Category Archives: Physical Health

Useful and up to date information on physical health, fitness, and activities that may be of interest to you.

Soft Sand Makes For Hard Running

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Sayulita, Mexico.
Running, and walking, in the soft sand can greatly improve your ankle and hip stability. Begin with short efforts though! The increase in the activation of the stabilizing muscles can be quite high, and quickly result in an overuse injury if you are not careful. Allow your muscles time to adapt to the new stresses by adding some walking, or short runs, in the sand. Mix these sessions in a bit each week and pay close attention to any new tightness or fatigue in the muscles around the ankles and hips. Enjoy!

Teaching Yoga and Pilates Can Hurt!

Instructors of Yoga and Pilates have a much greater risk of injury than their students. Instructors have learned to be aware of the limitations and difficulties of their students, but many may not recognize their own risk of injury. The problem lies, not in their ability but, in their risk of overuse.
Teaching schedules for many instructors can be as heavy as six hours per day. The demands of teaching can require much more muscular strength, and endurance, than would normaly be required in an individual’s daily personal practice.
Do to these teaching specific demands, I suggest that Instructors add additional strength and conditioning exercises at least twice a week. These additional workouts are for general strength and muscular endurance conditioning, to support the sometimes excessive physical demands of a Professional Instructor. As we all know, when your living depends on your physical ability to finish the job, many times we go beyond what is best for us individually!
Maintain your body and it will keep on working for you!

Indoor Mountain Hiking?

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As Kuwait has no real elevations, we decided to try indoor trekking! We happened upon a great set of stairs inside the Hotel Missoni this morning. Stepping into the stairwell, Which begins on the third floor, we looked upward into the distance. Far above, the peak of our destination was eighteen floors away. When it is 46 degrees C outside, this air conditioned indoor hike looks pretty inviting.
It was a great opportunity to mix up the routine, with some stair hops, sprints, stop by the gym for a short weight training session, then returning to the indoor mountain for one last summit attempt! Looks like this will be our hiking scene until our our return to Bali.

World Masters Champ!

Earlier in 2011:
“I’m keeping to train for Masters World Championship which will take place in Poland in September. Thank you very much for the training program you have recommended to me. It helps me a lot.”
Igor Anisimov, Moscow, Russia
Update September 2011:
Two, first place finishes at the World Rowing Masters Regatta in Poznan’, Poland by Igor Anisimov and Team Dynamo Moscow! Congratulations! 

Igor Anisimov (front) and team mate Gena Astakhov

New Lease On Life

I have recently been providing Anti-aging Bodywork sessions here at the Sanctuary with wonderful results. It began with a client request to “Just go over everything and make it work better”. They had no specific complaint, but just wanted to see what I might find and how it felt. We scheduled a single one hour bodywork session, and went to work. At the end of the hour I had found quite a few restricted areas in the neck and one shoulder, which were treated and restored to normal motion, before we ran out of time. The next day the client told me, the improvement and feeling of freedom was so amazing that they scheduled five consecutive days of 2 hour sessions. By the end of that week the news was even better, “I feel 20 years younger, and probably move better than I did back then”! They told me the Yoga, Pilates, and exercise classes where so much easier after the first couple sessions. By the time it was time for them to return home, they had plans for a much more active lifestyle, which they had not been able to live due to poor agility and “just feeling old”.  The sessions changed their idea of what they could do, and they were “ready to get back into it.”

I am seeing great results, with what I now call Intuitive Bodywork Sessions, in both physical improvements and also a greatly increased positive attitude about what clients consider possible in their lives. Most have gone from feeling like they are getting old, to realizing that they can still do almost everything and even start improving again! What a treat to to see, I love my work!

Finding Sanctuary

Fresh ginger drying at Sanctuary Spa

We have found peace and relaxation at Six Senses Sanctuary. A beautiful place to rejuvenate, both physically and mentally. The focus here is on your health and wellness. The spa provides relaxing treatments that help lift the weight of life’s daily stresses from your shoulders. Wellness activities such as fitness classes, yoga, and meditation are available daily.

Two restaurants provide exceptional cuisine that is delicious and happens to be really good for you as well! Many of the salad, soup and main meal ingredients are picked fresh, from the extensive organic gardens within the resort. Many lunch and dessert items are made from raw foods and taste oh so good.

We hope to meet up with old friends here, and meet new friends on their way to a healthier lifestyle. Come join us.

Variety, The Spice Of Life!

Outdoor Workouts Stimulate The Senses

Does your interest wane at times in getting yourself to workout? Adding variety to your workouts can be helpful in keeping your interest during a regular exercise schedule.

Make an effort to get outside as much as possible for your workouts. Recent research has indicated this can provide a sense of revitalization, mental clarity, and positive engagement, all of which reinforce your commitment to fitness. The use of benches, steps, slopes, uneven terrain, and unstable surfaces can add variety and fun to your workouts, while continuing to move you toward your fitness goals. The ever-changing outdoor environment can also open your eyes to new ways or approaches in exercise that can be transfered to your gym workouts.

Train smart, play hard

Vacation For Health

Soneva Gili, Maldives

We all look forward to that next peaceful getaway after months of work at the office. Dreaming of a few days of mindless relaxation to give the head a rest. That two week vacation may provide you with long term health benefits as well.

Living and operating in the constant go, go, go of today’s business environment can sensitize our bodies to stress. Our bodies can slowly be conditioned to respond to normal interactions, as if they were stressful situations. When this happens, even a simple conversation at home can trigger a stress induced response, like becoming angry or frustrated by some small delay or irregularity from what you expected. We lose our reserve.

A quiet two or three week vacation, that allows you to set aside your daily responsibilities, can help normalize your body’s stress response. We can also be reminded of the current treasures in our lives by slowing down to look around us. As Albert Schweitzer once said “In hopes of reaching the moon men fail to see the flowers blossoming at their feet”.

Remember, “It’s All About Results” !

Time and again I hear people talk about how they are trying a new exercise program. When I ask them “what made you change from your previous one?”, they usually say “This one is supposed to be better”.

The new, better program is usually fairly complicated and has varied schedules and mixes of exercises to supposedly address all sorts of detailed training specifics. They are led to believe that every detail is so important, that if you miss even one, your training may be hindered dramatically. The stress of this, especially after missing a workout or two due to life getting in the way, eventually leads them to give up or find the next new and improved version.

In my mind exercise is fairly simple, doesn’t take a tremendous amount of time, and when I miss a workout due to life I am thankful for the added recovery day. Because I know that the most difficult thing in an exercise program is the resting! We are all tempted to do a little more because it may add some positive benefit, but we are never tempted to do a little less for the same benefit. This is due to the lack of easily available quality information.

Here is one of the best articles I have seen stating the scientific validation of exercise protocols for strength and conditioning.  “Strength Training Methods And The Work Of Arthur Jones” in the Journal of American Exercise Physiologists (ASEP) from 2004.

I hope this helps a few folks develop a long term quality fitness program that fits your lifestyle and schedule.

Train Smart, Play Hard!

Fitness In Paradise

Andreas, practicing the "Crab Walk". Harder than it looks!

Enjoying a fun and dynamic outdoor paradise workout has benefits beyond the physical.  Starting your vacation day with an invigorating workout gets you a double shot, of fitness and relaxation. In addition to the everyday benefit of continued fitness, that vacation morning shot of endorphins can leave you with a heightened sense of awareness and contentment. All the better for your busy snorkel, sailing, sun, and spa schedule!