Exercising with back pain - Fitness truths

Fitness Truths: stretching, good or bad for you?
Improve your posture 

Posture is the way that we hold ourselves both statically, when standing still, and dynamically, when we perform tasks that involve bending, lifting and so on. When posture is good, the vertebrae in the spine are correctly aligned and loaded and we move efficiently. In some circles the issue of posture is perhaps overplayed, especially for those with otherwise healthy structures, but if we can improve our posture, both statically and dynamically, we are likely to be taking a significant amount of load and stress off our bodies.

Some postural improvement can be brought about through corrective exercise, although my suggestion is that posture is as much, if not more, about neural adaption, than muscular. In other words, much of our postural behaviours are habits and are a product of patterns that we have learned, rather than muscles that are either tight and short or long and weak. I'm not suggesting musculoskeletal factors are not important, far from it, but I think we should look at it as a systemic issue.

Focus on corrective exercise will also help, but improving efficiency of movement, especially in the gym, will probably yield greater changes. If we take the time to do some movement re-education training and learn how to move and exercise in the right way, whilst perhaps also targeting some specific muscles, we will probably find that this this will go a long way towards alleviating any symptoms, as the right muscles start to become more active and our body becomes systemically stronger.

Carbs-vs.-Fats Debate? the last words

Some specific findings
The result of this methodology was a set of findings that are about as reliable as findings get in the area of diet and weight control. Here are some of the significant bits.

After one year, the low-carb subjects had shed an average of 8 more pounds than the low-fat folk. Members of the low-carb group also lost notably more body fat, and although the study did not include any exercise or physical activity requirements, they experienced a gain in lean muscle mass. In contrast, the low-fat dieters who lost weight lost more of it in the form of muscle than fat.

The low-carb group enjoyed these results even though saturated fats made up 13 percent of their daily calories (the American Heart Association has been recommending a limit of 6 percent), and even though fats of all kinds made up 40 percent, compared to the generally recommended limit of 30 percent.

The low-carb group also saw striking reductions in their triglycerides and inflammation indicators, and a greater increase in good HDL cholesterol than the low-fat group.

And finally, there is the Framingham Risk Score, which is too detailed to explain here but which is an algorithm that is used to estimate the risk that an individual will develop a cardiovascular disease within the next ten years. You can probably guess where we’re going with this:

The low-carb people actually lowered their FRS over the course of the year, while their low-fat counterpoints saw no similar improvement.

Fitbit and other wearable fitness gadgets are annoying

This Ralph Lauren Polo Tech sends fitness data to tablets or smart phones.

Let's be brutally honest.

No one cares that you work out. No one else, on the face of this earth, wants to hear it.

They could give a rat's rear end that you get up at 5 a.m. for a 5-mile run before work. They have no interest in your claim to bench press 153 pounds. They space out when you talk about your 3-day-a-week regimen with a personal trainer.

So what did the tech world do to us? It took fitness talk up to a new level of annoying that makes me, and I'm assuming the rest of the world, want to bang their heads on a punching bag.

Wearable fitness: Smart watches. Health monitors. Activity trackers. Hidden inside jewelry. Embedded in clothing.

Gadgets that people can have on their bodies 24-7 so they can not only tell exactly how intensely they walked from the parking garage to the office desk, but how many steps they took from their desks to the vegetarian café down the street.

And then tell you about it.

Will they make it to 10,000 steps by the end of the day? Please keep us updated!!!

Fit on the go: Tips to stay in shape while travelling

Here's a quick hotel room workout to maintain your fitness routine while travelling.

Frequent business travel or long holidays upsetting your fitness routine? Here's a quick, 15 minute workout that you can do in the privacy of your hotel room. All you need is a pair of workout shoes and some music if you like.

Note: Don’t miss the tips at the end that will help you burn calories and lose weight on a holiday!

But first, the indoor workout:

Do a quick warm up by jogging on the spot, doing a few jacks, knee raises, dynamic stretches, for 5 minutes. 

1. Sit-Don't Sit: Squats

Stand about 2 feet away with your back towards the bed; legs hip distance apart. Link your fingers and stretch your arms out in front of you.

Lower your hip towards the bed as if you are about to sit on it, but stand up just before you can sit.

Make sure your knees stay in line with your ankles and don't bend past over your toes.

Do 15-20 reps.

CARDIO: 30 seconds of 50 jogs and 10 jumps. Repeat as many times as you can within 30 seconds.

I Found the Hardest Workout in New York

As someone who was fairly bookish growing up and had childhood asthma, gym class was never my favorite. Fortunately, thanks to a motivation partially instilled from thuts, I’ve adopted a healthy appreciation for fitness. Working out at a new gym called Tone House put me at the crossroads of gym class hatred and a desire to look like Jennifer Lopez.

Normally, I like to test workout classes at least three times before writing a review, but I’m not sure when I can work up the courage to go to Tone House again. It was that hard. “The hardest workout in New York City!” a guy in my class cheerily proclaimed at the end of it, while gasping for air. “Harder thanBarry’s, SoulCycle, anything!”

Tone House is unique in New York, where a small universe of boutique gyms exist. It has the community aspect of CrossFit, the sweat aptitude (and maybe playlist) of Barry’s, and the devotion of SoulCycle. Housed in a long, rectangular-shaped loft, Tone House’s floors are swaddled in black astroturf and covered with the kind of athletic props that I’ve only seen on episodes of Friday Night Lights. There are mini-hurdles, heavy ropes, sandbags, and vests with resistance cords.

Workout Wednesday: Train like a football player

Joshua Hubbard, KUSA 

KUSA - Training to be a football player is no easy job, but there are some exercises you can do that have a football theme. 9News Fitness Expert Jamie Atlas put together these workouts:

Mountain Climbers to Sprint:

Whether you're an athlete or a beginner, this drill helps build reactive power and is a great cardio explosion for all levels of fitness.

From a plank position, start pumping the legs back and forth as if you were doing mountain climbers. Have a partner call out when to immediately go from this position and sprint to a point 3-10 yards away. Team up with other people and have races.

Lunge and band push

Football players on the line of scrimmage need to be able to use their upper body with their lower body. This exercise also integrates the core to strengthen and tone those hard to get ab muscles.

From a staggered stance position, step through into a lunge, pushing with two hands as you come forward. Mix up the angles and the hand position and keep your body guessing with this fun and total body conditioning drill.

The Ways to Avoid Feeling Off During Workouts

One of the mysteries of being physically active is when the same workout feels great one week and lousy the next. Why does a routine 4-mile run or hourlong yoga class suddenly morph into the last leg of an Ironman triathlon?

Bad workouts happen to everyone, from professional athletes to office workers trying to carve out 30 minutes at the gym.

Coaches and academics can identify many factors to explain this mystery. In short, much of what you eat, drink and even think about can affect how you exercise.

Peter Thompson, a longtime track and field coach who has worked with athletic novices and Olympians, says one factor that can slow regular exercisers is inadequate recovery time.

"Training does not make you fitter. It's the recovery and adaptation for training that makes you fitter," says Mr. Thompson, a native Brit who lives in Eugene, Ore. "So you should train to recover, not recover to train."

Mr. Thompson recommends that people rank their energy level each day on a scale from 1 to 10. If they never rank themselves an 8 or 9, they're working out too hard, too often or both, he says.