The Health and Fitness Truth Blog

I honestly believe that our actions affect each and every person around us. Unless you live alone on an island, this theoretically makes sense, as, on a local scale, we come into contact with hundreds of people on a daily basis. But what about the larger picture? Do we have a responsibility to society as a whole to remain a good standing member of our community, to do the morally right things that benefit ourselves as well others? Of course we do! We obey laws, we act civilly and politely whenever possible, we volunteer to help when needed… but what about our personal responsibility to remain healthy for the good of society?

No, I am not advocating any governmental interference, so dont worry, but I’ve been thinking about what our society would be like if we all saw good health as not just a personal choice, but as a societal norm as well. Recent studies have shown that only 3% of Americans do all the right things to be healthy. For the first time in decades, it appears that the trend to live longer is slowing down. Obesity, smoking, lack of exercise and poor nutrition are causing us to die sooner than later. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are sick or dying from diseases and illnesses that were self imposed by bad health habits. Our emergency rooms are glutted with uninsured patients who smoke, over consume alchohol and eat horribly, often obese, suffering from strokes, heart disease, diabetes, cancers and more. All self imposed. Yes, insurance premiums are ridiculously high, forcing many of the poor to remain uninsured and hence, they cannot afford preventative care- but would our premiums be lower if we all took better care of ourselves?

I pose these questions merely for interesting debate. There is no easy answer, but clearly we do need to take a personal responsibility for our health, if only to save our families and friends from having to watch us die from lung cancer, or suffer in longterm care from a stroke. Think about Terri Schiavo- did you know her cardiac arrest was due to an eating disorder? How much suffering did her family go through because of Terri’s mental illness and unhealthy behaviors? Terri’s actions affected the nation as a whole as well, so couldn’t the other end of the spectrum work too? Consider this scenario- a client of mine was recently killed in a motorcycle accident. He was a wonderful man, full of life, a school teacher, a dad, an outdoorsman, a musician. It has been reported that the drive of the car may have suffered a heart attack or some other illness while driving- and hence was not in control of the car when she killed him. A true tragedy for all, but was it a simple case of ” bad luck”? What if this woman had known she was having cardiac problems and ignored them? What if she failed to take her medicines properly, or ignored her doctor’s advice to stop smoking and begin exercising? You can see how a simple case of “bad luck” becomes a larger issue…..

I encourage all of you to embrace a healthy lifestyle. Not only will it benefit society and your families, you’ll feel and look great as well! Best in health….

Several exciting things are happening here at Personal Best!
First, I passed my CSCS exam - Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist- and am now among a select few who have this highly regarded certification. CSCS is the primary certification for personal trainers, athletic trainers and physical therapists who wish to work with high level athletes of all sports, ranging from football to soccer, field hockey to cheerleading. I hope to continue to provide you with detailed information and education regarding the fascinating field of sports specific conditioning.

Secondly, within the next several months, I will be hosting a cable TV show on Hudson Cable CTV-8. The show will feature instruction on various exercise routines and proper exercise technique, interviews and panel discussions, yoga classes and more. I will keep you posted on when the show will be shown on CTV-8, and would love your feeback on the program. If you have any ideas for the show, feel free to email me at kathy@personalbestpersonaltraining.com. I’d love to hear from you!

If you are not a Hudson resident, you’ll miss me- but I hope to be able to obtain copies of these shows for all of my clients and friends. It should be quite amusing for all of us- myself included. My children are mortified at the proposition that I may be on TV- the ultimate embarassment for them!

Lastly- I encourage you all to take risks and shoot for the moon in all you do! These were two risky things for me to try, but unless you try, you will never know whether it is possible to achieve! I learned so much from studying for the CSCS exam, that the actual test taking itself became secondary to the knowledge and experience I gained. It’s not about the outcome- it’s about the journey!

Overuse injuries are an all too common occurrence. They occur when a bodypart has been overexercised without adequate rest, when an exercise is performed consistently incorrectly or when the frequency and progression of exercise has been too rapid. I am currently nursing an achy shoulder, caused by incorrect posture during weeks of heavy studying. The posture created stress in already fatigued areas, and then, with a couple of vigorous exercise sessions- boom! Pain! I find this so annoying that I wanted to outline what you can do to prevent and help treat overuse injuries.

As mentioned, overuse injuries have many causes. Weight lifters typically suffer from shoulder, elbow or low back chronic injuries. Runners often experience lower extremity knee, foot and ankle pain from running too much, not stretching enough, or running with worn out sneakers or on stressful surfaces like concrete. Overuse injuries occur when normal wear and tear from exercise becomes excessive, and the tissue is damaged, causing swelling and pain. They often start as a nagging pain during or after exercise that does not feel like normal delayed onset muscle soreness. Pain that normally goes away, lingers, and gets worse with each exercise session. Working through these injuries is never advised. Unless you take steps to treat these injuries, they can lead to more serious permanent damage- so don’t ignore them!

If you catch the injury early, within a very short time of first occurrence, you can often help yourself by icing the aggravated bodypart, resting and refraining from the exercise that caused the injury and, with your doctor’s permission, taking approved anti-inflammatories. All of this must be done CONSISTENTLY. Most of these “therapies” need to be done for 10 days to be effective. When you are feeling better, progression back to exercise should be slow and careful. Lift lighter weights, run less distance, give yourself an extra day of rest between sessions. If the injury flairs up immediately again- then you were not ready to get back to exercise. Back off! I have often heard that an injury takes twice as long to repair as the length of time you have had the injury!

To prevent overuse injuries, vary your workouts- crosstrain!- and appropriately cooldown and stretch. Weight lifters should always use perfect form and be especially careful of lifting too heavy for the shoulders. Give yourself rest, especially when you begin to feel fatigued or achy too often. Runners need to change their running shoes much more often than they think. Any signs of wear on the bottom of the shoe means they are too old already! Only wear running shoes to run- crosstrainers or other types of shoes are not suitable for running. If you are a new “runner”, start with a run-walk and progress very slowly. Most overuse injuries occur in runners when they first start running, or when they progress too rapidly.

Lastly, if ice, rest and approved anti-inflammatories don’t work- head to the doctor! Always consult with your physician when the overuse injuries start, and insist on being seen if they do not get better with these at-home therapies. If you need to exercise, and like to exercise, preventing and taking care of injuries should be a mjaor part of your whole game plan!

Happy Holidays! While I know many of you are in the midst of the holiday frenzy, it still might be a good time to think about committing in the New Year to SLOWING down and being present. Personal Best will be restarting Saturday morning Hatha Yoga at Center Stage Dance Studio, Broad Street, Hudson, MA on January 8th, 2005. The class goes from 8am- 9:15am. For more information, call Kathy Ekdahl at 978-562-0377, or see Events section of the website. In addition to this class, Center Stage will also offer a Monday evening Power Yoga Class with Kelly McCausland. Kelly taught under Baron Baptiste! The class will begin January 24th and will go from 7:30pm- 8:45pm. For more information, call Kelly at 978- 562-6439.

Like most Boston Red Sox fans, I rejoiced in disbelief as the Red Sox came back from a three game deficit to the Yankees, to go on so confidently to beat the Cardinals for the World Series Championship. It was a great sports moment, but the more I reflect on it, the more I realize that the tremendous success of the Red Sox is a metaphor for the struggle we all experience on a daily basis as we find our way to good health and wellness. To what can we attribute the success of the Red Sox? What did they teach all of us about never giving up? The key to the Red Sox’ success is that the players always believed in themselves. What if, like us, every Red Sox player got up to bat thinking “I’m a loser- I can’t do this- I’ve failed so many times before!” Where would they be today? Luckily, they ignored internal and external negativity, and played game to game- just as we need to do when our own negative self talk takes over and when everyone around us fails to support us and talks of past failures. The Red Sox did not let past failures deter them or sway them in their effort to achieve success. So many times, WE allow our past exercise and nutrition failures to determine our present and future actions. Instead, we need to take each day one at a time- each meal, each exercise session-each pitch, each at- bat, is a chance to turn things around for the better. The only way YOU can personally win your “World Series” is by believing in yourself, and surrounding yourself with “team mates” who also believe in you. Baseball is a game of endurance- a game of patience, with hours of monotony, broken by moments of pure ecstasy. We must also have patience with ourselves, realizing that the summation of all our efforts WILL result in success- just believe in yourself. As the Red Sox so beautifully put it, Why Not Us?