Archive for January 2006
Correcting Common Diet Myths
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Read MoreGetting to the Heart of Fitness
Subject: Lisa Brisse
Company: State of the Heart Fitness (co-founded by Brisse and Nora Wallace Walsh), based out of the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Santa Monica, California
Types of Clientele. โWe serve a diverse group of clients ranging from children to the elderly, from cancer patients to โhard coreโ LA executives, and everyone in between,โฆ
Read MoreAnd the Diet Winner Is . . .
Still fielding questions from clients as to which diet works best in the long term? Hereโs some food for thought from the editors of Health magazine, who recently surveyed 1,000 women randomly assigned to one of four popular diets for a 6-month period.
1. Weight Watchers: Came in number one in most categories, most notably as the diet most people stuck with; the plan tโฆ
Spa Treatments Integrate Body, Mind and Spirit
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Read MoreValentineโs Day Resistance?
Take a moment to remind your clients that eating a heart fโฆ
Read MorePotassium From Food VS. Supplements
Randomized clinical trials have shown that increasing potassium intake can lower blood pressure. However, most of these trials involved the use of potassium chloride supplements, as opposed to the potassium citrate form found in fruits and vegetables. Researchers in England recently compared the effects of potassium chloride to those of potassium citrate and published the results online oโฆ
Read MoreMore Than 50 U.S. Hospitals Use Energy Healing
Energy healing, a noninvasive complementary treatment, is offered in more than 50 hospitals and clinics throughout the U.S., according to a recent review article published in Orthopaedic Nursing (2005; 24 [4], 259โ69). Energy healing treatments include therapeutic touch, Reiki, chi kung, shamanic healing and healing touch, among others. According to the article, these therapiโฆ
Read MoreThe Alphabet Soup of Nutrition Terminology
Staying abreast of emerging nutrition research studies can be a real challenge for busy fitness professionals. Half the battle is making sense of the terms used to describe new scientific findings. One day โgeneticsโ is making headlines, while the next day everyone is talking about the โglycemic index.โ
Things get even trickier when your clients pose questโฆ
Read MoreYoung Men With Job Stress at Higher Risk
Scientists continue to find evidence of a relationship between excess stress and the early development of heart disease, underscoring the significance of the body-mind connection. Young men with stressful jobs showed signs of early heart disease compared with peers who performed less stressful work, according to a recent Finnish study published in Psychosomatic Medicine (2005; 67, โฆ
Read MoreGrowing With the Industry
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Read MorePilates Mat Exercises Reduce Low-Back Pain
People with low-back pain who practiced Pilates mat exercises for only 1 hour twice per week experienced improvement in their condition, according to a small study published in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise (2005; 37 [5], S27).
For 12 weeks, researchers studied 22 subjects with a history of low-back pain. Fifteen participated in the Pilates mat program, โฆ
โEdutainingโ in Cyberspace
Wanting to teach your own kids about healthy food choices, but still perplexed by the governmentโs revised MyPyramid on the Internet? Check out a new website called Groovy Pyramid at www.groovypyramid.com. Sponsored by Positive Records and offering kid-friendly โeducational entertainment for urban children,โ the site โedutains&rdquโฆ
Read MoreWalking Meditation
โWalking meditation is a very wonderful way to go back to the present moment and to learn how to live deeply in this moment. . . . If you learn to walk [mindfully] for only 1 week, you may develop a good habit, and you may be able to learn to live much more deeply every minute of your daily life.โ โThich Nhat Hanh, Buddhist monk, speaking in Plum Village, France/iโฆ
Read MoreChair Pilates Offers Alternative for Older Adults
As mind-body exercise goes mainstream, programs catering tโฆ
Read MoreA Meaningful Methodology
When Omar Burgos is confronted with a challenge, his mind goes into creative overdrive. The 20-year fitness veteran from Bogotรก, Colombia, sees a pyramid of possibilities where others see an empty lot. His academic prowess, love for dance and movement, and compassion for others combine to form a nonstop powerhouse. This drive served him well when he started working at Compensar, a notโฆ
Read MoreHow to Feed a Cold
Jewish mothers around the world rejoiced when scientists proved that chicken soup can reduce the inflammation associated with the common cold. Now research is revealing that other home-brewed concoctions may also reduce the severity of those pesky cold symptoms. Hereโs a look at what to stock up on during the long cold and flu season:
Orange and Grapefruit Juiโฆ
Nia: the Bodyโs Way
1983.
โDebbie. Carlos. Let me see you move,โ the martial artist said to us.
We just stared at each other. Move how? Straight-leg kick? Flat back? Cancan kick?
We began to do jumping jacks.
The sensei shook his head. โYou have 15 seconds worth of knowledge,โ he said softly. โYou know how to exercise, but you do not know hโฆ
Bring on the Burn!
Weston Fitness in Philadelphia gets the most out of its equipment stash with Pump Slide Workout. This 30-minute class features high-intensity, low-impact interval slide training combinations with Body Bars, stability balls, light weights and resistance tubing.
Participants get an intense athletic workout with BURN! Med Ball Conditioning at Equinox in New York City. The circuit traโฆ
Up the Creativity Factor
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Read MoreAging Gracefully in the Fitness Industry
โAge is a question of mind over matter. If you donโt mind, it doesnโt matter.โ
โSatchel Paige
Itโs doubtful whether Mr. Paige ever performed a โdown dogโ in bike shorts after age 40 and faced with the reality of โdroopy knees.โ Most sane people would simply close their eyes in denial. Whenโฆ
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