McTeer Fitness Training & Tennis Coaching, Austin, Texas

I want to help YOU …

•  ALIGN your body
•  STRETCH your body
•  STRENGTHEN your body
•  SHAPE your body

This book is available as a download for $5.00.www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer

 This article is copied from Senior Journal, www.seniorjournal.com  

Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens … Study says it is possible to manage arthritis pain by moving more

April 10, 2008 – It does not seem to make common sense – to exercise when suffering with joint pain – but a recent study in Arthritis Care and Research concludes that regular exercise is an effective way to “significantly” improve and manage arthritis pain. The study specifically measured results of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program.

This is good news for the aging population of U.S. baby boomers who want a natural remedy for pain, according to the foundation.  Arthritis is projected to increase by 40%, affecting 67 million Americans, in the next two decades.

The in-depth study looked at the effectiveness of the Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program, developed in 1987 to reduce pain and stiffness by keeping joints flexible and muscles strong. 

Key findings of the study include participants reporting a decrease in pain and fatigue, an increase in upper and lower extremity function, and an increase in strength after participating in the basic, eight-week exercise program. 

Also, participants who continued the exercise program independently, beyond eight weeks, sustained improvement in reduced stiffness.

“The study showed that the exercise program is suitable for every fitness level, even inactive older individuals,” said author of the study Leigh Callahan, Ph.D., Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  “Many people believe the myth that exercise exacerbates their symptoms.  The truth revealed in the study is that symptoms improved with exercise.”

Exercising for joint health is different than exercising for cardio health.  People living with arthritis don’t have to sweat to achieve success.  The basic eight-week Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program consists of low-impact routines with gentle range-of-motion movements that can be done while sitting or standing.

“Even minor lifestyle changes like taking a 10-minute walk three times a day can reduce the impact of arthritis on a person’s daily activities and help to prevent developing more painful arthritis,” explains Patience White, M.D., chief public health officer of the Arthritis Foundation.  “Physical activity can actually reduce pain naturally and decrease dependence on pain medications.”

You may need to increase intensity

The program, as designed, however, is not a magic bullet, according to the author’s of the 2007 study.

“Our findings indicate that the basic 8-week PACE program is a safe program for sedentary older individuals with arthritis to start exercising without exacerbating their symptoms,” they write. “In fact, we actually found that symptoms improved in these persons.”

As offered two times per week, the program “modestly improves symptoms and strength but does not improve function, increase exercise endurance, or increase physical activity.”

They didn’t find as much improvement as they wanted and suggested that for “more substantial benefits” frequency and intensity may need to be increased.”

“As with any exercise program, it appears that individuals need to stay with the program to maintain their benefits over time.”

About the study

The objective of the study was to evaluate the basic eight-week Arthritis Foundation Exercise Program for improvements in symptoms, functioning, level of physical activity and psychosocial outcomes. A total of 346 individuals with self-reported arthritis from 18 sites participated in a randomized controlled trial. 

The eight-week exercise program consisted of exercise twice weekly for one hour.  The study participants had a mean age of 70 years (ranging from 32 to 94 years old), 90 percent were female, 75 percent were white and 60 percent had more than a high school degree.

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The following article is copied from Senior Journal, www.seniorjournal.com

Fitness & Exercise for Senior Citizens … Helps boost cognitive processing speed, motor function and visual and auditory attention in healthy older people

April 21, 2008 - Aerobic exercise could give older adults a boost in brainpower, according to a review of studies from the Netherlands.

“Aerobic physical exercises that improve cardiovascular fitness also help boost cognitive processing speed, motor function and visual and auditory attention in healthy older people,” said lead review author Maaike Angevaren.

Around age 50, even healthy older adults begin to experience mild declines in cognition, e.g. occasional memory lapses and reduced ability to focus. Convincing evidence shows that regular exercise contributes to healthy aging, but could the types of exercise a person does influence his or her cognitive fitness?

Angevaren and her colleagues at the University of Applied Sciences, in Utrecht, evaluated 11 randomized controlled trials, comprising about 670 adults ages 55 and older, which examined the effects of aerobic exercise on areas of cognition including cognitive processing speed, memory and attention.

Nine studies took place in the United States; one occurred in France and another in Sweden.

Aerobic exercise involves continuous, rhythmic activity that strengthens the heart and lungs and improves respiratory endurance. In the studies included in this review, participants exercised aerobically 2-7 days a week for several weeks — three months on average — and underwent fitness and cognitive function tests.

The review appears in the latest issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research. Systematic reviews draw evidence-based conclusions about medical practice after considering both the content and quality of existing medical trials on a topic.

Not surprisingly, eight of the 11 included studies found that participation in aerobic exercise programs increased participants’ VO2 max, an indicator of respiratory endurance, by 14 percent.

Improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness coincided with improvements in cognitive function - especially motor function, cognitive speed and auditory and visual attention - when participants were compared to a group of non-exercising adults or adults in a yoga or strength program.

So how does sweating to the oldies affect brain function?

“Improvements in cognition as a result of improvements in cardiovascular fitness are being explained by improvements in cerebral blood flow, leading to increased brain metabolism which, in turn, stimulates the production of neurotransmitters and formation of new synapses,” Angevaren aid.

“At the same time, improved cardiovascular fitness could lead to a decline in cardiovascular disease [which is] proven to negatively affect cognition,” she said.

Despite the positive mental health benefits that seem to be associated with aerobic activity, researchers could not confirm that aerobic activity specifically is necessary for cognitive improvement, Angevaren said.

For example, when researchers left non-exercisers out of the equation and examined test scores of adults who did any type of exercise — including aerobic activity, strength training or flexibility programs — they found no significant differences for nine of the 11 cognitive functions measured.

“It needs to be established whether the same effects can be achieved with any type of physical exercise,” including exercise bouts of greater intensity or longer duration, Angevaren said.

Based on individual studies and overall analysis, the authors have made a clear case in concluding that physical activities benefit cognitive function in older adults, said Sarah Laditka, associate professor in the Arnold School of Public Health at the University of South Carolina.  She was not affiliated with the review.

“At the same time, they pointed out a number of considerations that readers need to keep in mind,” Laditka said.  For example, in many of the studies, the sample size was small  and the cognitive tests used to assess participants varied widely from study to study.

“It’s clear that the longer-term effects of aerobic physical activity on cognition are not known and that needs to be studied,” Laditka said.

However, although relatively few randomized controlled trials exist that investigate the cognitive affects of aerobic activity on cognition, “there are an increasing number of epidemiological studies which indicate very positive benefits of regular physical activity on cognitive health,” Laditka said.

“The takeaway message to me as a gerontologist is that increasingly there is an association between physical activity — broadly defined — and cognitive health. That would speak in favor of encouraging older people and people of all ages to engage in regular physical activity,” Laditka said.

Written by Amy Sutton, Contributing Writer, Health Behavior News Service

The Cochrane Collaboration is an international nonprofit, independent organization that produces and disseminates systematic reviews of health care interventions and promotes the search for evidence in the form of clinical trials and other studies of interventions. Visit www.cochrane.org for more information.

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 This is copied from Anthony Carey’s company website, Function First, www.functionfirst.com Most people don’t realize how interconnected the human body really is.  People in chronic pain have a single-minded focus: to get rid of the pain, wherever it may be.  They take medications, see specialists, and often times resort to surgery to cure the problem.What they don’t think about, however, is that their body is completely interconnected, with one specific area depending on many others in order to function.  Their chronic pain may be caused by an imbalance somewhere other than where their pain is occurring, and like a domino effect those imbalances filter down from one part of the body to the next, affecting movement and stability.  It’s a different way to look at pain and the body, but one that makes a lot of sense.Let’s use an example to illustrate this.  Dorothy’s knee cartilage is worn down completely, making bone on bone contact, and she is in a lot of pain whenever she walks.  She goes to see a variety of knee specialists, the first who tells her that she’s getting older and it’s just natural wear and tear, part of life and aging.  Ok, she thinks, but if that’s the case why are all my other joints working fine?So she goes to another one, who tells her that she hasn’t been using her knee correctly for years and that’s why all her cartilage is worn down.  Again, she nods her head, but is still thinking well, fine, but then why I haven’t I been using my knee correctly?Many people never think to ask these questions, but they’re a critical step in finding the root cause of pain.  The problem with seeing specialists is that even though their skill in a specific area is profound, it may cloud their vision from the bigger picture.Yes, Dorothy’s knee hurts and yes, the cartilage is worn down, but it could be her back, her hip, or even her posture that’s causing the wear and tear and the damage is only showing up in her knee.  It’s the domino effect that specialists don’t often see because their focus is one area, not the whole body.Corrective exercise is a relatively new field that fills this gap.  Described as falling somewhere between physical therapy and personal training, corrective exercise uses a “whole body” approach to pain.  Instead of just looking at Dorothy’s knee, a corrective exercise specialist would look everywhere but her knee.Treatment for her condition would be simple exercises that teach her body how to function properly again, lessoning the stress on her knee over time and giving her more freedom of movement than she has now.It’s never too late to start a new approach to healing and pain elimination.  Corrective exercise is a great way to start a healing process that is non-invasive and good for your body.www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u

 NOTE: MF2U Trainers also train teenagers in Austin, TexasThis article is copied from the website of the U.S. Surgeon General, www.surgeongeneral.govTo date more than 12.5 million children and adolescents — 17.1 percent of people ages 2 to 19 years — are overweight.As they grow older, overweight children and adolescents are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and Type 2 diabetes.  Overweight is the result of caloric imbalance (too few calories expended for the amount of calories consumed) and is mediated by genetics and health.  Teaching kids the importance of eating well and being physically active at a young age is crucial to reversing the trend of overweight in this country.The Healthy Youth for a Healthy Future initiative focuses on recognizing and showcasing communities throughout America that are coming together to address childhood overweight and obesity prevention by encouraging kids to eat right and exercise.  To change children’s eating and activity habits, this initiative concentrates on the people who influence our children, including parents, caregivers, schools, public health leaders and local community leaders.The Surgeon General will embark on a national tour to recognize and highlight those communities with effective prevention programs and motivate community members to join together in their efforts to encourage kids to eat healthier and increase physical activity to at least 60 minutes a day.The Surgeon General will encourage community members to:* Help Kids Stay Active* Encourage Healthy Eating Habits* Promote Healthy Choices* Potential Partners: federal agencies, state and local government agencies, community based organizations, faith based organizations, parents, educators, youth organizations, health care providers, minority serving organizations, corporations and other businesses, trade associations, disability serving organizations, decision/policymakers, mediaDid You Know?* Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight or obese adults.* The number of overweight children has more than tripled over the past three decades.* Research has shown that parents are often their children’s most important role model.  If children see their caregivers enjoying healthy foods and being physically active, they are more likely to do the same. For Additional Information, Please Contact:Office of Public Health and ScienceU.S. Department of Health and Human Services200 Independence Avenue S.W. , Suite 716 GWashington, DC 20201Or visit the Surgeon General’s Web site at www.surgeongeneral.govwww.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u

This is copied from Tim Ferris’ Lifestyle Design Blog, www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog “Not-to-do” lists are often more effective than to-do lists for upgrading performance.The reason is simple: what you don’t do determines what you can do.Here are nine stressful and common habits that entrepreneurs and office workers should strive to eliminate.  Focus on one or two at a time, just as you would with high-priority to-do items.  I’ve worded them in no-to-do action form:1. Do not answer calls from unrecognized phone numbersFeel free to surprise others, but don’t be surprised.  It just results in unwanted interruption and poor negotiating position.2. Do not e-mail first thing in the morning or last thing at nightThe former scrambles your priorities and plans for the day, and the latter just gives you insomnia.  E-mail can wait until 10am, after you’ve completed at least one of your critical to-do items.3. Do not agree to meetings or calls with no clear agenda or end timeIf the desired outcome is defined clearly with a stated objective and agenda listing topics/questions to cover, no meeting or call should last more than 30 minutes.  Request them in advance so you “can best prepare and make good use of the time together.”4. Do not let people rambleForget “how’s it going?” when someone calls you.  Stick with “what’s up?” or “I’m in the middle of getting something out, but what’s going on?”  A big part of GTD is GTP - Getting To the Point.5. Do not check e-mail constantly - “batch” and check at set times onlyI belabor this point enough.  Get off the cocaine pellet dispenser and focus on execution of your top to-do’s instead of responding to manufactured emergencies.  Set up a strategic autoresponder and check twice or thrice daily.6. Do not over-communicate with low-profit, high-maintenance customersThere is no sure path to success, but the surest path to failure is trying to please everyone.  Do an 80/20 analysis of your customer base in two ways: which 20% are producing 80%+ of my profit, and which 20% are consuming 80%+ of my time?  Then put the loudest and least productive on autopilot by citing a change in company policies.  Send them an e-mail with new rules as bullet points: number of permissible phone calls, e-mail response time, minimum orders, etc.  Offer to point them to another provider if they can’t conform to the new policies.7. Do not work more to fix overwhelm - prioritizeIf you don’t prioritize, everything seems urgent and important. If you define the single most important task for each day, almost nothing seems urgent or important.  Oftentimes, it’s just a matter of letting little bad things happen (return a phone call late and apologize, pay a small late fee, lose an unreasonable customer, etc.) to get the big important things done.  The answer to overwhelm is not spinning more plates - or doing more - it’s defining the few things that can really fundamentally change your business and life.8. Do not carry a cellphone or Crackberry 24/7Take at least one day off of digital leashes per week.  Turn them off or, better still, leave them in the garage or in the car. I do this on at least Saturday, and I recommend you leave the phone at home if you go out for dinner.  So what if you return a phone call an hour later or the next morning?  As one reader put it to a miffed co-worker who worked 24/7 and expected the same: “I’m not the president of the US.  No one should need me at 8pm at night.  OK, you didn’t get a hold of me.  But what bad happened?”  The answer?  Nothing.9. Do not expect work to fill a void that non-work relationships and activities shouldWork is not all of life.  Your co-workers shouldn’t be your only friends.  Schedule life and defend it just as you would an important business meeting.  Never tell yourself “I’ll just get it done this weekend.”  Review Parkinson’s Law in 4HWW and force yourself to cram within tight hours so your per-hour productivity doesn’t fall through the floor.  Focus, get the critical few done, and get out.  E-mailing all weekend is no way to spend the little time you have on this planet.It’s hip to focus on getting things done, but it’s only possible once we remove the constant static and distraction.What other no-no’s would you add to the list?www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u

 For you business professionals, I recommend a book my dad (www.bobmcteer.com) gave me, The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris.  This gem of a book is hot off the press and taking the business book-world by storm.  This young Princeton grad is helping to usher in a revolution that maximizes technology to positively transform “work.”Here’s an overview of his book from his website blog www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog …Whether you’re an overworked employee or entrepreneur trapped in your own business, The 4-Hour Workweek is a compass for a new, revolutionary world.Forget the old concept of retirement and the rest of the deferred-life plan-there is no need to wait and every reason not to.  Whether your dream is escaping the rat race, high-end world travel, monthly five-figure income with zero management, or just living more and working less, this book is the blueprint.Join Tim Ferriss, popular guest lecturer in entrepreneurship at Princeton University, as he teaches you:* How to outsource your life and do whatever you want for a year, only to return to a bank account 50% larger than before you left* How blue-chip escape artists travel the world without quitting their jobs* How to eliminate 50% of your work in 48 hours using the principles of little-known European economists* How to train your boss to value performance over presence, or kill your job (or company) if it’s beyond repair* How to trade a long-haul career for short work bursts and frequent “mini-retirements”* What automated cash-flow “muses” are and how to create one in 2-4 weeks* How to cultivate selective ignorance-and create time-with a low-information diet* Management secrets of Remote Control CEOs* The crucial difference between absolute and relative income* How to get free housing worldwide and airfare at 50-80% off* How to fill the void and creating meaning after removing work and the officeThe 4-Hour Workweek also includes sample e-mails, voicemails and real-life deals (with dollar figures and all) you will need to master the new world of luxury lifestyle design.www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u

You can have a great fitness ball program training 30 minutes a day, 3 days a week!  With 168 hours in a week, this is less than 2% of your total time!  Given the amazing benefits of functional fitness, not exercising is rarely a result of not “having time” and is usually a result of not making fitness a priority and embracing it in our daily lives.  I want U 2 embrace the fitness ball in your daily life.  At least sit on it an hour a day.  

Dancing is great functional exercise!

To lose 1 pound of fat per week, burn 3500 calories per week more than you consume (500 calories per day!)Imo, if you want to lose weight, keep your daily calories in the 1200-1600 range.Losing weight is very difficult.  It requires self-discipline and sustained moderation.The great news is once you have achieved your optimal body weight, you no longer have to create a daily caloric deficit.  Give your old, big clothes away.  Burn your bridges.  Get there and don’t go back!www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u

Watch out for those alcohol calories!!!

Measuring body fat.  Although the actual percentage of fat on your body is probably the best measure of your optimal body weight, measuring body fat is difficult and often very inaccurate, even when done correctly, which is rare.  Also, when personal trainers measure their clients using skin fold calipers, a conflict of interest arises that often leads to favorable inaccuracies.  (It’s in your trainer’s interest for your numbers to improve.)While hydrostatic testing (being dunked in water) is generally regarded as the most accurate measure, doing so can be semi-traumatic and is fairly time-consuming.  Unless you’re willing to have this done every couple of weeks, you won’t have enough short-term feedback to know how well you’re doing with your plan.  You may choose to have this done two to three times per year.  Doing so will also let you know whether you’re increasing muscle or not.While electrical impedance devices are becoming increasingly more accurate in measuring body fat, I still believe we’re a year or two away from being able to trust their accuracy.Circumference (girth) measurements may be effective, however, it’s difficult to ensure that these measurements are done in the same way each time.  As another short-term goal option, I encourage my clients to pick an article of clothing that they can’t quite fit in comfortably.Conclusion.  In my opinion, your body weight, how you fit in clothes, and visible body fat are the easiest and best indicators of your success.  The scale and mirror don’t lie.  I believe that weighing yourself at least three times a week on a scale will give you the best feedback in your weight loss program.www.ybyl.com … scott@ybyl.com … scott mcteer, mf2u