Recovery Strategies
Mind-Body Exercise and Menopause
Are you in menopause? Chances are that you sometimes feel that you are not in control of your body! If you are seeking ways to cope with unpleasant menopausal symptoms, you may want to try yoga and other mind-body practices.
Shirley Archer, JD, MA, 2008 IDEA Fitness Instructor of the Year, an award-winning author and IDEA’s mind-body spokesperson, explains the research and application of mind-body exercise on menopause.
Irritability and Mood Swings
The Poetry of Yoga
Some 80 million Americans were expected to try yoga last year, according to the 2016 Yoga in America Study (Yoga Journal & Yoga Alliance 2016). Couple this statistic with the continuing effort to entice baby boomers with new and effective movement class designs, and you get a sense of the opportunity yoga provides for dedicated teachers with skill and creativity.
Treatment Guidelines for Chronic Lower-Back Pain
While some people with lower-back pain may doubt whether movement is the answer, new treatment guidelines from the American College of Physicians (ACP) recommend nondrug therapies as the first line of treatment to relieve acute, subacute and chronic lower-back pain.
Exercise and Children: Better Brain Health, Less Obesity, Less Stress
Physically active young people can do better in school and improve their self-expression, self-confidence and social interaction compared with more sedentary children (WHO 2017). Indeed, two studies published in 2017 underscore the value of children getting plenty of exercise.
Let’s take a quick look at this research. Study 1. Fitness and Academic Achievement
The Joy of Movement Rings True
There's nothing like post–knee surgery downtime to catch up on my IDEA Fitness Journal reading. The February 2017 issue is just chock‐a‐block full of delectable goodness. In particular, I enjoyed Ryan Halvorson's article "Embracing the Joy of Movement" and Kelly McGonigal's "Ready to Love Your Stress?" Even after 38 years as a fitness pro, I learn something every issue to help me improve as a group fitness leader and baby boomer specialist. Both articles made their points logically, succinctly and persuasively.
Tai Chi, PTSD and Veterans
Tai chi practice may help veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder to manage symptoms like instrusive thoughts, concentration difficulties and psychological arousal. Boston University Medical Center researchers conducted a small pilot study with 17 veterans with PTSD to
evaluate whether tai chi would be a feasible and beneficial activity.
Don’t Worry, Be Healthy
New research highlights the power of the mind and the influence of our perceptions on disease chances. Healthy people who worry about having a heart attack have a higher possibility of heart disease, independent of other risk factors, compared with those who don’t worry, according to a study in BMJ Open (2016; doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2016-012914). A preoccupation with having or acquiring a serious illness is an anxiety disorder.
Creative Ideas That Inspire
Rock Steady Boxing is offered at TITLE Boxing Club in Carlsbad, California. The program is based on professional boxing training but is geared to people with Parkinson's disease. The noncontact boxing techniques allow participants to enjoy a boxer's workout without sparring or fighting. The method's goal is to "attack" the vulnerable neurological points of Parkinson's by increasing balance and decreasing instability, rigidity and tremors. The class is open to men and women of all ages and fitness levels.
Coaching Your Fitness Clients: Inside Out
You don't need me to tell you—the research is in! Exercise is a breakthrough medicine. In the long term, it enhances the health of our brains and bodies. It improves neuroplasticity and learning (Hotting & Roder 2013) and helps us avoid, delay or treat many health issues, both physical and mental (CDC 2017). What's more, we don't need research to tell us we feel good and perform well if we exercise—when we move our bodies with enthusiasm and vigor, we get calmer and clearer, our energy increases, and we are more productive.
A Look at Meditation
Ezra Bayda and Elizabeth Hamilton, husband and wife, have been practicing Zen meditation for over 40 years and have taught for the last 20 at the Zen Center of San Diego. They lead retreats across the United States and in Australia and France and have led meditation in hospice venues and a retirement community. Katherine Watson, executive managing editor of IDEA Fitness Journal, interviewed them about the rising interest in meditation.
Can Fitness Mitigate Work Stress?
Forty percent of workers find their jobs very stressful, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. Twenty-six percent report that they are “often burned out or stressed by their work,” and 29% feel “quite a bit or extremely stressed at work.” Changing careers may not be a possibility; however, a new study suggests fitness can help workers protect themselves against the potentially harmful effects of work-related stress.
3 Ways to Use Stress to Fuel Peak Performance
Learn three strategies that sometimes may be more effective than trying to relax.
6 Ways to Help Clients Rediscover the Joy in Exercise
Getting people to move more begins with shifting the fitness conversation from tomorrow’s gains to today’s joy, experts say.
Menopause Symptoms: Can Yoga Help?
"Joanne," aged 51, presents with hot flashes and vaginal atrophy. She feels depressed, anxious, irritable, fatigued and not as confident in herself as she once was. Somehow she feels out of control. Her body is behaving unpredictably: She doesn't know when her next hot flash is coming or how to control the fat that is shifting up toward her waist.
Harness the Power of Positive Psychology
What makes life worth living? Among the answers are work, love and service. A playful attitude brought to bear on any of these adds to enjoyment and ultimately our judgment that life is being lived well. Health and fitness also make life worth living, as ends in their own right as well as means to other important activities. Again, if our pursuit of health and fitness can be spiced up with some fun, all the better.
A Positive Attitude Is Good for Health
Motivating yourself and inspiring others to look on the bright side may be important contributors to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
5 Fascinating Facts We Learned on IDEA FitFeed This Week
Staying up to date on the latest health and fitness news is important for all industry professionals, but the constant stream of new information can make this challenging. That is where IDEA FitFeed comes into play. This inclusive tool collates top news being shared by fitness professionals around the web and posts it in one convenient location. You can find all of the top headlines from leading news sources without having to flip through multiple websites and pages. Catch up on news from the past week here.
Meditation: Practicing for Life
Ezra Bayda and Elizabeth Hamilton, husband and wife, have been practicing Zen meditation for over 40 years and have taught for the last 20 at the Zen Center of San Diego. They lead retreats across the United States and in Australia and France. Both have led meditation in hospice venues, and now they offer it in a retirement community.
IDEA Fitness Journal
recently interviewed them about the rising interest in meditation and what has kept them practicing for so long.
Taking Control With Mental Toughness Techniques
Sport psychology is dubbed the “science of success” because it studies the four mental toughness skills—motivation, confidence, concentration, and emotional and physiological control—that athletes use consistently, in conjunction with training and nutrition, to give them the ultimate performance edge. Whether you are a personal trainer, group fitness instructor, coach or mind-body wellness professional, the information, tools and techniques discussed here will help your clients to enhance their performance and give them the best shot at realizing their true potential.
