Hiking and Havasu Falls

Posted on April 29, 2013 by

English: Havasu Falls after the August 2008 fl...

I just got back from hiking Havasu Canyon.  It is located in the Grand Canyon, on the Havasupai Reservation.  The area is beautiful, hiking down with jaw dropping views, finally climbing down to waterfalls and amazing blue-green colored water. It was well worth the effort.

I really like hiking canyons.  For one, living in the Midwest, there’s nothing like it.  Two, you do the hardest part first.  It is way harder to hike downhill than uphill.  Downhill all of the shock is on your joints, especially the knees.  Going uphill, it’s more about muscles,  leg and arm strength.

I learned and re-learned some things on this trip that are worth passing on:

Hydrate.  Drink water during a hike/bike/blade/run but it’s also a good idea to hydrate before the event.  Start 3 days beforehand, drinking a good amount of water. For most people, that would be around 8 glasses each day.

Hiking Poles Downhill.  Hiking poles are great, especially when climbing.  On the way down they help alleviate shock to the knees.  They also provide stability if you start to lose your footing.  Going downhill it’s good to use them in a 1, 2, 3 fashion.  Plant both poles downhill (1), and then take steps (2 & 3) to come even with the poles.

Hiking Poles Uphill.  This is my favorite part.  Going uphill, use the poles in a cross crawl fashion:  right foot moves with left pole.  This lets your whole body get into the act, arms helping legs, full body motoring.

Change Legs.  We all have a dominant side that we lead with.  Especially when going uphill for a long time, remember to leadoff from time to time with your non-dominate leg. This gives relief to the dominate one.

Put Your Feet Up.  This is a tip I got from a race walker and coach, Diane Graham Henry.  After a long exertion, immediately lie down on your back, raise your legs straight up in the air, propping them against a tree or whatever.  You want your legs straight and at a 90 degree angle to your torso. Stay that way for 20 minutes.  This helps drain the inflammatory fluids out of your legs, and dramatically decreases or eliminates soreness the next day.

Have Fun!  A number of years ago I hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon.  I was so worried about how my body would respond, if my feet would flare up,that I wasn’t really able to fully enjoy the experience.  My feet ended up being fine, but I missed out on a lot of the enjoyment.  This time I pledged to enjoy the experience and not worry.  I put my legs up, limited some of my hiking the next day, and got to enjoy the hike up, as well as my time in the canyon.

Doing a major hike such as going to Havasu Falls is not as difficult as it sound.  Yes, it does require some level of fitness, but you’ll see all different levels of fitness on the trails.  To be able to get out of the urban environment, see the night sky full of stars, be away from electronics and usual day to day “requirements”, is renewing and well worth the effort.  I can still see the canyon views in my mind eyes and feel the smile on my face thinking about waterfalls.

 

 

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Urban Walking

Posted on July 17, 2012 by
Walking shoes

Walking shoes (Photo credit: david_pics)

Last weekend I met some friends for lunch. We’d talked earlier, and they’d mentioned they’d found a new hobby: walking the city. Everywhere.

They live west of downtown, and if they wanted ice cream at Water Tower Place, they walked. For a movie in Lincoln Park, they walked. They were excited at how interesting the city was, when you didn’t speed by in a car.

Their excitement was contagious and we suddenly made a deal: I live in Andersonville, eight miles away. We’d meet for lunch halfway, and both of us would walk.

These friends are not what you would call fitness types. They’d spent their lives doing family and careers. The last few years they’ve been reluctantly going to the gym, but treadmills aren’t exactly exciting.  However, walking around the city really inspired them.

Over  lunch I complimented them on their walking.  They talked about their travel plans for the rest of the summer, including a family vacation for the whole clan. They didn’t want to be the grandparents that couldn’t keep up. There might be grandparents there who couldn’t keep up, but it wasn’t going to be them.

You know, some people will start exercising because they need to lose weight, or because they’ve had a health crisis or are afraid of having one.  My friends decided that they wanted to fully participate with their family, not just hang on the sidelines.

But to get there, they had to exercise. And they found the secret: find something you love. If you’re to get fit, you want this to be a sustainable change: something that adds to your life, not something where you have to grit your teeth to get through.

So be inventive. Go out and find an activity you love.

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No Skinny People Allowed

Posted on June 22, 2012 by

Is this a good or bad idea?  A Canadian gym called Body Exchange thinks it is.  Personally I like to see a variety of people working out, those who are in shape and want to stay that

Gym

Gym (Photo credit: ivywoodavenue)

way and those who are doing what they can to get in shape and everything in between.  The gym can be very foreign and dreaded world for some.  It can also be a good place to make new contacts, gain support and learn about fitness.

I prefer to see people exposed to a community of people who are more fit rather than less fit.  Years ago my mother taught diet classes.  People followed a balanced eating regime, weighed in weekly and heard motivational talks about dieting.  It formed a good support group.  So good in fact that people would socialize after the meeting, hit a local diner and enjoy ice cream and other non-diet foods.  While many people did lose weight following this program, for some, something was missing.  The ice cream group obviously wasn’t really serious about what they were doing.  If success was what you wanted, you needed to hang with a different crowd.

We are social beings, we follow social cues.  If we surround ourselves with people who are overweight, love to joke about how they don’t ever exercise, chances are we are not going to get in shape ourselves.  Joining a gym is a good place to start, and it’s certainly not the only way to get in shape.  For some connecting to a like minded community is the place to start.

There’s a running club I see early on Saturday morning at the lake front.  They’re a church group and quite a mix of people.  Some of the runners look like they are in training for a marathon, others look like they can barely manage to walk a block.  What I really like about seeing this club is that they are out there doing what they can do and cheering each other on.  The fitter members help the less fit ones, there’s usually a crowd standing around the finish area and lots of cheering.  It’s great to see.

So while I certainly understand body image issues and feeling uncomfortable when you’re not at the weight you want to be and there are all those fit people around.  I also know that it can be good motivation.  The gym can be a great place to get advice, find out what has worked for different members as well as getting professional assistance.  Recognizing that we come in different shapes and sizes and being around others who share our goals can definitely help us to succeed.

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Gardening Without Back Pain Video

Posted on May 21, 2012 by

My last blog was about gardening and not hurting your back, check it out here if you missed it. Then I thought that it would be even more helpful if I showed how to do things right. So with the help of my wonderful videographer, Linda Allen, here’s a short video about how to weed, shovel, and use a pitch fork without hurting your back.

 

Using these techniques will help you enjoy your garden more, since you won’t have to end the day in pain from bad biomechanics.

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EXERCISE AND A SMARTER, YOUNGER BRAIN

Posted on May 8, 2012 by
brains!

brains! (Photo credit: cloois)

Exercise can make you smarter and your brain younger, at least that’s what some research is showing.  A recent article in the NY Times Magazine by Gretchen Reynolds discusses this idea.

It used to be thought that you only have so many brain cells. As you age they die, your brain shrinks, and your cognitive abilities decline.  It is now known that new brain cells form, and there are ways to increase this formation.

Brain cells, that is to say, neurons, create networks by synapsing with each other.  A neuron will can connect with several other neurons.  The more connections, the better it is for passing on information and improving brain function.

Learning can create new cells and new synapses, but it has been shown that these new cells might only be task specific.  For instance, a mouse may create new connections from learning how to run a maze, but those connections are only about the maze. They do not go on assist in learning other tasks.

When new brain cells formed due to exercise, they form more synapses and are able to participate in a wider variety of ways.  They aren’t limited by being task specific.

This brain improvement doesn’t even require a Herculean effort.  A small study was done by the Proceedings National Academy of Sciences, involving 120 sedentary adults in their 60s. A group that walked 40 minutes a day, 3 times a week for 1 year increased the size of a specific part of the brain by 2%. More important, the part affected was the hippocampus, which is involved with memory and learning. The same group performed better on cognitive tests.

Meanwhile, the control group, who did stretching and light band work, had their brains decrease by 1%.  While these may not seem like big numbers, they are significant in terms of healthier aging.

Even greater brain improvement may be achieved by weight lifting.  A study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine  involved a group of elderly women who already had signs of cognitive impairment. The study showed that participants who did twice weekly weight training had significant cognitive improvement compared to the group who walked or the group who did stretching and balance work.

We are still learning what is best for both our minds and physical bodies, but it’s probably best to do a combination of weight training and some form of aerobics. The bottom line is to get moving and keep learning.

 

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Saving Your Back Gardening

Posted on April 23, 2012 by

It’s spring, and Mike Nowak has a new gardening show on channel 102 Comcast, Dig In Chicago. In honor of the new beginnings, we’ll talk about putting in a garden without hurting yourself.

Raised Bed Garden

Raised Bed Garden (Photo credit: suburbandollar)

Let’s say you’re ready to dig up the garden. You’ve decided what you want to plant, where everything goes, what preparation the soil needs. You may have bought some new tools, repaired old ones. But have you considered your main tool, your body?

Digging up a garden is a repetitive motion that can put a lot of strain on the back. Let’s say your garden bed is 10’ x 4’, or 400 square feet. Each plunge of the pitchfork will turn over roughly 8 square inches. So cultivating the bed will require approximately 800 digs with the pitchfork, an unusual motion you have not done since last spring.

Now do you see why your back is aching?

I love to see my patients, but I don’t like to see them like this. Some care and proper biomechanics can prevent that emergency trip to the chiropractor.

1. Take breaks. Working away at the same task for long periods of time will end up straining your muscles. Unfortunately you won’t know that until you stop, or maybe even the next day. It’s much better to build in short rest periods. Stretch when you take a break.

2. Change tasks. If you’ve been digging for awhile, do something else that uses different muscles. For instance, you can take a break from digging and trim the hedges.

3. Use your weight. Keep the pitchfork or shovel in front of you and use your foot and body to push it down, keeping your back straight. Bend your knees and use your legs to help lift the shovel. Avoid twisting your back while holding a shovel full of dirt. Instead, use your legs and move your body.

4. Take breaks. Yes that was #1 but it bears repeating. Give your body a chance to recover. Take time to listen if it is trying to tell you something.

Enjoy the Spring! And check out Dig In, Chicago. It’s a great show that emphasizes healthy, chemical-free gardening.

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WORST ALLERY SPRING: NOT!

Posted on April 21, 2012 by
Flowering trees

Flowering trees (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You’ve read about this being the worst spring for allergies ever. But better news: the worst is over. Spring pollens were terrible, peaked, and now they’re back to normal. Of course, that may mean that some of you are still sneezing.

The good news comes from Rick DiMaio, who does savvy weather & gardening reports at Ch2 and Mike Nowak’s Garden Show at Chicago Progressive Talk Radio. Rick will tell you what others may leave out, so I asked him to interpret the data.

The Bad: March’s pollen counts were off the charts.  The sudden onset of warm weather created an explosion of plant life, followed by soaring pollen counts.

The Good: We had a reprieve. High winds and cooler temperatures have lowered the counts. Tree and weed readings are still high, grass is moderate and mold counts are actually low.

Of course, none of that counts if you happen to be allergic to whatever is blooming right now. Flowering trees are still in bloom, and cottonwood is yet to blossom. We’re farther along on the annual cycle, but everything that blooms will still come around, and your allergies will come with it.

So now that we have a moment’s breathing space (pun intended), let’s look at ways to help your allergies this year.

  • Decrease stress. An allergy is an overreaction by the immune response. If your immune system is stressed, it’s more apt to overreact. Just like you’re more likely to catch cold if you’ve run yourself down, you’re more likely to have a worse reaction if your immune system is overtaxed.
  • Catch some ZZZZs. Nothing like lack of sleep to increase stress and tax your systems. A little extra rest will help your body adjust.
  • Acupuncture or NMT. Acupuncture helps open up the nasal passages quickly, and also helps remove stress. NMT corrects errors in the immune system itself to get to the root of the problem.

Allergy season isn’t over yet, so I’ll keep updating allergy reports from Rick DiMaio, and adding more tips. Meanwhile, enjoy the spring!

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Strengthening the Core Video – Preventing Injuries

Posted on January 3, 2012 by
English: an exercise of abs

Image via Wikipedia

What if this New Year resolve was different? What if you made a resolve to get into shape and you got results?

Too often people start a new exercise regime and it fizzles out. One reason for this is choosing the wrong exercises and ending up injured.

Everyone talks about strengthening core muscles, which is a very good thing.  You can even find core exercises in the Sunday paper.  However many of these exercises unduly stress vulnerable parts of the body like the knees or the shoulders.  Instead of building up your core, you get hurt, which derails your exercise plan.

Getting hurt exercising is just wrong.  The thing to remember is that not every exercise is good for every person.  You want to know a number of different exercises so you can choose what’s best for you. You also want to know the best way of doing them, in order to prevent injury and get results.

This can be hard to explain in so many words, so I made a video to demonstrate safe ways to exercise. This will show you exercises that strengthen your core without hurting vulnerable joints.

Now, everyone is different, so if something hurts beyond ordinary muscle soreness, don’t do it. Soreness and stiffness is one thing. Pain, particularly joint pain, is a sign that something’s wrong.

Often when people think about core exercises, they focus only on stomach muscles.  The back, buttocks, legs and even arms all play a part in keeping your core strong.  When your strong core, your body is more stable, and better able to handle more physical challenges. You can build up your fitness without ending up in pain.

So check out the first part of my video for solid, safe, core exercises. Part II will follow with the next blog.

It’s the New Year. It’s a great time to get in shape and get the results you’ve wanted.

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RECOVERING AFTER THE MARATHON

Posted on October 3, 2011 by
CHICAGO - OCTOBER 10: Thousands of runners par...

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Chicago Marathon is Sunday, October 9th.  You’ve been training long and hard preparing for the big day but what about after the race and the days that follow?  What will help you recover faster? For that matter, what would help you avoid injuries in the aftermath of this major event?

Move

First off, when you finish the race, don’t just stop.  Have your cheering friends and family at the end of the race walk around with you for about 10-15 minutes.

Next, find a tree or someplace where you can lie down on your back and prop your legs straight up for 20 minutes.  This will help drain some of the inflammatory fluids that have built up in your muscles from the long run.

Eat

Replenish you body.  Get fluids and food into you.  You’ll want carbs as well as protein.  Choose whole grain carbs, not candy bars.  Drink fluids, but avoid ones that cause dehydration like alcohol and caffeinated drinks.

Restore

Soaking in a hot tub soon after the race is not a good idea.  Those early sore muscles will do better with ice.  Heat initially can just increase the inflammation.

Right after the race you may not feel sore at all.  You may be tired but often there is a delayed onset of muscle soreness and it might be a day or two before you feel it.  Treat your body well in any case.

You’ve just spent a lot of time breaking down you muscles and depleting your energy reserves.  It will be important over the next few days post-race to eat and rebuild.  Make sure your food and drink choices are designed to help you.  You’ll need fluids, lots of vegetables for minerals, whole grains and protein.

Give your body a chance to recover.  Do not exercise for at least 3 days.  When you resume exercising, consider some cross-training like biking: it’s low impact and works a different set of muscles.  When you do resume running, it may be time to get some new shoes.  Between training the marathon, you’ve put a lot of miles on your current pair.

Intense exertion like running a marathon will depress your immune system for awhile.  So it will be easier to get a cold.  Make sure to get plenty of sleep.  Again eat foods that are high in nutrients, vegetables, fruits, and protein.  Continue to get lots of fluids.  Some herbal preparations like Echinacea can help boost the immune system.

Running a marathon is a major accomplishment it is not uncommon to end up feeling depressed soon afterwards.  You’ve had an intense focus, you’ve accomplished your goal. Now what??  Now is the time to decide what you want to do next.  Make a definite plan for your next race or decide your next fitness goal.  That intense focus needs to be pointed to a new direction.  It does not have to be as demanding but a new focus can help curtail the depression.

You’ve taken care of yourself enough to be able to run a marathon.  Don’t forget to take care of yourself enough to recover well and as quickly as possible.

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LIVE LONGER : 15 Minutes = 3 Years

Posted on August 23, 2011 by
Ahead of the storm

Image by owenrichards via Flickr

No it’s not bad math, it’s the results of a study recently reported in Lancet’s.  416,175 people in Taiwan were studied from 1996 through 2008.  They found that the low level activity group, people who did moderate exercise like brisk walking, for 15 minutes a day increased their life expectancy by 3 years.  They also had a 14% reduction in their overall mortality risk.

People who exercised more, showed even better results.

Currently it is recommended that we exercise anywhere from 30-60 minutes per day.  For some people that is just too much.  Between juggling work/school, commuting, family, etc., time can be a very precious commodity.  Knowing you should exercise and being able to find the time can be two very different things.

So while more exercise can give more improvements, it’s good to know that even carving out 15 minutes a day can have significant benefit.  Pretty much everyone can find 15 minutes to go do some brisk walking.  It doesn’t require fancy equipment, although a good pair of shoes is recommended.  You don’t need to invest precious time getting to and from a gym.  Just go out the door and walk briskly for 15 minutes.

Often people start an exercise program, but find that they just don’t have the time to keep up the routine. Then they stop everything. Exercise becomes an all or nothing proposition. While it is better to have a comprehensive program of weight lifting and aerobic work, it’s good to know that even doing a little can produce solid results.

So if you don’t have time to do the full gamut, see about adding those 15 minutes daily.  You might wind up with more energy and find the time to do even more. But at least you’ve still done something good for yourself.

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