Is sitting as bad as smoking?

Tim Cook made this analogy and it struck a nerve. I'll briefly highlight what is bad and then I'll give you tips to alleviate the toll sitting takes on your body.

•The ef­fects of pro­longed sit­ting on blood flow were ex­am­ined in a re­cent small study in­volv­ing 11 young men published in the jour­nal Ex­per­i­men­tal Phys­iol­ogy. Af­ter six hours of sit­ting, the vas­cula­ture func­tion in one of the leg’s main ar­ter­ies was re­duced by more than 50%, but was restored af­ter 10 min­utes of walking, said Jaume Padilla, an as­sistant profes­sor in the de­part­ment of nu­tri­tion and ex­er­cise phys­i­ol­ogy at the Uni­ver­sity of Mis­souri in Co­lumbia and se­nior au­thor of the study.

•Sit­ting more than an hour low­ers the lev­els of the en­zyme lipopro­tein li­pase, which causes calo­ries to be sent to fat stores rather than to mus­cle, Dr. Hedge said.

What can YOU do to counteract the effects of sitting?

**For every half-hour work­ing in an of­fice, peo­ple should sit for 20 min­utes, stand for eight min­utes and then move around and stretch for two min­utes.

**The British Jour­nal of Sports Med­i­cine ear­lier this year pub­lished guide­lines for sit­ting from an in­ternational panel of experts, in­clud­ing Dr. Hedge. The panel recom­mends a com­bined two to four hours of stand­ing and light ac­tiv­ity spread through­out the work­day. And re­search from NASA has found that stand­ing up for two min­utes 16 times a day while at work is an ef­fec­tive strat­egy for main­taining bone and mus­cle den­sity.

**Stand­ more often, it burns one-half to one calo­rie more a minute than sit­ting. In four hours, that rep­re­sents as many as 240 ad­di­tional calo­ries burned.

The Price We Pay for Sitting Too Much

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-price-we-pay-for-sitting-too-much-1443462015

Pope Francis and Yogi Berra are displacing Donald Trump in the news today.  I feel that the Pope and Yogi have a few things in common.

With Humility and Humbleness being a shared trait, along with the value of helping others.

 The poet Tennyson once said that humility is, “the highest virtue, the mother of them all.”

It seems that humility is losing traction in the era of selfies and self-aggrandizement.  However if you're seeking to be a better athlete, humbleness will take you to next level.

Why and How?

1. When you are truly humble you have better self control. It gives you more discipline. This allows you to progress intelligently to the next level.

2. The less you importance you place on yourself and your event (within reason) the more relaxed you are and the better you can assess your strength and weakness.

3. They are more open to ideas and will try new things and not fall into the belief that "I have the best.....(fill in the blank)". 

4. Humbleness allows you to respect others because you see others as equals. You understand that everyone has a journey.

5. Humble people tend to seek others with humility. And that creates a powerful dynamic.

It's that strong undercurrent of focus that helps you achieve. You don't need to beat someone or it, you just need to be prepared to give 100% of yourself and excel to the best of your abilities.

Example: It doesn't mean you overtrain. That means you don't know what to do or it means you have fear.

So in honor of two wonderful humble people take a moment to reflect on how you can add a dash of humility and reduce the "Kim Kardashian" in you.

Do things for others, like Yogi said..."always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't come to yours."  I'm sure a crowd will be at his funeral, just like a crowd will wait patiently for the Pope in Central Park.

And know your limits! After all it was Yogi who knew..."You better cut the pizza pie in 4 slices because I'm not hungry enough to eat 6."

Is your meal free from antibiotics? Why does it matter? Your life may depend on it!  

Do you think that one day you may need to take antibiotics?  Maybe to fight MRSA (staph infection) or pneumonia?  If that day comes and you have been ingesting food containing antibiotics, chances are the prescribed antibodies may be useless because a resistance to the antibiotics has been built up. This becomes a dangerous situation that could spiral out of control.

It becomes harder to figure out the antibiotics situation if you eat out. Do you ever eat out at a fast casual restaurant? If so, researchers rate chain restaurants on antibiotic use: How does your favorite stack up? Only a handful of fast-food chains received passing marks.

http://wapo.st/1ie6Vmk

Do you know someone who is Asian or a Pacific Islander? More than half of Asian Americans with diabetes don't know they have the disease. Or think they could have it. But if they have a BMI of 23 or higher they should have a check up because even though they may be less overweight than the typical American, they are actually at greater risk.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2015/09/10/why-asian-americans-have-diabetes-but-dont-know-it/

This information is applicable to all ages. It is the basis for FitCampNYC and being a better athlete. This study published in the NYT covers athletes after the age of 50, it finds that mature runners use certain leg muscles quite differently than younger runners, a new study found. Exercises to strengthen the calf and ankle flexors may help older runners prevent injuries and increase speed.  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/why-runners-get-slower-with-age-and-how-strength-training-may-help/?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share

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How Does Exercise Change Your Brain?

When researchers scanned the brain of the legendary masters track athlete Olga Kotelko, they found that her brain was different from those of other people her age. But was it exercise that changed her brain? Read more…

Have you done this?  Eating on the run is the antithesis of mindful eating according to what researchers found when they had women eat a cereal bar while walking as part of a study. Results: The eat on the run group ate much more during a later taste test, researchers found.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/08/31/eating-on-move-may-increase-hunger/?smprod=nytcore-iphone&smid=nytcore-iphone-share