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Summer Refresher:
 Refresh your body (and your mind) by
drinking a lot of water! Remember
how I described this in my spring newsletter? It will clear your body of wastes, both
cellular wastes and 'bulk' waste. You'll be amazed how
alert and awake you feel in the hot
summer climates! My friends and clients are amazed how much just
a drink of water can pep them! |
Lauren Muney at age 41:
Wellness coach
Featured in
"Fit Over 40: Role Models for Excellence
At Any Age"
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The Physical Mind
welcomes its new and familiar
subscribers to the newsletter, which seeking compelling yet personal articles, all centered on the
goal of enlightening your fitness and wellness.
Please forward this newsletter to a friend if you think
it might help him or her. (It also might spark conversation).
With fitness in mind,
Your comments
and ideas are always welcome!
Lauren Muney
email:
lauren@physicalmind.com |
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Dizzy? Tired?
Exerting in the
sun
and/or heat?
Heat-related
illnesses are more common than you realize.
The body's dominant forms of heat loss in a hot
environment are panting and sweating.
If the body and/or the air gets too hot, evaporation of sweat is no longer
possible and the body loses its ability to dissipate heat.
In other words, if you get too hot, your
body cannot remove heat fast enough and the body will slowly
shut down!
Heat-illness can affect you for the rest of
your life, causing you to be susceptible to heat.
Do NOT take
your
body for granted!
Take heat
seriously:
- Be proactive in heat:
- Stay out of the sun on hot days
- Stay in shade or air conditioning
- Drink plenty of water - even when you are
not thirsty
- Press damp, cold compresses on your neck
and wrists to cool down your blood
- Replace the electrolytes (salts,
potassium, magnesium) in your body with low-sugar
sports-drinks... Gatorade is very sugary, but it works if
you are depleted in energy.
- If you are asked to highly- exert
yourself in hot weather, only do so in small bursts AND rest
afterwards.
- Beer, wine, and alcohol harm your
body when you are hot. Save any alcohol for after you have
balanced your water intake and gotten cool.
- Remember, it costs very little to
protect yourself against heat illness - but it's
expensive to cure yourself
Here are some warning signs for
heat-illnesses:
Heat
exhaustion
- Symptoms
often are nonspecific and often resemble a viral illness.
- Fatigue & weakness
- Nausea & vomiting
- Headache
- Dizziness
- Muscle
cramps
- Irritability
- Temperature usually is less than 41°C (106°F)
Heatstroke
- any or all of the
symptoms of heat exhaustion.
- Symptoms
include bizarre behavior, hallucinations, altered mental
status, confusion, disorientation, and coma.
- Patients may be sweating. Although NOT
sweating may
be a classic feature of heatstroke
- Brain
dysfunction includes seizure, coma, delirium, bizarre
behavior, hallucinations, and
fixed, dilated pupils.
- Skin may range from warm and dry, or even
sweating diffusely.
- Problems breathing
- Genital-urinary symptoms
- Muscle
cramps or flaccidity
Causes of
heat illness:
Illnesses:
-Heart
disease
-Skin
diseases
-Extensive
burns
-Dehydration (eg, vomiting, diarrhea)
-Endocrine disorders (eg: hyperthyroidism, diabetes)
-Neurologic
diseases
Behavior:
- Exercise
in a hot environment
- Lack of
air conditioning or proper ventilation
- heavy or
thick clothing
- Not ready for heat activity: lack of
acclimatization
- Decreased
fluid intake
- Hot
environments (eg: inside of tents or autos in the sun,
hot tubs, saunas)
Drugs/toxins:
Other risk
factors
- Salt or
water depletion
- Obesity
Help sheet for adults and children can be
found at
this link.
BE SAFE THIS SUMMER |
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THIS
ISSUE:
scroll down for preview
- Bowflex: the
ultimate in-home gym, or the ultimate con?
- Training For the Plateaus: The gift of
diligence
- LAZINESS: Am I lazy... or do I just feel like I am?
- Rotator Cuff: the
little muscles with the big problems
-
Kudos_to_"Lazytown":
exercise-oriented show for children on cable TV
Bowflex... the
ultimate in-home gym, or the ultimate con?
A first-person perspective from the
trainer of a Bowflex challenger.
 Bowflex commercials are everywhere, it seems.
Beautiful people extolling the virtues of this "fast, easy-to-use, only
three 20-minute workouts a week in your own home" product. What to
believe? The supposedly real-life Bowflex "challengers", or the
heavy-duty iron-heads in the tough gym down the street, who say that
Bowflex is junk? [more]
-----------------------------------------
Training For the Plateaus": The gift of
diligence
Everyone hits a plateau one time or another.
What is a plateau and how do we consider it? What happens if
we start considering it a gift and not a burden?
We all want to grow somehow. Some of us want to grow
in strength, in muscle, in fortune, in fame, or even in wisdom.
Sometimes (really, most of the time) this growth means 'change' from our previous selves.
Here's the insight about 'change': there will
always be the inevitable plateau. A "plateau" is a place where there
was once forward-progress and now there is a stagnation.
Previously, great successes of change were made -- and now, there is no
forward-progress. It's as if progress grinds to a halt. We were running
and then we are standing still - almost as if the rest of the
world passes by us. [more]
-----------------------------------------
LAZINESS: Am I lazy... or do I just feel like I am?
An article to change your life... I hope.
 Think back to when you wanted to be fit and
healthy...
perhaps even a day ago. You thought about your goals, you realized what
you wanted your body to look like... and you still sat on the couch
watching your favorite television programs.
"I'm lazy," one client told me, "so that's why I can't
get trim". [more]
-----------------------------------------
Rotator Cuff: the
little muscles with the big problems
Some easy solutions which have helped many
people. Do these exercises every other day, and perhaps your
pain will be speeding away.
I have been getting many emails from
"Fit Over 40"
readers asking how to help rehab a rotator cuff injury,
since one of the authors mentioned how I "cured" his
shoulder problem. I have learned a few "post-rehab"
techniques which slowly build the muscles back to close
to if not as good as before the stress or injury.
[more]
------------------------------------------
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Kudos to "Lazytown"
activity-encouragement for kids!
 Nick
Jr, a children's programming television channel, has a new show:
LazyTown,
in which the character of "Sportacus",
(left) who is handsome, intelligent, and foils the bad
guy with exercise-produced personal energy.
In this current age of sedentary
living, rampant obesity, and television mania, LazyTown just may be
a tool for activity encouragement!
The bad guy, Robbie Rotten
(below), continually tries to run the lives of "LazyTown's"
child-residents by influencing them to stay sedentary. Sportacus and
his children-pals save the day when they foil Robbie Rotten's
schemes and find that being energetic, active, and joyful make
life so much better than sad, tired, and depressed living.
While this may sound like a
really dumb set of plots (they are rather dumb when described in
this format), the show is very upbeat, the music is catchy, and the
theme of
"active is fun!" really resonates well.
Video:
Lazy Scout
 Featuring
Iceland's Aerobic World Champion
Magnus Scheving as the main character Sportacus as well as the
series' writer and producer:
"The overarching goal
of LazyTown is to motivate kids to live healthier lives. I
was motivated by kids and I learned from them just how excited they
were when they made positive changes in their lives.
We believe that the best way to get kids to understand this is to
inspire them and lead by example. LazyTown delivers positive,
healthy messages in an entertaining way. We want to empower kids to
get out there and do things that they haven't done before."
The style of the show is using
cartoon-reactions in melodramatic physical-comedy and high
production value - live-action and puppets make the characters, with
incredible 3-dimensional makeup really livening up the characters.
"For instance, in
the show, Sportacus
is a driving force. He's fit, agile, and an amazing athlete
who's patient, kind, and understanding.
He encourages kids through example. He doesn't take the low
road. Conversely, his
adversary, Robbie Rotten, is all about easy solutions and
pulling the group down to his level.
Then there's Stephanie, the lead kid character, a
wide-eyed optimist who believes she can make a real difference;
while Pixel, a boy character, can conquer every video
game, but when the situations are real, he has a harder time.
Just like in real life, nobody's perfect and LazyTowners are
constantly trying to find ways to understand and improve
themselves. I guess that you could say that LazyTown explores
the opposing forces that we encounter in our own daily lives."
If *I* can get excited about a kids'
show, you can also! , "Lazytown" is actually a joy to view.
Enjoy the following links:
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