Stuart Wood has been teaching my work in his Tucson community to retrain healthy movement to reduce the high rate of strain-related injuries. Instead of doing rehab exercises after you strain yourself doing your work, you use healthy movement for your work - the real fitness as a lifestyle.
Here is an update on his water harvesting training - a needed program in arid Arizona:
"Hi Dr. Bookspan, I trained the staff for the Watershed Management Group today it was a lot of fun and they were eager and receptive to learn. Training in this formal setting assuaged some of my fears and gave me confidence. Thanks for your confidence in me it is great to hear.
"I could answer their questions and they just kept coming with more. I encouraged them to keep in touch with me so I could direct them to specific Fitness Fixer entries and support their efforts. Everyone was eager to take the handouts you sent me in the mail and were asking about help for friends (to prevent) back surgeries, etc.
"I took some good pictures and am doing a little photo editing on them. I was very happy afterwards and look forward to doing more of these. I have posted the photos from my training:
"I am going to develop a survey that I can get feedback with using a cool online tool.
"I felt very professional in my AFEM shirt. They were also excited by the prospect of completing modules. Just wanted to send you a short note. I have to go watch dogs now but I'll prepare a complete e-mail and upload the pictures soon for a suitable blog entry. I'm keeping my chin up But not squashing vertebrae :)
Stuart, of course I have confidence in you - you are my Jedi. Keep doing great things.
New Healthy Employment Programs for Developmentally Disabled
Monday, March 08, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Another reader has Fixed the Fitness for a community program so beneficial and potentially far-reaching that I have given her an Academy Appointment.
Peggy Santamaria is bringing my healthy daily life techniques to developmentally disabled adults. She has made a new program to transition developmental disability to Developmental Ability.
"Thanks. Cool to find that this morning on Fitness Fixer. I would like to work with job coaches at a local agency that trains and finds employment for developmentally disabled adults. Snow removal is one of their big programs. I hope I would have your permission to use Fitness Fixer techniques to help prevent injuries for these trainees. I am on the board of directors for the agency and really support the program. Thanks again. you rock!!!" peggy
I wrote back asking if she could start before the snow season ends, which was soon, and that when the snow season ends, what activities and healthy movement retraining could she bring to them?
Peggy replied:
"Just spoke with program director at Appalachian Crossroads. I will meet with his job coaches and staff on Monday afternoon to talk about healthier movements while on the job shoveling snow, landscaping, vacuuming, etc. This is their website if you want to check them out, www.appalachiancrossroads.com/"
I am pleased to announce her appointment through the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine (AFEM) as Director of Developmental Ability. We are working on better names - write in your ideas in the comments for a good title for this program for the disabled to develop their abilities. Peggy has been working hard developing the program. She drew the shovels for me for the Backman!™ illustration, and has been drawing and developing more teaching tools.
Our plan is for participants to gain skills and healthy work, reduce injury and pain risk, and be proud role models. The community gains important improvements in ways that are healthy for all. We hope our program with Appalachian Crossroads becomes a model for programs all over the nation like it.
Peggy wrote back:
"WOW!!! That's all I can say. Off to teach a class. I have read a gazillion of your fitness fixers (they are like peanuts, you know). I just don't get any housework done. But I will be well-armed to begin this task.
"My daughters and grandchildren are very proud. (They) said it was "awesome" and "Go Grandma Peggy!""
Join TheFun - Join in this work, and do the same for your own local world. Send in your own ideas and stories. See my Academy page - www.DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Reader Peg S. put healthy bending to work in real life, wrote in with this success story, sent a title for it, took photos and sent them with captions. Thank you Peggy for great work:
"Dr. Bookspan, your emphasis on squats and lunges in place of unhealthy bending has saved my back during long hours of snow shoveling.
"Lots of snow has fallen in far western Maryland - over 265 inches so far this season - with three back-to-back blizzards (22 feet of snow, or 673.1 centimeters).
"All that snow needed to be moved. I avoided unhealthy bending and had no back discomfort after hours of lifting snow-laden shovels.
"When I took a break, I emailed my yoga class students reminding them of the healthy movements such as squat and lunge in their snow removal efforts. They later thanked me for the reminder.
"Thank you for the information on back health!!!" Peggy S
Peggy is teaching these and other healthy movement techniques to developmentally disabled adults to train useful work skills and prevent injuries. See the first results in Functional Fitness as a Lifestyle By Mail Room Workers Peggy, her colleague Patty, Reader Paul J, and I have been working on Peg and Patty's project of using human powered devices like bicycles, to make electricity. More on this to come. Contact me if you can offer real input to design or build.
Natural Hard Exercise - Stuart's Community Health Stewardship Continues
Monday, January 18, 2010
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Stuart Wood did a magnificent thing. He took charge and started teaching my work to reduce the high rate of strain-related injuries in his community for projectsranging from school health to senior health to water harvesting in his arid city of Tucson.
Stuart writes:
"The second group of pictures in the set are from a water harvesting project run by the Water Management Group here in Tucson. We spent 5 hours digging and bending and planting. The structures make use of street run-off in a way that reduces road and water pollution while at the same time "greening" the street by providing the plants with water which will eventually shade the side-walk and street and reduce the "heat-island" created by all the asphalt and concrete that attracts and absorbs sunlight/heat.
"This was my first time volunteering with them and I didn't get a chance to teach but I did figure out how to dig and bend correctly myself. It was a work-out and felt really good. I have dug in the past for long hours with improper bending and what it a difference it makes! Soon I hope to teach the other volunteers so that in addition to being good stewards of the community they can also be good stewards of their health.
"The watershed admin is thinking the best thing for me to do would be to teach the various instructors so that they could then oversee the volunteers throughout the city.
Stuart will retrain participants' bending so that their exercise is healthy for themselves and the community
"I was looking at your website (DrBookspan.com/Academy) and seeing the part about scholarships for Native Americans and the elderly, that intrigued me a lot. There is a large reservation just south of town for the Tohono O'odahm Indians, I have been thinking about how neat it would be to teach some of them.
"Recently there has been a wellness program implemented by the City of Tucson to reduce work-related strains and injuries. They have not been exposed to your work yet but they have been exposed to stretches that are potentially damaging at worst and ineffective at best! My friend spoke kindly of me and how your blog and my advice had helped him so, when I talked to his supervisor, he was more than helpful in suggesting ways in which I might be able to teach city workers in various settings and occupations."
More work is in progress. Reports to come.
"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure about you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. As we let our light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others."
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels, links in posts, archives, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification atDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Reader Success - Using Good Bending For Shoveling Snow
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
About two feet of snow fell over the weekend in the Northeast US. I got a lovely Christmas card shortly after. I wrote back to thank the sender for remembering me.
KathyB replied,
"I not only remembered you, I've had you on my mind, as I so often do. I was thinking on Sunday, after I'd shoveled snow for 3 hours straight without hurting my back, and again yesterday when I did another half hour, that you gave me a gift that just keeps on giving, that I'll NEVER forget what you've done for me, and I thought how wonderful it must be to be able to do something like that for people.
"I wish you and Paul the very best always,
"Kathy"
Kathy - you make it all worthwhile. Kathy writes well. In fact, she is a professional mystery writer. I will ask her to tell us about some of her exciting books in the future.
In 2006 KathyB stopped 13 years of back pain using my work. She describes what she did in the comments of:
--- Read success stories and send your own. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. Subscribe free - "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification -DrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
StuartShip - How To Start Healthy Movement Programs
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Reader Stuart Wood knew that the way to healthier communities is getting up and teaching it. He wrote me several impressive notes of using my work to fix his own injuries, then for his Boss, then requesting if he could use it formally to teach community projects. I awarded him an Academy Appointment for Making Community Projects Healthy.
Stuart writes this update:
"After months of reading your blog I have become inspired to teach some of your information to whoever is willing to listen. I think the health and fitness situation in our country can benefit from your work and after trying it out and seeing results, as well as helping my friend to fix his bulging disc, I thought that the information you provide on your websites and in your books needs to reach more people. I read your blog regularly and have always loved the inspirational stories that your readers have supplied. The writings between you and "Inspirational Ivy" really helped to make me realize that I could be healthy and strong for many years to come as well as the posts of the Thai women in their 80's going strong! I think it is so unfortunate that aging and weakness are commonly believed to go hand in hand. I think the problem needs to be addressed when children are young and before they ingrain bad health and movement habits.
"My co-workers have been receptive to your ideas and they have helped me greatly in thinking about and learning how to effectively explain your technique.
Today I taught for the first time in a semi-formal setting. I had a friend who had helped fix his own back pain (bulged disc) take pictures for me. The first thing I learned is that I have much improvement to make in my own movement, I suggest (like you have said) that everyone have a friend take candid pictures of them to test their progress. The group of kids I'm teaching are at the Archer Center in Tucson, AZ. They are part of the CATCH after school program and I wanted to teach them some good movement habits to benefit them in their daily lives as well as in sports and play-time.
"I was not sure how to start or what to teach exactly and time was limited for each group (only about 20 minutes) so I went to the Functional Fitness Friday posts and the (main) stretches like the side-stretch (done well at right, using wall for straight placement) and chest stretch and lunge. It was quite the learning experience! The first group of children were between 8-10 or so and their attention spans were short and I couldn't achieve much with them in the short time. I think the best thing would be big exercises like push-ups with neutral spine and lunge and activities full of movement because they seemed most interested in those things. The second group of kids were older and they were very focused and interested. I taught them the side and chest stretches, emphasizing relaxation and making it feel good. I had them do the wall test and then stretch and see if they found a difference. Some did and some didn't. I realized that teaching these age groups would require multiple sessions broken down into different sessions and incorporated into games.
"What I realized most was how interested the instructor was, he felt the difference at once between improper and proper techniques. I think in addition to teaching children I would like to teach the instructors because they are the primary source of information for the children. I am also very inspired to keep at it myself because I want to be effective in my demonstrations and be a model student myself."
"My teaching from today is listed under "Teaching to CATCH program" which is an after school health and wellness program.
Stuart is working on two other community programs so far, including a wellness Pilot program and a water harvesting project for his dry city of Tucson, with stories to come.
He summarizes:
"I went to the Parks and Rec Aquatics Supervisor and asked if I could teach and take some pics. The city of Tucson is starting a wellness pilot program in early January because of the high rate of strain related injuries. Because my friend (the one who I helped fix back pain) talked about the good your work had done for him with the aquatics supervisor at a recent wellness meeting for city employees, he already knew a little about what I was up to and is going to work with me to incorporate your method into the wellness program to teach employees at district meetings city wide!
"I just graduated from the University of Arizona with a bachelors in anthropology. I would like to pursue graduate school but not sure in what field.
"Thanks for the graduation present, couldn't have asked for better!" ;)
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels, links in posts, archives, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail" upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Reader Gains Academy Appointment for Making Community Projects Healthy
Wednesday, December 09, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
Stuart W first contacted me with dozens of great observations and questions about fixing his injuries, tightness, and tension headaches using methods of healthy mechanics I developed. It was apparent that Stuart would soon be fixing more than himself, the bulging disc of his boss, and the aqua-aerobics class where he lifeguards.
Stuart writes:
"Oh, one more thing, I dearly want to become a certified student or teacher of AFEM. I have a dream of neighborhood groups all working together on community projects using proper mechanics to get free exercise, pain relief, and help beautify their cities. I live in Tucson and there is lots work to be done installing rainwater harvesting works!
"It a local group and they install groundworks in neighborhoods to harvest runoff water for native plants. Yes I would want to teach them to bend and dig correctly (hopefully they will be receptive) I better get to work with them first and lead by example so they know I'm for real. I could take photos for sure, both before and after instruction, possibly with little interviews of pain before and after techniques...
"I would love to travel and teach that would be great, there is an aqua-aerobics class that is full of older women who are in the class for "exercise" but they do improper stretches and I know that they could be helped, after they unsteadily get out of the pool I watch them walk around knock-kneed (and doing quadriceps stretches with lower spines overarched) and my heart goes out to them.
"I would also love to teach kids at schools proper habits because they have all this wonderful flexibility then after a few years cultural habits turn them into tight- hipped hunched teens. I think "fitness as a lifestyle" is such a commonsense and wonderful idea that much of the world adheres to and I think the "fitness" craze in the US is very destructive. So much effort going into (paying for!) bad exercises that could be redirected to health.
"I recently attended a water-harvesting workshop where we dug basins and planted trees I thought it would be difficult to properly bend all day but it was not and I even figured out how to swing a pick-axe without bending badly. I took pictures of the project as well as of the other volunteers who were digging and stooping in harmful ways so that if I get your permission to instruct them I will have before and after photos. Thanks, I hope to hear from you soon!
"Because my friend ( the one who I helped fix back pain) talked about the good your work had done for him with the aquatics supervisor at a recent wellness meeting for city employees, he already knew a little about what I was up to and is going to work with me to incorporate your method into the wellness program to teach employees at district meetings city wide! Wonderful!
"I was just thinking about how I used to pay for chiropractic work which led me nowherrrrrrre, except on a quest for good info, which led me to you!" - Stuart Wood
For his care and interest, I have given Stuart an Academy Appointment for the coming year for Community Health Projects. The idea is that his fun happy projects blossom into years of health for people and the larger community.
JoinTheFun:
We need better titles for our people who work to make things happen. They are not just coordinators or facilitators or directors, they are the brains and muscle too. What can we call these appointments?
Join Stuart in his work, and do the same for your own local world. Send in your own ideas and stories. See my Academy page - www.DrBookspan.com/Academy.
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. See if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe free, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Get more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
---
Photo of construction of a 10,000 liter rainwater harvesting and ground well water storage tank, Some Rights Reserved, by Weenhayek
Academy Awards - Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine Awards Leading World Health 2009
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
It is an honor to announce the 2009 award winners of the Academy of Functional Exercise Medicine, AFEM. I am director of the Academy, and work (unpaid) for it to be an international resource for people and communities to learn to be healthy in body and actions. Award winners were selected for representing and carrying out true world health.
This year is the first year that we will award honorees. The design for the award is by Alessandro Schiavone, Creative Director from Ravenna, Italy.
The Academy is the certification teaching branch of my sports medicine practice. My practice and the academy teach individuals and groups healthy biomechanics and movement habits for daily life instead of injury-producing habits, good food instead of disease-causing food, healthier training for athletes, healthier medical practices for the sick, no cost preventive medicine, "green" fitness, and healthier mindset.
Leading World Health - Award Winners 2009
The 14th Dalai Lama He leads by example in his message of healthy, clean, non-violent, kind life to all ages, all people, all colors, all politics. www.dalailama.com
Jackie Chan - Nickname of Chan Kong Sang Antiviolence role model in martial arts, anti smoking public service pieces, leading by example of discipline in physical training, charity work, respect for teachers, and honor as a lifestyle. www.jackiechan.com
AboveTheInfluence.com English language web site for young people of personal responsibility in drug use prevention. www.abovetheinfluence.com
Jack and Elaine Lalanne Changed their own lifestyle to health, and since the 1930's have led by example to stop junk food and to exercise no matter what your condition or age. Jack Lananne is (at this writing) in his 90's, Elaine, in her 80s. They continue to exercise daily. www.jacklalanne.com
Amnesty International World organization to raise consciousness that lack of personal safety, rights, and freedom, lack of safe drinking water and adequate nutrition for some, is lack of world health for all. www.amnesty.org
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Newly elected President of Liberia. Liberia has suffered 25 years of war, hundreds of thousands dead, lack of electricity or running water, 80% unemployment and 90% illiteracy. Grandmother of 6, imprisoned for her work for rights, she continues to put her country on a course of health and renewal. africanhistory.about.com
My Mother - Academy Lifetime Achievement Award Her students stop me in the street to say how she showed them healthy movement. Also their children, their grandchildren, and now, small great grandchildren who have also studied with her and learned that keeping moving is the way to health. Exercise Your Sense of Humor
Leading World Health 2009 - Youth Award Winners
The Youth Leading World Health award this year is shared by 16 year old Babar Ali of west Bengal India and William Kamkwamba of Malawi:
Babar Ali teaches hundreds of students in his family's backyard, where he runs classes for poor children from his village who cannot afford to go to school. news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8299780.stm
William Kamkwambabuilt a windmill from junkyard parts to bring power to his village, continuing work to provide for all Malawians, where only 2% have electricity. He left school at 14 because his family could not afford the $80-a-year tuition. He went to the library: "I was very interested when I saw the windmill could make electricity and pump water. I thought: 'That could be a defence against hunger. Maybe I should build one." He built a turbine from spare bicycle parts, a tractor fan blade and an old shock absorber, and fashioned blades from plastic pipes, flattened by being held over a fire. "I want to help my country and apply the knowledge I've learned," he says. "I feel there's lots of work to be done." news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8257153.stm
Everyone - "There's lots of work to be done" Enjoy the beauty and health you can bring.
Coming later this month - 2009 Fitness Fixer Hall of Fame
--- Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
We planted a vegetable garden this Spring in my mother's field. Hard exercise changed a rocky ruined area into beautiful food. It's getting cold now. Readers asked how the garden turned out. Here are stories:
We are harvesting. By afternoon it is dark with a large orange moon overhead lightning our work. The hard work keeps us warm.
When we first cleared the area, we filled the wheelbarrow with concrete slabs, pried and dug from the patch. Paul bent to grasp the wooden handles. When he rose lifting the handles, the barrow was so heavy that both handles snapped, scattering everything. Paul is strong.
We sawed and attached new handles. Much good squatting, bending, rising, lifting, and reloading. Paul bent well (upper body fairly upright, knees bent over heels). At almost seven feet tall, he needed to bend low. When he rose, the wheelbarrow handles were so high in the air, the front of the barrow tipped forward so far that contents spilled everywhere.
Hoeing a field, breaking concrete, digging stumps and rocks, bending and reaching, lifting right, hauling bales of compost, and all the rest that gardening can involve, is more exercise than you can get in a gym. It combines hard natural movement using much of the body at once to give muscular and cardiovascular exercise. To pull weeds, you squat well, both heels down, loosen roots with a digging stick, grasp weeds at the roots, rise pulling slowly. Over and over. Rise and bend. Garden prayer.
We were amused that more grew outside than inside the garden. Outside, tall weedy grasses grew everywhere. Inside, small seedlings grew into low herbs and vegetables. Deer and other animals didn't eat our garden. We had built a 6-foot fence around it, but deer can easily jump that height, and small burrowing groundhogs and rabbits can wiggle through or under. What we had done is leave them a bushy meadow near the garden area, with plenty of food and hiding places. They didn't need to bother the garden. The municipality cited my mother for a violation of some kind for not mowing her "lawn." Sorry Mom! We paid it for her.
Large slabs of concrete lay buried, inches below the surface of much of the area we wanted to plant. We needed to break and remove them. I managed to lift Paul's huge sledgehammer, swinging it with both hands over my head. It came down on the slab and bounced. I tried a wider stronger swing. It was heavier to swing than it looked. It bounced off the concrete each time. I handed it to Paul. He swung it quickly with one arm, splintering the slab. We dug the dozens of new football-sized pieces and made a rock border for the flowers nearby.
We gardened without pesticides or chemicals. We hauled hundreds of pounds of compost that the municipality gives away free at the recycling centers. Thank you recycling center for all the good exercise, compost, and manure. Plants grew healthy and didn't need chemicals to fight insects. They could fight them from their own internal health - people can do the same much of the time from simple good health practices. Plants manufacture their own anti-inflammatories against disease. That is part of why eating vegetables and fruit is good for your own health against inflammation.
The work it took to eak out a few plates of vegetables for each meal reminded us of subsistence farmers - how worrisome it is to have to rely on what you can scratch out of your own soil. If we had to last the winter on what we grew, it would be a long thin winter. Much of the world does not sit around indulgently with fast food in the refrigerator. Many do not have refrigerators. Before spending money on junk food, then complaining you are too heavy, think. Save the money. Improve your health. Refraining from eating does not make anyone fat.
The tomatoes grew tall and long. They grew so much that we could not find the strawberries.
We are saving the seeds from the sweetest cantaloupe, the largest cabbages, and the most wonderful purple peppers and white eggplants for next year.
The wonderful Thai bamboo hoes we brought back with us have shrunk in our colder dryer climate, loosening the heavy metal shovel-heads so they tilt sideways with each overhead swing. We have been fixing them, then going back to hoeing. The ground will soon freeze. Hoeing is more upper back strengthening and work than anything in a gym, even more than all the pushups and handstands that I love. Bend knees, upper back upright, breathe in, swing up, breathe out, swing down. Over and over.
Saturday night was Halloween. The World Series was playing. Paul didn't want to disappoint me by not going out to see the fun going on for Halloween in the city, and would never have said anything. I put on a costume and sat with him to watch the game. It was a great evening. The next day I put on a scarecrow costume and we worked in the garden.
We were just two city kids, who grew up in urban slums. I didn't know about gardening, but we read, worked, learned from mistakes, and sweated under the hot sun and the cold evening air.
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Before asking questions, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, and The Fitness Fixer Index. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class spaces for personal feedback. Top students may apply for certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. Learn more in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
For weightlifters who enjoy Olympic lifts, rows, cable cross-overs, curls, and all the other good stuff with endless heavy weight, you may like growing vegetables.
We have been tilling a vegetable garden from a rocky field at my Mom's. Seems her home was built on landfill. We had to sledge-hammer and pry concrete slabs - prodigious squatting, levering, clean-and-jerking, and hundred pound medicine ball throws over the just-built garden fence into a pile. Then lifting and hauling away the pile.
Carrying sand, earth, rocks, weed bales, tree branches as heavy as you can lift, over uneven rocky hilly earth back and forth from the truck, the field, and the new compost pile a hundred feet away for hours is functional weightlifting. Hours of repetition-maximum (RM) hoeing gives a harder abdominal, arm, and gluteal workout than it looks.
Healthline software still isn't uploading my own photos. At left above, a photo of a statue with too much lumbar curve/hyperlordosis to be healthy, but in general doing functional weightlifting. Use your muscles to prevent overarching like this when you swing a sledge, a kettlebell, or other weight. For Fitness Fixer posts on neutral spine and hyperlordosis, click the photo or here.
Over the winter while visiting home in Asia, my husband Paul and I went to a workman's shop. The store-keeps remembered us and smiled. The first time we went there years ago, they were so sure we were lost tourists, they took our shoulder and gestured at a restaurant. In the best Thai I could manage, I explained that Paul is a carpenter, has done forge metal work, and loves old-world tools, strong bamboo handles, and hand-hammered metal. They smile each year we return. In the US, we live in a crowded urban area with minimal bricked exterior in deep shade from surrounding buildings. Vegetable gardens don't grow. Paul wanted to plant my Mother's field - a brambled overgrown area.
In the Thai tool store, I explained with the words I knew that Paul was looking for a specific Thai tool, shaped like a backward shovel, that you use in overhead action, like a mattock (flat bladed pick).
Quickly, excitedly, word went from the store-keep, to her friend in the next shop, to the next, and next:
"Man who good to Mother of wife!"
The coconut telegraph was happy. We bought two heavy tools, called "job" in Thai. Both had thick lovely bamboo handles. One was giant sized for Paul, the other for me. Fun getting them through flights and US customs.
Mom had asked a local man what it would take to clear her field, and he told her a blowtorch, a machine plow, three men, and a week. Paul and I cleared it in one day in early April with a digging stick and the Thai hoe-shovels. The ground was half frozen. Six, or so hours massive exertion - first clearing brush and tall grasses, then hours of half-squats to seize handfuls of stalks, standing back up to pull them with grip strength. Then excavating slabs of concrete and discarded materials with a pry bar, the Thai digging tools, and bare armed weight lifting.
The packs of seeds we had scattered in assorted flowerpots, pans, shoeboxes, and containers sprouted over just a week into tiny plants - broccoli, cabbage, pea, hot and sweet peppers, strawberries, eggplants, and assorted spices. We have been learning about complementary planting - plants, just like people, who are better and healthier with specific other kinds of plants so that chemical fertilizer isn't needed. We are learning about plants that repel pests, instead of using insecticides.
We got a rain barrel to reduce water bills. We attached an old broken hose. The holes made it a natural soaker hose. We poked more holes and arranged it around the garden for drip irrigation. We don't know the water quality of either the rain or from the tap. We will send six dollars and a soil sample to an agricultural university for testing. Maybe other toxic things are in that landfill that we don't want the vegetables absorbing. Maybe commercial food factories have the same problem. Many things to learn.
Weeks pass squatting and sitting well to plant seedlings, still hitting buried rubble. More lifting and hauling. Each night we are too tired to worry or think anything bad. We are barely were able to lift hands and feet. I consider what people for thousands of years have been doing just for subsistence farming, day after day, year after year. I thought of Fitness Fixer success story Ivy and her story - Farm Work, Lifestyle Exercise, and Preventing Overuse Pain.
We thought we planted everything, then found a half pack of pea seeds left. Paul mentioned we didn't have one more container for them. I laughed, "we didn't have a pot to pea in."
Ideas:
If you're a tough vital strong person, or want to be, dig a garden.
If you don't have anywhere to dig one, hook up with some nice elder who wants one, a community group, Habitat for Humanity, or someone who doesn't want to exercise like this but still wants a garden.
Contact your community to see about organizing parents and children out in sunshine for functional exercise doing good for all.
If you only want one hour a day of hard total body fat burning muscle building exercise, only plant a small vegetable garden.
No need to buy fancy tools, use what's handy.
If you don't want to exercise so hard, try a single pack of seeds in some potting soil in almost any container on a sunny windowsill. A chance to get the vegetables you like.
Fancy individual peat pots and seed starters aren't essential; a simple pack of seeds can get you a pan full of fragrant oregano, said to be very healthful. It gives a gasp of wonder (to me) when seedlings actually sprout.
Before the 2008 election, a video appeared by Roger Doiron (I don't know him, just liked the video). He asked the next President to grow a garden. It did come true. Here is his viewpoint of getting your own garden started, showing various bending, occasionally good:
Read success stories of these methods and send your own. Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. Before asking more, see if your answers are already here by clicking labels under posts, links in posts, archives at right, or in the Fitness Fixer Index.
Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books. Get certified - DrBookspan.com/Academy.
Spring Garden is Fitness Health Goodness as a Lifestyle
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
United States First Lady Michelle Obama led the way to dig and sow a vegetable garden on the south lawn of the White House. Local primary school (elementary school) students helped, and are scheduled to continue sharing the work and knowledge and benefits of planting, weeding, caring for, and harvesting vegetables and herbs for the White House kitchen.
The first lady is developing programs to promote healthy eating for American families. In an interview, she stated, "My hope is that through children, they will begin to educate their families and that will, in turn, begin to educate our communities… Its most important role, will be to educate children about healthful, locally grown fruit and vegetables at a time when obesity and diabetes have become a national concern."
Plans involve the entire First Family. President Barack Obama is scheduled to help weed and tend the garden.
In the 1990's US President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Clinton tended a rooftop vegetable garden.
In 1943, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt planted a Victory Garden in front of the White House. (In the 1920s she was also prominent in the movement to allow women to vote in US elections.) Her White House war effort Victory Garden inspired millions. By 1945, 40 percent of produce in the US was grown at home.
Read about teaching neighborhood children self-respect instead of vandalizing, and to reap what they sow, and share what they harvest for healthier neighborhoods - Lifestyle Fitness for Kids Through Gardening
For more Fitness Fixer on each topic, click labels gardening and green fitness under this post. The label children gives fitness of all kinds for children.
Questions come in by the hundreds. See if your answers are already here - click Fitness Fixer labels, links, archives, andIndex. For personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Limited Class space for personal feedback. Top students may earn certification throughDrBookspan.com/Academy. More fun in Dr. Bookspan's Books.
Autumn Yard Work - Limiting the Person Instead of the Injury Again?
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
Jolie Bookspan, M.Ed, PhD, FAWM
A Medline article on autumn yard and housework gives a list from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, which they say will reduce injuries. Their list includes doing less, lifting lighter loads, not lifting overhead, or using turning action to the side.
The Orthopaedic Surgeons' list is another case of limiting the patient to limit the pain.
It is unfortunate to instruct patients to do less physical activity. It is no mystery that restricting activity reduces strength, flexibility, and balance. When patients become tight and weak, they are next sent to physical therapy to lift weights and stretch. Instead, go outside. Get free exercise, get stronger, increase balance, have some fun instead of being held back.
It is not a mystery that if you spend an afternoon bent wrong over a rake, lifting wrong, and hunching your shoulders, you will be achy. Have fun doing yard work in the fresh air in healthy, commonsense ways:
Carry Heavy Leaf Bags - check if you lean backward to hold and carry loads. Instead of leaning, which pinches the lower spine, stand upright, use neutral spine - Prevent Back Surgery
You Don't Need Expensive Ergonomic Rakes And Tools Or Fancy Padding. The majority of the world does far heavier work with far less. Bend right (links above) instead of bending over. To prevent hand irritation and blisters, don't clench your grip and be willing to toughen your hands and skin. Being too delicate means fragile skin. The soil has many substances beneficial to health and disease reduction, some documented to reduce depression. Post on this to come. Don't be too afraid to get dirty.
Doing less is a flawed approach to preventing injury in the short term, and over the long run, will undermine your health and abilities. Use your brain for healthy, fun ways to keep doing more of your favorite activities.
"You're never too old to become younger" -Mae West
--- Questions come in by the hundreds. I make posts from fun ones. See if your answers are already here by clicking links and archives and the Fitness Fixer Index. Read success stories of these methods and send your own. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy. ---
"Gardening requires lots of water - most of it in the form of perspiration." ~ Lou Erickson
Involve children in gardening at any level. Getting outside to dig, bend, stretch, think, and create in the fresh air is health as a lifestyle - improving physical skills, knowledge, confidence, cooperation, discipline, caretaking, and purposeful activity.
"What this country needs is dirtier fingernails and cleaner minds." ~ Will Rogers
A few weekends ago, the Philadelphia City Gardens Contest ran final judging. Husband Paul and I are judges. I don't know much about horticulture, but Paul does, and I am good at holding the clipboard and getting dirty.
Each judging team travels to gardens all over the city, grouped according to garden purpose. There might be community vegetable gardens in the city's most blighted areas, flower gardens grouped according to size, or mixed use individual or group gardens. Gardens are judged for many points including health and variety of plants, whether natural or inventive bug and weed control is used, and interesting use of materials. In past years we visited a garden in one of the most difficult areas of the city, which had made neat container gardens from tires dumped in the area. Another garden gleaned trash from the street to help clean the neighborhood, including a bathtub and vacuum cleaner, reborn in the garden with painted smiles, streaming vines of flowers, posed like characters at a tea party. We met 90-year-old ladies who tended their garden in dresses and church hats, teaching neighborhood children self-respect instead of vandalizing, and to reap what they sow, and share what they harvest for healthier neighborhoods.
"Wisdom is oftentimes nearer when we stoop than when we soar." ~ William Wordsworth
Last year we judged the city's Children's Community Gardens. Here are some of the stories to give ideas and inspiration for yourself or community:
Miss Vanoka Morris Smith and the kids of the Blaine School Strawberry Mansion were a shining example of showing kids how to be fit in body and mind, with teamwork and love. There were no treadmills or artificial exercise. All the kids involved got real fitness as a lifestyle. These inner city kids were well-behaved, disciplined, and educated. Each knew every plant, and information about them. The all-organic garden used heirloom seeds, vegetables, pollination by bees and butterflies, rotating beds to promote soil health, and complementary plantings to combat harmful bugs. They painted garden scenes on plant beds, picnic tables, and the tool shed. They learned discipline and got exercise and dignity by keeping all the areas clean.
"The highest reward for a person's toil is not what they get for it, but what they become by it." ~ John Ruskin
At the Urban Nutrition Initiative in West Philadelphia, Debbie Harris's high school students created a health and life-enhancing school-wide program of cooking and nutrition that they call "personal and social change through food." Students get to keep the proceeds from their Farmer's Market, learn healthy social structure, get a high amount of functional physical activity, and the educational message that "Vegetables are cool."
"The philosopher who said that work well done never needs doing over never weeded a garden." ~ Ray D. Everson
St Paul's Church on Stenton Avenue began reclaiming a garden from a neglected site to encourage children to have reflection and contemplation outdoors. The garden joins their columbarium (low wall containing parishioners ashes), along with physical activity – a "prayground." They plan to incorporate garden plants and themes with their Sunday school teachings: kids will plant their prayers, and they will build small climbing apparatus with 'eight fruits of the spirit' on each of the eight rungs. Like life, their garden space is a work in progress.
"There can be no other occupation like gardening in which, if you were to creep up behind someone at their work, you would find them smiling." ~ Mirabel Osler
At the Beacon Summer Program at St. Sulzberger School, Crystal Martin teaches 8th graders botany using the garden and microscopes to see leaves and bugs. Built in a flood prone area, the garden is divided into three distinct "watershed" systems - country, suburban, and city - with different drainage systems. The different drainage clearly teaches the effect on the garden – three distinct garden looks and conditions result. Corresponding wall murals teach the crucial message of balancing need for water and drainage.
"Gardening and laughing are two of the best things in life you can do to promote good health and a sense of well being." ~ David Hobson, The Mad Gardener
Get inspired and think how you might like to get started. Young children can learn responsibility by having their own area near your shared area. Babies can sit with you and play in the dirt. On a small level, children can start with sprouting mung beans on a plate (posts to come will show how) and plant a windowsill of seasoning herbs for healthier cooking. Older children can grow healthful chemical-free food and flowers for the table and instead of unhealthy offerings at bake sales. They can learn that good posture during movement is healthy, natural, and good exercise. Get library books on composting, small building projects, organic gardening, and beautiful use of space. Learn the simple elements of a Japanese rock garden or Zen garden, called karesansui. Use healthy bending with one foot in front of the other (how to lunge) and feet side by side (how to half-squat and why it is great). Breathe. Smile.
"We plant seeds that will flower as results in our lives, so best to remove the weeds of anger, avarice, envy and doubt, that peace and abundance may manifest for all." ~ Dorothy Day
--- Read and contribute your own success stories of these methods. 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. For answers to personal medical questions - Replies to Medical Questions. Subscribe to The Fitness Fixer, free. Click "updates via e-mail"(under trumpet) upper right. See Dr. Bookspan's Books, take a Class, get certifiedDrBookspan.com/Academy.
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Urban site before reclaiming photo 1 by jared CityGarden 2 photo by stu_spivack CityGarden 3 photo by davidsilver
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