Trainee - Lachy Adamson

Hey, my name is Lachy Adamson.

I am currently in year 12 at Iona College. Sports I participate in are Rugby, Sailing and I am completing my Certificate III in Fitness at Fitnance located at East Brisbane.

The appeal of this course was brought on by a desire to further my knowledge of the human anatomy, the completion of the Cert III would also open doorways into the health and fitness industry.

Maintaining your weight over xmas

At Christmas time often our healthy diets and lifestyles are pushed aside in favour of calorie dense foods, alcohol and limited exercise. If you’ve been focusing on losing weight for months, it would be a shame to throw it all away and ruin your hard work in a short space of time. Think how good you would feel after Christmas if you maintained your current weight and level of fitness.

It is important to adapt an ongoing mindset of eating well out of respect for your body and not punishing yourself.

Here are a few tips to help maintain your weight and healthy eating mindset over Christmas:

1. Eat until you feel full but not sickly stuffed.
   
2. The first 3 mouthfuls always taste the best, after that the taste doesn't improve so try having just 3 bites of that Christmas cake and putting the rest away for another day
3. Exercise in the morning, before the Christmas party. Exercising first thing in the morning will ensure you don't get distracted by events during the day and miss your workout.
4. Exercise on Christmas day! Wake up early and go for a walk or run around the block before the festivities begin.
5. Include fruit or salad with every main meal to reduce the calorie content. This season offers a huge variety of yummy fruit and vegetables such as mangoes, cherries, apricots, plums, asian greens, capsicum, cucumbers, mushrooms, peas, tomatoes and many more.
   
6. Serve yourself up a piece of meat no bigger than the size of your palm then fill your plate with salad. Christmas lunch is often a buffet full of various types of meat but sticking to salad and no more meat than what would easily fit in the palm of your hand will make a huge difference to the calorie content of the meal.
7. Eat dinner before going to that party. When at a function, the canapes are often full of calorie dense foods. Eating a small meal before you go will minimise hunger meaning you won't feel like you need to go back to that platter.
8. Don't eat unless you are sitting down with food on a plate. Nibbling can add huge amounts of calories to your daily intake without you even realizing. By all means eat left overs, but put them on a plate and enjoy them as a set meal. Sit down and savour each mouthful.
9. Lastly, just because its Christmas day doesn't mean you have to try everything on the table. Remember there will be left overs so you can always try what you missed on boxing day.

This time of year should be a celebration time, so make sure you enjoy yourself. By following a few simple rules you can minimise the calories you consume but not have to miss out completely.

The Unique Power of Exercise for Diabetics

We all know exercise is good for us. It increases our longevity and quality of life through increasing our cardiovascular fitness, muscular strength and power and psychological factors. Despite these factors, it is also particularly beneficial for diabetic sufferers.
In diabetes, the hormone insulin does not function as it should. In a healthy person, after consuming food, insulin is released from the pancreas and opens passageways in cells to allow glucose (energy) to flow in from the blood stream. When insulin is not working properly, this glucose builds up in the blood and cannot get into the cells. We get our energy from the glucose that goes into the cells; so when it can’t get in we feel hungry and without much energy. This sugar is then filtered out through our body in excess urine production making us feel thirsty and dehydrated.
Administration of intramuscular/subcutaneous insulin or oral hypoglycaemics assists in reducing the high blood sugar levels and increase movement of glucose into the cells. But what if there was a way to allow for movement of energy into cells without the need of these drugs?
Exercise is in fact the key. Whilst it should not completely replace these drugs, it serves the same very important role as these medications. It allows for transportation of glucose (energy) into the cells out of the bloodstream without the use of insulin.
In diabetes, exercise takes up the slack and takes over from the faulty insulin and unlocks the passageways in the cells for the glucose to travel through out of the bloodstream. This effect lasts above and beyond the duration of the exercise session. Studies have shown improved glucose transportation into the cells for up to 24-48 hours post exercise.
Thus, exercise is sparing the release of insulin, increasing usable energy supplies and decreasing signs and symptoms of low energy and dehydration. This is in addition to all the additional benefits exercise provides for healthy people. To date, studies have shown exercise is the preferred and most effective treatment method for diabetes.

Equipment for Sale

Need some fitness equipment to get your home gym started?

1. Nautilus Machine: 6 months old, only been used twice. Selling for $300

2. Treadmill: 6 months old, barely used. Selling for $300

3. Exercise bike: 3 yrs old, barely used. Selling for $200

All items are in excellent condition, near new.

Contact Julie on 0439 714 014 or (07) 3890 5812.
downsjulie@hotmail.com

Is exercising at night really so bad?

Interesting article on exercising at night.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8986839/ns/health-fitness/

Exercise as a part of rehabilitation of ankle sprains

For many years the medical world has worked on the principle that “Rest is Best” when it comes to injuries. This philosophy does hold merit for some conditions (e.g. broken bones); however there is a new way of thinking when it comes to rehabilitation of soft tissue injuries.

The idea of exercising to get over an injury may be foreign to many people but it is gaining more credit as studies have shown it to be the most effective method in returning an athlete to training. The term exercise when linked with rehabilitation includes strength training, stretching, proprioceptive and balance training, power training and sport specific exercises.

Ankle sprains are among the most common sporting injuries estimated as accounting for up to 30% of all sporting injuries. They also have an extremely high occurrence rate with some experts estimating around 70%. Historically, the treatment for ankle sprains has been to rest, ice, compress and elevate (RICE) with no weight being taken through the foot for days if not weeks, until the ankle has become relatively pain free. The RICE principle is still extremely important, especially during the initial stages post-injury. The immediate aim must be to minimise swelling. Several recent articles have suggested however that physical therapy applied during the first few days post-injury improves return-to-sport time in athletes significantly. Physical therapy involves putting the ankle through its range of motion under the guidance of a health professional. Not only did the athletes who received physical therapy return to sport quicker, they also reported decreased levels of pain at set intervals post-injury when compared with those athletes who simply rested.

So what forms of exercise should be taken into consideration when rehabilitating a sprained ankle? Firstly, the ankles natural range of motion (ROM) must be restored. This is done by either actively (the patient does it themselves) or passively (someone does it for them) putting the injured ankle through that ROM. This is what physiotherapists are for. Once ROM has begun to be restored, the ankle must redevelop strength and proprioception (awareness of where the body is in space). Ligaments in the ankle are used as sensors to tell the body about its position in relation to the ground surface. When the ligaments are stretched or injured this is often lost or becomes incorrect. Therefore exercises like wobble-boards and even simply single leg balance become crucial in the rehabilitation process. Before the athlete returns to sport it is essential that sport specific exercises have been performed to ensure the athlete is fit and able to compete/train at their full potential. Sport specific activities include agility sessions where the athlete must shift their weight from side to side at pace.

So next time you sprain you ankle follow the RICE principle initially to try and minimise the inflammation however as soon as possible try and start moving your ankle to maintain its range of motion. Even something as simple as writing the alphabet in the air with your foot will go a long way to minimising your rehabilitation time.

Eiff MP, Smith AT, Smith GE. Early mobilization versus immobilization in the treatment of lateral ankle sprains. Am J Sports Med. 1994;22;83-88

Fitness Myth: Sweating means calorie loss

Many people believe that an increased amount of sweat corresponds with an increased physical activity level, and an increased rate of calorie loss. A good workout is often associated with a shirt covered in sweat, as well as excessive body odour and a red face. However, all of these factors are independent of the use of calories.

When the body sweats, it is evaporating water off the surface of the skin in order to cool the body. This is why the body sweats more during hot days rather than cool ones. In theory, it is possible to perform an entire exercise session without sweating if the conditions are cool enough. It is also possible to completely drench a shirt with sweat without performing any exercise should the conditions be hot enough.

When performing exercise, it is vital to ensure that one doesn’t forgo their normal routines and goals in order to facilitate the heat or cool. While it can be harder to train in hot conditions, as long as one keeps hydrated throughout the session it is possible to maintain the high standards required to continue improving.

Exercising in Winter

Everyone has a reason to exercise in summer. However, once winter rolls around, motivation levels tend to match the temperature decline. Instead of setting the alarm to 5.a.m. to run as the sun comes up, now it becomes a struggle as the days become shorter and the temperature makes staying in bed a much more attractive option. With this decrease in physical activity comes decreased energy expenditure, meaning the same diet that was keeping you at your ideal weight over summer is now adding kilos of unwanted weight to your body. Kilos that will make your progression back to your summer body all the more difficult, when simple maintenance will ensure you are ready to go on the first day of summer.

As well as the atheistic reasons, physical activity, particularly endurance training such as walking or running, has been shown to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and diabetes, by up to 50%. Conversely, a lack of cardiovascular fitness has been found to increase the likelihood of premature death from these diseases. All it takes is 30 minutes of moderate activity on most, if not all, days to improve and maintain your cardiovascular fitness. Instead of running in the morning, park further away from work, or take the stairs instead of the lift. Every little bit helps, and you will feel more energetic and happier to see the first day of summer.