach your left arm above your left shoulder. Pause for three to six breaths. Bend your right knee and lower your left leg. Stand and repeat on the other side.

Source :
Los Angeles Times

Enhanced by Zemanta
Categories
Exercise

Stronger Glutes

[amazon_link asins=’B013HJOYPM,B01D2IJP3O,B0761T6CGH,1502526484,B0727YZPH9,B01JXVOZO8′ template=’ProductCarousel’ store=’finmeacur-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’fa48c156-c698-11e7-a364-e398828ae332′]

This is a new, fun way to strengthen your glutes and thighs. By using a kettlebell, which is easier to hold than a dumbell, you’ll be able to maximize your results with added resistance while performing this wide-leg drop squat

Stand with your feet a little wider than shoulder width apart, toes facing forward. Hold a 5- to 10-pound kettlebell or dumbell in your right hand. Rest your left hand on your left thigh. Bend your knees, sit back on your heels and lean slightly forward as if you were dropping the weight on the floor. When the weight is a few inches from the floor, straighten your legs and stand up.

At the top of the squat, switch hands, grasping the kettlebell with your left hand. Then straighten your legs and repeat. Bend, switch, straighten. Continue the squats, alternating arms until you have completed 10 to 20 squats.


Source
: Los Angeles  Times

Enhanced by Zemanta
css.php