Back to very basics

Time for a basic workout that does a lot. Try these, up downs, nice and simple. start off slow, build up, 10s a good number if not injured

Take care,

Miles

Hulahoop!

Hulahoop, hoolahoop, however you want to spell it, is a very challenging, rewarding and fun workout. No doubt you've given it a whirl (pun intended) at some stage in your life, so you understand the basics.

I'm not sure about elsewhere but in Thailand it is a popular fitness activity, especially with girls. You can get hoops in various sizes and weights. My wife has two of the big heavy ones about 2 inches in diameter and quarter filled with fluid. They are quite difficult for me and I am pooped after about 5 minutes!! She does it for 30 minutes while playing Soduku on her phone.

I think she is fitter than I am right now!! She's only been doing it for a week and I am pretty sure she is looking fitter and happier already. Plus I like the way she moves while doing it!!

We picked hers up for around $12 each. There's a security guard where we live who made one from 2 inch polyurethane irrigation pipe and duct tape, probably cost her a smile. She uses that daily.

I like it, the girls like it, what's not to like about hula hooping?

Back to Work

Rebuild workout this morning after 2 months off. Slowly rehabbing myself. Back was feeling like I'd broken it (again) figured out this was because I was sitting on my ass too long doing jack shit. My shoulder took it's own sweet time healing, it's still not right but I can do pressups without pain now, still got a chesty throaty infectiony thingy going on, I think that's more of a smog issue than anything wrong with the body, should see the colour of some of the lung goobers!!

Sorry, you probably didn't really need that mental image scarring you LOL!

Anyway, back to the workout, Range Of Motion stretching, which is moving your bits as far as you can eg arm circles, knee lifts etc. I'm up to a reasonable number without discomfort and feeling good so I'm happy with that progress. Then we did a nice 20 flight stair climb at a easy pace, we had to do an extra 6 to the 20th floor because someone (me) dismissed the idea of checking to see if the stairwell door was unlocked. Mai pen rai (not to worry).

The key to working out after an injury is to ease back into it slowly. IE quit while you're ahead, when you feel good and think you can push yourself to do more, that's when to stop and finish up with some nice slow stretching. Slowly does it so you don't re injure yourself and destroy all that patient waiting you have put into it.

Take care,

Miles

Muscle ups

Recovering From Injury, Part 4

Officer’s workout

· Lie on back on bed

· Bend knees to 90 deg

· Find Transverse Abdominous (TA)

o Place fingers on an imaginary line drawn between the hips in line with the belly button. Place your fingers on the lower abs on this line. Find the hip bones, bring the fingers a couple of fingers in and down. Now drawn in your belly button slightly as though you have an itchy drawstring. You should feel a muscle tightening under your fingertips. This is your TA. The TA actually is a corset muscle that runs all around your core, but this is the closest it attaches to anything you can feel and is therefore the easiest to find here.

Breathe normally, don't tense.

Make sure you only suck in your lower abs only, just the belly button apart otherwise the obliques and rectus abdominals become activated, your whole belly will become hard. We want to isolate only the TA. The rest of the abs and core will be brought into play later in the workout.

So, once you have found the TA just play around with it, testing various contractions and finding the lightest one you can feel. This light contraction is the one we are after. Practice doing five for starters just to get the hang of it. It may not seem a lot to start with but because you don’t use it that often it will fatigue very quickly and possibly set you up for further injury if you push it too hard. Do five reps a day every third day for the first week, just of finding the TA and contracting the muscle without recruiting the obliques or RAs into it, focus solely on getting that minor contraction in the TA next to the hips.

This exercise is very important as it will strengthen your core, giving you greater strength, power and flexibility in the long run. Taking it easy for starters ensures you do not suffer and injury thus putting you out of action for longer than if you just stick with it.

Strengthening this particular area of the core WILL improve your kicks and general strength phenomenally. Just remember when starting ANY exercise, take is slow for starters regardless of how good it feels. Pride come before a Fall, soflty soflty catchy monkey. Slow is steady, steady makes fast.

More to follow, take care,

Miles

Special Thanks to Rebecca and the staff at Sports Med NQ.

Recovering From Injury, Part 3

Whatever you do, go slow.

Todd shows a good way to build up shoulder and basic core strength and why it's important;

Nausea, stress and diahorrea

Just found out that the above can be treated with some effect by ginger. Candies, food, Ginger tea, or the Famous Bundaberg Ginger Beer.

Apparently it settles an upset stomach and cures motion sickness the most often, it's also good for some morning sickness and chemo caused nausea. Reducing the length and level of sickness felt. It also reduces the effect of some types of eye of needle runny butt.

It works on stress by inhibiting the manufacture of serotonin, the major factor inside the body contributing to the feeling of stress. ( I recommend bag work for the reduction of external bodily stressors!). Due to our Zero Aggression Policy we cannot recommend the beating of people in order to reduce their affect on your stress and in fact we consider that to only make bigger problems and lead to greater stress. Drink some ginger beer instead. Makes ya feel better and tastes good!!

More reading;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ginger

http://health.howstuffworks.com/wellness/natural-medicine/herbal-remedies/medical-uses-for-ginger-ga.htm

http://www.umm.edu/altmed/articles/ginger-000246.htm

And of course it is entirely natural and nutritious. Not recommended for young kids or arthritis. Check the interactions with other drugs and countersigns eg ulcers, before taking.

This information should not be construed as advice, merely as an item of interest for you to make further research into and make a subsequently higher informed choice. IE I am NOT responsible for stupid people doing stupid things, I do try my best to avoid them.

Take care,

Miles