Where To Continue with Fitness Fixer During Health... Stuart's Community Health As A Lifestyle Thank You Grand Rounds 6.31 Academy Developmental Ability and Special Olympics... Fast Fitness - Eighth Group Functional Training: S... Dr. Jolie Bookspan Earns Humanitarian Prize Shihan Chong Breaks 10 Blocks of Ice At Age 70 Arthritis, Hip Pain, and Success With Running Fast Fitness - Seventh Group Functional Training: ... Prevent Pain From Returning - Readers Successes August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010

Diver Down Flags - Boating, Swimming, SCUBA Safer and Smarter

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
My father, some of my brothers, and I loved swimming together in a cold river in the northern United States. We enjoyed fun discussions treading water at the turn-around points. One day, a speedboat left the boating lanes and came at us. I stared dumbly at the fast-approaching boat, because why would anyone run right over you when he could plainly see you? Everyone knew that people swim in the water. The prow churned the water right over us. We corkscrewed underwater like five clams in a row snapping shut, to clear the propellers. It is an acoustics fact that words attempted underwater are distorted. Humor columnist Dave Barry once wrote that anything said underwater sounds like "b-mmoogle" but Dad's blue stream was pretty clear through the roil of bubbles

We listened underwater until the propeller sound deepened, showing it was going away. We surfaced, and looked, and saw the boat turn around and head straight back for us. I thought it might be checking if we were all right, but Dad pushed all our heads back under. The boat smashed the water directly overhead again. Maybe the boat came to "finish us" but with the benefit of the doubt, maybe he just wasn't looking where we he was going again.

We dodged trouble. We are divers and have and use diver down flags. Boats not observing them is another problem. Every year, boats hit swimmers and scuba divers, and injure, disfigure, dismember, and kill them. Know your flags and prevent tragedies:

Informal Recreational diving flag

The Diver Down flag has a red background with diagonal white bar. It is notice to boaters that scuba divers are in the area and to keep clear. It was designed in the late 1950's so that boaters would not suddenly find themselves running over divers surfacing in their path. The "Diver-Down Flag" may be attached to a floating surface buoy and dragged around by a diving group if they will be ranging far from the entry point, or used as a stationary line for descents and ascents. It may also be flown by a boat used for divers. Some states prohibit flying the diver-down flag if divers are not in the water at the time. In that case, the dive boat will (is supposed to) raise the flag during dive activity then lower after all divers and swimmers are back onboard

Bandeira Alfa ou Alpha Flag

A second and different diver flag designated by the International Code of Signals (ICS) was designed to protect the diving vessels. Technically, if diving operations restrict the boat's ability to maneuver, for example, attached scientific equipment, communication lines, air hoses, or other attached equipment, then a blue and white "ALPHA (alfa) flag is required. Not all dive boats are restricted so are not required to fly it, but may because it looks nautical and cool and is a diving symbol. The Coast Guard reminds, "The ALFA flag is a navigational signal intended to protect the vessel from collision."

If you are boating, keep your boat clear of Diver Down areas. Please watch the surface for those without diver down flags - swimmers and the slow moving manatee (sea cow). Every year, hundreds of manatees are killed in the state of Florida alone, by collisions with boats. It is their leading cause of death, contributing to rapidly dwindling numbers.

Enjoy your boating with attention and concern. Learn rules of the road and diver flags, don't drink and drive (leading cause of boating accidents). Care for others in the water.

Related Fitness Fixer:

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Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
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Diver Down Flag and IC Boat Alpha flad image via Wikipedia


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Fast Fitness - Better Than Ice Cream, Quick Homemade Healthy Treat

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM

SAN FRANCISCO - JULY 5 : Talia Way-Marchant en...

Here is Fast Friday Fitness - one of my own favorites - good for a pre-game meal, exercise recovery food, desert, and quick snack. It tastes like chocolate ice cream, sweet and creamy, but made of healthy food, no sugar or dairy, good amounts of vitamins, minerals, fiber, anti-oxidants, and the health benefits of cocoa without the chemicals and sugar of commercial chocolate, quick, inexpensive, and easy to prepare:
  1. Peel and freeze bananas.
  2. In a food processor or bowl, mix plain unsweetened, undutched cocoa with enough water to make a smooth paste. (Boxes of Hershey's powdered cocoa is available in most supermarkets.)
  3. Beat in one frozen banana until creamy smooth (or two bananas and more cocoa).

Don't use unfrozen or partially frozen bananas or it won't be sweet and creamy. Crush in walnuts or pecans for crunchy nut taste. If you can't eat tree nuts, try flax seeds. For extra taste, crush in a slice of fresh ginger root.

If you don't like chocolate, leave out the cocoa. It will still taste like ice cream. Experiment with healthy additions of mint, ginger, real vanilla bean, and spices.


Related Fitness Fixer:

Not Related, Random:

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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Exercise in the Heat

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
In the hot days of summer, common warnings involve avoiding the heat. What about the advantages of heat? Hot environments can improve your health in several ways.

Done right:
  • Exercising in the heat improves your fitness level and ability to exercise.
  • Exercising in the heat increases your tolerance to heat, making life more comfortable in the heat.
  • Exercising in the heat prevents the decreases in heat tolerance that otherwise occur with increased age, which can be unhealthy, even dangerous.
Exercising in the heat makes positive changes in your body that improve your fitness. You increase blood volume, improve cooling ability, make changes in sweating, increase the vasculature that helps circulation, cooling and exercising at the same time, increase specific chemical compounds in the body that improve health and ability to exercise.

When you exercise and increase body temperature, your body produces more of an interesting compound called heat shock protein. Heat shock proteins are families of proteins that do several things including preventing other proteins from damage by infection, ultraviolet light, starvation, heat, cold, and other harsh conditions. Heat shock proteins are thought to mobilize immune function against infections and diseases, even cancer.

Improved ability to tolerate heat without discomfort, called heat adaptation, occurs fairly quickly - with large improvements within the first week of exerting in the heat. Exercising in heat is more effective to produce heat acclimatization than heat exposure without exercise. Aerobic fitness is a major factor in heat tolerance.

It is a myth that you must avoid sweating to stay healthy. Exercising enough to sweat makes you more flexible, increases many chemical reactions in your body that are healthy. Sweat itself has compounds beneficial for your skin and body. Don't worry that you must exercise only indoors in air-conditioning in order to do healthful exercise. A protective environment does prevent initial discomfort, but reduces benefits and the ability to be comfortable in the heat.

This all does not mean to go out and cause yourself heat injury by overdoing without thinking. It is to gain the many benefits of exercising safely in the heat



I will cover more physical changes from exercise in the heat that improve health and exercise level in future articles.

Related:

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Exercise in the heat photo by Ahron de Leeuw

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Reposting - Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Last week, several Fitness Fixer posts did not become viewable after writing and posting them. One reappears here (hopefully) with the rest to follow this week. Photos will not load at all, so I have included links to view them at another page. May all life's troubles continue to be this small :-) enjoy the posts:

Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer.

Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.

"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.

"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.

"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.

Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.

"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.

"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.

For photo of Lisa finishing the marathon, click http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3831220282_2ed9899488_m.jpg

"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!

"Thank you,
Lisa"
PS There's a link to my fund raising page here"
Check out my latest marathon challenge:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/epa/phil09/lisaphillips


Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.

Related:

Not Related, Random Fun Fitness Fixer:
---
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Fast Fitness - Stretch For Menstrual Cramps

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - a stretch to help relieve the ache of menstrual cramps and the same pain from uterine cramping after sexual relations:

  1. Person with cramping lies on back, knees bent, feet flat on the floor or bed.
  2. Partner sits at their feet, facing their knees, and gently cups the front of both thighs near the knees.
  3. Partner leans backward, pulling the top of both thighs with them (yellow arrows in photo). Cramping person should feel a pleasant relief stretch in the lower abdomen (red arrow in photo). Repeat as needed.

If photo does not load, try
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3015/3840583431_63ff384326_m.jpg


The partner doing the cramp release can either sit closely, securing the cramping person's feet with their knees (as pictured), or sit further back. It is preference for how you can best and most comfortably do the stretch.

The cramping person's feet can be moved closer to their body to add a nice Achilles tendon stretch, or if the partner applying the stretch is not strong enough to easily pull back. This stretch works extra well on a soft bed when the feet can sink into the soft surface. Apply it slowly to not overdo.

See how this works for you and send your suggestions.

Related:

Not Related, Random Fitness Fixer:


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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Photo copyright © Dr. Bookspan of her students in the July 2009 Thai massage class.

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Physician Told Her Give Up, Fitness Fixer Made Her Able

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Another reader named Lisa wrote in with a success story. This Lisa had not been active for many years. Her doctor had told her the way to stop injuries from running was to give up running. She is now successfully doing marathons, changing to healthy movement, and working as a professional photographer. Lisa P writes:
"I had done some running in college and wound up with a stress fracture on the ball of one of my feet. I remember the doctor telling me to stay away from running in the future.

"I have enjoyed visiting your site for many months (more than a year for sure) and find your practical, everyday life approaches to body movement and exercise right on. The idea of walking a marathon was a "no-brainer" once I found out that walking was allowed.

"As someone who grew up in a home where shoes were always worn, I never got the chance to let my feet walk around barefoot for any extended periods (or distances). My feet couldn't handle "feeling" everything as they had been encased for so long in any number of supportive shoes.

"I remember reading a post of yours about hiking in flip flops and tried to imagine myself doing anything in flip flops or another simple shoe without a lot of cushy padding and support in "all the correct places." I am using my muscles to adjust to uneven surfaces while walking barefoot or with minimal padding between my feet and the ground. I think this has improved my body mechanics. Doing it myself helps in a way that wearing special shoes to do it for me does not. Time will tell of course.

Walking may take more time than running, but I've become a faster walker with training and will surely realize my goal of completing a marathon in under 6 hours this fall.

"I've made an effort to reduce and or eliminate certain things from my diet such as refined sugars, hydrogenated oils, and processed foods. This most certainly has contributed to the results I get in training. As I near the actual marathon, I will be walking upwards of 30 miles a week. It is amazing how my stamina improves as the miles add up.

"Attached is a photo of me at mile 25 of The Nike Women's Marathon, the first marathon I completed.

"Oh, one other thing that I have you to thank for is my regular routine of push ups. After every training walk, I do push ups and am currently doing 36. Won't be long before I get to 40!

"Thank you,
Lisa"
PS There's a link to my fund raising page here"
Check out my latest marathon challenge:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/epa/phil09/lisaphillips
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3831220282_2ed9899488_m.jpg
blogger is still having much photo upload trouble. If this photo of Lisa does not load, click http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3449/3831220282_2ed9899488_m.jpg



Going barefoot by itself, or wearing special shoes will not automatically put your foot in healthy position or increase balance skills. You can walk in healthy or unhealthy ways when barefoot, and in healthy or unhealthy ways even in an expensive corrective shoe. You can easily change how you move to healthy ways without needing devices, and save time and money. You can change to healthier eating and reduce a grocery bill greatly, by no longer buying unhealthful food. Click the labels under this post for all Fitness Fixer articles with ideas on each topic.

Related:

Not Related, Random Fun Fitness Fixer:

---
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
---

photo: Lisa Phillips mile 25 Nike Womens Marathon

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Less Pain Means a Happier Lisa

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM

A smiley by Pumbaa, drawn using a text editor.

Reader Lisa H wrote in:
"I had not (previously) successfully implemented healthy movement habits. Your books are allowing me to comprehend the importance of doing so. This knowledge is permitting me to enjoy the benefits that come from less pain. Less pain means a happier Lisa. Moreover, since everyone enjoys happy people, anyone involved with me appreciates my enhanced education.

" You give your readers hope and allow us to strive for healing. You must tire of hearing this from everyone you help.

"I have read many publications regarding stretching and strengthening but none ever caused me to contemplate "living" rather than practicing the "postures." I have stopped many of the exercises and stretches "believed" to be essential to improving back health (they were hurting), and enjoy the exercises and stretches in your books.

"It is enchanting to have the opportunity to thank you for sending me personalized copies of your marvelous publications.

"With Kindest Regards,
Lisa H."

There is no need to "live with pain" or try to use varieties of techniques to distract you when it hurts. Instead, fix the source of the pain, then the damage can heal and the pain not return, because you have stopped the daily repeated unhealthy motions that cause them. Healthy movement is for all you do all day - that is fitness as a lifestyle, not doing little repetitions or sets or reps in the gym or during commercials. To get started, click the related posts below. The label "reader inspiring stories" lists reader stories, not as testimonials, but tutorials. Enjoy getting your life back.

Related Fitness Fixer:

Not Related, Random Fun Fitness Fixer:

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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Fast Fitness - Stop Neck Pain From Biking

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Here is Friday Fast Fitness - Save your neck while biking, while drinking from a water bottle while biking, and get a needed upper back stretch at the same time:

  1. Main concept - your neck is not a Pez dispenser. Don't tip and pinch back at the neck to look upward to drink or look forward while riding.

  2. Notice if you jut your chin forward and upward to drink or ride.

  3. Instead, extend upward through your entire upper back. Keep your chin fairly still and see how much upward range you can get from your upper back. Instead of rounding the upper back forward, you get a nice straightening stretch.

Craning the neck (pinching backward at one joint) and pushing the chin forward, pinches and compresses your discs, joints of the neck bones, the soft tissue, and nerves.

To help remember good biking form, I put a reminder on a healthy water bottle. Keep your exercise healthy. Click AcademyGifts or the image to order.

Sigg Water Bottle 1.0L Neck Saver
Related:

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I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Pez dispenser Image from blog.makezine.com/archive/2008/04/bronze_boba_fett_pez_disp.html
Water bottle by DrBookspan.com AcademyGifts

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Thank You Grand Rounds Vol. 5.47 - Cost Containment In Healthcare

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
On the web, "Grand Rounds" is a list complied each week of the "best in medical writing of the week." This week, DrRich of covertrationingblog chose the theme of reforming health care costs, and included my post How Effective Are Medical Treatments For Back Pain?

DrRich writes:
"Jolie Bookspan of the Fitness Fixer cites a new study showing that few if any of the myriad of medical treatments commonly used for treating low back pain offer any substantial or long-lasting benefits. Dr. Bookspan points out that a more effective method of treating low back pain might be to retrain patients to move in healthier ways, to prevent continued re-damage. This seems like good advice to DrRich, whose unhealthy career choice (which involved wearing heavy lead shields while standing in place and bending at the waist for up to 12 hours at a time) led him to sample many of these ineffective (and expensive) treatment options himself. He was cured only when he chose to move in healthier ways - by changing careers."

DrRich (Richard N. Fogoros, MD) is a former professor of medicine who spent over 20 years as a full-time clinical cardiologist. I thank him for being among the medical professional who recognize that you can make movement healthy and fix the damage instead of adding unhealthy medical treatments to an injury.

My post on effectiveness of various medical treatments for back pain includes a direct approach to continue activities you love. You don't need to reduce activity you love. Recognize damaging body mechanics, and fix damage without surgeries, injections, or drugs though changing all the movement of your regular day at work and for sport into healthy good body mechanics


---
I make posts from fun mail and success stories. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
- DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Fast Fitness - Improved Fitness Fixer Index

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM

Here is Fast Fitness Friday - quick resource for reforming your health care - the Fitness Fixer Index:
  1. Reader David from Belgium first helped me program the index last July (2008). Since then, I have manually added posts and maintained the index on my site.
  2. Fitness Fixer index is now alphabetized to find specific topics more easily, and expanded with more topics.
  3. Click and bookmark the Fitness Fixer Index - www.drbookspan.com/fitfix-index

Send your healthy humorous quotations, favorite posts, and photos to be added to the index. Enjoy your health.


Related Post:



Image currently the masthead of Dr. Jolie Bookspan's
Fitness Fixer - a work in progress.
Send in your funny healthy additions. Stay tuned for improvements.



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Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.

Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
- DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Diving Women of Korea - The Haenyeo

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM

Haenyeo, female diver to catch for living in K...

In the previous two weeks, I wrote about the Japanese diving women, the Ama. Readers asked about the divers of Korea. Although they are sometimes called Ama divers, "ama" is a Japanese word. The Korean diving women are the Hae-nyao. Both ama and haenyao mean "sea woman." The Korean divers are also called Jamsoo, or diving lady, and Jam-nyao, or diving woman.

The diving women are a respected profession of hard work to gather food for their communities. The work is difficult and cold. The numbers of both Ama and Haenyao are decreasing every year, as the daughters who would take their mother's roles go to other work in the cities.

The first recorded Korean diving (that I know of) is from the 400's A.D. around the Chechu (Jeju) Island area. It is likely that diving had gone on centuries before that. The Haenyao historically dived all year (even in winter), and without assistance of weights or ropes to ascend or descend. They made as many as 30 dives an hour, to depths from 10 to 30 meters, at temperatures in the winter as low as 10 C.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3315/3424067552_76d959b109.jpgIn the 1960s, many physiologic studies were carried out on the Ama and Haenyao to see what their lung volumes were before and after dives, their temperature regulation and tolerance to cold, their ability to tolerate strenuous work, changes in heart rate and blood distribution during breath hold diving, their physical characteristics compared to non-divers, how alveolar gases (oxygen and carbon dioxide in their body) changed during their breath hold dives, and other interesting topics. Some say that the sudden huge scientific interest was because they dived nearly naked.

Diving clothes varied by geographic area, with some divers wearing only a rope belt or loincloth. No fins were used to help swimming. Later when wet suits were developed, only male divers wore them. Women were prohibited protective suits by their cooperatives, since they were considered more cold tolerant to begin with, and the advantage of the suit would "accelerate over-harvesting" Later, the work became pretty much exclusive to women.

Taking many large breaths before a breath hold extends time because "overbreathing" lowers carbon dioxide in the body. Carbon dioxide signals you to breathe, so it is protective to have it build and make you want to return to the surface before you go unconscious from lack of oxygen. Hyperventilating (too many large breaths) before a dive can cause a drowning accident. The haenyao and ama practice a short hyperventilation with a distinctive whistling maneuver which was studied to find why it may not cause the problems of hyperventilation without the maneuver.

To call them "The haenyao women divers" is redundant. The word haenyao already refers to the female. I asked them what the males were called and the Haenyao laughed at me, saying that males cannot withstand the hard work or the cold, and it is known that women do better in the cold. Dr Suk Ki Hong, one of the best known researchers of immersion and the haenyao and Ama divers wrote, "The shivering threshold is elevated as compared to men, and thus women are distinctly in a better position than men to work in cold water. Undoubtedly there could be many other reasons. However these facts lead us to postulate that men could not compete successfully by virtue of their poor tolerance to cold."

Sadly, Western sport divers started writing articles and presenting lectures at dive conferences in the 1990s, mistakenly claiming women did not have better cold tolerance and had greater risk of cold injury. The myth was repeated in diving magazines, scuba classes, and textbooks of the era.

Are there male indigenous divers? Yes. I will write of them and their stories in the future. Stay tuned.

Link to haenyao museum site


Previously:
Related Undersea Stories:
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Haenyo image via Wikipedia
Photo 2 by JoopDorresteijn
Image 3 by kozyndan

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Thank You Doc Gurley For Grand Rounds 5.44

Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
While I was away teaching at the Wilderness Medical Conference (and backpacking to and from the conference), the blog "Doc Gurley" chose my post Weak Hips on Purpose? Running Injury and Hip Strengthening for Grand Rounds Vol. 5 No. 44.

This is nice because three previous Grand Rounds rejected this post. Readers have asked why. Some of the reasons given by previous host were that exercise isn't medicine, that doctors don't need to know exercise, and other mindsets that are helpful to know. The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) has started a major campaign that "Exercise is Medicine." Fitness Fixer readers know that not all exercise is good medicine and what we do is change that so that medicine and fitness is healthy again. We Make Exercise Healthy Medicine.

Doc Gurley's Grand Rounds was written in the theme of a mystery story. She started "Act Two Of The Mystery" with the post Weak Hips on Purpose, writing:
"Dr. Jolie Bookspan, The Fitness Fixer wrote about running injuries and hip strengthening in her post ‘Weak Hips on Purpose?’ She regularly covers making exercise medicine healthy – moving in real life, not just a gym and here she writes about the mystery of what really causes lower leg injuries."
On the web, Grand Rounds is a collection of the best on-line medical posts from the past week. A different host works hard each week to find and list the articles. This is different from the Grand Rounds in a hospital, which is a lecture for doctors about a patient or topic.

Thank you to this week's host for doing the hard work of collecting and featuring our posts.


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Questions come in by hundreds. I make posts from fun mail. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here - click labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and the Fitness Fixer Index. Why not try fun stuff, then contribute! Read success stories of these methods and send your own.

Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail" (under trumpet) upper right.
See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified
- DrBookspan.com/Academy.
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