Core Workout _ Dumbbells

Many Core Workouts have you lying on a mat. 

This video is an extract from a client workout.

The objective of this workout: hitting core muscles from all angles but not using crunches and situps. The workout is designed to share the load across the body muscles so that no one muscle group gets burned out.

The "cheat sheet" to go withis video, so that you can jog your memory of what comes next and just flow from one exercise to the next.

Start by getting a bench in position or building a bench with a Reebok step.

1. 2 legs on floor 2 arms in action (for Dumbbell Squat)

2. 1 leg on floor 2 arms for 1 leg      (Dumbbell lunge)

3. 1 leg 1 arm for Dumbbell               (back row)

4. 1 leg 1 arm for dumbbell               (back raise)

5. Lying On back, face up 2 arms for alternating chest press but make sure that shoulder comes off surface every repetition

6.Lying Face Down 1 arm Raising Dumbbell from floor to horizontal

7. Lying Face up 1 arm dumbbell "throws" with back coming off surface every time

8. Lying on side on mat for a Side plank plus the extra stress of a lateral leg raise.

This workout took 30 minutes. The video is 5 minutes out of the 30 minutes.

Vitamin D - more, much more for babies, children; teenagers

Dr Frank Greer (one of the authors of this new recommendation ) , when asked , "How many babies get enough Vitamin D?" answered: "If it's 30 percent, I'd be surprised."

Today the American Academy of Pediatrics said that children of all ages should get much more Vitamin D than they had previously recommended - up from 200 IUs to 400 IUs.

The Pediatricians said in summary "It is now recommended that all infants and children,
including adolescents, have a minimum daily intake of 400 IU of vitamin D
beginning soon after birth. The current recommendation replaces the previous
recommendation of a minimum daily intake of 200 IU/day of vitamin D
supplementation beginning in the first 2 months after birth and continuing
through adolescence. These revised guidelines for vitamin D intake for healthy
infants, children, and adolescents are based on evidence from new clinical trials
and the historical precedence of safely giving 400 IU of vitamin D per day in the
pediatric and adolescent population. New evidence supports a potential role for
vitamin D in maintaining innate immunity and preventing diseases such as
diabetes and cancer."

The announcement had lots of TV coverage - here is what ABC said.

The newspapers fell upon the announcement:

• Wall Street Journal
• Science Daily
• US News & World Report was informative and practical

The problem is that breast feeding is good for babies but not a lot of vitamin D gets to babies via breast milk. Because so many people are somewhat Vitamin D deficient, including mothers, this makes the situation more precarious.

If babies get enough sunshine then they'll make enough Vitamin D naturally but this simple solution only works if there is a lot of sunshine for most of the year. Many parents worry about skin cancer and keep babies and small children well covered when outside.

Children don't play outside as much as previous generations so natural creation of Vitamin D just does not happen as much.

So it's got to be supplements for many babies and children.

The full report from The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) runs to 11 dense pages.

Nexium by another Name - PRILOSEC - OMEPRAZOLE

For two years I've taken Nexium to guard against the possibility of acid reflux creating the potential for esophageal cancer. Two years on I was checked, had my photos taken and it all looks OK. I've tried to compare these pictures to the ones from 2006 but the quality is just not good enough. Why the doctor cannot get a decent picture with such expensive equipment is one of those mysteries. 

I'm now on the cheaper version of Nexium, it's called Prilosec (or sometimes Omeprazole). They all come from Merck or AstraZeneca. Men's Health said it's evil and who knows maybe they are right. Astrazeneca have a video saying basically "Keep taking it and if that's too difficult, ask your doctor."

The Mayo Clinic Health Letter said it's OK if you are very careful - very reassuring.

Then there was the worry that Prilosec and/or Nexium might increase the risk of heart attack but the FDA said "probably not."

Nexium and Prilosec seem to slow absorption of minerals like calcium and iron, so you might worry about anemia and osteoporosis. There was a long term study of about 13,000 people over 16 years (ending in 2003) which concluded that if you take nexium (or prilosec) for a year then your risk of hip fracture goes up by about 1%. Difficult to know what to do for the best with a low, but non-zero, risk like that. 

The University of Wisconsin at Madison has a small clinical trial in progress to try (stage completion December 2008) and gauge the impact of prilosec on calcium absorption. This might give us some clarity on the calcium and bone strength issue.

Inadvertently I had a gap of about a week between finishing Nexium and starting Prilosec and in the week my weight went down about 3 pounds. Was there a connection ? Who knows but I'm waiting to see what happens to my weight in the first week of taking Prilosec.

Elliptical Trainers - getting a satisfyingly hard workout

Atlanta has many give away magazines but my favorite is:
Atlanta Sports & Fitness Magazine. If you don't know about it, look out for it at your gym.

One item that caught my eye in the Sept/Oct 2008 issue is the Octane Fitness Q47e Elliptical.

This picture out of Atlanta Sports & Fitness Magazine is much more dynamic than the Octane own pictures of the Q47e. The woman in this picture is really pushing herself hard and aiming to get the maximum out of this elliptical machine.

Quite recently a client decided to replace the treadmill in her home gym with an ARC Trainer from Cybex because walking on the treadmill was not sufficiently challenging but her knees would not stand up to treadmill running.

All of this generates the thought that there is a demand for something tougher than treadmill or elliptical walking but not as rough on the joints as running.

Cybex have done some research to find out if their Arc Trainer really does impose a bigger challenge than the ellipticals.

Look at this paper on how an Arc Trainer gets you working harder than an ordinary elliptical. Of course it's research paid for by the company and hence one needs a little caution but interesting nevertheless. This second paper goes deep into hip and knee flexion, force vectors, angular velocity and lots more deeply techie stuff.

I run on the treadmill. My program to find out if my knee will allow me to run a 10K (6.2 miles) in a reasonable time - just over 60 minutes - is ongoing and next week I'm hoping to run non-stop for 4 miles on a treadmill. However reading this research onto the new generation of better elliptical trainers means I'm going to try out an ARC trainer very soon.

Salt and Osteoporosis - what to do next ?

Too much salt in the food you eat forces your body to extract calcium from your bones to counteract the acidity that goes with too much salt in your food. One way to respond is to get a lot of calcium into your diet to try and reduce how much calcium is sucked out of your bones.


Last November the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology had a long article about using Potassium Citrate to at least partially neutralize an acidic western style eating style.

The study came to the conclusion it was the citrate that was more important than the potassium because a parallel study of taking Potassium Chloride showed some improvement but not nearly as much as Potassium Citrate.

A bottle of Potassium Citrate will cost about $10 for 180 capsules.


Of course there are a lot of other things to do to protect your bones

• keep salt taken per day below 2300 milligrams - even this amount of salt leads to 40 milligrams of calcium being lost from your skeleiumton
  
• keep the caffeine down - a good cup of coffee will cause a loss of 20 milligrams of calcium


• easy on the sodas - the phosphoric acid in many carbonated soft drinks increase calcium loss.
  
  Is Potasium Citrate the magic answer ? Probably not but the article I mentioned earlier showed that after about a year of taking Potassium Citrate, hip bone density went up. Remember this was a small study - 161 post-menopausal women - but an indicator to remember.

Core Muscles - work out anywhere

Look at the video.

This set of core muscle exercises is tough. Enjoy.
Best of all - work your abs with NO situps, NO crunches.

These exercises are an essential part of getting a great set of abs (the 6 pack to dream about). This workout forces all the core muscles , not just the abs, to work as hard as they are capable of working. This is the kind of workout you can do anywhere, including at home.

Staying on top of Health & Fitness

I might think I know a lot about exercise, fitness, health and nutrition but how to stay abreast of all that's happening.

Much of what I learn I share as I go along through my Google Reader File.

To be realistic staying up-to-date with everything is probably an unrealistic dream because there is just so much new information every day.

However I do read a lot - books, magazines, newspapers and on-line - and it's never enough !

What would I recommend that other Personal trainers read ?In this post I'm just going to cover magazines and what arrives through RSS.

I'm qualified as a Personal Trainer with The American College of Sports Medicine [ACSM] and they have an excellent quarterly magazine aimed at Personal Trainers called ACSM's Certified News.

It's very health oriented. For instance the most recent issue - July-Sept 2008 concentrates on Men's Health Issues. It includes coverage of Osteoporosis in Men (this is usually thought of as an exclusively female issue but not so). The issue also had an extensive article on Power Training in Older Adults.

The ACSM's Health & Fitness Journal is also excellent.

It's aimed at quite a wide medical audience but is still very relevant to a Personal Trainer. The most recent September-October journal covers the latest trends in cardiovascular rehabilitation. Very interesting if your are serious about helping people get back to their life after a very threatening heart 'incident'.

I have an Advanced Health & Fitness Specialist certification with the American Council on Exercise [ACE].

ACE's magazine for Personal Trainers - ACE Certified News - is also very informative. The September-October 2008 issue has "How to attract more men to Group Fitness" as the lead article. It also has an article on Exercise-induced Bronchospasm.

ACE also has a regular Fitness Matters magazine. The September-October 2008 issue leads with Boot Camps - what are the fitness benefits.

A couple of years ago I wrote a small book on Exercise-induced Asthma and this had a section on identifying whether one has Exercise-induced Asthma or it's close cousin Exercise-induced Bronchospasm. This article reminded me that I really should up date my book to cover both these issues.

I also belong to an excellent organization known as IDEA Health & Fitness which publishes the IDEA Fitness Journal twelve times a year.

The October 2008 issue has a very relevant article with the title "A Second Chance at Health" which shows how it's possible to reverse coronary artery disease with the correct exercise program.

Included with IDEA Health & Fitness is a smaller magazine called IDEA Trainer Success. This is somewhat more oriented to the business aspects of Personal Training. This month there was along and useful article about " Strategies for retaining clients and achieving long-term success."

Every couple of months OnFitness arrives. I've mentioned this magazine before. It's not a professional magazine but it's always interesting and provocative. Also I've never seen it advertised. OnFitness is trying to grow based purely on word of mouth recommendations.

Once a month PFP lands in the mailbox. This is very business oriented with the goal of "Helping you proper as a fitness professional." However the current issue October 2008 has articles on Combating Youth Obesity and Pilates, Yoga for Athletes and Working with the Obese. All relevant for me.

I'm not certified with the National Strength and Conditioning Association [NSCA] but I do read every issue of the NSCA's Performance Training Journal. This arrives via the internet and every issue is printed, carefully read and filed. The most recent issue August-September had a really simple idea to both improve balance and reduce ankle injuries.The simple idea ? Stand on one leg on a pillow for 5 minutes (then switch and balance on the other leg - for a total training time of 10 minutes). In the High School football players who tried this there was a 77% reduction in ankle sprains. The same issue has an article about "Applying Suspension Training to Football" which reminded me that I needed to investigate how to incorporate Suspension Training into my own and my client's workouts. All of this information and the NSCA's Performance Training Journal is FREE.

Peak Performance is a contrast in many ways and in particular because I have to pay for it but it's worth it. This monthly publication is internet only and is really aimed at top level athletes and their professional coaches. I find that it stimulates ideas relevant to my clients.

I use Google Reader to bring to me information of all exercise and fitness information of all kinds. You can look at what I'm reading because my Google Reader file is public.

Examples of items I think interesting and relevant:

• How to Diagnose a Shoulder Injury (Video Guide)
• Whole Wheat Goodness
• Sneaking in Calcium: Healthy Bones for the Dairy Averse