MGFS Breaking News: 10/01/2009

To Flu or Not to Flu, That is the Question

Contributed by Kareem Turner

It seems that every day there is new news about the H1N1 flu virus. We are being flooded with information ranging from, where it has hit, the number of infections and casualties to what is predicted to happen next with the virus. With all of the alerts and reports being released about H1N1 on an almost daily basis, you may be wondering what you should be doing to protect yourself and your family. Fortunately, medical and healthcare professionals are providing plenty of information about what you can do about it.

The general rule of thumb to help reduce your exposure of catching any flu virus is to maintain good hygiene habits and to be aware of potential risks. With your physician's approval, you should also consider at least taking a daily multivitamin. Vitamin D and vitamin C are also good for strengthening your immune system.

You may also consider trying a regimen of other natural supplements that are known to help boost your immune system. Echinacea is one of the more popular natural supplements people use to help their overall immune system health. Echinacea has also been known to help with fatigue, indigestion and weight loss. Goldenseal and astragalus have also been reported to help immune system health.

Another good preventative measure that you can practice all year round is to keep yourself healthy and active which will help your body's natural defenses be as effective as they can be. You should incorporate regularly a workout plan where you engage in good, healthy exercises, weightlifting and cardio. Your body is designed to take care of itself as long as you take care of your body. Eating foods rich in antioxidants and immune system boosting nutrients like fruits and vegetables help you stay strong from the inside out. Staying fit will definitely help keep flu viruses like the H1N1 and other health risks at bay.

Following these guidelines and keeping your stress level low will definitely help arm you against the H1N1 virus by building up your body’s natural defenses. These preventative steps will also help you live a longer, healthier and happier life.

Why exercise for its own sake is a sure way to pain, injury

Reprinted from Post-Tribune January 28, 2008

When adults overhaul their fitness routines, the motivation comes in many forms. Some strive for improved overall health, or to stair-step their way to Madonna's glutes, or dazzle tennis buddies with their serve.

As a result, boomers have kept the treadmills humming in recent years. But there's a downside to all that vigorous activity. Flexibility, balance and muscle mass diminish as we age, making overzealous exercisers more prone to injury.

The good news: You can train to reduce risk.

One common misconception is that walking provides a fitness cure-all, said Cara Lindell, president of Park Ridge-based Fully Fit Lifestyles. "It's better than nothing, but the treadmill just scratches the surface," she said.

To avoid injury on the courts and slopes -- even in everyday activities -- a well-rounded exercise plan is essential, Lindell said. That requires a mix of cardiovascular, flexibility and strength training each week.

Another fitness pitfall for boomers is poor posture, said Mike George. He's the founder of Chicago-based Mike George Fitness System, an exercise facility where more than half of clients are 50 or older. Many adults spend hours each day slumped in front of computers -- and that's probably increasing their injury risk. "We need to get to a point where the body is aligned properly. Otherwise, it's not safe to push harder and harder [in sports]," George said.

That's because improper alignment can overload the wrong muscles, and create unnatural movement for joints. Pilates, yoga and other flexibility training can help alleviate those problems, he said: "They help extend muscles to their natural range of motion and allow them to work to their utmost capacity."

In addition to general fitness, George's trainers tailor workouts to match clients' preferred sports. "People think, 'Oh, golf is so relaxing,' " he said. "But when you get up and swing as hard as you can, you herniate a disk."

For those clients, a workout session might include exercises that mimic a club swing, with light resistance. That helps golfers learn to generate strength from their hips, rather than twisting with excessive torque.

George raves about the benefits of tennis: "It's the only sport that combines all the types of movement necessary to keep bodies and hips really healthy: forward, backward, lateral, twisting. And it's very aerobic."

But that fancy footwork can also lead to accidents. To help strengthen the muscles needed for some of those movements, tennis clients sometimes train with resistances bands around their ankles while they walk laterally.

Andy Salk is one active boomer who embraces exercise diversity. "There's a lot to be said for mixing it up," said the 50-year-old Chicago resident, who incorporates running, swimming and biking in his routine. Variety has benefits beyond promoting general fitness. "It keeps you interested in exercising."

A lifelong tennis player, Salk has had his share of exercise misery. He began suffering from tennis elbow a couple of years ago -- a chronic problem that has him considering surgery. That condition hasn't slowed him down physically. In 2005, Salk completed a triathalon, and for the past several years, he's trained at Mike George's facility to improve his health and ward off additional injuries.

Salk golfs regularly -- about once a week -- and his weekly Pilates classes help make the greens a safer place.

"A big part of Pilates is the core," he said, "and certainly in golf, the core is important to take pressure off your back."

If adults respect their bodies' changes -- and train regularly to address the aging process -- they can enjoy a safer active lifestyle for many years to come.

Sandra A. Swanson is a local writer.

The Importance of Being Balanced

Contributed by Mike George

Recently, we told you about the basic necessities for getting results from your workout program. Now it is time that we discuss going to the next level.

OK, you've calculated your 'target heart rate' zone and had your fitness level evaluated; now it's time to see how much you actually know and what else you should learn before you get started.

If you are new to exercise, your first six weeks should be centered on learning proper form and developing structural integrity, or creating balance around the joints of the body.

In a nutshell, when you learned to write, you had someone qualified teach you proper form and technique as well as evaluate your progress. The same goes for exercise. Your perception of your own posture and reality may be far apart. A properly trained fitness professional will monitor your alignment so that you learn to recruit the proper muscles and avoid injury at the same time.

If you're like most people, psychologically you will want to jump into things too fast. This can lead directly to injury. Alignment/posture are important to address before you do anything else. If you were hired to add ten stories onto the leaning tower of Pisa, wouldn't you try to straighten the structure first? Like this structure, your body would buckle under the added strain.

Don't be too anxious or impatient by discouraging your trainer from spending the necessary time breaking down your alignment and exercising smaller muscle groups before moving into your regular exercise program.

We know you want results now but doing it wrong will yield poor results and/or injury, so it's not worth it. Your exercise program should be an overall wellness program, extending the quality of your life properly, appropriately, systematically and scientifically. After six weeks of structural integrity exercises and you’ve learned proper form, you may be ready to develop strength, metabolism, speed and agility.

Recognizing the importance of flexibility and an appropriate range of motion is imperative to maintaining proper form throughout an exercise. Otherwise, muscular imbalance can lead to further posture problems and leave you more susceptible to injury, which sidelines you for a while. Then the downward spiral right back to where you started...on the couch!

Powered by Qumana

Holistic Nutrition - Questions and Answers

IMAGE 61B67835 D13B 474C 98F7 9FE212767C92

Contributed by: Ashley Walter, Holistic Nutritionist

Describe holistic nutrition and how it benefits a client: To put it in the most basic terms: you truly are what you eat. And, the human body is not used to the chemicals incorporated in all of the processed foods; therefore it doesn't know what to do with them. This prevalence of foreign food additives can lead to deficiencies of important vitamins and minerals as well as other unhealthy imbalances in the body.

A holistic nutrition consultant can help support your healthy food choices and educate you on what is best for your body to keep it functioning at 100%. It is our responsibility to preserve your health, and a natural practitioner's job to see that you have the tools to do so.

Some reasons you may seek a holistic nutrition consultant include:

Reach your ideal body weight
Eradicate food cravings
Remedy chronic and acute symptoms
Experience an overall increase in energy
Learn to shop and prepare food that promotes overall wellness
Replace unhealthy eating habits with healthy, natural lifelong eating habits
Become aware of what you are eating and how it directly impacts your health

Some specific issues we deal with on top of general wellness include:

Detoxification
Post-cancer treatment rejuvenation
Pre- And post-menopausal aid
Antioxidant education
“Organic” tutorials
Home visit: grocery store visit and cabinet cleaning
Food combining
Adopting the Paleolithic Diet
And much more…

How does holistic nutrition differ from clinical nutrition? The clinical approach to nutrition is generally allopathic; which is more of a treatment-based approach that generally deals with the young traditional medicine approach. However, holistic nutrition takes a client-centric, homeopathic approach that is focused on natural prevention that originated centuries ago.

What services do you offer under the holistic nutrition umbrella? Along with a standard initial consultation where the client and consultant review their dietary intake and issues there may be tied into with the diet, there are a multitude of helpful services to ensure the journey to a healthy and whole lifestyle is accomplished.

Kitchen Cupboard Clean Up: Have a holistic nutrition consultant come into your home and scavenge through your cupboards in order to pinpoint what stays and what goes, why, and develop a grocery list based upon your discoveries together.

Get to Know Your Grocery Store: Get a holistic nutrition consultant shopping companion to go down aisle after aisle so you can ask questions about any food products you purchase, learn to read food labels properly, modify your grocery list to a healthier version, and bone up on all of the “ins” and “outs” of commercial branding.

Metabolic Typing: Forget the fad diets and learn how to lose and maintain your ideal weight while feeling more energetic and in control of your diet. Metabolic Typing provides the individual with a diet specific to their body’s needs. It increases energy levels, reduces unnecessary body fat, is customized to boost the immune system, and can reduce unwanted food cravings simply by eating the foods your body needs.

The practice of Metabolic Typing defines the 10 homeostatic control systems of the body that comprise your metabolism. By completing a 144-Point Metabolic Typing Questionnaire you can determine how your metabolism works. The reason this works is because it does not prescribe to the idea that one diet or lifestyle works for everyone, it pinpoints what works for you. After completing the questionnaire, you receive advanced results in order to follow the individualized food plans to reach overall metabolic homeostasis.

Powered by Qumana

Mike George Fitness System Provides Metabolism Measurement

Reprint: Originally published August 24, 2004

HighBeam Research
Title: Mike George Fitness System to Offer Metabolism Measurement Program.
Date: August 24, 2004 Publication: PR Newswire

CHICAGO, and SAINT PAUL, Minn., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- New Leaf Health and Fitness Products, a unit of St. Paul, Minnesota based Angeion Corporation, announced today that Mike George Fitness System is now an authorized New Leaf Health and Fitness services provider. This makes Mike George Fitness System part of an elite group of fitness clubs and training facilities able to create highly effective personalized exercise and weight loss plans based on an individual's metabolic profile.

"We're pleased to welcome Mike George Fitness System to the select group of fitness facilities that are moving exercise training into the 21st century by implementing the New Leaf metabolic assessment system. As part of the program, Mike George Fitness System had its staff complete an advanced training program on using metabolic markers to create personalized training and exercise programs. The training is nationally recognized and accredited by the American Council on Exercise (ACE)," said Terry Kapsen, New Leaf Vice President. "This proven technology really is the science behind exercise. Programs based on the New Leaf System help you achieve your weight management, fitness, and athletic performance goals according to your unique individual metabolism. Now, Mike George Fitness System's clients will know how many calories a day they can eat without gaining weight and exactly how hard to exercise to burn the most fat or to improve their fitness and endurance," continued Kapsen.

"We have been a leader in providing this technology to hospitals, clinics and elite human performance centers such as NASA and Olympic training centers worldwide for the past 25 years through our sister business, Medical Graphics Corporation. Recently, based on a series of patented innovations in technology, we have made it practical to offer this capability to leading fitness facilities and ultimately to consumers. Now that the technology is readily available and affordable, it is difficult to understand why anyone would plan an exercise or weight loss program without it. It would be like going on a trip without a map -- you could guess if you are going in the right direction but you wouldn't know for sure," Kapsen concluded.

For more information on the New Leaf programs visit http://www.newleaf-online.com/ . For information about Mike George Fitness System visit http://www.mgfsinc.com/ or call (312) 943-6700.

About New Leaf Health & Fitness Products
As a unit of Angeion Corporation , New Leaf manufactures and markets a line of health and fitness products to help consumers effectively manage their weight and improve fitness. New Leaf markets its products and services primarily through personal training studios, health and fitness clubs and other types of exercise related facilities.

CONTACT: Kristen Iacarella of New Leaf, +1-651-766-3443, or Mike George of Mike George Fitness System, +1-312-943-6700

Web site: http://www.newleaf-online.com/ http://www.mgfsinc.com/