The Fitness Fixer

Fast Fitness - Contest for Children (and Everyone) To Learn What They Live

2009-11-20T00:03:00.005-05:00

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a contest for your kids, students, co-workers, and teams to reinforce healthy movement, deeds, and thinking as part of normal everyday life. It's one thing to say it, or read it, and better to do it and live it: Choose something fun and easy from Fitness Fixer. There are over 670 Fitness Fixer posts so far. Use labels under posts to get categories, for example all...

How Many Sets And Reps Does It Take?

2009-11-18T00:02:00.007-05:00

Anton, Alberto (farioreo), and others have asked how many "sets and reps" of exercises and stretches will help. The answer is in a story my Mother told me when I was small: A young boy in school always made the same mistake in English. Instead of the proper, "I have gone…" he said, "I have went." The teacher told him to stay after school and write 100 times on the chalkboard, "I have gone, I...

Thank You Grand Rounds 6.8 Health Insurance Colorado

2009-11-17T14:00:00.004-05:00

Thank you Louise Norris for hosting Grand Rounds Vol. 6 No. 8 this week from the blog Health Insurance Colorado and including my article Fourth Group Functional Training Exercise, Functional Upper Back Stretch among the best medical writings of the week. Louise writes:"Jolie Bookspan, the Fitness Fixer, brings us a detailed post about how to look upward without placing strain on our necks. I...

Fast Fitness - Fourth Group Functional Training Exercise, Functional Upper Back Stretch

2009-11-13T00:02:00.007-05:00

Here is Fast Friday Fitness from the 2009 Black Belt Hall of Fame. I am here teaching and learning. In my "Stretching Smarter" workshop here, I teach healthier ways to move and stretch for daily life and sports. One is the fourth Functional Fitness Training (FFT). It retrains how you look and reach upward, to reduce neck and shoulder compression and give a built-in stretch for the upper...

Thank You CRZEGRL Grand Rounds 6.7

2009-11-11T11:12:00.003-05:00

Thank you crzegrl, flight nurse for including my article Fitness Tests - Do They Do What They Claim? in this week's edition of Grand Rounds, Vol. 6 No. 7. She writes, "I didn’t realize that those old school fitness tests may have been all for naught!" Are they? Click Do They Do What They Claim?On the web, Grand Rounds is a collection of the best on-line medical posts from the past week. A...

Veterans Day 2009

2009-11-11T00:08:00.005-05:00

Today is Veterans Day in the United States, honoring military veterans, intended as, "A day to be dedicated to the cause of world peace." If they are to fight, they are too few, If they are to die, they are too many - Chief Hendrick Mohawk, French and Indian War 1755 More on Veterans Day: Veterans Day ---See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts,...

Black Belt Hall of Fame 2009

2009-11-09T00:05:00.008-05:00

This weekend we will attend the Black Belt Hall of Fame event hosted by the Eastern USA Martial Arts Association. Paul and I are honored to be invited back this year, and receive awards for Instructor of the Year. I will teach a workshop on Stretching Smarter for Martial Artists. Why stretch smarter? Many standard stretches work to increase flexibility but don't improve martial arts or other...

Fast Fitness - Making a Face

2009-11-06T00:04:00.004-05:00

In the first act of Macbeth, Shakespeare wrote, "Your face, my thane, is as a book where men may read strange matters." Here is Fast Friday Fitness - Your face shows how you lead your life. In other words, "Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician." How can you improve your face? Healthy exercise and hard work doing good deeds, benefits your face more than the same time and money...

Summer of Garden Exercise, Fall Harvest

2009-11-05T00:07:00.006-05:00

We planted a vegetable garden this Spring in my mother's field. Hard exercise changed a rocky ruined area into beautiful food. It's getting cold now. Readers asked how the garden turned out. Here are stories: We are harvesting. By afternoon it is dark with a large orange moon overhead lightning our work. The hard work keeps us warm. When we first cleared the area, we filled the wheelbarrow with...

Thank you Grand Rounds - Health in NonClinical Settings

2009-11-04T11:55:00.004-05:00

Thank you Dr. Joe Kim for hosting Grand Rounds this week from his blog NonClinicalJobs.com and including Fast Fitness - Contest: What Does It Take To Sit Upright? among his votes for the best in medical writing for the week. Dr. Kim writes, Dr. Jolie Bookspan from The Fitness Fixer has been collecting some interesting data about sitting straight up. Read about it here: Fast Fitness - Contest:...

Moving More is Fun

2009-11-02T17:02:00.003-05:00

The human body is healthiest and happiest when it moves throughout the day. Reader Paul J sent this video clip of a project in Sweden, reminding people how much movement can be fun: Click > arrow to play:If movie doesn't load, click http://thefuntheory.com/?q=expriment/pianotrappan Medicines prescribed for poor mood and the surprising number of diseases caused by sedentary lifestyle, frequently...

Fast Fitness - Exercise Involvement In World Health

2009-10-30T00:02:00.003-04:00

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - shed unhealthy petty feelings of maltreatment because you had to wait in line for your luxury items, or didn't get them in your color. We have things to be extremely grateful for.More of the time, it is not necessary to gain them through harming others or the Earth. Lead by example. Teach children and others not to litter, pollute, harm others, do harm for money,...

Healthy Halloween - First Do No Harm

2009-10-29T14:04:00.004-04:00

Halloween - the time when I take off my lab coat for work, and others put them on for costumes. A time when we dress as groups who pledge: "An it harm none, do what ye will" also stated as, "First, do no harm." Who are these groups? Read on. The Wilderness Medical meeting where I have been teaching certification courses held a costume banquet last year. Medical professionals and students dressed...

Thank You Grand Rounds 6.6 for Halloween

2009-10-27T17:34:00.003-04:00

Thank You Code Blog for collecting the best medical articles of the week for the Halloween Edition, and including my Kneecap Tracking article among the scary entries. A reader's doctor says the fix for tight knee muscles is to cut the muscles. That is scary when pain can be stopped by stretching them instead. On the web, Grand Rounds is a collection of the best on-line medical articles from the...

Fitness Tests - Do They Do What They Claim?

2009-10-26T00:03:00.005-04:00

A number of conventional standardized fitness tests, surprisingly, are not accurate. They do not test what they claim to test. To get real answers that you can use, it is important to know if you are doing what you think you are doing. An example of a test that does not test what it claims is the "Sit and Reach" test. Sit and Reach is assumed to test hamstring flexibility, but is more a measure...

Fast Fitness - Balance Contest!

2009-10-23T00:02:00.004-04:00

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - another contest! Do you know what constitutes ability in balance as a lifestyle? Tell us! On the urging of reader Mr. Georges Nakhlé, I started the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (AFEM) to train people in healthier, functional, more common-sense exercise and lifestyle. We teach classes, certify top students, and are creating better methods of...

Forward Air Head Syndrome - Doing Sets and Reps and Missing The Point of the Exercise

2009-10-22T00:02:00.007-04:00

After the article Help Yourself last Monday, I received many notes from readers. Almost a dozen the first few hours. Notes saying that that once they understood how my method changes "doing" exercises into stopping causes of injury, they tried to help their friends who had pain. The friends turned their generous help back into the party line of doing sets and reps of stretches and exercises, then...

Thank You SharpBrains Grand Rounds - Brain and Cognition Edition

2009-10-21T18:41:00.003-04:00

Thank you Dr. Alvaro Fernandez for hosting Grand Rounds this week and including my article Fast Fitness - BIPOD Reader Prescription for Healthier Feet in the list of best medical writing of the week. Congrats featured reader Paul J, who prescribed BIPOD. This week's Grand Rounds combined the usual Grand Rounds (health & medicine "best of" list) with Encephalon (brain & mind edition). To...

Reps of Exercises Don't Fix Pain; Fixing Causes Does

2009-10-19T21:46:00.007-04:00

Monica from Montana bent over dogs daily in her dog boarding kennel. She spent the summer doing stretches, exercises and going to chiropractors for severe back pain. She did all her "sets and reps" (repetitions) of the exercises her various practitioners gave her. The pain kept coming back. What did she do differently that stopped this cycle? I first heard from Monica through her short happy...

Fast Fitness - Contest: What Does It Take To Sit Upright?

2009-10-16T00:03:00.009-04:00

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - a Contest! Conventional beliefs about posture include that you must do certain exercises or stretches or strengthening to change your posture. Is that true? Look at photo 1 and 2 and answer the simple question below: Photo 1 photo 2 Submit Your Answer: What muscle strengthening or stretch is required to change from first (unhealthy rounded) to...

Exercise and Weight Loss Reduces Kidney Disease and Death

2009-10-14T14:53:00.004-04:00

We recently found a cure for "irony deficiency disease." My near-7 foot tall husband and I were walking to a Vidocq forensic society meeting. A bake sale was set up in the building lobby - junk food, refined junk pastries, pies with artificial colorings. The sign stated "Bake Sale for Kidney Disease." I asked which items caused the most kidney disease. I was sure it was a staged joke for a...

Help Yourself

2009-10-12T12:19:00.003-04:00

Ivy from New Zealand wrote last week with an important reminder for readers who want to fix their pain: "Have just read your post re Captain Scott and knees - Don't Miss These Reasons It Doesn't Get Better. "It reminded me of a conversation I had yesterday with one of my neighbours. She is 71, very much overweight and is in a lot of pain. She has been receiving physical therapy for the last...

Fast Fitness - BIPOD Reader Prescription for Healthier Feet

2009-10-09T00:08:00.010-04:00

Here is Friday Fast Fitness - BIPOD is a way to happier feet that you can do yourself at home. Reader Paul J sent in this gem in July. Other great work from him and other readers are still in the piles of mail. For background: A shoe insert is any pad of any size, shape or quality that you put in your shoe for various reasons. Hard shoes are a common course of joint pain. Many shoes benefit from...

Thank You Grand Rounds 6.3 - Pallimed

2009-10-08T20:28:00.002-04:00

Thank you Pallimed for not including me in your votes of the best in palliative medicine for Grand Rounds Vol 6, No 3 this week. Palliative medicine, by definition, means to alleviate pain and symptoms without eliminating the causes. Palliative comes from the Latin palliare, meaning "to cloak." My life's work is not to cloak problems but stop causes. Palliative care is sometimes all that is...

Kneecap Tracking - Don't Miss These Reasons It Doesn't Get Better

2009-10-06T18:02:00.014-04:00

Captain Scott, pilot, athlete, all around good reader, asked about knee pain when the kneecap (patella) "slides to the outside due to tightness in the tendons and muscles on the outside of the knee." His physician recommended surgery to cut the tight area. Is this needed? Tracking problems have several names: Lateral Facet Syndrome, Chondromalacia, Anterior Patello-Femoral Pain Syndrome, Lateral...