Commonsense Fitness

“I spent a lot of time on the floor with your mother.” — Jack LaLanne at 95, A Fitness Legend

Posted: 8th October 2009 by Scott in Fitness, Headline Article, Health

This man is inspiring, and looking at the quote I pulled here for the title, quite spry to boot at age 95. Many younger folks view him through a prism of caricature created by his ‘juice machine’ parodies by a crazed Jim Carrey on “In Living Color” but this guy was doing bodyweight exercise, stretching (aka Yoga in a sense) and living it his whole life.

Living proof and footsteps to follow in.

From the San Francisco Chronicle:

Jack LaLanne at 95

He exercised his personal demons

Bad food and sloth ooze over our planet like hot fudge mixed with giblet gravy. Fast food speeds us to our doublewide coffins, and we gave up exercise when watches started winding themselves.

But the battle to deliver mankind from its bad habits rages. Leading the charge, as he has for 80 years, is the Bay Area’s gift to world health, Jack LaLanne.

He’s 95, in fabulous shape although no longer the slab of muscle who inspired a nation via his daily exercise TV program. The brain is still cooking, and that’s always been LaLanne’s most effective tool.

Jack’s wife, Elaine, says she fell in love with him a half century ago not for his muscles.

“I was not interested in his body,” says Elaine LaLanne, also in super shape at 84. “I was attracted to his mind. I thought, ‘He’s got a brain. He’s got a brain.’ ”

“And he’s sittin’ on it,” LaLanne whispers, squeezing the biceps of an interviewer, who suddenly regrets skipping his morning push-ups.

The LaLannes were in town Wednesday for a party in honor of Jack’s 95th birthday, at John’s Grill, where the Jack LaLanne Salad never goes off the menu.

Teaming with wife

They’re a team, Jack and Elaine. When the subject of doughnuts comes up, Elaine says, “Jack, tell him what the healthiest part of the doughnut is.”

“The hole!” LaLanne says.

When the interviewer mentions that he watched LaLanne’s TV show in the ’50s, because his mom tuned in daily, LaLanne gives the interviewer’s biceps another firm squeeze and confides, “I spent a lot of time on the floor with your mother.”

But seriously, folks. Beneath the jokes and whimsy is a man as serious as a heart attack mixed with a stroke. He’ll make you smile, but he’ll also grab you by the arm, and by the head and the heart, and lead you to a better life.

LaLanne has made a fortune, but he won’t retire. He carries on his crusade with the zeal of a man whose jumpsuit is on fire.

“If you believe something, live it!” LaLanne barks.

He recently wrapped up a tour promoting his 11th book, “Live Young Forever: 12 Steps to Optimum Health, Fitness & Longevity.” One reason to trust what the man preaches: He has seen the dark side.

A reformed sugarholic

LaLanne at 15 was “a miserable goddamn kid. It was like hell.” He was a sugarholic, gorging on sweets then barfing to make room for more. He was constantly sick, underweight, had zero energy, headaches so bad he would bang his head against a wall. He had an explosive temper, severe depression and a head full of demons when he dropped out of Berkeley High.

Then a neighbor gave Jack and his mother tickets to a lecture by clean-eating advocate Paul Bragg. Boom! Jack LaLanne was born.

Says LaLanne, “Bragg said, ‘My dear friends, it matters not what your physical condition is. If you obey nature’s laws, you will be born again.’ I went home and prayed, ‘Dear God, give me the willpower to refrain from those foods that are killing me.’ ”

Soon LaLanne was healthy beyond his dreams. He became a football star, a wrestling champ and a babe magnet. At 22, he opened a gym in downtown Oakland, and when business didn’t boom – maybe because in 1936 nobody knew what the hell a gym was – he told himself, “Jack, people are not coming to you. You gotta go to them!”

He trained cops and firefighters, he recruited at high schools, and in 1951, he began hosting a daily exercise show on KGO (Channel 7) – where he met Elaine – that became a network smash, running until 1985.

Using his personality and pep – with his muscles serving as his background singers – he bullied a nation into rethinking its nonapproach to nutrition and exercise. He invented and pioneered the fitness industry.

“My whole life,” LaLanne says, “is, ‘How can I help people like that man (Bragg) helped me?’ ”

Now Jack and Elaine sell their juicers on infomercials, the book is out, and he’s still preaching the gospel. The seeming futility of shaping up the world does not daunt him.

“I never think about that,” LaLanne says. “I think about things that I can improve.”

Still working out

One thing he can always improve is himself. LaLanne works out two hours a day, mostly swimming and lifting weights, at the LaLanne mansion on the Central Coast.

“I work at living,” he says, leaning close and squeezing an arm. “Most people work at dying. Dying’s easy.”

One of LaLanne’s most effective sales devices has been his amazing feats of strength. When Arnold Schwarzenegger came to America in 1968 and became an instant sensation on the Southern California muscle scene, LaLanne challenged the kid to a duel at Muscle Beach. The Austrian Oak was 21; the Oakland Oak was 54.

“I beat him in chin-ups and push-ups,” LaLanne says. “He said, ‘That Jack LaLanne’s an animal! I was sore for four days. I couldn’t lift my arms!’ ”

At age 70, handcuffed, LaLanne towed 70 loaded boats 1.5 miles in Long Beach Harbor. Now LaLanne’s most outrageous publicity stunt is kicking life’s butt on a daily basis.

“What feat are you going to do this year?” Elaine asks, lobbing another softball to her slugger hubby.

“I’m going to tow Elaine across the bathtub!”

In Datebook: Legendary fitness guru Jack LaLanne gives a Chronicle reporter a real workout.
LaLanne’s innovations

Jack LaLanne invented fitness. His innovations include:

The gym/spa: In 1936, he opened the Jack LaLanne Physical Culture Studio at 409 15th St. in Oakland, the first modern gym. He eventually sold his chain of studios to Bally.

Mind-body fusion: Now it’s a popular concept. “You can’t separate the mind and body,” he says.

Exercise machines: The kind with cables, pulleys and weight selectors. LaLanne didn’t patent them, but he invented them, including the first leg-extension machine.

Muscles on women: Before LaLanne’s TV show, a woman’s only workout was behind a vacuum cleaner.

Muscles on athletes: LaLanne helped dispel the “muscle-bound” myth. He was a fine athlete and a 4-handicap golfer.

Exercise videos: His TV show was the first workout video, live.

Varying workout routines: It’s what some now call “muscle confusion.” LaLanne changes his workout routine every 30 days. And he’ll do a particular lift slow today, fast tomorrow.

Yoga: He has never called it that, but from the beginning he preached the importance of stretching.

- Scott Ostler

E-mail Scott Ostler at sostler@sfchronicle.com.

This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle
© 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.

Yoga To Kick Your Rear – I LOVE This Stuff

Posted: 3rd October 2009 by Scott in Fitness

I’ve been doing the P90X Yoga and Tony Horton’s “One-on-One” Yoga (which is basically the same thing boiled down to 40 minutes) for about a year and a half, once a week.

I am utterly and completely convinced that Yoga is absolutely necessary and frankly, in terms of flexibility and ‘durability’ in the real world, the most important component to a well balanced workout program you can do. Tony calls it the ‘glue’ to all the other components, strength resistance training and cardio that you can do. Aptly named, the “Fountain of Youth”. I believe it, I live it, I do it. And he’s right.

That said, I’ve been needed some new variety in my program and mostly in the Yoga. I stumbled upon Exercise TV and it’s a phenomenal resource for this sort of workout. You can preview/watch/do the routines presented (full screen) for free with commercials. You can download and own the programs -commercial free- for your own use for $6.99 for most of them. That’s very reasonable. Their site is here: Exercise TV

I’ve found one in particular and it’s a GREAT Yoga workout that totally kicks my rear. I was sweating, cursing and… loving it. Check it out for yourself:

Click Here!

“If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much.”

Posted: 25th September 2009 by Scott in Fitness

What does the World’s oldest man think about diet?

This guy knows the truth of it, because he’s living proof. Don’t eat too much. Seems simple enough.

Two-meal diet aids in oldest man’s longevity

By Sydne George, Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — So what does the world’s oldest man eat? The answer is not much, at least not too much.

Walter Breuning, who turned 113 on Monday, eats just two meals a day and has done so for the past 35 years.

“I think you should push back from the table when you’re still hungry,” Breuning said.

At 5 foot 8, (“I shrunk a little,” he admitted) and 125 pounds, Breuning limits himself to a big breakfast and lunch every day and no supper.

“I have weighed the same for about 35 years,” Breuning said. “Well, that’s the way it should be.”

“You get in the habit of not eating at night, and you realize how good you feel. If you could just tell people not to eat so darn much.”

His practice of skipping supper began when he first moved to Great Falls from Minneapolis in 1978. He lived in the Yellowstone Apartments at the time and would walk downtown to Schell’s in the Johnson Hotel or the Albon Club on the second floor for lunch.

In 1980, the Albon Club moved to the Rainbow Hotel, and the owners asked Breuning to be manager, which he did for 15 years.

“I never started eating supper again,” Breuning said.

He gets up at 6:15 a.m. and has a big breakfast every day at 7:30 a.m. Usually it’s eggs, toast or pancakes.

“You can order anything you want, just like a restaurant,” he said.

“I eat a lot of fruit every day.”

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer sent Breuning a fruit basket after a recent visit.

“Boy, I tell you that was good fruit. I ate the whole darn thing,” Breuning said. “Peaches, pears, everything, it sure was good.”

In addition to eating fruit every day, Breuning also takes a baby aspirin.

“Just one baby aspirin,” he said, “but everybody gets that for their heart. That’s the only pill I ever take, no other medicine.”

And he drinks plenty of water.

“I drink water all the time,” he said, and just a bit of coffee. “I drink a cup and a half of coffee for breakfast and a cup with lunch.”

Breuning said he has been healthy all of his life and believes diet has a lot to do with it.

“If people could cut back on their normal weight, it wouldn’t be quite so bad,” he commented. “They just eat too much!”

Breuning remembers his family having a cow, pigs, chickens and a big garden when he was growing up, like most people did in those days.

“Everybody was poor years ago,” he said. “When we were kids, we ate what was on the table. Crusts of bread or whatever it was. You ate what they put on your plate, and that’s all you got,” Breuning said.

Breuning recalls his mother being a good cook, though she died when she was 46 after an operation in Minneapolis. His wife was a good cook, too. They met when they worked in Butte for the railroad.

“Everything she made was good,” Breuning said. “We used to have lots of card parties, and they would always say what a good cook she was.”

While diet has contributed to his longevity, Breuning also believes that working hard was good for him.

“Work doesn’t hurt anybody,” he said, mentioning that he had two jobs, one working for the Great Northern Railway until he was 66 and the other as manager/secretary for the local Shriner’s Club until he was 99.

These days, Breuning keeps busy talking with all of the people who visit the Rainbow Retirement Center interested in meeting the world’s oldest man.

Though his vision doesn’t allow him to read anymore, Breuning keeps his mind active by listening to the radio.

“My eyes are gone,” he said, “but I listen to the radio. I get all my news on KMON.”

Breuning started eating out 35 years ago, but said he doesn’t anymore.

“Once you get used to not eating in restaurants, you don’t want to anymore,” he said. Besides, he’d rather eat at home, at the Rainbow Retirement Center.

“They have a lot of good food right here,” he said, “and good cooks.”

Breuning celebrated his 113th birthday with not one, but two cakes, one chocolate and one vanilla. And for his birthday lunch he got his favorite: liver and onions.

The Tabata Protocal – Hardcore Interval Training

Posted: 6th May 2009 by Scott in Fitness

Tabata Protocol is interval training that Izumi Tabata, Ph.D. – a Japanese researcher – designed for Olympic level athletes.

Broken down, it’s 7 minutes of warm up; followed by high intensity 100% effort bursts of 20 seconds, 10 seconds of rest (starting at 4 series of sprints/rests up to 7 series of sprints/rests). You then do a cool down for 7 minutes (espeically key for old dogs like me!).

I have always believed in intervals and doing them has always been a key to staying in serious shape, IMHO.

But I got hurt in late April playing soccer (as I seem to be apt to do) and then re-injured the area in May. (Pulled groin – spare me the snickers, this injury HURTS and I’ll be down for another 4 weeks or so says the doc).

But I’m a fitness oriented guy and can’t play my sport. I’ve had to really rethink my workouts, I’m limited on what I can do. So I’m going a bit crazy. So I pulled my stationary bike back out and found that riding it doesn’t irriatate this injury at all. (Whew!)

So I barely recalled reading about this crazy Interval workout and using Google, found this.

I’ve been at it 3X a week now for the last 3 weeks. I’ve gone from barely making it through 4 cycles to ripping it through 6 cycles. I am pushing really hard too; my heart rate is cranking into the 167 range… which I don’t often see. (My max based on age and resting is 181 so I am hitting the bottom range of my VO2 range (aka 90%)). You feel like you are going to die towards the end of it, but man, it works.

So once I rehab this stupid injury completely (and not a DAY before it’s been cleared by the doc and I’ve been symptom free for at least a week doing wind sprints in the back field) and test this in ‘real life’ to see how my wind holds up in competition in the game, I can say that it feels good.

From the web: “…the Tabata Protocol is the rare workout that benefits both endurance athletes and sprinters — hard to accomplish …. (using this system) for six weeks improved their maximum aerobic capacity by 14%.” Compare that to traditional aerobic training at 70% for 60 minutes for six weeks showing an improvement of 9.5%.

Conventional Interval training, as I’ve done in the past, suggest keeping a 1:3 work-rest ratio (meaning your rest periods are 3X longer than your sprint periods). The Tabata Protocol’s work-rest ratio is 2:1.

If you are in shape (or have a doctor’s clearance to workout) then try this sort of Interval Training. I plan to maintain this level throughout from now on. It’s quick, it’s grueling, and it seems so far to be very effective. I won’t really know till I can bring it on the pitch for 60 minutes… but right now, injury or not, this has helped me remain in good shape.

Doing a mixture of P90X and this has been a good way to keep it together!

New Year and Resolutions – Looking Back At a Year of One Fitness Journey and Looking Forward To More

Posted: 29th December 2008 by Scott in Fitness, Headline Article, Health, P90-X

This is the time of year that everyone goes into self analysis and many folks, I’d say the bulk of them, come out with fitness oriented/health oriented changes. It seems that now; and then spring are the main times folks that don’t live the fitness oriented lifestyle actually acknowledge it’s existance and even consider switching into some sort of ‘fitness’ mode.

I’ll just speak for myself right now. As I come into 2009, I’ve been really focused and prioritized towards fitness since April. Last November 2007, I separated my left shoulder in a sports injury (indoor soccer. How do you separate your shoulder playing soccer? Leave it to me to find a way…). It took me 4 months to have some normal range of movement and start to build my strength back up. That’s one reason I look so weak in my ‘before’ pic that I’ve posted on this site as my ‘Day 1′ photos. I needed to really change up my routine, get my life in order and not just ‘fade away’ like I felt I was. It wasn’t about looks, or walking around with my shirt off in the summer. It was about performance on the soccer field running around slower and slower with less power and less stamina than ever before.

The main issue for me was simply letting the aging process take over. I was 41 and felt older. I was working out, eating 1/2 decent (and 1/2 not decent!) but felt old. And slow.

I found P90X, but through on-line research and not the (in)famous infomercial you see all the time on the weekends. I was researching Plyometrics (aka ‘jump training’) after watching a special on Kris Draper from the Detroit Red Wings focused on Plyo and keeping his speed and jump as he aged as a professional athelete. The search led to P90X and I liked what I read, and then in checking out reviews from folks I found a lot of folks I knew on-line and in real life had tried it and I liked what I heard from them.

When I got the program, I admit I was overwhelmed with it. I read all the included material and watched the workouts. I took the fit test to set a baseline. And then… I waited. I wasn’t sure I could commit that much time (an hour a day, six days a week) and focus on my diet over 90 days.

I laugh to myself about that now;

What’s happened to me over the last half of 2008, physically and mentally (related to getting in this groove) is really moving to me. I’ve regained my jump, energy and strength. I feel like I’m 20. I’ve got abs like I’ve never had before, my core is stronger than ever before, my strength matches (almost) where I was in my 20′s, my stamina is better than ever before, my flexibility is better than ever in my life and my balance is better. Doing Yoga on a regular (weekly) basis in this program has done wonders for me. I hated that part of it, but now have come to understand what it’s doing for me overall. Especially on the flexibility and balance part of this whole experience.

Physique wise, I’m totally impressed with what all this has done for me. I didn’t really believe that looking like this was really possible again. Really. lol. I hate typing stuff like this, because it comes off the wrong way so much; but I don’t think I’ve ever had it all ‘together’ like this ever before. When I was in my 20′s and really focused on muscle building, size and strength, I had no idea about core strength or worried about abs too much. Back then, to me, if my stomach was flat, then I was fine. Now, combining portion control and sensible common sense good foods instead of bad ones… I have abs. I’ve never had that before. Ever.

Mentally, I feel like I can accomplish things and am more confident tackling even very large tasks and hard tasks in any realm because I am more focused on what I can actually do. I’ve proved to myself that things that seem so impossible can be successfully done with consistent effort applied over time. I can weather things that before would really bother me without blinking an eye now.

In August, I reset my goals and focused on my 42nd birthday coming up this January. I wanted to see how close I could actually come to looking like I did at my physical peak… which I sort of loosely peg about age 23. I was working out everyday, very determined to get bigger and stronger. I was playing outdoor soccer and worked at a job where I was running a lot. Luckily I have some pictures from then, though I don’t often take such pictures, where I was ‘posing’. They’ll remain private, but suffice to say, I am pretty much there even right now by the end of December. I still have another whole month (my birthday is the last day of January) to keep working. It’ll be fun to see how I end up at that point.

I’ve often gone off about ‘perfection isn’t a destination, it’s a process’. So when you set a goal and actually, gasp, get there… what do you do? Set new ones. I have no intention of slowing down, eating crap, getting sedentary or letting all this work go to waste. I want to stay fit, live clean and enjoy the rest of my life as best I can. I want to be the old guy out on the indoor soccer field that guys marvel at for keeping up even though he’s the oldest guy by far on the team. I want to be the guy that my kids can grow up and later think, “Well, the old man still does it, why can’t I?”

When folks toot their own horn, even if they can do it and be honest, I hate it. It always comes off to me as arrogant. That’s not my intention. I just want to be honest with myself – and anyone following this blog – about where I’ve been, how I’ve gotten here and where I am going.

Peace.

Protein at EVERY Meal

Posted: 16th December 2008 by Scott in Health

This is an article I ran across today. And I’ve been believing and following this strategy with my food intake for a long time now. It’s just common sense; but it’s nice to see the science backs the plan.

I follow (or TRY to follow) a 30/40/30 diet. 30% protein/40% carbs/30% fats. I try to obviously eat ‘good’ carbs (complex carbs) and ‘good’ fats (nuts, fish oil, flaxseed oil) with a serving of protein at every meal. For snacks I have a protein shake (love BSN “Syntha-6″) or a protein bar (love BeachBody’s P90-X “Chocolate Peanut-Butter Bars”). Three ‘normal’ meals with 2-3 of these snacks everyday. It’s not complicated. It works.

Here’s the article:

Protein power: Your muscles need a helping of it at each meal

Carolyn O’neil / Cox News Service

Just when you thought it was fine to relax with a glass of well-earned wine and nibble on a few whole-grain crackers, nutrition researchers are here to ask, “Did you have enough protein today?”

OK, we know you’re not into body-building competitions, but get a load of this midlife reality check: You could be losing muscle mass and strength — a condition called sarcopenia — if you don’t consume enough high-quality protein on a daily basis.

“We’re seeing sarcopenia, which commonly occurs in the elderly, in younger subjects in their early to mid-50s,” says Susan Hewlings, a registered dietitian and assistant professor at Stetson University in Florida who specializes in protein metabolism. Hewlings and other researchers at the American Dietetic Association’s annual Food and Nutrition Conference this year shed new light on the connection between what we eat and the health of our aging muscles.

Advertisement

Bottom line: Research shows that to prevent and treat lost muscle mass you must consume 1.5 grams of protein for every kilogram of body weight per day. That translates to about 90 grams of protein a day for a normal weight man and would be less if you’re a petite woman.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner

But here’s where the real specific advice kicks in: You should be including sources of high-quality protein such as eggs, milk and meats and balancing your protein intake throughout the day.

“Typically, people eat less protein at breakfast, a little more at lunch and then eat a lot at dinner,” Hewlings says. “To optimize protein synthesis and prevent sarcopenia, it needs to be more evenly distributed.” There goes that diet plan to starve all day and splurge on a big steak for dinner. Your muscles are hungry for amino acids found in protein foods all day long.

In fact, Robert Wolfe, professor of geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, warns that, “When there are periods of the day when no amino acids are being absorbed from the gut, muscle serves as the only significant reservoir of protein.”

That means your body starts robbing the muscles of stored protein to keep organs and other tissues humming along. So make sure you’re eating protein-containing foods every day and including protein in each meal. And that includes snacks. Something as simple as fresh apple slices topped with peanut butter is a good choice.

Hewlings emphasized that protein alone can’t do the job of preserving and building muscles as we age. “I call exercise ‘poor man’s plastic surgery,’ ” she says. “And note that physical activity boosts lean body mass only if you’ve got enough protein in your diet.”

Keep fat intake down

Since foods are often a combination of the three macronutrients (protein, carbohydrates and fat), choose protein-containing foods wisely with other health concerns in mind.

For instance, a 6-ounce broiled porterhouse steak is a great source of complete protein — 38 grams — but contains 44 grams of fat. The same amount of salmon gives you 34 grams of protein and 18 grams of fat, and it’s the kind of fat that’s good for you.

For a complete list of protein foods to include in a healthy diet, go to www.my pyramid.gov.

Carolyn O’Neil is a registered dietitian and co-author of “The Dish on Eating Healthy and Being Fabulous!” This article appeared in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Simplest Diet Ever?

Posted: 5th December 2008 by Scott in Health

There was an online discussion about high fructose corn syrup at a forum I hang on. There was a lot of commentary on how much of it is in so many things we eat. One comment was: “No matter so many people are so fat!”

Here’s my response to that; and it leads to some changes you can incorporate into a more healthy diet. Not strictly ‘health nut’ or ‘fitness nut’ stuff; but real life, quality of life, rest of your life common sense eating habit. Quickie statement that defines it: “Processed foods are no good. At all. Taste good? Maybe. Past that? NOTHING.”

High fructose corn syrup gets you fat? You’ve got it. And it’s just the tip of the iceberg, literally. Artificial sweeteners are even more evil and dangerous and all these things added to a more sedentary lifestyle = big problems.

It’s all such a mess that it’s overwhelming to even try to grasp, let alone deal with on a personal level. HFCS, and even just corn, are almost in everything a large majority of the population in the US eats everyday. Remembering that the simple adage of ‘all things in moderation’, even if you don’t mean to eat corn, some form of it is in something you ate yesterday, today and tomorrow if you are the average American.

Try removing anything with HFCS in it, anything with the words ‘partially hydrogenated’ in it, and anything listed with ‘bleached’ or ‘enriched’ (bleaching flour removes nutrients of wheat, so by law it must be ‘enriched’) flour from your diet. (Aka ‘processed‘ foods).

I’d guess that anyone would have to make major changes to what they currently eat.

It’s amazing what we call food.

My wife calls the average American diet as ‘eating for taste’; I call it eating for death. (Gross overstatement to make a point, but it’s my opinion).

Remove all that for a few weeks and tell me you don’t feel MUCH better.

Add in some form of regular exercise on top of that? You won’t believe how good you actually can feel.

So, what happens after you complete P-90X?

Posted: 5th December 2008 by Scott in Fitness, P90-X

An interesting aspect of the P90-X program, and Beachbody programs in particular, is that you can simply adjust them to fit your lifestyle.

P90-X is pitched as a 90 day program. Period. But what happens to most folks that use it to get into shape, is that they like it. Really like it.

There are enough workouts in the program to mix and match. There are different ways to do that in 90 day programs depending on your goals. Classic, Lean and Doubles.

I also am doing the “P90-X Plus” program; it’s an extension of the P90-X formula. It again is a 90 day program that you can do in various flavors depending on your goals. It adds in new workouts and routines and uses the P90-X ones from the original. It’s much more suited to folks VERY familiar with Tony’s sort of programs. It took me watching them and trying them a few times to get the moves.

It’s very fast, circuit training. He has no “8-10″ rep stuff; it’s all max reps based on time. The workouts in P90X-Plus are shorter (average 40 minutes or so each) and INTENSE if you do them full throttle.

The ab workout deserves special mention. It’s a fantastic ab workout, perhaps the best and most well rounded one I’ve ever done. You do moves hanging from the pull-up bar, then standing, then sitting, then laying down. Then you do the same cycle with different moves. And then again. And then once more. It’s very effective and hard core.

Negatives? Tony pushes the Bowflex Select-Tech dumbbells a wee bit too much (understatment!). I get product placement, but jeez. He also bases a lot of the moves in the workouts around using power stands for push-ups and dips and such. (I’ll give him slack on this, I already own the power stands he invented and they are the best I’ve ever used). You can get around not using them and still do the workouts, but it’s MUCH more effective to use them.

With support from a dedicated coach, the forums and knowing you conquered P90X at least once; the Plus is a great way to extend well past the first 90 days.

Fitness isn’t a destination, nor is the 90 days a race to a finish. They are merely points on a journey that is lifelong.

Studies Show Yoga Can Treat Illnesses

Posted: 28th November 2008 by Scott in Fitness, Health

Studies Show Yoga Can Treat Illnesses

BY SARAH AVERY • MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS • November 28, 2008

RALEIGH, N.C. — The ancient practice of yoga is increasingly finding a new following — among doctors and medical researchers who are working to prove its benefits for a variety of illnesses.
Advertisement

Researchers at University of North Carolina Hospitals are studying yoga’s benefits for people with irritable bowel syndrome. Doctors at Duke University recently completed a study showing that yoga provided significant improvements with hot flashes, sleep and energy levels for postmenopausal women with early breast cancer.

And an oncologist in Beaufort County, N.C., sees improvement in his patients who take yoga classes.

“There’s been an explosion of data using yoga as a treatment option,” said Dr. Shelley Wroth, an obstetrician at Duke Integrative Medicine and a yoga teacher. She said studies have found that yoga helps people suffering from hypertension, anxiety, arthritis, chronic back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, stress, depression, diabetes and epilepsy — among others.

A recent study at Duke involved breast cancer patients who were experiencing severe hot flashes and other menopause symptoms. Because of their illness, they were prohibited from taking hormone replacement therapy, so yoga was proposed as an alternative. The study found significant improvement among the women who took yoga classes, compared to women who did not.

“There are a lot of reactions to stress that exacerbate the menopausal symptoms,” said Laura Porter, coauthor of the Duke study. “Yoga — the physical poses and the more cognitive aspects of it — dampens the stress reactivity.”

But even as the science establishes yoga’s benefits, less is known about why it’s helpful. Porter and others postulate that the practice reduces stress through stretching, breathing and meditation. For people battling illness, stress reduction may pack extra potency.

“A lot of our diseases have some sort of origins in stress, and the stress reaction,” said William Frey, who is leading a yoga class in Raleigh, N.C., as part of a UNC-Chapel Hill study among patients with irritable bowel syndrome. “By taking care of stress, you’re starting to eliminate some of the diseases that are caused by it.”

Frey said he began offering yoga eight years ago through UNC-CH’s Program on Integrative Medicine.

“There was some concern we might be bringing spiritual elements into a very clinical setting,” Frey said. “But as people have seen its staying power, and see the results and research, there’s beginning to be more respectability.”

Yoga’s legitimacy increased when the National Institutes of Health became interested in it. The agency is funding studies on yoga and its effect on diseases. But some skepticism remains — in the medical profession and among patients.

Gioia O’Connell, a 54-year-old breast cancer survivor from Apex, N.C., said she wasn’t sure that yoga would help her. Her main hesitation was that yoga stemmed from Eastern roots, and she worried it was incompatible with her Christian faith. Still, she signed up for the study at Duke.

“I have to tell you, it was energizing,” O’Connell said. After being diagnosed with cancer in 1994 and undergoing a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation and rounds of daily drugs, she felt wrung out. “It helped with stiffness, aches and pains. And the breathing really did help my energy level. That’s what I deal with, being a cancer survivor, the fatigue.”

Dr. John Inzerillo, an oncologist in Washington, N.C., said his patients have felt that benefit time and again. He began teaching yoga about five years ago as part of a busy practice in Goldsboro, N.C.

“We had breast cancer survivors, lymphoma survivors. Over the course of time — three or four months — I could see a lot more flexibility,” he said, noting that patients also said they felt less stressed.

About three years ago, Inzerillo scaled back. He quit the Goldsboro practice, set up shop in Washington and wrote a book, “Passion Beyond Pain,” about the importance of striking a thoughtful balance in life to overcome pain.

“I made life changes to allow me to get more enjoyment out of life and be more effective at work,” he said. “People get disconnected from the things that really mean something in life.”