MyTechnologyWorld has a great set of animations which demonstrate how simple it is to explain a complicated mechanism if one approaches it the right way.  Engineers [...]]]>

Animation of Needle and Bobbin on Sewing Machine

MyTechnologyWorld has a great set of animations which demonstrate how simple it is to explain a complicated mechanism if one approaches it the right way.  Engineers love animations.

I am decompressing at present and haven’t even cleaned or performed maintenance on my Rivendell Atlantis: Home 4,143 [...]]]> This summer I haven’t posted as I was out riding across the TransAmerica, TransAm, #acatransam! The trail took me from Yorktown, VA to Portland, OR. See the trip, with notes and pix on Google Maps or TrackMyTour.

I am decompressing at present and haven’t even cleaned or performed maintenance on my Rivendell Atlantis: Home 4,143 miles, 0 flats, original tires! It was a sweet bike to take on the road and saved me!

John

Simple stretching tricks can help make big difference

The Washington [...]]]> This trick just in from the Internet and yes we tried it here at Walker Engineering and it worked amazingly enough.  Keeping up with today’s research and knowledgebase is the fun part of our job.  Try the tennis ball trick, it will make you reread the article.

Simple stretching tricks can help make big difference

The Washington Post

I’ve discovered the secret to touching your toes. It’s a tennis ball. You don’t need to throw it, hit it or catch it. You just need to roll it under each foot for a few seconds. Then put it aside, bend down again and you’re guaranteed to reach a smidge closer to the ground.

Feel free to try it. When you’re done gasping, we’ll continue.

Is it magic? Nope, it’s anatomy, as I learned last month at the IDEA Personal Trainer Institute in Alexandria, Va., where twice I saw presenters show off this nifty trick, and twice the audience went wild. That’s because even among the gym crowd, most people don’t know much about the fascia, the connective tissue that surrounds our muscles. And they know even less about how to manipulate it to improve movement patterns.

The ball trick works, explains Justin Price, the author of “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Functional Training,” because one fascial line extends from the bottoms of your feet, up your legs and behind your back and neck, and ends at the forehead. It acts like a rubber band, so when you bend over, you’re stretching the entire thing. If you have any knots along the way — and just about everyone does — it’s harder for your fingers to sink to the floor.

Ideally, the fascia would just glide along the muscles, but whenever you repeat a motion too many times, they stick instead. These adhesions form from patterns of overuse, whether strenuous exercise or lounging on your butt for hours.

They’re even caused by wearing shoes and walking only on flat surfaces.

“Your feet are restricted all day long, so you know everyone is going to have problems there,” adds Price, whose San Diego office has a pile of rocks for his clients to traverse barefoot.

Hence, a foot massage helps you get closer to touching your toes. A neck rub could do the trick, too. Even more bizarrely, repeatedly raising your eyebrows might give you another half-inch. That one works because we’re often communicating more with computer screens than with people. As a result, we keep our faces frozen for much of the day.

At least one trainer at the conference wasn’t blown away by this news. Tanya Colucci, the director of education at D.C.’s Mint Fitness, specializes in improving movement, and she has been preaching to her clients for years about the benefits of self-myofascial release, which uses balls and other tools to break up these adhesions.

Working out with Colucci involves performing a warm-up that starts with lying on your side, propped up on one arm with your feet on top of a foam roller (a firm cylinder). You gradually shift your weight to make the roller slide up your body at a rate of an inch per second, with 20- to 30-second pauses on tight spots. It’s slightly painful while you hold, but when you move the roller past the spot, blood rushes to the area, helping it return to its original state. The idea is to make every exercise you’re going to do more effective.

Colucci insists all of her clients get a foam roller for home use. “The ones that progress the fastest do it at least five times a week,” she says. The rest treat it like flossing: Even if they’re not doing it, they know it’s good for them. Her introduction is fairly convincing: The clients do squats, then move a roller along one side of the body and try the squats again. “I have them notice how much better they feel on that side and how the movement is more fluid,” she says.

The results extend far beyond feeling good, adds Price, who worries about the dysfunction we all create by too much sitting with our spines hunched over, chests tight, hip flexors on fire and glutes shut down. After all, rolling out to be able to touch your toes better isn’t just about impressing people in yoga class. It’s about being able to pick things off the ground and teaching our bodies to move the way they’re supposed to.

Although these self-myofascial release techniques have been around for decades, they have only recently caught on in the personal training realm.

The problem? ” ‘That’s not going to help me lose 20 pounds for my wedding,’ ” says Price, parroting what clients often say when he suggests spending a chunk of a session lying on a foam roller. The situation is changing as more people seek help not just for weight loss but also for pain.

Aches and injuries are precisely why a dozen women gathered recently at Fitness on the Run in Alexandria for a workshop introducing the MELT Method, a new program that promises to improve flexibility and mobility, which will be the basis of a regular class. When we got down to business, you can guess what we did. We took balls, rolled our feet around on them and then checked to see how much better we were at touching our toes.

And the crowd went wild.

This news story is based on research that followed 34,000 American women over 13 years to see whether there was an association between the degree of [...]]]> We are often asked at Walker Engineering why we are working to design exercise back into so many aspects of a daily routine.  This week, research indicated the following:

This news story is based on research that followed 34,000 American women over 13 years to see whether there was an association between the degree of weight gain normally associated with age and how much exercise the women did. The researchers estimate that women need to do at least an hour of exercise a day to prevent putting on weight.

To read more about the study we recommend skipping the normal press outlets and reading a more complete article at the NHS in UK.  I have attached the article below in the event it moves or becomes difficult to find.  Read the actual article and pursue the links on the NHS website.

“An hour of daily exercise is ‘needed to stay slim’” reported the BBC. It said that the recommended 30 minutes of physical activity a day may not be enough to stop weight gain.

This news story is based on research that followed 34,000 American women over 13 years to see whether there was an association between the degree of weight gain normally associated with age and how much exercise the women did. The researchers estimate that women need to do at least an hour of exercise a day to prevent putting on weight.

This was a large study conducted over a long period of time. However, it has several limitations, including the fact that the women provided their weight and exercise levels by questionnaire, raising the possibility that bias was introduced.

This study suggested that an hour a day of moderate exercise was needed to prevent weight gain, however the study did not also monitor the women’s diet over time, and this was likely to vary between slimmer and overweight women.

Further research is needed to assess how both diet and exercise affect weight gain over the long term, to develop guidelines for helping people to avoid putting on weight as they age.

Where did the story come from?

This research was carried out by Dr I-Min Lee and colleagues from the Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical school. The study was funded by the National Institute of Health. The paper was published in the (peer-reviewed) Journal of the American Medical Association.

What kind of research was this?

The aim of this prospective cohort study was to investigate the relationship between different amounts of physical activity and long-term weight changes in American women who were eating a normal diet.

The researchers say that clear guidelines are needed so that people know how much physical activity they need to take to keep slim.

What did the research involve?

This study used data from 39,876 women who had participated in the Women’s Health Study and who agreed to continue in an observational follow-up study afterwards. The Women’s Health Study was a randomised trial that ran from 1992 to 2004, comparing low-dose aspirin or vitamin E against placebo for preventing cardiovascular disease and cancer. The original study excluded women who had cardiovascular diseases, cancer or other major chronic illnesses at the start.

During the 13 year follow-up study, women completed two questionnaires in the first year and then a questionnaire annually thereafter asking them about their physical activity and their weight.

The researchers were interested in the women’s weight gain over 13 years and the amount of physical activity they were engaged in over the same time.

For their analysis of weight gain, the researchers excluded women who developed cardiovascular disease or cancer within the 13 years of the study, because these diseases can influence weight. They also excluded women who had missing data on weight or levels of physical activity. In total, 34,079 women were followed up with an average age of 54 years at the start of the study.

The women’s physical activity was assessed at the start of the study by asking them how much they had done each week, on average, for the past year. Different activities were categorised as low intensity or high intensity. Low-intensity activities included yoga, swimming and tennis, while high-intensity activities included aerobics, cycling and running. As the activities were of different intensities the researchers used a measurement unit called a metabolic equivalent (MET) to standardise how much energy each activity would burn.

A MET takes into account the weight of the person and is a way of expressing the energy expenditure of physical activities in a way so they can be compared between people of different weight. The researchers worked out the number of METs per activity and the number of METs each women used each week. The women’s physical activity data was updated through questionnaires in the 3rd, 6th, 8th, 10th and 12th year of the study.

One metabolic equivalent of a task (MET) is equivalent to the energy expended during quiet sitting, whereas jogging, for example, is valued at seven METs.

The women were grouped into three physical activity levels at each assessment.

• LOW: Those who engaged in up to 7.5 MET hours a week (equivalent to up to 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity).
• MEDIUM: 7.5 up to 21 MET hours a week.
• HIGH: 21 or more MET hours a week (equivalent to more than 420 minutes per week of moderate intensity activity.

Women reported their weight during the 13-year follow-up.

Information on factors that can influence weight were also collected, including ethnicity, educational level, height, smoking status, menopausal status, post-menopausal hormone use, diabetes, hypertension, alcohol intake and diet measured by a 131-item food frequency questionnaire at the start of the study. The main analysis was also adjusted to take into account the women’s age, weight at the start of the study, height and time interval between weight assessments. Other factors that could have influenced the results were adjusted for in a second analysis.

What were the basic results?

Women of a lower weight at the beginning of the study were associated with higher activity levels.
More active women were also more likely to have had postgraduate education, used post-menopausal hormones and to have been healthier (according to their medical history profiles).

Over the 12 years of the study, the women’s average weight rose 2.6kg, from 70.2kg to 72.8kg.

Over a three-year period, women in the medium-activity group gained 0.11kg, and women in the low-activity group gained 0.12kg more in weight than the women in the high activity group.

Age, menopausal status and body mass index (BMI) affected the rate of weight gain. The trend of increasing weight gain with lower levels of activity appeared only in women with a BMI lower than 25 and the magnitude of gain was larger in the least active pre-menopausal women compared with post-menopausal women.

The researchers also looked at the likelihood of women gaining 2.3 kg over an average interval of 2.88 years. They found that for women with a BMI over 25 at the start of the study, the intensity of physical activity did not affect how likely they were to put on this weight. However, women with a BMI of less than 25 were more likely to avoid this weight gain with greater levels of physical activity.

How did the researchers interpret the results?

The researchers suggested that the rate of weight gain, 2.6kg over 13 years, was small but enough to affect health adversely. They suggest that for women consuming a normal diet, “sustained moderate-intensity physical activity for approximately 60 minutes per day is needed to prevent weight gain”.

Conclusion

This study estimated that women should do an hour of moderate physical activity a day to avoid  weight gain over time. It also suggested that physical activity is more effective in preventing subsequent weight gain in slimmer women than women who are overweight.

Although this study followed a large number of women, it also has several limitations that the researchers themselves highlight:

• Women self-reported their physical activity levels and weight. This could lead to inaccuracies in both the amount of exercise they performed and their weight.
• The researchers asked the women about their diet once, at the start of the study. However, it is possible the women’s diet changed over the 12 years of the study and that women who did a lot of exercise are more likely to eat a healthier diet.
• These women were American, and therefore their diet may have differed from British women’s.
• This study followed women only and so the results may not apply to men.

The research suggests that preventing weight gain associated with age is possible with frequent exercise. The levels of exercise that the researchers estimate are needed to prevent weight gain are greater than the amount that is officially recommended to maintain a healthy heart (at least five 30-minute sessions of moderate exercise a week).

In addition, this study did not look at diet, a major determinant of weight and fitness. Differences in diet between slim and overweight individuals over the follow-up period may have contributed to the observation that overweight women did not appear to benefit to the same degree as slimmer women from increased exercise.

Although this study followed a large number of women, further research is needed that takes into account diet over the long term to assess the right balance of diet and exercise to avoid putting on weight.

Welcome the University of Washington Libraries Digital Collection to The Commons!

They join The Commons with a special treat in honor of the Olympics: Winter Sports! They’ve got all the great sports from curling to hockey to dog sled teams (huskies, anyone?) to toboggans galore. These historic photos from the Pacific [...]]]> The Commons welcomes the University of Washington Libraries!

Photograph by Sian [...]]]> Every culture has fried dough—German Berliners, Italian zeppole, French beignets, and Indian balushahi—but none can top the gut-busting pleasure of the American donut. It’s the latest iconic food to undergo a renaissance; here are our picks for the best classic and newfangled donut purveyors across the country.
BonAppettit

• Voodoo Doughnut
  Portland, Oregon
  What Dalí was to art, Voodoo is to donuts. Among their masterpieces are the Dirty Snowball (chocolate cake donut with a pink marshmallow glaze) and the Memphis Mafia (chocolate chips, banana, and peanut butter).22 SW Third Avenue; 503-241-4704; voodoodoughnut.com

• Randy’s Donuts
  Los Angeles
  Los Angeles has donuts on just about every corner, but you can’t beat this legendary stop near LAX. Look for the huge donut atop the building (a 1952 landmark). The buttermilk and crumb raised donuts are crowd-pleasers.805 West Manchester Avenue, Inglewood; 310-645-4707; randys-donuts.com
• Dynamo Donuts
  San Francisco
  At this counter in the Mission District, long lines form early for Four Barrel coffee (roasted nearby) and inventive donuts including lemon-Sichuan, apricot-cardamom, and the excellent caramel de sel. 2760 24th Street; 415-920-1978; dynamodonut.com
• Bouchon Bakery
  Yountville, California
  On weekends, donut disciples head to Thomas Keller’s casual spot for pastry chef Richard Capizzi’s treats, including jelly donuts with seasonal preserves and the brioche donut topped with chocolate mini balls. 6528 Washington Street; 707-944-2253; bouchonbakery.com
• Dat Donuts
  Chicago
  Every donut at this South Side joint is made by hand. Purists will like the raised glazed donuts (available in a supersize version as well), while cream-filled-center devotees must have the Boston cream. 8249 South Cottage Grove Avenue; 773-723-1002
• Kane’s Donuts
  Saugus, Massachusetts
  In business since 1955, this no-frills Beantown institution is located 20 minutes from downtown. Favorites include honey-dipped and powdered-sugared varieties, and a huge coffee roll.120 Lincoln Avenue; 781-233-8499; kanesdonuts.com
• The Donut Stop
  St. Louis
  A big roadside sign announces this white stand-alone shop straight out of Homer Simpson’s dreams: Glass cases are filled with glazed donuts, fried pies, fritters, and custard-filled rounds. 1101 Lemay Ferry Road; 314-631-3333; thedonutstopinc.net
• Doughnut Plant
  New York
  The artisanal donut boom can be traced to Mark Isreal’s Lower East Side place. The classic glazed and tres leches cake donuts are perfection. Even the jellies in the trademarked jelly-filled square donuts are house-made. 379 Grand Street; 212-505-3700; doughnutplant.com
• Round Rock Donuts
  Round Rock, Texas
  It opens at 4:00 a.m. and charges only $0.55 each for cake donuts in flavors like applesauce, blueberry, and chocolate. You can also go fancy—a cherry bismarck (jelly-filled) costs $0.75.106 West Liberty Street; 512-255-3629; roundrockdonuts.com
• Mighty-O Donuts
  Seattle
  Dairy- and egg-free. Trans-fat and cholesterol-free. Here, the ethereal sugar rings (in flavors like lemon poppy seed, spiced cake with maple glaze, and chocolate iced with peanuts) are all that—and organic to boot. 2110 North 55th Street; 206-547-0335; mightyo.com